Hi family! Thank you all for your letters! So much has happened this
first week I can't even remember it all, so I'll just hit the
highlights. My companion is named Elder Bott and he's a pretty nice guy.
Hes very obsessed with the schedule and gets very frustrated when I am
my Pokey puppy self, but other than that he's pretty cool. For the first
few days he would tell me how stressed he is, and I would just listen.
This is a good system because he enjoys talking about his feelings, and I
keep mine to myself, so it balances out. I like to joke with him and
get him to relax a little, but he doesn't always appreciate it. My first
night here I was called to be a district leader which was pretty cool. I
pretty much pick up peoples mail and assign prayers and stuff. I had my
district sing secreta oracion one day, and Dad was right, its extremely
powerful. The MTC is really cool, it is like this patch of green grass
and palm trees right in the center of the ghetto Mexico city streets.
There is a fence surrounding the MTC, almost like a temple, I feel like
I'm in an embassy or something. We hear police or ambulance sirens every
night, and occasionally fireworks and/or gunshots, I can't always tell.
Just thought I would try to scare mom, haha. The food is good, they
even have cereal here. We have had to teach in Spanish a few times which
seemed daunting at first, but it isn't so bad. My spanish teacher said I
was doing good, so that made me walk a little taller. Thanks mom for
the packages, I was only bullied a little bit for having them. I'm just
kidding everyone here is nice. We had this devotional with a guy, and he
was talking about various parts of the brain and the parasympathetic
autonomic nervous system or something. I wanted to shout out I KNEW IT!
After he revealed himself to be the psychologist for the mtc. He had us
do this breathing exercise where we close our eyes and pretend to be an
inflatable mattress or something. He called it a form of meditation, but
I thought it seemed awfully close to hypnosis so I refused to close my
eyes or listen to his instructions. I wasn't about to have my head
messed with. The guys in my district noticed this and now I have a
reputation for being paranoid. I enjoyed the story you sent me Dad,
about the violinist. I definitely feel like there is a temptation here
in the mtc to be caught up in the grand scheme and not appreciate the
small joys around us. My companion keeps talking about how 24 months
doesnt seem that long, and how we will by down to almost 22 months once
we are out of the mtc. I want to tell him to stop counting the days and
thinking about the end, but I figured I would let him do his own thing.
He likes to exercise to relieve stress in the mornings, so I try to go
along with him on that. One time I asked if we could play ping pong
because that's a lot more fun that lifting weights, but he said no to
that. Oh well, there's always pull ups. Yesterday we watched the film
Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration, and that is a powerful
flick. My favorite part was when Joseph set out to ride to Carthage, and
everyone in his settlement stopped what they were doing to watch him
leave, almost as if they knew it would be the last time they would see
their beloved friend. A piano version of praise to the man played in the
background which pretty much brought everyone in the auditorium to
tears. Alright thats all I got this week, I couldn't face time this week
because all of the computers that have cameras are being used by other
missionaries, but if you guys ever want me to skype you just tell me and
I'll try to make it happen. I love you all.
1. Mi Casa
2. Mi companero y yo
3. Mi Distrito
4. CCM
5. beyond the wall
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