Paul's Mission Blog: a much needed p-day

23 emails. That´s how many I got in the first week. keep it up!

Ok so there is so much to say in so little time so imgoing to write in catigories.

Mexico

Mexico city is giant. Like really really big. hopfully I can send pictures that i took on the flight in because it is mind blowing. When I first got off the plane it felt like I was breathing in ash because of the smog but I don´t notice it anymore. The weather is pretty hot but bareable. The skies are clear all day until 7 a clock it goes from clear to thunderstrom and rain and wind in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes. Then it only lasts for at most 30 mintues and it becomes clear again. It does that every day at the same time give or take 30 minutes. we have to plan our schedule around it so we can stay inside for that 30 minutes of crazy storm. I love it. Mexico is also really loud. there is always traffic and everybody honks always. Literely. And horns here arent just a honking noise, they are little 3-5 note jingles. Kind of like our washing machine when it finishes. there are also really loud dogs all night. and all car engines sound like a fork in a garabage disposal. Mexico also has very unique sounding birds.

The CCM (MTC)

When we arrived at the CCM it was like coming into a little oasis from the city. It´s sort of like hawaii in here. The food is really good and authentic. especially the amazing fruit juices they have. oh man, juice will never be the same. With every meal they have tortillas, beans and rice which by themselves are really good. The breakfast on the other hand are terrible. everyday we have waffles or pancakes, which would be fine however they only have chocolate syrup for topping. Which gets really old really fast. They also have really inappripriate uses for fruit. Like a pineaple and guava sauce on chicken corn on blue (I know that isn´t how you spell it) But other than that the food is amazing. Oh, and tons of guavas. There are a lot of people here. My group made it 600 people. by next week we will reach 800. Although the campus is giant so that isn´t really a problem. I thought the CCM was going to be a lot more americanized but that is not the case. There are very few people here that speak english, other than missionaries, which makes it difficult if you need something from the office. We all sleep in houses here and they are actually pretty nice. Each companionship has their own shower and double bathroom. aswell as their own bedroom. And it´s not a race thing, but all the employees are good at yard work so the campus is always really upkept.

My District

There are 11 of us, 8 elders and 3 hermanas. 4 out of 8 of the elders went to school on a sports scholorship and the other 3 just play college sports. So you can guess what the topic of conversation is most of the time. Oh, and one of the elders is apperently famous. People are always taking pictures of/with him and awkwardly coming up to talk to him and everywhere you go you hear wispers of "look thats elder mangum" it´s kind of funny. Luckily, everybody in my district is pretty socially equipt. My comp is also really funny.

Me and stuff

So people told me that the MTC was hard but I didn´t expect this. The first couple of days litteraly felt like a couple weeks. They were the longest days I have every experienced. Everything is completely in spanish from day one. By day three, right after we learned how to pray in spanish, we had to teach a 30 minute lesson about the restoration of the gospel to an investigator that doesn´t speak english. He was actually a member but it is still pretty difficult. And since then, we have to teach one lesson a day. My spanish is getting a lot better though. It is already difficult to write this email in english. Oh man, 10 minutes left. I got that package! It was super unexpected and awesome! it´s funny that you put peanut butter in there because they dont have peanut butter in south america and I was really craving it. My schedule is as follows. Wake up at 6:30 and be in the classroom at 7, which is like a 10 minute walk away. then personal study until breakfast at 8. then we are in different spanish and gospel classes until 11:40 when we have gym time until 1:00 lunch. then we do personal spanish study and for an hour or so then we teach an investigator then after the lesson it all depends on the day. There are usualy big meetings with multiple Ramas, which I don´t know what english equivilant of Rama is but I think it means branch. Ok times up. I might be able to email again later today if im sneaky. Love you all and thanks for all the support!