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