Elder Zach Snyder Obregon Mexico Mission: Week 1 at the CCM

Hey everyone!

I successfully completed my first week in the CCM. It was a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. So the first day when I got off of the plane from LA to Salt Lake, I was surprised to see that there were at least 60 missionaries waiting to get on their flight to Mexico City. 18 of which will be heading to Cuidad Obregon with me.

When we arrived in the Mexico City Airport, we met the mission president of the CCM. From there all the missionaries were loaded onto two different buses that were to take us to the CCM. On the drive there, it was really cool to see so much of the city. All of the houses are packed really close together, and all of them were painted some sort of neon color.

The CCM is beautiful. It sits in the center of a valley. (The people serving here like to call it the Celestial Kingdom of Mexico). My companion's name is Elder Tice. We get along pretty well because both of us have the same kind of laid back personality. The weather here is surprisingly pretty perfect. It is around 70 degrees pretty much all day. But it rains basically every afternoon. Here at the CCM we all live in these dorm style houses because this place used to be a boarding school. My roommates are Elder East and Elder Riggins. We all get along pretty well, we can all make each other laugh.

So here at the CCM, they waste no time. On the very first day, our teacher would talk in all spanish and had I not taken the small amount that I had in high school, I would have had no idea of what was going on the entire day. The first three days here were rough. You just feel completely overwhelmed and you say to yourself that you still have 6 more weeks and if everyday is like this then there is no way I will make it. I have never felt so humbled and have never had to rely on the Lord more than I do now. Then we were surprised to find out that on the second day we were expected to teach a progressing investigator in all Spanish!! We had not even had a lesson in Spanish yet. All we had was a little cheat sheet on how to say a limited prayer and how to bare a simple testimony. Teaching the lesson was very difficult because we were all pretty nervous and understood about 30 percent of what our investigator was saying. However, once those days were over, life at the CCM has been fun. I actually enjoy my classes and I am so excited to learn and improve more on my Spanish. Since then we have had a little more Spanish instruction and have had the opportunity to teach our investigator two more times. This is how I know the gift of tongues is real. Even with a few more days of Spanish instruction we were able to understand about 80 percent of what our investigator was saying. It was pretty incredible that we went from understanding next to nothing to understanding almost all of what she was saying.

The food here is pretty good. I enjoy most of what they serve us, and I seem to be one of the few who does not have any problems digesting it. However, we are always excited for Tuesdays for when they serve us pizza.

My teacher's name is hermano Gomez. He is really great. He is pretty funny all the time and he is always able to say just the right words to me that give me confidence in myself that I can do this. We were also able to listen to a really great devotional given by Elder Holland to missionaries in the Provo MTC in I think 2012. It was really great because it felt as if he was talking directly to me in saying that I need to be a better missionary than he ever was and that my mission needs to mean more to me than anything.

I am so excited for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord that I love so much as a missionary for his church. I love you Parker, Elly, Matthew, Mom, Dad, and anyone else who would be reading this.

Love,

Elder Snyder