Week Four

This week has actually been really boring and normal. Haha! On Saturday we got to teach real people from outside ¨the wall¨ and that was really cool! We taught 2 teenage girls who are members of the church, but they were really nice and spoke really slowly for us to understand! Haha! 

Then I got the chance to lead all the music in our sacrament meeting; and I never really did that before except a couple of times when I was 12, but it was good and I´m pretty sure they´ll have someone new do it this week haha! 

I´m getting super pumped to go to Uruguay, but I´m also really scared because I am not sure I´m all that ready for it! But I know I´ll learn a ton as soon as I get out there! And I´m so excited to start teaching people about the Gospel and see it bring joy and blessings into their lives! I know it’s going to be hard, but I would not be learning much if I wasn´t having to struggle all the time! I´ve had so many spiritual experiences now and I know that the Lord is leading me every day cause there’s no way I could do this by myself! 

I´ve been trying to memorize right around 220 words a day so that when I leave the CCM I kind of have a basic Spanish vocabulary, but we’ll see how many words I actually get memorized haha! I love it here and I´m looking forward to seeing the people of Uruguay! 

This week our district has been helping the newest missionaries learn Spanish and it’s so awkward because I feel like I don´t know anything haha! Anyways love y´all! I pray for everyone back home every day! Hope y´all are doing well! I will be emailing on Wednesday next week and next week and my last week here in Mexico! See y´all in less than 2 years! 

Love,

Elder Cole  

A little from his family email:

I heard from another missionary about the politics going on at home... I´m kinda glad I won´t be in the US for a couple years... Yes, we get recess every day for an hour and we play basketball or volleyball most days, it´s really nice to just let go and not have to think about Spanish for a little while. Today for P-day we did some cleaning, 

That’s so cool that Mariah will be serving right next to me! That´ll be awesome to talk about our missions in 2 years! 

This week was kinda rough for my Spanish cause I´m still really lost and they are cutting our study time down so that we can teach more ¨investigators¨ so I have absolutely zero time to study just Spanish except during meals. I´ve been receiving a lot of personal revelation lately! It’s been incredible! I can be so lost with what I am going to teach my investigator next, and then I pray and I just feel the Spirit and I just know what needs to be said, and I´m not even teaching real people yet!  

Last Sunday I lead the music in sacrament meeting! Good thing I learned when I was a deacon or that would have been really embarrassing!  

Overall the CCM is great and I´m loving it here! Love y´all! See ya in 699 days! 

-Elder Cole

Ps: My umbrella broke.

Week Three

This week has been a ton of fun! I feel like the days are starting to get easier! Here at the CCM the days are long and the weeks feel short. General Conference was so awesome! It was so cool to be a missionary and watch General Conference in the CCM. My favorite talk was by Elder M. Russell Ballard! I just loved it and how he talked about remembering those moments throughout your life when you've felt the Spirit the strongest! 

My district is now the oldest district in our zone and its kinda weird cause we just got here Haha! But its fun to see the new guys come in every week and remember what my first day was like! This week has definitely been easier than the ones before and I´m really starting to feel the Spirit and love being here! 

This week we had to eat Serrano chilies as a penalty for speaking too many English words during our English fast. I got the biggest one and it was pretty hot, but I survived and the Mexican guys say that if you eat chilies you´ll speak better Spanish! Haha! I´m so lucky to be here! I´ve never been more sure that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! I love talking about the gospel and I'm starting to feel more comfortable in using my broken Spanish haha! I started enjoying it so much more after I just decided that my Spanish was going to be bad and I was gunna talk anyway! Haha! 

Anyways I hope y´all´s week has been great! Miss y´all but there's nowhere I´d rather be right now than here! I also met an Hermana from Royal! Hermana Noftle! She said she was supposed to find me and say hi from Curtis and Lue! Haha! That was pretty cool to see someone from home! 

Love,

Elder Cole

A few tidbits from the family email:

Hey Ma! This week has been great! General conference was a blast here at the CCM. We got to watch it in English so that was nice and I´ve never enjoyed General Conference more. Its kinda funny though cause all of us missionaries are dead tired all the time and so whenever we aren't actively doing something, we crash and it was so hard to stay awake for conference! Missionaries were asleep everywhere haha! 

Our lessons are going well, but its still hard sometimes.... I'm just glad I´m not teaching real people yet. The weather has been pretty nice, it rains in short bursts every so often. We ate our chili's this week from last weeks English fast and it was really hot! I ended up with the biggest pepper! But it was good, I survived and feel more prepared for the food in the field now Haha! But they say that people in South America don't like spicy foods so we´ll see. 

We practice taught with another district yesterday that has been here the same amount of time and it was great because I realized that I actually have a pretty good handle on Spanish and the gospel, I´m not cocky, just excited that I´m doing a little better than others haha! Most of that district is going to my mission too so I might see them there. I looked at a better map of my mission and it isn't as big as I thought! My mission is almost exactly half of the country.... the south eastern half. So my mission has all the coast and the other is all inland. 

Love,

Elder Cole

Us at the auditorium for General Conference.

I got the biggest pepper.

This is the case I got for you Ma.

This is mine since I will be baptizing hopefully.

The temple

Week Two

From Jaycie: We can't get the new pics to load except one, something is wrong on Elder Cole's end :( On another note, Elder Cole was dead set on not bringing an umbrella because he said he would not use it even though Uruguay is very rainy. Well his email is refreshing by showing that Mom was right :)

Email:

Just after emailing last week, we went back to our casa and found that our bedroom door was locked and we couldn't get in! So me and my companion and a maintenance guy broke into our window! Haha! Then I shut our door the next day and locked us out again, but I didn't want to tell maintenance and look like an idiot, so me and my companion used what we could  and I unscrewed the screen to our bedroom window and I squeezed through the frame. Good thing I'm skinny!  My companion has been sick lately and so that has made giving lessons a challenge, but it's been good. I've really learned to follow the spirit! Last Sunday I blessed the sacrament in Spanish and got it on my first try. It was a proud moment. My spanish is still terrible, but I'm getting better and things are looking up! It rains a lot more here in Mexico City than back at home so I've actually used an umbrella for the first time in my life! Haha! (Thanks Mom for forcing me to bring one) ;)Yesterday my district did an "English fast". We went all day without speaking English and kept track of how many English words we each said.. Anyone that spoke more than 10 English words, has to eat a serrano chile and anyone who said more than 20 has to eat a habanero. I said 15 words...5 were on purpose after I reached ten. Everyone in our district has to eat a chile except two elders. Today we went to the temple, it was great. The food hasn't been too bad here, I just have to be careful not to make myself sick trying too many new things at once. I make sure I don't eat the beans more than three meals in a row Haha! Anyways love y'all! This mission is an awesome experience, and hard, but totally worth it and I feel the Spirit more everyday!
Love,
Elder Cole

Little snippets from Elder Cole's letter to the family:

I'm pretty sure that we are in intermediate Spanish and it hasn't been too bad, but it's definitely hard. My companion is serving in Uruguay Montevideo too. We've only had two p-days so far and both times we spend pretty much all day at the temple...but it's good. The temple is so awesome and is waaayyyy bigger than the one in Richland, it has elevators! Yes, I have gotten my package and its so great to get mail cause it breaks up the weekly routine a little...don't feel pressured though. The food isn't bad, some is actually pretty good! But some of it is pretty nasty too, so I just have to be careful what I eat. I'm glad you got the chair back and you didn't have to draw blood! Haha!

My companion has been sick lately and so that has made giving lessons a challenge when we try to prepare and he needs to run to the bathroom, but its been good. I've really learned to rely on the Spirit! Last Sunday I blessed the sacrament in Espanol and got it on my first try! It was a proud moment! My Spanish is still terrible but I'm getting better and things are looking up. You'll be happy to know that I have used my umbrella about five times this week. Thanks for making me take it! ;) Yesterday my district did an "English fast." We went all day without speaking English and kept track of how many English words we each said. Anyone that spoke more than 10 English words has to eat a serrano chile and anyone who said more than 20 has to eat a habanero. I said 15 words...5 were on purpose after I reached 10. Everyone in our district has to has to eat chile except two elders. I will eat a serrano chile on Monday. One of our teachers is supplying the chilies because the MTC probably would not approve so we are doing it quietly. 

Week One

Top three favorites of the week:

#1 My district

#2 The Mexico City Temple

#3  My Companion

These last couple weeks have been pretty crazy! I'll apologize for the spelling, I'm not used to these Spanish keyboards! On my way to Mexico I ran into a guy from Pasco, Elder Whitbey, he has family in Connell so that's pretty cool! I also ran into the BYU woman's basketball coach at the Salt Lake City airport and I talked to him for a little while! That was kinda cool! My first companion is Elder Christensen from Kentucky and he's a super cool guy, but he likes to sing and so I'll be singing a little more than usual lately! Haha! My district is super small, I think the smallest one here, but I love them, they're all super cool and hard working people! I've had a lot of cool experiences and have met a lot of new people! The Spanish has been drowning me, but I'm getting better and so hopefully by the time I leave the MTC I won't be totally awful! Haha! We went to the temple today and it is so cool! Totally different than the one at home! It's been rough being away from y'all and from my family, but I know this is where I need to be! The Lord has blessed my life so much in the week and a half that Ive been here and I just love feeling the Spirit! Its been a long week and a half, but there's no where I'd rather be! Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Cole

Here are some snippets from his personal letter to the family:

Hey Ma! The MTC is super beautiful and the people here are the best! There's 7 of us in our district. We started out with 8 but one elder went home. We have the smallest district in the whole MTC. Elder Christensen is my first companion, he's from Louisville Kentucky. He's pretty cool. You and dad would be so proud of me cause I've tried like everything we've had to eat except salad ;) I'll deal with that when I have to! You and dad don't need to worry, I'm doing fine and you've raised me right. The chocolate milk just isn't the same here. I met Elder Whitbey on the plane from Salt Lake and we live in the same house. The Spanish is kicking my butt and everyday I'm exhausted when we go to bed and even more tired when I wake up; but I'm so glad to be here and start learning how I can help the people of Uruguay. We went to the temple today! The Mexico City temple is so much bigger than the one at home and is so much different looking! It was crazy doing the endowment ceremony in Spanish, but it was fun! I just got news that I have a package today, but I'll have to pick it up tomorrow. Missionary Package MX is the service that can get me letters the same day. We've been teaching a fake investigator all in Spanish and it has been terrifying! Haha! The first day was awful, but I look forward to it now cause I get better each day! I'm loving my district and my Branch. The spirit is so strong here! Love you guys!