CCM! (Missionary Training Center in Guatemala)

June 29, 2011

Elder Pierce is on the second row, the second from the right.

July 27, 2011 to Dad

Dear Dad, Its alright, I made it through the rest of the week, but I am glad to be able to get a message from you again. That is really awesome that molly finally did skiing! I wish I could have been there to see it, also the slalom course sounds really fun. Haha, I can imagine brayden after he got up on that ski, hes probably still grinning. Also, sorry that the sea doo broke, but yes, I definitely understand that it is cool to be able to have something that you can fix yourself, it just makes you feel good all around. I am definitely anxious to get out of here, but I also am not because I know that spanish will hit me hard again, but with time I know that I will be able to get it down. I havent really had anything happen this week to talk about, I am sorry, like I have said before, pretty much all the stuff here is the same over and over again. Molly looks as inventive as ever in that picture haha, I miss having her around to play with. I know this is short but I wrote pretty much what happened in my week in moms email, I said I got sick but it really wasnt that bad and I am better now so its nothing to worry about, and at least it happened here instead of out in the field, although it probably will eventually, anyways, I love you all a ton and miss you, I hope you are doing well dad.
love,
Christopher

A picture!

Christopher's group leaving the CCM August 9

with their new Mission President and his wife

July 27, 2011 to Mom

Dear Mom,  The past week has been alright, I was sick the past 3 days though, I had a fever and so I slept through most of the day, but I am getting better, I dont really have an appetite though so Im not really sure whats happening, I wouldnt worry about it though, its nothing big. Thank you for all the letters, that really means alot to me, letters are really awesome to get out here. Also, I am going to go ahead and let you know now, but I am pretty sure that not next week, but the week after I am going to email again on tuesday because the next day they send me out, so I just wanted to say so ahead of time. The only teacher that I recognize on braydens list was the spanish teacher, that was my 9th grade spanish teacher as well, but she got married and her name changed, she wouldnt remember me so brayden shouldnt ask her. I am pretty sure that that is the same address I will have once I am out in the field, if it changes I will let you know but thats what I have too. And I am really glad that brayden was excited to get my letter, and that it got there that fast, I think it takes about a week for mail to go from here to there, but two for it to get here from there, I am not really sure why. I´ve been learning alot more about spanish this past week and I am doing pretty well considering how long it has been I think, I am reading pretty much without help, occasionally there will be a new word or something but it was the same way when I was learning to read English so its not that big a difference. My new companion is named elder anderson, he is a pretty nice guy, but I think I might be going back to my old one because the people who went to the latino district are switching out because they feel like they arent learning enough of the doctrine there, so I will let you know more about that once I do, in any case it wont matter a ton because we will be leaving in about 2 weeks from now. We havent had any devotionals here with apostles or anything, we dont really do it that way here, they just show us dvds, the temple was closed the past 3 weeks but we went again today and I will get to go again next week, it was really interesting because today I decided I wanted to do everything in Spanish so they let me, the translations can be interesting sometimes. My companion is from Utah, pretty much everyone here is either from utah or Idaho. I know that I havent really said alot about whats going on here but I dont really have anything new to say, Im sorry, we just dont really do anything new here so it gets dull, I know its important to be here but I would rather just go now. Anyways, I love you all and hope you are having a great time at home, I love you a ton mom.
Love,
Christopher

July 19, 2011

Dear, Mom  Im not sure what my favorite scripture is yet, I´ll tell you what it is as soon as I decide. They are making us write our letters now instead of Tomorrow because we went out into the city to basically just get out and see it, so they made this our p day, So I know you and dad wont both get a chance to write me and have me reply until next week, Im sorry, I asked them and they said it would just have to be that way, I tried though.


The city was really cool, they have a central market that basically has a ton of stalls for everyone to sell their stuff and you get to bargain with the people and walk away and get them to yell at you to come back haha, it was a lot of fun, they had a ton of the machetes that kenny had but I didnt get any, theres no real purpose for it here at the CCM. (this made me laugh out loud! -Mom)


We also got to go see a kind of map, that showed the geographical layout of Guatemala, it was massive, very cool to see too, it had part of Salvador in it and I got to see parts of kenny´s mission. That is great that you got all the laundry done great job. I wont have any new spanish companions this week, they have more north americans coming in this week than they have latinos, so the new group gets them, but I am really close to finally getting out of this CCM. Also today we went to a normal mall that is pretty much the same as the ones we have, we just went to eat, but it felt really weird being in a place that was so similar to what I had been around 8 weeks ago, and I didnt really like it just because it was strange.


My companion elder miller is going into a latino district this week, so I will be getting a new Companion, I dont know who it is yet I´ll let you know as soon as I do. We dont really do much here to talk about, just teach learn and eat, so I dont really have any interesting stories to tell, I am glad that brayden got to go to youth conference, I hope that he had a great time,


Could you make sure that anyone who is writing me now sends it to my mission home address? by the time it gets here if they dont send it this week I will be gone, so I think they have to or I wont get it, Im not positive though, you might know more about it than I do.


Elder Christopher Giles Pierce

 Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission

Apartado 921-A Zona 9

01009 Guatemala City

Guatemala

Phone 502  2331-8609 (necessary if sending a package)

My spanish is alot better now, not that it is perfect, far from it, but I can carry on conversations now, as long as the people dont speak to fast, my language is probably close to baby talk but its still talking so I am proud of it, and I study each day so I know I will get there eventually.


I love you all a ton and I hope that you are all doing well, tell molly I love her and I miss her and that I will try to get her a letter soon but I dont really have any time to write letters today so I dont know if I will be able to, I love you!
Love,
Christopher

7/13/11 to Dad

Dear Dad, Im really jealous of your trip to Florida, those two activities are my favorites out of everything we did in scouts, But I am glad you got back up on the course and finished it. Brayden would make that response to your dream haha, I can see him already, I cant believe he will be driving when I get back, its crazy to think about. Everything here is pretty much always the same, the schedule doesnt change much, it gets very boring, but I am in my 3rd week here and am over halfway done now so that is one good thing to think about at least. I will miss alot of the people here though, almost all of the north americans here with us are going to south mission, only 7 of us are going to central. Spanish is still difficult, But I make sure to read every day in the book of mormon, I think it helps alot, the only thing I really wish I could have right now is to be able to understand what someone is saying when they speak so quickly, it is difficult because spanish words tend to flow together and the difference between one long word and two smaller words can be hard to here. I am pretty sure anyone who mails a letter to me from now on is supposed to use my new mission address because if they send it here by the time it gets here I will be gone already, but on second thought I think if you send it this week you are still okay, but next week it wont make it I dont think. It is tough here because some days I will be conversing in spanish with my companions and understand what they mean and then the next I have no idea, so alot of ups and downs, but I am getting better. I am sad that my latino companions are going to be gone next week, they only spend three weeks here and we have gotten pretty close over this time, but I am also glad they are going out to serve the Lord where they are needed. I love you dad, and i love everyone at home too, take care of yourselves, I miss you.

 Love,

Christopher 

7/13/11 to Mom

Dear Mom, I am glad that Brother Patterson is still...the scout master, I think he is the best one for that position, though Im sure that anyone has lots to offer. It is good that he is grouping them like that, it should help them all to grow a little bit and to have a little more fun when they play games. As for the trip to Florida (his dad and brother went on a scout trip) I wish I had been able to go, that sounds like a trip made for me, ropes course and zip lines, I enjoy rope courses more than anything because they are problems you solve but they require physical strength too generally. I do remember her (a friend I went to see last week who used to live in Alabama, S. Crawford) barely I think, I was really little so it is hard to say for sure, but that is awesome that you got that chance to go see her. I am really excited for brayden (he is attending his first Youth Conference this week), youth conference is always a blast and I know he will have fun, its always alot better if you get to room with people you know though, did he go with Hunter? The food here is really interesting, and sometimes it is alot like what we have at home, one of the more interesting things I have seen is one morning for breakfast we had rice in chocolate, it was really really good, the best way I can describe it is its like chocolate oatmeal. My favorite dessert I have had hear is a banana that they cook and caramelize, if thats how you spell it, anyways it was really good. My spanish still has a long way to go, if people dont speak slowly to me than I usually have no Idea what they are saying, but I can say almost everything I want to, or at least that I have felt the need to say, so thats good. My companion and I are still getting along, next week on tuesday they want to test us, its just a 5 minute conversation in spanish and if they think we do well enough than they put us in class with all the latinos as well, I think it would be good for me but I have thought about it and I think that for me the best thing to do would be to stay in my same district where we will keep learning a little grammar still, I want to get as much of that as I can while I am here because I wont in the field, I will have my companion to help  me but it will be different. Our district name is Abinadi, the schedule isnt like provo at all, pretty much all we do is eat, study, teach, and sleep. I dont like teaching repetitively here because it always feels so fake to me no matter what. you cant replicate what happens in real life no matter what. Yesterday we went out into the city with our latino companions and proselyted, I didnt really know exactly what the people we talked to were saying, so my companions did most of the speaking, but I bore my testimony a few times. I love you too mom and I hope you are doing well, I miss you all.  Love,Christopher