Week 4 One month in my pocket you'll aint got it (that rhymes though)

 COMP/I DUNK NOW (on 9 foot hoops)

Missions are the dopest thing ever. I think my whole idea of a mission and my mission really changed this week. I’m finna get to that in a sec but first, let me take a selfie. Lol nah first I got a new comp his name is Elder Davies. Straight out of Iran!! Like the dopest thing ever. lololol nah the kid is from Michigan. Slayyysss at soccer and he is only here 2 weeks. Luckiest kid alive. I’m thinking his Spanish is going to be dope. Buuttt ya haven’t heard it yet. He is just super low key about everything so I don’t know yet. But he took four years of Spanish or something.  2 weeks is how long the natives are here so I’m like boi what you finna hide from me. Kool kid. Nice. Only been here one day. He just came into our class yesterday and said uhhh Elder Thorn I’m your new comp. Weird. Made him sleep on the top bunk though to show him what’s up. We teach a lesson tomorrow so I can’t wait to hear his Spanish.

My Spanish. Oh my dearest girlfriend that is called Española. We spend a lot of time together. Like 10 whole hours a day. I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious. No but my Spanish is pretty good. I guess that’s why I’m so ready to leave. Because at this point I can teach a 20 minutes lesson in solo Española and not stress it.

Ya it sucks but they get what I’m saying. It’s a wonderful feeling to study something and be like this sucks, I can’t learn all of these verbs or rules, then to work hard and just say whatever ima study these flash cards and if I don’t learn it then that’s that I tried. Then you get into a lesson and your just remember the grammar rule or the words you studied. The Lord is a special kind of teacher.  If you put in the time and pray, or should I say plead, to learn this language he helps you retain the knowledge. He doesn't give you the knowledge, no he only will help you retain what you have truly tired to learn. It’s a simple process, a hard one, but its simple. 

Not too much went on this week. Still no temple though which sucks. I’ve been on the same couple acres of land for a month and I’m sooo ready to get out of this box. But I want to share an idea with you that we talked about this week and really hit me in a way that the scriptures usually do. We listen to these talks that are only given to missionaries given by general authorities. Elder Bednar gave this talk on the character of Christ. He used this quote from a different general authority (that I was too slow to write down and I cant look it up) but he said there would have been no atoning sacrifices without the character of Christ. He uses the phase turning out word. Meaning that the savior never thought of himself. He gave three examples. First the healing of the ear on the guard after he had just gone through the most significant thing to ever happen and that will ever happen. He never says anything or seeks for the attention of those around him. Now I thought about this and was like okay of course he didn't it’s the Savior. But we forget how real the savior felt the same temptations that we feel. He mentioned while Christ was on the cross that he was literally worried about everyone but himself. Even those that had just drove nails through his hands. My favorite though is in Matthew 4 this is where the Savior had just fastest 40 days and satan is tempting him. First off its probably the most hardcore thing ever, how He is just like, bro your nothing to me to satan. But after satan leaves, it says in verse 11, that the angles ministered unto him. Now go to the little “a” that’s on the word angles. It’s translation. The angles came to Christ because even God was proud of what he had just done. But is the Savior proud of him self? He sure doesn’t show it or want to be acknowledged for it. The JST of this verse (verse 11) says that the Savior sent the angles that were sent to him to John because he knew he was in prison and needed it more than him. This concept on the Character of Christ is amazing to me. Sorry this is so long. Miss all you guys.

GRANT

The mission is the place to be. A neat quote “a life without purpose is a life without affect”. Love that. Love all of you. 

Elder Beeston

Week 3 Half way bay baby

CCM

Half way bay baby

Kind of in the groove of stuff now here at the CCM. Lots and lots of classroom time which is not my thing. I try to get outside anytime I can. Oh ya the weather here is top notch. It's really never that hot and it's only ever even kinda hot around 2. But I have gym in the morning and its so bomb. We also own our casa now. 

Before we had to do laundry after everyone but we are the oldest in our house so no one touches it. Which is nice cause then we don't have to spend the whole morning waiting for my crap to be done. 

My Spanish, well its coming. In class it's not that good and when I have to write a talk I can't remember anything. But when we teach our teacher just pretends to be an investigator, sounds a lot easier than it is. They hold to the role like the iron rod! Like wont speak anything English and speak so fast. Or they will just be like ya prayer is stupid and I don't believe in God. Then you just slam them with like yo sé qué and its top notch. 

 Oh the new natives are in our casa and the one kid is from Honduras. He says it isn't that bad. But then we asked him if he has lived anywhere else and he is like "here", with a big smile on his face. So who really knows. He also says that the women will just slap dudes butts if they think they are cute. We thought he was kidding but who knows. The CCM is ight, the food is kinda weird sometime but they have Nutella and junk every single morning and night so if all else fails. 

I ball pretty hard in the cage life of soccer. But all these new latinos showed up who are dang good and they don't like me much lol. Me and Framp from Lonepeak always play. He is a homie. He is wicked good at basketball so we go play dunk ball on the nine foot hoop and ya well not my thing when everyone is 6'5. Oh mom I need a rain jacket like stupidest thing ever to not bring one. Just send me pictures of some or whatever and then just send it to the mission home in honduras or something. ya thats all for this week I will put some pictures on here.

love you dudes, stop smelling funny though - GRANT

 the weird lego hand things are a monument for drainage systems hahahahahah so funny to me

Week 2 "2 weeks or 2 days"

Elder Santos

Honestly spoke as much English as I do Spanish but we were homies. He is going to southern Mexico. Also helped me translate my talk for Sunday. He is the funniest kid alive and he helped me all the time. They were only here for 12 days so they left on Monday but they loved us

First thing first my comp went home. He left Friday morning at six. I really did enjoy my time with him though.  He was having some really crazy panic attacks and just couldn't handle being here. We met with the psych and the president a lot. They think he had some serious anxiety problems. So now I'm in a trio. With Elder Goodman and Elder Corey. He is from Orem. We met a little before we left home, after we found out we had the same call. We thought at most we would be on the same flight to Mexico. Now we share a room and are comps lol. He is a homie and we work pretty good together. Elder Corey is pretty quiet but a nice kid. 

I think everyone really down plays a mission. They never really tell you that you're going to get to play soccer every day for an hour.  Or that all our teachers are going to be the funniest dudes ever. I don't know, I've just really started to like it here. 16 hour days suck though, and I still fall asleep in class just like in high school. My Spanish sucks. For a few days and at times still, I'm frustrated with myself. I ask my self what else can I do. But then I remember it's just been two weeks. I've taught like 6 or 7 lessons in only Spanish. It's hard and frustrating when you can't share your testimony. But for the first time yesterday I was talking in the lesson with out just reading from my lesson plan. It's the weirdest feeling when you can feel the Lord helping you learn. I consider myself a fairly smart kid but I know when I memorize a 100 words in a few days that it's not by my own power. Using those words in a sentence is a different story. 

The best way to describe being here is days feel like a week and a week feels like a day. I really never get homesick during the week. Mainly because it just doesn't fit into the schedule lol. Legit though my whole day is planned out to the 5 minutes it takes me to walk to the commodore. I miss Brighton a lot. I kinda just miss going home and feeling that feeling of comfort that is only felt at home. I also miss church lol. I know that sounds weird but church here is just like 20 of us in the class room and we have sacrament. Then they randomly call up people to talk, it's dope. I'm going to finish this now. I will be on for another 20ish minutes so email me if you get this before then. Oh also I will put pictures in another email because I can only send two at a time and they get all huge on this computer so ya. Miss ya love ya. 

Tell dad to work as hard as he possibly can in New York. Tell J she better not mess up my room. Show cannon this little picture of the futsal court. Ashton don't kiss boys.
GRANT

These are all over the place

My room.

CCM campus

Futsal court

We had a ping pong tournament in our house. Probably not the best idea but the natives bribed this guy to give them ping pong paddles and a ball. We just used the living room table and then this light off the wall as the net. The natives are the sickest ever.

Week 1 First week in the CCM

I have a lot I want to say and I hope I can type it all or rather just remember it all. First thing first I'm the realest. lol nahh but I am on a Spanish keyboard so every word I type says it's wrong. So it only increases my horrid spelling. It's also really hard to not type Spanish letters or to type anything that you need to type first such as () because you just have to guess what key does it. 

Well my first companion is Elder Edwards. He is from northern Utah and played basketball and what not. Super nice kid, his Spanish is a lot lot better than mine. But he is having a really hard time. He says he wants to be here but he hates everything here. He doesn't ever feel the spirit. He just thinks he shouldn't be out here. Me and some other Elders gave him a blessing. It was the second most spiritual thing I have felt since being here. I was so nervous when I started. I honestly had hardly thought about what I would say. Then about half way though I just lost it. I know that's so cliche but the power of the priesthood is not. I wish I could send home the power that is here in the CCM, that's what they call it down here. I wish I could say that my blessing has helped him decided to stay here and maybe it has,  but today was P day and he said even playing basketball didn't make him happy. I hope they just put him on some meds and he feels better but I really don't think that is the answer. Pray for him.

The atonement is so real and so true. Even though I will never be able to understand how God could create something so powerful. The Lord has something truly special for me to do out here. And I pray that I can accomplish it, because it is so hard here. Well lol not really. I eat wicked good food and they have this apple juice that is made by angles. I will send a picture of the machine it comes from. I have learned and grown so much being here just a week I cannot imagine after two years.
GRANT

"I'm Here"

Mexico CCM September 4, 2014.  Branch President J. Stan Martinea.
Small world...Grant's branch president is an old friend of his grandpa Jerry.
His wife saw his name tag and made the connection, and then sent this photo.

I made it down here to the MTC and I feel like I'm on another planet! Flying in here, I could see more homes than I think I have seen in my entire life. It is just houses on top of houses. Also, flying on a plane really isn´t that great. It was raining like crazy when we got here to Mexico. We got on this old school bus and there really are no rules of the road. People just drive all over the place, semi trucks parked on the side walk, and red lights mean absolutely nothing. There were 8 other kids going to my same mission that were on my flight. There was 20 of us total on the plane and it made it really easy to know where I was going. Customs was nothing, no line or anything, she just looked at my passport and said, "welcome to Mexico". Oh it smells like armpit here, and it rained, so wet armpit. My P day will be Tuesdays as of right now. Love and miss you guys. 

GRANT

-Love Elder Thorn (ya i got a name tag)