Week One at the CCM

Hermana Jorgensen and Hermana White outside their classroom building

Hey family,

I only have an hour here on the computer to read and write emails on P-Day, so I will try to get to all of your questions.

First week here at the CCM has been CRAZY! I started out by getting in to the airport around 6:30 and then driving through the absolutely insane streets of Mexico City for about half an hour to get to the CCM. There is no rhyme or reason to Mexican traffic. No lines on the streets, its just however many cars you can fit. Almost every single car had scrapes all over the side. And the intersections! No lights, just cars weaving in between each other. I almost had a heart attack about 20 times. I met up with two other missionaries in Gilbert (an elder and a sister) and then two more elders at the Mexico airport. When we got to the CCM we had a quick dinner and orientation, then they told us to go to our casas to unpack and meet our companions. My companion is Hermana White from Salt Lake City. She is going to the Washington, D.C. north mission and has a twin brother who is out on his mission in Quito, Ecuador. She seems like a really fun girl and I can't wait to get to know her. Our first full day started out so early. Thankfully I haven't had any trouble at all waking up to my alarm, but it is HARD to get up when all you want to do is sleep more. But knowing you are here to become a representative of the Church really helps to motivate. 

Oops...Her name tag was misspelled, so she will get a new one this week

After waking up and getting ready (half an hour is so short!), we went to class study before breakfast. Hermana White and I tried to study the spanish scriptures they gave us and we got through about 7 verses in an hour. We were able to meet our district (the group of other missionaries from the group that came into the CCM with us that we would be studying with for the next 6 weeks- 2 companionships of elders) and get to know each other. We all went to breakfast together.

Hermana Jorgensen and her districto

After breakfast is when the miracles began happening. I was so scared before coming here that I wouldn't understand anything and that I would be totally lost for days until I picked up a few words in Spanish, so I was praying my heart out to Heavenly Father that he would help me understand at least the most important things that our teachers were saying. He answered my prayers and more. Our teacher, Hermano Salvador, took my district on a tour of the CCM and was speaking solely in Spanish, but I understood almost every word he said. I was even able to translate a bit for the other missionaries in my district. The Gift of Tongues is REAL, and so is the mercy of God. Without it, I would be drowning.

The first few days were mostly orientations and reminders about what it means to be a missionary. Most of them were ok, but it definitely made the first 'week´ go by pretty slow. We had a few classes about teaching the gospel interspersed in the orientations. Oh, and we taught our first investigator [yes, a REAL (ok- it was a teacher pretending to be an investigator, but same difference) INVESTIGATOR] a lesson IN SPANISH on our second day. I was terrified. But again, the Gist of Tongues is real and God takes care of His missionaries. Hermana White and I were able to push through the lesson and it actually went really well. We taught him every day this past week and just had our last lesson yesterday. The spirit was so present and it was such an amazing experience. And our classes have been so amazing. I have learned more in the past week than I did In 4 years at high school.

The CCM is quite the interesting place. It used to be a boarding school high school here in the center of Mexico City. Fun fact- one of our branch presidents was a teacher here for 30 years and another one of our presidents was one of his students! The area all around here is quite the party town! There is fiesta music playing quite often. Also, people down here love to celebrate by setting off homemade pipe bombs and shooting guns at all hours of the day and night. We are completely safe here, but it is really interesting to hear a series of booms and then sirens rushing off to somewhere. Memories are definitely being made here. The CCM is so beautiful. There are flowers and palm trees and lush green grass everywhere. The CCM's nickname is the Celestial Kingdom of Mexico City and it is rightly named. I love it here. It hasn't been super rainy, but most days it doesn't get above the mid-70's. The food here is also pretty amazing, but I am still getting used to it. They serve a good variety of food, but most of it is stuff that is pretty common to the area. However, every Tuesday is Costco pizza night and it is everyone's favorite dinner.

Going along with the topic of food, I have discovered some jewels of Mexican snack foods, with the help of some elders in the older groups of our branch (we have 3 districts in our branch, including ours, of varying 'ages'- meaning they have been here for different amounts of time). They are Chokis and Granada Jumex. Chokis are like a much better version of Chips-Ahoy cookies (like everyone is addicted to Chokis) and Granada Jumex is the most delicious tasting pomegranite juice in the world. There are more delicacies to discover at the tienda here at the CCM, which I am sure I will find before my 6 (now 5) weeks are up ;)

I am sure I forgot some things, but I will try to include them in the next email. I am so glad to be here at the CCM learning to be a missionary and I cannot wait to get out to share the gospel with the people of Federal Way, Washington. I love you all, and I miss you so much. The work is hard, but it is good!
Con mucho amor!
Hermana Jorgensen

This is a safety circle, and the missionaries are told if there is any kind of natural disaster to go to one of these circles and wait for further instruction.  They are all over the CCM.

Hermana Jorgensen calls these the Quiddich rings.  She has no idea what they really are.  I wonder if they are an early warning detector for off shore earthquakes?  Of course that might just be because I am spooked by the article in the Atlantic this week warning that the entire western half of Washington is overdue to be obliterated by a mammoth earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami...Why did I read that article??????