Email #2 - First Week in the MTC (Mexico City CCM)

Hello ye of much worry,

Before I begin, my P-day here at the CCM is Thursday, hence my lack of response. We´re also only allowed to take pictures on P-Day, hence my lack of good pictures. Also, the Spanish keyboard is still messing with me, so don't pay much attention to my lack of writing ability.

But Hello! Things have been going quite well here at the CCM, though this first week has been (and will be) the longest for sure. I´ve been learning Spanish decently - quickly, and I´ve been making leaps and bounds spiritually already. I´ve been eating well, so don´t worry Mom haha. Mexico City is great.  It´s been raining here everyday, which I have loved quite a bit.  I take back what I said about not needing the umbrella Mom.

But what to say?  I actually have two companions, It started as just me and Elder Jones, but then a no-show got Elder Welker assigned to us, so we are a trio. We´ve been a pretty interesting team so far, we have practice investigator lessons in Spanish nearly every night, and our different strengths (and weaknesses) come out well. Elder Jones (whom we really know in the Spanish pronunciation after an inside joke, aka Elder Honeáis) is from San Diego and is a surfer and basketball player. Really chill and funny, he has made friends with nearly everyone at the CCM, and more often than not we have to drag him away from crowds of adoring friends laughing harder than you normally hear at the CCM to go to our next activity. He´s still a hard worker, but definitely more on the chill end. As opposed to Elder Welker, who is 20 years old and left a very lucrative and profitable self-run programming career to come on his mission. He has mountains of missionary experience from being the sole source of transportation for the elders in his home of Boise, and has been through multiple conversions and baptisms with those elders. His experience bring us great insight at times, but his strictness to the rules finds itself at odds at times with Elder Jones. I am in the middle of the two, and we have managed to reconcile our differences on the whole, into us being friends. I hope it doesn´t seem like things are rough between us all though, they´re really not. I´m actually quite glad that it turned out this way, I´m learning a ton from both. For instance, they both have prior experience with Spanish, though they have forgotten most of it, so we all bring different cards to the table in that regard. I´ve been doing rather well though, the French has really helped, if not the process of learning another language in general.

But what else to say? I forgot my journal (which I am quite proud to say is being regularly updated) from which I was going to use to keep my memory updated, so I´ll just have to mention what stands out in my mind. For one, the other day during our regular gym time I played soccer on the outdoor basketball court with a bunch of other elders, and before long it began pouring rain harder than many of the 4 or 5 weekers had seen as of yet. Of course, we kept playing, and it was so much fun. The wetness also neutralized the skill of the actually good soccer players, so my gringo kicks were just as effective.

Another day our Casa cleaner (I stay in a Casa with about 20 other missionaries, two bunk beds per room with a bathroom for each, my trio takes one whole room, pictures to come later) whose name is Fernanado, dropped in as we were studying to practice Spanish with us. We talked and laughed quite a bit, and then I asked him what his story was, the history of his life so to speak. He proceeded to tell us (which we understood decently well) about his early life and converting to the church a few years ago, his mission and now marriage, with a baby girl on the way in October. He then bore his testimony to us in Spanish, and recited the story of the first vision. It was a truly powerful experience, and though we didn´t know exactly what he was saying the whole time the spirit touched us undeniably.

Indeed, undeniable spiritual influence has been quite common here at the CCM for me. We went to the Temple today, and it was amazing and so spiritual, even in Spanish. It also gave me some time to think and pray about something that has been on my mind a lot since the minute I said goodbye to Mom at the airport and was alone. Elder Chollet had told me that as a missionary you learn to value alone time so much more since, even when you love your companion, you are with them 24/7. Therefore, I began to cherish my limited time alone in the security line, and I began to think about the next two years of my life. I decided then and there that I would make this mission one where I completely devoted myself to the work in one particular way: loving the people I teach to death. I want to be able to lose myself, literally having them be my foremost concern and care, more than anything else in the world. I want to love these people so much that I forget who I am, that I will have them on my heart and mind nearly constantly. As I have thought about this during my study and prayers and today at the temple, I have realized that Christ does the same for all of us and with charity, and that I should extend this love that he has shown me unto all I meet in Provo (and beyond, why not?)

That was rather less succinct then what I feel like I wanted, so I´ll have to update the wording of that goal next time when I am better prepared to explain it and have my journal handy.  I´ll send a follow up email decently soon with the CCM address and hopefully some other points from my journal (and pictures if I can manage the software), we´ll see how the time goes.

With much Love,

Elder Martin