Hello everyone! I have made it through the first week in the MTC (Missionary Training Center), or CCM as it is called in Spanish (Centro de Capacitación Misional). Here is the update.
The Good:
I am very much enjoying my time as a missionary and doing the online MTC training. It is in fact very different from how I had imagined for years how my experience would be at the MTC in person with thousands of other missionaries all going to classes and talking together afterwards and whatnot, but I think I am going to cherish this time that I have at home forever. I wouldn't have a mom at the in person MTC offering food to me or telling me to take a small nap or to hug when I get a little break during class. There are also no cats to pet at in person MTC, so there are definitely benefits of training to be an effective teacher and missionary at home jaja.
Missions have a very specific organization to help keep all the missionaries safe and increase effectiveness in teaching. Every missionary has one companion (sometimes two) whom they stay with pretty much 24/7. A group of companionships, typically around 4-6 companionships, comprises a district. My district has 8 Elders and 3 Sisters and they are all amazing. My companion is named Elder Ontiveros and he has helped me a lot with my Spanish even in just a week. He is a wonderful missionary and will be a dear friend for all my life I can already tell. Oh yeah, everyone is also Mexican. My district, my teachers, the people who direct the workshops, all Mexican. It is a great opportunity for me to be immersed in Spanish all day to help me learn.
Overall, I have felt edified every day and am excited to continue learning and growing for the next week and 3 days I have left of training before going out to Arizona on June 7th.
The Bad: (I'll typically try to keep this section pretty short jaja)
Although I am enjoying my time in the MTC, it is hard man. I feel like they took high school, college, and church, blended it up, put it in my secondary language, and then told me to chug. High school because I am in some sort of class or workshop for 6-7 hours a day with minimal breaks except for a lunch break. Also because the schedule is pretty much predetermined for me. College because I have to spend a lot of time outside of class studying, reading, and memorizing to learn everything the Lord would have me learn before entrusting me to go teach His children in Arizona. Church because, well, it is all church. Then you take all that and put it in a language that, to put in positive terms, has humbled me beyond belief the past week. So, yeah, hard, but worth it.
The Beautiful: (Not The Ugly)
When I think of beautiful this past week I think of my district. All of the missionaries in my district have such a profound love for our Heavenly Father and it is evident in their words, their desires to serve Him, and their smiles. It is really a beautiful thing to stick a group of young adults together in a zoom and let them testify of the truths they have come to know of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Funny:
I think the motto of the week was single out the white guy. Pretty much everyone that I have talked to one on one has asked me where I learned my Spanish because it is so good ("for a white guy" is the part that they don't add). They seem a little less impressed when I tell them that I am actually half hispanic so I have thought about not telling people that my mom is from Bolivia jaja. The first day, one of my teachers actually said that he didn't realize I was any hispanic because I look white (he said it much more tactfully). I guess it is the Lord getting me back for the times that I called one or my freinds "gringo(a)" (you know who you are and I want you to know that I am a repentant soul now).
The Spiritual:
If I had to describe the past week in one word, it would be humbling. Right off the bat I was humbled by the language. Before I started the MTC, I thought my Spanish was alright, but then I had to focus really hard to understand what everyone was saying and even still I only understood about 92% of what they were saying. I learned very quickly that to be effective in the Lord's work, I must rely on the Lord and He will bless me with exactly what I need after I put forth the effort. And then just when I thought I couldn't be more humbled, my teachers tell me that they would like me to be the unofficial district leader which basically just means that I will help them with extra assignments and make sure all the missionaries in my district are doing well and having their needs met. It is unofficial because everything in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is conducted under specific authority that we call priesthood keys. Neither of my teachers have that authority from God to call me to be a district leader, but for all intents and purposes, I will be serving as one. Feeling pretty under qualified because I have the worst Spanish and everyone else in my district is already an amazing missionary, I told my parents the news. They were excited and supportive, and my dad told me something that stuck out to me. He congratulated me, I chuckled and replied that I hadn't done anything, and he said, "Not because of what you have done, but because of who you are." God has a vision for all of us, and sometimes He has to break us down a little to build us back up into something better. We all have times when we feel broken down, I know I sure have this past week, but I encourage all of you when you feel that way to take a second and stop looking at what you are in the moment, and look at what you are becoming. What God is shaping you to be.
Thank you so much for reading all this, I promise that not all my emails will be this long. I was just so excited to share that I might have been a bit overzealous.
The Pictures:
1. My district plus some people visiting our class
2-5. Some beautiful sunsets from my friends in different parts of Mexico
