Life at the CCM--Sept 15,2015

Ben and his district at the Guatemala City Temple

I'm so excited to be writing you guys again!  This week has gone by faster than the last one.  I was looking forward to pday since Wednesday.  That being said, I'm so busy, but I think about you guys often.  I hear that if you look back at your life you get sad, but if you look forward to the mission, then you get excited.

Life at the CCM:
The schedule changes every day.  Just the general outline is: wake up at 6:30, get ready till 7:00.  Personal study till breakfast at 8:00.  Then class till 12, when we have lunch.  Then more class till 5:00, when we eat dinner.  After dinner we teach our "investigator" (the teacher in street clothes).  We've been doing that since Day 3 and it's all in Spanish.  During class we always learn new grammar, vocab, and practice in the computers.  After teaching we have sports till 8:30.  Then we shower and personal study till 10:30.  That time usually includes tie trading.
I got one of my ties "skinnied" the other day.  The older missionaries know how to unlace it, cut the inside support thing, and then iron it and resew it to make it skinny.  It's so cool!
During sports time we can't play soccer becase too many elders broke ankles and such.  We have a weight room (talk about prison yard!) and volleyball court and basketball court.  [The Guatemala CCM is surrounded by a VERY high wall--the BB court is in the middle and has the nickname, The Yard], I love playing basketball with these guys!  My companion is incredible!  He is so accurate he never has to run when we play Speed.  It's so fun!
I only have two teachers for class time--Hermana Cuque (coo kay) and Hermano Bajan (ba han).  They are both great teachers and really fun.  I'm with the same district every day, but I'm coming to LOVE my district.  We are so focused and bonded.  Almost every hour we go practice teaching with another district, usually the oldest one.  That lesson will last about 10 minutes, all in Spanish.  Then they teach us, so I get to know the other districts pretty well.  I think there's about 120 people here, just a guess.

The Guatemala City temple is the same layout as the Boise temple, but it's definitely smaller.  The rooms are tiny and we all sit on 3 long benches.

Usually P day is split here between Tues, Weds, and Thurs.  Today is the 2 week mark so the 6 week-ers and the Latino's leave.  Last night at 9:30 everyone on my floor, about 50 people, stood in the hall and sang hymns because the elders were leaving.  It was LOUD!  But I felt the Spirit in a way I never have before.

The weather here is too crazy.  It's hot and humid outside, but not too bad.  Every day it rains, and sometimes insanely hard!  I've never seen anything like it!  The rain is almost scary.  Also I heard the rain is full of bacteria.  So..... that's cool.
It's Independence Day here today.  Outside has looked crazy today.
The only wildlife I have seen so far is huge bugs.  Yeah.
The food here has been so varied.  I've had beans, eggs, pancakes, waffles, french toast, tacos, burritos, philly cheese steaks, hamburgers, pizza, steak, lasagna, ravioli, and gyros.  I love it!  And besides that, almost every meal comes with a roll or potatoes.  Hopefully it doesn't stop!

Learning the language can be frustrating, especially since it's all we ever speak in class, but I'm improving sooo fast.  There's definitely a unique spirit here.  I really appreciate that.  It helps me learn the language and memorize stuff too.  I've memorized 2 pages of scriptures and such while here.  No sweat!

My comp and I are good friends, as we should be.  He is going to Guatemala Coban.  That's the most jungle-filled mission there is.  He's the only one in the entire CCM, Latinos and Nortes, who is going there and he will speak Kekche, the native language.  It's the only non-Spanish speaking mission with missionaries here.  He's learning Spanish here, and will pick up Kekche in the mission.  He's amazing.
Everyone in my district is from America, but the district leader is half Dominican and already speaks Spanish really well.  There are 6 elders in my room.  One is going to my same mission, and he's my best friend here.  His name is Elder Calhoun and he's incredible.  A day hasn't gone by without a Best Two Years joke!
I can't remember if I told you this but early on one of the elders in my district was pretty sick, and right before P day.  He really didn't want to miss out on the temple, so 2 elders in my district got up, one of them grabbed his oil, and they gave a blessing then and there.  I was teaching an "investigator" and missed most of it, but when I walked into the room, the Spirit hit me like a brick wall.

I promise everything is going well here!  My biggest complaint is probably another elder in my district.  He's not on a mission because he wants to, and he always talks about home, or how much he dislikes the CCM.  Some of the other elders are being brought down by his attitude.  But I know with faith, this situation is no problem.  My companionship and one other is now praying that my whole district will feel the Spirit and understand that this isn't our time, it's the Lord's.

I can't wait for next week.  Try to send pic's of whatever you can.  I would love to see some.  I'm almost out of time.  Sorry about that.  But it's been awesome reading and replying.  Hopefully I answered some of your questions!