Thursday, July 24, 2014

Corson MTC P-Day #2

ok so sorry i am so late. we went to the mexico city consulate today and got our visas for the 2 year residency done. im officially a mexico resident now. it was pretty awesome to get out of the ccm and actually see whats on the outside of the walls and to be honest im pretty lucky to be inside um ;) i got pictures btw. i will try to get more of me in them for next email. we had to wake up at 5 this morning and get on the bus at 630 then we all had to wait for a triple companionship of elders who "forgot to set their alarms" for another hour. we finally got there at around 9ish and took our identity pics and did paperwork, the line was really long in front of it so our chapperone told us to start doing some street contacting.. it was so unlike me! picture this; me <hardly> knowing any spanish except for church words with my comp. walking up to random people and trying to start a conversation.. we could barely get passed "de donde es?" when it came to the small talk lol. we did talk to a security guard who was pretty cool and one set of hermanas in our zone actually managed to give away a book of mormon. although im sure the guy just took it cus he was young and thought they were pretty considering they barely knew any spanish like the rest of us. pretty cool tho. we are supposed to go to the mexico city temple visitors center next pday (temple is closed until sometime in 2015). it should be a blast.
as for the rest of my week, it practically rains every afternoon and pretty hard at that.. its common to see flooding because the streets are poorly designed. it actually even hailed twice this last week. the first time after pday, while we were doing a service project (cleaning 100´s of plastic chairs), so we got to finsih early and have more gym time which was sweet. that rainstorm actually caused our power to go out for the rest of that day and half the next one. we were one of the 3 casas out of the 50 here. just our luck, so im glad we got that flashlight packed cus i used mine to write in my journal and everything else at night. thanks mom. <his mother made him take one! just in case and he tried to refuse.> our district also took all of our beds out from our rooms and put um in the dining room to have a slumber party that night ye ha. come to find out. thats against the rules so it was probably our last one but it was still cool. the next morning we walked outside and there was a moth on our screen the size of a hand (not kidding). we have had pizza and chicken sandwiches that have been my favorite meals so far of course. i put ranch, hot sauce, cheese, and lettuce on my sandwich just like mcdonalds haha. i met another redheaded elder who came in the week after me whos in my branch and his middle name is dale and his last name is anderson. hes alot bigger then me tho. i also met pres. hinton's <stake president in az> cousin who is also in my branch. turns out pres. hinton was gone visiting him when we got set apart so thats why he wasnt with us. small world. ive branched out and played some tennis and ultimate frisbee for gym. one of the days we were outside, a small plane came circling over our little campus blaring with a radio voice talking about how it was our last chance to buy tickets for the upcoming concert (i dont think they realized we were missionaries)
the catholics have been celebrating for something not sure what but they shoot off fireworks randomly through the day and into the night. it has finally calmed down these last couple of days but for like 10 days straight u hear big booms every hour or so and they show how much faith they have by a bigger boom so it gets reallly really loud. my best accopmlishment for this week was sewing on my buttons to my suit. i read a quick how to for missionaries on it (complements of elder smith) and did um in like 5 minutes. pretty great if u ask me.. 
spanish is gettin tougher but im definitely still progressing. i decided to memorize the first vision instead of d&c 4 this last week but these next 2 weeks i am going to work on d&c 4. i felt super stressed for the first time yesterday when another class who has been here for 5 weeks came in and companionships taught each other for TRC. i dont know if i didnt prepare enough or if it was my first time teaching the restoration in espanol or if it was the loud noise of 30 missionaries teaching lessons in one classroom but that was the worst lesson i taught yet and could not feel the spirit at all. so it got me worryin for the next hour or so <until> i realized that im not supposed to know it all and its good to have failure and most of all, i had pday to look forward to the next day lol. im good to go now mom so don't worry.
aside from the learning espanol part in the ccm, ive decided i don't really like it much. too many other missionaries. sometimes i feel like im at some scout camp or high school again but its all good. i know that i need to learn spanish so im ok with being here for a couple more weeks. the schedule for me is exactly like kylee's and my new night classes teacher was the person we taught last week. i think we are supposed to teach a real investigator this wednesday tho so that will be interesting. i love going to devotionals on tuesdays and sunday nights. the speakers are so awesome. they are mostly from the areas of quorum of the seventies <general authorities>. they have great insight such as "things that we persist on doing, become easier to do," devotionals are my favorite times of the week besides bed time and pday ;) i also got a dearelder 8 days after you guys sent it and it had writing from you robin and kim on it. its the best feeling in the world to get mail so please keep sending ;) 
overall, this experience has taken me way the heck past my comfort zone, farther than i thought i could possibly go and i know it will only take me farther and farther. im blessed to have it like this! i love you all, family and hope you guys have a great week! xoxoxo

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Corson MTC P-Day #1

buenos diss familia,
i only have one hour and the keyboards are differnet here so my grammar will be terrible.. so here goes my first week.. i got on the plane and sat next to a 20 yr old hermana who was going to the ccm (MTC) as well. she is going to serve in new york city, spanish speaking. it was very cool to meet her cus she reminded me of kylee so much so it was kinda like having my sister next to me on the way to mexico, we talked like the whole time. once arrived, we had to do all of the new missionary things like unpacking and getting organized and a ton of new missionary standards devotionals and meetings the first couple days. but the first night we had a get to know you with the rest of the elders in my district. come to find out, elder king (from home ward in AZ) is in my district, my house, and his room is literally right next to mine, pretty awesome to have him here with me. our district has 12 people in it including 2 hermanas. half of us are going to my mission and the other half are going to other parts in mexico. oh and elder greene who was elder kings companion is still his companion and in the same house as us as well. we have a pretty great district. my companion, elder garret is great too. very energetic and ready to work. btw elder garret and i got called to be district leaders so he was the first 3 weeks and i have the 2nd 3 weeks in the ccm. (Another Elder) is also in our district. he actually has been having a ton of trouble with homesickness and has actually went to the ccm (doctor) and been missing a lot of classes because of it which is no bueno but he is a very smart kid and is pretty cool. very reserved. i have been getting to know him better and trying to help him out as much as i can because it helps me with the homesickness as well ... i feel pretty bad for him. we gave him a blessing of comfort a couple days ago and so far its been helping a lot. he is a pretty awesome kid and his companion, elder healey is too. elder healey is from utah and knows spanish the most of us and its crazy how it worked out ... elder healey has been helping (us) out alot! so far heres what i learned the first week in terms of spanish.. the spanish alphabet. how to pray in spanish, testimony in spanish, and missionary purpose in spanish, i have learned more in this first week then i have in my 2 years of high school spanish classes,, amazing what the gift of tongues can do! also, my companion and i had to teach our first "investigator" on the third day for a half hour and she didnt know any english. we taught here about the espiritu santo (holy spirit) and we felt its presence so strongly. we have been teaching her every weekday since teaching everything from eternal families to the baptism commitment we asked her last night. she wasnt sure yet so we asked her to read some scriptures and we are following up with her tonight (during) the last lesson with her. shes obviousily a fake investigator and we are pretty sure she is gonna teach us this week and next on what we did wrong and right so thats awesome. the feeling i got when i taught here was incredible. i feel like you are invincible when she understands your spanish! i am going to try to memorize d&c 4 before next pday which is thursday for me. it will be every thursday and this will be around the time i email too, the food is good most days. picture school cafeteria food but just turned mexican. lots of taquitoes, nachos, tacos, and a lot of other stuff i have no idea what to call. for example, yesterday we had mashed potato sandwiches for the main course. literally 2 pieces of bread with mashed potatoes in the middle lol. i added some hot sauce and it was great! i have eaten hot sauce with like every meal and my stomach has been great so far... fingers crossed. also their cereal here is amazing! its soo sweet and tastes so much better than at home, muy bueno. everyday we get like an hour to work out or play sports and i played soccer the first day with a couple buddies from our house, and the rest of the days ive been ownin it on the volleyball court lol no but actually these last 2 days the players have been so bad that i just had to leave. serve, hit miss, serve hit miss, 20 minutes straight.. i am still terrible at basketball so ive been stayin away from that.. i am still holdin true to my word about being frugal! we get 100 pesos a week and i spent my 100 on a hymn book and laundry soap. i have bought nothing else. overall i am super happy to be here and to be honest have been trying to lose myself in the work. the one time I cried just a little was when a group of missionaries got up in sacrament meeting to sing moms song to teagy in spanish acapella. that was it though. i havent had any "oh my goodness moments" yet dad so keeping my fingers crossed they wont come so soon. i am truly happy to be hear and am excited to continue Padre Celestials work! I love you guys so much and hope you are all doing well!
--- your missionary, Elder Anderson ;)

Saturday, July 12, 2014

New Website - Elder Anderson

Check out the website for our Mexico missionary! It is a great way to stay connected with him. You can also write him a letter and have it sent directly to him - NO COST!!! It is so easy to do and it will be delivered to him approximately a week later. It is done electronically and without going to the post office or worrying about stamps and envelopes. He will receive an actual letter addressed to him.

Give it a try! Missionaries love receiving mail!

http://www.dearelder.com/ElderCDAnderson

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Email Address

Our missionary would love email messages if any feel like dropping him a line! We are managing both of our missionaries blogs so neither Corson or Kylee will be responding at their respective blog. In addition, they will each have a very limited time to email once per week, so their email responses might be brief, but please send them a note from time to time.  Again, here is Corson's address and Kylee's is on her blog also.

corson.anderson@myldsmail.net

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Day 1 - Safe Arrival

Hey mom dad and family,
I arrived to Mexico City MTC about an hour and a half ago. just got back from dinner. we had some type of chicken soup and bread, corn, and some other sides as well as a whole variety of juices to choose from. they arent labeled for english so i had to guess what looked good. i got the jamica juice and it tasted terrible but its all good haha. im excited to be past the travel and goodbyes and ready to learn some spanish. some other elders were saying how you sit in class for 10 to 12 hours a day just learning. that will be interesting. anyways, i sat next to a sister missionary on the airplane that reminded a lot of kylee. that was cool. ... i actually haven't found ... <my companion> ... yet but i guess i will once we get to our rooms to go to sleep. thats when most companions find each other anyways. it feels like im still living in my dream so im nervous to see what happens when reality hits. mexico city is crazy. its like the area by dads work, but all over. our mtc campus has huge walls with barbed wire fences around the perimeter. its pretty cool to see how people live. there are houses all the way up the mountain sides like brazil. and people drive crazy aggresive here too. im glad i wont be driving. i feel like we almost got hit like 4 times on the way from the airport. overall its been great so far so no need to worry. i love you guys!