Week 1

Mexico City MTC

Mi Primera Semana En La CCM

This week has been really long but has been a blast! And I am so glad to have my first Prep Day and be able to email everyone. Everyone we have talked to has said that the first week is by far the toughest and slowest, but the rest of it will fly by and you will enjoy it so much. It has been really busy and a lot of work but it has been so fun!

On the flight here, I was blessed to sit by a friendly couple from Colorado named the Biggs. They told me they were members of the church and talked about their missions and their sons missions and they had a son go to my exact mission 5 years ago! So it was nice to talk to them about what is in store for me.

When I arrived at the Mexico Training Center we first went through orientation and I was able to see and talk to Elder Johnson who was helping out in the computer lab! Unfortunately we didn`t get a picture together this week but I will get one next week. I was also able to talk to Elder Williams and since I did not meet my companion until after dinner I went to the opening devotional with his district.

Unfortunately, I did not accomplish my goal of finding a fellow beatboxer, but its been fun to practice and show other elders and sisters haha. The first day I got there, I did not meet my companion right away so I went to lunch and decided to sit next to a random group of elders. It was their 6th week in the CCM so they had alot of experience and told me everything I needed to know for my 6 weeks in Mexico. Then I showed them some beatboxing and they went nuts! It was hilarious!! My district also loves my beatboxing and its so funny to see everyones reactions lol.

I later met my companion, Elder Watson. He is from Provo Utah and also likes to ski like me! He likes to joke a lot and we have gotten along well. We still have many things to work on but we have grown so much already in one week. Also, we met our district and although we have a lot of different personalities, we have had so much fun together and we have been developing a strong relationship with each other. We have 4 elders and one sister going to the New York North Mission, 3 going to the Oakland California Mission, and I havent found anyone else that has the Minneapolis Minnesota mission like I do. 

My first few days I was a little overwhelmed because of all the Spanish, but I have been able to feel the spirit help me recall the things I have learned from High School Spanish and the progress in one week has been way more than I expected! It is a little difficult since my companion has no background in Spanish and took 4 years of Chinese, so I have been helping him study a lot. But after one week, we have learned so much!

We have been able to practice teaching lessons to investigators in 100% Spanish and it has been difficult but really awesome. The first two lessons me and Elder Watson taught were a little rocky since we were just learning gospel vocabulary in Spanish and we could not understand or respond well at all to the investigators questions. The third lesson we taught, we felt calm and confident from the spirit, and we had the right lesson for the investigator, but we were just really slow in our delivery of the lesson and trying to speak Spanish. So since we were having a bit of trouble with our lessons, we decided to just pray really fervently for our investigator that we may know what she needs to hear and that we can really connect with her and show our love and God`s love for her. We felt the spirit guide us during our planning and the lesson went super well! I could feel the spirit calm my nerves and my Spanish was smooth and we really connected and felt the spirit with the investigator! Although we still have a TON of Spanish to work on and improvements to our teaching, it felt amazing to make some progress and feel the power of the Holy Ghost.

At the beginning of the week, Elder Watson had some throat pain. So we went to the doctor and he said he had strep throat. So it was hard to him to speak the first 4 or 5 days. So all the elders in my district got together on the 3rd night and I was able to give my companion a priesthood blessing of health and strength. It was my first priesthood blessing! I was pretty nervous but it felt great and now he is finally getting better!

Last night we got the privelege of watching a Devotional Broadcast from the Provo MTC and we got to hear Elder David A. Bednar of the quorum of the twelve apostles speak! It was amazing, he talked about truly digging deeply and studying the words of our living prophet and apostles from general conference. He told us to find a doctrine or principle, invitation to act, and a promised blessing from each talk and it was crazy to see how much more in depth you can study the talks from general conference. I also felt the spirit confirm to me that the messages from our modern day prophet and his counselors are divine messages from heaven and they are true messengers of God.

I am so glad to have felt the warmth and comfort of the Holy spirit my first week here. And I have made so many awesome friends and I cant wait for the next 5 week here in Mexico! 

My Preparation day is Wednesday so you can expect a weekly update every week on that day. If you want to send me letters, the address is down below, but please no packages. Love you and miss you all!

~Para siempre Dios este con vos~

-Elder Bolinder

Mailing address:

Elder Bolinder

Branch - 7 District - C

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal
Mexico

Flight to Phoenix with the Biggs

Elder Cameron Watson

Elder Tucker Williams

View of Mexico City near CCM