Letter #3 - ¿En Serio?

Hola Familia!

I miss you guys! (Don't worry, I am not homesick). I love you guys so much!

The weeks here in the CCM kinda all just mesh together. I Need to bring my journal when I email home because I have a hard time remembering what happened during which week...

So let's just jump right in!

Last Friday I went to the Temple! It was AWESOME. That Temple is HUGE. The chapel is literally the size of a Stake Center's chapel. Maybe even bigger. It was cool doing a session in Spanish. Friday night we had a devotional with Elder Gay from the Quorum of the Seventy. He talked about how we need to teach repentance and listen to the spirit.

Saturday: We decided from now on we are only speaking is Spanish besides at meals and in our house. It is really hard sometimes, but we all know that it will make us better in the end. We also started something called TRC. I am not sure what it stands for in Spanish, but it is when we teach actual investigators or members from Mexico City. It gets kinda awkward sometimes, but it is still fun. Saturday night our district had a "feelings night". We went around the circle and told everyone what we loved about them. Everyone basically just told me that they could tell I truly loved and cared for them and that I was a natural leader. It was really sweet of them. Hermana Bradshaw said that I had this insane connection to the spirit. She said that I have the ability to bare testimony in a way where she always feels the spirit. It was a nice night.

Sunday: Sundays are always just awesome here. Sacrament meeting is always just so peaceful and quiet. Sunday night we had a devotional with the MTC President. President Bennett is awesome. He told two stories. One was about this guy named Billy who had been in Prison and was involved in gangs and stuff. Before He went to jail he had been a witness in court against some members of his gang. When he was in Jail he really started to think about his life and how messed up it was. He was a member of the church when he was younger but really fell away after his dad died. So as he was sitting in his cell, He prayed to his Father. He asked his father for help and that he wanted to change his life. Almost immediately after his prayer at 3 am in the morning, the jail cell opened and a guard told him that the Jail needed more space and that he was the next one up, so he was free to go. Billy thought that it was a plot by his old gang and that they were waiting for him outside ready to kill him. He lived about 5 miles away from the jail, so he had to walk home scared for his life. He was hiding behind bushes and crawling along the ground. When he finally got to his neighborhood, he decided he was going to just full on sprint to his house. he turned the corner and right before he even began to sprint, a shadowy figure stepped in front of him. The man said, "Billy?" and Billy said, "yeah, I'm Billy, who are you?" and the man said, "Billy, I am your bishop. Your father sent me." The point of the story was that that Bishop must have had an amazing faith and response to the spirit. He woke up in the middle of the night and felt prompted to go to this man's neighborhood. We all need to be ready for those moments that the Spirit directs us.

The second story was about President Uchtdorf and watches. Apparently, he collects watches. President Bennett used to work across the street from the Church headquarters and apparently has worked with president Uchtdorf multiple times. He talked about how President Uchtdorf was invited to an induction into the Aviation something hall of fame. I cannot remember the exact name. The gift for being inducted was a $10,000collectible watch. However, President Uchtdorf was unable to attend and did not receive his watch. Long story short, The head of this watch company used to be a member. A really active member. He was even in the temple videos. So President Bennett contacted him and told him how President Uchtdorf did not receive his watch, and he agreed to get him one. President Bennett called the secretary of President Uchdorf and told her the whole story and that he has the watch for him and the secretary said, "oh, well he will be so happy to hear that. Here, let me transfer you to his office." President Bennett actually got to talk with President Uchtdorf on the phone. That is awesome. He was really excited about it. President Bennett mentioned his concerns for this inactive member and Uchtdorf said, "Well how about we arrange a time for you to come and give me the watch personally. Invite (I cannot remember his name) as well." So President Bennett and this watch company CEO went and delivered this watch to President Uchtdorf. They had lunch together and had good conversations. At the end of lunch, President Uchtdorf said, "So I understand that you are no longer active in our church..." the man sunk his head and said yes that is correct. Uchtdorf said, "What can I do to help you return to church?" President Bennett jumped in and said, "Do you understand how special this is? It is not everyday that a member of the Quorum of the Twelve offers his help!" After he had said that, President Uchtdorf set his hand on top of President Bennett's hand almost like saying, "I got this. Shut up." President Uchtdorf then said, "I do not want to help you because I am an apostle... I want to help you because I love you, because I am a member of this church, and that is what we do." It was an awesome story.

Monday: Hermana Bradshaw asked me to give her a blessing. She has been having allergic reactions to medications. So that was fun.

Tuesday: Tuesday night we had a devotional that was a live broadcast from The Provo MTC. President M Russell Ballard spoke. He talked about how a love for the work means success. My favorite quote was, "You need not wait to be great." If you want to be great, then be great. stop holding yourself back. He said that if you can go to bed each night and honestly tell God that you tried your hardest every day, THAT is what makes a successful missionary.

Wednesday: We had interviews with our Branch President. President Machado. He is an awesome human being. I expressed my concerns about Elder ******

to him and how he has a Pride issue. I told him that I cannot ask him to do anything without him blowing up on me. I told him that I fear telling him things because last time he told me he wanted to beat the crap out of me... President Machado said, "Well yes, that is a problem. However, it is YOUR job as zone leader to call him out on his pride issue and invite him to repent." I was terrified. It is the duty of a zone leader to correct and be responsible for the wrong doings in the zone. I cannot tell him that and live to see tomorrow. I expressed my concerns to him and he said, "If you are doing the right thing, you have the Lord with you, and you need not fear." It was a very true statement, but I am still worried about having to tell him he needs to repent... President machado said that I cannot be a passive leader, but I also cannot be an aggressive leader. I need to find somewhere in between. So that is what I have to look forward to. I am praying for the guidance and strength I need.

Thursday: Happy Birthday Natalie! Elder Jorgensen threw up twice... So I just sat around studying all day. It was fun. He is better today though.

To explain the title of this email... En Serio just means "Are you Serious?" Elder Rowe says it to about everything and I think it is SO hilarious. He just says it at the most random times.

I learned this week that dear elder letters take about 3 weeks to get here... so PLEASE, if you want to send me letters, send them through www.missionarypackagemx.com Thanks!

I am LOVING my mission. I Learn more and more each day. My testimony is stronger than it has ever been, and I look forward to growing it even more.

I got a HLJ (CTR) ring as well as a new temple recommend holder. I included pictures below.

Love you all,

Elder Bullough

Letter #2 - Zona What??

Hola Familia,

yes, that is right, I am no longer a district leader, I am a zone leader. Our branch got a new district this week which means we needed zone leaders. Elder Jorgensen and I are the Zone Leaders.

Thank you, mom and dad, for the letter and care package. Thank you, James, for the letter. I like receiving mail. Brother Yuen also sent me donuts. I loved it haha.

Things here are good. I realized this week that my description of the CCM was very poor. So I will try again. The CCM actually use to be a High School campus. It must have been a private school because it is a giant open space in the middle of an enormous city. The CCM is on 90 acres of land. It also isn't just one building. It is multiple buildings. We also all live in houses instead of dorms. There are 5 rooms in a house with 4 elders in each room. I will include a picture of my house.

Mexico city was actually built on a lake. There is this whole story behind the emblem on the Mexican flag. Apparently, the city is sinking pretty rapidly. It sunk 4 centimeters last year.

Saturday: Not much happened. There are a lot of spiritual experiences in the CCM. Every single class I am in, I feel the spirit. I love it. I never felt the spirit this much back home. sometimes I have withdrawals from not having a phone. Sometimes it is my instinct to check my phone for the time... but I do not even have one haha. But I

definitely like being separated from it all.

Sunday: Sundays here at the CCM are so awesome. Sacrament meeting is so quite because there are no babies or little children. Elder Jorgensen and I were asked to teach Priesthood. It was on Faith and Hope. It went well. I ended up telling the story of Hyrum and the snake again and relating it to Faith and Hope. They seemed to like it. Sunday night Elder ******* pulled me aside and basically told me, I was a horrible district leader. While it may not have been the way to tell me, It definitely opened my eyes to what I needed to change. Things are better between us now. I ended up praying for guidance and asking Heavenly Father for challenges I could give my district to make us more effective. For the first time in my life, I did not receive revelation for one thing, but I immediately started feeling impressions for individuals. So I decided to write letters to each member of my district and I extended very personalized challenges to all of them. A lot of them came to me and said thank you and that it was what they needed. It made me appreciate Heavenly Father and the power of prayer more. I also learned on Sunday that Elder ******** went home... He was the very first missionary I met at the Salt Lake Airport... After everything I have been through, It makes me feel a deep love and sorrow for him. I hope he can work on his needs and get back out soon. Sunday night we watched a devotional from Elder Bednar given a few years ago. He talked about how the natural man is like the cookie monster. He talked like cookie monster and talked about how he wanted cookies NOW. It was pretty funny. He also talked about how when cookie monster finally gets cookies, he devours it, crumbs fly everywhere. I relate it to the story of Gideon and how he weeded out the weak. He only chose those who were not afraid and who also cupped their hands with water instead of drinking of the water face first. Those three hundred men that Gideon chose defeated an army that could not even be numbered without drawing a sword. amazing. 

Monday: We spent a lot of time talking about revelation. We got some time to go sit alone in a wooded area and seek personal revelation. I have always known that God was there, but I never really asked Him if He was there... That was the revelation I prayed for and I felt and an enormous amount of peace and happiness. I felt the spirit for a straight three hours after that. Nonstop. I loved it. It made me know without a doubt that God is aware of me and that he loves me.

Tuesday: At the devotional on Tuesday night, we learned that President Russell M Nelson will be coming to the CCM in two weeks to talk to us. I am SO excited. He could be our next prophet. The devotional that night though was by and area seventy named Miguel A Reyes. It was pretty good. it was about worthiness. something he said very briefly stuck with me, though. He mentioned the concept of "Exact Righteousness" I really pondered on that and I personally believe that Exact obedience is just a step to being exactly righteous. I feel like Exact Righteousness is when you are exact in all things... Exact obedience, Exact hope, Exact faith, Exact love. I really liked that concept.

Wednesday: That was the day that I found out I was becoming a zone leader. Honestly, at first, I was a little upset. In the CCM the only thing that zone leaders do is plan sacrament meeting. District leaders do so much more. I liked being district leader because I felt like I was doing something. I felt like I was inspiring people... But then I realized it doesn't matter. It was the spirit that was inspiring, I was just listening. Now it is Elder Rowe's turn to inspire. And if he needs help from his zone leader, then I will be there.

Thursday: Elder Jorgensen got three bloody noses. I felt so bad for him. He has been getting a lot since we have been at the MTC... We also committed one of our "Investigators" to baptism. It was awesome. Especially because preaching in Spanish is hard.

Today I get to go to the temple! I am super, super excited. I am not excited for the hour drive each way though. 

I love it here. I learn new things every day. It is really cool just focusing on the basics of the gospel. There is always more to learn, but if you only know the basics, your life will be blessed.

I love you all so much. Write me letters! I love receiving them. We check the mail every day. 

Love, 

Elder Bullough

Letter #1 - Elder Bullough has arrived!

Hola Familia! 

This has been the craziest two weeks of my life! My flight to Utah was pretty boring. It really was interesting to look around and see how much technology has taken over people's lives. I encourage you all to put your phones down or away every day for even just two hours to people watch. People now and days use technology to block out the world around them. It is pretty interesting.

Once I arrived in Utah and got to my next gate, I only saw one other Elder. Elder Reynolds from Boise Idaho. Our flight ended up having just over 20 Elders, and 8 Hermanas. Pretty large group. The plane had free movies. Like always, there are the elders that are disobedient and were watching them. Most of us just talked or watch the flight tracker for our flight.

Once we landed, things got pretty hectic pretty quickly. First off, there are Mexican Military on the grounds of the airport everywhere. we went to get our bags, and both of mine were there, so that is always good. Customs was easy, all of them spoke English and we just had to press this red button. Mine turned green, but if it turned red, then they search your luggage. 

After that, we were ushered together and told to wait. These two latinos came over and started checking our names off of a list and collecting our passports for safe keeping. The same Men took us all to a big yellow school bus where we all loaded in and piled our suitcases in the back.

Drivers in Mexico City are INSANE.... Our bus driver was basically flooring it all the way to the CCM. lines are painted on the road, but in all honesty, they don't exist. cars are constantly swerving in and out, and they are ALWAYS honking.

Mexico City is beautiful. Not in the way that you would expect, but it has a very close and comfy feeling to it. There is so much culture to take in. There are old rusted statues that have turned green that look so cool. 

We passed the temple on our way to the CCM. It looks like an Aztec temple. It is stunning. Look up pictures of it. 

once we got to the MTC, it felt like we were entering a prison. The bus had to go through three gates. I will include a picture of the wall, but basically, it looks like they built a wall and thought it wasn't tall enough, so they built another one on top of that, and then still thought it needed to be taller, so they built a barbed wire fence on top of that. Crazy.

Once we unloaded, We met the MTC president. President Bennett. He is awesome. He has only been the president for 3 weeks. After that, we walked inside of one of the buildings and they asked for our tablets and basically made sure we had installed everything correctly and put their wifi password in. We got packets with all the information we needed. including our name tags. It was pretty exciting to make it official and put on those tags. My packet also told me my branch, district, and companion.

I am in District 12B. My companion is Elder Jorgenson. He is from Ogden Utah and is serving his mission in Chicago. My district is really odd compared to the other ones here at the CCM. Most districts have a single set of sisters and 8 Elders. My district has four Elders and six Hermanas. All of us are serving stateside. two sisters and two elders are serving in Provo... im serving in Dallas, Elder Jorgenson is serving in Chicago, Sister Bradshaw and Caldwell are serving in Redlands California, Hermana Doyle is serving in San Jose California, and Hermana Smith is serving in Fort Worth Texas.

The CCM use to be a high school campus. It isn't one building, it is a ton of separate buildings. I live in casa 22. there are 6 rooms with 4 elders in each room. All four of the elders from my district are in the same room. Elder Rowe from Missouri, Elder Youngblood from Tennessee, and then Elder Jorgenson and myself.

Sorry, i didn't write last week. I didn't know we wouldn't be able to write until after i sent that message. 

Spanish is hard. but the gift of tongues is real. I know it is because i can't even think in English or Spanish. my mind is in the process of flipping. it is really cool. 

Elder Jorgenson after the first night of sleep developed a bump on his neck. it kept growing each day so we went the clinic. It is still there, but it is getting smaller now.

on the WWednesdayafter I had arrived, we had branch president interviews. He sat down with each of the Elders and asked them to bare their testimony about Christ. After the four of us had been interviewed, he came back in and explained the purpose of a district leader. He then asked me if I would accept the calling of District Leader. Of course, I said yes. 

If you would like to send me mail for me to read during the week, or even packages ordered from Mexico (i heard you can send Krispy Kreme) you can go to www.missionarypackagemx.com 

As District leader, I check the mail every day except for Sunday.

to answer mom's question about my birthday, no one knew it was my birthday. I didn't tell anyone because it is not my time to take. I would be taking the Lord's time. One of the hermanas found out that night somehow and they sang happy birthday to me.

Not a whole lot has happened. I'm in class all day really. we teach our teachers as they play the role as an investigator. It is a pretty cool experience. We are learning to stick to the basics. Especially when you don't know the language. The Doctrine of Christ is simple. And by simple truths, the Holy Ghost testifies.

As for things with my companion.... It is a little difficult only because I am trying my hardest to follow the rules strictly. I am trying to be exactly obedient. Other Elders don't care. I am the only one that can approve splits, but in the handbook, it says only do splits for medical purposes or physical activity. The other Elders tend to call me annoying for being too strict. It is hard finding a happy medium. It kinda surprised me how many elders cuss. no one in my district does, but in our house, they throw swear words around all the time.

Elder Youngblood has this crazy ab workout that we do every night. It is killer. I hurt every morning because of it. 

The food here is really good. It doesn't really sit with my stomach right, but it still is delicious. 

love always,

Elder Bullough