Guys. The CCM is great. I’m going to miss this place. Next week is already going to be our final week here, and right after we’re going to be in the field. It’s crazy how fast time is going by!

Spanish is coming along much better than I honestly thought it would be, just I’m positive we’re going to talk to our first investigator and I’m not going to understand a thing, but it’s fine, we’ll learn eventually.

The driver´s here are crazy. México has very similar driving laws to the United States, but theb est way it was explained to me was that everyone thinks that the driving laws apply to everyone except themselves. It is the funniest and scariest thing being on the roads here. Honking is super casual too, so from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. that’s all you can hear. México is weird.

Today we got the opportunity to go to the México City Temple and it was an amazing experience. We got to do a full temple session in Spanish, which although it was difficult to understand, was still very spiritual and I had learned a ton. That temple is the largest one out of the United States and it is beautiful. The culture and structure of buildings here is awesome.

I love it here so far and what we have learned so far is incredible. I have found so much joy as I devote my time to the Lord. Remember that there is always time for the gospel in your lives, and it will always benefit you.

-Élder Breinholt

Oh and I was wrong, we leave the CCM on the 5th of February.

This week has been awesome. Except that I never know when I´m going to be emailing. The last about 5 hours we spent somewhere getting work done on our visas, but I think we are all set now.

We play, so much fútbol (that´s soccer) here. We had made some awesome friends with some latinos that lived in our building with us, and they are amazing at fútbol. We get absolutely destroyed every time, but it´s fine because I´m getting better.

Sadly all of those latinos only had to stay 3 weeks, so we had to say goodbye to them all. They were an awesome group of people and all have very strong testimonies, and taught us a ton of spanish. That´s what all of the pictures are today.

We also got to have this oppurtunity to go to something called TRC. People come and visit the CCM and can take lessons from the missionaries there, and me and my companion taught two lessons. I definitely know that the gift of tongues has been blessing us, and the spirit was definitely with us as we taught. We had a lesson on this, and I can´t remember who said it, but he said, “I know when I am teaching with the spirit when I learn something from what I teach.”

It is extremely important to always leave room for the spirit to bring revelation into our lives. Having the spirit brings constant guidance and revelation into your every day life. I know this is true.

I love being here, it´s awesome, and I´ve been meeting tons of great people. We already have the date we leave the CCM to, which is 2 February, so only about 2 more weeks!

-Élder Breinholt

Hey everyone!

Sorry this email is probably going to be pretty long. We did’t get a P-Day last week so this email includes that week too.

The mission is amazing! Everyone has gone according to plan so far. I landed in Mexico with a group of six other missionaries. From there a bus to the CCM (MTC). We all met up and met our districts. My district is awesome, we´re all already great friends. There’s only eight of us and we have no hermanas so I believe that we are the smallest district in the CCM, but that’s fine.

They just throw us into the language. By the second day they were asking people who have never had a spanish lesson in their lives to pray in the meetings. It is pretty difficult but already it has basically only been a week and, for the most part, I can already understand what fluent spanish speakers are saying. We all speak spanish to each other at least 70% of the time, and that has been helping too.

So Mexico is a bit different than expected upon arriving. In the mornings, it gets cold enough to see your breath, but during the day, oh its incredible. Its somewhere from 70-80 and it is so nice. However it is winter and in the summer we are probably going to suffer. Also the food here, everything is incredible. I don’t even know what half of the things are but it still tastes great.

For the first week of the CCM, I was in a trio. One of the members of our district never showed up, so it was Elder Kendall, Elder Leon, and me. I find it funny because I’m the one who gets up early, and my companions, I don’t think they like to be woken up. Its nothing wrong with them, I just found it hilarious because that was me every day before here. The MTC can change people… But anyways, sadly someone in our district had to leave to home this morning. He was an awesome part of our group and we were sad to see him go. Because of that I am no longer in a trio. It is now just me and Elder Kendall.

I have been loving the experiences here. The amount of studying and learning of the gospel is incredible, and I am so glad I get to be a part of it. I have learned so much here, and it is making me very excited to go teach it to others, I just am not ready with my spanish yet. I’ve been missing you all tons, but I am so glad that I am here. I know that this church is true. I know that what I am learning and what I am going to teach is true. God loves us, and he wants the best for all, and I want to help him with that goal.

-Elder Breinholt

Pictures:
We weren’t able to get many pictures since we are only allowed to take them on P-Day (so today) but I’ll be able to have more next week.

1 – Flying in to Mexico. Like wow. This city holds 8.8 million people.
2 & 3 – Me and my companion Elder Kendall.
4 – View of part of the CCM and the hill behind.

Oh and my next P-Day is going to be Friday. Unsure as to why but that is when I’ll be sending my next email.

Hello! I made it to the MTC safely and everything went well along the way. It has been super fun and everything is going super well. We had a group of eight of us on the plane and we have all stayed together up to the MTC.

Mexico is awesome and I´ll hopefully be able to send you all pictures later.

I was able to see my friend here too, and another missionary here actually knows them too as a ward member.

Hope everything is going well back at home! My P-Days are on Thursdays, so that is when I will be able to send an actual weekly email. Love you guys!

Hey everyone! I am now a missionary and I will be leaving on my mission tomorrow. I’m sending this as a test email to make sure I get everyone on the list that wants to be on. Let me know if I am missing someone or have someone’s email misspelled. I’ll be doing my best to send out weekly emails. Thank you all for your support so far!

-Elder Breinholt