LAST Week in CCM!

September 23, 2016
    Well we finally got a full P-day without interruption from field trips, consulate trips, temple trips, etc.  It was so nice.  Laundry was done by 12, I was exhausted from sports by 3, and we finished emailing early enough to get a long nap in before the evening started.  Honestly, it was so nice, especially the nap.  There is not much else that happened.  I had a completely unproductive language study last night.  I just talked with one of the Hermanas about music for an hour.  One more week to go.  Next Thursday is our last day of formal classroom.
September 24, 2016
    Still sick, still tired, still don’t understand Spanish.  Not much else to say honestly.  Our lesson with Fernandia was interesting.  Her novio showed up halfway through the lesson and we had to explain why we were telling her that she should move out of his house so that she could be baptized.  It was pretty awkward to do with broken Spanish.  Nothing much else happened until we all started our fast.  I just got back from practicing the piano and walked into my dead silent classroom, which is not normal.  Apparently some very heated words were said while I was gone about one elder being a rule freak.  Well, because I was not involved at all, I was able to break the tension by starting a discussion about The Book of Mormon with 2 other elders.  It all worked out in the end. 
September 25, 2016
    Fast Sunday is today because it is Conference next week not he usually fast.  Not much to say honestly.  The poor kid who had his face smashed is already back here.  In the devotional  the mission president had him raise his hand and then he basically made him and example of what happens when you do dumb things.  My whole district was very upset with the way the Elder was humiliated in front of the entire CCM.  I am personally not mad, but I can see why they are upset.  I feel badly for this kid and the terrible injury that he suffered.  There is a group of elders who are going to talk to the president about the situation, but not me.  I just don’t want to deal with the confrontation.
September 26, 2016
    Well, today I got a call to be the group’s travel leader….whatever that means.  Actually I do know that that means and literally I am in charge of making sure that my group makes it to Guadalajara safely, with ALL of their luggage.  Thankfully, there are only 9 of us.  I only know 5 of them..The other 4 are Latinos, which doesn’t make sense to put me in charge of people who actually speak the language.  So I spoke on the phone to the Latinos going with us and set up a meeting to talk with them about the travel plans…kill me.  I don’t freaking know Spanish.  So I learned that you have to pay 10% of your plane ticket for every kilo that your bags are overweight.  Sounds harsh.  Packing and making sure everyone else packs correctly will be the hardest part of the travel.  It doesn’t help that the MTC gives you at least 10 extra pounds of books.  I am planning to have my suits dry cleaned before I leave cuz it is free. I am told that I have to be at the reception area and hour before everyone else so that means I have to be there at 1:30 AM…kill me.  This is punishment for never learning how to get up with my alarm. The great part is that in just a few days, I will be in the mission field with the CCM behind me.
September 27, 2016
    We got our flight plans today and our water bottles/filters.  Our flight leaves at 7:05 ASM but the bus leaves here at 2:30 Am.  They tildes hat we need to be at the meeting place 45 minutes early instead of 30, which means as a travel leader, I have to be here at 1:00 AM.  I plan on just not going to sleep that night and trying to catch some sleep on the bus or plane.  Anyway, nothing much happened today, just more devotionals and language study. We taught our last lesson to our investigator today and it was mostly successful.  It is really hard to get excited about people who are just acting as investigators. 
September 28, 2016
    Last p-day here.  It is a sad one because we found out that one of the Elders in our district will need to go home for a while and work out some personal issues.  He happens to be a very amazing Elder and one of the best Spanish speakers of the group.  I just found out that he has been the one sending packages to my companion so that he didn’t feel left out when everyone else got packages. He will figure things out and make it back into the mission field, and he will be a great missionary.
    I picked up my engraved Spanish Book of Mormon case today and I met with the Latin Elders about our flight plans.  So i managed to pack my bags to the correct weight, but that made my carry-on 22 kgs.  I am really hoping that they don’t weigh it.  I also took my overcoat out of my bags and stuffed the pockets full!
October 1, 2016
    Well it has been a crazy past couple of days here.  My companion met with our mission president and also decided to go home.  He told me that he struggles with depression so I think that he is going to try to get some help at home.  I think that he made a good choice because there is a lot of pressure in doing missionary work and I wouldn’t want him to decompensate. His meeting lasted so long that we missed our last language study entirely.  It was the most awkward time in the training when we have to attend several days of preparing us for the transition into the mission field, all the while knowing that my companion is going home.  So turns out that my new companion is the other Elder whose companion went home.  Hopefully neither of us is bad luck. Anyway, this topic is depressing.
    On a brighter note, today was the first day of Conference and it is hard not to be excited about that!  The sessions went by way too fast though. I took some mad notes and it was really nice to actually appreciate the blessing that Conference is.  It seemed like a ton of the talks were focused on missionary work which was cool and weird at the same time.  That missionary choir was really great.  All in all, it was a super great day for me and tomorrow will be even better.  What a great/perfect ending to my missionary training experience.
October 2, 2016
    Okay so the the last day of conference was also our last day as a district.  Conference was really awesome plus our Branch President and his counselor came and watched it with use  Afterwards we all took pictures why the sign and they gavels some cool scripture bookmarks as a souvenir.  Then everyone in our district passed around notebooks or journals to write notes in.  We spent a good majority of our first and last study times packing.  We watched a video tonight, “Only a Stonecutter” and we got to sing one last round of “God Be With you Til We Meet Again”.  Our last testimony meeting with 165 missionaries was interesting, and finally we gave blessings to all the elders and sisters. I gave Hermana Besaw her blessing and it was really an interesting and great experience.  So the night ended really late, so late that it was easy to just stay up until I had to leave.  About half of the other Elders stayed up with me and we just talked until GO TIME!!!