Last Week at CCM

This week has been pretty crazy. It is my last week at the MTC and then I am going to head of to Puebla on a two hour bus ride. I got called to be the travel leader, which means I have to tell everybody what they are supposed to do when I am not that sure myself. However, I think I got it all sorted out for everyone. It has helped my spanish trying to explain what we need to do to the Latinos going to Puebla.

This week I feel a little bit better about communicating in Spanish. I can have pretty good conversations with the Latinos in my casa now. We talked about swimming, movies, and music. However, I feel like communicating in TRC was very hard. TRC is where less active or actual investigators volunteer to be taught by us, the missionaries. Elder Trendler and I had the opportunity to teach the brother of my teacher, who has not been baptised yet. During this lesson it was very difficult for me I felt like I was not connecting with him, and could only understand half of what he said because he spoke so quickly. However, I think I did an alright job bearing my testimony at the end of the lesson. We also taught a less active member named Luise. I could understand more from him. He cleans houses and is going to college. I felt like I actually could communicate decently with him.

Elder Trendler started having feeling sick yesterday. So we stayed in the casa yesterday for GYM time so he could get some rest and I was able to work and study. Today he seems to be doing a lot better. Talking and hanging out with the whole district has seemed to help him alot. Today I also got my first hair cut in Mexico. I think this is the shortest my hair has been since I was five. They go hard core with the clippers here, but at least I do not have to worry about combing my hair in the morning.

This Tuesday we also had the opportunity to listen to a live broadcasted talk by Elder Bednar one of the Apostles of the Twelve. Elder Bednar talked about how 45 years ago he had the opportunity to watch General Conference in the MTC, but it was called something else. He taught us how he liked to take notes in General Conference. He takes a sheet of paper and divides it into 3 columns. First column is Doctrine and Principle. Second column is Invitation. Third column is Promised Blessings. Then he listens for those three things in the talk and writes them as well as the Spiritual promptings he gets. He can then restudy the talk, apply it to the scriptures, and live it. I have included some pictures of the notes I took for the clips of talks he showed in order for us to practice.

I love and miss you all,

Elder Thompson

PS. Here are some pictures of Elders we liked playing ultimate with, the comedor, my classroom, and the streets of the MTC