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¡

The Mission Begins

Today is the day! 

I woke up at 4:40 am, left at 5:20 am, and headed to the airport. I'll be at the MTC this afternoon. I was, of course, accompanied by my family. Going on a mission has been in the works for about 7 months, and it's finally here! I've been fully ready to leave for 3 months, but I'm pretty patient.

I've had the privilege of seeing nearly each one of my family and friends these past few months. I've received an enormous amount of love and support from family and friends, and for that I'm very grateful. I know I have a huge number of people rooting for me back home, and because of that I feel much better going out knowing I can turn to each and every one of you for support. I've said more goodbyes these past months than at any other time in my life. I tried to individually make time for each of you, because all of you made time for me.

This blog is an open letter, a update of the things that have taken place that week. It may be difficult to email my gigantic group of family and friends in the field, so my hope is that the blog will answer many of your questions to reduce the number of emails. I will of course do my best to email you all back, but things may come up like a hurricane. I look forward to hearing from you all. 

Much love,
Elder Gray (gonna have to get used to that)