By Wesley Thacker in Emails — 30 Dec 2019

CCM Week 7 - Showtime

Hola hermano's y hermana's! ¿Cómo están? Yo estoy muy bien! Uno Navidad en el pasado, uno más en el campo. (Hello brothers and sisters. How are you all? I am very good! One Christmas in the past, one more in the field.) I'm have no idea when I'll send this out so Happy New Year? Yo no se. Anyhow, onto the...adventures? Whatever this is called.

Wednesday was Christmas!!! Christmas in the CCM is kinda wack. I kinda forgot that it was Christmas; I'm so used to seeing snow on the ground and I'm in the CCM in a short sleeve shirt. One of these things just doesn't belong here.
We started out the day with Christmas songs! Then we went to our classroom to do a district gift exchange when we were met with an unexpected surprise. Our desks were all arranged in a circle and all of them had a special gift on them. I got another sock tie and I love it! We couldn't figure out who it was at the time, but we figured it out eventually. Called home, then we moved to a devotional broadcast from the Provo MTC with D. Todd Christofferson. That was pretty epic.
Later, we had pinatas! The pinatas here all had seven points on them, but those were really easy to whack off so when that would happen, we'd have a new pinata hat! There was also lots of Mexican candy in them.
Next was a service project. We assembled drawstring bags full of basic essentials for people in need. We assembled some of those then we had to move them assembly line style to another building. We kept getting stopped because the beginning of the line wouldn't be ready so it rook a bit longer than expected but that's all good.
Finally, we watched The Testament. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. I've seen it before, I don't remember where though. Mysteries of the CCM.

Thursday went by fast. There was a lot of funny things that happened. We also had our final TRC today and I really enjoyed it. My Spanish definitely has been getting better, including my speaking, both in terms of understanding and speaking.
We also had to weigh our bags and make sure none were overweight. So pretty much it was a pack-it, weigh-it, unpack-it fest for about an hour and a half. I kept my stuff packed up and have just been living out of the suitcase. That way, it's easier when it's time to pack for real.

Friday was full of great experiences! We taught Brenda for the last time :(. Está triste pero bien porque está tiempo y nosotros son listos por el campo. (It's sad but good because it is time and we are ready for the field.) I can say that with confidence now. Anyhow, a great experience was that I actually taught an entire lesson on my own and another as lead missionary, completely in Spanish. Admittedly, I would sometimes not know a word but would try in Spanish until the person got what I was trying to say.
Nonetheless, the experience I want to share was when we were doing some practice teachings together as a class. The person we were teaching was given a situation that us missionaries didn't know. We were given the goal to teach all of lesson one in fifteen minutes. And away we went. Elder Ramirez started us off for a minute and then went to find a scripture on his phone. So I took over and ended up teaching for the rest of the time. That was really a spiritual experience for me, testifying of the power of the Gift of Tongues and how aware God is our each of us. While a fake situation, He gave me the knowledge of both the gospel and Spanish that I needed so I could teach what our person needed to hear most.

Saturday was our last day with our teachers. It made me sad when we had to leave them but we all know it's for the best. And here's where the sadness starts for the next few days. It's hard making all these new friends, then having to bid them farewell, uncertain if we'll ever see each other again. That's why I'm thankful for the internet. We'll all be able to connect even after we've all finished our missions and have moved on to something completely new and different. Ahh, I'm rambling again.

Sunday is always a good day. We turned the time we had into a testimony meeting as a district. That lasted for like two hours and I loved every minute of it. I won't go into detail but it was so spiritual. We've all had to leave those that we know and love at some point in our lives, and I had to say goodbye to some of those that I've served alongside here in the CCM. Most leave on Wednesday, but there are a few that leave in the wee hours of Monday morning so I said goodbye Sunday night. It's always sad to leave those that you love but here in the mission field, it's always for a better purpose.

Monday has been and probably will continue to be wack. We had to say goodbye to the rest of our district. Muy triste! They have to stay behind until Wednesday and they're all headed to Houston proper. But it's all great. I'm currently writing this in the airport so I guess you'll have to wait until next time to hear what happens next. Lo siento, pero no siento.

So I'll leave you all with as much advice as a new missionary can give. Keep close to the Spirit. It will keep you safe so long as you are worthy and you are attentive to it's promptings. I love you all and wish you all the best. I'll fill you in on all my adventures next week.