Week 05 - One week left in the CCM

Questions and Answers

How is the Spanish going?
Little by little, I have actually learned a lot of new words this week. Yes, I wish I would have practiced speaking Spanish at home earlier (like 18 years of it). This one missionary who was born in Argentina but moved to Utah when he was really young was only in here 3 weeks because he was already fluent in Spanish.
What is the favorite food you have eaten?
We had pizza the other day and we had steak, but I need some A-1 steak sauce because their meat is really dry. We are still eating a ton of rice at every meal. I am getting used to the food, it's all right. I like the eggs both scrambled and boiled. Meat is good just dry. The pizza is always interesting.
Favorite scripture of the week?
Moses 1, because we are able to study and learn more about the Temple. I also studied 3 Nephi 24 about tithing, that was really good.
How do you feel?
I am really happy, but I just want to get out in the field. I know it is going to be hard at first, but I am ready to learn on the run. I know I will struggle but I think I will learn better out there than in here.

Weekly Recap

Live from the CCM for this week's recap. So we went out proselyting on Saturday with a missionary (E. Hawk) from the Bogota North mission, and it was awesome! I finally felt like I have a purpose here in Colombia. We went on a bus to get there, it was a little scary because the car next to us was leaking gas all over us, and I thought we might catch on fire. They gave us a small lunch and some snacks to take along. We went and visited the Mora family and the Rueda family and did a bunch of street contacts.As we walked all over Bogota I could definitely feel the elevation, it was a little tiring. During our street contacts, we meet some interesting people. I talked to this one guy who had a Pringles mustache, he was cool and gave us a phone number and name. I talked to another guy on a swing while it was raining. I talked to this guy selling illegal movies on the street. We heard about the Mayweather and McGregor fight, but it wasn't on anywhere we were at. Ate some awesome pastries. Went to another park and talked to this guy who was playing with these kids (they weren't his). We talked to this other guy who I felt really bad for, he was all alone, his dad left him when he was young, his mom just recently died, and his cat just ran away. It was so sad, I just wanted to give him a hug.

Went to the Mora's house and talked to them, the wife is learning English and was way cool. We taught them the restoration, thank you JT for teaching me the parable of the mirror. Those examples from missionary prep are very useful and I am so glad that I went and learned a bunch of them. When the husband found out we were going to Medellin on our mission he warned us to either keep our eyes up to the sky or down on the floor, because he said the girls are really cute there and we would fall in love with them. Hahaha. He said Medellin is way better than Bogota and that the people are nicer there and that we would love it there. He said they don't eat as much rice but eat more beans there. The wife made us some hot chocolate and bread to dip in.

We then went and visited the Rueda family and taught them about the restoration also. We (E. Macdonald and I) gave a blessing to some of the kids in the family. One of the boys got mugged and was injured a little. We also saw a Camaro, E. Hawk said that is the first one he has seen during his mission.

We have pizza Fridays, it is really good. Except if you are at the end of the line. They basically put whatever food they have left over for topping, like raisins, rice, pineapples, and mushrooms. I had one that looked good, but they hide the pineapple under the cheese so I couldn't see it. They have this alien fruit (dragon fruit) that is a little strange to eat, but it is interesting. It looks like a little alien with tentacles.

E. Dumas and E. Justice say Hi!

Love and miss all of you,

Elder Justin Moore

Week 04 - CCM Internet restored!

Now that the Internet is working great I will recap what happened last week.

Question and Answers

No, I am not ready to leave the CCM, I have trouble understanding some of the Latinos, for example, some of the Venezuelans are hard to understand for me. Spanish is coming along but I still sound like a Gringo. Hopefully one day I will be able to speak without a Gringo accent. Yes, I am really bored of eating rice daily, today is the 43 time we have eaten rice, it also hasn't helped with the digestive system. I guess I will have to break my rules and eat some of that green stuff. My favorite scripture this week that I study was in Doctrine and Covenants where it talks about the Godhead, I really liked it and it clarified things for me. Also, I have written down some awesome talks that the CCM president has spoken. My teachers are really good, I learn so much from them and they help me out a lot. The schedule is good, I don't mind getting up early, it is just tiring sometimes because we are in class so long. Yes, I am loving the mission, but I do understand how you say it is hard sometimes. Yes, a different "hard" then when I wrestled. So we are going to the Temple today for P-day, I love going so much. No, I am not cold at all it is like California weather, I don't even put on a sweater. Bro Watkins wrote me, I am very thankful that I had him as a leader.

Recap of Week 3

So we were supposed to go get our visa, but there were some issues with our paperwork so we didn't go. We went over this one missionaries letter with the CCM president, it was a really sad letter where he just talked bad about his companion and how complained and said how much they didn't get along.  I think his mom just emailed it out without reading it. The CCM president asked the missionary why he was talking bad about his companion and asked him if he knew his story and where he came from. The missionary said no, and the President challenged him to truly get to know him. Once he stopped criticising his companion and tried to really get to know him, they really started to get along. When his mission was over he wrote our CCM president and said thank you, that once he got to know him he ended up being one of his best companions he had on the mission.

On Saturday we went out proselyting with a missionary from the Bogata South mission. I think he was the Assistant to the President (AP), he was a great teacher and example to us. It was awesome, we got to knock doors (throw rocks at the door) to track out people. We went and talked to a young man whose name is Javier. He missed his baptism date because he had to work the past few Sundays. He lives in a one room place with just a bed in his room. We talked and the AP shared some scriptures and recommitted him to baptism, it was awesome! The only thing that sucked that day was that we were fasting and we walked down a few streets that had food vendors all over and it smelled so good, it was pure torture.

In class, they talked about really understanding our investigators and being their friend. This is covered pretty much every class. It is really cool and you understand that it is essential in the Lords work. I know I would be really good with this if I was an English speaking missionary, but obviously, there is a reason I need to learn Spanish. Maybe one day I will be able to speak really good Spanish. It might take all 23 months but hopefully, by then I will speak like a real "Spanish" person and you will all be impressed.

So for our recreation time, bump out (basketball) has overtaken four square. Some of these Elders are over competitive and don't know how to lose. They play a little too aggressive and take it to serious. I got bumped out by a sister missionary (she is really good) and I was like nice shot Sister. Some of the other Elders started giving me a hard time but I just laughed, it didn't bother me at all.

Recap of Week 4

We did a lot of service this week, it was really fun and we got to do different stuff. Well, all of the Latins and the 6 week Nortes (Americans) left the CCM for the mission field. E. Macdonald and I switched rooms and we thought we were going to get a big room but ended up with a small room. We got some new Latinos in our room and they are really cool. We had hot dogs and Doritos today, it was so great to have "American" food. It wasn't as good as Costco, but I ain't complaining. Everybody complains about the eggs here but I really like them. So we had a little miracle the other day. We were at breakfast and usually, the best thing we eat is we dunk this bread that is really good that they bring in from a Panaderia (Bread Store). Anyways we get to breakfast and there is no bread and everybody is all sad, and we begin to eat our breakfast all disappointed because we didn't get our manna from heaven. Then all of a sudden (cut camera to slow motion) in walks the ladies from the bread store, (pan out to the cafeteria) everybody jumps up screaming and applauding, giving thanks for the little miracle of the bread! The bread ladies are our heroes! We had salmon for lunch the other day and it was really good. We had "English" day this week, where we teach the Latinos Book of Mormon stories in English and teach them new words and sentences. Macdonald gave a talk in church and he was stellar! He did awesome! We went and did our immigration papers. We listened to a talk by E. Holland and he talked about when we return home we need to continue to grow and progress in the church. Don't think that we are done, because we have arrived, we need to continue to progress. He said that like 30% of returned missionaries become inactive, so don't be one of those. I couldn't believe it, I was like how is that even possible.

Well that is all for the week,
Love you all and miss you,
Os Amo mucho!

Elder Moore

Our view of Bogota from on top of the mountain Monserrate

La Iglesia at Monserrate

La Iglesia at Monserrate

My Canteen

Post card of Monserrate

Emailing on P-day

Week 03 - CCM - Internet Issues

We didn't receive much from E. Moore this week since he said there were internet issues and he was not able to upload any photos or audios. We did receive a small response (a few words) back in his email with answers to some of our questions. Thanks to his CCM (MTC) President we received a couple pictures. We also were able to talk to his companions mom and she shared a few pictures with us. Major kudos to them for sharing them with us!

This week as interpreted by his brother JT and his Dad from the few words we received in his email.

Q: How is the language going, do you wish you would have started to practice Spanish at home earlier? A: It is what it is, I do wish I would know it all it would make things easier. 

Q: How is the food?
A: The rice is too much to handle!

Q: How are the others (Latinos) in your room?
A: They are good, they have some crazy stories, like one of them, was shot three times and has the scars to show. They are from all different countries.

Q: How are you getting along with your companion E. Macdonald?
A: He is super cool and we get along really great.

Q: Favorite food you've liked so far?
A: Definitely hamburgers, we even went to this burger place today on our P-day.

Q: How was your P-day how are you feeling?
A: It was a really good day, in fact, it was one of the best! We went and traveled to the top of this mountain overlooking the city of Bogota. We ate lunch at this really cool hamburger place called "Hamburguesas Del Rodeo". We did a little bit of shopping and we bought Colombia soccer jerseys and a canteen made from a cows hoof (Thanks, S. Macdonald for the pics).

So besides that the two pictures we received from the CCM president. We did talk before Justin left and I told him about three weeks in the MTC you are going to start getting a little stir crazy from being inside so much. It will even start to feel a little like jail. I guess E. Moore started to get the feeling and his CCM president took a photo.

Hopefully, we hear double the amount this coming P-day and we pray that the internet works well!

E. Macdonald with the Cow Canteen

Cow Canteens E. Moore and E. Macdonald

Up high looking over Bogota, Colombia

Favorite meal so far!!!!

E. Moore feeling like he is in "Jail" wanting to get out and proselyte to the people of Colombia

E. Moore working with one of the Latinos

Week 2 - Changes in the CCM

Hello everyone, Elder Moore here. It was a fun week in the CCM!

Let me first talk about the food. Well, the food here is really good, we have eaten pizza, hamburgers, and a lot of fruits and fruit juices. One of the fruits we eat is super strange we’ve never seen it before so we named it alien fruit. It has a hard shell and has a bunch of seeds on it and you are supposed to suck on the seeds and spit them out. I normally wouldn’t have eaten this at home but it's alright a little. Another thing I have figured out is that the CCM has an infinite amount of rice and raisins. We still eat a lot of beans but nowhere near as much as we do rice and raisins. We have rice with all of our meals, and raisins they always find some way to mix in the food. They will mix it in with the rice, and one day we had pizza, I think they ran out of stuff for regular pizza so they started making fruit pizza and put raisins on it. I made sure to get the regular pizza before it ran out.

Well, some changes happened this week. I had been in a trio with E. Dumas and E. Justice, but I got switched because E. Sperry, who was companions with E. Macdonald, broke his foot while playing basketball during physical activity time. So now I’m companions with E. Macdonald. He is from Utah and did wrestling also (132 lbs) and he’s super cool. We get along really great! We were hanging out a lot before we were companions so I hope no one thinks we had anything to do with E. Sperry’s injury. When I was in the trio we were in a room with 7 others but it was honestly pretty big and was a nice room. When I got changed to be companions with E. Macdonald I had to change rooms and it’s smaller than the room I was in but still, has the same amount of people. It’s still really fun though because it is just us two and the other 6 are all from South America. They are all pretty crazy, but we get along really good.

On Saturday we went out with a missionary from the Bogota South mission who has been out for 20 months he is a really good missionary. He found like 10,000 pesos on the street and decided to go turn it into a store. Then we found this guy who the missionaries had been teaching and was going to get baptized, but then started working a ton and the missionaries lost contact with him. We were talking to him again in his home. His home was similar to the homes in Brazil. We talked with him and he talked about having to work a lot and missing church and that he still wants to get baptized so we helped him recommit to get baptized and go to church. It was really cool. One thing that was sort of hard was that we were fasting while we were out visiting people and there were a bunch of street vendors with really good food that they were selling but we couldn’t buy anything. It was really fun and I learned a lot, I really am excited to get out of the CCM and start teaching people.

I love Sundays, they are always really good and spiritual I enjoy the time we have to take the sacrament and hear all of the talks. During the week we have physical activity time for 1 hour and there's a bunch of different things we can do: soccer, basketball, volleyball, running, lifting weights, but my favorite has been four square. We have some pretty intense four-square games and sometimes the ball bounces over the wall of the CCM and then we ask people on the street for help to throw the ball over.

I’m learning a lot and am happy that I am out here. I really am enjoying this time in the CCM, but can’t wait to get out there and even if I have to learn by hard knocks for a little bit it is well worth it.

Love you,
Elder Moore

My new companion E. Macdonald

My new companion E. Macdonald

My new companion E. Macdonald

My District

Mean Game of Four-Square

Week 01 - MTC or CCM

The Mission Training Center (MTC) or in Spanish CCM is awesome. I know it's only been a week but I love it here. So since we got here late I ended up in a trio with two other companions. The first one is E. Justice from Utah, and my other companion who is about the same size as me is E. Dumas from Indiana. E. Dumas is also going to Medellin. We get along great and we have a good group of missionaries in our district. One that is really cool is E. MacDonald who is also going to Medellin. We talked a lot on our way to the Bogota Temple and we will get along really well. E. Wright, the one from Arizona who I was with while we flew here is also going to Medellin, he reminds me of a lot of JT the way he talks and acts. My teachers are like MVPs they are so good, it's hard to describe but they are awesome. The temple here is awesome, it's probably my favorite temple, the bad news is it is going to be getting cleaned so it will be closed for a couple of weeks and we won't be able to go. Sunday was way cool, the CCM president spoke and the spirit was really strong. They ask all of the missionaries to write talks then they pick 4 of them to talk, kind of reminds me of the "Hunger Games." I didn't get picked they picked missionaries that were here for longer (the 3 weekers) and they all did really well.

So the language is going ok, I am doing mas o menos on the language. I understand most of the words and the conversations, it's just hard for me to say the words. I know what they are I just have a hard time saying them.The food is good, we have eaten pizza (although they put too much yeast), hamburgers, soups, and of course beans and rice. We have lots of fruits and fruit juice. We are the newbies, there is another group that has been here longer. So we wake up at 6:30 am, but I try to wake up at 6 am so I can do some pushups and situps because I feel like I'm getting fat because we are sitting all day in a class. It's not that cold here, it's like an Arizona Winter. We get to play volleyball, basketball, and soccer during exercise time. We also play four square and ping pong which is fun. I have found that reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish is way different, and you learn a lot of different things that I didn't know before.

Os Amo,

Elder Justin Moore

Email in the CCM, Elder Moore's Companion are to his right E. Justice and E. Dumas