Pictures - Mexico City Temple & More CCM

Mexico City Temple

Brett was finally able to spend a P-Day in the temple.

This is where the food magic happens. CCM cafeteria!

The CCM wall keeps the missionaries safe and sound.

Email 12-29-16

I’m emailing early today because we are going to the temple at 10 and won’t be back until about 5.  I’m not sure if we will be going to more than one session, and the temple isn’t that far, but the traffic is horrible and it takes forever to drive anywhere. 

We had language study this morning for an hour and then I decided to email now because I don’t know if I will have time later.  If I do I will get back on and send pictures.  I haven’t taken very many so far, but I’m going to take a lot today. I haven't figured out the video on this camera yet.  

More about Christmas

Christmas Eve we had a devotional where we just watched a movie. It was the Muppets at the Tabernacle (in Salt Lake City). It was super cheesy but it was nice to watch a somewhat real movie. Christmas day we had Sacrament. One of the Presidents here and his wife read the story of Jesus being born and we sang a bunch of Christmas songs in between breaks in the story. After that we had another devotional broadcast from Salt Lake. It was like the same thing as Sacrament haha but it was good. Then after that, later in the night, each zone had to prepare a song to sing in front of every one. I can’t remember the song we sang. 

My companion and I are getting along okay almost all of the time. I love him but, he can be a challenge.

Honestly nothing super interesting or funny has happened. But today we get to go to the temple so that is going to be awesome! That’s why I’m emailing so early today. 

A spiritual experience this week was when we were teaching one of our teachers. The teachers pretend to be investigators and her fake name was Marta. we were talking about the restauracion (restoration of the Gospel) and we ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and she was pretending to be super Catholic and when I bore my testimony it felt so good. I felt like my Spanish was very good and its just awesome. The gift of tongues is very real. 

Service Projects at the CCM

We have only done one service project where we washed about a 25% of the chairs in the comedor (cafeteria). We were supposed to do another one, but when we went to go do the project no one was at the area to tell us what to do. We do service as a district but they usually put a couple of districts on the same one so it goes fast. 

Life in the CCM is good. but I’m pretty over it. Our days are literally 16 hours long. I thought there would be more scripture classes but there isn’t. We mainly focus on the language which I understand pretty well. But our language class is all in Spanish (literally everything is in Spanish), which is good, but it can be insanely hard because if you miss a part then you get totally lost. The CCM has its moments, but I’m ready to get out in the field. I’m also very nervous because I feel like I don’t know Spanish very well. But I am excited to leave the CCM 

I have to go, I went over my time trying to upload the pictures.  I love you and miss you all!

Elder Wilcox

Pictures from the CCM 12-29-16

SOCCER COURT

DISTRICT B

ROOMMATES PLUS ONE -
Elder White, in the middle, lives in a different house

CCM GROUNDS

REC ROOM

Hmmm, that is a funny looking burrito!

Merry Christmas 2016 from the CCM

FROM MARY:

On Christmas Eve some mystery angel text me this picture of Elder Wilcox and his companion Elder Bradley.  Things like that don't normally happen so it was exciting to receive. 

The missionaries at the CCM spent part of Christmas Eve watching a Christmas special with the Muppets on Temple Square, where the Muppets performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It sounds like he had a great Christmas. 

On Christmas Day Elder Wilcox called us.  This too was exciting because missionaries don't normally get to call home from the training centers.  With about 400 missionaries at the CCM you can imagine how difficult these phone calls were to coordinate.  He called from the computer with a headset on.  The room he was in had about 20 missionaries, all talking to their families, so it was really noisy and hard to talk at times.  But we loved every minute of hearing his voice! 

Brett sounds so happy! He said he is having an amazing time. 

Here is a recap of our call and the things he told us:

Christmas Dinner was turkey and all the fixings and it was good, which was a nice break from the usual food.  In the morning he opened the presents we sent with him.  Part of the morning was spent watching a special devotional broadcast from the Provo, Utah MTC.  One of the Church leaders, Dallin H. Oaks spoke and his family performed some songs. 

Other news:

The language is coming along slowly. All of the class instruction is done in Spanish and most of it goes over his head as he doesn’t understand a lot of what is said. Yet! But everyday gets better. 

He is feeling better, the stomach issues are pretty much gone.  The food seems to be the problem because it is cafeteria style food, he needed to adjust to it.  Most of the missionaries have some kind of stomach trouble the first couple of weeks, adjusting to the food, so he said he was not alone.  Not all of the food is really bad, but almost none of it is good.  Elder Wilcox found out that Monterrey is supposed to have the best meats in the country so he is very excited to get to his area and eat some good food. 

Most missionaries never get to leave the CCM during their stay, but the first couple of days Elder Wilcox’s companion had to go to the dentist.  During our call he described Mexico City and what it was like to drive in their traffic. He said that Mexico City is in the mountains so most of the homes are on the sides of hills/mountains, kind of stacked on top of each other.  The traffic is insane, organized chaos and super dangerous.  He told us that he understands why most missionaries walk in Mexico, because being on a bike would be dangerous and learning to drive there would be almost impossible.  

We asked him how he liked all the packages we have been sending him.  Elder Wilcox said that all the guys in his District have been making fun of him because he has gotten so many care packages. “I’m that guy” But he shares everything so they are reaping the benefits of “me being that guy”.  He was finally able to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the stuff he received and it was a welcome change from the cafeteria food. 

He has met a lot of people in the CCM who are friends and relatives of his brother’s and sister’s friends.  He talked to Lindsay and Jared about this.  It is crazy what a small world we live in. 

Elder Wilcox told us that the CCM is in a little valley.  In December there is a festival, Our Lady of Guadalupe Day.  There are a lot of fireworks that go off during this time and because the CCM is in this valley, not only can the missionaries see them, but they echo throughout the valley and it is really loud. 

Elder Wilcox told us that he plays soccer every day.  Their favorite place to play is a clay basketball court because it is enclosed with a fence.  The CCM staff don’t like them to play there because a lot of missionaries get hurt when the fall on the clay.  His companion got hurt so they were banned from the area.  But they still play there until “we get kicked out, then we go to the field.”

While we were on the phone, Lindsay told all of us some things that she had heard about Elder Wilcox.  Lindsay has a friend whose sister is in the CCM with Brett.  Kelsey’s sister told her that everyone talks about how good Brett is at soccer!  Brett just laughed. 

It was really good to talk to him! We might get another phone call in three weeks when he flies to Monterrey.  

Email 12-22-16

FROM BRETT

Are you doing anything special for Christmas? 

We are having a big devotional but nothing that I know of other than that. 

Have you been to the temple yet?

No I think we go next P-day!

How is the language coming? What are you struggling with the most?

The language is going okay. Some days are better than others but overall it’s been good. The hardest part is trying to conjugate words in to past, future forms and all the grammar rules are hard too.

How is Dane doing?

 He is doing really good! I don’t see him too much, maybe like 2-3 times a week where we can actually talk. But from what he’s said to me he is doing good.

What is one or two things that stand out that you have learned up to this point in your mission?

 1. The gift of tongues is real. 2. In order to be the best missionary I can be I need to have my heart completely engulfed in the work. Which means letting go over the worldly things I left behind and focusing on nothing but the mission.

Does someone time you when you are on email? Or are you on an honor system, where you time yourself?

No it’s just the honor system.

What else do you do on P-Day other than laundry and email?

We play sports or just hang out. Not too much to do haha

What does TALL stand for? (you mentioned this when you were taking about the computer lab)

I have no idea haha it’s just a program to help learn the language. I think the church made it.

What do you do in the computer lab?

We usually work on language through TALL or watch conference talks in Spanish and try to figure out what’s going on

Are you saving my Dear Elder letters (the ones that come daily) so you can re-read them later if you want?

I do save some but I don’t have a place to put most of them.

The CCM campus is gorgeous! Do you get to walk around outside at all? How is the weather?

Yes we walk outside 90% of the time. The weather is good. It feels a lot like home but dryer. It rained a little 3 days in a row and there was thunder and lightning, it was awesome.

Have you made sandwiches with the peanut butter and jelly?  Did you even like the sandwich stuff and do you want me to send more?

No I don’t have any utensils but I borrowed a butter knife from the comedor so we will probably make some today. Not sure if I like it yet because we haven’t had any. But it is a little hard to make things like that

Are you sharing the food Nana and I are sending?

Yes! All the guys in my district love it and so do my roommates

Are the CCM staff cautioning you about using the tap water?

They said the entire CCM water is safe.

Are you drinking bottled water? And where does it come from?

Not really. They have water dispensers though that I took a picture of that I will try to send

Tell me about a spiritual experience you have had this week.  Or maybe how a prayer was answered? 

Well you said in your letter that Auntie Christine’s is doing better. But the day before I got that letter, while I was praying during personal prayer, I had the thought to pray for her. And so when I got your letter, I got an overwhelming feeling that I know Heavenly Father truly does answer our prayers. Even though we may not be looking for the answer we receive He does answer us. Sometimes it may take longer than we expect (it usually does) but if we have complete unwavering faith in our Savior and our Heavenly Father, there is nothing on this earth that we cannot go through or overcome. Through Christ and Heavenly Father everything is possible.   

Email 12-15-16

Hi Everyone!

Merry Christmas! This is Brett's email from yesterday!  I was on the computer when he emailed so we emailed back and forth for about 45 minutes.  He is doing great and is asking for emails from friends and family.  His email address is brett.wilcox@myldsmail.net  He would love to hear from you.   

Mary

FROM BRETT:

Anything you want to tell me before we get to the questions?

I get to call home on Christmas Day!  At 2 PM Central Time.

And can you send me some popcorn, microwave popcorn?

Oh and I found my razor!

You said that your first week’s schedule in the CCM was crazy.  What made it so crazy?

It’s crazy because trying to adjust to the schedule is hard, and you don’t get a P-day so it just wears you down. When new missionaries come everyone tells you just till make it till Sunday and then you’ll realize you love it here because Sundays are so spiritual. 

What are your classes like?  Do you stay in the same room, or move around with different teachers like in high school? 

We have one class that we are always in every day. We have class with one teacher from around 9-12 and then later again around 5:15-9 with another teacher. In between we have personal study time to study our scriptures or to plan what we will teach our mock investigator. Then we will come to the computer lab, it’s called TALL, for an hour in the middle of the day and after that we have language study where we study Spanish for like an hour also. 

Any funny stories from the first couple of weeks?

Well my companion drank probably a gallon of water in like 20 min just because we said he wouldn’t do it hahaha then he felt sick. But other than that I can’t really think of anything too funny. 

What do you do during gym time?

Well we were playing indoor soccer on the basketball court outside. (it has a cage around it) but my companion got hurt and he kind of made a big deal about it and now we aren’t supposed to play in there. But we are still playing soccer but now just on half the field.

What do you do on Sundays?  Do you go for walks like they do in Utah? Tell me about Church, do you take turns blessing the Sacrament? 

Sundays are awesome! We go to church at 9 with our branch and everyone has to prepare a 5 min talk in Spanish for 2 topics. After Sacrament meeting, we have a district meeting, then we have priesthood. After that we have different filler things that I can’t really remember right now. Later on in the evening we have a devotional. The guys that have been here longer usually bless the Sacrament. No we don’t go on walks because we don’t ever really leave the CCM unless for we go to the temple or for other random things like the dentist or our visas 

So you don’t have a regular day that you go to the temple? 

We haven’t gone to the temple yet, probably next week.

Describe the CCM campus. It looks like a college campus. 

The CCM is an old college with a 6 ½ foot wall around it with barbed wire on top of that. There are long buildings that have classrooms in them. and then there is the comedor which is the cafeteria.  Then there are dorms next to the comedor. then there are a bunch of houses in the back where I live.  We also have a gym a couple basketball courts and a soccer field. There is actually a bunch of stuff, it’s really hard to explain. 

How many roommates do you have? 

3 including my companion, but 20 people live in our house.

What are their names and what are they like?

Elder Curriden, Elder Hoakonson, and Elder Bradley, my companion. They are really cool. Elder Curriden is the district leader for 11b so he gets kinda strict when its quiet time and lights out Which can be annoying because I was ironing my pants one night for the next day and I had a hot iron in my hands. While I was putting it away, he turned off the light. But for the most part he is really cool and really funny, same with elder Hoakonson. He’s more quiet than elder Curriden. 

What is your favorite thing about being in the CCM so far?

For sure the Spirit. it is always here. And probably the brotherhood that we have with our district. 

What is the thing you like least about being in the CCM so far?

The food. It’s like mass produced crappy Mexican food. It’s made me sick too. I’ve had pretty bad diarrhea for like 2 weeks. I went to the doc and he gave me antibiotics and anti-diarrhea pills but so far it hasn’t helped.  I don’t feel sick, just in the bathroom A LOT. The doctor said if I’m not better in a couple of days I should go back and get a shot.  So I’m going to go tomorrow.  

Do you get to hang out with Dane?

No we don’t get to hang out, but I see him pretty often.

I love you and miss you guys! Tell Jared to email me! And anyone else who wants to.

Pictures of Centro de Capacitación Misional (CCM)

The entrance to the Mexico City Missionary Training Center.  Properly stated Centro de Capacitación Misional (CCM)

There are residence halls and individuals houses at the CCM.  This is the house that Brett is staying in. There are no appliances in the houses. Twenty missionaries stay in this house, Brett has three roommates.

Collin White, a friend of Jared's, is in Brett's District at the CCM.

Most of the day is spent in class learning the language and how to teach investigators.

Every missionary is assigned a companion. Brett's companion, Elder Bradley, just graduated from high school and is from St. George Utah

The grounds at the CCM are very pretty. 

One of the athletic fields. 

12-10-16 First Communication from Brett

Hi everyone!  

It has been insane trying to get decent communication from Brett.  They changed is P-Day from Thursday to Friday, so he and other missionaries could go to the immigration office to do something with their Visas.  But not everything was settled at immigration on Thursday so they had to go back again on Friday, so his email time got cut short on Friday.  Thankfully his leaders let him have some more time today.  I had to piece together four emails to get the information below.  

Enjoy! 

Mary

Did you have any trouble getting your connecting flight in Phoenix?

No my connecting flight was fine, I just had to walk kind of far through the Phoenix airport. 

How was your flight? Did you talk to anyone on the plane?

My flight was good, but no almost all the people on my plane spoke Spanish.

Were you able to buy lunch on the plane? what did you have?

I just got some fruit and some cheese and crackers.

Were there other missionaries on either of your flights? 

No I was the only missionary on my flights 

How are you adjusting? Are you having any problems sleeping?

I am adjusting okay. I don’t really get too homesick unless I think about it too much. (I got pretty homesick reading your first email.) The beds aren’t very comfy but they’re not terrible. 

How are you feeling?  You seemed like you were getting a cold before you left.

I’m feeling fine. My cold is gone. just a tiny cough now. 

Tell me a little bit about your first day?  What did you do?  What was the orientation like?  

My first day was really long. After I got to the airport here in Mexico City I had to go thru customs and she barely spoke English. Then we had to wait a really long time (like 2 hours) in the airport waiting for other missionaries, but none came. Then we drove to the CCM (MTC in Spanish) and that took about an hour and a half. (the traffic in Mexico City is really bad! worse than LA) then we went through orientation, then had dinner then had a devotional, then went to our house and unpacked. Orientation was good. 

Does the staff speak to you in English or Spanish?

The staff speaks Spanish 

What is your day like?

Daily schedule is: wake up at 6:30 AM.  Then we have breakfast at 7:45 and after that personal study. Then we just have class most of the day, but we get an hour for gym. Then we go back to class till like 6:30 AM. We practice teaching an investigator (in Spanish) then we go home at like 9:30 PM and just get ready for bed.

What is the food like? Is it all Mexican? 

The food is 95% Mexican, but not very good haha It’s like mass produced Mexican food. 

Did you get your Visa straightened out?

Yes it just took so long!

Have you seen Dane yet?  (for those who don’t know, another guy in our ward at Church is also in the missionary training center in Mexico City. Dane reported one week after Brett)

yes! I saw him on Tuesday when he got here!

Do you two get to hang out at any time?

No not yet. Our schedules are different but hopefully when his schedule mellows out we can. The schedule for your first week here is crazy.

What is your companion's name? Elder Bradely

What is your companion like? 

My companion is an interesting guy.  He was in choir and went to a performing arts school. He definitely tries my patience sometimes because he talks a lot and explains literally every detail of a story, and then some, but he is cool. He is pretty funny sometimes. 

Where is he from?

St. George, Utah

Do you two get along or is it too early to tell?

Yeah we get along for the most part but there are some things that he does that kinda get on my nerves.

Have you been to the temple yet?

No not yet

Did you get the care package I sent you?

Yes it was amazing! It would be rad if you could send another one! everyone loved all the stuff you sent.

Share a spiritual experience that you have had.  

A spiritual experience that I have had was my companion had to go the dentist and before we went, some of our roommates and I gave him a blessing. The Spirit was crazy strong. But the Spirit over all in the CCM/MTC is nothing like I have ever felt before. It’s so constant.  Even when we sing in Spanish, I don’t know all the words or exactly what we are saying, but the Spirit is so strong! Btw the dentists here are nothing like at home.  When we went in we had to be buzzed in to the gate and it was a tiny little room where we waited. Then we went in to the main room, and it just had four dentist chairs in one big room instead of all separate rooms. My comp had some bone still in his socket from when he got his wisdom teeth out and they had to cut his gum open there.  They just gave him a couple of shots to numb him and then they had him gargle iodine and water hahaha it was so crazy! it was just super different, but pretty cool.

I have to go now but I love and miss all of you! 

11-30-16 Welcome to Brett's Email Group

11-30-16

Hi there!

Some of you don't know me, I am Brett Wilcox's mom, Mary.  You are receiving this email because you told Brett you would like to receive his weekly emails home.  I wanted to introduce myself as Brett's emails will be coming through me.  

From now on I will forward Brett's weekly  emails, but for today I wanted to let you know that Brett arrived safely in Mexico City around noon our time today. (Mexico City is two hours ahead of us right now).  I received a really short email from him around 3:30 saying he had arrived and all was well.  He told me that his P-Day (preperation day) will be on Thursdays while in the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  He said that he is not sure if he will have time to email this Thursday, but we will for sure hear from him next week.  

Missionary trivia for those of you who are new to this:

• Brett will have been assigned a companion once he arrived at the MTC today. Brett will have many companions over the next 2 years, they can change as frequently as every 6 weeks.  Some companions stay together longer.  It is possible for 3 missionaries to be assigned together in certain situations.
• Brett will be in the MTC for 6 weeks. Around January 9th he will transfer to his mission assignment in Monterrey, Mexico
• While he will be studying a lot, he will have down time to play soccer and get exercise. However he will not be allowed to leave the MTC during those 6 weeks. 
• Once out of the MTC, P-Days are on Monday. That is the day he and his companion will email thier families from the local church buidling, do their grocery shopping, laundry and any other chores needing to be done. It is also very likely on some P-Days that he and his companion will meet up with other Church members and/or missionaries to see some of the local sights.

If there is anything else you want to know about Brett's experience, or our Church,  just email and ask me.  

The way we do missionary emails in our family is, I will usually ask Brett a bunch of questions about his week and then all he has to do is answer the questions.  Of course he can tell us anthing he wants, bu missionaries only get a short amount of time to email, especially while in training. So the question and answer format makes it faster and easier for him to let us know what is going on.  

Once he answers the questions I clean up the grammar and punctuation so that his emails are easier for all of you to read, and will forward them. This way he can just type away and not have to worry about taking extra time to make his letters pretty or coherent (hahaha).  

So if you have a question you would like to ask him, please let me know and I will include it with my questions. 

Brett can receive emails from any of you. Like I said he probably won't have much time to reply to emails you send him, but I know he would love to hear from you. This first week or so is going to be the hardest for him, it is a lot of ajustment to MTC life.  The more support he gets the more will feel better.  

His email address is 

Brett.Wilcox@myldsmail.net

Once out of the MTC we will be able to send packages to him.   Please let me know if you do plan to send him something, and I will foward you the address and instructions on what to do.  

Thank you caring about Brett and being interested in this amazing journey he is on.  

The Last Day - Dinner and Friends

11-28-16
We spent our last night as a family having dinner at the Lazy Dog Cafe.  Latter Brett's friends stopped by for a last goodbye.

11-29-16 Early Tuesday Morning we headed to the airport to say farewell for two years!