Hey everyone! The weeks are really long here but for some reason i wrote december 13th in my journal 3 times so i dont know what day it is or how long i have been here. that is probably a good thing, since the mtc is getting to the point where it is super super slow. i do the same thing all day every day, in the same seat of the same classroom of the same schedule. the only difference is what color of tie i wear, and i dont really notice that. it is alright though, i know that the mission doesnt have a huge amount of variety. its just getting tiresome. it also makes almost anything funny since i so bored that i can be entertained by literally anything. even dust bunnies on the ground of our floor. im to the point now where i cant remember if i have told my district a story or not and i think i have told everyone the same 6 stories like 10 times. they are good sports in my district and really fun people. in our casa, there are 5 rooms. my district takes 3, another room is with elder martindale, the bicep grabber (who has begun also making pidgeon noises. hilarious), and the last was with some latinos who speak so fast i am pretty sure they arent speaking spanish.... every night we have been singing songs with them, once in english and once in spanish. they are great guys even though i dont understand what they are ever saying. it has been getting pretty cold down here, overcast and maybe 60 degrees. i need a blanket when i go to bed and everything! my sweaters and coats are always on, it is always chilly here. but i am extremely grateful to not be in utah right now!! i have been playing a lot of volleyball since i arrived, you get a super specific, like, 48 and a half minutes of gym time a day, and we play vball. i attempted soccer and gave up instantly against those latinos, i swear they were born with a soccer ball in their hands (or feet). it will be a long 2 years if i have to play soccer with latinos every p day. the food at the cafeteria is... delightful. basically, every missionary who goes to mexico has bowel problems, and now i understand why. because the food here is.... less than mediocre. they serve things like chopped up hot dogs, half cooked fish, TONS of beans, powdered eggs (and then use the left over eggs to make a 'dessert'), chicken that every single person, even latinos, avoid, and other various animal slabs of meat that have like, arteries and stuff poking out. lots of bones too. its great, they have a wide selection of salad items here too. the list is; lettuce, ranch. they do, always, however have unripened pineapple or seeded grapes. the food here is so weird and i would kill for a nice meal from mcdonalds right now more than anything. dont take the safe american food you have for granted!! this week we began trc, which is basically where real people who are members come inside the ccm and we act like they are real investigators. i almost peed myself i was so scared but when i got in there i realized my spanish has progressed so much that i can understand the members when they speak, and they speak almost as fast as the latinos in our casa. it is fun to see people besides my teacher and district members, to see fresh face and hear a fresh story. it is pretty easy, but at the same time kind of hard since they arent real investigators so you dont really teach them the same. other than that, i am getting along really well with my district, id say. my companion is a farmer who never had a phone but thankfullly he has seen nacho libre and napoleon dynamite, so we bond over movie quotes as he demonstrates, with sounds, what each of his tractors back home are like. what a unique and awesome guy. also, i saw elder max pullman, an old friend of mine from springville in the mtc!! he looks great and always makes me laugh. i am glad he is here with me. . there are 4 of us, who share a room, and we are all going to the city south mission together! it is awesome to know that the guys who i have become such close friends with will be coming with me on jan 2 when i depart from the spirit prison and out into the new world.... you make be asking why i said this is spirit prison. the compound is a large, compound where everyone wears the same thing, we are easily identified, the food is terrible, we never leave, there are tons of rules, the level of protection here includes armed guards at the gate (not with machine guns or bazookas, just small handguns, but the point still stands), and there is barbed wire fencing around the entire compound...facing in. which means it is designed to keep us in! but it is a beautiful place with tons of trees and cool flowers and stuff. they spend more money on the landscaping than they do on the food. overall, i give this place a 3/5 stars since my teachers are freaking awesome, they make the long days better. okay i dont know if it is just this wave of missionaries but i am by far the youngest kid here. most missionaries are 20 and my district leader is 23. i am so so young compared to everyone else! here, we have started using english phrases in spanish that dont translate really well. Santa Vaca, traegarlo, and other phrases, (holy cow and bring it). mexicans are a very literal people with no such phrases and use the same 50 words. good, well, happy, fun, excited, content, okay, so so, and more all mean 'bien' here, and the only exclamation they have is 'wow'. and they dont have sarcasm here, dont say anything sarcastic in spanish. i learned that the hard way. the days are long, the weeks are long, the months are even longer (i havent even been out a month) but that is okay because i am serving the lord my god! i do miss my old lifestyle and family and friends and work though. but i know i am absolutley in the exact right place i should be. it has been a great time, even though i say the days repeat. my favorite thing to do is read the scriptures, because they testify that there is a christ, yea even the planets in orbit are a sign of a christ. it teaches you more than any other university or professor or book can teach you. it saves your soul and brings happiness to your life. read the introduction of the book of mormon. i testify that it is true and that the words spoken in those lines are spoken by god. and that he means them. i love you guys, and i am so so so grateful for the support i have! (if you want to email me but want it to get to me the same day, go to mtcmexicocarepackage and use the free letter option for same day mtc mail delivery!)​​​