A Day in the Life and Earthquakes

Hello Everyone!

So, last week I was asked what a standard day in the MTC is. A STANDARD day is waking up at 6 30am, doing our best to get our companions out of bed because they usually have trouble going to bed when me and Elder Povar tell them too, getting ready, breakfast at 7 15am, personal study after breakfast and then class after that, class goes until about 11 00am and then we have companion study, lunch is at 12 15 then we head over to the computer lab to do TALL with is Technology Assisted Language Learning with is the Churches inferior version of Rosetta Stone. It's centered on missionary lesions though, so it's cool.

After an hour of TALL we have language study time until 3 45 which is when we head over to get ready for GYM.  We have GYM time for about an hour until we have to head to our Casa to shower and get ready for Daily Planing Session and then Dinner.  After Dinner we have class until 9 30pm, about that time is when we head home and get ready for lights out at 10 30pm. Non normal days include teaching mock investigators, real investigators, devotional night on Tuesdays, Pizza night on Tuesdays, And anything else that seems to be thrown our way. Lots of amazing things happen here.

The first day we were here there was a Sister who hurt her leg real bad playing Volley Ball and was going to be sent home, but she got some test results in a few days later that showed that her leg had miraculously healed.

There's also little things like one night where I was writing in my journal and 10 30 came and I asked the guys if it was ok if I could wrap up my thoughts under a blanket with a flashlight.  They told me it was fine with them but when I went to turn on my flashlight I discovered that it wouldnt work whatsoever.  I supposed that the Lord wanted me to obey the bed time rules so I went to sleep.

We also experienced an earthquake while we were here!  The CCM has an Earthquake siren that goes off 15 or more seconds before an earthquake happens.  when the siren sounds everyone is supposed to run to ''panic circles'' or ''meeting places'' which are big green circles on the pavement outside on the ground.
When the siren finished sounding we thought it was a false alarm, but then I started feeling unstable like I was dizzy and our teacher pointed and told us to look at the trees and lamp post that was next to us. THEY WERE MOVING and it wasn't windy! The feeling of the earthquake wasn't dramatic, I probably would have slept through it if it happened in the night.  Standing on the ground was reminiscent of standing up in a steady moving boat. You feel like youre on solid ground but there is definitely motion under your feet. There was no panic, just a lot of people going '' woah!'' and our teacher running in circles yelling ''THIS IS SO AWESOME! THIS IS SO AWESOME!''Apparently earthquakes aren't extremely common in Mexico, but common enough that they have Panic Circles in the CCM.

After the fact at lunch we discovered that the small tremmer we felt was actually a huge earthquake somewhere else in Mexico that was on the news in the States.  So if any of you were concerned, Im fine!

I'm learning what I came to learn, but VERY slowly. I'm a much better teacher in English than i am in Spanish. Some days it feels like I dont know spanish at all and others I can ALMOST carry a casual conversation.  It's discouraging most of the time, but I do all that I can to learn and trust in the Lord.

Glad things are going good back home, I'll talk with you all later!

Love, Cameron

Week One in the CCM!

Hey!

When we got here everyone told us that the first week is the longest and hardest week of our lives. They were pretty much right about that one, it's way hard!  Spanish is a little bit tricky because they have a completely different grammar system than English.  Therefore, Google translate can't always help you out.  I'm learning Spanish, but it's going pretty slow.

Beautiufl CCM Campus

The CCM is awesome! Like I said, Mexico city in crazy but the CCM is like an oasis with a huge wall around it complete with barbed wire. My companion calls it a prison, because of the walls and barbed wire and the hour of GYM time everyday. I try to look at it with more optimism. If this is prison, I'm gonna be ok with the life of a Missionary convict.

The food is sort of hit and miss.  Some mornings we wake up and look at our breakfaast and think "what the heck is that??" Other mornings it's like "dang, I don't know what this is but it's pretty dang good!" and others "oh boy they made waffles!" There is however a rule of thumb with the food, the bread is ALWAYS dry and crumbly.  Oh and Tuesday night is Costco Pizza night!  Yes, they have Costco in Mexico.

Sunset and a Palm Tree

The world outside the CCM bubble

Mexico City!

Most of the teachers speak both Spanish and English.  Some of them however, only speak English. If there's important Gospel knowledge that we need they usually present it to us in English so that we understand.

Its not as hot as I expected, its only 85F on a normal day. Yesterday and the day before that we had some pretty awesome thunderstorms, and the rain felt SO good.

My companion is Tongan, I love him because he has incredible faith is it totally relaxed about almost everything and is a pretty cool guy.

Elder Howell with the District

Cameron and his Companion

I can't really tell you the typical day yet because the first week isn't really made of typical days.  I'll give more info next week.

Everything is cool here! I part of me misses home and everyone who is there but most of me really feels like I'm in the right place.

I love you all! 

~Cameron

I couldn't resist (Can't help being a Photographer) 

Birds

First Day - He made it to Mexico!

Hello!

Well, I made it to the CCM. i´M attempting to write on a spanish keyboard, this might be a little bit choppy for a little while.  The Flight was good!  From SLC I flew with three other elders and five sisters. Once we got to Dallas we picked up a few more Elders and Sisters, by the time we got to Mexico I think there were fifteen or sixteen of us new arrivals.  While we were boarding our plane in Dallas an Elder named Elder Fakahafua (Samoan) went and asked the lady at the gate what boarding party was entering the gate and she replied "yours is" we asked if she was sure, because our boarding party all day has been group 3. She then immediately went to her microphone and said "group three now boarding" and then asked to see our tickets.  She took our tickets and then printed all the Elders new tickets with lots of leg room. It was awesome! not too sure why she did all that though, I´m just going to simply take it as a tender mercy on our first day out.
Mexico is crazy by the way! the lanes are tiny and traffic laws are left to interpenetration. and the houses and the shops and the everything! It{s a whole new culture.  A little too chaotic for my taste, I suppose I`ll get used to it.  CCM is beautiful! It{s like an oasis away from the city. I havent explored yet but Im sure Im gonna love this place a ton.

OH and Elder Fakahafua is my companion now!  Most of the people just called him Elder F, I called him Elder Smooth after he got us that leg room, but I suppose I should probably learn to pronounce his name now.

My P day is on Thursday, Im not totally sure if itll be that way throughout my mission, I guess we´ll see as I get used to the way things go down around here.  Youll hear from my next thursday or tomorrow, not totally sure yet.

I love you all!

-Cameron

Getting Ready to Pack

I've got a big pile of things that I'm packing up for Ecuador on top of my dresser right now.  I have the same feelings that I get when I pack for a camp out:
On one hand I feel like I'm over packing, but the Boy Scout side of me is always saying "Be Prepared."
On the other hand I feel like I'm forgetting a whole bunch of really important somethings, I guess I'll figure out what they are when I get there...

The Beginning

Welp, This is it: the beginning.

The beginning of an experience like nothing I've ever experienced before.

RMs are always saying different things about their missions: many will say: "It was the best two years of my life!" and others will say: "It was the hardest two years of my life" or "it was the most fulfilling two years for my life" and so on...
With that said: what do I predict my mission will be like? Personally, I believe it will be all on the above. I guess we'll see.

I suppose an introduction and a hint into what this blog is all about is in order:
My name is Cameron Howell, in a week from today (April 2nd 2014) I'll be know as Elder Howell.  I've accepted a call to serve in the Ecuador Guayaquil North Mission as a representative of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints.  Like I said, I'm leaving to the Mexico MTC exactly a week from today (April 9th). This Blog will be to keep my friends, family, and random strangers undated on my adventures down in Guayaquil for the next two years. I'll post a couple things before I go, and then my family will take over and update my blog off of letters and pictures I send back home.  Hopefully it'll be awesome!

The most frequent question I've been asked in the days leading up to my departure is "are you excited?"
My answer to that is that yes I am excited, but it's a feeling of excitement mixed with fear and uncertainty. It's a very very confusing feeling and I'm completely scared out of my wit. for one thing: I have to go learn Spanish! which is awesome but... I'm not sure if you noticed that by the readability of this blog post or not but- I aren't even that great with ENGLISH grammar!
For another thing I don't feel completely confident with my gospel knowledge skills.  I'm not too fantastic at pulling scripture references out of the dust and there is still so much that I don't know and I feel like I should know in order to go preach it.
I pray every day that I can be ready and effective in the field. That I can learn the skills that I need quickly and make a difference when I serve the people in Ecuador.

Anyways, enough about the insecurities of my heart. I really do think it'll be great, and I truly am excited, so lets do this!