Elder Mitchell's Mission to Tennessee: Primera Semana en el Campo (1st Week in the Field)--Week 7

All the new missionaries in Nashville with President and Sister Anderson

Elder Mitchell is in the back in front of the chalkboard

Hola!

Well, the CCM is no more. On Friday we had orientation for the field, and then we had our last Sunday in the CCM. It was pretty great. Lots of goodbyes. We sang a stirring rendition of "Para Siempre Dios este con Vos" (God Be With You Til We Meet Again), singing "HASTA VER!!" at the top of our lungs. The CCM has been a great experience, and I absolutely loved it there. But, Monday came, and it was time to say goodbye to Mexico.

Monday morning felt like the start of a "24" season. We woke up at around 2 am to be at reception at 2:30. We got the Mexico City airport (which is HUGE!), and some Hermanos got us up to Security. After that, we were on our own. I was a little afraid that we would get stuck in Mexico, but, we made it back to the States, which felt great (but it was also really weird because I forgot that I didn't have to use Spanish all the time). We had a layover in Dallas, and then it was off to Nashville.

The Mission president and the AP's picked us up at the airport, and drove us to the mission home, where I enjoyed my first real American food in 6 weeks: Sloppy Joes. President and Sister Andersen are awesome! You can just feel the Holy Ghost emanating from them. We spent the night in the mission home, and my "24" season ended at about 11 pm. Looooong day.

On Tuesday we had transfer meeting. They took the 17 newbies, and got us our new assignments. There are 5 Spanish Elders in the "generation." From the CCM are Elder Black, Elder Webster and I, and there are 2 more Elders from the Provo MTC. I got my first area: Smyrna, TN! It's just a bit south east of Nashville. The Spanish Elders actually cover Smyrna, La Vergne, and Murfreesboro, but we can only go the Murfreesboro about twice a week (because it kills our mileage). We do have a car, and we do get the most miles, but it's a bit of a drive to Murfreesboro. My new companion is Elder A. He's pretty cool. He's been on his mission for about 7 months, and this is his first time training. He is from North Carolina. He did Marching Band and stuff in high school, so we kind of relate in that regard. He loves playing card games and stuff.

After transfer meeting we drove out to Smyrna and I taught my first lesson. We had a lesson that day with H. H is probably our most progressing investigator. He has committed to baptism, but the only problem is getting him to go to church! He is also partially blind, so he can't really read the Book of Mormon, but he loves listening to the CD's. We have also been teaching a couple of other investigators: J and F. We read with them in the Book of Mormon in our last lesson, and they are doing pretty well. We also have lots of potential investigators that we try to teach, so we try to stay busy. We also taught a few lessons to some less actives. We also do a loooooot of tracting. We mostly go to trailer parks and try to find Spanish houses. We do a lot of biking, to try to keep our miles down.

On Wednesday...I had my first dinner appointment...But, it went ok. We had this soup thing with chicken and boiled corn. The chicken was good, but the corn was so weird. Hermana L was super nice to us. We have dinner with her every Wednesday. She is also a less active.

On Sunday we had church. The Spanish branch meets in Murfreesboro. We had ward council, Sunday School, Priesthood, and then Sacrament. The members are all pretty nice. It was really hard to understand, but I can kind of get the gist of what people are saying. The branch president, President Rivera, is super awesome.

As far as my Spanish, it's really hard to understand what people are saying to me, because they talk sooooo fast! But then, my speaking is probably really slow to them. There have been some times when I've looked at Elder A and asked, "uhh...what'd she say?" I can teach the Gospel lessons pretty well, but I am still working on being able to have regular conversations. Hopefully, it will come soon. Just gotta keep working at it.

Hope all is well at home. Love you all!

Elder Mitchell

PS it is really weird to be using an English keyboard. I kind of got used to using a Spanish one.

Here are some more pictures from his last week in the CCM: