6 - Headed to Panama!

Mom! I got all my flight info! I leave from Mexico City at 6:50 tomorrow morning and I arrive at Panama at 11 o clock. I am pretty excited to get there! I feel so ready, but so unprepared at the same time! I'll send you some pictures from this week in a little bit. 

Haha. I hope you are enjoying all your time on the beach. 

This is my district with our branch president and one of his councelors. I don't know how to spell that anymore. I just hope I can buy some McDonald's in Panama. I almost have all my stuff packed, but I have to leave the CCM at 2:30 in the morning, so we will see how well it goes. 

Tell dad I love him, text Marcus and tell him to stop whining because he never emailed me back, and tell Booga that I love her. And just so you know, that girl making a funny face isn't really weird, she was eating a sucker or something. 

I love you!

5 - Last Week in the CCM

 

This week has been better. I had to go to the hospital\clinic to get some x rays of my thumb but they just said there is a little chip missing out of it. I actually got to teach the guy taking my x ray for a bit with my companion Elder Feeney. It was actually really fun. 

 

I am so ready to get to Panama. I know its going to be hard to motivate myself, but I can do it. I keep reading my blessing over and over just trying to remind myself that if I do everything I can, I'll get a hot wife someday! 

 

I love that picture! It is exactly what I pictured myself like as the middle child at one point! But now Brooke likes me more than Marcus so I think it will be okay ;) Brooke is gettin' a little wild out on the field! But at least she is getting aggressive. 

 

We had a final Spanish speaking test yesterday and I felt like I did pretty good. It's still hard and I have to pay attention all the time, but I feel like I am doing a lot better. 

 

Yes, I got the doughnuts you delivered and they were the most fantastic gift I have ever gotten! I was like the cookie monster with those bad boys! Thanks!

 

I'm sorry I don't send you much in my emails. You know I am a man of few words as it is! 

 

What I don't get is why is Marcus testing cars, he already has his own brand new car. It's not like he can just trade it in and grab a different one. I learned that from uncle Ken! 

 

Grandpa's wedding is actually really soon, it's too bad I'm going to miss it! I'm glad you guys got to go see Grandma Pearl.

 

I'm not surprised about the Jazz.

 

Yes I got to see all sessions of conference, in a suit, in a hot stuffy room but it was all in English. I actually wrote notes this time! It was weird how much easier it is to pay attention when you have nothing else to do! For some reason I'm not surprised Brooke made cookies during conference! 

 

By the way, one of my ties got blood on it and it wasn't a washable tie. I used some shout and some hot water and it got the stain out and it didn't wrinkle! I felt like such a boss! 

 

I'm glad things are good. I miss you. I am so ready to go out into the field and actually start teaching real investigators! Tell everyone I love them and miss them. Have fun on your trips and I'll send you some pictures in a minute. I might be able to e mail when I get to Panama next week.

3 - Half Way Done with the CCM!

This week has been going a lot better. I didn't have anything stolen! The money was in the bottom of my backpack and they had to search for it. I haven't gotten any cash, but they gave me a card to use for now.

I'm pretty happy. I'm over the home sickness now, like I tell myself I'll be gone for two years and I don't even think twice. It's a lot of work being the district leader. I pray about the other missionaries and spend most of my time thinking about what would be best for them. It seems like time is the one thing I don't have a lot of right now. I don't really have much time to take pictures here because even on P day we are super super busy. We have laundry and emails and naps and sports and a ton of things. But I have been writing in my journal every night. It's hard some nights but it's kind of fun. Learning is hard, but it's actually easier than it was in high school. But it's still super tough. 

We have learned how things work around here, and being half way done, we know the tricks. We found this secret computer lab, but it's always locked so it's hard to get in. But it's so much cooler than any of the other ones! 

I got a new scripture case. It has Jesus on it and I put Alma 26:5 on the back, it's pretty cool. I really like that scripture for some reason. I'll send you a picture in a bit. It's actually really cool looking.

But thank you for that picture, mom! That is the funniest thing I've seen in the last 3 weeks. 

Easter is only a few days after I get into the field so that's a little crazy. 

I have been getting into these things called tazos, they are little cardboard circles with pictures on them. You get them out of chip bags and it's kind of fun to play with them. 

There is still a million things going on here, I'm still not used to having every minute of every day planned out. It's really tough for me. I have tried to just let things go how they are going to go. I'm  trying to do the best I can, but I can only handle sitting in a class for so long before I start losing my mind, it's not much fun. Our teaching is going better. We do a thing called TRC where we get a random investigator and we teach them things from preach my gospel. The language is going okay I guess, but I don't know how to gauge how well I am doing. But then I think where I was even 3 weeks ago and it's amazing that I have learned more in 3 weeks than I did in 3 years of High School Spanish. 

 

I have a rash on my biceps so I'm trying to get it to go away. I want McDonalds. And I wish I could get my hands on some Mt. Dew out here. I need something to keep me going. My body is completely exhausted every single day. But I guess I just gotta get used to it. The kool aid packets were an awesome idea. It's nice to get a little bit of goodness. And in the comedor sometimes they have lemonade, it's amazing. And some days they have like pineapple and orange juice mixed, it reminds me a lot of grandmas house for some reason.

I love you. I'll talk to you soon, and I'll send you the picture in a minute.

2 - 2nd Week in the CCM!

Well, it was a pretty good week, but it was stressful beyond all belief. I started lifting weights again and that takes away a lot of the stress. Hopefully I'll be scary to all those boys trying to take Brooke on dates when I get back. Spanish is hard but I've been doing okay. We had an investigator like our first week, but we can only teach and most of the time talk in Spanish. We are already teaching full lessons in completely Spanish. It was really scary at first but now I"m kind of used to it. I feel like I'm learning, but just not as fast as I would like. Teaching in Spanish is getting a little easier, but it's still hard though.

I polished my shoes and ironed one of my shirts for the first time this week. I didn't completely destroy it so I felt good. I'm used to being called Elder now. Like hearing my name is kinda of different, watch me forget my name by the time I come home! But I can't tell one day from another, they all just kind of keep going. We wake up by 6:30, have class from 7:30 till 12. Then lunch, then class from 12:30 to about 5:00, then dinner, then class from 6 to about 9:30. So about 10 or 11 hours of pure study. The days I live for are Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.  We get pizza on Tuesdays and Thursdays are p days! Being district leader is stressful. But I have learned a lot about prayer. It feels like you pray every twenty five seconds, it's insane. But prayer has helped a lot. At first it felt weird to pray this much. But there is no possible way I could do this without prayer.

I got all my money stolen, so that kinda sucked. I still have my credit and debit cards and $20 though, so at least I have something. I filed a report and everything but it's just kind of gone. They can't do anything about it. They didn't take my camera or speaker or anything, just my cash. The reception desk said to go to the financial advisor and he will be able to give me some money. But that's about all I can do. Elder Barnes gave me a couple hundred pesos and said that I need it more than him. But we get 100 pesos every p day to use in the store. They have pretty much Chips A Hoy cookies but they call them chokis. They are like $1.15 in American so they are really cheap. 

But we made a sling shot in our casa with some exercise bands, I'll send you the video, but it was a lot of fun.We have more plans for fun stuff to do. But I'll try to send some more pictures.  

I have been writing in my journal every night. And the funny thing is we are supposed to study the scriptures but they give us so little time for anything that I've only made it to like the 18th chapter of Nephi. But one thing I want you to read is 3 Nephi 17 verse 3. It's one of my favorites so far, and I'm trying to save the weekly money and buy a scripture case and get it put on it. 

We had Elder Hoffman go to another district because he is supposed to leave earlier than us, so Elder Feeney is another one of my companions.  

But yes, I already sent the package to Hermana Hill. 

The explosions are fireworks, so don't worry too much. The CCM is in the dead center of the ghetto, like it was crazy coming in. I'll try to get some pictures from Elder Barnes and send them to you.  

I love you and I miss you. I still don't know how I got talked into doing this! Ha, just kidding. But really this is rough. I just hope it gets easier as it goes!

I love you!