Hola mi familia

Thats cool that a new temple movie came out. That should be interesting to see. Thats so great about evan's mission call he will do so great and yes it will be way different here. It already is.

I don't know when I leave yet. I don't think I will know until the end of next week.

Another week has flown by. I cant believe I've been here for a month now. (this week anyway) I only have two weeks left in the CCM which is extremely wierd!! A little scary and yes mom overwhelming to think about sometimes but I am really excited to get to chilé. I actually am not to sick of the CCM like most people say they are.

Spanish continues to get better and better. I am learning more every day. Now that I am more familiar with the sound and the way the language is, it is easier to learn more vocab which is good. If we are talking about the gospel I can talk for much longer than just a normal conversation. I guess that is good because that is my purpose.

I have been proud of myself because I have done a good job being patient with myself. There have been a few days where I have been a little stressed and frustrated but I have done will for the most part. yesterday was one of those days. I was frustrated with the language and not thinking I knew enough. I was asking myself if I was able to learn this language. Almost imediately my thoughts changed to, are you serious of course you can do this. Then I thought "You know I am here, you know I am here." A great calm spirit cam over me. I know it was the spirit wispering to me. Later during our language study my teacher had me teach him a short lesson about tithing. After he told me that he can see a lot of improvement and that my spanish was coming along. It truly was an answer to my prays and gave me a lot of comfort about the language.

One of my favorite parts of the week are devotionals on sunday and tuesday. Sometimes we have our own devotionals but usually we watch one of the 12 in provo. I love listening to them speak. When they have 30 or 40 minutes to just talk about whetever they want you can really see their different personalities and humor. Its also great because at the beginning they show shots of the MTC and the temple. I cant believe I am saying this but I miss the big mountains!

But things are going great here. My companion and I made some amigos with the latinos and sit with them every meal. That is great to understand and speak better.

I dont remember if I told you this or not but I got made district leader which in the CCM isnt to much but still cool i guess. It still is really wierd to see so many people here. i just always imagine a small group but each week it is filling up and looking more and more like a real MTC. Gym is a nice break from class. We play volleyball, ride bikes, run sometimes, and play ping pong. I do wish they had some four square like they do in provo. My didstrict is doing a lot better at working. There are two elders who have convinced themselves that they aren´t going to learn the language here out of a book but once they get out into the field. It´s a little funny sometimes but whatever. I can understand that we will learn a ton in the field but I think there is a lot to learn here too.

As I said, all is well in Mexico City. I have gained a love for the people here and I have been stuck in the compound. I cant wait to get to chile and get started!!

I love you all!

God be with you til we meet again

Te amo

Elder Hamilton

 This bottom picture is of the security gate.

Mom and family!!

Happy Birthday Dad Today and I think Megan last week!

I just got back from the temple which was so great! I wsa able to understand almost all of the session! I love the temple. It is such a blessing to go there, learn, and think. I am sad that today is possibly the last time I go for 2 years, depending on what we do in our mission. The temple is closed for cleaning now. I am really happy I had the oportunity to go though. It is so nice to live so close to the temple. Use it!!! Go often I know it blesses our lives and the lives of others.

Spanish is coming. I am able to understand my teachers most of the time, as long as they talk slow. Speaking it is coming little by little as well. We have been focused on present tense the whole time and we started doing other tenses now so i am getting a lot of information all at once. It is all great though. I actually have enjoyied all the studying. In 3 weeks I will really have enjoyed it because I will be leaving.

 

I dont know when I am leaving yet. I am hoping to find that out soon. The weeks keep going by fast. The food is good. WE eat a lot of chicken and rice. (beans too but I don´t eat those) I am amazed at how many different chicken meals you can have. Their deserts are not goood! I have found the greatest cereal on earth though!! Choco zaquritas. Zaquritas must be spanish for frosted flakes. so these are chocolate frosted flakes with marshmellows. So GREAT! They only have a few each day though so you have to get to them fast.

Last week I got a hair cut. It is shorter than I have ever cut it and I was worried I was going to have to deal with my cow lick again but after literally praying the whole time she was cutting it it turned out fine. I can still wake up and barely touch my hair in the morning.

Sundays we have basically normal church in the morning, meetings with the presidency in the afternoon along with studying and then we have devotional. We have been just watching a recording of a provo devotional each week. We did have our own once. It is nice because I get so see a little bit of provo. Sunday night was terrible. I guess the wind blew our door open and so misquitos cam in. I was hidding under my sheets all night so I only got a few bites. In the morning we killed like 20 and found more throughout the day. That wasn´t supper fun. My companion had a ton of bites. luckly misquitos haven´t ever really like me.

Other than that things are going good here. If you want to send a letter to me here, you will want to send it this week. It takes 2 weeks for mail to get here. Use Dear Elder. Noah wins for first letter received! Thanks!

Also I heard from sam grandma and grandpa got their call to a temple. When do they leave!

I love you all!

Te amo

Elder hamilton!!

 

 Also this is funny. So apparently everyone says that people always gain weight in the mtc. Chris coca from dance gained 17 lbs in the mtc. But here everyone thinks they are losing weight. I think I have lost a little. We always are full but the campus is so spread out and the food is healthy so we are losing a little weight. haha I just thought it was funny. The cafeteria is getting full!

I love you so much!

 

 

 

July 17, 2013

Hola Madre!

To start off Happy Birthday Disneyland! See you in two!!

Our daily schedule is basically 11 hours in a class room like 1 on a computer. Just doing language and spiritual study. A lot is with a teacher but also a lot on our own as a district.

I actually know a girl from high school here so that is fun! and now i know a lot of people.

I have learned how important

 

Things are going great. This week flew by compared to the first week here which felt like a year. It´s much more crowded now and will continue to be so even more over the next few weeks. No temple today. Every other week so I will go again next week. We were all happy because over this last weekend there was some fiesta and fireworks. Made up for missing the 4th.

I think the blessing I realized most this week was how lucky I am to have elder withers as my companions. He works hard and is always willing to work. Our district is really distracting during study times. Most of them just talk and dont work at all. Luckly over my years I have become the master at ignoring people. SO i am able to keep focused and study. We are in our 3rd week here in the ccm so after this one 3 left. It is crazy we are almost half way already. Sort of scary because that means I need to be pretty good at spanish by then. It is coming along and I am trying to work as hard as I can with it.

Yo sé que la iglesia de jesucristo del los santos de los últimos días es verdadera. sé que jesucristo es él salvador.

Te Amo

Elder Hamilton

 

Also an hour on the computer is not very long so I would love to receive some letters just because I don´t always have time to read everything. 

 The mtc address is

carreta tenayuca chalmita #828,

Colonia zona escolar, Deleg. G. A. Madero

C.P. 07230 México, D.F., México

Dear elder works too!

Thanks I love you all

Glory glory hallelujah!

His truth is marching on!!

To start off my companions name is Elder Withers from idaho and going to chile conception!

Everything is going great! The CCM (MTC) is so big, not the buildings, but the land. 90 Acres!! It is a little island in mexico city. It is interesting because some nights we can hear gun shots out in the surrounding area. But don´t worry we are safe. We call it the compound and their are walls surrounding it. 7ft of cement, 7ft of regular metal fencing and 2 ft of barbed wire to top it all off.

I told you I was going to be 100% honest and tell you everything straight up! The first three days were so hard!! I missed you all so much and the thought of being away for two years was so hard and scary! I think the inicial stress of learning spanish had something to do with it to. I prayed a lot and I felt, sometimes imediately, that my prayers were being answered. Then on the 3rd day we taught Jorge are "investigator," in spanish!!! The spirit was so strong and that´s when the importance of a mission hit me. The man portraying Jorge is jest acting but his story is real. There are people out there who really need the gospel. And now everything we teach I get that same feeling and it pushes me along. One of the first things we learned how to do was to testify. I can tell you my testimonies on testamonies is so much stronger now. Even with broken spanish we were able to feel the spirit so strong and I know he felt it too! Towards the end of the week things were going much better and I am loving it here. We were the first americans to come and like I said last week we are supposed to be in the ensign so keep an eye out for that.

It is so nice having so much spanish around here. One teach for my district is from Provo, and that is the same for every district, and then we have 3 from mexico. They are working on having it just be natives by november. it is also such a blessing to have the natives here. We sit with them in meals and now we have a companionship in our apartment. I can tell I am learning a ton. I´ve got a lot to go but compared to a week ago it is much better. Someone in my district said "it is nice to know we will never be as bad as we are now." The first few days were so long for everyone but now things are going by faster. WE all cant wait to go out to the field! 5 weeks left. Teh food is pretty good sometimes interesting. All the americans were so happy on sunday becuase we had fasted and we got to lunch and they had hamburgers and fries. We all wanted some american food! Yesterday 200 more people came from america so now that is 350 and today we got natives ro replace the first group that left on monday.

It is funny because at the beginning of all of our meetings we basically have a "what is going wrong or isn´t quite set up yet" talk. They are definately still just starting this place as they havent finished the laundry room or mail room and other places. But we are all learning together.

Today we got to go to the temple which was great. It was all in spanish! I was able to understand quite a bit because of white I have learned and I was able to quote a lot form having gone so many times at home. It has been a nice break today. I was really excited to write. I hope everything is going well. I love you all.

Happy Day All Is Well!!

Te amo

Elder Hamilton.

 

The Adventure Begins!!

Tynan officially became Elder Hamilton Monday night as he was set apart by our stake president Pres. Chris Randall, with Bishop Todd Seamons present.  We had a beautiful evening with special blessings and testimonies.  It was special to have both sets of Grandparents with us.

We were up and out the door by 4 am

Arrived at the airport first! Luggage weighed 51 pounds and 47- thankfully they let it go and didn't make us do any rearranging.  It was so much fun to watch excited elders come into the the airport ready to go.  We saw about 14 elders, all going to the new Mexico City MTC. Missions included Chile Concepcion, Washington State and Tampa Florida. Tynan's traveling companions- Elder Evans and Elder Wardman are both going to Chile Vina del Mar. It was fun to meet their families and talk about how we will all see each other again in 2 years. 

Tynan had to say a lot of hard goodbye's the last couple of days but he has waited so long for this opportunity to head out on this adventure to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

And the best news of the day- just got his first email!!

Hey mom I just got here to the Mexico MTC! It is going to be so great! There was nine of us on our flight from salt lake to atlanta. In atlanta we met up with 30 more people who left salt lake at like 8 this morning. Today is the first group of missionaries coming from the united states. When the salt lake group got here there was already some other people here who got here earlier from other places around the united states. For how big the MTC is there is  not very many people here but maybe that is because it is 9 oclock and they are other places. I met my companion, I dont know his name but he is from california and seems really great and motivated!

So you know how we thought there were going to be a bunch of people from the provo MTC running things...

Nope most of the people know very little english. So I guess I should learn pretty fast, Hopefully. They were taking pictures at the airport for the ensign so keep a look out for that and I they might do an article for the LDS News.

I dont know my schedule at all yet. We just got here put our things in our room and came here. They did a little spanish test before. Hopefully they got the point that I don´t know very much. But it should be good! I am really excited to be here!

The campus seems really nice I cant wait to walk around during the day!

I love you guys so much. Just expect another email from me in the next week I guess. im not sure when. Ill be able to tell you more when I write you then.

It is so wierd being on this end of things. I have always been the one reading the emails. Now I am wearing the tag and writing the emails! 

I love you! Talk to you Soon!

Love

  Elder Hamilton

Now the mission has really begun!

Cheryl