Finally! I can at least kind of get my point across in
Spanish how I want! It has been frustrating and obviously I am still far, far
from perfect but I am finally competent. This week was by far better. Wednesday
marked the day I have been away from home a month. Crazy right? Time has flown
and I am ready to break out of ¨Spirit Prison¨ (what we Elders like to call our
dear CCM). I finished the Book of Mormon Wednesday night and It made me feel so
much better. I didn´t get some spectacular answer or even a real quiet answer
either. However, I just feel great.
Friday was actually really funny. Remember my ¨Little
Mexican Mommy¨ Fernando? Well we were coming back to our apartments after
lunch, excited for gym and ready to get out of our shirts and ties, when we
noticed all these little papers on every door. We read the one on ours and it
told us our rooms had been fumigated and we couldn´t go in for another hour.
Fernando was walking by right then and we asked him if we really had to wait an
hour as we would miss gym and it had already been four hours since they had
laid the chemicals. He looked at Elder Germann and I and after considering us
for a moment smiled and said, ¨How fast are you?¨
About a minute later, Elder Germann, Fernando, and I had
ties and towels tied around our faces and were in ready position. I unlocked
the door, threw it open, and like a well-practiced SWAT team, we invaded our
apartment. Fernando opened every door and window and Elder Germann and I
scrambled to gather anything that qualified as gym-wear. Thirty seconds later
we were all laying on the concrete outside our apartment panting and sweaty
when Fernando laughed so hard and yelled in broken English, ¨I love you white
american peoples! You are so crazy!¨
Saturday morning was such a spiritual experience. Hermana
Nava knows how to speak in ways that bring such a spirit you can´t help but get
goose bumps. We just watched a video about how we prepare our whole lives for
this and then shared reasons we felt we were here in Spanish and she just bore
the most amazing testimony I have ever heard. She is something special. Sunday
Devotionals were also a highlight of the week. We watched an MTC missionary
address by Elder Richard G. Scott and he sounded like a loving grandfather.
Every other video has been kind of in your face about worthiness and being
better than you are but his was just loving and accepting which was such a huge
comfort.
We also watched a movie about the remarkable story of John
Tanner and his example of absolute unselfishness. If you haven´t seen it I highly
recommend it. It is well done, the music is FANTASTIC, and it is my new
favorite church movie. The last movie we watched was the older movie of Jesus
Christ and his Atonement and Sacrifice. I really, really like it because
it is something I have been studying this week deeply and it shows him right
after death in heaven ministering to the Angels and embracing God. Never
thought of that before.
Today we got to go to the Mexico City Temple and it was so
beautiful and clean (haven´t seen much of that lately). We watched clips about
families and the Book of Mormon in the visitors center then were given three
hours to roam. They have a little store right next to the visitors center
and I snuck over and got some cool stuff.
On my way back to the temple I saw a little homeless man
sitting in an alley. Wanting to practice Spanish and not wanting to just sit
around for two hours on the lawn at the temple, I stopped and asked him if I
could join him (With Elder Marshall). He was more than happy to talk to us
because he told us not very many people are kind enough to talk. It was hard to
say what I wanted to and hard to understand him but he taught me that the most
unlikely of people can be the most wise and loving people you will encounter.
You just have to love them enough to stop and talk.
I was eating a taco thing I had brought from this morning´s breakfast
and offered him the last half. He graciously accepted with a hug and told me he
had not eaten for a day. This whole time he had been scratching his stomach
through his big, thick, dirty coat. He said a prayer to thank God for the food
then I watched, dumbfounded, as he reached into his coat, pulled out a little pit bull puppy, and gave half the taco to the little dog that had just woken
up. He hadn´t been scratching himself, but comforting his little friend. His
only friend.
I asked him why he did that and he told me something I will
never ever forget. Without taking his eyes off the little napping puppy, he said
smiling, ¨This little one has lots of life ahead of him. I am almost through
with mine.¨ He then looked at me and said, ¨All life, no matter how small, is
of great worth. We must take care of and protect this life, even tthough it may
seem small and of no value. That is what Jesus did.¨
I never asked his religion, I never even asked his name.
Yet, that little old man taught me more in a different language than I have
ever yet learned myself. Remember that. Each life is so special. Take care of
people. Love others. Because ¨ALL life, no matter how small, is of great
worth.¨
I love everyone so much. I say it every time but only
because it is true. I am always thinking of you.
Love,
Elder Aidan Daley Rich
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The night our Latinos left (can´t pronounce let alone spell
their names).
We communicate with lots of gestures and sign language.
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| Leaving the gates of the CCM or "the Spirit Prison" as the missionaries lovingly call it for the first time since arriving. They took a "huge bus" to the Mexico City Temple Visitors Center. |
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| So excited to be leaving! |
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The concrete houses that spread endlessly for miles.
(En route to the Mexico City Temple)
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Tarp Shops - there are tons of little hole in the wall taco shops and
fruit stands with tarps for roofs.
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| Elder Rich and Elder Germann in the Mexico City Temple Visitors Center |
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| Elder Christensen and Elder Rich in the Mexico City Temple Visitors Center |
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| My awesome district |
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| Mexico City Temple |
