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
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