Week 3: Halfway Through the CCM (MTC)

Wow, I can’t believe another week has already come and gone! Time seems to be going faster each week. This week I’m going to go straight into talking about what’s happened and such, so that I can hopefully catch you all up. So much has happened that I want to tell you all about!

Hmm… Well, I guess I’ll go back to week one. On Thursday of that week, we had our 1st P-day.  We had to get up earlier than normal (at about 6ish) so we could eat and leave by 7am to go to the Mexico City Temple. And what a great experience it was! First off, the bus ride is SUCH an adventure. I love it. The drivers here are seriously crazy! It's like a much worse version of Chicago drivers. Everyone drives fast, reaaaally close together - like insanely close - and nobody seems to use blinkers. All the buses, which there are a TON of public buses & taxis, are green and always super full.

Busy Streets & Crazy Drivers

Graffiti

Mexico City

We went to the temple and took lots of pictures on the outside. Then we did our worship service on the inside, which was good. We got a "freebie" that week and were able to listen to everything in English, so that was nice too. Today, (two weeks later,) we went back and did the service in Spanish, which was a fun challenge. I feel like I actually understood okay.

Name Tag

Missionaries at Mexico City Temple

Missionaries at Temple

Me & My Companion at Temple

Afterward, (referring back to week 1 temple trip again,) we all loaded back on the buses to go back to the CCM. Well, most of us anyway. The bus driver started to drive away, but two of the elders in my district had not yet gotten on. They were still at the little store near the temple that sells fun things like Mexican-themed scripture cases & such. All of us on the bus were trying to let the bus driver know there were two people not on yet. Just as we were about to pull out of the gates, the elders came SPRINTING all the way across the parking lot and hopped on the bus JUST in time!  It was so funny to see them running for the bus. Apparently the drivers really will leave us missionaries at the temple if we aren’t on the bus at the scheduled leaving time. I heard that yesterday, six elders got left there because they didn’t board the bus in time. lol! So I definitely don’t want to be late! Haha! (Hence why mi & mi compañera have not gone to the store yet) I’m not exactly sure what they do if they get left... wait for another bus from the CCM, I suppose or maybe they have to get a taxi—that would be quite the intimidating experience with our limited Spanish. Haha! :P

Beautiful Sky

Banana Man 

So yeah, that was fun. On our way back, we saw lots of fun stuff; People wait at traffic lights here and when the light turns red they walk around the stopped cars trying to earn money from the drivers. There were jugglers, people quickly cleaning cars for money, and LOTS of people selling random foods; It was the craziest thing! When the bus came to a stop, my MTC Mission President bought some bananas from a boy selling on the street. Then an elder from the back of the bus saw and shouted he wanted to buy bananas, too. So, one of the CCM workers shouted out in Spanish to the boy just as we were starting to leave, and the boy hopped up into the bus. He sold bananas to the missionary and then the next time we stopped he just hopped off! I wonder how often people do stuff like that around here, and where would they end up at the end of each workday? lol!

When we got back, we ate lunch, did laundry, wrote our emails to family, took naps, and then got back to studying and practicing to teach Spanish-speaking investigators.

‪I love you all mucho!! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!! Remember to all be very thankful for what you have. I very much believe that the Lord wants us to be thankful for what we have before he blesses us with any more. ‬

Con mucho Amor!!

Hermana Johnston

We wanted to clarify some of the things that Sydney mentioned in this e-mail. Below is a list of words along with an explanation of what they mean:

P-day stands for preparation day. It is one day set aside during the week when missionaries take care of personal needs like laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, writing letters home, as well as some fun activities and exercise. P-day ends at the dinner hour – so that’s a lot of stuff to squeeze into a few hours!

Temples are houses of the Lord. They are the most sacred structures on the earth. There are 141 temples operating worldwide, in Kyiv Ukraine, Johannesburg South Africa, Suva Fiji, Stockholm Sweden, Hong Kong China, Caracas Venezuela and Washington D.C. to name a few.

The CCM is a Missionary Training Center where missionaries go to receive training for their missions. Sydney is staying at the Mexico City CCM for six weeks while she learns to understand, speak and teach in Spanish. There are a total of 15 Missionary Training Centers throughout the world.

A missionary companionship consists of two (or occasionally, three) missionaries. Missionary companionships are generally maintained for months at a time and most missionaries will have served with multiple companions by the end of their mission. These companions rarely have prior acquaintance outside of the mission. Companionships are always of the same gender.