Hello everyone!
I made it to Mexico safely! I was the only missionary on all my flights which was wild, as I heard about all the other missionaries traveling with a ton of other missionaries. My first flight to Toronto left just after midnight, Tuesday morning. 1 hour and a half before I boarded I was sitting alone when a man from India came up to me and asked if he could sit with me. We started talking and I found out he came to Canada for schooling in BC 5 months ago. His english wasn't the best so it was kind of hard to make conversation for an hour, but we ended up talking for the whole time! He is 21 or 22, he likes to sleep, eat indian food, study and go to bed. An absolute legend if you ask me. He then left to catch his flight. Before I got onto my flight, a middle aged man passed out and a medical team came. On the plane I sat by two little boys who were pretty fun. They kept listening and singing to the new Spider-Man soundtrack. They were headed to Disney World and were excited to tell me all about it. I slept a little bit on that flight, but I was mostly to nervous.
Then I was in Toronto, or at least what I thought was the Toronto airport haha. I saw no signs saying where I was, until I saw a Maple Leafs jersey. I was very bored during my 5 hour layover, I kinda wondered around the airport, I ate some really good avocado toast. I sat around dozing off, but to scared to actually fall asleep because I would've missed my flight (I didn't have my phone to travel with or set an alarm to wake me up). After I finally got on the plane I fell asleep. (On both flights I was awake as the plane started going down the run way, but I fell asleep before it took off) I later awoke when the lady next to me grabbed my knee and woke me up. I groggily though, why are you waking me up ma'am. But then she pointed out breakfast was being served. The breakfast wasn't very good... but I was hungry so I scarfed it down. I then started talking to the couple next to me. They were an older couple, both long retired; she lives in the Bahamas and he lives in Mexico (and grew up around Toronto). They met in Miami a while back, both widowed and enjoyed each other's company. And are now travelling around to see each others families and grandchildren. She is very religious and we had some cool conversations on the plane. She was shocked to hear that I was 18 and going to leave my family for 2 whole years without any breaks. She asked if this was a mandatory thing to become a pastor in my church. (And no it is not). She basically became the guardian over me and made sure I had everything and knew where to go. It was very sweet and helpful.
When I got to the Mexico City airport I followed the signs to go to the immigration line. That was where I saw the first missionaries besides myself, but they were already far in the line with about 30+ people between us. So I joined the line and more people kept coming behind me. And I look up to the escalator that brings the people into the line and I see 20+ missionaries all travelling together and then a gap and then more missionaries. That just kept happening and I kept thinking, golly why couldn't I have travelled with other missionaries haha.
After I got through immigration stuff and hopefully got the right stamp on my visa, I went to get my baggage which happened to be at the one terminal that was secluded from all the other ones. I thought, well this is going to be a lonely time waiting and travelling to the ccm. But then a group of four missionaries came up to me (2 elders 2 hermanas that travelled together) and they said they saw me alone and wouldn't leave me behind. That was a tender mercy fro the Lord. I quickly became their friends as we told a bit about ourselves and exchanged candy from our respective countries. My luggage took forever to come out, so I felt bad because I made the missionaries I was with wait and miss a bus that would take them to the training center earlier. One Elder in particular became a great friend. Elder Mosith, he had an easygoing attitude with a humour that matched mine. We stuck together as we made our way out of the airport and sat with each other on the bus. We aren't in the saem district or even have the same pday, but everytime we see each other we say hola and talk for a bit!
Wow this is already very long and I've only talked about one day haha, lo siento.
Speed run: Got to the mtc, about an hour drive with traffic. Mexico City is super wild. Got to the mtc (missionary training center) and met the president and his councillors. Got my phone, emailed mis padres. Lost my bag, found my luggage, found my bag. Went to mi casa, where I am living with 22 other Elders. Met my companion in the flesh (Elder Cottrell), met some other absolutely great guys in my district. Got the bottom bunk, banged my head a couple times. Ate cereal for dinner (don't worry mom I have been eating a healthy diet since, they just ran out of pizza by the time I got there.) Then we had a devotional, and went to our homes for bed.
The next couple of days ranged from food, to classes, spikeball, disc golf, walking, shopping in the tienda, and going to workshops. In one of the workshops about language, a quote stuck out to me "are you willing to leave your comfort zone?" that is the fastest and best way to learn a language, you just try and speak it at all times.
My comp is quite the character. First thing he did when he got to the casa was drink the tap water. He said "uh it's kinda yellow, must have a lot of minerals in it." And proceeded to pound back the water. (We had already been told numerous times not to drink it.) And then later that evening, the doctor told us to avoid drinking or even using the tap water to brush our teeth, I just looked at my comp. His sneeze is the scariest and most comical thing ever, he gives you no warning and gives off a high pitched scream sneeze. He is such a cool guy, we are getting along super well.
My district is hilarious, we have moments where we just laugh about things for 10+min as we are trying to be productive, it is like being among my brothers.
I will end this super long email, and I will try to not ramble so much next week. I hope everyone is doing fantastic!
Nos vemos
Elder Spencer
On splits with Elder Parks (my comp didn't want to go outside to study)
A bunch of fine looking guys
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