Title: Week 1, Week of the giant lego hands.
So. Lego Hands. See the picture, and you'll understand.
Wednesday 3/25:
Arrived in Mexico City. The flight took a while, but when I got to Salt Lake, they upgraded all of the missionaries to Economy Comfort on Delta for free, and we each got windows and aisles with an empty seat in between. The flight attendants were all LDS, which was cool. We got snacks and stuff and it was sweet. So, 4 hours of flying later, we touch down in Mexico City. We got to go through Customs and Immigration and it was really boring. I got red lighted so I had to have all of my luggage searched through. No bueno. We get to the CCM (MTC) after about two hours of driving and then the fun begins. The orientation was cool, and there was a lot to remember. Anyway. It is always 72 degrees here and it rains pretty much every afternoon, which is SWEET. The CCM is in the middle of Mexico city and is surrounded by 10 foot walls with 10 foot fences with razor wire. Inside it is an oasis, but outside it is not very nice. Thank goodness we get to be inside all of the time.
Thursday 3/26:
The fun begins. Waking up at 6:30 has never been so difficult. I had gone off of 3 hours of sleep the previous day, and it did not cut it. Anyway. We explored this new place. Everybody here is nice and speaks very little english. The way that it works is everybody from the states basically goes back or serves in Chile or Mexico, and all of the Latinos serve in Central or South America. It's a little weird.
Okay, so I'm done with doing each individual day. Here are some awesome and weird things about the CCM and Mexico City in general.
Two miscellaneous things, 1, I am the District Leader, and 2, I like to receive emails.
#1 My companions are Elder Lamoreau and Elder Denhalter.
Elder Denhalter: born and raised in the beautiful desert of Layton, Utah, he is the son of two loving parents. His mother, who is half Indian, is an elementary school teacher for special education. No se sobre su padre. He is quieter, but somebody who I would probably be good friends with outside of the CCM.
Elder Lamoreau: Born and raised in the beautiful land of Bath, Maine. None of the workers here at the CCM can even fathom where that is.
Also, this morning (April Fool's) we pranked Elder Lamoreau... We woke up at 4:30 and set all of the clocks to say 6:55. Normally, breakfast begins at 7:00 and we have only a half hour until our next activity. Elder Denhalter and I convinced him that we were running late because we were dressed and the clocks said so. He got up and got in the shower, but then we quickly changed out of our clothes, changed the clocks back, and got back in bed. By the time he emerged from the shower, it was 5:00 and we were "asleep". He was so confused, but we were just like, hey get back in bed. He was convinced he dreamed it and followed the advice, but then we convinced him that he was trying to April Fool's us this morning. We put him on defense and now he is convinced that he sleepwalks. It is marvellous.
#2 The Comedor, or cafeteria.
The Comedor is an odd thing. We will have bacon cheeseburgers one moment and banana-wrapped tamales for another. All of the warnings from the elders here are about the food and the adjustment period it takes your stomach to get used to it. I have a stomach of steel (knock on wood).
#3 The scenery
It is gorgeous. I took some pictures of the scenery and the lego hands and the houses and even my casa (47) which is pretty cool. We sleep on bunk beds, but the top bunk is low so I don't even come close to hitting my head.
#4 The Hermanas/ the rest of my district.
Odd creatures that they are, the sisters are separated from us some of the time here. We are to have very little personal interaction with them, but I've found some people that I know here. The two hermanas in my district are an interesting combination. Hermana Riding, the daughter of a member of the Tabernacle Choir, is really sweet and really strong. Hermana Betbeze is also really strong, and a convert to the church. Elder Gardner (probably related to him) is really funny and from Washington state. He has done a lot of construction work, which is pretty cool. Elder Brewster is one cool dude. He hails from Utah and is really chill, but has a really good testimony and probably the best spanish in our district.
#5 Gym time/ service projects
Every day we get to go to gym time. Anything from foosball to tennis to basketball to beach volleyball is available here. Take that, Provo MTC.
#6 The other districts
There is competition sometimes. Districts call out other districts in games of whatever sport. It's pretty sweet.
Well, time for the testimony. Here it is en español.
Yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera y yo se que Jesucristo es su hijo de Dios. El Evangelio bendicen familias todos los dias. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.
