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!!