Mexican Independence Day was awesome and Temple was amazing!!

Sept 16, 2014

Mexico City Temple

Mom,

It's seriously so crazy to think that I'm leaving in a week! This last week for me so far has been awesome! I should be leaving next Monday or Tuesday. I should get my flight plans tomorrow. The Mexican Independence Day was awesome! We didn't get to go outside the MTC walls unfortunately, but the MTC hired Mexican dancers to come and dance for us. After they did their performance, President Pratt (the MTC President) conducted the Mexican National Anthem and the yelling of ¡Viva México! thingy. It was really cool and fun. And all the Mexicans in the city have huge parties all night. There was music playing until about 5 AM, and fireworks all night long. According to one of our teachers, Mexicans shoot pistols straight into the sky, and there was 83 deaths last year from falling bullets.

Outside the dorms at the CCM (MTC)

I've been writing in my journal every day.  Yeah, the spirit has been pretty great here. There have been times that it hasn't been super strong, mostly because of Elder Colvin, but other than that, it's been pretty strong.

The Spanish learning has slowed down a lot. I could pray in Spanish like the third day I got here haha. I think I'm at the point where I can't really learn more until I have to start talking to people that don't know English. It's so easy to me though. At least so far. I know that once I get to Chile I gonna feel like Elder Calhoon from the Best Two Years. "That's not the language they taught me in the MTC". But over time it will be okay.

 Earlier today, we had the chance to go to the Mexico City Temple. It's about 45 minutes away from the MTC, so we got to see a lot of the city as we were driving to it. It's crazy how much different it is than America. It's even a lot different than Cabo San Lucas. It's waaay more crowded, and the building are packed super tight. There are 22 million people in Mexico City. It's huge. But when we got to the temple, we had a tour of the visitor's center. The actual temple is closed, but we could still go to the visitor's center. It's an amazing temple, and it's gigantic.  It's was really cool. It's a really pretty temple.

Mexico City Temple

Elders Stam, Johnson and Walker

 They've had a lot of food here that was completely new to me. Some of it is good, and some of it is gross. They've also had a bunch of Mexican candy. I don't like Mexican candy. I don't know what's wrong with these people. They had a sucker made of spices. That's not okay.

 My companions aren't bugging me yet, so that's a good thing. It's only a matter of time until I get a companion that I don't like. HAHA.




Love, Elder Stam

Got this email from him a few hours later!

Mom,

We got our flight plans, and we leave the MTC Monday at 4:00 PM!  Our flight leaves at 8:25 PM and we arrive in Chile at 6:50 AM. The flight is about 8 1/2 hours. I don't know what's gonna happen after that.   
         Love, Elder Stam