First off, Happy Birthday to Mama and Blake! It's official, this is the best thing ever! After one week, it feels just like home. There was one hermana flying from Boise with me, who I sat next to on both flights named Hermana Ries. Cool gal, somehow knows the Spjute family. There were about 50 missionaries flying from Phoenix to Mexico City. Then, there was a group of probably 120 missionaries arriving in Mexico City. Totally crazy! I thought my 2 years of Spanish would give me a huge advantage. First off, I barely had any basics of Spanish left in me at all. Secondly, there was only one person I've met here who hasn't had any Spanish in high school. But it was definitely a cool experience riding from the bus at the airport to the CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Missional Mexico); that is, as much of that as I could stay awake for. After arriving, I had dinner, met my companion and two other roommates in my casa (5 rooms per casa), unpacked, and basically was a cow in a heard of cattle as far as getting around. The first thing I thought when the plane was touching down was how cool the town looked. So many buildings so close together. There are so many colors as well, which you never see in Boise.
So for a lot of the basics: I have a constant schedule of up at 6:30 a.m. and down around 10:30 p.m. Best sleep I've ever gotten. My companion is Elder Black, who is from Payson Utah. He's a bit of a wild child with some serious growing up to do. But I love him, and we get along well. The other roommates are Elders Burton and Alldredge. They are both 6' 3'', while Elder Black is 5' 9' and I'm barely 5' 10''. Elder Burton reminds me SO much of Preston, it's crazy. Tall, and gangly, really funny, glasses. Love that kid so much; his spirit is so strong! My district has 5 elder companions (including Burton and Alldredge) and 1 hermana companion. They are all awesome!!! The whole district except for my room of 4 is going to Chile Conception. Us 4 are going stateside, and all to different places. We are always busy! There is usually 45 minutes for each meal. The food here is so good!!! I love it a lot. And it is pretty healthy. You add the weight room that Elder Black and I attend during most daily gym time, and I'm getting in decent shape. The weather here is generally beautiful. Not too hot. But we've had 2 big rain storms. Not like Boise rain, but real, river-in-the-street rain! There is thunder here like I've never heard before! Elder Black and I were running through the flood to get to our casa for our umbrellas on Friday. Shins down were completely soaked! There is a cool tienda (store) here where we can buy essentials. I got two sweet tie pins for cheap. We get 100 pesos on our money cards here each week. It works out pretty well. We have a LOT of study time daily. My Spanish is getting really good. Not to brag or anything, but after a week here, I'd take on any 4 year high school Spanish student. It is awesome! My teacher is awesome; we work with him for about 3 hours a day. Hey's an early 20's year old guy named hermano Muñoz. We call him Padre Muñoz :) There's a great view of the city on a mountain outside my window. My casa is the absolute farthest away from everywhere, so that means tons of walking and a bit of shin splints. But it's all good; builds character.
Now a bit deeper. I have met like 6 Elder Jensen's here, and there are 2 in my district. One is Elder Jensen the younger (who could grow a sweet beard in a week or two), the other is Padre Jensen, who is our District leader. Padre Jensen's companion had 9 years of Spanish! I'm not far behind in skill level. I really am amazed with the gift of tongues. I'm getting good at praying in Spanish :) The water here at first, tasted like straight poop. Sorry for the graphic nature of that, but it's true. So with every meal, you get tons of juice and water, and use filter bottles to be safe when you need water. On Saturday during class, we wrote introductions for ourselves as Nephi did in 1 Ne 1:1. After sharing, Padre Muñoz made us all cry with an awesome testimony... there's another Elder Jensen I just heard...sorry haha... but yeah, that experience was my first time feeling that earth-shattering Spirit I'd been waiting for.
There are a couple of traditions here. Such as Costco pizza for dinner on Tuesday. Wednesday is pink tie day (thank you, Chelsea!). Friday is Paisley tie day. Just cool things. After 9 days, I finally had a P-day! It's Thursday for me, if you didn't know. Finally got to do laundry. Played 2 hours of volleyball with the district :D I'm keeping my own ,) Picture taking today. Just awesomeness! We finally got a shower curtain a couple days ago. Before that, our entire bathroom would get soaked with each shower.
We have been teaching an "investigator" named Violeta in Spanish since Friday. 2 DAYS IN! So crazy. But it is really a spiritual experience with much growth. There was a sacrament meeting musical number on Sunday. It was a mixed gender quartet. The bass sang a flippin low c sharp! Way cool.
Well, I'm a little past out of time, so I gotta go. I want everyone to know that I know beyond a doubt that this church is true. ¡Me encanta el evangelio del Jesucristo! Es la verdad, y es nuestro salvacion. Yo se que Jesucristo es me salvador. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen. I love you all!
-Elder Spjute
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