September 28, 2016
Well, folks, I can count on one hand how many days until I leave The Wall for good and start to be an actual missionary. Only 5 days! And I'm FREAKING OUT! But it's ok, because I'm mostly just excited. I received my travel plans yesterday. I mean, they're not that exciting. A CCM van takes me and the 5 other missionaries going to my mission straight to the Cuernavaca Mission Office on Monday at 5:30 in the morning. The CCM gave me a free filtered water bottle so I don't die drinking the Mexico water and everything. It's getting real for sure!
It also felt a little more real when the last of the HIVE left yesterday. Our district doesn't have any hermanas (sisters) so we just adopted the hermanas from the district next door. There were four of them and they were some of the coolest, funniest people. Well, they all headed off to California yesterday and it was super sad. But we're all off to our own adventures, and let's be honest, none of them will probably remember me in 2 years anyways.
My companion and I got a new investigator this week. Yes, he's still fake. But this guy is played by another elder in our district, and the investigator is based off of this elder's dad, who isn't a member. It kind of made the scenario feel more real because it was actually quite personal for our investigator, and the questions and concerns were that of a real person. So it was really cool to be able to testify of the plan of salvation and the atonement, and how through those two things, families extend for eternity, not just this life.
So there's this thing called TALL. It stands for something, but nobody actually cares what that is. It's a language learning computer program the church uses and it is the biggest joke at the CCM, well, second to the seaweed tamales and soggy chips. Well last Saturday, we had literally the entire night to find SOMETHING to do, because in the CCM, your fast for fast Sunday begins Saturday after lunch, so there's no dinner on Saturday night. Last month, nobody told us that until it was time to NOT go to dinner. Let me tell you, it was just the biggest kick in the mouth and we just about fought our teacher because it WASN'T FUNNY, so fair warning to anyone who may end up coming to the México CCM for training. ANYWAYS. We had NOTHING to do, so we thought, hey let's go get some extra TALL time in, get a little extra practice with Spanish. Well, 3 1/2 hours later, I had "mastered" 77 words and 10 grammar lessons. My brain was FRIED. And I really didn't get much out of it.
But what did I get out of it? Well, I learned that the numbers don't matter. They tell you time and time again that success isn't measured in numbers. It's measured in progress. So on a normal day, I do 1 or 2 grammar lessons and master between 15 and 20 words on TALL, so 10 and 77 are huge numbers for one day. But I can probably only remember about 20 of the 77 words, and I still have no idea what the heck past subjunctive is and why any sane person would create a language that would require the use of the past subjunctive tense. So I really wasn't that successful that night in TALL. Likewise, I could have the most baptisms out of ANYONE in my mission, but if none of them continue coming to church, if none of them make progress towards the temple, if none of them are TRULY converted, it's all in vain. I could have very few baptisms, but if I help them to truly change their lives and make and keep covenants, that's success, no matter what the numbers may say.
General Conference is this weekend and I'm super excited! However, General Conference will not be as fun as it always was at home. I'm not allowed to have any food with me and I have to wear a SUIT all day! But I'll live! We've had the opportunity to listen to apostles live a few times since I've been here, so I'm really excited for the things I can learn from ALL of them.
Quick story before I leave: So today it was raining, nothing new. I was with another missionary at the weight room and I was standing outside, admiring the moisture, when suddenly a light pole 20 feet away from me got struck my lightning. HOMIES I COULD'VE DIED. But I didn't. So we're good! I may have jumped 80 feet in the air. Ok story time over.
Next time y'all hear from me, I'll be livin life OUTSIDE The Wall! Thanks for everything! I love ALL Y'ALL!
-Elder Tyler Steven Aldrich
