Mexico City CCM (MTC)

our first conversation - day 5

Putting on his best smile as he began a difficult adjustment to a new culture, new language, new food, new routine, new friends, new everything.  Go, Elder Lott!

My favorite line from the email we received telling us he arrived safely was "I'm trying to be extra brave."  What more could we ask for!  

our second conversation - day 9

Elder Lentz is his companion.  He is from Tampa, Florida.  They will both be serving in the Chile Santiago East Mission and flying on to Santiago together.

This is his district.  All of these missionaries will be traveling and serving in Chile.  However, they will all be going to different missions.

This is Elder Earl from Las Vegas, Nevada.  He and Elder Lott have become great friends.

      

The guys in my district are great. I love them all, but I didn't fly out with any of them here. All new guys, but they are so awesome. They really have been helping me. 

My next favorite line, "It's hard but it's good. I'm doing a little better every day and I think that's all that matters."  

Tell you about the MTC, hmmm. Okay, well here it is call the CCM because it's  MTC in Spanish. We study the language, reading, writing, words, phrases, and more. We do that for probably like 7 hours of the day. Practicing or learning how to speak or teach or anything like that. Everything is Spanish. It's so hard because I only kind of understand but they treat us like we're fluent to make us try to learn. I actually am getting a decent hang of it though. I am already forgetting how to spell English words because our spelling is stupid (I taught him not to say "stupid") compared to Spanish words haha. The days are starting to feel a little bit quicker. I have a routine now and that helps a little bit. 

Here is what we know.  The food is "fine."  It's not good.  It's not bad.  It's fine.  He has lost some weight and attributes that to no snacks.  They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner but no snacking.  We were able to get some Cinnamon Toast Crunch to the CCM. He seems content with the food.

The weather is beautiful.  It's chilly in the morning and evenings.  He is sleeping in his hoodie but the days (and sunsets) are beautiful.

He had a nice haircut this week.  Apparently there is a church reporter coming to the CCM Friday, Saturday and Sunday who will be randomly interviewing missionaries.  He was notified to show up for a haircut at 11:40 on Wednesday and so he did.  

our third conversation - day 16

He also had a chipped tooth from playing basketball.  He said the other elder just drove right into him.  "Apparently he thought I would move but lacrosse players don't move.  We just plant our feet and stay."  Perhaps he should move a little next time...  He has been playing basketball, volleyball and soccer.  Their soccer team has won two games now so they think they're pretty good. 

His bed is not as long as he is and described as uncomfortable.  Elder Lott and Elder Lentz have the whole place to themselves.  They are not sharing their room with other elders.  Riley says he sleeps on the top bunk so his feet can hang off the bed.  Sometime he builds a little pocket for them at night.  (No picture of the pocket.)

upon arrival

one week later

Upon arrival at the Mexico CCM, Elder Lott received his name tag with a white dot on it which his brother, Alan, who also served his mission in Chile, lovingly referred to as a "dork dot" meaning you are the new kid and don't speak much Spanish yet.  Riley's dot was removed a week later which he thought was fabulous until he realized that meant everyone thought you could speak fluently.  He's seeing improvement in his language skills every day.  He's able to understand but it's hard to come up with his own words to respond.  He asks us every time to pray that he will have the gift of tongues.  We remind him he was promised that when they set him apart as a missionary and pray for him multiple time a day.

He told of us one of their favorite activities is to slip a spoon into an elder's pocket while someone else was distracting them and then later ask why they had a spoon in their pocket.  He said it was hilarious to watch the elder's try to figure out why they had a spoon in their pocket.  He laughed!  It's obviously a fun game for them.

They are each assigned to prepare a 5 minute talk for Sacrament Meeting but they don't know who will be called on to deliver their talk.  The first week he was panicked but Big Brother Brayden, who served his mission in Guatemala, was able to calm him and give him a few pointers.  That first week, he was invited to be the Elder who spoke if everyone didn't take their allotted time.  He was grateful they all spoke for their full 5 minutes but now he just wished his turn would come around so he didn't have to worry about it each week.

His district has been given the coveted fan.  He said it's the best thing ever! There is an old fan that has been at the CCM for like 15 plus years.  It's handed down from one cool district to he next.  The Zone Leaders who just departed gave it to them and they were honored.  

He's looking forward to going to the Mexico City Temple next week.  All in all, I think he is adjusting and doing as well as can be expected.