Elder Jaden Steele : First week in the CCM

¡Hola!
I love it here in Mexico City. There is so much I could talk about, I can´t decide.

The first couple days were the longest days ever. We sat through meeting after meeting. We got assigned districts, zones, and casa. I am in district 10B and casa 29. My casa is the furthest away from anything so its really annoying.

I met my companion and other elders in my district. Mi compañero es Caleb Arnold. He is from St Joseph Michigan. The other two guys from my room are Mark Alves from Oakley, Idaho and Landon Thorn from Mapleton, Utah. My room is super awesome. I feel like I know those guys so well already, even though its only been a week.

Our district one of the only ones with just guys in it so it gets pretty crazy sometimes. Our district leader is Jake Stephens from Lehi, Utah. The other guys are Chaz Alba from Eagle Mountain, Utah, Daniel Amosa from Highland, Utah, Jason Zerkle from Las Vegas area, Mason Herzog from Lindon, Utah, and Elder Smith from Salt Lake City.

I love seeing the mountains. There are buildings that go about half way up the mountains. The buildings are all weird, bright colors. There are tons of palm trees everywhere where there are these cool green birds living in them. The weather is super nice. I wear shorts every day during gym time.

We have to teach investigators every day in spanish. My spanish has improved to the point where I can comfortable say prayers or share my testimony in spanish. My companion on the other hand doesn´t know spanish at all. During the lessons, I do all of the talking. I act as an interpreter and tell my companion everything that is being said by the investigator. Whenever he wants to say anything, he tells me and tell the investigator. The gift of tongues is real. Yesterday, I didn´t prepare anything to say in during the lesson, but I was able to give a complete 30 minute lesson in spanish.

We do a lot of studying. We have one hour during the day for gym time, our meals, and 30 minutes for a lesson. Other than that, we are supposed to be studying. Sometimes we get burned out and play hacky sack or tell each other stories. During gym time we play basketball with the natives. Even though they are all short, most of them can dunk.

The food is pretty good here. They say they "Americanized" the food, but it seems pretty Mexican to me. They serve beans, rice, tortillas, chicken, and a bunch of stuff that I don´t really recognize. I normally mix everything together and it tastes fine. They have a fruit juice machine that is really good, and they serve yogurt drinks every morning for breakfast. Also, toast with Nutella is available for every meal.

I´m running out of time to email, so I´ll wrap it up. I tried to send pictures, but it didn´t work to well. Next Thursday I'll send some. Also I want to show my companions what you all look like. I love you all, and I´ll email next week. ¡Adios!