Mexico City Temple

This has been a good week. We got to watch General Conference on the big screen in the Gordon B Hinckley auditorium as the whole CCM, so that was fun. The only problem was that it got a little hot because their were so many suited bodies, but I really enjoyed Conference. Every talk was really good!

We just got back from the Mexico City Temple. It was so cool.

                                             

The actual temple has been closed for like a year and a half and is expected to be closed for another year more, so we didn´t get to do a session or anything. The foundation was in bad shape so while they repair it they take the missionaries on tours of the Visitor´s Center. Then they set us free to take pictures, and explore the gift shop and the old CCM, which is right next to the temple. I bought a Mexican bag and a new tie at the gift shop. We took a lot of pictures. The angel Moroni on top of the Mexico City Temple is one of only two temples in the world where he is holding the golden plates. That was really cool to see.  loved the designs on the temple. It´s cool how they can incorporate native cultures and tastes into temple designs. It takes about an hour to get from the CCM to the temple, but it was cool to get out of the CCM and see real Mexico! It made me more anxious and also nervous to get out into the field.

So of the Latino Elders in our casa, all of them are from Mexico, except one from Brasil, and one from Peru.  Elder Riveros is from Guancayo, Peru. He is the hardest to understand and he loves to just come up to us and say a whole paragraph super fast and then expect us to respond. he really gets a kick out of it. He told us he speaks Castillan Spanish, which I think is like fancy Spanish from Spain. They speak it different from South America. He is the only member of his family. His mom died a few years ago and his dad is not a member, and his sister is too young to be baptized. A few nights ago, he gave some of the American elders these tiny, red dried chilis and told us to eat them. Mine was about the size of my pinky fingernail, but it was probably the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. My mouth was on fire and my tongue felt numb and swollen. After I swallowed it, it felt like there was literally a burning in my bosom! Like the chili was going to burn a hole straight through me! The Latinos challenged us to a game of cage soccer today at four, so that is what we are doing when we are done writing our emails. Elder Ribiero, from Brazil, was a professional soccer player in the junior league. He was basically on track to become a professional soccer player, but they played their games on Sunday. He decided to give that dream up to serve a mission. He doesn´t know what is going to happen when he gets back. It´s so cool to get to know the Latinos. A lot of them have made huge sacrifices to join the church or serve missions, and they are all so fun and nice. 

It´s always fun to run into Hno. Carranza and talk to him in Spanish. It´s great to see familiar faces. We welcomed the new missionaries yesterday, and I got to help welcome Elder Holden and Elder Allen! It was great to see them. The first thing Elder Holden did when he got off the bus was to run over and give me a big hug. Then Elder Sorensen and I got to take them to their casa. Brandon´s not in my zone, but we will be able to see each other around. I´m so happy he is here now! We welcomed over eighty new missionaries yesterday! It was crazy!

Our morning teacher, Hno Villanueva asked Elder Sorensen and I to lead our Book of Mormon discussion on Monday. He told us to discern a need in our district and then pick a chapter in the Book of Mormon to discuss. I prayed about what chapter to share all weekend, and that we would be able to help somebody. We shared Alma 26. It is a great chapter about the importance and joy of missionary work. The spirit was so strong! Several Elders came up and told us that that was exactly what they needed to hear. It was definitely a highlight of the day.

Thank you so much for sending the Spanish to English Hymn conversion. It has been very useful. You don´t need to send me a new hymnbook because I already bought a pocket-sized one at the Tienda. Thanks for the letters. I just got your letter about Brandon´s farewell yesterday. Every time we go get mail it´s like that scene it The Best Two Years movie... Elder Torgersen,...... Elder Torgersen,..... Elder Torgersen....! What are those bookmarks you said you were going to send?

Palm tree seed that looks like "football cereal". 

Angel Moroni with gold plates. 

The best Elders in the CCM in front of the Mexico City Temple.

Real Mexico, and Elder Riveros. 

The old CCM (its tiny compared to how it is now)

That´s terrible about the Crafts house. We will pray for them. This could be a good opportunity for them to turn to God, just saying. I´ve been asking around about the mirrors. Nobody knows why, but there are valves and stuff behind it that the firefighters use. Outside on the city it is usually just glass or plastic so you can see inside, but in the CCM they just chose to use mirrors I guess.
I forgot to tell you about my stuff. I love my shoes, socks, pants, ties, belts, suits, and pants. But two of my shirts have irons marks, one is ok, the other is now designated as my sweater shirt when I get a sweater. We traded irons with one of the other rooms for a better one. It was just like the first week that I had problems with the iron now its better. And the one long sleeve shirt we got separate I dont like very much. So when I get to Peru, it might be nice to send me a new CTR shirt or two.

We like to workout here during gym time! So we took a funny mirror picture!

It rained so hard one day that we had a real river flowing through our gutter, so we all made paper boats and had a boat race!