We finally heard from Elder Thorpe!

Alright, hope those last two sent!  The CCM (MTC) is...hard.  The food is pretty good and my companion, Elder Rowberry, and my district are awesome!  We all get along so well and are close friends already.  I won't lie, I have really struggled lately.  I have missed home sooo much, and have thought to myself that maybe I made the wrong decision coming out here.  But we had our first Sunday and it was great.  I gave a talk in sacrament meeting!  It was on how the Gospel blesses families and that topic didn't help with my homesickness.  I have it in half Spanish and half English haha.  SPANISH IS SO HARD..Later that night we watched the testament movie and it has never hit me so hard.  I realized that I am supposed to be out here and that there are so many lives waiting to hear the Gospel from me.  I can't let them down!  The homsickness is better, but for about 3 hours everyday it hits really hard.  Dad, how long did it take for you to get over it?  Sister Nadauld wasn't kidding when she said there would be days where you felt like jumping in front of a bus.  Haha it is very true!  Our teachers rarely talk to us in English so in class, which is all day everyday, I am so lost.  But I really have learned a ton in the past week and a half! It has been kind of chaotic here for the past week.  It's not very organized yet, we are the guinea pigs!  We started teaching an investigator 2 days after we got here, in Spanish!  That has been very difficult for me.  I have no idea what our investigator is saying so I don't respond too much in the lessons.  Elder Rowberry is the smartest kid in the world though.  He has taken 5 years of Spanish so he knows a lot!  The MTC is like a literal spiritual prison.  You are not allowed to leave unless you go to the temple on your P-day which was today for me!  So Thursday is the day that you will hear from me.  The MTC is placed on kind of the more dangerous part of the city so it is heavily enforced.  6 weeks in here is going to be so hard...I just want to get to El Salvador already!  All of the elders in my district are going to my same mission so we're all pretty pumped about that.  It has rained pretty hard here a couple times, but not too much.  We share an apartment with 2 other companionships and they are so funny.  Elder Hawkes and Elder Christensen are hilarious and our best buds, but not in our district.  And the other two are latino elders from Mexico so its been fun to try  and talk to them!  One day at lunch, some native elders dared Elder Rowberry to try a chile serrano which is incredibly hot.  He tried it and then ended up throwing up his lunch from drinking so much water, trying to get his mouth from burning!  hahaha it was so funny. It's great to hear about your games, Nick and Jantsen!  Sounds like you guys are playing great, keep it up!  Brooks, I hope you are staying out of trouble and are still the funniest kid.  I miss having the three of you to talk to and mess around with! Mom, Dad, I miss you guys so much.  I have realized how much stuff you have done for me in my life and I took so much for granted.  I miss having both of you to talk to!  But I hope you are doing well and keep up the book of mormon reading.  That is the truest book ever written and it's what I'm living my life by down here.  I want you to tell Grandpa Thorpe how proud I am to be his grandson and to wear his name over my heart every day, along with the Savior's name.  Hummer's district motto says it all:  "I beareth the name that casteth out all fear." I could not be more proud every time someone reads my name tag. I am being very safe and healthy mom!  Taking my probiotics every day. :)  They gave us water bottles with filters in them to last our whole mission so that has been nice!  But the water still doesn't taste very good.  It's not too humid here, but when it rains it is worse! If you could do me a favor and send me Caroline's email?  I don't know how long it takes for a letter to get here but we checked today and none have come.  I'd like to talk to her somehow. :) I love you all so much, and I'll talk to you again in a week! Love, Elder Payton Richard Thorpe On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM, Payton Thorpe wrote: Mi familia!! I emailed last week but it obviously didnt send. Hope you havent been freaking out too much! [MOM] Ill send it one more time and then another big letter after this one. hopefully you see this in the next half hour and I can write back! Elder Thorpe [From 10 days ago] Mi Familia! como estas?! I made to Mexico, and it is pretty crazy. I have met some incredible kids, there was about 30 of us that were on the same flight. Elder Rowberry, the one Easton told us about, is my room mate and who I sat next to on both plane rides. He is a great kid! We placed our first book of mormon together to the guy sitting next to us on the first flight, haha it was way cool. The guy was a baptist from North Carolina. The MTC is beautiful! Especially after driving through the heart of Mexico City, its pretty nasty. Everything is just packed into this city, its kinda cool! The weather is fantastic, 75 and overcast! feels so good! The guy that picked us up at the airport did not speak a word of english, thats when we all realized that it just got real. There is one other group of kids that came in last week and us and one more group comes tonight but thats it! They are pretty short on workers down here so most of the time today weve just been wondering around trying to figure out what the heck were doing. But ill tell you what, I absolutely love it. and its only been 3 hours in the MTC! I am just so excited to learn the language, I literally have to in order to survive down here. We will be teaching real investigators in espanol by thursday so Im praying that it will come fast! Im glad I got to email you guys so soon! Hopefully youll look at it here shortly. They have a timer on the computer for us haha its funny. I have one hour everytime I log on. but its plenty of time. Mom, Dad, you have taught me so many valuable things at the is why I am here. Thank you for everything you have done for me and I am so sorry for the times I took having such amazing parents for granted! Jantsen, Nick, and Brooks, you take care of mom and dad and each other for me alright? I call you my little brothers but the truth is I look up to each one of you so much. I know that this is where I am supposed to be and I am destined to do great things down here through my hard work and obedience to my father in heaven. I love you all and miss you! Ill talk to you again soon! Love, Elder Payton Richard Thorpe