HOLY CRAP! I guess the best place to start is the very beginning. So we get got to the MTC or CCM late Wednesday night and had a whole bunch on orientation things. Basically the first few days we just straight meetings and orientations. Those were some of the longest days in my life. But it has become so incredibly amazing since then! THe language is still pretty difficult to speak fluently in any aspect, but it is coming along. My companion is Elder Spencer, and he knows quite a bit of spanish, because of this family. He´s a pretty cool guy, and but you know, we get on each others nerves every once in a while. Having a companion is hard. But its also a lot of fun. 

We live in the appartments here on the campus. A lot of the missionaries are staying in litle house things, but we got the apartments. Each apartment has three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a little living room thing. Each bedroom has just two beds so its just one companionship per room, but the houses have three beds per room so that´s nice. We only have one set of roommates in our apartment. Neither speaks much English, one is from Mexico, and the other from Peru, But they are awesome! Every night, we end up talking to them, for like an hour, its a blast. Trying to decipher what in the world they are saying is more fun than it would seem. 

My district is also pretty awesome. We have three Elders companionships, and we have one Hermanas threesome companionship. My zone is pretty awesome as well. So in each zone, there are like 3-5 districts. Our district leaders have become some of my best friends I´ve met here. Oh and also, Elder Andriese, the one I knew from Bingham, is in my district! Crazy!

Ok, I guess its time to say something about the Spirit here. I have to admit, it is super hard being here. The first probably 4 days were some of the worst days I think I´ve had in years. No exaggeration. I was missing home so much, and I was wondering what in the world was I doing here. Two years, TWO YEARS!!! That is so incredibly long, especially when I thought that 4 days was terrible. At the same time I was feeling so horrible, I was telling myself to just get over it, that it would be ok, and that the spirit would make it ok. But it didnt get any better. I was miserable inside. I felt like I couldn´t do anything, and I felt like I didn´t have the same spirit as everyone else here. it wasnt until Sunday that it became any better. OH! I totally forgot a super important part to this whole crazy experience! I was called as the District Leader... on our second day here! That is so much responsability! It was so overwhelming I thought I was drowning in misunderstanding! I had to teach a district lesson on Sunday in Spanish, and I was so worried!!! But by some miracle, I somehow survived the sunday meetings without too much disaster. (When I say too much disaster, that means there was at least a little bit haha) But it all changed that afternoon. up until that point I had felt so terrible at almost every moment of the day. But we had the chance to talk to our new Branch presidency in personal interviews. Seriously, this is the turning point of my whole experience so far. I sat down with Brother Torres, the Branch President. I left that meeting feeling only a little better than i had the rest of the week. I didn´t feel anything really at all until later that night. Every Sunday night we have a devotional, and this week, we listened to Elder Holland give an MTC talk to the Provo MTC in I think 2007. It was really good, and a few things touched me, but nothing much. But this was when the sucker punch came. After the devotional, they play a powerpoint of all the missionaries that were leaving that coming week. After the powerpoint, everyone stands and sings God Be With You Till We Meet Again. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never felt anything like that in my entire life. At that precise moment when the song ended I realized why I had been feeling so terrible. Up until that moment, I don´t think I had felt the spirit at all, because I had never had that feeling before. Seriously, it was so indescribably amazing, that it is indescribable :) And since then, I cant believe that I have been so blind to it. Oh my goodness, its almost stupid how crazy that one song was, it was like i felt the spirit for the first time. And later that night, my zone had this traditional meeting thing. It was supposed to be a district devotional discussion, but my zone does it so much better. The district leader from the oldest district starts the meeting with a spiritual thought, and then it is open to everyone else to share or say whatever that would like. Some of the messages were so awesome, and I´m super excited to continue that tradition.

Oh man, seriosly, this place is like nothing else. Yes, it is surrounded by a high concrete wall and razor wire, but it is amazing! THe grounds are so beautiful, covered in palm trees and beautiful flowers. There are even green parrot thingys (birds haha)! ANd the food isnt all that bad either. ;ost every meal there are two choices, one is more Latino and one is more for the majoritative white folk. Sometimes its really good, and sometimes, you just dont want to find out. But there is cond cereal at every meal just in case haha! Oh and if it looks like pudding, and smells like pudding, its never pudding. That is also one of the many important things I´ve learned here. ALso I have seen a ton of my friends here, hopeflly Ill be able to send a picture out of some of us, if i can get it to load. oh also today we went through the Mexico City Temple open house. It was awesome, so beautiful and huge. The biggest temple outside of the united States. And also tomorrow, Elder Christoffeson is coming to give us a devotional. I´m super stoked!!!

But all in all, it is amazing here. The Elders had told me that it all gets better after your first Sunday, but I didnt believe it would get this much better. I feel like I can legitamately say now that the Spirit is real. And feeling the Spirit makes hard things so much more easy. It is truly incredible. When I got here I was dreading this experience and I just wanted to be back home. But now, I still want to be back home, but I know that I want to/need to/ can do this whole mission things. Thank you all so much for your prayers and kind words. You are all so amazing. Please strive to feel the spirit in your lives, because it is like nothing else you´ll ever feel! i know that this Gospel is true and it is to make us happy and to perfect us. I love you all, and thank you so much!

Love, 

Elder Quinn

PS. My schedule has changed quite a bit from what it was before. For this week only, my pday is today. But for the rest of my mtc experience, I will have pday on Wednesday, sorry for the confusion.

-Next day letters can be sent to Kaden for free using the website www.mtcmexicocarepackage.com.  Kaden said that the MTC doesn’t accept anything that doesn’t originate in Mexico.  I don’t think this includes letters.

Hey family! I have arrived safe and sound. The flight was fine. There were like 40 or so Elders and Sisters on my flight. I´m not exactly sure. Mexico City is crazy! At least from what little I´ve seen... The drivers are super crazy, and the roads are insane. Most of the time there weren´t even lines on the road. I could have easily licked the truck driving next to us. My companion is Elder Spencer, he´s pretty awesome. He´s from Idaho, but his mom is from Mexico, just norht of our mission. My P-day is on Thursday, but I won´t have it till next week. Tomorrow will be a normal day.

The MTC (or CCM) is beatutiful. Its this huge fenced off 90 something acre area with tons of tress and stuff. Its raining right now, which is apparently a very common thing in the evenings. I won´t lie, i´m nervous like nothing else. But i´m sure it will be great! I´ve already lost my name tag twice haha! The botton for the jacket clip is super loose so I ended up taking it off and jimmy-rigging it on. it is already super different, and I can´t understand anyone who actually speaks spanish, but so far they have been nice to us and have spoken english. Well, Have a great week, thanks for all your support, talk to you next week!

 

Love, 

Elder Quinn