Week 1 at the CCM

Elder Barrett and Elder Ekberg at the CCM

1 week down, 103 lifetimes to go. I mean that in the sense that this work is never done. We should never be done sharing what we know to be true. We should never stop being missionaries, not when we get off the mission, or depart from this world. 

103 weeks left in the mission though. And the first one was awesome! And by awesome I mean that I spent most of it looking blankly at my teacher trying to figure out if she wants me to pray or go take a lap around the MTC. 

The MTC: The Mexico MTC is called the CCM because it stands for Centre of something C for Missionaries something Mexico. You get the point, its in Spanish, everything is in Spanish... The CCM is on a private well, so all the water is clean to drink, although it tastes REALLY bad. So the CCm has bottled water brought in like there is no tomorrow, so the water is safe to drink. It is cool in the mornings, with a thousand mosquitos greeting you as you exit your house, and then it gets pretty warm. There is no AC in most the buildings and when I have to wear a suit coat, I don't want to be wearing a suit coat, haha. Around 3 or 4, it starts to rain. It sprinkles for a little, and then by dinner time it is pretty much pouring and then its a game of "guess when it'll rain at night", so I have learned to just always carry an umbrella. 

The food at CCM is great! Although sometimes I may not know what kind of meat or what kind of food I am eating, it tastes pretty good! They have told us its all safe but some Elders are getting sick...Maybe I got lucky this week? Every meal you are welcome to grab cereal, salad, and rice and beans. They usually serve a sort of meat dish if you want it and a side of pasta or potatoes. There is plenty of variety, I have had stuff from BBQ to Lemon Glazed Chicken...? My main meal consists of the meat they serve, a bacon salad, 2 glasses of Apple Juice, 1 glass of Lemon-lime juice, water, 2 rolls, a plate of beans and rice and usually a chocolate doughnut. I dont know why I eat so much, I don't even workout...

My compañero: Elder Barrett from Highland, Utah. He is 200lbs and likes to fish and talk about the army. Sounds like my brother right? Wait a minute...He played football (left bench haha) and was like state something in wrestling. I think gym time is his favorite. Elder Barrett has a Southern accent and he has no idea where he got it from. It is the first thing anyone notices about him and he doesn't even notice he talks with an accent!  He is not even a cowboy, a little disappointing... Elder Barrett is a little awkward but then again aren't we all? It's been a great first week and really fun to get to know him. We are starting to get a groove down for how we teach lessons together so that's been good. He took Spanish 3 years ago so its been interesting to try and learn Spanish. It seems like almost everyone here took Spanish and has a leg up on me, which may be true but I WILL PASS THEM ALL! Ok maybe not, but I like to think so :) 

The District: A district is usually 6 or 8 people (3 or 4 companionships) and those are the missionaries you go to class with. I was called as district leader so that has been a great blessing! It is Me and Elder Barrett, and 4 Hermanas. Thats a little backwards I think, there are SO many Sisters here at the CCM. We are district 11-C in case you were wondering. 

Spanish: So I have 2 main teachers, both Hermanas, and they are so happy and eager to try and teach us Spanish! The first day, we had an hour lesson learning things like: Como esta? Buenos Dias! and then that night we had to teach an investigator about the gospel! Umm...what?? That has been hard but I think I am getting the hang of it. At first we were just reading doctrine from Preach My Gospel and the scriptures but then we were thinking and realized that that is kind of why they made Preach My Gospel, so you didn't have to recite a lesson from memory to the investigator. So the past couple lessons, Elder Barrett and I have been working on testifying from the heart, from what we are feeling. Which is hard to do in Spanish when you don't know any Spanish... 

Lessons: I have learned a lot here at the CCM in the past week. We went to all the first-day-of-school meetings, rules and safety stuff. We are now PROS!  Just kidding. Sundays are a blessing given to us by the Lord, haha. The first week was so hard with being expected to sit in hours of Spanish lesson and talks and understand and I was getting really overwhelmed and kind of depressed, but Sunday happened and it was a great break from it all. I know I can make it 2 years now that I've made it through my first week! 

The biggest thing I have learned here at the CCM is that I did not come here to learn Spanish. I came to learn how to help people. The only way that I am going to be able to learn as much Spanish as I can in 6 weeks, (and trust me my zone leaders are week 4 and they are basically fluent) is through the Savior. If we are learning Spanish for our investigators, to teach them, we can do it. That is the only way. Give anyone 6 weeks of Spanish and they won't even come close to us missionaries. Another thing I learned is that I can't be comparing myself to others, that's awful. The only person I can be comparing myself to is Jesus Christ. And even then I am no where close, so what do we need to do? Rely on Him. With our whole hearts and our whole minds. We CAN do this and we will. I know I can.

I am so excited to continue my adventures here at the CCM, I wish I had more time to write but I have to be exactly obedient to my hour I have. I love you all! Yo se que Jesucristo es el Salvador. Te amo!