Hola from Mexico...Week 2!

MAMA! and friends and family!

This week seriously flew by so stinking fast! I'm not really sure if I like that or not... but anyway, lots to report!

First of all, I wanted to describe a typical Sunday here in the CCM but I totally forgot to last time! It honestly doesn't really feel any different than any other day around here. We wake up and get ready just like any other morning, and we have an early morning leadership meeting that we have to attend. Then we have relief society and priesthood, mixed in with lots of study time, followed by a make shift Sunday school in our classroom (pretty much a discussion between the 7 of us) and finally we get to sacrament meeting. Before each Sunday we have to prepare a 5 minute talk, and during the meeting the branch presidency chooses 6 people at random to give the talks they have prepared. I was not chosen on the first Sunday, but I was chosen on the second Sunday to give a talk on diligence. For the rest of the day, we have three things, study time, devotionals, and a video! The videos are so awesome, because it is always a very uplifting church movie, but it is super nice to be able to watch a movie actually! (you know how much I love watching movies!!) So basically it doesn't feel super different, because we are still studying just like every day, and the meetings that we have just take the place of the time we would spend in class.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that Elder Campbell and I were asked to be Zone leaders for our branch. And since Elder Gates is the district leader, we all kind of have all of the responsibilities in a way, because we always have to be with each other! haha. The callings have not been super difficult yet, so it has not really added much to the enormous amount of things that we have to do to prepare for the field.

This last Sunday, we were also chosen to be the district that conducted sacrament meeting for the comedor (cafeteria) staff! Elder Gates had the opportunity to conduct his first sacrament meeting ever and it happened to be in Spanish! It was a very simple meeting with just the sacrament, and two small spiritual thoughts, but it was a pretty neat experience!

Learning Spanish is definitely a task, but I am totally willing to take it head on! I have moments where my confidence is boosted about how much Spanish I know, and I have other moments were I am humbled greatly and feel like I need to lock myself in my room and study the entire 6 weeks in order to even be slightly proficient. But realistically I am progressing a lot and it is totally becoming easier and easier every day! I love learning the language, but it can be frustrating at times! When we come upon simple topics that are just difficult for me, such as determining between ser and estar or por y para, it can be very discouraging! But I'm pushing through! 

We had our first service activity on Wednesday and it was actually quite humorous! We got there and Elder Gates, Campbell and I were tasked with wiping down the walls of the comedor with water. Then they take the hermanas into the bathrooms and have them actually do the dirty work (literally; girls and guys bathrooms...) Our job was really quite pointless, so I really felt bad that the hermanas got stuck with the dirty work...

We finished teaching our first investigator, Hugo, and his progress was super amazing! But now we have the pleasure of teaching two investigators every day (both named Daniel)! It is much more difficult, because we are limited to 20 minute lessons so we really have to cut out all of the foam and get to the point on everything. In fact, on our first lesson with one of the investigators, the hermanas taught before us and they took so long that we ended up only having 5 minutes with this investigator (Daniel Montez), so we had to teach a porch lesson really quickly, but we ended up doing rather well for that unexpected obstacle in our lesson. 

We had our first two letters in the mail last week for our district (we all share a mailbox)! Before we opened it, we all guessed who they were for, and because other people were expecting letters, I didn't think any would be for me, but we looked to see and what do you know...they were both for me! Everyone in the district was not happy with that. Not to mention the third one that we got today was also for me... so, so far I'm the only one that has gotten physical mail!! haha I love it, but my district? well lets just say they don't.

I just want to add as kind of a morbid statement that I had my first case of the squirts last week... yes only 2 weeks gone and I'm already having problems.... this is going to be an eventful two years. Luckily I wasn't sick with anything else though, I guess there is a bright side to everything.

Love 

Elder Moser

PS we had french toast for breakfast one day. Let me just say AMAZING!! And also one night we had chicken bake, literally from Costco itself! Some days they love to surprise us at the comedor!

Hola from Mexico!

Hola!

Wow what an experience it has been here in the CCM (Spanish for MTC) so far! They gave us somewhat of a little teaser on the day we arrived, because there was really nothing to do so we had all night to just hang out and unpack and get settled in our rooms and stuff. As I mentioned, Elder Gates is one of my companions and that is pretty cool how we were pretty good friends back at BYU. Elder Campbell is also great! He was at BYU as well last year but he lived in Wyview so I didn't know him. He is from Alabama, and he is also going to be serving in Nicaragua with me. I had the hardest time falling asleep the first night, because my mind was so jam packed and I had so many concerns and curiosities about how I would do learning the language, and how I would compare to the others in my classes, but after what I would guess was over an hour, I finally fell asleep.

Every day has been so busy, and sometimes I feel like the transition time between classes and meetings is not nearly enough, but we do the best we can to be early to all of the meetings like they request here at the CCM.

The rooms are pretty small here, but we got really lucky. Because we have a companionship of three people, we only have three people in our room. The rooms sleep four, and there are four tiny closets to put all of our stuff in. Luckily, only having three people, we have an extra bed to put all of our stuff on. Only having a half hour in the morning to get ready is pretty tough considering we only have one shower between the three of us, but again if we had four it would be a lot harder.

The food has been surprisingly good! I haven't gotten sick... yet and I hope that I wont get sick. haha Every meal is Mexican food though, and I don't think I have ever had beef tacos for breakfast, so that is something new! Basically every meal has required the use of tortillas, including breakfast, which kind of gives you an idea of all of the things we eat!

The classes have been so great! We definitely landed the best teacher at the CCM. Hermano Silva and Hermano Contreras are so great! Hermano Silva is so outgoing and he is so easy to get along with as students, but he is also a very effective teacher! Aside from class time though, we have hours of study time every day for the language. It is seriously unreal how much I have already learned in just 6 days! I am in no means anywhere close to being fluent yet, but there is definitely hope for me yet! I am so excited to be able to know Spanish well, because then I will be able to say what I want to say in my lessons without worrying if I actually know how to say it!

We have had three lessons now with our investigator, Hugo. Our first lesson was decent, but because of our limited abilities in Spanish, I was honestly a little disappointed about my abilities. But when the second lesson came around, it was such a good experience. We were able to correct a few of our mistakes from the first lesson. I also was able to contribute to so much of the lesson, but I don't even know how I did it half of the time! I know that the spirit was there helping me remember the words in Spanish that I wanted to say to Hugo. He has so much interest in the church and he loves reading the book of Mormon. Elder Gates shared the story of Aaron and King Lamoni in Alma 22 with him and he absolutely loved it! He was able to relate to king Lamoni so well! He accepted our invitation to be baptized as well! In the third lesson, we taught about the entire restoration to explain to him the importance of the Book of Mormon and the truth that it contains. I was able to share with him that if he prays to God, asking if the Book of Mormon is true, he will be able to receive an answer. He gave a beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson and the spirit was so strong! 

So about the watch, I guess I don't really remember where I left it, but I though it was just somewhere in my room. Anyway it was a sad to pass on the Cars 2 watch, but luckily there is no need to worry. We finally had time to go to the store here at the CCM today and they have watches!! woohoo! It is a great day here in Mexico City knowing that! Unfortunately, because of the mix up with which MTC I would be going to, my money card won't work until tomorrow, so they gave me 100 pesos for the first week, but all of the watches cost 160 pesos, so I can't buy a watch until tomorrow. But on the bright side I was able to buy a Spanish hymnal, so now I will know all of the words to the songs when we sing them!

I love all of you so much and miss you!

Love,

Elder Moser

My District

I Have Arrived

¡Hola!

I have arrived at the Mexico MTC safe and sound!

Sorry I didn't call you guys at any of the airports. I arrived and at my next terminal in Arizona, and at the sight of Elder Gates (I always forget that it is elder now) I was just to excited and forgot to get around to doing that.

It has been somewhat inconvenient traveling without any way to tell time, seeing as how I forgot to bring my watch. You would be amazed at the vast selection of women's watches located at the Sacramento airport. I almost broke down in Arizona and bought a Cars 2 themed watch, but I decided I could wait.

Aside from not knowing what time it was, the flight was great. From Arizona to Mexico, we had a total of 10 missionaries on the flight. There were 4 sisters and 6 elders. Three of the sisters are also going to the Managua north mission, as well as one of the other elders. Crazy how there were so many on just my flight that will be going to the same mission. And I knew Elder Gates and one of the sisters from school as well! 

Upon arriving at the MTC, I finally got my name badge making the whole thing feel all official and what not. I also found out that one of my companions here (I am in a three-some) is Elder Gates. That was totally cool to find out and we were so excited. My other companion will be Elder Campbell.

I will keep you updated on my adventures, but for now, know that I am safe and sound at the MTC!

Love,

Elder Moser

My companions Elder Campbell and Elder Gates