Hola mi gente!
Well I finally made it to my first P-day. Honestly it felt like forever! First of all, thank you to everyone that sent me letters, emails, and packages. Honestly they made me so happy and without them I wouldn´t have made it through the week. Mom, your package that you delivered to me was awesome and everyone in my casa enjoyed some of the food and sodas last night. Also, before I forget, my P-day next week will be on Friday because I have to go get my visa finalized.
As you all know, my journey began very early on Friday morning. I was a little bit dazed that whole day and I wasn´t quite sure how to feel about leaving my family, friends, phone, and other possessions for two years. But when I got on the continuing flight to Mexico from Salt Lake City the plane was filled with about 75% Mormon Missionaries. Seeing so many people who made the same decision as I did made me feel a lot better. I sat next to a funny Mexican guy. He talked to me for literally the whole flight in Spanish. It was pretty hard to communicate with him but we had a nice conversation and it was good practice for me.
After we waited for 2.5 hours at the airport while our bus driver got a ticket, we made it to the CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Misional) at about 6. I really like the CCM. Outside, Mexico City is crazy. There are basically no traffic laws and I´m surprised we didn´t get into an accident. The CCM is super nice compared to the outside world. It rains pretty much everyday here, and when it rains it rains HARD. I´m not really sure about how I feel about my CCM president yet. He´s nice and funny, but he´s super freaking strict and he´s so blunt when he talks, almost to the point of being mean. But maybe I´ll warm up to him. We get exercise time everyday and mostly I´ve been hooping it up or playing volleyball with my companion and our district. The food here is also really good. I haven´t had a meal yet where I didn´t like what I got. And although it´s mostly Mexican food, they also serve us a bunch of American food and Chinese food and other stuff too. The churros are amazing. They make them fresh and fill them with caramel.
I really like my companion. His name is Elder White and he´s a tennis player from Utah. He´s kind of like the opposite of me. He´s not very big, he´s a little more reserved, and he´s not extremely good at Spanish, but he´s funny and we have a really good time serving and teaching together. After teaching our first lesson to an investigator (who was really just our teacher), I know for a fact that the Gift of Tongues is real. When we got in the room and prayed for the Spirit, I understood every word our investigator said and was able to talk decently good Spanish. Our lessons have only gotten better from there and I love it.
To talk about my district, I first have to tell you something that happened this week. After our second lesson, our teacher pulled me aside and told me that I was really good at Spanish, and she wanted me to test out so I could be with a Latino group and get out into the field in three weeks instead of six. I prayed about it the next morning. That day was Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday we pretty much spent the whole day watching conference. That was my first time watching every session of Conference and it was worth every minute. I loved every talk and every message was so strong, but I am also so sorry to hear about the passing of Elder Hales. Anyways, after Conference we went to our classroom, and each person in our district said something they liked about Conference and bore their testimony in Spanish. I felt the Spirit stronger in that room than I ever had in my entire life and I knew for a fact that it was an answer to my prayers. I knew that this district was where I belonged so I told my teacher that I couldn´t test out. We have eight elders and two hermanas in out district. In one week I have come to love them so much and I think of them as family for the next five weeks. While some people do stuff just with their companions, we do everything as a district.
Something else that´s really cool is that I see my friend that I met in Vegas at the Mexican Consulate all the time. His name is Elder Rice and he´s awesome. I also see the Matthews´friend that came camping at Fort Bragg with us. His name is Elder Johnson and he left the CCM this Monday.
Today we got to go to the Mexico City temple for our first P-day. That temple is so amazing. It´s three stories and just looks awesome. Thankfully they gave us headphones so we could listen in English while we were there. We also bought some sweet sock ties from the store there.
I´d like to share some of my favorite things from Conference. First, leaving was really hard for me and the first week was kind of difficult. But in Elder Uchtdorf´s first talk, he said something that helped me a lot. He said, "Just because you are far from home, doesn´t mean you have to be alone or lost". I really loved those words and it was exactly what I was looking for. Elder Holland also said something that stood out to me. He said "Attack me, but do not attack the path I follow." As imperfect people, we deserve to be attacked. But the path of the Gospel is always true and nobody should be allowed to attack the pathway to Christ.
I love you all and I hope you´re having an amazing week! I will talk to you next Friday!
Elder Warren
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