WEEK 3 - Q&A

1. I've heard you're not allowed to use your camera at the CCM. Did they totally confiscate your cameras? Are you allowed to take pics outside of the CCM, like when you go to the temple? 

Yep they took them away. Nope we have no cameras.

2. Did they cut your hair when you got there? How often do you get it cut while in the CCM?

Yes, they cut my hair right when we got here. And we get it cut every two weeks if we need to. Which I do. Cause my hair grows like weeds.

3. Do you do your own laundry? How often?

Yes, we do our own laundry every Monday and Friday.

4. Are you able to listen to music at the CCM? Have you used your iPod yet?

Nope, they took all that too. We have zero electronics.

5. What have you learned so far about keeping healthy and safe while in Guatemala and Honduras? Is the CCM water safe to drink? Do you have to take pills every day like Ren did?

Umm I learned that nothing is safe basically. We have to practice not using tap water here. It is safe in the CCM but we have to practice.

WEEK 3 - Third Week in el CCM: Over the Hump

Hello everyone. We are over the hump now. Halfway done. Woohoo. I realized after I sent my last email, that it was really bad so I have a bunch of stuff to put in this one.

Last week we started teaching less active people. A couple came in on Saturdays and we teach them a lesson. The first guy we taught was super duper weird and gave us his address and stuff. So awk. So they pulled us out of the room cause it was so awkward and they were a little scared for us, so we had to leave. Then we taught another lady and it was awesome cause we saw her at the temple the next week so... fantastic. And then last Saturday we taught this guy and he needed help having the companionship of the Holy Ghost. So I like out of nowhere committed him to read a chapter in el LDM and I think he really felt the Spirit and stuff. Then last Sunday we had a lovely health meeting where they basically told us we were going to die. It was splendid. We got two new investigadores this week. Gabriel and Freddy. We teach really really well together and the language is coming along a lot better. Our morning teacher switched from Hermana Cuque to Hermano Jimenez. Which I'm sad about. He's good but I loved Hermana Cuque.

We got a new District Leader, Elder Wright. He's awesome. A bunch of new guys got here last week. They are alright. Most of them are kinda annoying but it is packed now. A day last week we did T25, which is like P90X, it was awful. I was sore for like 5 days. We've seen a couple car crashes because everyone here are such crazy drivers. My electric razor got stolen so that is fantastic. A day last week we were all laying in bed and then heard running in the hallway. Then we heard a loud bang and some more running. We locked the door and all said prayers. Don't worry mom, it was nothing too bad. We think it was just someone dropping something.

We made a goal to read el LDM by the time we leave el CCM and it's going great. I'm in Alma right now. We also memorize stuff. A lot. I have memorized, in Spanish of course, Missionary Objective, Baptism Invitation, Primera Vision, y D Y C 4. It is sooo hard to memorize stuff but we have to. Last thing, we have had two General Authorities come. Last tuesday we had Elder Ochoa and yesterday we had Elder Filabela. They were both really awesome. Elder Filabela spoke in Spanish and I was able to understand almost all of it.

Love you all so so much. Miss you all so much.
Elder Baller

WEEK 2 - Q&A

Mom note: One of my mission mom friends gave me the idea to ask a few questions each week that Elder Baller could answer for the blog. I LOVE how much his personality shows through in his responses. So, here are the questions from his second week in the CCM:

1. Tell me a little more about Elder Speth - where is he from, what's his first name, how old is he, is he going to your mission too?

He's from Logan. His first name is Jordan. He's 18. His mission is Guatemala City South. He is awesome. We sing together cause we sound really good together. Everyone tells us that. We wore the matching ties from Danielle's wedding today because you packed Andrew's and we have the same suit.

2. What is your favorite thing you've eaten at the CCM? What's your least favorite thing? 

The best thing was probably this pasta stuff. So good. The worst thing was the first breakfast right when we got there. Beans and red bell pepper eggs. I was ready to go home.

3. Who are your roommates? Where are they from, etc?

They are all from Utah except for one from Idaho. One went to Westlake so we know a ton of the same people. They are all hilarious.

4. Do you have "culture" class to learn about Honduras?

Nope, I'll just get thrown right into the murder capital of the world. All the teachers kinda cringe and say buena suerte when I tell them I'm going to Hondo. Just made up Hondo. Not a real thing.

5. Besides the temple, what else do you do on P Day?

We do activities outside el CCM and play sports.

WEEK 2 - Segunda Semana En El CCM

Hey guys!

This computer is much much better, but I am the last one to start writing because I let everyone go before me. Soooo that was a mistake cause I don't know how much time I'll have. But this week was really really great.

Since my last email didn't really say much about your questions cause I was kinda flustered I figured I would try and answer some now. In a typical day, we wake up at 6:30 and then have personal study for half an hour. Then breakfast. Then personal study for another half an hour. Then we have personal study for an hour. Then we have class until lunch. Either grammar or gospel. Then lunch. Then more class. Then dinner. Then more class. Then at 7:30 we have personal study. Then at 8:15 we go and do language study on the computers. Then we plan for the next day. We finished teaching our "investigator" this week. That was pretty good. We are getting better and one of the times we practiced with latinos they told us we did perfecto. We are getting more comfortable with our spanish and it is really good. It is still super frustrating cause we will get promptings to say something and I'm like, "uhhhh thanks for the inspiration but I don't know how to say that."

Anyways I love it here. It rains way too much and way too hard. It's insane. It will come out of nowhere and it will be crazy.

We got two new investigators that are our teachers. Erika and Gabriel. Gabriel is really really hard. It's fantastic. Erika was super easy and we rocked that lesson.

Today was P Day was awesome. I can't speak English. We went to the temple this morning which was great. It was honestly so great. I felt the spirit so strong today. Then we went to a market and bought some stuff. It was interesting because it is not like America at all.

All the latinos and the oldest people left this morning. There was like no one here today. It's weird but tomorrow we get 35 new people. 33 elders and only 2 hermanas. I don't really have anything else to say. This week was great. We sing tons because we love it. This experience has grown my testimony so much and I love it.

Love,
Elder Baller

WEEK 1 - First Week En El CCM

Hey everyone. So this computer is terrible and doesn't have stuff so this email will be very poorly punctuated and very poorly written because my ingles is muy mal. It's hard to speak English words so sorry in advance if some of my words are en español. Also it doesn't have an enter key so this will be one paragraph.

This week has been amazing. The plane ride was awful awful awful. It was so long and sooooo hot. We basically flew all through the night. But there was about 35 of us so that was really, really cool. My district is awesome. We are all so close and getting closer. Mi compañero, Elder Speth, is wonderful. We get along so well and we teach together so well. 

We basically got thrown right into everything and we are teach an 'investigador'. It's really our teacher, Hermano Morales, just pretending to be an investigador. But it feels so real and we have to teach in Spanish so that is super fun cause we basically can't speak it. jk jk. We are actually all really, really good. The older Nortes said that we are the best district at speaking Spanish. I hope that made sense. I sorta forget how to speak English..... cause EVERYONE speaks Spanish. Todo el tiempo. All the time.

The food was awful. The first day when we ate breakfast, I was thinking. Oh boy. What did I get myself into. But then, after that it got a lot a lot better. But they give you so much food and it is like impossible to eat it all, but you have to cause they don't want you to waste any of it. They have the best fruit ever. It tastes so fresh.

Ummmmm... I don't know what else to say. The days are so long and the weeks go by so fast. I've been here for a week. what. a week. what. We got back from the temple literally about 5 minutes ago. The temple is amazing. It is such a good expierience wherever you go. Not spelled right, but I don't know how to spell it... Awkward... Anyways it has been amazing here. Our P Day was supposed to be yesterday and then it got switched to hoy . que en el mundo. We have taught los latinos all these american frases that they don't say here. Like que en el mundo, which means what in the world. Santa vaca, which means holy cow. And nuncamente, which means nevermind.

Our teachers are awesome. Hermano Morales en la tarde y Hermana Cuque en la mañana. They are so spiritual. Hermana Cuque was gone for a little while cause she is going to the US so we had a substitute, Hermano Romero, and there was one time where he asked us to pay really close attention and then bore his testimony is Spanish. We all understood perfectly, it was amazing. And then when he finished he said, the gift of tongues is awesome right. I don't know how to do question marks on this keyboard so there you go.

Anyways, this email has been all over the place but my week was awesome. I miss you all so so so so much. I love you all con toda mi corazón. Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera.

OH, last things. They say that when you go on a mission, your testimony will be strengthened and I was like, yeah yeah whatever. It's true. My testimony has grown so much. I got the chance to bear it to some of you before I left, but the ones that I didn't get to, I want to now really quick. I know that this church is true. I KNOW that the BOM es la palabra de Dios. I love this gospel. I'm so excited to preach it. I cannot wait to get out en el campo. It is the coolest feeling in the world to put on that nametag every day. I am a representative of Jesucristo and that is amazing.

Much love,
Elder Baller