August 7, 2014 letter...

Mom!!

Okay so P-day is on Thursday.. and I'll probably email around this time every Thursday. Everything is going well, and my companion is Elder Pearce. He is a really good guy from Herriman, Utah. And yes, Hermana Jones took our pic and sent it to you! Yay:) I hope you loved it, haha. She is really great. I'll be honest, the CCM is great, but it's really hard. I miss my family and friends so much. The homesickness just kills me but I have to keep myself busy to get through it. I want you and the family to know I love them more than anything in the entire world. More than anything. There is so much to say about the CCM, I don't even know where to begin. It's great, that's for sure. Our teacher is Hermano Palma, he is like 5 foot, haha, it's hilarious, but he is awesome. He teaches us every morning! Language, gospel, all of it:) It's good fun. Umm.. the food is okay, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. Every Tuesday we have Costco pizza which is really nice:) even though it's like cold. Yeah, Spanish is coming really well, I can hold conversations, pray, bear testimony, and teach lessons in Spanish already! Our 3rd day here we taught our first investigator in Spanish. Talk about CRAZY, lol. It was so difficult and insane, but we made it through. His name is Fransisco, and actually, just yesterday we committed him to baptism! Yay for us:) and remember, we do all this in Spanish... soo yeah it's coming along really well. Oh yeah, Fransisco isn't a real investigator.. but he acts exactly like one would. Like it's set up where we go to this room that's set up like a living room and we knock on the door and he answers and it's really fun and easy:)

The spirit is strong here, but it's also very stressful at times because of how much we have on our plate. I love all my mission stuff we bought it all works GREAT. My ties get many compliments and my shoes are super comfy, I want to like wear them 24/7. The first day we got here it rained soooooo hard and all my stuff got soaked including my suit, but there is dry cleaning here which is great. We share a room with other elders named Elder Tasker and Elder Lemon. We live in house 40. It's a great home. I'd honestly rather have my home in Alpine, but this is okay. Yeah, the first few days here were so hard. I missed you guys and it hurt so much. But like now I'm fine which is good. The time is really flying here too!

Can you believe I've been here for one week? I can't believe it. The days are like 16.5 hours long, but the weeks seriously flyyyy by. Like I can't wait to get out of here though and get to Peru. Mexico city is beautiful, but really different. Remember that appointment I missed? Well, the exact thing I wanted fixed caused problems this week. I bit down on a guava, and I hit a seed, and the retainer broke off my front tooth. I was so mad because I wished I would have gone to my appointment.. but I went to the doctor and scheduled an appointment with the dentist.. which I was so happy and relieved that I could do. Anyways, another elder had the same problem so all of us loaded in the little car, and left the CCM into the depths of Mexico. It was the greatest thing ever leaving here. Not because I hate it, more because I just wanna experience Mexico. So we left the CCM and started driving through mexico to the dentist, and it was crazy. Everyone here drives like a crazed person. There seems like there is absolutely no driving laws and everyone just goes wherever they want at 10,000 miles per hour. And at every stoplight people walk in front of cars and start juggling balls or sticks, or start washing your car, or sell stuff for money. It's sooo odd, but hilarious. We got to the dentista, she was a member of the church, and actually the CCM uses her often for denstiry work. She put glue back on my retainer and fixed it:) it was such a freaking relief to get it fixed. She did a really good job too, like it was just like an ortho/dentist in the US, which I miss soooo badly.. oh and we talked to this member of the church in the waiting room for like 20 minutes in Spanish! Anyways, what a journey. Our driver was funny too. He kept asking if the "n" word was offensive, because he heard it in a movie once, so he kept saying the "n" word while asking us and we were just cracking up saying like, yeah, it's a bad word dude, you''ll get shot if you call someone that. Our district is awesome, pretty small it seems like, but still really good people. We learn a lot here and work really hard. I'm most excited to finally get to Peru, like getting a taste of Mexico just got me pumped for that, ya know? My English has been struggling lately whenever I write, because everything here is in Spanish. Every worker, teacher, everyone is Mexican and speak hardly any English. I guess I'm  becoming one of them, hahaa...WEEEE. My accent is also coming along mama.. you'd love it. My Spanish is rockingggggggg. I have a long way to go, but I'm trying really hard to understand and speak. We have had some really great devotionals here, too. We have a devotional every Tuesday night, and watch a movie every Sunday! It's such a great thing. We watched The Testaments on Sunday and it's a darn good movie. We have it, so you guys should watch it for FHE! Make sure to read scriptures everyday - personally and con la familia! Okay? It's a blessing we have the scriptures, we should use them.

I could write so much more, but time is short and every thing else is just random blah blah. But just know I am doing well, and the CCM pronounced (See See Em) is really growing on me. I have a lot to learn, but I know with the Lords help that I can do it. I know with His help I won't have to worry about home or anything else. 

How is cameron?

Brigham?

Zack?

Dad? 

Skyler? 

Ash?

How are you? How is everyone.

I love you mom so much, I love the family so much, I love the Savior so much and I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve His children.

Can't wait to hear from everyone next week:)

Love, 

Elder Cluff