Hey everyone!
This week has been pretty great and I think I´m probably gonna have a lot to say so I apologize in advance if this is really long haha. Mexico City is seriously the most beautiful city ever. Waking up to the super colorful houses all over the mountains is one of my favorite things. I don´t know why they don´t color houses like that in America cause it looks really cool. Apparently Mexico City is one of the biggest cities in the world. I´m not sure how I didn´t know that before coming here haha. The Missionary Training Center has been super fun so far. They really throw you into the deep end with the language but we´ve been trying to make it as fun as possible. It´s pretty cool cause everyone in our district is super motivated to learn everything cause we´re actually gonna be using the language soon. They also put me and my companions in the intermediate class so we´re a step ahead of a lot of the other people here which is a slight confidence booster. (Thanks Señor) It´s still a little hard to talk to the natives though cause they talk really fast and have an accent, but we´re learning really fast. The gift of tongues is definitely real. Both of our teachers also don't know much English so that can be really helpful, kinda difficult in some ways, but also really really entertaining and funny. Hermano Mun is one of our teachers and sometimes he randomly says these English phrases that he learned from his American companions on his mission. One time he asked us why we say "What´s up" and "How´s it going?" but why we never say "What´s poppin´player?" So yeah that was super funny and I really wanna know who taught him that. I also accidentally said something offensive to him in Spanish yesterday and he told me that he "wants to punch me in my faceeee." And then he was like "You wanna throw hands?" and "I´ll mop the floor with you." That was really funny cause he said all those in a really thick accent. Also his favorite English word is "frick" and he says it a lot haha. So I´ve decided when I get a native spanish speaker as a companion we´re gonna teach each other a ton of funny phrases like that.
The food here is pretty good but all the native Mexicans say it´s not the most amazing Mexican food but not bad either. I think it´s super good but I guess I´m easily impressed. Hopefully that means I'll love the food in the field. The people here are super nice and it´s really cool to get to know all of the natives. My companions and I were talking to one yesterday for a long time and it´s cool to see all the differences and similarities between life here and in the states. We have to ask them to repeat stuff and slow down a lot though haha, but we´re getting better fast. My companions are super cool and really easy to get along with. (We´re in a trio) Elder Sterner is from Manti, Utah and going to Puebla South with me. Elder Wilson is from Cincinnati, Ohio and going to Mérida. All of the natives have a really hard time pronouncing Elder Sterner´s name, like a lot harder than mine, which is really funny. They say it like esterner but have a really hard time pronouncing the r´s. Elder Wilson actually lived in the same building as me at BYU but just two floors above me. He was also in the same major as me too so I´m not sure how I didn´t know him. BYU is pretty huge I guess haha. It's cool though cause we have a few mutual friends.
This week has been super spiritually uplifting. El don de lenguas, first of all, is real. I guess I haven´t gotten to the field yet but whenever I talk to natives I feel like I´m definitely improving. It´s also super cool to see everyone else´s motivation to be here. Everyone in our district seems to have super strong testimonies so that´s super cool. It´s cool to hear their favorite scriptures and their takes on them and everything. There´s a ton of stuff and it might be a lot if I told you everything spiritual that happened this week so I´ll try to pick some of the best.
I read in Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon this week cause one of my favorite verses is in there. I´ve always really loved verses 27 and 28 because it talks about how if we come unto Christ with our weaknesses, he can make our weakness strong through his atonement. Christ always knows exactly how we feel in every situation because he´s actually suffered exactly what we have suffered. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and if we lean on him, he can make us much better than what we could make ourselves on our own. This time I studied the rest of the chapter as well, which was really cool cause I´ve never studied that as much. Moroni is speaking in this chapter, recounting all of the miracles that happened in the Book of Mormon because people had faith. At the end Moroni is praying to God, asking him how people are going to understand his writing because he´s really bad at it. He´s afraid that the people are going to make fun of his and his people´s writing because of how poorly written it is. That´s when God steps in and tells him that he can make his writing strong.
That was a huge testimony builder for me because it´s pretty easy to feel like Moroni right now. But I know that if God can help Moroni and the other writers in the Book of Mormon write a book as amazing as that, then God can definitely help me learn a language.
We also had a really good devotional last night about true repentance and conversion in Alma 36 where Alma talks to his son Helaman about his conversion story, but I´m realizing my email´s getting pretty long and I'm not sure if any of you will read this far so I´ll spare you haha.
I miss you all and thanks for all the love and support!
Elder Olivier
June 11 incoming missionaries to the CCM.
Elder Olivier is 3rd from the left in the 2nd to back row.
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