Week 2

Hello everyone! 

I hope you are all doing well! Today was the greatest day ever. It's day 16 and today was the first time I was able to leave the MTC and see the outside world. Mexico City is absolutely enormous. All of the kids in my generation that are staying in Mexico for their missions had to go to the immigration office in downtown Mexico City so we got to spend the day in Mexico City! My experience in the CCM is pretty good so far! I am so grateful for my companion. We totally connect super well and see eye to eye on pretty much everything. Our Spanish complements each other, sometimes he knows how to say things that I didn't learn and we play off each other really well in lessons. 

My Spanish is really coming along though! I leave 3 weeks from Monday and cannot wait. I try to talk to Latinos whenever I can! It's so nice when they compliment me on my Spanish it makes my day! 

My daily schedule is almost the same every day. Everyday it's just wake up at 6:30, breakfast, study scriptures, study Spanish, teach a progressing investigator (teacher pretending), Spanish, lunch, Spanish, Spanish, basketball, scriptures, dinner, practice teaching, teach, study. BED. I really like both of my teachers. They are both native Mexicans and really care about teaching us and making us better missionaries. 

I want to talk about my mission for a moment! I ask every single Latino, "Como es Saltillo?" Meaning how is Saltillo. They always say basically the same thing. Very few of them have ever actually been there. Those that have always say: Hay mucho carne. Meaning, there is lots of meat. hahaha it kills me every time. Basically I'm gonna be eating a cow a day in Saltillo. I also heard from one guy that it is a desert but has some green to it. The border towns are for sure the most vague. Nobody knows anything about them except for that they have a slightly different accent, apparently it is a little sing-songy. Also, there are cowboys and most of them say the towns are safe so that is good! Also, one thing that has been a source of uncertainty and also makes me feel special at the same time is that I am the ONLY MISSIONARY GOING TO SALTILLO. There are 18 other guys all going to the same mission, Ciudad Obregon that all arrived the same day I did. Like of the 300 missionaries here at the MTC, none are going to my mission. It doesn't make me that nervous and I'm incredibly excited for the field but it is just interesting. 

I am so grateful that I had a background in Spanish. In my life, there are few things I am more grateful for than that. It has been SO clutch. I have become way more impressed with what a mission actually is and now understand how meaningful they are. They are a lot of work. Parts of it are super tough but other times it is incredibly joyful, whether I am balling, playing piano, really feeling the spirit while teaching, or speaking good Spanish, these are the moments that make it worth it. 

The food is really good. They have American and Mexican food kinda rotating meals. They say it is so our stomachs can adjust. I haven't eaten the beans though.... it's going to be interesting. I eat all of the other Mexican food though and love it! The weather is so nice. Basically paradise. Always between 65 and 75 degrees. I'm always in a t-shirt. It usually rains though between 4 and 6pm though. And when I say rain, I mean it's a flash flood and we have to be like Noah and build an ark just to get to dinner. 

Anyway, all is well. Remember that this life is supposed to be joyful and the best way to have joy is to be serving others and serving our Heavenly Father!

All the best, 

Elder Shipley