Week 6, Sept 15

This is the last time I´ll be emailing from the CCM – this awesome place that has been both my home and my school for the past six weeks. I have loved it here.

Stewart with President and Sister Jackson

I got to meet my Mission President (Jackson) yesterday… He is a super cool guy with lots of spiritual power and advice. I can tell we´ll be buddies. It was cool because he asked me two questions at the end of the interview – “Are you worthy? Are you willing to obey the rules?” When I asked him why only those two interview questions (because by now, I know all 14 by heart) he told me it was because in his patriarchal blessing, there was one line regarding his mission – “You will have success inasmuch as you are worthy and willing to obey.” It was super cool because in MY patriarchal blessing it says, “Strive to be obedient, to quickly obey, that you may not be influenced by the power of Satan.” Which means that this missionary will not be disobeying mission rules one jot or tittle.

MTC Group at the Mission Home

My companions and District have been so awesome while I´ve been here. They made it awesome. Only one guy in my district – Elder Barlow – is headed to Madrid with me. Oh well. And even though I had some Elders to discipline regarding bedtime, craziness, falling in love with the sisters (yep), being ZL was also a great experience. I learned a TON about what it means to be a leader and how to be a better missionary. The CCM taught me Spanish, yes, but more so it helped me in my scriptures, my knowledge of the gospel, my people abilities, my thinking on the fly, my courage, and my patience (that´s one my companion said I needed to work on, so I did).

I am so excited to get out into the field. I find out my trainer and my location tomorrow morning at 8:30 when I walk across the street to the stake center. (The mission home and office are about 40m away) I´ll be sure to take copious notes on all my orientation stuffs to inform you. My buddies all leave tomorrow morning at 4 for the train station.

I´ll be sure to email when I can again – I don´t even know when my new P-day will be.

Elder Maxfield