CCM District

Elder Hinton, Hermano Monroy (my first instructor), Elder Hunter

Wall of CCM

Model of CCM

CCM

Me, Elder Hinton and a random missionary

A statue honoring the first president of Mexico (this used to be a highschool afterall)

Elder Hinton

H20

Here is my classroom

My room (or at least my bed)

and the living room.

Proof I do laundry

What shall I wear today?

Check out this ironing board.

Houses on the mountain surrounding the CCM.

What are these???

Lego Man arms?

Quidditch Goals?

Towers of Modor?

Device that stops stalker moms from getting in?

Actually it is a monument to the sewers.  

Torres del Museo Drenaje Profundo which translates to Deep Drainage Torres Museum.

This is the group of missionaries I met at the Salt Lake airport. The one with the red tie is my District Leader and the one in the blue suit to his left is my roomate. The Jolley twins are right behind them.

July 24, 2014
I got the second package on Tuesday. We ate the chips and dip as a District today. No one wanted the soda so I took two... but I did share! I took care of the scholarship stuff as well. I got a reply from the people so we should be good. That is a good pioneer story. I had never heard that one. I actually forgot it was Pioneer Day. They don't celebrate it over here. You can finish the Book of Mormon if you try really hard but since you are helping Kate with the kids I don't know if you will make it... I am currently studying the spanish. I haven't gotten the chance to study the gospel as much as i wanted. We have mainly focused on teaching skills and language so far. I have found some interesting things in the bible dictionary while preparing my talks though. My talk this week is about the Apostacy and the Restoration. (yes we had restoration the first week but its a good topic). Are you painting the interior of Mimi's house? Sorry i'm not there to help but then again I don't love painting that much either... You are right though. You can't turn down Mimi very easily. I'm glad Jake enjoyed his tournament and if we were both picky at the same age then it must be the way you raised us. It is not my fault. Yo no fue. 

Mail the cords to the Mission Home in Chile in about 2 weeks. I might be able to use someone else's cord here in the meantime... we'll see.

I hope everything goes well for Dad on his gather. He said Gus gets to deal with the politics and reporters this time so he should be fine. I hope the hunts go well too. By the time I get home Jake should be big enough to help pack out all those monster bucks and bulls that Dad gets. We'll have a sasquatch, a bigfoot, and a yeti in our house.

I can't check the blog right now but maybe another day. If you could email a pic of our family also that would be great. I have pics of you and Jake on my camera but not Kate and Dad.

Both my companion and I are healing well but I got a mosquito bite on my jammed pinkie and I don't like it! I only seem to get bit at night but the deet in the repellant would harm the sheets so i can't use it. And the skin so soft is more of a mosquito attractant than repellant. I bought some things at the Tienda (store) and the card seems to work fine. I've bought some neccessities, some candy, a english hymn book, and a leather scripture case with the army of helaman on it. I don't think I'll buy much else (besides laundry detergent) until i leave so please just make sure i have some money on there for when I fly to Chile.

I'm glad things are going well at home. I'll talk to you again next week so keep me posted.

Love you all, Elder Hunter (i.e. Elder Cazador)

To Kate and Jake,

We do not celebrate any holidays while I am here. The bug is still going strong but my companion and I are fine. Except he kinda sprained the ankle of the leg he had stitches on... I don't know what to do with him sometimes. I was playing soccer when my companion Elder Hinton jumped the fence that cut his leg so he needed stitches. So yes we played soccer but its mostly been basketball, volleyball, foozball, and ping pong.

Which friends are texting me? Most should know that I'm on a mission without my phone. I am glad that football was fun for you and being alive after a hard tournament is an accomplishment. Keep practicing your ball handling and shooting and you will be at a highschool level in no time. 

Love you both, Elder Hunter

July 17, 2014

Mom's letter that she sent July 2nd got here yesterday and Kate's and Jake's letters got here today. SO email or Dear Elder are probably best. I hoarded the last care package and did not share. THOSE ARE MINE. They aren't letting anyone shake hands so we don't spread the virus. So yeah fun times and lots of hand washing.

My "first baptism"is now one of my teachers. Hermano Ortiz. I will try to keep you posted with my progress later.

I'm glad Brooks did well (and you did better). I haven't had an opportunity to share the Pie Story yet. I did share the story of how you switched Brock and Chad in my name though. The Elders called you a hero and the Hermanas (sisters) thought you were evil. So yeah.

I tried new foods. I liked some but spit out most of them. La comida fue no buena. Most of the food here is good though. Everything from french toast to pizza.

People have in fact confused the two of us. That includes our teachers. The language is coming okay. I understand probably 20% of what is said to me. We have to write a talk each week but only 6 people from our branch share their talks each sunday. I was pretty proud of my last talk but i haven't yet started on my talk for this next sunday... and I didn't sleep through my spanish class in high school. Just a few of the study times here at the CCM...

I am sorry that i left before I could see them but I'm glad that Sharon, Brandon, and Katee May could come down. Katee May will be pretty big before i next see her.

I have struggled with getting up early. I slept soundly the first three nights here but now i keep waking up in the night. Hence why i fall asleep while studying... 

Tell everyone I love them. Tell Jake I got all mom's notes in my pockets too. My time on the computer is up for the week so I'll talk to you all later.

First letter from the MTC

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 1:38 PM, Brock Hunter <brock.hunter@myldsmail.net> wrote:

I´m alive

That was a joke! Don´t be mad!

I´ve received your letters from DearElder.com but i hope this responds back too...

I got the care package yesterday. That´s when my District Leaders checked the mail. I can´t tell you how great it was to eat a Snickers Bar. I have tried to be more open with my food choices since getting here. I have eaten fish, berries, gaucho, and some things i am not sure what they are... I still won´t eat raw tomato or pomegranate though... I can only change so much after all. My companion´s name is Seth Hinton. He is from Arizona. We are both over 6ft tall and are both redheads. He reminds me of Braden in some ways. Sometimes young braden and sometimes missionary braden. We´ll see how it goes. We took pictures today and I´ll try to figure out a way to send a pic later. There are 12 people in my district. 10 Elders and 2 Hermanas. We are all serving in Antofagasta Chile! (and so is another entire district)

I met the Jolly twins at the Salt Lake airport and I see them occasionally walking around. I still cant speak or write in spanish very well but my understanding of the language has improved. I say a lot of prayers in Spanish now and I have to prepare a talk, in SPANISH, for Sunday. My branch here is my zone. There are 4 districts in my zone. I´m not homesick yet. I´m still in vacation mode I guess. We have an investigator already. His name is Edgar. We committed him to be baptized last night. Sure he´s already an endowed member and its just roleplay but i say it counts. Our main teacher so far is Hermano Monroy. 

I struggled the first few days, and still need a translation from some of the other missionaries sometimes, but its good here. We still have fun. Our district even sang Frozen songs yesterday! (in our casa, not in public). The casa i´m in has 20 missionaries from 2 districts. There are four people to each bedroom. The rooms are about as big as my room back home but the bathroom is a bit smaller. There are bunkbeds and somehow i got the bottom bunk. The first night we arrived the water heater was broken so we had FREEZING cold showers. They fixed the water heater but we still get cold showers if we aren´t one of the first ones in. I haven´t done laundry yet, i got the short straw so i do my laundry later tonight but i´ve enjoyed the notes you guys hid in my clothes. Thanks.

 I arrived at the CCM with 146 missionaries. Another 160 came yesterday and another 200 come next week. We sent 32 out into the mission field and got 160 at the CCM... its gonna get crowded around here. Mexico City is HUGE. The traffic here make Salt Lake City look like Enoch. All the workers here are nice though and about 40% understand at least some English. The Mexico Temple is closed for renovations so I won´t get to do a session but we should get to visit the Temple Grounds on our third or fourth week. 

We did a great job packing but I don´t have hair gel... or AA batteries for the camera... so yeah. There is that. I´ve used that rain coat nearly every day and I´ve used the Spanish scriptures with tabs quite a bit. They gave me a set when i arrived but they didn´t have the tabs. I put those in my suitcase. I jammed my pinkie playing basketball yesterday. Oh, and my companion got 3 stitches on Friday. He kinda cut his leg open while jumping a fence during soccer game. He´s healing alright though so don´t worry. I´m running out of time to be on the computer for the day so I just want to say that I love you all. You guys are in my prayers. Any errors in this email are due to the spanish set up of the keyboard. Talk to you next week. (maybe i´ll write in spanish)

Called to Serve...

Brock received his mission call to Antofagasta Chile. He reported to the Mexico MTC on July 2nd.  He flew out of the Cedar City Airport on July 1st. (his mom's birthday)

Last Hug at Cedar City Airport.