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.