Were shall I begin....
I asked Justin if he recieved our letters in the mail: I recieved one dear elder letter. By the way tell everyone and their dog to write me. It is seriously the greatest thing when missionaries get mail. (mom note: If you click on "dear elder" link above you can write Justin a letter that will be printed off and mailed to him. It is FREE. He will then get mail during the week and will have time to actually read them!!)
Arrival
First things first I made it here alive. Second, on the plane ride to Mexico City I meet an Elder named Elder Jarvis. No real relevance except that he has siblings that are all the same age as mine and we both played football in high school so I thought that was pretty dope. For those of you who do not know my carry on luggage was practically luggage covered in the American Flag. My suggestion, if you ever travel outside of the United States dont bring an American Flag suitcase. I got so many death stares that I wasnt even sure that I would make it to the MTC. Luckily, I escaped in one piece. The drive from the airport to the MTC was just as memorable. If you thought drivers in Springfield were bad then basically you are living in paradise. In Mexico City there are zero traffic laws that are enforced. So we nearly killed about 10 people on the way to the MTC. People just walk in the middle of the street trying to sell stuff and it is just crazy. When we arrived it was pouring. They said it was one of the worst rains they have had in a couple of months. Good start to the week.
Companion
Basically my companion is a 6´5 huge super athletic guy. Just kidding. He is 5´7 and can barely shoot a basketball. Still they dude is awesome. His name is Elder Thomas. We hit it off from the beginning and have been killing it ever since. He has a love for the gospel and loves to work so I cant complain. He is from Utah and was a swimmer. He is neighbors to one of my dads mission companions so that is pretty awesome too.
 |
| Elder Shanklin and Elder Thomas at the Mexcio City CCM |
Goolash 2.0
If any of you have ever been to some sort of summer camp like scout camp for example then you know exactly what goolash is. If you don´t you should be glad. Basically it is were they take a bunch of random ingredients throw it all together and make a meal out of it. Nobody ever ate it. If you want to know what the food is like down here than that is your answer. Sometimes I dont even know exactly what is on my plate when I get it. Even the american food taste average down here. Like we had pizza and corn dogs one time and they were not as nearly as good as they were when I was in America. If you thought American cafeteria food was bad then come to Mexico.
Spanish
Having taken a few years in high school and being placed in the intermediate class I expected to be decent at spanish. Let me tell you something. As soon as I arrived I was humbled because I understood nothing of what came out of peoples mouths. Slowly as the week has progressed it has slowly come back to me but I feel that I have a ton more learning left to do. Crazy to think that I have been here only a week and I feel like I have learned quite a bit of spanish.
3 Days of Darkness
Im gonna be honest here the first 3 days at the MTC were some of the hardest in my life. I wasn't as homesick as I thought I would be but I still missed everyone. It was crazy to think that I wouldnt see them for 2 years. Plus the first couple days you really didn't even know anyone so you just kinda chilled there. The third day the expected to teach a 20 min lesson in only spanish too. It is really hard to explain the difficulties of the first three days unless you really experience them. However, right now I feel awesome and I can't describe how excited I am.
 |
| Elder Shanklin and his CCM District at the Mexico City Temple |
1 Week Down, 103 to Go...but who is counting
First week is done and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Lets hope the other weeks go a little faster. Miss everyone the fam, Macy, Pierson, Taylor, and everyone back home. The people around here are about as athletic as rocks so I'm missing the courts league too. Only athletic person here is someone who has a full ride to play basketball for the UTES.
Lots of emotions right now so I'm not sure if i got everything across that I needed to, but we will just learn.
 |
| Elder Shanklin and his district at the visitors center Mexico City Temple |
Much Love
Elder Shanklin
No comments:
Post a Comment