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Here’s the update from Elder Rees week 2

Hello Everyone,
This week was pretty uneventful at the CCM. Last Thursday I had the opportunity to go to the temple and do an endowment session in Spanish. They provided translators if you wanted one and I took one and listened to it half in Spanish and half in English. At the veil I had to do it in Spanish and fortunately they had a paper that I could just read off of. That was a relief. I got to sit in the Celestial room and pray and remember. It was a good, spiritual experience. The temple is huge! And since most of the city is built on a lake, it sinks every once in a while. If you look at a few of the corner stones you can see how far it’s sunk. I wasn’t able to go look at that yet. I didn’t have time before the session but I’m planning on it. 
The visitors center is really cool here. They have a children’s play and learn section, the Christus statue, and other rooms that tell of the history of the church and the book of Mormon in Mexico. Off behind a gate and a fence but still on temple grounds they have a little store that sells handmade knit ties, cool bags, pins, rings and other stuff. I didn’t have enough time to get a Mexican souvenir either so next time. 
The old CCM used to be on the temple grounds. They have classrooms, cafeterias, dorms, a distribution center, all on the temple grounds right behind the temple! That would have been a cool place to learn the gospel. Within sight of the temple. Unfortunately the CCM got too big and they moved it to an old college and high school that the Church owned. It was probably something like BYU Mexico. 

All of the LDS facilities around, we passed two churches on the way, are fenced in. They have soccer pitches outside the Church buildings too. It was pretty cool to go out and see a little bit of the city. On the way there the bus sang hymns to pass the time. While I was distracted singing, I didn’t get to see how the Mexicans drove. I only saw three stoplights on an hour drive through the city. We didn’t sing on the way back and I got a good long look at how people drive here. While we were stopped at a red light, there was someone who was trying to turn left. And as soon as there was a gap he did! On a red light! Our bus driver passed some people on what was basically the left shoulder of the road, and then had to swerve right back into traffic as soon as he passed the guy because the road narrowed. There are no lanes here that are marked very well and it seems like they don’t follow the lanes even if they are marked. Motorcyclists lane straddle and the other buses and semis are so close that you could reach out the window and touch them without reaching!

Mexico City is a cramped dirty city but the people look pretty happy. Most of the business signs look like they were spray painted and a lot of the billboards as well. There is graffiti everywhere and a lot of it is literal art. Paintings of people and things. It is crazy. I’ll try and take some pictures of that. The houses around the CCM cling to the side of the mountain like halfway up. And most of them are painted green, red, pink, or purple. It’s kind of crazy. It rains all the time here. Even when it looks like it shouldn’t. It is pretty fun. The advice that the people who had been here for a while was take an umbrella everywhere because you never know when it is going to rain. All those poor people who didn’t bring an umbrella. 
I listened to my music for the first time last night. My Acapella and MOTAB music, and the acapella was a surprising hit with my district. Especially The Lion Sleeps Tonight. I received a blessing of comfort last Monday and it really helped me feel better. I miss home still, and think about it, but I no longer want to be there right now. It helped me focus on Sunday and throughout the week. My Branch presidency is the coolest. President Suaste is super funny, Hermano Torres cares so much, to the point that he brought his family to the missionary church on Sunday, and Hermano Lopez is only a few years older than us and he loves his missionaries a lot. They are a huge comfort to me and an inspiration.
We had a seventy come to speak on Tuesday for our second weekly devotional. He was really good and kept us entertained with his funny stories and jokes. It was a good talk and I enjoyed it. Our MTC president, President Bennett is a cool guy. He sits with the missionaries at meals, takes their trays when their done, and he gives good talks. I love him and I haven’t even met him personally. On Tuesday we have a Pre devotional where people sing and play the piano. The Pianist this time played Army of Helaman and the one the kids really like. Then five or six sisters sang If You Could Hie to Kolob and Come Thou Fount in a medley accompanied by Piano, flute, and violin. It was super pretty and I wish that I could have recorded it for you.
On the plane I met a sister who reminded me of Chandler. Hermana Johnson. She even looked a little bit like you Chan. She had the same kind of humor and caring for everyone. There is one in my district as well. It makes the district feel a little more like home. We are all getting along pretty well. There have been a few issues that we worked out. Nothing major. 
The food here is different but the Lord has been good to me. Last week I was thinking about Mom’s roast beef Sunday dinner and how much I was going to miss it. The next day, I got a roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy dinner. A few days before I was thinking about all the chocolate chip cookies I was going to miss and at lunch there was chocolate chip cookies. And Tuesday I said that I wanted a brownie, and yesterday at lunch, there were brownies. The Lord likes to show his hand in little ways in my life. On Trek and now on my mission. I’m very grateful for those tender mercies.
The wildlife here is pretty interesting. There are pretty flowers, bushes with colored leaves, green parrots, and a little red and black bird that only shows up when I don’t have my camera. The birds chirp and squawk all day. They are never quiet. The thing that I see the most of but that hasn’t affected me except as a minor nuisance, (Another tender mercy) are the mosquitoes. They come in through the windows, which are always open because there is no AC in any room except for the chapels, and they fly around outside. Everyone is constantly clapping and slapping and grabbing for mosquitoes. Especially when they come in at dusk or dawn and we forget to shut the windows.
We have mock investigators that we teach. They are our teachers. Me and Elder Bird have enough command over the language that we’ve started to teach without notes. This has helped us connect more and give us a little leeway over how the lesson goes. It’s pretty fun and I’m excited to try it on real people. Three and a half more weeks. Apparently Elder Bird and I are an abnormality in the system. The CCM tries to put a more knowledgeable Spanish speaking Gringo with a less knowledgeable gringo Spanish speaker. Elder Bird and I are both pretty knowledgeable Spanish Speakers. Maybe the Lord knew that we would get attached to our gringo district and that we wouldn’t want to leave for a Latino district so he put us together so that our Spanish would continue to improve. Tender Mercies everywhere. Like President Smith likes to say. There are NO coincidences.
I got lucky enough to be here just in time for independence day for Mexico. According to teachers things get pretty wild around here. Fireworks, loud music, guns, and crowds of people celebrating. It will be an exciting thing to hear, because of the wall and the teachers don’t want us to go out just in case a stray bullet comes over the fence. We’ll be okay though if we follow the rules. They have a famous basilica here that has a monks robe in it, and tons of people come every year to see it. We won’t be here by then though. But that was pretty crazy.
We were the last big shipment of missionaries. There were three flights out of Utah that day that all came to Mexico and all were carrying lots of missionaries. Over a hundred and twenty of us. There were Sixty missionaries on my flight, sixty on Elder Butlers Flight through Los Angeles, and another one that flew direct. Most of the CCM leaves the CCM next Tuesday. They are all on their last week and then It’s going to get a lot emptier.
Have fun in Cancun Grandma and Papa. Good luck aunt Ange, and aunt Care. Hello little Sienna and Henry. I love you all and am happy doing the will of the Lord and teaching his gospel. Happy Birthday Brimley since I won’t get to email then.
Love,
Elder Rees