Emails received August 26, 2014

7:50am

     Ok, so a lot more stuff happened this week, so hopefully you will enjoy reading this email more than last week's.

     I think it's important that you know that I completely forgot to bring any type of shower sandals, so in the apartment I either walk around in dress shoes or no shoes, and I usually chose the latter. So on Wednesday evening I was just walking around and talking with my apartment mates, totally oblivious to the shrapnel skewn about on the floor. I took a step, and then I felt something sharp go into my right heel, and I thought it wasn't a big deal. I walked over to my bed and, to my dismay, looked back and saw a trail of bloody footsteps-of just right footprints. So then I had to sit down on my bed and dig out the piece of glass or whatever was in my heel, all while dripping a ridiculous amount of blood on the ground. Now, at this point I had not even thought about pain, blood, or anything like that. I like to think that I´m a logical thinker, and logic brought me to the conclusion that my foot would get infected with some weird Mexican bacteria, and then my foot would have to get amputated. But I´ve never been exposed to any kind of Mexican bacteria before, so of course my body would have no way to defend itself, so the infection would make its way into my tibia, and then jump up to my femur, and then I would have to get my leg amputated at the hip. Then I thought about how cool of a surgery it would be, and that I would totally ask if I could stay awake and watch it. Then I thought that even though I would only have one leg, I would get some massive leg muscles from hopping around all day every day. So after that, in real life, I put a sissy sticker (band-aid) on it, and then a layer of extra strength waterproof duct tape over that. I then rallied some of my faithful district members, and we set off on a quest to find Fernando (our maintenance guy for the apartment) . He was on the third floor, and once we found him, I had a pretty sweet conversation with him. In Spanish. First I told him that I need a really big favor of him. Then I told him what happened, and that I didn't have any kind of sandal to wear around the apartment, and that I would be forever grateful if he could hook it up with some footwear from the outside world. He said of course, and then he realized that I have American sized feet. I eventually traced my foot onto a piece of paper so he knew which size to get, gave him like 200 pesos, and told him that he was essentially saving my life as a two-footed human. He came back the next day and told me that he went to a few different stores and he could only find one pair that was big enough. They're freaking awesome. I'll send a picture later today, but they're gloriously ghetto fabulous Mexican sandals. So that's what I've been wearing around the apartment since Thursday, and every time I see Fernando I tell him that he's a stud.

     Next order of business: Elder Madsen related activities.  So there's this service in Mexico that sends packages to Missionaries in the CCM calledmydearmissinoary.com, and Elder Madsen told his parents about it, but he told them about how he was really sick too. By that time he was feeling better, his parents had ordered him from this website a massive amount of TUMS, Pepto Bismol, apple sauce, and other "get well soon items." He was really excited when he got his package, but when he opened it, he just looked at it and didn't know what to do with it. (By the way mom, my package came on Wednesday.) And on Friday, he received another package very similar to the first one, and he was just frustrated this time, because he had no way to tell his parents that he had gotten better, and that he didn't need any of this any more. It was pretty funny, but of course he didn't think so.

     I've been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish, and at first I had the English right next to the Spanish, and it was going REALLY slow.. So I stopped for like a week. Then I started again, but this time with a Spanish to English dictionary instead of an English Book of Mormon. It went a lot easier for some reason, and now I'm to the point where I could recognize whole phrases and know what they meant. But wait, there´s more. Now I don't need to translate into English in my head. I read it in Spanish and it stays in Spanish. It's amazing. And it's the same way when I talk now. I know what they're saying, and I know the response I want to say, and it's all in Spanish. I'm not to the point of dreaming in Spanish yet, but my companion told me that I was sleep talking a few nights ago, and I was speaking with a gnarly Mexican accent. So I think I'm pretty close to dreaming in a foreign language. Which is flippin sweet. 

     All the days are exactly the same here, and we're trying to make them as interesting as possible, but that's not very possible when your whole day is planned out for you down to the minute. But everyone knows that if you feed teenagers alphabet soup, that they're gonna have a good time. Elder Rich and Elder Germann have the really strong kind of relationship where they just make fun of each other all the time. So of course Elder Rich labored for like 15 minutes and borrowed letters from other missionaries to spell out on a napkin that he subtly slid over to his companion "I hate Germann." That is probably not very entertaining to you, but we are so deprived of humor here that we were laughing for like 15 minutes. It's kind of sad when we think about it, but we're having a good time here.

     We can't wait to get out of here, and we only have two weeks left! We're all antsy to get into Chile, and that's like all we ever talk about. We are getting better at teaching our progressing investigators every day, and we have had two since the second week. It was pretty hard at first because we can only speak in Spanish, but I think me and my friend are ready to go pro. It's really weird, because I've been thinking about the gospel in Spanish for four weeks, and then a few days ago we had an exercise in English, and I had no idea that I was saying. I guess that's a good measure of progress, but I seriously could not do it in English. I had to think about what I wanted to say in Spanish, and then translate it to English and then try to say it in English. It was pretty rough, but I made it through with some broken English. Also, whenever I say something in English, I stutter a lot, and I can't really get my thought across very well.

     Because all the days run together here, I'm not entirely sure when this happened, but I thought it was pretty cool. It was right around dinner time, and our district was walking to dinner, and we felt maybe two drops of rain. But it does that all the time here, so we didn't think anything of it. Then, once we got inside and got our food, we looked outside and it was HAILING! We couldn't even see across the street, and we just stayed in the comedor until it stopped hailing. But when it stopped hailing, it just started raining even harder. We ran to our apartment and got our coats and umbrellas and stuff, and it was just crazy. It did't let up until 11:00 that night.

     As much as I washed my hands and took all the precautions I could, I got sick yesterday. I woke up with a little headache, but I thought it was just from sleeping on a 3 square foot area for seven hours. But as the day progressed, my headache got worse, I got the chills and aches, and I felt really bad. I decided to go back to the apartment after lunch, and it was a very good decision, because about an hour later, I had begun regular trips to the baño. I slept for like 6 hours, and then some of my district brought me some dinner, and then I slept for like 10 more hours. I woke up this morning feeling a lot better though, and I haven't had to run to the bathroom today, so I think I'm mostly better. I've been drinking a lot of water, and I still have a headache, but I feel way better than I did yesterday.

     Well, I'm gonna respond to individual emails now, and I'll send pictures later today.

 Love,

     Elder Hamilton

8:47am

Dear mom,

     Haha yeah, I took lots of pictures, and I´ll send a lot later today after I take more. Yeah, my package was awesome! If I got another one, I would want mostly the same stuff, and maybe some pop tarts if you're feelin it. Whatever you think. Anything is awesome.

     Alex emailed me haha, and he said that he's been emailing the wrong address this whole time, and that hes really sorry and stuff, and it was pretty funny. 

     So I told my district the story of Bosley, so if you could send me some pictures of his progression into a beautiful chicken, 12 people would love you very much. Also, can you send me a picture of that redneck picture in our hall by the stairs? Just send me a whole bunch of pictures. It'll be easier for me to get things once I'm in Chile.

     I'll talk to you soon.

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

These pictures don't really do it justice how much it was raining the other day. It was pretty crazy.

Also, there's some random LEGO hands sticking up out of the ground somewhere outside of the CCM grounds.

Elder Madsen and I took a walk around the whole CCM today. I bet you didn't know that Mexico City built a statue in my honor.

We found a tractor, so we kind of had to do this.

And here I am in the eerily Utopian society that is the CCM. This is on the property, but it looks like its own little town. It's weird.

Here are some pictures from right outside the massive fence. Classic Mexico City. Exactly how I pictured it.

Here's my letter to Fernando for him to hook it up with some sandals from the outside world.

And here are the sandals in their full glory.

Emails received on August 19, 2014

7:37am Weekly Update

  I´m gonna start this one with another scripture. This one is exactly how Elder Madsen feels right now. He´s been sick in his bed for 10 days, and we´ve all been rotating in to babysit him. He´s been throwing up, massive stomach cramps, headaches, and the worst diarrhea you could imagine. Go ahead and look up Jeremiah 4:19. And think of Elder Madsen.

     Not a lot happened this week, and I spent a good portion of it in Elder Madsen´s room making sure he doesn´t die. Elder Madsen asked me to give him a blessing one night, and I had never given a blessing before, so I had no idea what I as doing, but then once I started, and everyone was around us, the words just came to me and it was so cool. He´s slowly getting better, and he gets so excited when he passes something solid.

     We´ve had two investigators for a while now, and they´re progressing quite nicely. We teach them in one hundred percent Spanish, so at first it was a little tough, but I´m learning Spanish at a stupidly fast rate. I have a sticker on my nametag that says "Solo Español," so people are only supposed to speak to me in Spanish. It´s really crazy being completely immersed in Spanish, but it´s getting easier every day. I´ve gotten to the point where thinking in Spanish comes naturally, and when I hear someone speak, I just know what they´re saying.

     Our bathroom is still leaking, and we´ve gotten ridiculously good at squeegeeing. I think me and my friend are ready to go pro. Our ceiling looks like a war zone, because we have a daily massacre of mosquitoes with our flyswatters. They´re getting sneakier, and they hide on the ceiling right next to the carcasses of their fallen brethren. Then once we go to sleep, they begin their attack. We all have bug bites, and we think Elder Marshall´s bed may have bed bugs. It was real fun describing to Fernando what bed bugs were without knowing the word for bed bug.

     Today is the halfway point at the CCM, so in three weeks, we´ll be outta here and in Rancagua. It feels like we´ve spent three days here, but it also feels like we´ve known our district for three years. We´ve all agreed that time is bent here, because the days take years, and the weeks take days.

     I wish I had more to say, but the coolest thing that happened this week was that I killed three mosquitoes with one swing. I now hold the apartmentship record of most mosquitoes killed with one swing. I even got a chest bump for it. So yeah, I´ll respond to individual emails now.

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Easton 8:00am

Dang dude. I totally forgot about monday night practices. The most recent person we´ve scared... Hmmm... I think it was when I hid in the closet outside of our bathroom. Elder Jones was taking a shower, and I was hiding, so when he stepped out, and the floor was all slippery, I jumped out and he almost did the splits, and he may or may not have screamed like a little girl.  And then ten seconde later, when he was in his room, Elder Marshall grabbed Elder Jones´ ankle form under his bed, and we got him super good again!

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

8:04am

Dear Jessica,

     I´m so glad I haven´t gotten sick, its a really sucky illness. Dang, I had Derr for AP Stats. But I had Long, Humphres, and Reimers for all the same classes! How was your date with that creepy kid?

     Seminary sounds fun, and Dave Ramsey? Not bad. Tell me how everything is going back in the states!

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

11:34am

Here we see the elusive Elder Marshall taking shelter from the rabid cameramen of the dormitory B laundry room. Look how he gives the impression of tranquility, but really feels threatened and unsafe.

                                                    The sun rising a few days ago.

 11:39am
In order to obtain the nutrients required for preaching the gospel, we must scavenge among the beans and rice area of the cafeteria. As you can clearly see, the main dish is oftentime unedible, as it resembles blended intestines. The missionary population in Mexico City survives only by the scavenging of bread, beans, rice, fruit loops, and the occasional blessing of nutella. Such is the life of the Elder.

                                         My sweet solo español sticker on my nametag. 
                                     

Emails received on August 12th
The time shown is California time, Mexico City is 3 hours later

Weekly Letter from Elder Hamilton 8:33am
  I´m going to start with a scripture that I found that accurately describes my sleeping situation here in the Mexico City CCM. Isaiah 28:20. Go ahead and look that up.

     This week has been crazy, each companionship has two different "investigators" that we´re teaching in spanish. I have learned a ridiculous amount of spanish in just this short time, and I can basically say whatever I want to now, and I think in 75% spanish without trying.  It´s amazing. Also, we committed our first "investigator" to baptism, so that was awesome.  The other "investigator" is our teacher, and he gives us immediate feedback after we tech him, and he said we´re doing really well. He said that we do a good job of relating the gospel to his individual needs, and that we´re not just shoving doctrine down his throat. I think that´s pretty good for teaching a stranger in a completely  different language.

     Another crazy thing that happened this week was a massive outbreak of some virus in the CCM. I´ve been periodically taking OnGuard shots, so I´ve been fine, but the majority of the population got hit pretty hard. In my district, Elder Madsen got it first, and today was the first day he´s been feeling better. It started on Saturday before lunch, and by the end of the day on Saturday there were something like 55 missionaries in bed. The sickness is the runs, a fever, and nausea, so it´s not fun at all.  Elder Cluff got it next, and he and Elder Madsen stayed in the apartment all day. They said they just alternated trips to the bathroom every 5-15 minutes. ALL DAY. FOR TWO DAYS. Later that day, Hermana Harvey wasn´t feeling well either, and her and Hermana Snyder were on their way to the clinic when they thought to ask us for a blessing, We went into our classroom and all 10 of us priesthood holders participated in the blessing. When it was over, she was very grateful, and when they were walking back to their casa, Hermana Harvey said that all of the sudden she felt well again, so that´s awesome.  Then, last night, Elder Madsen and Elder Cluff asked their companions to give them blessings, and now they´re both walking around and feeling fine.

     Mexico City is crazy. Every night we hear sirens, car chases, stary dog/cat fights, fireworks, and sometimes even gunshots. And there´s this obnoxious chicken that no one can find that always makes a ruckus right around 5:15 every morning, I´ve even seen a few armed guards in the CCM occasionally. It rains so much here. And when it rains, it RAINS. It comes down in sheets for like five hours at a time. I actually get to use the umbrella I brought. The comedor (caferteria) has been decent, and when its nasty, they always have beans, rice, salad, etc. So it´s not too bad.

     We got a companionship of Latinos in our apartment, and we taught them "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" and then taught me "Pablito clavo un clavito en la calva de un calvito." Which basically means " Pablito hammered a nail into the bald head of a little bald man." And we taught the Latinos to say "Whazzzap?" whenever they see us, and it´s really funny.

     Let me tell you about our apartment for a little while.  First of all, none of the buildings are air conditioned, but that doesn´t matter, because Mexico City doesn´t get hot like ever.  Our shower door doesn´t have a seal on the bottom, so when anyone takes a shower, water goes under the shower door, under the bathroom door, and into the hall and just pools there, waiting for an unsuspecting, uncoordinated victim to try to cross into his room.  Luckily, due to my cat-like reflexes and balance of a ninja, I haven´t slipped yet, and I´m not planning on it. Another thing about our apartment, is that even though we have looked at every access point to the outside, and found them all sealed, somehow mosquitoes get in every day without fail.  And they aren´t your average obnoxious california mosquitoes. These Mexican mosquitoes are relentless and massive. We have a flyswatter in each room, and every time we enter the house, we hold a not-so-little massacre of all winged animals in the area. It´s kind of fun. Elder Lloyd and Cluff´s front door doesn´t shut, so they have a colony of mosquitoes in their front room at all times. I always go over there with our flyswatter and we get about 300 per day. It´s crazy.

     The elders in our district have become really close, and we don´t have any problems hiding in each others closets for upwards of half an hour to scare them when they´re least expecting it.  Elder Cluff puts his sheet over him and hides in the closet right by the bathroom, and jumps out when someone gets out of the bathroom. We´ve scared Elder Marshall and Elder Jones pretty bad, and it´s pretty awesome that we´re all such good friends.

     This big block of text is probably intimidating, so I´ll end here, and reply to individual emails now.

          

          Elder Hamilton

Elder Hamilton and Elder Madsen walking to the Thomas S. Monson Building this morning, right after it stopped raining.

Dear Dad 8:46am

I told some pretty crazy stories in the big email, and ill send some pictures in a few minutes.  That´s crazy that Jessica´s driving.  Yeah, I haven´t had to use my card, but I might when I leave, beacause they gave me like 15 pounds of books that I need to take with me, and that will definitely make my luggage overweight. So yeah, we can figure that out in the coming weeks. 

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Dear Mom 9:0am

Elder Jones is from Lehi, Utah, and he was a ballroom dancer. He´s not tall, but not short, and he and easton have SCARILY similar personalities. It´s crazy. I´ll talk to you in a few minutes, I´ve got to respond to some more eamils. Oh and can you give me ALex´s email address? Also, Hannah Luke sent me a letter before I left and i forgot to take it with me, and I don´t have her address, so can you find it and give me the address so I can write her back?

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Baby sister 9:12am

Dear Lauren,

     That´s awesome about your sweet new zapatos. (That´s how you say shoes in Spanish. but the z makes more of an s sound) What color are they?

     Dang, a lot of people are getting sick here too.  Luckily I´ve been drinking OnGuard, so I haven´t been sick. Do you feel better now?

     Hmmm... the coolest word I´ve learned in Spanish. That´s a hard one.  Trabajabamos means "we used to work," and that sounds pretty cool.  But theres also cool words like mandamientos, arrepentimiento, and this tongue twister that some Mexican elders taught me. It goes "tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal." It means "three sad tigers eat wheat in a wheatfield."

     Did you have fun at Kousins Kamp? And whos beating up Easton without me there? haha

     For exercise, I play volleyball every day! It´s so much fun, and I´m getting pretty good. Probably almost as good as you! I´m reading all over the scriptures,but the last thing I read about was in the old testament, I think its in Acts chapter 20. Maybe like verses 7-10 or something like that.  It´s really funny. This guy falls asleep in church and then slumps down in his seat, but he´s on the third floor balcony. SO he falls all the way down to the ground, and everyones freaking out, and then he gets brought back to life by I think Paul.

     Tell me more about school and stuff once it starts.  Are you going to have Miss B?!?!?!?!

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Dear Mom 9:16am

No, the Elder Cluff in my district is a different Elder Cluff, but I talk to Caiden Cluff all the time, and I saw him on the firstday for the first time, and it was awesome. We totally recognized eachother at the same time, and it was pretty cool.

Are you talking about the tongue twister? yeah, its pretty fun to say.

Love,

     Elder Hamilton 

From Elder Hamilton 1:16pm
This is Fernando, he´s the maintenance guy for our apartment, and since our apartment leaks water, mosquitoes, and basically everything else, he stops by a lot.  He´s really funny, and he speaks only a little bit of English.  And, as you can tell, he is pretty dang short.

Dear Jess 1:47pm advice on boys

That´s awesome, and really creepy.  When´s the date? I´m just sitting here laughing, and I don´t even know what to tell you, other than hopefully you´ll be busy the next time he asks you on a date. Unless you like that kind of thing, but, uh, yeah... 

MY companion is not what you would call "hot" but he reminds me a lot of Easton because they have the same personality.  But I have some studly apartment mates that live with us and are in our district.  Elder Madsen and I are basically the same person in different bodies. We were showing eachother pictures from our cameras, and we both went on backpacking trips before we came here, and we took like the exact same pictures. Its crazy. Ill send some more pictures right now.

Love, 

Elder Hamilton

From Elder Hamilton 1:55pm
This is what was for lunch today, I dont really know what the mian dish was, but it wasn´t very edible.  We think it was pork, and it was really tough and hard to chew. But we still don´t know what that mystery meat was... That yellow fruit is the one I was talking about, it´s called a guyava, and it smells sooooo good and tastes pretty good. Oh and those are little tiny baby bananas, and they´re really good. 

Then there´s Elder Marshall and Elder Kerr.  They both had luscious, flowing hair that they could flip around in the wind.  Then they had to get their hair cut, and, as you can tell, they are not happy in the least bit.  

                                      

From Mom 2:10pm

That's such a cute picture.  You should see the kids and I right now.  We're all hovered around the computer looking at and anticipating everything you send us.  Thank you for giving us so many updates, we love everything you send us.  

From Elder Hamilton 2:12pm

Haha that´s awesome.  My bag is so perfect, and I´m not having problems with anything. Yeah, I had a whole bunch of emails today.  And I basically have from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm (Mexico City time) for my P day, so we basically do what we want, and we´re usually here twice or thrice throughout the day, do you have any more questions?

From Elder Hamilton 2:22pm
I got emails from you, grandma and grandpa, dad, easton, jessica, jessica, claire, alex, lauren, shauna, carter, and a few other people. Yeah, I´m having lots of fun playing volleyball.  It´s gorgeous here, I think it´s because it rains all the time, which makes everything so green. Could you  send me screenshots of the blog you made? I want to see what you´re putting up just out of curiosity. 

From Elder Hamilton 2:28
thats pretty awesome (He liked the screen shots I sent him of the blog)

Emails received on August 5th

7:52am I wanted to know about his trip to the CCM, I told him about his friends and Kousins Kamp


Mom, 

These dang Spanish keyboards are difficult to type with, so bear with me.  There was one other missionary on the plane from LA to Mexico City, and we were on opposite ends of the plane.  But once we got to Mexico City and a few other flights got in, there were seven of us all together.  One of them was Jimmy McDade´s roommate at BYU.  There was also an hermana that}s in my district. We had to go through immigration and customs and stuff, so that was pretty awesome. This guy from the CCM picked us up and he didnt speak any english.  I was the best spanish speaker in the group, so I communicated with him for everyone on the way there, and that was pretty cool. 

Mexico City is INSANE. its just like I pictured it, and driving on the road is a death sentence, it´s seriously scary.  The CCM has like a 20 foot tall barbed wire fence all the way around it, so were safe.  The food is pretty nice, and theres some weird mexican fruit that I love, but I don´t know that name of it. 

That´s awesome about Alex! and KK sounds pretty cool too. And thats so cool about Jansen´s testimony.  I´ll probably send another email in a few minutes answering some other questions. So if you get this right now, I´ll be on the computer for a while.

8:04am

Grandma and Grandpa, 

Thank you so much for emailing me! 

The food here is a hit or miss. SOme days thay have delicious things, while others they have terrible food.  But theres always fruit and vegetables and rice that yuo can get on the side, so thats definitely good.  My comapnion´s name is elder Jones, and he reminds me of Easton a lot.  The CCM (MTC in spanish) is so pretty and the weather is amazing!

 Love,

Elder Hamilton

8:06am to Aunt Shauna, there is a girl from Aunt Shauna's old ward who will be at the CCM with Zac.

Thanks for emailing me!

Where is sister Nonu headed after the MTC? Ill definitely look for her.

I´m eating pretty well, and there are some really weird mexican fruits here, but the food is not too shabby.

Elder Hamilton

8:22am to Troy, I called Troy at work and told him to email Zac right then, because he'd be on for awhile.  So this is Zac's reply to his dad. 

It´s so fun, the CCM stands for Centro do Capicitacion Misional or something very close to that. I just got called/given the position of district leader, so I´m in charge of the 12 missionaries in my district. 

Mexico City is exactly what I imagined: insnane.  the streets are terrifying, and on the way here from the airport there were some close calls.  theres a 20 foot barbed wire fence all the way around the massive area, though.  So we´re safe and stuff.  Im learninght elanguage so fast, and my companion and I have taought out "investigator" three times IN SPANISH! My spanish vocabulary is like three times bigger than it was when I got here. we have like five hours of language study per day, and I think Im the most advancesd in my district.  

Elder Hamilton

9:07am again to Aunt Shauna

 Oh, sweet. Thats the mission right on the south end of mine. In the CCM (MTC in spansh), my p day will always be on tuesday, and probably around this same time.  None of the buildings have air conditioning or heat or anything, but the weather is so perfect you dont even need it.  And yeah, we all keep feeling ghost vibrations from the phones that we don´t have any more.  It´s really pretty inside the grounds of the CCM, but outside of the 20 foot barbed wire fence, its pure mexico city.  We can always hear sirens and fireworks and random dogs and cats outside of the walls, especially at night.  And yeah, Ive made so many new friends and its so cool here.  There´s a guy who's 6´8", so im not quite the tallest, but I´m like fourth or fifth tallest out of all the missionaries here.

1:43pm to me

I got to use the computer one more time today, so here´s my district in front of the CCM sign. From left to right, it goes: Elder Cluff, Elder Lloyd, Elder Madson, Elder Rich, Elder Germann, Hermana Harvey, Hermana Snyder, Elder Kerr, Elder Holst, Elder Jones (my companion), me, and Elder Marshall.  We played sand volleyball today, and it was so much fun.  I´ll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Hamilton