A New Challange Aquí en el CCM!

¡Feliz Día de Accion de Gracias (Thanksgiving)! I hope everyone is spending some quality time with their loved ones today :) 

So this past week here in the CCM has been quite interesting for me. For starters, I have been a little sick, with a nasty cough and sore throat for a couple of days. I am doing alright now, but man has it been tough!

This week I had the privilege of hearing from Élder Pino of the Quorum of the 70 in the México City area and Elder Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles on a special Thanksgiving live stream. Élder Pino spoke about the realization that missionaries are truly called to do the Lord´s work, and we should always remember that when we work hard to spread the gospel. Elder Uchtdorf spoke about how we can be truly thankful, as well as how I can pray to Heavenly Father during my trials and tough situations and ask Him, "What do YOU want ME to learn? How am I going to come closer to Thee and Thy Son?" It was incredible to hear from these amazing men of God!!!

I also started off my Saturday with sunrise yoga with my district. It was actually fun! (Although my body didn´t think so at times lol) And on Sunday we got to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, which always leaves me in tears. If you have not watched it, I strongly suggest you do so! It can change your life!!!

I forgot to mention the coolest part of the CCM is the parrots! They are really green and love to chirp all day. It is crazy that green parrots are so common down here, like they are pigeons or something! Very cool!

And perhaps the highlight of my week so far has been my switch to a Latino district! My new compañero es Élder Gomez. He is from Guatemala and a recent convert to the Church of just 3 years! He is really nice and friendly, and works hard too! The crazy part about my switch to the Latino group was the fact that it took place at 9:30 at night! Due to a lot of confusion and the missionary replacing me in the American  group arriving early, I had to pack my stuff and move across campus before lights out at 10:30. Talk about crazy transfer!!! But luckily all my dorm and a few others that were living near us helped me move. Thankful!!!!

And that´s about it for my week. I have just a few more weeks left in México, then it is off to Argentina! I know being in all Spanish classes, with no one knowing English will be tough, but I will do what Elder Uchtdorf talked about in his devotional today, and pray for the strength and guidance to understand what I can learn from this experience. I LOVE you all so much!!! Try not to go too crazy if you do any Black Friday shopping tomorrow! :)))))

México City... the land of freezing cold temperatures????

¡Hola todos! I hope you all are having a great week so far!!!

México City is an incredible place! One day it is beautiful clear skies, around 75 to 80 degrees, and just perfect. And then you have yesterday, where it was around 40 degrees and cold rain all day..... and I thought Kansas was crazy!

This week has been pretty good! I gave a talk over the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish! I did not know I was giving said talk until the middle of church. Don't worry, I prepared anyways lol.

And perhaps the highlight of my week was being able to spend the day with a Latino district of missionaries. In the CCM here in México, Americans are in there own district with each other as they try to learn the basics of español. However, since I have already studied it for 2 years before, my teachers decided they would let me spend a day with some Latino élderes to see how it would go.... 

IT WAS AMAZING!!! I had a real great and spiritual time with Élder Lopez (de Chihuahua, México)  y Élder Donoso (de Santiago, Chile). Most of the Spanish speakers cannot pronounce my last name, so it was fun to see their faces as they tried to read my name tag LOL!

And I have been told that I may be put into an all Latino district next week, with a fluent spanish speaker as my new companion. ¡Qué genial!

I went to the temple again this week, and it was even better than the last time! The House of the Lord is such a special place to come closer to our Father in Heaven!!

Anyways, that is all the news and excitement I have for today. But I will be sending out my pictures here shortly. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Thank you for your prayers and support. It warms my heart and makes me smile so much when I read your emails. Pues, ¡Nos hablemos a la próxima jueves!

1: Cloudy mountains...definitely not found in Kansas

2: Élder Lopez and Élder Donoso (is it just me, or does Élder Donoso look like Damon Bischoff lol)

3:Élder Breña y yo (He says he knows an Élder Trevor Sherrow!!)

4: My foreign money collection so far 

5: Los Gringos!!! My district that I have class with everyday 

6: I love the Gospel!

7: Élder Dyson Bingham...the LEGEND and my best bro!

8: Ángel Moroni with the golden plates... rare!

Saludos de México! I hope everyone is doing amazing this week! Sorry that I could not email sooner. While I am in México I can only email on Thursdays, but that will only be for a few more weeks.

Anyways, my first week in the México MTC, aka the CCM, has been AMAZING! So many things have happened that I don't think I could ever fit in just one email. But, I will highlight the best so far. My plane rides went great! No problems with my luggage or anything. The traffic in México City is terrible, since there's around 20 million people living in this area. But other than that, México is perfect! The CCM is surrounded by 3 beautiful mountains, and the campus used to be an old high school. Now it is a concentrated place for the Lord's servants to learn how to teach His gospel!

So I'm not sure why, but it has rained almost every single day this week. Maybe we are in the rainy season or something, but almost everyday around 3:00, it starts to downpour. And some days the rain makes it pretty chilly. Since there are a lot of missionaries from Latin America, soccer is the go to sport, but since it's been raining, we have been playing basketball everyday. They are really good HaHa.

Another thing I LOVE about the CCM is pingüinos... No, I´m not talking about the bird, but the delicious dessert treat found all over campus! They are similar to ding dongs in the US, but WAYYYYYY better. I may have an addiction since I eat one every night LOL.

Also, we went to the temple today! The temple is a sacred place where we can come closer to our Father in heaven and make convents with Him, while also helping the people who did not have a chance to learn about the gospel in this life be able to have the same opportunities. 

The CCM is a beautiful place, the Spirit felt here is beyond words. There have been times where I have laughed, cried, felt down on myself, and then on top of the world in the matter of hours. But it is all a test from our Heavenly Father to see how we will react when put under pressure... will we turn to Him for love and support? Of course!

 As much as I would like to write down all my experiences, my time is cut short for today. However, I will be able to email again next Thursday and update you all again on my adventures as a missionary aquí en México! I will try to get some photos in this email or another real quick. I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and prayers!!!!