Everyone Gets Sick

The view outside my dorm on Day of the Dead

An eventful Week 5! So much happens every week and I can barely remember it all, so I've begun to write a rough draft of my blog posts a few days prior. I hope it helps. This week began with a lot of rain on Halloween, which was about the extent of our celebrating. We didn't do anything for Halloween or Day of the Dead, but the people outside the walls were partying hard for about three days straight. We could hear the music coming from outside the wall, so we made a gathering and had a mini dance party.

On Day of the Dead, I woke up with a sore throat, which turned into a fever and a pounding headache. People told me I looked delirious. I went to the doctors the next day and they told me I had a sinus infection which spread to my throat. I got some Mexican antibiotics and I feel a lot better. Most everyone is my district has been sick at some point, especially this past week. Some days we have had a third of the district at the doctors. Two people went to the hospital for chronic injuries, but they survived.

Last Sunday I was released as a District Leader and my companion and I were made Zone Leaders. We are now serve all of Zone 13 and are directly over the District Leaders of four Zones. I prefer being a Zone leader honestly,  District Leaders are in charge of more of the daily affairs, whereas we handle bigger things on a weekly scale. We assign priesthood lessons, run sacrament and Zone meetings and provide moral support from our shining examples. We had two new districts come in on Tuesday, and we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and answer their questions.

My flatmate bought a Uke. I like the Uke. 

The devotional this Tuesday was a broadcast featuring Elder Russel M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke about when they were trying to figure out the logistics of lowering the age requirements for missionaries. They knew the amount would increase, but they didn't know how much and couldn't even calculate a number. They weren't sure how they would afford it. When the plan was presented, it was approved despite the unknowns in order to give more youth the opportunity to serve, and apparently the finances worked out. 

Spanish is awesome. We have learned eight different tenses so far. I've been able to keep up with the rapid pace of learning, and I feel lucky to remember most of what is being taught. I was flipping through my Spanish scriptures in Matthew and I realized I could understand it. I may not know what every word means but I understood it all, and I read the Sermon on the Mount in Spanish. It felt like I had finally accomplished something in terms of language. 

Until next P-Day. Love you all,

Elder Gray

More Nutella

It´s pretty cold here in Mexico, probably about 50°-60°. All of the native Mexican missionaries are bundled up in giant winter coats and the Utahns just roll with a T-shirt. I enjoy the cold, overcast weather because I don´t get sunburned when i walk outside. I have SPF 110 just in case.

The locals are getting ready for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. They are popping off fireworks almost hourly, and when we went to the temple last Friday there were large crowds gathered doing festival stuff. I´m not sure what they do, but I´m told from the night before Halloween to the 1st of November they will be partying like crazy. i wonder how well I will sleep.

Some kids got sent home trying to climb the 20 foot wall/fence to get some street tacos. 

My Spanish is coming along pretty well. We are teaching multiple 'investigators' and I´m my companion and I are doing pretty well. We spend about an hour a day in the computer lab learning Spanish, then we have two hours of Language class in the morning and evening, then an hour of Personal Language Study, and everyone speaks Spanish the whole time. There is a lot of opportunities to learn here. My favorite way is talking to the Latino Missionaries, they are always super friendly and enjoy talking to us. 

Our last Devotional was from an Area 70 named Elder Helaman Mentaje, he spoke entirely in Spanish but he also had a translator with him. I could actually understand the majority of what he said. He gave three pieces of advice for missionaries, and a story to go with each one: 

1. Never doubt your impressions.

2. Listen to your companion.

3. Have patience.

Tune in next week to see if we celebrated Halloween. I still have no idea.

Elder Gray

Halfway Point

Weather in Mexico today

Hello Everyone!

Today marks week three out of six since I arrived at the CCM, hence the post title. Things are going pretty well. We are learning more and more every day, both in language and doctrine. We have been teaching two new 'investigators' this past week, and they have both said my companion and I teach very well, and our Spanish is getting better every day. I haven´t learned this much this fast since EMT training, my mind is just soaking up all that Español. 

This week for our Tuesday devotional we had the chance to listen to Bonnie L. Oscarson, the General Young Woman's President. Instead of a broadcast from Provo, she was here in Mexico, and she and her Counselors sat in for one of my District's Spanish classes. We split into companionships and taught her and her counselors how to pray, in Spanish of course. That evening they divided the cafeteria by gender so she could talk to all the Sisters, which was a little hectic. But Tuesdays are pizza night, so it´s always a little crazy. 

Me and Elder Krommenhoek

This is my companion. If you don´t know how to pronounce his name don´t worry because no one else does either. This guy is crazy enough to agree  to waking up at 5 am and hitting the gym. He´s probably the best companion I could have asked for, very agreeably and always goes with my responsibilities as District Leader. He likes to study as much as I do and he´s very good at teaching en Español. His mother wrote everyone in our district a letter, which was very nice. She´s our District mom now. 

District 13-A 

That´s all I got this week. Thanks to everyone who wrote me this week.

Love you all!

Elder Gray

Finally I get time to use a computer. My Prep-Day is on Friday but last week was too busy, so thank you for waiting. 

I woke up at 4:40 am on Tuesday morning and my family drove me to the airport. When was in line at the airport I met another missionary who was heading to the same mission, Elder Krommenhoek. He would eventually become my companion in the MTC. We got to the CCM (Centro de Capitación Misional) that night and ate cold Costco pizza, then unpacked everything. 

That night I found out how difficult it is for me to sleep here. Mexico City has so many strange and exciting sounds. in one night, I heard dogs, sirens, someone screaming, a train horn going for 30 seconds straight and a guy selling tamales. On top of that my companion snores. He was kind enough to give me earplugs but they don´t help much. My companion is a very authentic guy and likes to study and work as hard as I do. He wants to lose some weight so we are dieting and lifting at the gym almost every day. 

The next day they wasted no time. After a tour of the campus we went straight to learning. The lessons are entirely in Spanish. My companion and I have been trying to memorize 30 new words per day and speak Spanish as much as we can together. On day two we began teaching lessons to an 'investigator', which were also entirely in Spanish. We've been teaching lessons every day since, and next week we're going to have two investigators to teach. Although it´s only been a week and a half, I can teach pretty well and hold a basic conversation in Spanish. 

District 13-A

I was also called to be a District Leader. It's a bit different since I'm in the CCM but I'm in charge of a District, which consists of 12 people total. I go to leadership meetings and write weekly reports on everyone in my District to let the Branch President know how they are doing. I also inspect their rooms once a week. Everyone in my District is pretty great, we get a long very well and 10 out of the 12 people are going to Texas, so we'll probably know each other for a long time. 

The Cafeteria (Comedor) is pretty good. They serve a mix of American and Mexican food. They have papayas, tomales, fresh corn tortillas, beans and rice every day, juice that is too sweet for human consumption and liter bottles of hot sauce. The crown jewel is a literal gallon of Nutella they have in the morning. Missionaries will coat the inside of their cereal bowl with Nutella, put in Frosted Flakes and fill it with horchata. Then they wonder why they gained weight in the MTC.

The weather is very nice, switching between slightly hot and slightly cold. Come days it will rain and we'll wear our sweaters, but most days we wear short sleeved shirts. We've had a number of devotionals while I've been here. The first one was I believe an Area 70, who talked about specific prayer as found in Genesis 24 13-14. Then we had a broadcast from Provo by David A. Bednar, who spoke about how to get more out of General Conference and study in greater depth. He invited us to try this; identify the doctrine, find the invitation to follow this doctrine, and a promised blessing from following this doctrine. I'm going to try this with a matrix next Conference. 

Love you all, ¡hasta luego¡