W5: Final Week of Mexico CCM

This is me and Hermano Meranda (my teacher). I was able to go through the temple for his uncle who died when we was 8 due to leukemia. We believe that everyone will be able to choose to accept saving ordinances. He went through for his grandpa and Elder Brossard for his other Uncle who died when he fell off a ladder.  

I am finishing up my last week of the CCM. So that pretty much means that I am fluent in Spanish now (JK....I still have a long way to go and I still need to learn how to use the subjunctive). Maybe I'll be able to understand at least 50% of a sacrament meeting. Either way I get to go to Chile this Thursday leaving the CCM at 1AM and I am super excited. My mom heard we stay in Santiago on Thursday and then get on a flight the next day to Puerto Montt where our mission home is.  We shall see. It will be an adventure.  

We had a solar eclipse this Monday. It was pretty cool from Mexico. We ended up getting like 75% coverage of the sun and it was definitely less bright. I was able to take some pictures with a rice crispy wrapper as a sun filter. We didn't have any real filters so we all just had to make do with what we had. I'll attach one of the photos I took. it might not seem impressive but considering the resources we had, I think it turned out great. 
 
I was able to go to the temple today and go through for one of my teachers uncles who died when he was 8 because of leukemia. It was a super cool experience, and I'm really glad that I am able to do it. My companion went through for his other Uncle and he went through for his grandpa.  Temples are built to receive ordinances in this life for us and for ancestors who died without them if they want to accept them.   

I traded ties with a Peruvian elder this week. I traded one of my sock ties for his tie. I wear it in my temple pictures. It is a hand made tie with an embroidering of one of the temples in Peru on it. I think it might be my new favorite tie. I really like trading ties.   

General Conference was great. It was a challenge to stay awake, especially during the Sunday afternoon session. But I was able to stay awake the whole time and it was a great experience. I loved the talks and all the messages that were shared. There were some Elders that sat next to me that were absolutely slumped... even in the MTC people still fall asleep in conference...haha. 

This morning at 3AM we dropped off Elder Anderson at reception so he can go to Costa Rica. Me and Elder Brossard ended up taking photos on the walk back to our Casa. It was pretty cool taking photos in the dark at 3AM. The 5D plus the flash really takes some good photos. I am so grateful and glad that I was able to bring a nice camera on my mission. Shout out Dad for teaching me how to take real photos. I guess taking photography at Horizons was a good thing.   
Hopefully next time I send an email it will be from Chile!! Feel free to shoot me an email...

Love you all and have a great week!  Scott 

Here are some pics from the 5D.....Top to Bottom 

1-2 My picture of the eclipse with the trusty 5d and the rice krispy wrapper I used to take photos of the eclipse.
3. I like this one with the tie
4. Me and Elder Anderson on his last night before he heads to his mission in Costa Rica.  He was excited.
5. Me and Elder brossard dropping our companion Elder Anderson off at reception at 3AM so he can go to the airport to get to his mission.  
6. Me and Elder Brossard had a 3AM photo shoot after dropping off Elder Anderson 
7. Me, Elder Brossard, Hermana Ogden, and Hermana Harris had the opportunity to be Zone leaders and Sister training leaders for this latino district this week. They where super cool. The guy to the right of me is the one that traded ties with me. We have had to be Zone leaders since our second week pretty much because so many people left when we arrived. It just means we have to go to more meetings with our presidency and lead more meetings.  A couple of districts make up a zone.  Each district has district leaders and zones have zone leaders. Same set-up in the mission and on a larger scale in the church but with wards, stakes and areas.  
8. Our district photo with all of our teachers when I was in a trio with Elder Brossard and Elder Anderson.  Elder Anderson was a cool guy. 








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