Feliz Cumpleaños Katee!

Well I thought I would start this letter by first saying "Happy Birthday to Katee" on Sunday and congratulations on getting into the nursing program. Also mom, I did find my camera. I had put it into one of the hidden pockets of my bag, so I forget where I had put it in. So I am sending some pictures. Thank you for the package as well. Although I am not really sure what some of the stuff is such as all of the Mexican Candy. 

So to answer your questions about Elder Clark, he is from Morgan, UT. So not to far from where we live and he is the same age as me, only a bit older than me. I think that he is struggling to learn the language a bit more than me, but he is getting better and better. I am doing really well with Español here and enjoying it. I am able to pretty much carry out a conversation, if I need to, but I still am working on expanding my vocabulary and knowledge of verbs and their conjugation. We have about 3 hour sessions of class with the teachers. We have one teacher in the morning and got another teacher this last week. Except the new teacher wasn't our investigator. It was one of the hermanas who would help us plan some of our lessons. In the evening, we usually do almost all language study and part of it is with a computer program called TALL, Technology Assisted Language Learning. It is hard and I have already finished most of the courses for grammar in it. As a part of class on Monday, we had to go to the dining room and talk with the native speakers for fifteen minutes. It was a lot of fun and it surprised me how well I was able to carry out a conversation. I could probably write most of this e-mail in Spanish if I really had to, except for then you wouldn't really understand it as well.

I think my favorite part of the week was Fast Sunday. Here at the CCM, we fast from after Saturday lunch to lunch on Sunday. It is amazing how much more you listen to church and the testimonies when they are in Spanish, rather than English. But the most meaningful part for me was a talk I read about becoming a consecrated missionary. The devotional, which was a recording of David A. Bednar speaking to missionaries about the true character of Christ. We watch a lot of David A. Bednar here, but I enjoy listening to him because of how he speaks. This was really the best talk I think I have ever heard. He talked about how Christ, instead of turning in to his selfish desires, he would turn out instead of in. I think that his talk was able to truly change how I look at everything and what I truly need to do in my life. We need to focus on all of those around us and forget ourselves. One of the things he challenged us to do was to get a missionary copy of the Book of Mormon  and look for a specific topic as you read, such as the true character of Christ. I am going to be doing this, but I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to do same. Each time you read the Book of Mormon, get a new basic copy and read it with a specific desire or question and mark all of the things that have to do with your topic. By the end of your life, you could have a bookshelf full of every gospel topic and just imagine the resources those could be used as. I am just thinking of so many ways that I can start to live my life as Christ. It will be a life long journey but it will be well worth it in end for everyone to gain the true character of Christ. We also had devotionals from M. Russel Ballard broadcast from Provo and then another with Elder Stephen Allen, the one in our stake, and then Elder Evans. 

I am excited to be able to General Conference and see what announcements might be made. I don't think I will have to listen to conference in Spanish because most of the devotionals are in English, so I think I will be able to get a lot out of it. We are watching a devotional from David A. Bednar about how to watch conference so I hope that it will help a lot. 

Would also forward me some of the emails that the other missionaries from our ward are sending. I want to be able to hear what their experiences are like. If you would do that it would be great. 

Yo se el Evangelio de Jesuchristo es verdad y yo tengo Cristo es el Salvador. Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y nosotros somos sus hijos. El ama sus hijos todo la tiempo y nosotros podemos vivir con Dios para siempre. And no my Spanish is not perfecto.

[The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and I have Christ as the Savior.  God is our Heavenly Father and we are his children.  He loves his children all the time and we can live with God forever.]

 Elder Ferrin

Elder Ferrin & Elder Clark

The Guardian of the CCM. 

Elder Ferrin in front of the Mexico CCM sign.

The Elders in his district.

The whole district.

Get Me Out of the CCM

I know the title might make you concerned, but it should be just the opposite. Believe it or not, I actually am enjoying it here a lot, but I am getting tired of it. The only reason I really want to be here is to learn Spanish. Surprisingly, learning Spanish is actually coming really easy to me and I am remembering a lot of the stuff from junior high. On Thursday night, I couldn't get to sleep because I was talking to myself mostly in Spanish. But no mom, I have not had any dreams in Spanish.

The schedule here is pretty repetitive from day to day. When we got here on Wednesday around 7:30, they let us eat and then started to do the orientation stuff by getting checked in, going over some information, checking our immunizations, and then letting us e-mail. I didn't make to the casa until about 9:30.

The next day was a lot of meetings with people talking to us. We met our teacher, he works really hard to teach us all that we need to know. And we learned that we would be teaching our first investigator in Spanish the next day. In the evening, before dinner, they did an activity where some missionaries came in to help us get to know some "investigators." I'm not sure if the investigators were real or not. They showed a bad example of how to get to know people. Then they switched the investigator and let us, a group of 15, ask questions to get to know and have them want to hear the missionary discussions.

The next day on Friday, when we taught our first investigator, it did not go very well. We tried to deliver our message the best that we could but we just weren't prepared. At that time, I felt like this whole CCM experience has been putting us in a room with no way out and telling us to escape. Like they almost expect us to know everything single thing already. Anyways, with the investigator, we tried to tell about the restoration but just couldn't get our point across and were not guided by the spirit.

On Saturday, we got to teach him again and it went a whole lot better. I think that we had planned a bit better in way that would work between me and my compañero. When he asked some of his questions, I was able to answer some of them without reading off something that was previously planned. For the lesson, we re-taught the restoration and all of the first lesson including the first vision from Joseph Smith History. Reading that even in Spanish has so much power in it with the Spirit. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray for us after we explained how to do it and then invited him to read a part of El Libro de Mormon and have him pray about it. I felt that this lesson went a lot smoother.

Sunday was pretty good and the part I enjoyed the most was the Sunday Devotional that was a video of a talk by David A. Bednar, given to missionaries about how to be a Preach My Gospel missionary. I liked how he said that if you are willing to open your mouth, it will be filled with words. But he emphasized how you need to seek the knowledge you need in order to have the Spirit bring it to your mind.

Yesterday, on Monday, we were able to teach our investigator again and this was my favorite lesson so far. We had gone in planning to teach the Plan of Salvation, but it changed when he started talking. He had some questions about the beginning of the Book of Mormon and how his mom was unhappy how him and his friends would drink at parties. So instead of talking about the Plan de Salvation, we read the title page of the Libro de Mormon and then discussed some of the word of wisdom. We told the benefits of keeping the word of wisdom and the Atonement can help you with all of your problems. Also that by following the commandments of God, you can become like him and live with in La Reina Celestial. I know that the Spirit was there to help me know what to say so that I could deliver the message we needed to give. I kind of saw that promise from Elder Bednar about being willing to open your mouth. Although my Spanish wasn't very fluent, I knew that it was good enough. The Lord is really helping me to be able to the learn the idioma and how to teach in it. I don't think that this investigator is real because some of the older missionaries tell me that he becomes your teacher soon. I think that will be good so he can tell us what to work on.

The food here is actually okay for the most part (its not my favorite, tastes like cafeteria food almost), except for the fact that I don't know what I am eating half of the time. Almost every meal there is beans, rice, or pasta. As much beans and rice as I can eat, I love it!. They even have nutella to put it on slices of bread or toast. But mom, I am still missing your cooking.

Elder Clark and I are getting along pretty well, but I think that he is struggling to learn the language a bit more than me, so sometimes we will say some things in Spanish just to help a bit. In the district, there are twelve of us and six of us are going to Nicaragua. There is one set that is going to the Salt Lake City Central Mission, which is the mission right next to where we live. Some of the district struggles to stay focused sometimes, but they are all trying to do their best to learn the language and the messages from the Lord.

Mexico City is very interesting in how it looks. On the mountains/hills, are just covered with houses packed together steep streets that are unreal. There are all several sounds such as sirens or cars constantly honking. The CCM is almost in its own bubble since it is surrounded with a wall and we don't know what is really happening outside the wall. But is very nice.

Thanks for all the support you give me and I know that I am doing what is right. I hope I don't offend you be saying that I'm not missing home too much. Most of the missionaries say they are homesick, but I honestly haven't felt it yet. Each day I wake up and look at it as an opportunity to serve the Lord and don't think too much about everything, rather than looking at as being a mission and I need to make it two years. I have just lost track of time since I have been here. But anyways, I know el Evangelio de Jesuchristo es verdadero and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve him. I love it here and know that He will help me to learn the language and anything else he needs me to learn. I'll be what He wants me to be and go where He wants me to go. Love you.


Elder Ferrin

P.S. I am not sure where my camera is but I'll see if I can find it.

Arrived

Sorry if this email is cryptic, but this keyboard is completely different than what I am used to. But this is my email to tell you that I arrived with no problems. I didn't make it to the CCM until about 7:00 p.m. and I am emailing you an hour later. Mexico City is really cool. It reminds me a bit of Turkey mixed with California. My companion is Elder Clark who traveled with me, but it wasn't the missionary we saw at the airport, but I did traveled with him. I am so excited to start learning and really don't know what else to think right now, but I know that I am doing what is right. Just so you know, I think my p-day is on Tuesdays so that is when I will be writing you next.

Love,

Elder Ferrin