Hey everyone!
So this week was super eventful so this might be a lot. On Friday we went to immigration to get our visas done so now we´re legal Mexican citizens for the next two years. That was super fun cause we got to see a lot more of Mexico City. The CCM is super nice and all, maybe one of the nicest MTC´s in the world, but I kinda wish we could go outside more. The city is super cool. It kinda reminds me of a bunch of different American cities all rolled into one depending on what part you´re in. Except everything is in Spanish. I almost bought some tacos from a taco stand but the CCM worker that was with us told us not to because we´re gringos and he thought our stomachs couldn´t handle it. I kinda regret that decision now, it probably would´ve been worth it haha.
Later on Friday we had our second lesson teaching President Olsen and it went a lot better this time. Pretty much the main thing we need to work on is the language but that just comes with time. Also we realized that we say um way too much when we´re speaking in spanish because it requires a lot more brain power. President seemed to think that wasn´t gonna change anytime soon so he told us that we should try to just change our "um´s" to "este´s." That´s actually a really hard thing to do though because if you think about using the "este" instead then you forget what you were trying to say in Spanish and then you end up saying um anyways. It´s also kinda funny because we´re becoming pretty good friends with the President and a lot of people are pretty intimidated by him so sometimes we´ll pass him and say hi to him and stuff and everyone is really shocked by how well we know him haha. We also just found out he´s a convert so that´s cool.
On Saturday we found out that both of our teachers, Hermano Mun and Hermana Cardinez used to be in a relationship and now they got paired together to teach our district so that´s pretty funny. We´ve been trying to figure out more details about that but I´m pretty sure the only way they communicate is through their shared Google Doc about us haha. But whatever they´re doing seems to be working because we´re one of the fastest progressing districts in the CCM. On Sunday we had branch council with all the other district leaders and when we reported our numbers we were leading our branch by far. We´re even ahead of the 5th weekers. We felt kinda bad though because the 5th weekers were really proud of how much progress they made but then we went right after them and told them that we had finished everything for the whole 6 weeks and now we´re just trying to do a bunch of English fasts and memorizing extra scriptures and stuff haha. We did a 4 day english fast on the weekend but that got a little interrupted by immigration and branch council. We´ll probably try to do that again soon.
We had the chance to give Hermano Mun a blessing on Monday. That was a super spiritual experience. We had just finished teaching him a lesson and then we walked back in to get feedback, but instead of giving us feedback, he asked us if we were all worthy of our priesthood. We all said yes and then he asked if we could give him a blessing. It was super unexpected because he was smiling and everything the whole time but it was really cool that we had that opporunity. I guess sometimes you never really know what people are struggling with.
Yesterday was Hermano Mun´s birthday so we got him a cool wood cutout from the tienda and had everyone sign it and put their favorite scriptures on it. Then we all wrote him a card too.
Also yesterday morning half of our casa woke up throwing up because apparently there was some meat in the comedor that wasn´t cooked all the way. I was kinda making fun of them at first cause they all had weak american stomachs, but then I started getting a stomach ache later that day. I didn´t throw up because of my incredible willpower, but there were still some pretty bad side affects haha. We went to the enfermeria and the doctor only spoke spanish and asked me if I was scared of shots. I said no but in the back of my mind was wondering if he was actually gonna give me a shot for something that minor haha. I think he was just kinda messing with me though because he just gave me some pills and told me to go rest. I got to sleep for 5 hours so that was a nice break from everything. My companions appreciated it too cause they got a break too. It also prevented me from way overeating at the comedor again that day so getting sick might be a good strat. I think the chefs feel kinda bad though cause they took out like a quarter of the missionaries at the CCM. And then at the devotional last night Sister Olsen talked about these two sisters in in the holocaust that had to fight to have a good attitude, even while in concentration camps. I´m pretty sure all the new missionaries that came in last night are terrified now haha. Eating the food was totally worth it though. It was good.
But yeah I´m doing mostly great and Spanish has it´s ups and downs but right now we´re mostly just trying to get used to all the different tenses and using them in the correct times. On Saturday I was a little discouraged with my spanish but there were a few mini miracles that helped with that. I seem to understand Spanish the best when there´s something that God really wants me to hear. El don de lenguas I guess haha. But yeah on Saturday Hermano Mun was bearing his testimony to us in Spanish and I understood almost all of it. He was talking about how he had a lot of confidence in us, but in the end that didn´t matter. What really mattered was that God trusted us and that´s why we´re here. It´s kind of like when he was talking to Moses and Moses was afraid of speaking to the people. It was God who made our mouths, not man. If God has confidence in us then that´s all that really matters. And he does have confidence in all of us and he´s always watching over us because he loves us. I know that to be true.
I miss you all and hope you´re all doing great!
Elder Olivier
also sorry for the lack of pictures this week it was raining during the time we could take pictures. but we might be able to go to the temple next week if it opens in time so maybe pictures then!
We received this picture from a package delivery service though:
No comments:
Post a Comment