Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Hola mi familia y amigos!

Finally just reached the one week mark of my time in the  CCM (MTC in Spanish)! It has felt like a year but the it has also been the greatest year of my life! I guess after the first week time just flies by but I really am enjoying every second of my stay here.


Elder Jack and me at the temple
I have been blessed with the greatest companion, roomates ever, and district ever. We are all very friendly and we love to talk to each other a lot. Maybe a little too much. But we work hard and we try our best. Our district makes up our class, which is the intermediate class for the people who arrived. We all speak Spanish pretty well. I have become so much better at speaking and understanding Spanish because we speak with native speakers a lot and in Spanish with each other as well, although we do speak a lot of English too.
Our class started teaching our first ¨investigator¨ on Friday. We did it totally in Spanish. It was hard, but not because of the language barrier. Our investigator couldn´t read, was bored by church, didn´t like missionaries very much and didn´t want to pray. This wrecked our first lesson plan because we had planned on using the scriptures a lot. But we taught her again yesterday and on Saturday and it went a lot better. We used pictures to help her understand and we taught much more simply with less planning, letting the Spirit guide us through the lesson. There were a few times when I said something in the lesson that I tried to say later to classmates and I could not figure out how I said it in the first place.
I have got to say, I think I might get fat before I leave the CCM. The food here is great. Especially the tacos, pastries and fruit. I have never liked honeydew before but here it is nectar from heaven. I stack my plate with it every meal. The tacos need assembly, but when you add the meat, salsa, beans and rice to a tortilla, its perfect.
Being in the Mexico CCM is interesting. It feels like you are in such a different place but at the same time I felt right at home in a couple hours. I am so excited to be here. The only annoying thing I can think of is the mosquitos that are every where and maybe the torrential down pours that are coming from storms on the coast, I guess.
A funny before I go. When I was praying for my investigator at the end of the lesson, I for got her name. Later on in the prayer, I thought I remembered it, so i thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to talk with Gloria. Come to find out right after the prayer, her name is Glanda. So we left laughing and I went back and told a few other people in our district who teach the same person. Aftering my story, two other companionships ended up doing the same thing.
Elder Vierkant

Temple


Temple


Temple


Biggest spider I have seen.


Our side of the room.


Our roommates side of the room.


The casa in which we live.


Map of CCM (MTC in Spanish)




Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Matthew Arrives in Mexico City

Matthew arrived safely in Mexico City at 2:38 PM CDT (1:38 PM MST).

The MTC is a 10 minute drive from the airport.

Mexico MTC

His first message:

Hey! How is it going? I made it to the MTC in Mexico just fine. I didn´t have any issues with traveling. I also ended up finding my wallet, but not soon enough to get some pesos, but  I think that I will be okay, especially since I will be spending most of my time, if not all of it in the MTC. I sat next to two other Elders on both flights and we traveled everywhere together. Most of the Elders are really out going and want to be friends with everyone and we have lots of good laughs.
Anything I was nervous about up to this point has been fine. I feel safe and I am excited for everything to come. It is all so new. Flying into Mexico City was probably the most unique experience for me. In every direction, as far as the eye can see, are houses with read roof tops. You could not see anything but buildings. for miles, even after flying over the city for several minutes. I wish I had had my camera out but I didn´t. I don´t have ton of time so I can´t upload pictures either.
It turns out that there are probably 15-20 Elders heading out to El Salvador. It is pretty cool knowing that any of these guys could be my companion. I haven´t found my companion yet but I have my name badge and the rest of my stuff already.
I am super excited, I feel like time is going to fly by with all the new experiences I will have. I can´t wait for everything that is next. Apperantly I probably won´t be able to email for a while, but by then I will have a lot more to tell you about, since I spent most of today sleeping on a plane with not a lot to do.
Elder Vierkant

Farewell Elder Vierkant

Matthew departed the Salt Lake City airport today at 6:25 AM.