Mormon Missionary & Cancer Survivor!: ¡Semana Dos! (Week Two)

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	¡Semana Dos!
Date:	Wed, 1 Apr 2015 11:52:54 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
To:	Susan J. Hogg <shogg@wi.rr.com>

[Sue's notes in BLUE. Click on pictures to see them bigger. REMEMBER Brett can't figure out the Mexican keyboards - so there is a reason there aren't any apostrophes.. haha]

Its crazy because I miss all yall (practicing for Texas) a ton but Im not homesick at all. Already feels like weve been here for months. Were already kind of in a routine, still hard to wake up in the mornings sometimes but we do (the beds are kind of stiff too).

So we started teaching our first investigator, and there was a debate on whether she was real or not, and all the other elders were telling us different things, but by about the 3rd lesson everyone was almost convinced she was real. Well we found out early that she wasnt, and that she would become our teacher by the end of the week she would become our teacher. Well Elder E-B got super mad and stormed out of the class and threw his pen and stuff, didnt bother me much. For the Second week we get 2 investigators, but they have been our teachers, but their "investigator" profiles are always real people they met on their missions or people they know personally. One of ours right now is our teacher before he became a member. Hes got some tough questions but were getting it done.

I think its the rainy season because it storms a lot here, and the lighting always looks super cool. One of the 2 mountains were in between has radio towers on top and it looks super cool because the lightning looks likes its gathering on top of the mountain in between the clouds.

[I asked what Sundays are like.] So Sundays here arent 3 hour blocks, we wake up have breakfast, the District leaders have a meeting, the rest have study time, then priesthood/relief society, then district meeting, then sacrament meeting. For sacrament we dont know whos talking so we have to prepare a talk every week, in Spanish, on the subject just in case you you hear your name during the opening. Then this past week, we had the health class of the CCM. We watched a video of Elder Holland telling us to follow the law of chastity, word of wisdom, etc, then we had personal interviews with our branch president to make sure we were all in line on that stuff. I passed. Then we have a devotional (usually a recording of an apostle who spoke at the Provo MTC) in the auditorium. Then Dinner, then a video, like last week we watched Meet the Mormons. This week we watched the story of John Tanner and a video on Christ. Then some more study time (we ALWAYS have study time, which is supposed to be to prepare lessons for our investigators), then back to the dorm. Ill send you my schedule when I dont need it anymore so you guys can see.

This past Sunday however was a little different. Because General conference is next weekend, they bumped fast sunday up to this weekend. The way they fast here is kind of different. We eat Saturday Lunch, then dont Eat again until Sunday lunch (no Dinner, overnight, no breakfast), its horrible. Im not sure I can handle it because I got pretty sick. I woke up, took a shower, then laid back down (because no breakfast) and when I woke up again I had a headache and by the time we got to priesthood meeting my stomach was hurting pretty bad. Before and durring sacrament I felt Like I was going to throw up. In the middle of the First Councilor of the CCMs testimony, I had to run out and puked in the hallway. I felt way better after that. We went back to the dorm to change my pants and tie, and on the way to wherever we were headed I puked again in the grass. We went home and I fell asleep, and the Doctor guy came by and game me Gatorade powder, saltines, some little pill things, and some info on puking and stuff from the Church Missionary Department. I felt well enough to try dinner (cheese and chicken on flatbread, I know, bad Idea), and my stomach still didnt feel right, but I kept it down. I think it might have been a sinus thing, because my nose has been running or clogged for a least a week. Im all good now though.

Oh yea! The Doctor (Elder G) is from West Allis (or something)! He said when he was a kid he laid a couple bricks or something on the Stake Center there in Hales Corners! [NOTE: Many times older couples will serve missions after they retire; the doctors that are at the CCM are likely also missionaries that are retired physicians.]

On Mondays is usually when people ship out and this last week like 6 districts left (and they average 6 to 8 missionaries a district), and I guess the CCM was already pretty below capacity, so its been a little empty around here.

By the way! This is second largest MTC as far as capacity and the largest as far as actual size (90 acres!), and Its smack-dab in the middle of the city. At night you can always hear dogs and sirens and fiestas on the weekends. Also the Catholics have a cannon they set off at least twice a day and, what seems like, every five minutes on Fridays and Sundays (I guess its a celebration thing?), and it echos through the whole valley. Elder E-B said its the perfect example of "Living in the World, But not of the World."

We also have devotionals every Tuesday. We this past one was by Elder Bednar [He's one of the general authorities of the Church], and is my new favorite talk. It was about the characteristics of Christ. Im going to get a copy of the video and ill send it to ya or something. There was one part where he was talking about complaining missionaries ("I dont think were having the success we should be having" etc) and said "Get over yourself!, Its not about you!" He related it to the cookie monster (and even did an impression from the pulpit lol), saying: "I want cookie now!/I want baptism now!" All about how the Atonement would not have been possible without the character of Christ. talked about how he would ALWAYS turn out, when we would turn in, during trials or accomplishment. A "natural man is an enemy to God kind of thing." It was good.

On Tuesdays we also get Pizza for dinner! We also have to do service. Last week it was cleaning the other dormitory building, and this week was loading the back of a moving-type truck with those big blue 5 gallon things of water and delivering them all over the CCM. Today we saw the guy in charge of it again and we helped him do it again today, on our day off, not exactly my idea but it was fun.

Brett's Caption: Pizza Day! (pretty sure its just Costco Pizza)

Elder E-B and Elder B

[I told Brett we had a cold snap.. Hayward was down to 9º one morning; we had a day where it was barely in the 20s] WOW! Thats cold! Its been pretty consistently in the high 70s. Snake Oil sound fun too. We dont have any boardgames :(

[These are answers to things I wrote about: I told him we were having our Sister missionaries over for dinner this week. He loves how the one from Italy talks - she has the best accent. Told him Scott made 1st Class in Scouts and will be Star in July.] Give me a rundown on everything the Italian Sister says!! it would be cool if Scott got Eagle as soon as I got home! Thats cool about Matt and the [W Family] they are awesome people. [Told him Matt's experience at the DMV that Margaret shared at church!]

Well today is officially 2 weeks in (but I think were on week 3 in the schedule) So not too long till im out! See you on Mothers Day!!

P.S. I was going to just send an email saying I was coming home, but I love you too much. Happy April Fools!!!

P.S.S. Ill be sending more photos and I might be back to Email more later today!

Love Yall!!!!!!!!!