July 7th, 2012

Hey what is up mi familia! I am very excited to write the first letter of many, and give you some info on how the MTC or (CCM en Espanol) is going.

 

Well, it was pretty tough getting dropped off when Dad was bawling his eyes out! Holy cow I wasn't expecting that. The rest of the day continued in the exact same fashon, it was all so overwhelming! We went through a room where we recieved our badges, ministerial certificates, and other missionary stuff. Then we had a meeting with all the new Elders and Sisters, there were alot of us, (something like 400) the missionaries came from all over the world, even mainland China if you can believe that. We also had our first class, and yes, the instructor spoke only Espanol.  Surprisingly I could understand most of the things that he said, but when it came down to responding my only response was... uuuuuhhhhhhhh....... no se? Ya it has been very tough trying to learn Spanish. I pray for the gift of tongues mucho mucho todos dias. My companion is Elder Limon from Gilbert Arizona, serving in the Lima North mission which he tells me is mostly jungle.  He is da best guy! I love being his comp, we get along so well. His Dad is from Mexico, but he looks nothing like a mexican, in fact, he is whiter than I am.  His mom is Caucasian and he tells me he got all of her white genes, this is true.

 

There were some serious perks to the first day though, I was able to meet up with a couple of excellent Elderes that I missed very much.  Those were none other than Elder Thatcher! Elder Marsh! Elder Brewer and Larson and sisters Pace and Diedrich and Elder MCPHEE!! It was incredible to see those guys I was so happy! They are doing great, having a blast, Mason speaks Russian which I love.

 

At the end of the first day I remember laying in bed and thinking, "holy cow, this is real, this is real, Im going to be doing this stuff for two years!" No one in my room could sleep, I could hear people tossing and turing for hours,we were all just overwhelmed with the idea that we had begun our missions. however the second day was much better so I'll tell you about it.

 

Getting up at six thirty was not that difficult! If you can believe that. I am very grateful that I took a shower the night before because the line for the showers was epically long. It was nice to actually have a decent breakfast at a decent time. Holy cow p.s. the food here is MUY BUENO I LOVE IT SO MUCH I get to have chocolate milk for every meal, in fact, I get to have any assortment of wonderful food and drink that I can think of. Honestly the only limit is my imagination, its amazing. Im sad I missed out on the Cannon Center this year, but it is probably a good thing becuase I would be morbidly obese if I had that temptation. 

 

After breakfast we went to this workshop/devotional type deal, this was when my MTC experience started to take a 180 degree turn from, "holy crap Im terrified" too, "Yes this is going to be the best two years EVER!" The speaker was a man named brother Tanner, his message to us was that our mission is not about us, in the sense that we are not meant to be the main focus of the investigator, or rather, we are not meant to be there main focus.  Our job is to bring that person closer to their Heavenly Father. When he said that I felt the spirity very strongly, testifiying to me that this was the reason missions are served. It sounds simple, but in the wake of and overwhelming first day and sleepless night, this was a welcome revelation as to what my purpose was in serving a mission.  This knowledge has helped me to cope with these first two days.  Also, the realization that hard things prepare us for greater blessings, and that our heavenly father wants us to trust in him enough to endure those trials before we recieve our witness. 

 

So the experience is turning out to be awesome.  Elder Limon and I only have a few weeks here before we ship off to Peru so we are going to make the most of these three weeks.  Today we teach our first lesson, honestly i don't know how they expect us to do that because I can speak very little spanish. I know the Lord is going to help me to do it. I have the faith! Pray for me, I pray for you :) I miss you all ready.

 

 

XOXOXOXOXO lots of love!    Elder Neff