September 3, 2018

Fam,

Turns out this never got sent! 

Today marks twenty months of missionary service. 2.7 months were spent with Elder Guerrero, 1.5 with Elder Waters, 9.3 of those months have been spent with Elder Magalei, and 8.2 of those months have been spent with Elder Rencher. It's crazy to think how young the district was when I first got here. Elder Waters, the district leader had 6 months. Elder Guerrero had about 4 months and Elder Rencher had just finished training with about 3 months. Elder Rencher and Elder Guerrero will also be finishing their missions together at the end of this transfer. Time really does fly. 

Monday evening we had a great lesson with Wilfred and William. They really are two amazing guys. They are humble and a joy to teach. We brought our new Branch missionary leader and his wife with us and we had planned to teach the Plan of Savation. We knocked the door and could see Wilfred was reading and after we walked in we had asked what he was reading. He described the first few verses of Alma 32 and the spirit made a clear impression that we should continue reading with him. We did so and had a stellar lesson with them. Alma 32 is just full of goodness. We read that and the spirit was very strong. Outside of the quality of how the lesson turned out, something that struck me was the fluency and proficiency of the members who came out with us. Obviously they know Spanish and grew up speaking it, but for whatever reason that night the separation of my own Spanish abilities and that of theirs really stuck out in my mind. It was pretty awe inspiring, language learning really is the process of a life time to be able to dominate a language like a native speaker. 

We've slowly been working through the new member lessons with Edin. He is doing great. We taught a lesson on tithing this last Wednesday. The presence of the spirit is dependent on all parties involved. If there is unity the spirit much more capable of being able to testify of truth. Edin's teaching has exemplified this truth. Every lesson we have with him is a spiritual highlight of the day. He is so receptive to truth that it really is a joy to teach him. 

We had another good lesson with him where we reviewed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hadn't really covered why we don't baptized infants so we decided to use Moroni 8 to cover the topic. Moroni 8 really is a pretty great chapter on baptism, specifically verse 25-26. He explained that he had always thought what the chapter teaches was right but found no support on that idea in his previous church. It reminded me of when we taught the 10 commandments and how he was blown away by the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He explained that he had always prayed to other people and never realized that that was blatantly against the very first of the 10 commandments. 

Friday we were stopping by a person we had lost contact with. Their neighbor was home so we talked with her for a few minutes on her porch. We were able to share with her a shortened restoration lesson. As we taught about the first vision I was watching her reaction. Joseph Smith had a question about which of all the sects of his time was right and which he should join. He brought his question to a grove of trees and asked God in sincere prayer that he would reveal to him what he should do. He was answered by a personal visitation from God the father and Jesus Christ. They instructed him in what to do. Nuvia was surprised. She said, in reference to the painting depicting the first vision, "but there are two people in the photo?" We smiled and explained that the first revealed truth in the process of the Restoration of the Gospel Jesus Christ is that the non-biblical doctrine of the trinity was false. God is a personal God who knows his children and cares for them, he has a body of Flesh and bone, only glorified. Jesus Christ is his son, the Savior of the world. Previously she was left confused by the doctrine of the trinity and didn't really know how to pray because of that. Thankfully, first and foremost, the restoration just makes sense (Deut 32:17). 

We also have pictures of the two elders coming in next transfer! We also heard that the transfer after that there will be another Spanish Elder. Another! There is the danger of me leaving the branch before I finish my mission............ I really don't want to. I'd rather train two greenies at once. 

- Eric 

2/2/17 "Solo Español" stickers, "Los plátanos de oro", Mexico City Temple

Enroute to the Mexico City Temple

Mexico City LDS Temple

View of Mexico City (probably from the temple)

CCM District at the temple

Family and friends,

I'm about halfway through my 5 week. Speaking Spanish with latinos is the fastest way to humble yourself over your Spanish skills. I can understand most things our teachers tell us the first time, but speaking with latinos is a whole new ball game. Our district's goals for this week included speaking with latinos more often, and it really shows you how far you need to get to speak quickly with confidence. I was in the bathroom during a break and an Elder walks in and I said hi. He said hi and asked where I was going on my mission and how many weeks I've been in the ccm. I told him and he asked me a few questions and I had no idea what he said. I asked him to repeat what he said, every word he said ran into the next and was basically impossible to understand. Our teachers are super nice, and our morning teachers annunciate really well and make it easy to understand them. Our afternoon teachers separate words well, but are harder to understand. This week we got "Solo Español" stickers on our name tags. Basically we should only be speaking Spanish, and we are not the best at doing that... the stickers are a badge of honor though, because you get them in your last week or two.

Sunday was pretty good. I thought I was in the clear for not speaking because I wasn't in the first group of 3 speakers. After that first group of speakers there was a special musical number by one of the districts. It was a duet of "A Childs Prayer." Hermana Doogle (I believe) and Elder Hoyt sang. Our "chapel" [probably a classroom or meeting room serving as a chapel on Sunday] has a step up that is about a foot tall, and the podium is also on that step. Hermana Doogle is around 4 foot 11 and Elder Hoyt is 6'6". So when she stood on the step, she was still significantly shorter than Elder Hoyt. It was relatively funny, and it was all because they only had one sheet of music they needed to share. After they sang, the branch president called 3 other people to talk. I was the first one in that group, luckily I actually wrote a talk. My topic was on the Christ-like attributes of charity and love. In Elders quorum we talked about praying always and having a prayer in your heart. One of the elders gave a personal story about his preparations to serve a mission. His stake president told him he wouldn't submit the papers until he rebuilt his relationship with his brother. He didn't go into detail, beyond the fact that something had happened and they stopped talking. He said he prayed that night on what he could do, and a few weeks later he was home for the weekend. When the brother left he felt like he needed to just give his brother a hug. A few days later he said he was studying at like 3 a.m. and his brother called him. The spirit was so strong when the elder was talking about how they both forgave each other, it was a really awesome class.

My alarm clock has been acting a little funky, it runs slow sometimes and fast others. On Monday my alarm didn't go off, but luckily I woke up at 7:20 and woke my companions up. We missed 90% of our breakfast but were able to get dressed fast enough to get something. I later found out that one of the batteries came out of position and turned the clock off....I might need a new clock.

Our morning was spent in the Mexico city temple. It's the biggest temple outside the U.S., and it is one of 5 where the angel Moroni is holding the golden plates. Also fun fact, if you accidentally say "el oro plátanos" [which means: "the gold bananas".  The correct Spanish term is "planchas de oro"] in a lesson your fake investigator will not be able to hold back laughter. Luckily I didn't find this out for myself, one of the other companionships in our zone found it out for us. 

The temple was a great experience. Wearing headphones was odd, but it was good that it was in English and not Spanish. There is a segment in Preach my Gospel that talks about the language of the spirit crossing literal language barriers and that is very true. There were parts of the temple ceremony that were not translated into English, and it was still a very spiritual experience, that was particularly interesting.

No obvious gun shots this week, just tons of fireworks. All hours of the day people are launching off rockets, not even mortars. You can watch them fly up with their trail of flames, and blow up in a big circle. It must be cultural, because they are also launched off when it's daytime. The ccm is in a pretty rough part of town and there isn't a ton of space to launch off rockets, so it has to be especially sketchy.

Tuesday we welcomed a new district into our zone. One of the Hermanas is from New Zealand. Her calling is both as a missionary and as a nurse, which is cool. Also her travels took over 30 hours, but because of the direction she flew, she arrived in the US at the same time she left New Zealand.

First Week at the Mexico MTC

12 January 2017

Dear family and friends,

Getting to Mexico was pretty easy. I had a layover in Atlanta that was more than enough time to get from gate to gate. The day I left it was raining, so when I was getting ready to board, I was watching the planes take off. I flew first down to Atlanta, so I was also at the front of the long line. 

The two ladies at the front desk were talking their time, so I was able to watch about 6 planes take off before I boarded. I wasn't the first on the plane but I was close. It was really cool watching the planes, because as they'd take off the jet blast out the back of the planes would throw a massive wave of water into the air. Two planes seemed to have been going faster than the others and when they pulled up water condensed out of the air on top of their wings.

On the plane to Mexico I met Elder Conklin and Sister/Hermana Perkins as well as Elder Pearson, my current companion. I was pretty tired and slept nearly the whole way to Mexico. 

I sat next to this kid flying home, he asked me why I was going to Mexico. I told him what I was doing and why and we talked about religion for awhile. At the end of the flight He asked if I had a copy of The Book of Mormon. I was laughing in my head because I can't imagine that giving away a copy of The Book of Mormon will be any easier than it was then. Luckily I had an extra copy and gave it to him.  

The Missionary Training Center is really pretty. It sits on a 90 acre lot in Mexico city, which is a little insane. It's basically an oasis from the craziness of Mexico City.  Ten foot concrete walls with another 8-10 feet of barbed wire fence surround the campus, so we are completely isolated from the city. Wednesday it seemed like something was going on, but we were never told what was going on until the afternoon. Supposedly there were some "security issues" on the other side of the fence. We were later told there was rioting in the city. So if someone could email me some information on the riots that would be great.

Palm trees and this other tree, which I don't know the name of, are scattered all over the campus and like I said before, it's super pretty.

The weather is also super pleasant. It's around 55-65 degrees all day and night, also it is slightly more dry than I was anticipating. We are at about 7000 feet, or so I've been told, but the air doesn't feel as thin as I would've expected. Parakeets fly and nest all over the MTC. They're bright green and super loud sometimes. 

Spanish is kind of interesting. Every single Spanish teacher I've had before now was absolutely horrible. Some were mean but taught way too fast, and others were nice and never taught. We have two sets of teachers, one for language study and one for teaching lessons. Our language teacher is really awesome. Hermana Gonzales served a mission in the San Antonio Texas mission Spanish speaking and was born and raised in Mexico City. The teacher who teaches us how to teach is named Hermano Velallobos. He is about 5 foot 8, slim build and the deepest voice I have ever heard. It's slightly hilarious. 

My companion and my other two roommates are great. It's funny, everyone warned me about bad roommates at BYU-I and bad companions on the mission but so far everyone has been awesome. Two prayed to have dreams in Spanish one night. Elder Forsburg said he had a dream Hermana Gonzales was getting mad at him and talking in reeaally fast Spanish, while Elder Henrikson said he didn't remember any dreams from that night. The only dream I've had so far had to do with flying a float plane and some weird art, but beyond that I couldn't remember much.

The first week here everyone was extra nice. At each meal time, the missionaries that have been here for a longer amount of time come and talk with the guys who just got here. Everyone said if you can make it to Sunday, you're set. The first week is the hardest, but once you get through it you can rely on Sundays, Costco pizza day, and P day to get through the week comfortably. Your first week you don't get a P(reparation day) so it's long and harder than all the others. 

Sunday, as expected, was an awesome day. Sacrament meeting was 75% in Spanish. Before the prayer the person presiding calls on a few missionaries to speak. Everyone gets speaking topics on Thursday so it wasn't horrible. At the very beginning  I was called to say the opening prayer. I heard Johnson, but didn't understand anything else. The Elder behind said I had the prayer. I was way nervous, I had never given a prayer in Spanish without reading, but when it was time I got up and said the prayer in Spanish. It was really short, but I said it all without reading. 

Everyday feels shorter and shorter than the last. Each 15 minute segment is planned out for the whole day, everyday. Never has my life been so organized. The first few days were a little rough. We had no idea what we were doing, or what books to take to each class. We have 12 pounds of materials, from about 20 different books in both Spanish and English, so we didn't really want to take everything everywhere. We later learned we only had one major classroom we used, and we could leave everything there. That was day 3.

We had a devotional our first night and one of the area authorities asked if anyone felt stressed over the past week. About 3/4 of the 300 missionaries here raised there hands. He said that while we are here there is no reason to be stressed. He told us that while we are here we will never have to run 5 miles so fast that we vomit at the end or we go home. Never will we have to take a single test that if we fail we will be sent home.  And never will we have to deal with any situation that if we fail we will be sent home, so there is no reason to stress if we do our best everyday. After the devotional my roommates and I read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. The chapter we read was about the sons of Mosiah and their mission. They preached the word of God to the Lamanites for 14 years, a group of people that would try to kill every Nephite they saw. Missions are around two years long, not 14 years, and we are not preaching to people who want to kill us.

Today we are going to the temple visitor center for a few hours. I'm not sure what we will be doing, because the Mexico temple is currently closed for the next two hours. When I got here I received a tablet, so there might be pictures coming later this afternoon, but no promises. 
Lastly I was able to see my cousin Ben Johnson before he left. I have a picture with us two but I don't know if I will be able to get it off the camera. I also saw him Sunday and was able to give him a goodby hug after we talked for a little bit.

Sorry for any typos, Mexican keyboards have slightly different key locations and the spell check is on Spanish, so I have a wall of red lines.

Questions I can't answer
Why is Christmas pronounced chris-mass and not christ-mas?

My first few days I had some free time to draft this email, so the next few might not be as long.

- my district is 16A for mail. Don't send packages from the United states they get stuck in customs often. There is a service that sends stuff from Mexico, but I don't know what it's called.

A campus view at the MTC

MTC Campus

Who knows the name of this tree?