Mexico City CCM - Week 3

Mexico City CCM – Week 3 ¡Hola! !Buenos Tardes! One more week down. It was just like any other week. Learned a lot, tried not to fall asleep in classes. This past week we´ve been working on memorizing scriptures and the first vision. It’s hard memorizing things as it is, but in a different language it’s even harder. But you you feel accomplished when you do. I had the best day ever last Friday. The day started off slow. But after lunch is when it became awesome. We stopped by the post office on the way back to class. And I got a package. My entire life was made; in the package was a case of Dr. Peppers!!!! Thanks Mom! I'll love you forever because of that! But then there was a problem of getting it cold, because ice is a scarcity down here. And there’s no access to a fridge. But I met a guy that works in the kitchen and now he is my hook up for ice. Then after all of the classes were over when we were heading back to the house. It was pouring rain and I didn't have my umbrella that day. So I ran the half mile to my house. It was kind of fun getting soaked wearing a shirt and tie. But it was fun because that'll be a memory for a while. I still remember when my mom and I were in DC and we got poured on and it looked like we went swimming in our clothes. My comp and I taught the best lesson ever this past week. A lot of our devotionals and lessons were on Faith. Here is my favorite scripture about Faith. Alma 32:21 "And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." I love that! I think that is one of the best things that I'll be able to teach people. Give them hope and help them. Faith is one of the most important aspects of religion. Without faith there is nothing. We are all so blessed that we have faith, but I feel even more blessed that I get the opportunity to help people find Faith. Another thing that I did this week was teach a real member who volunteered to let us teach her. I think that it went pretty well! Besides the fact that I only understood about 20% of what she said.... And she talked really fast and slurred all of her words together. I also had a hard time getting out what I wanted to say. But it’s not me that needs to do the talking, it’s the spirit. I felt it and I'm pretty sure that she did too. So that good! Another cool experience I had was after one of our devotionals. We were supposed to talk about what was said. But because it was in Spanish and our translator spoke really bad Spanglish. So we had no idea what was said. So we talked about family conversion stories. I talked about Grandma Glo. If it wasn't for her joining the church and be a great example to me, I probably wouldn’t be here. Thanks Glo, I love you! And last night we had the most rain I've ever seen! No joke there was about 3 inches of standing water on roads flowing onto the sidewalks. We were eating dinner when the majority of the rain came down, so we sat at the window watching everyone run to dinner. One person legit fell and rolled through a puddle. I laughed really hard.... I felt kind of bad but we talked to the person and he laughed about it too so I didn't feel as bad. I got my hair cut today...... I was sitting there and I see big clumps of my hair falling off and my eyes got huge... They normally ask if you want a 2, 3 or 4 on your sides. She didn't ask and I'm pretty sure it’s like a 2. There is a picture attached with my reaction of the haircut. I also got to take my first nap today! I loved it! (I have a picture attached of it.) Well I hope that you all have a great week! Crazy that I only have 2.5 more weeks here! I'm looking forward to hearing from you next week!
Love, Elder Tyler Farnsworth

Mexico City CCM - Week 2

¡Hola! ¡Buenos Diaz! This past week I have been so spiritually blessed in so many amazing different ways. First lets start with going to the Mexico City temple last week! The entire trip was amazing. The ride was about 45 min long even though its about 10 miles from here. The traffic here is absolutely terrible. But that gave me more of an opportunity to see the city! But i have to say that we are extremely blessed to live in Boise. As amazing as it is, nothing will ever compare to Boise! It will always have the number one place in my heart. OK back to the story. We were driving down a street and the temple comes into view and its the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It´s a gigantic, marvelous, astonishing building. It stands out so much because its extremely white and clean unlike all the buildings and houses that surround it. But the inside is even more beautiful!Go look up pictures of the inside. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mexico-city-temple-opens-to-the-public The artwork and the feeling you get while you're in there is indescribable. Its 3 stories tall!! It has escalators inside. I had no idea that they'd have those in there. And on top of the temple is Moroni. But whats unique about this one is he is holding the gold plates, he is bigger than most too. And from what I was told, there are only five temples in the world, that have him holding the plates. The next spiritual highlight was Sunday. Everyone loves Sundays because they are so much more relaxed than the rest. The highlight was the evening devotional. We watched 3 videos. But the one that really got to me and most people was about the Saviors Atonement. It showed us of the end of his life, the atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. I think its called the Saviors Earthly Ministry. Its an older video. The feeling I got was indescribable. Then after that we shared our testimonies with our districts. I felt the spirit the strongest I've ever felt it. I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ died for each and everyone of us. And that he is resurrected and lives today. This excites me so much!! I am super excited and blessed that I get to share this knowledge with the people of Perú. Right now I'm reading a book called Our Search for Happiness by M. Russell Ballard. Its spectacular! I encourage all of you to read it. I also finished the Book of Mormon this week. So now I'm going to restart in reading sided by side with a Spanish copy. I don't remember where I heard this from, but if you can read the BOM in a foreign language. Then you'll be able to speak fluently. Its going to take a long time, but I'll finish it! My Spanglish is getting better everyday. My goal is to be fluent in 6-8 months! Its going to be hard, but i know that I can do it! I can't believe that on Sunday I'm at the half way point in the CCM. The days are just flying by. Probably because we're busy all day long. Here is my typical daily schedule.
6:30 Wake up and prepare for the day
7:15 Breakfast
7:45 Personal Study
8:45 Language Study
9:45 Demonstrate Teaching
10:15 Coaching (where our teacher helps us with anything)
11:15 Class BOM Study
11:45 Prepare Lesson
12:15 Lunch
1:15 TALL (technology assisted language learning)
2:15 Language Study
3:25 GYM time
4:45 Daily planning
5:15 Companionship Study
5:45 Dinner
6:30 Language Study
7:30 Fundamentals of Missionary Work
8:30 Progressing Investigator (practice teaching the lessons in Spanish)
9:30 Return to House and personal time
10:30 Lights out
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! I look forward to hearing form you next week!
Elder Tyler Farnsworth

I'm headed to Peru Lima East Mission

Mexico City CCM District

Angel Moroni with Gold Plates

Mexico City CCM Dining

Mexico City CCM Bedroom

 

Mexico City CCM - Week 1

¡Hola! Buenos Dias! Today is my first Preparation Day (P-Day) here in the CCM as they call it in Mexico, or we know it as the MTC (Missionary Training Center)! After all of my problems traveling I made it to La Ciudad de Mexico at like 10 and then I made it to the MTC at about 11. I was the last missionary to arrive. And I didn't get to bed until about 12:30 and then had to be up at 6:30 the next day. Ok let me just tell you, the first day in the MTC is absolutely terrible! It felt like an eternity! The thing they say to the new missionaries is just make it to Sunday, because the first week is the hardest week. And it was such a relief to have made it to Sunday. I loved Sunday! It was so relaxing because you didn't have the hard schedule of language study and studying the gospel like all of the other days. My companion here in the MTC is Elder Nelson, he is from Canada. He doesn't think the moon landing happened, and everyone gives him grief about that. Whenever he says something weird we all say "it must be a Canadian thing." My Spanglish is coming along nicely. I can somewhat communicate if it’s small talk. I can understand most of what's said as long as they talk slow enough. All of the classes are taught in Spanish. So they really throw you into the language. On the second day we were here we taught our first discussion and it was in Spanish. So you can imagine how well that went. Even though mi compañero (my companion) and I wrote out the entire lesson in Spanish it was terrible. We were stumbling over our words. And mi compañero didn't know a single word of Spanish before he came. And then we taught another lesson every night after that. Our Spanish got better and we didn't need a script written out as much. Eventually we committed him to baptism. But I'm sure that they never say no in the CCM because it's just to get practice. Oh and back to Sunday. That was my birthday. So that was very strange not being at home with my family for that. So that made it a little difficult but I made it through the day and started the next week. Oh and thanks mom for the bags of candy you gave me. The other thing about Sunday was it was Fast Sunday, and I've never fasted for a full 24 hours before. Here at the CCM they help you out a little bit. They just don't make dinner on Saturday or breakfast on Sunday. So that was a fun 24 hours. On my birthday we had the only American food that I've had here. It was a hamburger and fries. Besides the fact that the burger sucked, it was ok just because it was better than some of the other food we've had. We eat some sort of meat 3 meals a day. Including: fish, chicken, pork and beef. Lunch and dinner there is a side of rice and beans. Most of the time the food is really good, but some meals it’s just awful. Every day we have an hour to go exercise. We primarily play soccer, basketball and volleyball. We play soccer on a basketball court with a fence around it. That's pretty fun! Oh and speaking of walls I think that I found the wall that Donald Trump wants to build. Take into account that I'm 6 feet tall. This runs all the way around the 90 acres that we live on. The only place to get in has a lot of security too! Here's a picture of the house we live in. In my district here there are about 12 of us. It’s who we take all of our classes with. I was talking with one of the Elders and he was from Nashville. And I was like oh the Walkers moved there. So I asked if he know them thinking it was a long shot. But they're in the same ward. So mom if you can you should email Sister Walker and tell her that I'm in the same mission as Elder Smartt. We had a devotional on Sunday night that was broadcasted to all of the MTC's worldwide and Neil L. Andersen (one of the 12 apostles) spoke to us. He gave a really good talk! I would tell you about it but I don't have a lot of time left. Later today we're going to the Mexico City temple! I'm excited about that! I'll send pics next week!! Things I Miss: Bed and pillow Silky Sheets MY car Annie Alone time Boating The smell of laundry Carpet! Everything is tile here Dr. Pepper Being called my first name Naps Friends Netflix Parma Blow Dryer And I guess my family (; I love you all and hope to hear back from you all!!

Mexico City MTC

Elder Farnsworth safely made it to Mexico City about 8 hours later than anticipated.  He had cancelled and delayed flights and we were excited to finally hear that he made it to the MTC.

I was just emailing you to let you know that I finally arrived at the MTC.  Its been a very long day.  But I already love it.  Mexico City is huge.  Oh and if you think that drivers in Utah are bad.  Come to here and you will see what bad driving is.  Well I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Farnsworth

He's off . . .

Good bye for two years. 

You will be missed. 😢

Full-Time Missionary

It's Official . . . . Tyler is a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He leaves in the morning to the Mexico City Missionary Training Center for six weeks.  Then off the Lima Peru for the next two years.