Labor in the Vineyard: Week 3 at the CCM

Mexico City Temple - They got to go this morning

Elder Olson and his district at the temple

Hola amigos y familia!

It's crazy that my I just finished my third full week in the CCM, but I also feel like I can't get out into the field fast enough. It's a great time to be in the MTC/CCM though, because there have been 3 live broadcasts for apostles in the past week and a half (Christofferson, Ballard, and Cook). At this point I can sleep right through the gunshots and dying dogs without a problem. I had the opportunity to participate in my first healing blessing this week for an Hermana who wasn't feeling well. Our district leader Elder Robinson gave the blessing, and it really felt like it wasn't him speaking, but the spirit. This week Elder Musselman and I got locked out of our room for the third time! It's not our fault, the electronic lock keeps resetting and won´t accept our cards. This time it happened during our gym hour and the only person who could fix it was an hour away, so we got an extra hour of gym time this week. This week we've played a lot of dumb little puzzle games (if anybody's familiar with black magic, that's been a big one). Those games really get us through the day. Elder Crompton's birthday was this week, so we had a lot of little fiestas. I've eaten an awesome amount of chips and queso/salsa from our districts care packages. Last P-day I may have gone a little crazy with the sports. We played five hours of soccer, and another two hours of ultimate frisbee in a zone tournament. We didn't think to wear sunscreen, and at an altitude of 10,000 feet the sunburns ended up being pretty brutal. I got a haircut this week as well, and the back is shaved in a latino style that's pretty interesting. My district all say it looks good though and more just signed up to get haircuts tomorrow so it must not be too bad. Pics to come when I can actually send them. We had the chance to attend the temple again today, which is always a fun experience.

Today we also lost the first member of our district. Elder Wilcox went home this morning, which has been tough for everyone. His companion Elder Tilley will be assigned to a trioship in our district and moved to the casas instead of the apartments.

Love and trust have been major topics in our meetings and devotionals this week. One point I really enjoyed came from D Todd Christofferson (at least I´m pretty sure that´s who it was, there´ve been a lot of devotionals). He talked about how trust is a greater measure of character than love. Christ loves everyone, BUT we need to make it our goal as missionaries and as members of the churc to be someone he can trust.

I've mentioned before that Elder Musselman doesn't have a whole lot of experience with Spanish, so I just want to give you guys some quick little quotes that I found particularly inspirational.

First, early on he tried to tell the maestra(teacher) that he was embarrassed about something he said. However in spanish the word Embarasada/o means pregnant, so he told the teacher he felt very pregnant XD

Others include:

"Jesus Christ atoned for our fish."

and "When we take the sacrament we eat the bread and drink the buttcheeks."

Just a little extra uplifting for you all.

I hope everything's going well back home, I've really loved getting your letters and packages these last couple weeks. If I didn't respond to you today and you've sent a letter using the package service then I probably just haven't received it. There's still a two to three day delay with the letters.

I love you all,

Elder Olson

----------------------------------------

Note: Elder Olson finally got the camera connected to send some pictures.