Elder Jayson Bingham : El Dragón, the CCM, and fuego directo

Hi everybody, sorry I didnt write last week, I sent it last week, but to the wrong email because im an idiot. The CCM (MTC in spanish) is awesome. The days have gone fast for the most part but the week has been really long, if that makes sense. Ill try not to write these emails in Spanglish too much, since I know some people will get mad, but Im trying to speak as much español as possible. Ill put translations when i write spanish words.

This week I have studied more than I ever have in my life, learned more than I ever have in my life, felt the spirit more than I ever have in my life, and gone to the bathroom more than I ever have in my life. The latter is thanks to el dragón.

What is El dragón, you might ask? El dragón (the dragon) is the very, very bad case of diarhea that plagues many missionaries of the CCM as they try to get used to the food. For the most part, the food here is either great, or terrible. Breakfast is never really good at all. Cereal is the best thing. Lunch and dinner always have rice (but they do rice way better here than in the states so thats okay), and theres usually some good meat dish. And all kinds of different juices rotate around the different days, some of which are nasty, others are amazing. But with all this food, my gut is taking a toll. El dragón causes your stomach to hurt pretty much all the time, and makes you have to go to the bathroom really often. And its been with me almost this whole time. It sucks. Ive had to use the bathroom like 6,7 times a day on average. Pray that gets better for me.

Enough of that gross subject though. More about the CCM!!! My companion's name is Elder Prince, he's from Idaho. (Yes mom, he is the guy who's mother youve been talking to). Hes a little shorter than me, has red hair, and is way more athletic than I am. We've been getting along really well, I like him a lot. He is the only other person I know of here going to the same mission as me. Everyone else is going to Peru somewhere. So maybe we'll be companions again someday. The other elder from salem who got the same call as me isnt here. He never showed up to the flight. I remember the boarding desk person calling his name out when we were leaving Salt Lake, but he never came. So that sucks a little, hopefully he's figuring out whatever it is holding him back and will be headed out sometime later. It would be good to see someone from home. There are 12 elders in my district (and no Hermanas), all from North America, and one from the Phillipines, who speaks english as a first language. We are on the 6 weeks program, and all the people who speak fluent spansish already, (all the many latino missionaries here), are only here for 3 weeks. So typically we get up at 6:30, go eat crappy breakfast, and then have time to prepare a lesson in spanish for our "investigator" Nicolas. Lessons have been going pretty well. As well as they can anyway with how little spanish we know. I have a lot less trouble with the language than most of the other elders in my district, since I took some spanish in high school. Its all coming back to me pretty quickly, and Im learning lots. Its also been really helpful to teach my companion a little, since he knew nothing when he came here. He's doing better and better though, and me teaching him is a great way for me to learn as well. So companionships really are inspired, people. After that lesson, we have a language class, and then lunch. After lunch we have physical activity for an hour every day. And we get sweaty. We almost always play either soccer (on a turf field which makes it even more hot) or basketball (on a really slick concrete court with crappy balls and hoops that make it hard to shoot well on, and the concrete makes it even more hot). If there's any latinos playing soccer at the same time we are its not quite as fun because they are way better than the rest of us and take it too seriously. But its still really fun. I scored a goal one time (WHOO SPORTS!!!) and I felt like the world champ. Especially since it was on the latinos.

After fisical actividad we go take a shower; change, and then have class the rest of the day. And dinner. We also go to the Lima temple every pday! Which is awesome. We did a session this morning. That temple is really tiny, but its beautiful. Its good to take a break from the hard work in class every once in a while, especially to go feel the nice quiet spirit of the temple. I have a much greater appreciation for the temple now, and I testify that it is the house of god. Everyone should try to make a goal to go there more often.

We have a lot of fun with my district. Theres a few quiet elders, and a few really obnoxious elders that never shut up. Me and my comp seem to be right about in the middle of those two. We all get along really well and help each other to learn. Our district is fuego directo (straight fire). Fuego directo has become our catch phrase in the district, which I take full credit for. Elder prince was wondering how to say "spit fire" in español for some reason, but I looked up straight fire instead, and everybody else seems to think its hilarous. So that's become the inside joke of the district. Kind of lame and college freshman aged boyish, but whatever.

Any day we get to take a break from the rigourous classwork is a great day, so that includes Sundays, tuesdays, and pdays (wednesdays). Sundays we have religion classes all day, and they are all in ingles to maximize the spirit we feel. They dont want us to have to concentrate on the language then. So those are relaxing. Except the 24 hour fast we had to do from after dinner Saturday to dinner on Sunday. That sucked. Tuesdays we have devotionals. This tuesday we watched and MTC devotional from elder holland, which was fuego directo. He said a couple things that I liked.

First, he said "be yourself, but be your best self". That's all I want to be in the mission field. He said if you can honestly say at the end of the day in prayer that you did your best for that day, then you are a great missionary.

The other thing he said was missionaries need to go out and astonish somebody!!!!! We may not be astonishing missionaries, but we have an astonishing message. He also said lots of stuff about the Book of Mormon and the atonement that blew your socks off and gave you chills and called you to repentance, you know, typical Elder Holland stuff. It was amazing.

Thats the spiritual thoughts I want to leave you with for this week. My testimony has grown so much over these few days and Im so grateful to be in the mission field finally. I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and the things we find in there will bring us closer to Christ. I already feel so much closer to Christ, through my many prayers here and my study of the Book of Mormon.

Thats all for this week, I only have a little time left and I have other business. I love you all, and I would appreciate your emails and prayers.

Elder Bingham