Hello Friends and Family,
Can everyone imagine a semi-nice Italian food restuarant - the kind where they bring you out a little dish of oil and vinegar before your meal? Well, have any of you ever wondered what would happen if someone were to pour that little plate of bread garnish into a glass and drink it in order to preserve their manhood and pride? Keep reading to find out...
Today, what I really wanted to do this week for my letter home, is to zoom in a little more into the life of a missionary at the CCM. Our days here are full, from 6:30AM to 10:30PM, every hour with something to do in our preparation for the field.
In the mornings, we arise early and get ready for the day (Brushing teeth, showers, classic missionary-white-shirts). After that we head off to breakfast. The food is pretty good for breakfast, and recognizable - french toast, pancakes, eggs, Mexican food items with lots of potatoes. Sometimes they serve up dishes that definitely aren´t meant for breakfast (enchiladas, rolled tacos, deli sandwiches) but no one ever complains about that. After breakfast we head off to our first block of classes. We study Spanish, the Bible and Book of Mormon, and we do lots of practicing teaching. We work from 8-1230.
After that is lunch. We are all usually pretty hungry at this time of day and it is a place of many jokes and fun memories. Almuerzo is the time when Elder Palmer decided he was going to follow through with the dare to drink the oil and balsamic, that poor fellow. He lost a game of "would you rather" and immediately sighed as he consigned to his fate. Right when he slammed the glass of substance he retched hard three times and grabbed for a pile of napkins, breathing into them trying to hold it down. After the first 10 seconds of nausea, he just stared down at the tray in front of him for a good 90 seconds making a face as if his soul had left his body and was slowly reentering his being. We are all happy he is still with us.
After lunch we migrate back to the class for the same block of classes, except with a different teacher and subjects. Another funny moment happened this week when we were practicing some Spanish skills through an activity of teaching one another a lesson about Joseph Smith and his life. We do this often, and have many aliases for our various role playing. In this particular lesson, Elder Palmer decided that his alias for the investigator of the church he was playing, was going to be Joseph Smith himself. I am sure you all can image how quickly things frustrated and then unwound as Elder Christensen tried to teach a lesson about Joseph Smith to... Joseph Smith. Oh man we have way too much fun here.
After this is dinner, which is always great. There has never been a time where I have showed up to the comedor and not found something that I enjoy eating. Tamales, tacos, rice, beans, chicken of various kinds, the best watermelon ever, its all delicious.
When dinner is over we either have more Spanish classes or some kind of uplifting devotional. The devotionals are always great and on Sundays they even show us some church movies! Its always exactly what I need after a long day of learning. This past Thursday we were favored with a fun presentation for the Mexican Independence day. They brought in some dancers of many varieties and had a live band! After we got to watch some fire works from our dorms.
All in all life is pretty good here at the CCM. Each day gets shorter and I am beginning to get so excited for Ecuador. I hope all is well back in the states and you all have a lovely rest of your weeks.
Elder Ericksen
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