Querido amigos y familia,
It´s been a full week here at the CCM (MTC in espanol) and it´s been quite intense.The days seem long here, but they are all good days. Thursdays are my Prep Days. The weather here has ranged from 46 degrees mid day to 85. They only speak Spanish here in the CCM and it´s extremely difficult, but i know like 100 times as much as before i left. I can actually keep a good conversation going, but teaching is a whole another thing. I´ll begin with my companions, as my official companion is Elder Albert Steven Bence who is from LA, then the other mates in my district (of whole are all going to Chile Concepcion) are Elder Bertolio, Elder Stockford, Elder Taylor and Elder Judkins. There are also 6 hermanas in my district of whom three are going to Concepcion as well.
As the first day here began, we had back to back meetings, again mainly is spanish, and to make things even better our Spanish teach barely speaks english. As funny as it sounds, I´m grateful for taking spanish in high school because at the very least i at least know how to pronounce words in spanish. Also having taken three years I surprised at how well i know the grammar for the spanish language, considering i still have troubles with english grammar. Well basically day one was just learning what to do and not do do here at the CCM. But day two! We had to teach a an investigator in spanish, and can I say we didn't even have our first spanish class till day 4, but to sum up me and my companions efforts we spent most of the time looking things up in our spanish to english dictionary. The good news though we found out after he spoke perfect english and was just a teacher. Phew! I thought we were going to make him not want to know more about the church!
As the week went by I would find my understanding of not only Spanish but the gospel become stronger. On the first Sunday, which was a blast, we had a fireside after. The speaker was the Manager of the CCM and during his talk he spoke of his mission and how hard the Spanish was to learn and how odd the food was! Furthermore he spoke of the difficulties and struggles during his mission, which he later followed up by telling us he served in the Chile Concepcion mission, OH JOY! But as he spoke he discussed something that he believed all missionaries, and anybody else for that matter should live by. That being the theme "Remember Lot's wife," or never look back and what you are missing, but look forward to what is in store. Especially when what´s ahead is a path of righteousness and honor. I especially thought this was special because I am constantly thinking about all the things that I am missing serving the Lord and it really hit hard that what I left behind was the past and I needed to put all my efforts in the future, wither it being serving a mission, school work, or raising a family. Once you realize that you have left the distractions of the past, you can have one eye to God and you will begin to teach others better than your own knowledge. Such great stuff.
Well I can say after Sunday much of what we do here is the same (there is only really one purpose of being here anyways) and that is "Inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them understand the restored gospel." In so mainly what we do is one, learn spanish and two, learn about the gospel, which I'm realizing i may not finish learning well after my mission! On an upside, I was able to not only receive but to give a blessing to help out our missionary duties. One of the hermanas had asked me to give her a blessing and it was quite an experience. One I hope to feel many more times in my mission! Later that night I started to first understood why it is important to love your companion, and that even though they may get on your nerves, there a relationship that is much stronger than any pet peeves.
On Tuesday there was a missionary fireside broadcaster from the provo MTC (I saw Alec Sipple like three times on the screen) and in that fireside I wrote down two spiritual notes that I would like to share. The first being, in anything you do, have the pride in your lives to be able to speak to others and to look in their eyes with a knowledge of the spirit and the gospel. Second, that God will meet you halfway in all you do, but that doesn't mean He will do it for you, you have to work for what you want!
To conclude with the series of events, I was able to go through the temple in Mexico city and it was so beautiful, almost as gorgeous as the San Diego temple!
On a more temporal note, thanks to my Mother, I have the strongest desire to have a clean room, and to make sure everything is kempt and clean: I have actually gone off on my roommate about leaving socks on the floor. I feel like a mini you, and also, thought the food here is alright, I'm missing on all the home cooked meals and not mexican food forever! I thought I liked mexican food, but then i realized if I had any food everyday it might start to seem plain. I can say that I have been eating some interesting things down here like pigs soup and other fruits i didn't know existed. Also I have never been so exited to do my laundry before everything here gets so dirty so fast.
I miss home very much but I am glad to be out serving in Mexico soon to be Chile. It is an experience here that I would not be able to have anywhere else and I know that it will just grow the longer I'm out. I find myself taking things more seriously, which i assume most will be grateful for, and I am beginning to have a greater love in my life for my family, friends, and the Lord. Thank you for all of your support and love, till next week.
Buenos Noches, y gracias por todo, con amor,
Elder Siaosi
A picture, of what it looks like outside of the CCM, my district, the gorgeous temple, and the preflight to Mexico. I'll have much more next time, but we can only use our camera's on Prep Days!
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