It's been a long week. . .

without you my friends, but I'm telling you all about it right now!

So we got here!  It's a very different place down here.  I get more or less authentic Mexican food almost every meal, and I've learned that the best way to do Mexican food is take whatever meat they give you, and cut it up into small pieces, and basically turn it into a taco salad with rice, lettuce, chips, sour cream, lime, and slivered almonds.  You can stomach basically anything that way!

The MTC, or CCM as they call it in mexico, has its own well, water tower, and filtration system, so luckily for us, everything is safe.  However, I'm told the water from the tap doesn't taste very good, so we are encouraged to drink the bottled water that is provided to us.

Inside the CCM, there's basically a whole neighborhood, so while some missionaries stay in dorms, we stay in a house, which is pretty nice.  The houses have a living room and a laundry room, and a kitchen with nothing in it except a bottled water dispenser.  So, unfortunately, I won't be cooking anytime soon.  The lame thing about houses though, is there is a single water heater for the whole house, and we are all supposed to wake up at the same time, so I rarely get hot water for my showers for any significant length of time, if at all.

We are learning Spanish!  All of the instructors are Mexican, and most don't know English well, so we are learning at a significant rate.  They told us that by week three, they weren't going to speak any English to us at all, so that will be interesting.    They also have this program from BYU on all the computers called TALL (acronym unknown) where we can hear Spanish words and phrases, and learn grammar, and do flash cards, and basically learn the entire language.  It's really slow to start however, so it takes a while to login...

We also got to teach an investigator (who was really a teacher, who was really good at acting, or maybe because it was Spanish I couldn't tell...) 4 times, and we have our last lesson with him today.  We aren't allowed to use English at all, so sometimes it's really difficult to express what I want to say, because the idioms and phrases we use all the time in English, aren't super easy to say or remember in Spanish, but the important thing is to listen to their needs and listen to the spirit.  It's been an amazing experience.

They also said we couldn't use our music devices at all while we were here, which is pretty sad, but I guess I'll get a lot of practice singing!  They also have pianos in a lot of rooms, so I get to play occasionally, but the first time I played, I played Arwen's Vigil, and it turns out that one of the hermanas in my district has a brother who used to play that all the time, so she started crying.  That was not very fun at all...

My companion's name is Elder Nielsen, from Boise, ID.  Technically Kuna, but he tells everyone Boise.  He is a very athletic individual, and very humorous.  We are very different, but I've grown to love him, as I have been able to serve him by helping him learn Spanish.  In return, he promised to help me learn basketball.  Just FYI, I'm still no good at basketball!

The CCM is right smack in the middle of Mexico City, with a big wall around it with barbed wire, and a gate with security guards and everything.  I know it's for our own protection, but it does also describe another place... Just kidding, it's great here.  Although I am anxious to get out into the field, this is a great place.  We are given 100 pesos a week to spend at the tienda, or store, which is about $6.  They use the dollar sign for pesos down here, which gets really confusing when it's $4 for one packet of laundry detergent!  But anyway, we here explosions and sounds of the city all day, and all night.  Our house is right by the wall, so we get to hear all of it.  We don't know how many are fireworks, and how many are gunshots, but it's a very different environment.

Last Thursday was Mexican Independence Day, which I must say would have been better if I had understood what they were saying!  But it was pretty fun, we got to try Mexican candy, and watch traditional Mexican dancing.

Today we're going to the temple, and we will get to go 3 times during our six weeks, which is pretty great.  I've heard the Mexico City temple is beautiful.

One of the days we were teaching our investigator, and he was really sick, but we still taught him, because we needed the practice.  However, one of the companionships in my district gave him a blessing before they started their lesson, which was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, my companion and I are dead last in the schedule, so we have to wait through everyone else, and also didn't get an opportunity to bless him.  Oh well!

The weather down here is crazy.  They say it rains 3-7 times a week, but I've only seen it twice.  But it will go from completely sunny, to downpour in minutes.  It reminds me distinctly of home.

I miss all of you, but I'm also having a great experience!

Love,
Elder Dahl