Mexico MTC - Week 3!!! Halfway through CCM!!!!!

Mexico City Temple

Hola familia!

We're halfway there. Today officially markes my half way point here at the Centro De Capacitacion Missional Mexico or the CCM (which is the name of the MTC in Mexico, but nobody calls it the MTC.) The first group of American Elders left yesterday! Its crazy to think that I was one of the first groups of Americans down here. Its funny to watch how things are slowly improving every day as more and more people are coming. Um just kidding about the 60 people a week. We are receiving around 150 to 200 a week. Its nuts.The first few weeks I could recognize almost everybody, now I have no idea who is new and who is old. I don't know, but the last three weeks have absolutely flown by. I feel like I barely got here and now I'm closer to the day I leave than the day I got here. I am having a great time here at the CCM, but I am so excited to leave to New Jersey. 

This place is so amazing. I truly can feel the Spirit everyday and in every meeting. I have so many experiences I want to share with you about how amazing the work is here and how absolutely real this Gospel is.

We got to go to the temple today! It was awesome! This is the only opportunity we have to leave the campus. I haven't seen real people doing real world jobs in three weeks. I almost forgot the world wasn't as easy and clean as the CCM. It was so nice to get out. The temple is absolutely gorgeous. The inside was even more beautiful. It is nice to feel the warmth and Holiness of the temple again. It was so awesome because we got to do a Spanish session. I was heading into it think that I was gonig to be completely lost. But to my amazement, I understood so much of it. I could really feel the Spirit working in me. I wasn't trying to concentrate on what was being said but more on how I felt. And it turned out I could understand a majority of it. So great. We get to go back in two weeks.

He told a neat story about his companion getting sick and then asking Ben to give him a blessing.

Along with that we got two new (mock) investigators this week. Things have been going great with them. After three weeks I really am starting to feel great about everything. The schedule and life of a missionary is just beginning to become part of me. It really is nice. It was hard for the first three weeks because every day I would devote all my time to working and serving and then everynight dream about home and you and my friends. It was hard to always be dreaming of home. But the dreams have faded now and I can now wake up every morning and be able to concentrate on the work. Don't worry, I have not forgotten about you, and there is not a second here when you all aren't on my mind. But my thoughts of home and you are a lot more positive and happy. They push me to work harder and devote more of my time.

I have another cool thing to tell you. Almost everyday we have the chance to go on the computers and learn Spanish in a BYU based program called TALL. Technology Assisted Language Learning. It is awesome and helps so much. Its funny though because all of the backgrounds on the computers are either temples or some shot of nature. The one I was on last week had a inspiring pícture on it. It had a picture of a beautiful fall mountain with bright leaves on a little bit of snow. And there in the middle was a chairlift!!!! Oh my, all my thoughts flooded back to skiing! It was so funny. My thoughts were all- really? I could've chose any other computer! But it was pretty inspiring actually. I thought that the next time I sit on Jupiter lift in two and a half years when the snow is 3 feet deep, I want to be able to think back to this day, to this week, to this year, to this mission. I want to sit on that lift and have no regrets about my mission. I want to sit there and think that if I had worked any harder on my mission I would've been dead. I am going to work my heart out so when that day comes I can sit with a smile and think about every person I have helped, every person I have served, and every person I helped partake of the blessings of baptism and the temple. I am going to work my hardest out here because I only have two years to serve. That is nothing. I am going to give my life for two years so other people will be happy for their whole lives and eternity. This is what the Lord needs. This is what I need. I am so excited for my chance to serve.

I love you very much,

Your son,
Elder Sumsion

PS - i am happy and healthy!  I have been getting emails from my friends and I love it! Its just a lot to write in a few hours!  ha

Cleaning the bathroom

Mexico City Temple