The Sounds of Mexico

 Howdy

Wow this week was crazy. 

General Conference was so awesome!! All of the talks were great, and I've enjoyed them even more listening to them the second time through. I'm super excited to continue to study all of the great council we received!! 

One of the elders requested to be changed to an English-speaking mission and left the CCM last Thursday. It made me pretty sad. I knew he had been struggling, but I was trying to help him and encourage him to stay. He starts the Provo MTC today so hopefully, all goes well for him, he will be a great missionary. I hope that him leaving doesn't lead to a bunch of other missionaries deciding to leave too though. The CCM is sometimes hard, but rewarding. Not to mention the benefit of getting to hear random Mexican sounds in the background like weird cats, dogs, parties, and Mexican horn things.

One thing that made me super happy this week is that my teachers have both said on multiple occasions how impressed they are with my Spanish. During my first practice lesson, I was a little nervous to go off of the script that I and Elder Sahagun had made, but with the second lesson, I decided to go for it, and just let the lesson flow more into a conversation. Because we weren't right on script Elder Sahagun was lost in a couple places so I kinda took over which made me feel a little bad, but afterward, my teacher was like "Woah Elder Rogers that was super impressive, where did you learn to speak Spanish?!?" Both my teachers have told me that they are very impressed with my Spanish in the last week and they have been grouping me with elders who have been struggling because they said I could probably help them. I try but I don't think I'm a very good Spanish teacher haha.

 
I think John's wife must have had their kid cause I haven't seen him since Friday. I didn't want to do laps around the house so I started running on the treadmill downstairs. I don't know why anyone would choose to run on a treadmill haha. You don't go anywhere. So for all you folks who don't need to have a companion with you at all times, y'all should wear a jacket hat and gloves if it's cold, or a short-sleeved shirt if it's hot (make sure you keep that shirt on though cause modest is hottest y'all ✌) and go run outside. The treadmill maxes out at 10 mph so I haven't been able to do any speed work, and I can't have an incline cause I would hit my head on the ceiling, but I've been running for about 45 minutes a day at 6 flat pace. I whine about the treadmill, but I'm actually super happy it's here so I can run still (even if it is fake running). 

It's been a lot of hard work this last week. Yesterday was probably my busiest day here. I studied for over 13 hours. I was downstairs from 7:45 AM to 9:35 PM, with a 45-minute lunch break at 1:30. I did get 3 five minute breaks in there as well but my brain was fried at the end of the day. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow before I get to Cincinnati because I sure need it!!

President Nelson once said "Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest" 

I would encourage all people with epilepsy to take that advice literally to help avoid any unwanted surprises.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord on my mission!!

Keep Grinding Everybody

Elder Rogers

Me showing how much room there is in between the top of my head and the ceiling while on the treadmill (I haven't hit it yet) 

A picture I snagged of Elder Sahagun while we were having comp study