Uno Mes!

It has already been one month out in "the field"! time flies when you're speaking very broken spanish. Things are going super great! We unfortunately had to say goodbye to our bestfriends on sunday! Most of them are going to Argentina. It was hard to say goodbye because they were our first friends here, and now we don't have anyone to hang out with. We all hung out with them on Sunday and just partied, traded ties, climbed some palm trees, just the usual.

I am now one of the oldest missionaries here, so I look down on all the 14 year olds getting here this week. just joshing. I had to give new elders a tour of the ccm and that was interesting. Half the elders looked like they were straight outta 9th grade. and the other half were 23 and looked like they had a wife and 2 kids. I almost asked them what there 401k was looking like. But it's all good, They're half decent at volleyball which is a must. I warned them about the cockroaches, black mold, stray bullets, bird flu. just the basics. I ́m recognizing more and more people here from la fábrica(the factory aka utah) and so I at least have some people to talk to (and flex my superior spanish skills)

We had the opportunity to teach a RM on Skype the other day, only in spanish, and he spoke very fast! It was hard to talk to him because whenever we would say anything he would just laugh and we got really discouraged because of it. But it is all just getting me ready to be out in the field.

Other than that, that's basically it. Just J chillin here in a bubble in the middle of the Ciudad. Waiting for that earthquake to hit or another convict to hop the fence. I ́m still killing it in volleyball, so as long as that is consistent Elder Barlow is good

Love you all!

Semana Quatro!

 

Hola mi amigos! This week in the CCM has been quite the rollercoaster, we started the week with all of our latino friends leaving for their missions Sunday and Monday, because they were all in the 3 week program it was hard to say goodbye. A lot of them were serving stateside, in places like southside Chicago, and Baton Rouge Louisiana, both very different from Mexico.

We have had a couple of downright amazing lessons! We had two lessons this week that were only in spanish, and they were completely improvised, we had to throw our prepared lessons out the window and just go for it. because of that we were only teaching by the spirit and the spirit was so palpable. It was so cool and It made me very excited for when I can speak the language a lot better and have more time to teach lol! We also started doing TRC where you speak to 3 NATIVES from the ciudad and you have to share a 15 min message which is pretty scary, but it went well, and they were actually really helpful with my spanish which was very comforting.

Then on Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to one of the elders in our district, he had to leave for medical reasons, and it was hard to say goodbye. Because he left I am in a trio now with Elder Marine and the last Elder in our district Elder Beck who is from pocatello Idaho. We had to move into a new, pink casas, which sucked at the beginning because we had to say goodbye to our old house and roommates, but there are some positives. We actually have water pressure, there is no black mold, and we don't have 10 year old blankets! Plus our house is pink, it doesn't get much better than that.

We had a broadcast from Elder Holland which was so cool! That man knows how to deliver a talk. The things that stuck out to me the most was that he said that the mission is an opportunity, and the blessings we receive will be with us the rest of our lives. He also said ¨"the stars don't have the same brightness" and I took that as, eventually, our time will come to shine, we will hit our prime, the spotlight will be on us, and we have to take full advantage of that. Being 18-21, that is the time where we are shining the most, and because of that, that is the time to share our light with others who have never seen or felt that light before.

Anyways, that is what has happened this week, We are going to the temple today! so there are no pictures right now but I may be able to send some later today!

Elder Marine has survived the red chicken!

Da Bois

Things have been great here in the CCM! It is absolutely insane how crazy busy we are here! we've been doing a lot of language study, We are starting to eat, breath, and sleep spanish. Mi maestro hermano Galindo has given us a challenge where every time you speak in english, you have to do 10 squats, and lets just say that I have been very sore the past couple of days. We are also starting to teach longer lessons in just spanish, where our teachers pretend to be investigators (and they do an incredible job) and we have to teach them a couple of lessons and hopefully get them to baptism. Mi espanol es no bueno, but my teachers forgive me and let me speak in english a little bit. In english I can give a killer lesson, but in Spanish, not so much lol.

The food here continues to surprise me, I've been losing some weight because you can't eat to much food here, however elder Marine, he's a different story. See elder Marine, for some reason, eats 4 courses every meal, he eats so much! it can be a mystery meat, thats raw, and he will eat it. He took it to the next step by eating the red chicken the other day. The first thing they tell you when you get to the ccm is to not eat the red chicken, they even give you a scripture for reference, Jeremiah 4: 19. He ate 2 platefuls, I was worried for his life, the red chicken will make you sick and give you the "siempras" as we call it here. However, he has somehow survived, some would even say thrived here since then. So that was a big relief, I was scared I was going to be companionless.

Other than that not much has happened, my room has quite the shenanigans, a quote from last night was "let's have a dragon competition" We are quite loud and our whole casa hates us, pero estabien. I have learned the latino handshake, so I'm practically fluent. Just a lot of sand volleyball still, trips to la tienda, and spanish. Hopefully my district will be going to the temple next week so I will let yall know how that goes.

Alma 36: 21

Photos of the week by Elder Marine:

My favorite thing to draw here

Muy Bonita Flor

Da Birds

Our Daily View

The watch tan is real

Hola mi amigos! things have been crazy here in the CCM! It is actually getting kinda cold here in the mornings and at night, we can actually see our breath! We also are slowly seeing more and more cockroaches, which is kinda interesting. And on Tuesday the west mountain was completely on fire, and the next day on the east mountain a massive explosion would go off every 5 minutes, and they were not fireworks. But other than that things have been pretty tame around here, just a lot of teaching in broken Spanish and studying.

Beach volleyball has sadly moved from Elder Marine and I's favorite activity to our second favorite, Tanning while reading the Book of Mormon has swiftly moved to first place. It is awesome having an hour of just reading the Book of Mormon, it can make any bad day amazing!

Not much happens other than just learning Spanish, it's coming along for me, I still can't really hold my own in a conversation, but it is good enough to play the part of a disinterested investigator. We've all memorized the first vision, baptismal invitation, Moroni 10: 5, and the missionary purpose under one week, so hopefully by the end we will all be fluent.

My district has become a quartet of singers, we are constantly singing anywhere we go, We'll sing ring of fire, soulja boi, just whatever we are feeling, I feel like most people hate us because of it, but they just can't match our energy, so that's their problem. Also, after diligently searching, we have found a water cooler that actually has cold water, and that truly has saved our souls.

That is about it, a lot of tanning and volleyball, learning spanish, and cleaning, they really put us to work here.

I also want to share a quick scripture, Alma 36: 27. I found this recently in my study, and I really enjoyed it. No matter what we go through, our struggles, our worries, we can overcome. We have to dig ourselves out the way we did many times before, And we know that God will deliver us again and again. Never lose hope, never lose faith, never lose your trust in him.

I don't have any photos this week unfortunately, still trying to figure that out :(

Love Yall!

Bienvenidos!

My District

Hello Everyone! The first week of the MTC is over! It has been so much fun being here learning spanish and the gospel. It started on Tuesday with my flights, where I was the only missionary on both of my flights, and then I had to make my way around the Mexico City airport by myself which was pretty new but scary. Then someone eventually found me and we made our way to the CCM. The city here is crazy, there are no line dividers on the road, every other car is an old Volkswagen beetle, and there are street vendors playing frogger everywhere. But then we made it to the MTC and I met mi companero elder Marine, who has only been a member for just over a year and he is a spiritual giant! He also just has so much energy and confidence (similar to my boy Luke Crockett) that it makes it really easy to talk to people and learn.

So far we have been doing a lot of language studies, y mi espanol es no bueno! it is getting there actually, I just finished memorizing the first vision today, and for only knowing pollo quesadilla on monday, i've made some pretty good progress. everyone is a lot better than me when it comes to the language, but luckily the latinos here are very loving so I don't feel bad about it lol. We will have language for about 6-8 hours a day, and then an hour for exercise (beach volleyball is my favourite) and then breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food here is okay, I've mostly been surviving off of apples and watermelon because that is all that I trust. The showers here are cold and the drinking water is grossly warm. But the experiences I've had here outweigh all of those things. There is such a strong sense of the spirit here, even though your mind is clouded with sounds of fireworks, gunshots, street racing, or annoying green parrots. I still have never been more in tune with the spirit.

Da Bois

There has just been so many cool experiences in relation to the gospel here, our first day they had an investigator come and we talked to him, his name is kendrick, and he talked to us about his problems, with his family, and about himself, and how he didn't believe in god or anything like that. and by the end of our conversation everyone was in tears, the spírit was so palpable in that moment, it was such a wholesome experience. He was able to feel a celestial kind of love he was missing his whole life, it truly was a life changing experience.

I'm not sure what else to write about, the MTC is such a cool place and it makes me even more excited for the field, only in the MTC could you see a group of Hatians and a group of gringos from provo playing soccer together and enjoying life, there is such a sense of community in this gospel that is unrivaled by anything else.

That's basically it, I'm doing great! If you're ever worried about Elder Barlow at any point in time, just imagine him playing beach volleyball in Mexico City with a bunch of Latinos, because chances are that is what I will be doing at that point and time.

Adios!

My great view from class everyday!