Hello Family and Friends!
Today marks a
week and a day at el CCM! Well to try and answer most of your questions
in one, it has been great! The food is pretty awesome...mostly because
you can eat as much as you want. I think I´m starting to grow into these
missionary pants though! To be honest, I don´t think I have known what
half the stuff I have eaten is...I know a lot of it has been spam and
eggs though. I think I´d rather not know what the other food is or where
it came from.It has been crazy to see the transition still taking place
in the CCM from the Benemerito Church High School it used to be. But
when Jefferey R Holland Dedicated the CCM as the Mexico MTC, he said
that this property served its purpose as a High School for the Church,
but that from the beginning, it was meant to be an MTC. Pretty cool
words coming from a prophet. And you can definitely feel the spirit that
is in this place. My district included 10 elders, all 18 year olds, all
serving in the states, all learning Spanish. We stay in a house in the
very corner of the campus.
There is seriously no spare time here, and I love it.
We are ALWAYS busy, and every hour of the day is full of studying,
eating, studying, gym time, studying, eating, studying, studying,
studying. Oh and a devotional once or twice a week! But I have truly
learned so much already, both in Spanish and the Gospel. Anna, yes, I
definitely feel like as a missionary it is easier for me to study; the
learning curve has greatly steepened. To be honest, I never really
ACTUALLY studied before my mission started. I read. And reading is good,
its great! Do it everyday! But studying truly opens the windows of
heaven, and when you begin your study with sincere prayer, you show
Heavenly Father that you have a desire to know. He will always dump
knowledge into your mind if you do this diligently, because this has
been the case for me this past week. There are so many things I wish I
could share!
A major part of our study has been preparing for
lessons. The second or third day here we taught our first lesson - in
Spanish! It was a role play, but the people we teach are trained to act
just as investigators would, and I was suprised at how real it felt! I
was also suprised when our investigator, ¨´Manuel´¨, did not laugh
hysterically at me when I began to slaughter the message of the
Restoration in Spanish. :P However, I´ve learned that the gift of
tongues kicks in when one applies faith and diligent study. I have not
been given a sudden ability to speak fluent Spanish while in a lesson,
but rather, the Spirit helps you to remember what you DO know, and I can
tell you that I have felt the Spirit testify of the truth in every
single one of our lessons, despite the fact that we most likely sound
like 5 year olds. Anyways, it has been a super eye opening thing for me
to teach these lessons.
My companion is Elder Goehring from South Jordan Utah. He is a very
sincere, spiritually minded, generous, and kind missionary. I have
already learned a lot from him, although we have quite a few
differences. I was pretty prideful and annoyed at first about this, I´ll
be honest. But I´m learning that it just doesnt matter, because God
loves all of his children, and I´m here to learn to love them all too.
Last night the Area President of our area, a member of
the 1st Quorum of the 70, President Daniel Johnson have a devotional to
the CCM. It was one of the most powerful talks I have ever heard, and it
left me feeling like I had a lot to work on. But it was crazy
inspiring! A few of the things he said were that we are not here just to
get baptism, but we are literally here to save souls. It isn´t our
mission, it is the Lord´s mission that we are on. He said that we cannot
expect the people we teach to pray to know the truth, to know that God
exists, hears our prayers, and loves each of us, if we do not already
know this ourselves. We will not teach with the power of the Holy Ghost
if we dont have a personal testimony. Our conversion includes
¨¨continually holding fast to the rod´¨ of the Word of God as we are
using the Christ´s Atonement every day to improve ourselves. A testimony
alone, in the long run, will not be enough. If we are not becoming
Converted to the Lord, Changing our will into his as we servce him, we
cannot be effective missionaries.
Sorry, That is a lot of things he said, meshed with a few major
things I have learned this week. But I know that these things are true
through the power of the Holy Ghost. Today I was able to go with my
district to the Mexico City Temple, and the entire ceremony was in
Spanish, but I could still feel the power of the sacred covenants we
make in the House of the Lord. I felt so much peace there. Everytime I
question why I am here, I remember that the Lord´s work is ¨to bring to
pass the immortality and Eternal Life¨ of all of us. I know that I am on
the Lord´s mission, and there is no place I would rather be!
I love all of you! Your support and prayers really do inspire me,
and I am so blessed to have each of you in my life. I´m glad to hear all
is going well at home! I didn´t realize our house would be turning into
a wedding workshop so soon...but I´m so happy for you Cara and Jeff! ;)
You are all in my prayers, and I look forward to hearing from you next Wednesday!
Sincerely,
Elder Christensen
P.S. I hope these pictures attached!
The elders in my room are, from the left, Elder Yankura, Elder Gerhart, and Elder Goehring.
And yes, that is a random dog contemplating jumping of a roof in Mexico City.
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