How are the oranges in California?
Yoooooo everybody!!!!!! It’s now been 2 weeks at the MTC and I’m still going strong! Also, I swear I’m not lazy writing my emails, I’m just locked in at the MTC.
The days are ramping up so fast its kinda crazy here. I only have a little over 2 weeks left and it’s mind boggling.
So at the CCM/ as missionaries, we’re supposed to be lights out and in bed by 10:30 but that has seldom happened since we got here and it’s been a struggle because we, at least in my room, have been trying but it’s lowkey impossible. We were able to do it once though! Except for the fact that waking up felt the exact same😭😭 The MTC and branch presidencies are getting annoyed that people aren’t lights out at 10:30 which seems scary but like everyone in my District thinks it would be sick to meet with the MTC President, Presidente Ruiz. So we keep joking that we’re gonna make up some crap about our house or something and tell him so we can all have meetings with him.
Spanish is going well! We keep having practices and/or conversations with Native Spanish Speaking missionaries and either they’re treating me like a Make A Wish Kid or they actually think my Spanish is pretty good. Learning verb conjugations and when to use them is wack though. We haven’t really been taught anything and the books we have suck at explaining it so shoutout to my brothers, Chris and Bryant, for helping me with that. Side note, we had meetings with our branch presidency just like checking up on us and this councilor I met with asked where I was going (Salta, Argentina) and he laughed and said that everything that they’re teaching me here most likely won’t help much out in the field. So comforting!!!❤️❤️❤️
Our house is really close, or at least it feels like most of us are. There are 3 districts in our house and honestly each room feels like the part of Emperors New Groove where Eezma and Kuzco keep popping in and out of the chef’s kitchen to tell him what they want. People just go into each other’s rooms all the time and just talk for a bit and then leave or literally just to say hi. We got a picture of all of us that I’ll put at the end of this email.
Preach My Gospel class is pretty rough. To be honest it’s the most frustrating part of the MTC. No one in my district likes it. Our teacher always says we will teach by the Spirit in the field, but then just has us memorize the lessons in Spanish and then regurgitate it during practices. We wish that they would just better teach us the language and then we could give an actual lesson rather than memorized lines. We’re pushing through it though.
So last week in my email I mentioned I didn’t have wifi for a bit. That’s because there was a huge lightning storm and it put the CCM in shambles. There was no electricity at the cafetería or at some of the Hermanas apartments, we would have power surges at our casa. Also, the quality of food has definitely gone down. There are more misses than hits, like one morning they gave us chicken nuggets for breakfast. But their hits are soooo good. I wish the kitchen just locked in and made only those meals. I’ve just been eating snacks that my parents sent me in a care package through this company for missionaries down here in Mexico so shoutout to them! Love you guys!
The plague has been running through our house. It started down the hall with Elder Crane and his comp Elder Godfrey and then it hit Elder Coates and then it hit me. I swear I got the Suds from Spongebob. I’ve been using Nasal Spray and Cough Drops a ton and I think I’m almost passed it.
I got to recreate a picture that my brother Chris took here when he was a missionary here a sprinkle over 10 years ago. I’ll put both at the bottom for comparison.
The other day all of us Elders in the district were walking to class when we almost crapped our pants. We were going from the Postal office to class and it started sprinkling a little bit but when we were like right outside of our class building there was lightning that looked, felt, and sounded like it was right next to us and we sprinted into class screaming like little girls.
We got our itineraries for the mission and we have a direct, 9 hour flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 16th but as of right now, no flight to Salta. There’s a chance we might have to take a 17 hour bus ride to Salta so everyone cross your fingers that we will get another itinerary with a flight to Salta.
I’ve got to meet and say bye to a bunch of guys this week. Some of the Franklin guys are here right now and leave this week: Alex and Carter Kleinman and Tyler Davison. I got to take a picture with them but substitute Carter for Preston cause Carter is a bum and didn’t come get a picture. I’ve met 2 Elder Curtises and they are both from Utah and we run Family Search to see how related we are and either the app in cappin or we somehow aren’t related through the Curtis side or it just won’t show relation via polygamy.
Side tangent real quick. One of the Elder Curtis’s is like 6 foot 8 and a basketball player so he’s super skinny and his district was saying he weighs maybe 180lbs and I was like no way, he’s gotta be similar weight to me, I’m about 215lbs and the Elder I was talking to was like “There’s no way you’re 215. It must be mostly muscle, huh?” And I probably would’ve kissed him but we had to head to a devotional.
I got to take a picture with an Elder Camac. Him and I worked at the Gilbert temple together a few weeks before my mission. He played football at Highland where a member of my stake presidency back home coaches. Such a small world, but anyway he’s leaving for the Dominican Republic this week I think and he’s gonna do great.
Speaking of the temple, that’s what I wanna talk about for my thoughts. On our PDay we got to go to the temple again but this time do an endowment session. We got to do it in Spanish and it was so, so cool. And that night we talked in our House Devotional about our experience at the temple and I shared my testimony that the Lord is hastening His work on both sides of the veil and I would like to share that same testimony with you all. Looking at the numbers, last year was the most converted baptisms in 1 year and the first quarter of this year set a record for the most amount of baptisms in 1 quarter. Right now, the Mexico City MTC is seeing the most amount of missionaries here at one time. On the other hand, temple work is hastening. There seems to be a dozen temples announced each conference, including 3 in AZ!
I worked the Tuesday first shift over the summer which was from 5:30-11:30am. Even with the early time, endowment sessions seemed to always be full or close to it and the baptistry seemed to have a constant flow of youth coming in to do proxy baptisms. I would then go do baptisms almost every Thursday night before I left and saying that the baptistry was almost always full was an understatement. The workers would tell me that I could only do confirmations because they were over capacity for baptisms. It makes me emotional talking about it because it’s awesome to see youth not much younger than me gain a love for the temple that I hold so dear. During my work I would like to look at the name cards and wonder how long these people were waiting for their ordinances to be complete and how they must’ve felt once they were completed, sometimes by 12-13 year olds.
I love to see the temple and I know that the temple, each one, is a House of the Lord. I know that the work that goes on inside of temples is sacred work. I know and have a testimony of the importance of temple covenants that bind us, tethers us to the Lord and even though I just went through in May, I know that blessings come from keeping those covenants and building upon them. I know of the blessings, joy, and peace that come from consistent temple attendance and being worthy to enter the Lord’s House. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to work in the temple and see and participate in those sacred, saving ordinances. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I love and miss you all. While I still may not be homesick just yet, I think about you all daily. I hope and pray that you all are doing well back home in your various lives. Love you guys!
– Élder Curtis
This is me.
This is my brother Chris 10 years ago.
