McClain Mission

Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 7:38 PM to me Hey all! This is my last week in the MTC (missionary training center) online! Classes finish on Friday, and then next Monday, the 12th, I will fly out to Bakersfield to begin my service. So I'll have about a week of time in between, most of which will likely be spent getting prepared to go, having final appointments and getting all the remaining items I need. Then it gets real! With the end of the MTC coming right up, I have a lot of mixed emotions right now. I am really excited to head into the field and get to work, however the last few weeks I have spent at home have made me realize how much I am truly going to miss my family. The easy part is almost over, and I know I'll have a great experience in the field but I'm also a little nervous for the big changes coming up. This week I have been doing a lot of reading about finding hope when heading into unknown challenges, and have found a lot about how important it is to have confidence

Week 4: Traumatic TRC Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well right now! I had a really awesome week this week and have some good stuff to share, hopefully if you have found my last few emails incredibly boring you might enjoy this one. Last week on Saturday, we had TRC during our class, which stands for teaching resource center. During this training, native speakers from across South America volunteer to let us teach them a lesson with our broken Spanish, and usually we'll rotate through volunteers, spending about 20 minutes with each. However, this week for whatever reason, we weren't fortunate enough to rotate volunteers. Soooo, my companion and one other elder from our district began our lesson with our volunteer, and things were going awesome. We taught really well, were in sync with one another as we explained the importance of doing the work of the Lord, and felt like we had done a great job filling our 20 minutes. We wrapped up the lesson, and started making so

Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 7:41 PM to me Hey everyone! This week marks the halfway point through the at home MTC, so pretty soon here I will be headed out the Bakersfield to begin my service in the field. Hopefully the fires will be contained within the next few months so I don't have to worry about any more changes! Either way, really looking forward to entering the field. The home MTC has been really good this week! I'm really enjoying the times I'm spending with my district as well as with my family every day. It's definitely a relief when I get to speak in English with them after a long day and don't have to pause before every sentence. I have posted a handful of things in Spanish on my facebook tho so if you wanna see how its coming head over there. Most of the time I write out a post I'll google translate it back to English just to make sure I haven't messed anything up to badly, so if you actually know Spanish, maybe wait a few more weeks to give it a l

Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 4:40 PM Hey everyone! Hope things are good even for the Jazz fans out there... The second week of the MTC has been way different than the first. In the beginning, everybody sat quietly behind their zoom camera, we still spoke English, and our Spanish practice was limited to the comforts of practicing with other learners. Everything changed when we started speaking with native Spanish speakers and quickly realized how far we have to go. We had the opportunity several times this week to speak with volunteers from South and Central America, and more than once they looked at me like I was an alien after I asked a question. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up too bad, because most of the time I was able to backtrack and help them figure out what I meant, however it is becoming obvious the Spanish of the CCM is just a little taste of what it will be like living in a different country. Aside from that, I've gotten to know my district a lot better this week. We&

Wed, Sep 2, 2020, 7:11 PM Hey everybody! I'm super excited to share a couple things from my first week in the CCM, the missionary training center, in Mexico city. Even though the experience is all online and a lot different than I had planned, there are definitely some great perks to being at home. I get to watch my brother's tennis matches, be with family, and I don't have to say goodbye to Chipotle. Most of my days look pretty similar, starting at 6:30 when I wake up, exercise, have breakfast, and prepare for the day. After that I have morning class, followed by personal, companion, and language studies. Almost all of my structured time is spent on zoom with my companion and/or district, and it has been super fun to get to know them! I wrap up with my afternoon class around 7, and then get to spend a lot of time with my family which has been a great blessing unique to the online mtc. It's a great experience but also a lot of time sitting still on a computer, so a