E-mail (Dated: 2/01/2017)

Hola Family,

It´s weird to think that I've already been gone a week. This week has been really good. Most my questions that you all have been asking me I answered in a little voice recording thing that you sent me. I´ll see if I can figure out how to send that over. But just in case I guess I´ll tell you a little bit about my experience.

Mom, you asked me why it was taking me so long to get through security. The reason behind it was because the thing kept on beeping at me and so they wouldn´t let me through. Also they made me switch lines a few times because some guy went through trying to take drugs or something. Once through though I found a group of missionaries and I met up with Elder Gundersen, who I had gone all through school with. After a while I saw this tall guy in a suit coming and I went and greeted him and he actually turned into be my companion. The flight over was really tough and I couldn´t rest very easily. I arrived and met back up with Elder wright and we gathered everyone and went through this huge line to get our passports checked, it made the one at the Salt lake airport seem small. Once through we just kind of chilled, because nobody showed up for us for like an hour. It was hot and we had been on a long flight and were starving. Then we had a guy a the airport come and pick us up. He told us the drive to the CCM wasn't far but it actually took around an hour and a half. The streets are crazy here, they make Blake and I look like the safest drivers alive. Not to mention that people were in the middle of the streets selling bananas and apples and lots of tacos. Then we got to the CCM and were given packets with our name tags in them, our companion, and our room number and our daily planners. After we were told some rules we went out to send our parents just a quick email and then we went to our dorms. I took top bunk and Elder Wright took the bottom. We room with Elder Page from Lehi and Elder Mortensen from Herriman.

The rest of the night was pretty busy and we were constantly just going to meetings and that night we got pizza which made me really happy. That night I was asked if the next day I could give a prayer in Spanish.... that was one way to freak me out and another reason why it was hard for me to fall asleep. However, I actually slept well once I fell asleep. Dad I´ll tell you what that alarm clock you got me is hecka annoying and is really loud, but it does the job.

The next day we basically all orientation and meetings all day long, not to mention a lot of Spanish. That night we had a meeting with our Branch president and he asked me to be District leader. I´ll tell you the truth that I was a little scared, but I´ve realized that it´s a good thing for me. So yeah that was the big surprise of my week. The rest of the week kind of dragged on because every day is like ground hog day and just repeats, and not knowing too much Spanish makes it hard. However, I can actually understand quite a bit. On Friday, I noticed that one of the other district leaders wasn´t doing well and I offered to give him a blessing. It was a cool experience for one of my first nights out here and I knew that God gave me the words to say to him. I found out that it´s because his mom died for years ago right about this time, and in the blessing I knew God gave me those words to say to him, even though I had no idea previous to the blessing.

On Thursday last week we started giving lessons to our teacher also our investigator. Those have been really tough without knowing the words to say. However, I´ve been surprised to see how much I know now, especially since it has only been a week. Another thing, if my spelling sucks it´s because the computers keyboards here are a little different and also I´ve been listening to Spanish straight for over a week and so I´m forgetting how to spell things in Spanish.

My teachers are really cool. My favorite one is Hermana Valquez, and she is literally half my height which is hilarious. My other favorite is Hermana Perez. They mostly speak to us in Spanish, but in English when we need it.

I´ll tell you what I eat a lot of food and it´s muy bueno. I have already gained six pounds since being here, but that only means I´ve gained back some of what I lost before hand hahaha. I get gym time everyday so I´m working out and that gives me some breathing room.

I´ve had some pretty spiritual moments these past few days and some really close times with the Savior. I know why I´m here and I´m happy here. The love of the people here is real and yo se que mi salvador is watching over us and he is watching over me right now. I have felt is love, I have felt His hand and I have felt His spirit.

My district is all pretty cool, however, there are only seven of us, but I´m the only district leader, which is weird because I thought my companion would be too, but we just call me the dad and him the mom of the family. In my district we have Elder Harmon, Elder Wright, Elder Gunderson, Elder Thompson, Elder Johnson and Hermana Johnson, Hermana Merrill. Every one gets a long pretty well, but I´ve seen some struggles in all of them after being here and just watching. It´s hard for me to get them to do anything on time and to go to bed, but those are pretty much our only issues.

I love you all and I´ll try to respond as fast as possible.

(Here is an AUDIO FILE that Brandon sent us today. So great to hear his voice!)