Mexico MTC (CCM) - Week 1

Week 1 in Mexico MTC, Week 1 of Mission

Wow this week was nuts! Probably the busiest week of my entire life! First off, the food here is absolutely amazing . I have honestly loved almost every single meal. Its just like a cafeteria but they serve quality food. Not a lot of mexican food suprisingly, but we do have toritillas everyday and little sugar breads for dessert. Way good. But really we have had like every kind of food. For lunch today they gave us broiled fish and I made myself an amazing fish taco. Yesterday was the most unreal dinner. We had spinich salad with feta cheese, wings for the main course, on the side a warm grilled cheese on a croissant, a crazy local fruit on the side (I have no idea what it was), and horchata for a drink. It was prime, I feel like I´m at my school cafeteria but have ruths chris for food. So cool.

So this week was crazy. First day they were going at like 100% Spanish at like 100 Miles per hour. It hit me hard. Like Two days in I really started to pick it up and felt my confidence boost and then I tried to give my first lesson to my investigator and quickly realized I knew nothing. I was struggling to learn because I wanted to learn so fast, but then I realized I´m learning a new language and let me just say I´m grateful to have two years to learn it. So yeah we got a new investigator (she is a member, but its like intense role play) the third day here and me and my companion prepare every second of the day to learn enough Spanish and write a lesson to teach her. Its tough but Im starting to get the hang of it. My Companion´s name is Elder Cutler from New Mexico. He is super smart and hard working, but not super into sports. We made sort of trade that he will teach me Spanish if I show him how to play some new sports. Pretty funny but its working out well. A hard working companion who relies on the Spirit is all I could ask for. Everyday we get to get exercise. We have just been lifting weights, playing basketball, and ping pong. I miss playing ping pong at home because not many people here are my level. Either higher or lower, but no big deal.  (Thanks to Jason Barth!)

Everyday we study, and then study, and then teach, and then study. Its actually pretty nice though and I wish I had more time to study! I honestly feel like I could use 4 extra hours a day to study and learn and prepare for the lessons. The study is completely focused on teaching the investigator which is cool but we still have occasional time to study for ourselves. Everyday is basically like this with all focus on learning Spanish and teaching the investigator. We do also spend like two hours a day learning the lesson and learning how to teach people. It is a lot of work! Way more than what I was doing in high school. But its different because the Spirit is always with us to teach us and help us do things that seem close to impossible. But trusting that I have been called of God and that the Spirit will help me, things are starting to work out and the worrying and stresses of teaching are going away. Its so relaxing to feel the Spirit a lot. I have been doing my best to have it with me every hour of the day. It really is the only way I will learn Spanish and be able to truly invite others to come to Christ.

Sundays are definitely the best days because for once in the week we can just sit back and listen. We had sacrament meeting, classes, and we watched a prerecorded MTC talk by Elder Holland. It was so good! One of these days they will be able to stream one live from Provo MTC. Sunday night we watched a movie! Yes a real movie. It was called Legacy. It was a pioneer movie but super old so it was hilarious. There is one part in it where its like 20 minutes of a love story but kind of bad acting so we were all laughing so hard. I honestly thought they were going to turn it off because we were laughing so much. It was pretty funny. It was nice because it was the first time where things really started to sink in. I think yesterday (Monday) was the first real day where I got the hang of everything here. The schedule is dialed in and so is how to study and learn. Its feeling good. Also my other roomates Elder Prach and Elder Shiffler are absolutely hilarious. One is more serious and the other is always just laughing. Its super nice because my companion and I dont really laugh much together but everying morning and night when we are with them it is hilarious. And they arent just like goofy people, they are legit and super hardworking. But they just like to laugh, which I couldn´t ask for anything better. It really helped me make the transition here . Thanks for the prayers!

Wow there is a lot more I could say and I will include a lot more next week. My Prep days are tuesdays. So check for emails then, also I will grab you the correct place to send mail. I hope all is well at home! Chloe gets home soon to be with Sam. And in 5 weeks I will be 20 minutes from Alexis! So cool. Let me know how everything is.

Elder Sumsion

Elder Cutler from New Mexico and Elder Sumsion

On the bus from the airport

Buses from the airport to CCM

Day minus 1 Mexico MTC

July 23, 2013 Day -1

First day has been crazy. A lot of rushing around when we need to and a lot of waiting when we need to. It has been awesome though. We hopped on the plane to Dallas with about 30 other missionaries. Saw Kip right off the bat at the SLC terminal and got to talk to him. Sat with an elder who just chopped off all his hair. He said it used to be to his shoulders!

In Dallas, 6 of us including Kip and Elder Packer went and ate at einsteins bagel at the airport and went back to the terminal where we met our group and an additional 10 missionaries or so. I sat by Elder Packer on the next flight to Mexico City. We just talked for about an hour about high school and everything else. He is a really neat guy, super humble and sincere. He was fun to talk to. Flying in over Mexico City was unreal. From both sides of the plane we could see houses and buildings extending as far as our eyes could see. At the airport in Mexico we went through customs in about an hour and then saw the guy with the CCM sign for the MTC. (CCM is the Spanish term). We all then hopped on a bus and I got to use my Spanish a little because only like 3 of us knew how to talk spanish. We had to communicate (barely) with the escorts and bus drivers. They loaded us in huge yellow school busses. It was pretty awesome and they were nice inside. The city was pretty dirty but we pulled into the campus and it was super nice. There really is a 12 foot high wall, maybe 15, aroudn the whole thing. 

We jumped off the bus and headed straight in to get our big red packets. In the packets were my room key, information, and of course the nametags! Its funny because we have been away from home for like 12 hours and just got our name tags. It feels awesome to be wearing one. The MTC is so funny because it kind of late here so the place is like empty and none of us know where we are gonig. We got our packets and some worker said "Quick the cafeteria closes in 5 min!" So we all scrambled out and rushed to the cafeteria which we had no idea where it actually was except from a quick look at the map. We got there and ate pretty good food. Just normal cafeteria food honestly but wicked desserts. A bunch of sweet Mexican treats. An elder described it as sacrament bread with pixi-stick sugar on top. pretty funny. And then they let us come write home to our families. So this is it!

I'm having a great time. Its easy to talk to the elders and everyone is having a good time. Its just funny because there has been no orientation yet so we all have no idea what we are doing yet! Sweet so my p-day is tuesday so ill probably write then. Which will be a week from today.

Love you so much,

Elder Sumsion

Elder Packer and Elder Sumsion

ELDER Ben Sumsion

ELDER BEN SUMSION

                             Elder Sumsion is leaving July 23, 2013 for the Mexico City MTC

He will be entering the New Jersey Morristown Mission Sept 3, 2013