It's the final week in the CCM and things are going great. I am not sure when or if I will be able to email next week with leaving the CCM and all. Know that all is well, and will email/write when I can. I got a couple letters from DearElder this week, I appreciate that. Make sure you are sending things to the Mission Home now. I'll share a few experiences that come to mind from this past week.
It was Wednesday morning and the CCM was in harmony until the "Gringos attacked" (for all of you who don't know that was an Avatar the Last Airbender reference). They arrived right before breakfast and our district was as excited as little kidos at Christmas time. When they arrive in their buses with their luggage blocking all view of them we all couldn't help but be a little excited about the possibility of some new Pday volleyball competition. When they stepped out of the bus they all had that sweet little flabbergasted deer in the head lights kind of look that made us all wonder if we looked the same way when we arrived here five week ago.
This new batch of missionaries brought with them new room mates for Elder Virgin and I. We are in a room with 2 trios one norte trio (Elders Ward, Winward and Ramos) and another latino trio (Elders Avlais, Cayax and Schoepfeld). They are all pretty cool guys are excited to serve and have a whole new set of stories to hear before we leave the CCM next week. We will break them in quick and with care.
There have been a few interesting things that have happened this week. One time this week I woke up like normal and started getting ready for the day. Elder Virgin woke up a few minutes latter and handed me my flashlight. We were both a little confused as to how he could have possibly have gotten his hands on my flashlight through the night. You see we sleep in bunk beds and I'm on the bottom and he is on the top. My flashlight is always on the ground in between the wall and the bunk bed. The only possible way he could have gotten his hands on my flashlight would be to ninja crawl over me and grab it while we were sleeping....we the missionaries of room 204 are slightly worried about the possible sleep walking ninja in the room!
Later this same day the districts; Mateo, Lucas and Job were outside playing volleyball. I hit a hard serve to Elder Whitehead and the ball flew out of his arms - a good 30 feet over the fence. President Cox (the CCM Mission President) was in the area, saw what happened and told me to go jump over the fence and just go grab the ball. I guess a lot of the others in the area didn't see President Cox tell me this and so when I started to climb the fence and jump over Elder Call and a few others started to yell, "He's making a break for it!!" in excitement as they thought I was breaking out of the CCM. I ended up just grabbing the ball and throwing it over but the scene reminded me of one of the parts in the move Matilda when they all cheer as Ms Trunchbul leaves the school. I hopped on back over and we start playing again...but the fun didnt stop there. We started to play some more and right as Hermana Beatty hit the ball, a cannon fire went off. Everyone immediately hit the ground...but I wanted to know what was going on, and since I had just had some fence climbing experience, I ran over to the fence and started to climb. When I was above the fence I looked over yonder and saw the Catholic Monastery across the street doing some kind of celebration. Right as I looked over another cannon fire went off along with a load of firecrackers...scared the bagpipers out of me so I jumped back down. We went on playing, but the random cannon fire added a little twist to the game.
The next morning I woke up pretty early in the morning and was freaked out a little. As I awoke I looked up and saw my room back home, the way to the door was the only thing visible and everything else was pitch dark, so I guess that my brain filled in the rest with what I was most familiar from my memory. It was a creepy experience and left me just a tad homesick. As I sat there thinking about it and trying to figure out what had happened someone in the room was snoring the exact same way Chase used to, and he kept me up just like Chase used to. Normally, I would have to say that I don't really feel to homesick. There are small little burst like this were I am reminded of home but the only other time I really feel homesick is when I we go to the temple on Pdays like today. Every time I go I remember my first time and all of the things and people that were in my life, or the things going on in my life at that time. It's sad but it is kinda therapeutic in a way. Elder Hala gave a lesson on Alma 5 one of the days this week and he talked about a scene from Saving Private Ryan where is says something like, "what is left for me at home? Dead brothers and a mother with a Broken Heart" he gave this quote and then talked about how he isn't really that homesick because there is no other place he would rather be then here and he knows that when he gets back his family will be there for him. I thought about this a little bit and realized I was kinda in the same boat as him. I don't really feel homesick or really miss all of these people who are back at home and are waiting with love for me to return. Then I thought about my new family here. The teachers we have had, the people in my district, President Cox and Sister Cox and all the others that have come and gone here. They are my family, but there is no guarantee that I will see any of my Mateo brothers after this last week in the CCM. We have grown closer then any other district in the CCM and we truly are brothers.
I'm running out of time but I'll share one more experience from this week. We were in district meeting on Sunday and Elders Bastian and Call and Elders Owen and Whitehead taught lessons to us in Spanish. There was a lady in the class who normally wasn't there. At the end of the class she bore her testimony on the effects of what we broken Spanish speaking little gringos can do. She was converted nearly 20 years ago by two elders from the U.S who had the hardest time speaking Spanish but that didn't matter. When they spoke and tried with all of their ability to share the gospel with their hearts, she could feel their spirit, she could feel the things that they said would change her life and would bring her happiness. For me it was a major testament of what we can do here. Until next week if that (maybe later as I will be headed to la Mision Retalhuleu)...Elder Wilcox
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