About to Leave the CCM - week 5

Dear Friends and Fam,

    Last time I'll be emailing from the CCM! I am incredibly excited to get out of here (92 hours left just by the way). It's been a wonderful experience but I'm dying for a change from the routine. Although, I'll be a little sad to say goodbye to the friends ive made here. Luckily all of my district not going to Rancagua (just the Hermanas and Elder Tilley) will be returning to UT post mission so there's a good chance I'll see them again.

    I leave for Chile at 6 am on monday morning. The sixteen of us headed for Rancagua will all be flying together connecting through Panama City, arriving in Santiago at 12:19 a.m. I'm all packed, and I was a little worried due to a new 22 lbs weight limit on carry-on bags. Luckily I had some extra room in my checked bags.

    This week my Comp and I taught a lesson in district meeting because our district leader had another appointment and he basically uses our companionship as vice presidents. It was actually a really great lesson about overcoming trials through the atonement. My favorite scripture is on that topic (Job 23:10), and I also HIGHLY recommend going and reading DyC 121 & 122 (although if you want a shorter version just read 122: 5-9).

    This week has been especially exciting due to our discovery of a soda machine that dispenses random sodas. Our whole district meets up there after lunch, and we enjoy a fun little game we call Mexican Roulette. The machine once gave us a Coke, and we all are sincerely praying that one day we can get one too. It doesn't sound all that fun, but to be honest we're all pretty hungry for any form of entertainment here.

    We will have the opportunity to watch general conference this week, which I am super excited for. Luckily it's in English. Some of the apostles speak spanish though, and I really enjoy listening to  them because they speak really slowly and it´s really easy to understand. Keeping up with the translators takes a lot more focus though and I think going for that long would seriously melt my brain.

    The spanish is going really well for me though, we took an assessment with another district and I got significantly above the average (actually the second highest out of both districts, so basically I'm a prodigy). However, I know that it'll be WAY harder in the field. Chilean spanish is crazy fast and full of slang, but I think I'll get it.

    The church is true, I Love you all, and I hope everything is going well back home.

Hasta Luego,

Elder Olson

P.S. 91 hours left now..

Our morning Maestra (teacher), Hermana Nuñez

Packing up

Week 2: At the Mexico CCM - Mission Scriptures

NOTE FROM JACOB’s MOM: Jacob asks at the end that while he’s at the MTC, that people use this website… http://www.mtcmexicocarepackage.com to send free letters to him during the week (send by Tuesday each week) so that he has more time respond in email form on his Pdays. He only gets an hour on the computer and he keeps running out of time. If people use that service, they print out the letter and deliver it the next day and he can read them during the week and will have more time to respond on Thursdays via email (that’s his hope anyway). He still is having a hard time getting his pictures uploaded so hopefully he can figure that out by next week.

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

Dear Friends and Family,

I don't have a lot of time, as usual, so bare with me if there are typos or other mistakes. The second week has simultaneously flown by and dragged on forever. We've visited the infirmary twice this week, both times for my companion. The first time he got a bug bite which swelled up from dime size to baseball size in about twenty minutes. The second time he accidentally ate a hot pepper at lunch and chugged 3{4 of a gallon of milk to cool off, which screwed up his stomach big time. We got to see a broadcast from D Todd Christofferson this week, and will get to hear from two more apostles live from Provo next week. What a time to be in the MTC. We tried to speak only Español for 24 hours twice this week as a district, but so far we're yet to make it past lunch. Everything is going well, we had a great experience this week spontaneously sharing our mission scriptures. Mine is Jacob 5:71, and my comps is Helaman 5:12. Both great scriptures. My district plays soccer every day; we're trying to train so we can handle the 6 year olds in Chile. One Elder has already broken a foot though, so we probably need to dial it back. Last PDay we had the chance to do a session in the Mexico City temple, which was awesome. Afterwards, my companion wanted to go talk to some kids outside the visitors center with their grandma. We´re a good team, because I wouldn't have thought to talk to them and he can't talk to them because his Spanish is still pretty rough. It was great practice.

I hope everything is going well back in the states, I love you all.

Hasta luego,

Elder Olson

P.S. My mom says she shared a website that allows you to send letters for free to me while im here in the ccm. That works really well for me bc i can read them during the week without using any of my email time. Gracias y les amo <3

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

Jacob with his District (6C) the day they arrived at the Mexico CCM

Jacob's comp is the goofy guy in the front, Elder Musselman. They get along well.

Smiling for real now. Elder Haar is the third from the left and his mom sent me these pics since Jacob's camera wasn't uploading. Elder Haar said the Mexico CCM is a 90 acre compound surrounded by barbed wire and guards to keep them safe. They often hear gunshots from the surrounding area which is quite run down in comparison to the beautiful campus they are on.

In class at the CCM 

Jacob and his comp in class. Sometimes it's a bit boring he says, but it's all necessary and good.