July 18th, 2013

Wow! It's so weird sending my first email home from the CCM. I've got a little timer in the corner that's clicking down so this might be a bit short haha. But seriously the CCM is the best! It's actually way fun, even though the first few days were ridiculously long. When we first got here our teacher spoke only spanish and it was wicked hard to understand him. My Spanish has definitely gotten a lot better already though because we try to talk in Spanish as much as we can. My companion is a kid from Oregon named Elder VonStrahl and I'm definitely learning how to love all the people I'm working with even though we are all very different. He is also going to Monterrey East with me!

Our schedule is pretty much the same every day which consists of wake up at 630, in bed at 1030. with ~10 hours spent in the classroom each day!! The days are long but if we stay focused they go by pretty quick. I think one of the the coolest things we have done is teach a fake invetigator, his name is Victor. We taught our first lesson on Friday, 100% in Spanish, which was after only 1 full day of class. It was frustrating because I knew exactly what I wanted to teach him but I couldn't think of how to say it in Spanish. But our next lesson went way good, we just went in praying for the gift of tongues, and it was definitely with us! I said some things and had to look up in a dictionary after the lesson what they meant because I had no idea, it was way cool and a huge testimony builder for me. The lesson after that he asked us about what made us want to change and become better people. I told him I didnt want to share but that if he prayed about it that God would help him. That wasn't a good enough answer for him so the spirit prompted me that it was ok to be open with him. So, in Spanish, I gave him a 1 minute story of my past year and the changes that have come by the power of the spirit. The spirit was so strong and I could see the spirit working on him by the look in his eyes. It makes me so pumped to be able to actually go down and teach the people of Mexico!

Today is P-Day obviously and it's a nice break from the grind of all the studying. Since the Provo temple is closed we have a 3 hour time period where we have nothing scheduled so it should be a pretty mellow day. Sorry if my email isn't as stellar and fabulous as the Robbins' boys, they've set a prettyy high standard!!! But I love this work and have had multiple witnesses that this is EXACTLY where the Lord wants me and where I need to be. The spirit at the CCM is so unique and "poderoso". Oh and we had a devotional broadcast at BYU this Tuesday and I sang in the choir! It was broadcast so maybe you guys can find it on LDS.org and maybe look for me! They also broadcast it to all the MTCs around the world so maybe TJ saw it in Guatemala! Richard Hinckley and his wife spoke and it was way cool. It was also cool seeing the mob of thousands of missionaries crossing the street to get into the Marriot center haha. Well my time is running out, but I love you all so much! And want you all to know that this church is true and that Christ lives and loves all of us, even if life can be hard sometimes. Hope to hear from you guys soon!

 Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Connell