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| 1st Time going to Mexico City Temple! |
Hey Everybody!
These past two weeks have been absolutely wild, and although there hasn't been anything unexpected for a missionary training center, there is absolutely nothing that can help one adapt to the sudden change in lifestyle, haha! The reason why the CCMM (Centro de Capacitacion de Misional Mexico) is called Wakanda is because it is a little sheltered world inside the chaos of one of the sketchiest parts of one of the largest cities on earth! There is a Church just outside the CCM walls that is always firing some sort of canon or fireworks whenever someone prays or something like that so that kinda keeps us on our toes, haha! and the city surrounding us is definitely more noisy than anything found back home! But aside from all of that, the CCM is a spiritual sanctuary that definitely reminds me of the old Youth theme: "Stand ye in holy places, and be ye not moved." or something to that extent! Now on to the quick recap of two weeks in not a lot of time so I'm gonna skip a few days!
Tuesday: Left the world behind to serve the Lord, and on my Delta flight to Mexico City, I flew next to my companion for the next six weeks, Elder Manwill! He's from Salt Lake and is an incredible dancer, and tried to demonstrate his skills to the district with me, but I felt that its best not to have two Elder dancing together, haha!
Friday: Elder Bednar came! I feel so blessed to have arrived in the week that many Elder and Hermanas (Sisters)had been looking forward to for weeks! The doors for the Devotional/Question and answer session opened at 5:30, but the line to get into the Auditorium was wrapping around the block by 5:10! Sadly, Elder Manwill and I were let of class late, and after eating dinner super fast were left out of the auditorium with only four people in front of us to get in! So we had to sit in the nearby Chapel to watch the live Devotional, but 10 minutes prior to the Devotional's start time, Elder Bednar came in and talked to the 40 plus missionaries watching from outside the Auditorium! He shared with us how much God loved us for our efforts to serve him, and invoked an Apostolic blessing that we could receive an increased sense of humility and peace when we reach a point of feeling like we can't continue acting as a missionary! He went on to speak beautifully about the importance of acting in faith in missionary work, the power of the holy ghost to teach us as well as some other things that were equally interesting! He shared that in the church we love to take tons of notes that end up never being viewed again and admonished us to only record those things that are given to us by the spirit so that we may have our small plates of great value! overall it was an incredibly edifying day!
Saturday: Played volleyball with the district which was a lot of fun, and had my first great lesson with Marcelina (our investigator, wink wink). She is our instructor Maestra Ramos and she wishes to know her purpose in life and we were able to make her commit to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon!
Sunday: They say, "Make it to Sunday in the MTC and you will be fine!" There is so much truth to that statement! The opportunity to renew myself, my efforts, and dedication to the Lord through the Sacrament were greatly needed, and the missionaries in my zone gave beautiful talks. The talks are selected by the Spirit so anyone can be called out of the crowd and asked to speak, and this stressed me out so I spent tons of hours preparing a talk for Sacrament meeting, and thankfully the Lord answered my many prayers and didn't call upon me to use my broken Spanish to give a lesson! I also got to play the piano for the first time in what felt like forever, and it cleared me of all my fears about the mission!
Wednesday: Marcelina finally read the Book of Mormon! It was a hard process facing so many times of being rejected for no definitive reason, but she progressed and we are so proud of her, and sadly have to move on because of the way the teaching schedule works out!
Thursday: Met our two new investigators today! They are Teresa and Naomi, and both are vastly different in a family situation with Teresa having tons of kids, and extended family, and Naomi only having her mother and husband! I am excited to be able to try to teach them about the gospel!
Friday: First P-day was incredible because we began it by attending the Mexico City Temple which is the largest temple outside of the US and one of five that has the angel Moroni holding a book of Momon in his hands! This trip took a little longer than expected though and that is putting a small time crunch on my ability to write this letter, haha!
Love you all!
Elder Kyle Raven
P.S. Read 2 Cor 12: 9-10, it is so amazing!
(Email to family 8.31.18)
Hey Family,
Thank you all so much for your packages and thoughtful notes! They really helped me get through the first couple of days that were really hard being away from you! You guys are truly the greatest family to spend eternity with!
Now as to how everything is going, it's been really awesome, no complaints from me! I struggled trying to get into the swing of things and although I know the most Spanish in my district, it is still really hard to learn everything! But I have firm faith in the Savior knowing and assisting all of our problems if we but ask him to give us assistance. The promise in 1 Ne 21: 16 is absolutely beautiful and I recommend that you Ponderize it this week (it is really short). The devotionals are truly amazing because the first week I got to hear from both Elder Christofferson via broadcast and Elder Bednar in person! He came to the CCM to give a devotional on faith, agency, and the Holy Ghost's role in missionary work that I will talk more about in my massive email, but there were some miracles associated with that.
Elder Manwill is a great companion, although he has some difficulty getting up in the mornings. I also room with Elder Hatch and Elder Wright who are the only missionaries going to Reno Nevada in the district with everyone else going to Monterrey West as well. I love my rama (branch), President Henrie, because he inspires and uplifts all the missionaries while still making the experience enjoyable. I wasn't called to any leadership positions but that's alright because life is much easier without all the responsibilities of Zone or District Leader.
I have learned how to deal with difficult personalities, Through this, I learned that Christ can strengthen us through whatever we are facing and to not forgive and let go of hard feelings is to harbor the greater sin.
The Holy Ghost is so present here in the CCM and the understanding I have gained of the gospel has never been greater! The gospel at its core is based upon simplicity that the humblest of servants can apply into their lives
I want to know what's going on in your lives so I can talk to you about anything and everything.
I love you all so much and I'm excited to see where life takes you while I'm out serving a God who is very real and loves us with an infinite love.
Today we went to the temple and I felt the blessings therein and know that God desires the best for us if we simply reach out and apply the principles he has taught us! Because of the temple experience, I am kinda low on time, so I won't be able to say everything on my mind! Please know that I am praying for you guys every day, and you are always in my thoughts!
Con todo mi amor,
Elder Kyle Raven
