My P-day is on Wednesday while I'm here in the CCM (Centro de Capacitación Misional México).
I was able to get mi equipaje the next day after I got here. And it all fits in the little closet I have. So, that's grand. Hermana Moleli let me borrow a towel, her scrub, and perfume and I used the clothes I had in my satchel. Also Hermana McCormick (one of our roommates) let me use her shampoo and conditioner. But, you know how I didn't pack any tennis shoes? We have gym pretty much every day. I wear my proselyting shoes, but I switch ém up everyday, so my feet aren't getting too big of sores from my shoes chaffing.
To Aunt Pat, and anybody else who reads this, I don't think you should write me letters while I'm here at the CCM. It takes anywhere from 2-5 weeks to get here, and I've already been here one week. And I don't want to miss one of your letters, so...I don't think you should send me letters. !Lo ciento! However, the missing information is Marzo 19, 16B. That's my departing date and the branch and district I'm in. This information goes right under my name on the address.
Spanish is coming along. They have a program called TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning) that we're on almost every day for an hour. I feel like it's helped me a lot. We also have homework from every class (which we have once a day in the morning) that we work on during TALL. Mi teacher is Hermano Martinez, and I like having him as a teacher. He's kind; he'll speak in ingles for us if we no entendemos. :) (Dad is allowed to check my Spanish and correct me, but I want him to know we're not using the "tu" form or the "vosotros" form. We are using ''usted'' y ''ustedes''. Mi companera es Hermana Moleli. Ella es Samoan and she reminds me of Jake. The way she mixed refried beans with hot sauce and guacamole, her looks, stuff like that. I like her a lot, though. Our roommates are Hermana Pine y Hermana McCormick. They're a lot of fun. They are a companionship.
So, we have our first committment to baptism. We've been practicing on another teacher (so they say, he feels like a real investigator to me) and we got him to commit to baptism on our second lesson. He brought it up himself. We were teaching him a little about el Evangelio (the Gospel) y he asked ''Is it necessary to be baptized?'' I told him yes and he said ''why?'' Hermana Moleli jumped in and said, ''that'll be in the next lesson'' So, the next lesson, we teach him more about baptism and he said ''que dia?" What day?...Third lesson, we talked to him more about the Holy Ghost and how to pray. Tonight we're going to teach him about the Restoration, but we need to prepare our lesson...:)...yeah...
For the first five days, we heard explosions outside the CCM. Our teachers told us it was fireworks, and I totally believed it until one night when I saw a flash of fire and a cloud of smoke on the hill that we can see from the CCM. Mi companera said the explosions were cannons. Dunno what was going on, but there was a lot of them Saturday night and we haven't heard them since. We did hear a shot gun fire four times on Monday, and soon after the shots we heard sirens...yeah...but it's been totally quiet since then.
But, Mom, I don't want you to worry. This is why: I feel secure here in the CCM. I truly believe there are ''angels guarding the doors, the windows, the hallways, so that no one and nothing can come in to hurt or make afraid.'' I heard that in a devotional we watched on Sunday. It was Elder Holland giving a dedicatory prayer for three new buildings on the Provo MTC campus and I feel it applies to the CCM. I'm fine and I'll be safe. I ain't going outside the CCM for anything, until we go the Mexico Temple Visitor Center, but other than that, I ain't goin' nowhere.
Oh, we didn't need to worry about the filtered water bottle; they gave me one when I got here. The water we put into them is already filtered, and then we drink it through the filter so it's like water twice-filtered. It's good, it works, it hasn't made me sick, life's good.
I ate pizza last night because I didn't know how to say ''I can't eat gluten'' in Spanish, and I had a BAD allergy reaction. I very nearly fell asleep during the devotional last night and then afterwards, mi companera said I was white as a sheet when I came out of the shower later that evening. I was SO tired. But I feel much better today.
Whether because of the Lord's blessing, or the virtue of Mexican food, or a delicate combination of both, I have had hardly any reaction to wheat while I've been here. I can eat bread and pasta with hardly any trouble, but no mas pizza. No mas pizza. Something was telling me I could eat bread, but to not drink any milk, nor any ice cream nor custard. But I can eat the bread and pasta. However, no mas pizza. I've now learned how to say "I can't eat gluten" (Yo no comer gluten), so, I can take care of myself better.
Gotta go! Bye!
Hermana Brown
