Thursday, September 12, 2013

CCM - September 12, 2013

It has been pretty crazy here the last couple of days because Mexico is celebrating its Independence Day. We get a little fiesta on Saturday.

Down here they still have the old temple film and it is all in Spanish! I am getting to the point where I can understand a lot though and am now able to use decent Spanish. It helps when I talk with the natives. The thing that I miss most is listening to music. We are not allowed to listen to it here so the best we got is to sing Hymns.

Actually the food is mostly American food that the cooks make into something that we have no idea what to make of it. I have to admit though it is beginning to grow on me. Yeah, it is pretty nice in the CCM. I was talking to my teacher and he said that he attended it as a high school. What is really cool is that I am happy here all of the time. For some reason I can feel the spirit so strong. La Ciudad de Mexico is really crazy though. We go outside the CCM in order to get to the temple and the drivers are LOCO EN LA CABEZA!!! This place is a whole new world down here. There are a lot of interesting things that we get to see. I do not know if Mom would be able to handle this place. We see some pretty crazy stuff.

Haha, yeah go BYU! Hermana Thorsen in our district comes from Texas and she was horrified to hear that BYU beat Texas.  She and Hermana Warren (Mexican Heritage but doesn’t speak Spanish) are the only two out of twelve people who are not going to Houston. They are heading off to Nicaragua instead. That is pretty crazy to hear about how much rain you guys got. Here it rains for about three hours every day at 4 o’clock. Today I had a really cool experience. At the temple me and Elder Woodruff were walking in the parking lot when the guy on the bike in the picture that I sent to you said the usually, “Buenos Dias Elderes”. We said good morning back to him and then we went to go catch up to our group. Then all of the sudden he called to us saying "Thank you for saving me!" in Spanish. It was really cool to know that his life was changed and that he now is a member of the Church.

This week me and my companion had a couple of absolutely amazing lessons and my teacher Hermano Valdez said that he has been impressed with how fast we have been progressing. He says he know that it is because we are working hard and have the spirit with us because of it. I know that that is true, too. My district is awesome. Most of us are from Utah. Elder Decker who is with the DL Elder Dye is from Pleasant Grove. We have four Hermanas who are awesome and I think they are all 19. Elder Birch is Elder Strong’s companion and the other Elder who is in the same dorm. I have been having a lot fun here even though most of the time is just studying. Something cool that me and my companion are doing is building a pyramid out of Arizona cans from la tienda. We all get about 100 pesos a week, so I was able to get some nice Krapatas. We get about an hour of gym time each day where we go and play basketball, play soccer, or ultimate Frisbee. I have had some really cool experiences here and I have felt the spirit pretty much 24/7. Me, my companion, Elder Strong, and Elder Birch make on average at least one inside joke a day. Now that I have reached the half way point time is going by way fast. It seems like we have been here forever. There is a saying here that says "A week feels like a day and a day feels like a week".

Love you a ton,

Elder Ressler