Week 1 - Mexico MTC - June 28, 2019

¡Hola! I hope everyone is doing well. Yesterday was the end of my first week in the Mexico CCM and I love it so much! The flight here was a little bit rough though. My plane to Phoenix was supposed to leave at 6:30AM but due to runway changes and computer malfunctions we left about an hour to two hours late. I actually fell asleep on the plane and woke up after an hour thinking we had left but we hadn't even taken off yet! I have never been so stressed in my life because I thought I was gonna be stranded in Phoenix but fortunately the plane going to Mexico City was the plane I was on. Once we got to the airport it was like a sea of missionaries waiting at the gate, at least 50-60 of us. The plane ride to Mexico was a lot better because I was sat next to two elders, Elder Peterson and Elder Buriek, who would actually talk to me. Elder Buriek ended up being in my district too so that was nice to know someone there. The airport was so huge, I have never walked so much in my life and that was just to get to the immigration counters. Worse than that we had to drag our suitcases up and down about 10 ramps! Definitely got an arm workout in.

Mexico City is SO CRAZY! We had one bus at the airport to take us to the CCM and it barely fit all of us. The luggage couldn't fit underneath so the Elders had to stack suitcases in the aisles of the bus and the stacks were well over our heads. Driving in the streets is terrifying because people don't care how close they come to hitting your car or bus. Also, people will just walk down super busy streets selling things which was so weird. The buildings here are so cool though because they're all painted really bold and bright colors.

The best part of arriving at the CCM was definitely putting on our name tags because it made us all feel official. On our name tags we all had white dots which to all the other missionaries means that we are the newbies and they should say "Bien Venidos". That got very annoying very quickly. Moving our stuff to the dorms was annoying because it started pouring outside, fortunately some Elders helped us out. The rooms here are pretty nice. There's 3 rooms within one dorm and 2 people in one room. We had a devotional the night we got here and from what I remember it was good, but to be honest, I fell asleep for majority of it. Singing in Spanish is so fun though. At the end of the night I got to meet my companion, Hermana Turley and I love her so much. She's from Mesa, Arizona and is about 6 feet tall which makes me feel like a midget.

The second day Hermana Turley and I accidentally woke up 30 minutes late because my alarm was set for PM instead of AM. We got to meet our district and I love them all so much. In my district there's me, Hermana Turley, Elder Buriek, Elder Becker, Elder Baird, Elder Gallegos, Elder Howell, Elder Palmer, Elder Larson, and Elder Douglass our district leader (AKA: DL Doug). We also met the other new members of our branch and there's only 4 girls and the rest are Elders. That night some of the new missionaries in the branch shared their testimonies and the Spirit I felt was amazing! Definitely a memorable moment.

We have our gym time in the morning at 6:40 which is hard to get up for but it's much cooler than playing in the afternoon. So far we have played volleyball everyday for gym and it's a bit annoying because once we started playing wit full courts everyone decided that they want to play too so there's always a long line. I've gotten a lot better though and now I can actually dive for the ball somewhat. We also played a game at lunch where we guessed the first names of the Elders and we got a few right surprisingly. Every night here we're supposed to have personal study in the classroom with our district and it's a good and bad thing because we help each other out but we get distracted VERY easily. The first night we had it Elder Baird was not having it, he kept yelling "Silencio" at us but we continued to talk.

The weather in Mexico is so unpredictable! It will literally be such a beautiful bright and sunny day in the afternoon, but then all of a sudden we'll be caught in a thunder storm! Every time this has happened I've forgotten my umbrella so I always get soaked, but I love the sound of the thunder.

I've learned so much Spanish since being here it's crazy. We've already had to memorize the first vision, the missionary purpose, the invitation to baptize, Moroni 10:5, and a little book full of words and phrases. Surprisingly I can understand people a lot better than I thought I would. We kinda have to thought because the teachers speak mostly in Spanish and have very choppy English. Yesterday we had an activity where we had to speak with a bunch of people from outside of the CCM as if we were missionaries trying to invite people to learn more. It was easily the most terrifying thing from this entire week!

The other day while it was raining Elder Larson slipped and fell in the street. He ended up with a hole in his pants and a bloody knee. It was pretty ironic because just that morning we were warned to not run in the rain because it gets really slippery. Then later that night we were in our class doing personal study and Elder Baird somehow managed to fall out of his chair.Week

Sunday was such a relieving day! On a normal day we are up for 16 hours and in class for about 12 of those hours so being away felt so amazing! The only bad part of Sunday was that Hernana Turley was starting to get sick. Later that day we were able to take photos for the first time and some people were going crazy with the pics! Elder Buriek was taking a bunch of selfies while Elder Baird was taking a bunch of creeper pics (he's a very interesting guy). Every Sunday we have a devotional and this last week we were able to hear from a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Holland! It was an amazing missionary devotional! The most spiritual part for me was when we sang "Called to Serve" in the beginning because it was not only all the missionaries in the Mexico CCM singing it, but every missionary in every MTC around the world was singing it together! The end of the devotional marked the end of us being the newbies and we were finally allowed to take off our white dots!

On Monday a lot of new missionaries arrived at the CCM making the total number go up a lot. With my wave of missionaries the CCM went from about 400 to 576, with the new ones we're going to be about 700 and then over 1000 within the next few weeks. El Comedor (cafeteria) is starting to get very crowded! In the morning Hernana Turley and I weren't able to go to gym time because she was way too sick, but we got an extra hour of sleep which was much needed! Fun fact about the CCM: the food is hit or miss but the watermelon and pineapple are always amazing! I've never had better watermelon in my entire life!

Funny story from today: In class some of the Elders were doing high kicks during a break for some unknown reason and our teacher Hermano Guttierez tells us "I can do a high kick over my head." So of course we want to see this and encourage him to do it. He decided to humor us and do the high kick and midway in the kick we hear the sound of fabric ripping and he ripped his pants! He then stood straight up, covered himself, and screamed "OH NO!" We couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the class because he was hopping around trying to cover himself.

Sunday hangover at the CCM is definitely a thing, I have never felt more exhausted or like a zombie and our whole district felt like that.

That about wraps up my first week en el CCM! I honestly love it here and being a missionary is such a great feeling. I have already felt my testimony grow and I have felt the Spirit here everyday. I am so thankful for the district and companion that I have because they make coming to class a fun thing to do.

I love you all and will write again next week! Adios!