Heading back to the USA!

So, this is my last day in the MTC (not counting the 2 5/6 hours I'll be here on Monday.)! It's really exciting, and also pretty nervous -- I feel like there's a lot more that I could learn here. I guess that's what trainers are for, huh?

This week was pretty normal, except for the whole fact of it being our last week. We just keep learning, practicing, and doing.

This Friday we had this thing called in-field orientation, which is basically a series of lectures and workshops designed to help us get ready to serve in the real mission field. Although it was really long--it took up the entire day, basically, it helped me feel a lot more prepared to serve. One of the things that helped me the most was looking at an "effective" missionary schedule. Prior to then, I didn't really have a good idea of what daily life for a missionary would be, in between 10:00 and 9:00, and it helped me realize that missionaries aren't expected to be superhumans, going everywhere and doing everything at once. Basically my feeling is that I've learned a lot, and that it's okay that I'll keep learning--my plan is to go with the flow, essentially.

Today's fast sunday, the second one we've had here at the MTC. If I didn't tell you last time, it's a little different here, because rather than fasting for breakfast and lunch, as we do in the states, we fast for the previous dinner and then breakfast. I think that this is because in Mexico, lunch is like traditionally the biggest meal or something. We'll have testimony meeting like three hours from now, which will be good.

One weird thing--we haven't been able to listen to our music here at the MTC, so one of the things I'm most looking forward to in the field is finally being able to listen to the 20-something CDs I burned.

I'm excited and nervous and everything to get out to Colorado. I know that Heavenly Father will help me, but sometimes it's still really nervous. All will be well though. As it says in the Spanish version of Come, Come ye Saints, "Oh está todo bien".

 

I love you and miss you. Thanks so much for all your encouragement and love.

Peter

It's raining here, is it raining there?

Thanks so much for the news from home. It's always a pleasure to hear about all the wackiness that goes on. Everything seems like it's going really fast, and it's hard to like focus on things sometimes when you're just falling into a routine. 

It is raining in Mexico, but it has always been raining in Mexico. Pretty much literally every day, it rains at ~6:00 in the evening, for about two hours. It's frankly bizarre.

One thing that I forgot to mention last week: We had to move again, bringing our total up to 4 times moving, counting moving in. We were the last people in our "normal" house, so we assume they just wanted to consolidate us. It was alright, though, because the residents of our new house are pretty cool, they include our Zone leaders and some other cool guys from our zone.

About the guy-sleeping-on-the-roof (answering our question): It wasn't normal, he was a missionary, I believe it was a district bonding thing, but I'm not sure.

Peter and his district - the "intermediates"

The only send-off tradition I can think of is that we'll probably sing "God be with you till we meet again." We do not all leave at the same time as a district, not even on the same day. I believe we have only one other person leaving the same day as I will be, and I do believe we're flying to Dallas together.

For me, this week was frankly pretty routine. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary or notable. We continued to practice teaching our teachers, which is always like interesting and a learning experience. We did not mark our one-month day with anything but the realization that I only have to be out for 22 and a half more months, which doesn't seem like too long when I think about it.

Oh, one interesting thing: the computer-aided language program was not working today, so we instead went to this one district that one of our teachers also teaches, and helped them with their spanish (they're "beginners", wheras we are "intermediates"). That district had two guys in it who are going to Denver North as well, so I got to know them, and they seem like they're really cool guys, so that's a plus.

Another interesting thing (at least relatively): On Sunday, we watched a recorded devotional from Elder Scott, which was super cool--it was about prayers, and it was really powerful, but also a nice change from the Elder Holland devotionals that we watch more often--those two have very different teaching styles.

The final interesting thing: we went to the temple again today, and it just gets easier and easier to understand. I'm definitely realizing how important it is to go to the temple a lot--I've been learning new things or thinking about things in different ways every time I go there.

Thanks so much for the news and the love,
Peter

Viva Mexico Viva Independencia

Thanks so much for the email. I am feeling much better, and we did celebrate Mexican Independence Day, don't worry. I even have pictures! 

To answer your questions you sent a while ago, it is mostly feeling like fall. It was kind of hot today, but most of the time it's pretty cool. 

The people living in our casa are all Americans, which is kind of sad--our district-mates who are living in the dorms have Latino roomates, and apparently they're awesome. Ah well.

 

This was another kind of odd week. As far as normal activities--classes, practicing teaching, things are proceeding pretty normally. We have three "progressing investigators" now, one for each of our teachers. All of them present different challenges: one smokes and doesn't really want to stop, one barely believes in God, and one's been the only non-member in his family for a long time. Also, starting tomorrow we're going to be pretending to be an investigator ourselves, for other people in our district--yesterday, we took some time to invent an investigator, which was pretty interesting.

Okay but odd thing #1: one of my companions was pretty sick last week--he stayed home Friday-Sunday. It was weird going out and doing things without him, but it was a learning experience. I think I got closer to the non-sick companion, and it was also a lot different teaching lessons with only two people, as opposed to three people trying to get in their thoughts all at once.

Odd/cool thing #2: This Sunday was Mexico's Independence Day, so for the whole of last week it's been kinda crazy, with decorations everywhere, Mexican candy at lunch every day (of varying quality, btw), and then on Saturday night, we had this huge school-assembly style thing, that was pretty awesome. 

We had a flag ceremony, we sang the national anthem, we watched a video about the Mexican war of independence, and then a really like pretty publicity video from the government. 

After all that, we watched a ton of dancing, from different cultures around Mexico, performed by local members. It was pretty awesome. 

And then, on Sunday night, we did this thing called the "grito", which means "shout". We got a broadcast from the central plaza in Mexico City, where the President of Mexico (Enrique Peña Nieto) rings a bell, then shouts "viva x", where x is a hero of the revolution, and in response, everyone shouts "viva!". We participated in the viva-ing, it was awesome.

It's weird thinking that we'll be leaving in just a couple of weeks. This one district that we've known since we got here left yesterday, which was surreal and kind of sad. It's weird to think that probably I'll never see these people, who I've gotten to know really well over the past month, again. Well, that's what Facebook's for, I guess.

Oh, I have pictures today, too! The dancing, fireworks, and salute are from Saturday night, the video is the "grito", and the self-portrait thing is also at the Sunday night thing.

Oh btw, funny story: I found the Jango Fett Keychain, with keys still attached. It was in the Bach Fest bag. So now, when I come back home in 22.5 months (OH BTW I got my tentative go-home date. It's August 3rd I think.), I'll be able to get in the door.

 

Love,

Peter

All is well.

Thanks for the news, I appreciate it.

Everything with me is doing pretty great. To answer your questions from a week ago, there were several people, something like 12 other folks in the casa, although now they're all gone, they left on like Monday. I assume we'll be getting new people today or tomorrow. Who knows. 

And yes, I have received mail. So all is well, it's just taking a while. 

The temple (where I got to go again today) is pretty great, although they are still using the old film. 

This week, things have been a little chaotic, but still good. About halfway through the week, our hot water heater broke, because someone was climbing down from the roof, after, I believe, spending the night camping there, when he jogged a pipe or something. So we've been having cold showers, fun. That should get fixed pretty quickly though, hopefully. 

Also, I've been kind of sick this week--it started with a like one degree fever, and now I've just got a like lingering cough and stuffy nose, so that should also be pretty quick to resolve.

We've been doing more teaching, as usual, and I think we've been getting better, although there are still things I need to work on, obviously. For me especially, it's hard for me to just talk about what the person needs--it seems like I'm always wanting to, you know, teach the straight lesson rather than focusing on the individual person we're teaching. But I'm working on it, and I think I'm getting better. 

Also this week, we had a thing called TRC, which is where we do like one-off lessons with volunteers from around town. Except for us they didn't actually have volunteers, so we just taught other missionaries. It was pretty cool, actually.

Not much else has been going on, pretty much we've just been like doing the routine. Sometime soon is Mexican Independance Day, so the like buildings have been getting all decorated and stuff, which is pretty awesome.

About Sunday: I have not yet given a talk, although I have prepared three talks--I don't know if I told you guys this, but we find out in sacrament meeting whether we'll be giving a talk or not. We do have priesthood meeting, which is led by the branch presidency, and we have a sort of sunday school, it's in individual districts, and one companionship teaches each time. The order is kind of odd--Priesthood, "sunday school", and then sacrament meeting. We also have a class with the CCM presidency every sunday (with the whole CCM), and a DVD devotional, usually from one of the apostles. 

There have not been any culture classes, aside from just talking from the native elders, which we do.

Thanks so much for the news and love,

I love all you guys,

Peter

Thanks so much for the news from home - it's really nice to like still feel connected. Btw I did get the pictures (of cousin Andrew heading to the Provo MTC), we're all good with that.

This week it's really starting to feel like we're getting into a routine. Wake up, study, breakfast, study, class, lunch, study, class, dinner, study, TALL (which is like a computer-aided language learing program), plan, bed. 

Sundays are different, and Wednesdays are a little different because we also have service. It's all pretty good. 

One thing that's interesting is that our like "investigators" are both also our teachers, so they like know how to best help us, I guess. One of them, Hermana Young, is actually acting as herself, which is interesting -- I guess it's like practicing giving lessons to members. Working with my companions has been getting a lot better, although there are still some frustrations. Esta bien though.

Our district is not only US, but mostly. One companion is going to El Salvador, and two hermanas are going to Honduras. Other than that, two are going to Minneapolis, three to Gilbert, AZ, one Hermana to Chicago, and me to Denver. There are two other elders in another district that are going to Denver North, but I haven't really met them that much.

As far as I know, there is no CCM Choir, which is sad :(. We do sing hymns a bunch, though, which is pretty great.

Spanish is getting easier, especially, as you say, "church spanish". I'm learing a lot more about how to talk about the gospel: e.g. did you know that in spanish, "agency" is "albedrio"?

I hear you all went to Voodoo donuts, which I am extremely sad to have missed. I've been recommending that place to every elder (three so far) who I've met who's going to Oregon (grammar?).

I was going to attach some pictures, and I have a whole like paragraph written out explaining them, but then turns out I left the camera at the house, so I guess I will try to find time to send them today during a different like session or something, or maybe I'll get them to you guys next week. Sorry.

One thing that I don't really need the picture to describe to you was these things called tie trades. In our house, we occasionally trade ties, with the other guys in the house. I don't participate that much, but it's a pretty intense market type thing. Last night though, one elder invited like tons of other elders from other houses to come have a big tie-trading party. There were something like 40 elders in our living room, it was insane. I got a tie (that I will try and send you a picture of sometime). It's pretty nice.

Everything's been going pretty swell, and it feels like it's just been going faster and faster.

Only four weeks until I get to the field (Denver)! Been playing a lot of volleyball, turns out it's pretty fun, who knew?

 

Love,

Peter

Quick Q and A:

Last week, we were able to get answers to a few questions quickly before Peter finished his computer time and headed to the temple.

Maybe you have some of our same questions.

Mail or email?

According to the lady who takes care of the mail, it takes ~12 days to get here from the US, so probably email is gonna work the best for now.

Did you feel the earthquake?

I did not feel the earthquake, but I did hear the siren that I learned later signified an earthquake.

You're going to the temple - English or Spanish?

Spanish

And, have you seen teachers protesting? I heard they're on strike all over Mexico City...

No, we can't see anything in the city, although maybe we will on the bus ride to the temple. (Although we did hear this like awesome street party going on saturday night. So loud.)

Settling in?

It does seem like it has been kind of a long week, although the "veterans" assure us that the next couple of weeks will go a lot faster.

No really, how are you?

The CCM is great, my district is all pretty awesome, and I am learning a lot. The food is pretty great, and there is quite a lot of it. Yesterday we had Horchata, which was like way sweeter than what I've had in the past, but still super.

Parting words?

I love you all, and I miss you, but I know this is where I should be.