This mission is awesome! I am so happy to be here serving the Lord and helping the people of Mexico City to come unto Christ. The work is progressing amazingly here, and I´m sure it will continue to do so. The members here are excited to help us in any way they can to further the work, and there are so many people here ready to accept our message. I am so happy to be here doing this great work!

My area is called Alemedas. It is a super cool urban area with lots of traffic, potholes and speedbumps. Those things don´t bother us though, because we walk everywhere. So far the people we´ve met have been very receptive to our message. Many already believe and have faith that Jesus Christ is our savior. They just don´t know that the Gospel has been restored through a living prophet. This bold and marvelous yet true doctrine will be able to change the hearts of anyone who is willing to sincerely listen and seek an answer through prayer. I hope our message will be recieved well, and I have faith that it will.

The Members here are awesome. Our ward isn´t very big, with 102 in attendance this last Sunday, but the members are very excited to have missionaries in their ward and want to help us further the work. We are opening the area. There were some sister missionaries here a while ago, but they had to leave for safety reasons (or so I´ve heard). So we are the first missionaries here in a while, meaning we don´t start with any investigators, but we get to find our own. The Members have helped so much by giving us referrals and coming with us to lessons. This Saturday we have a ward mission activity where every family brings an investigator. I am excited to see what results this brings.

My companion is awesome! His name is Elder Mendez. He´s from Quito, Ecuador. He´s been on his mission for four months, but it seems like he´s been teaching for years. He has an amazing understanding of the doctrine, principles, and application of scriptures and does a great job identifying the needs of an investigator. He speaks almost only Spanish, but is learning English. In my ward and my same apartment there are two other missionaries as well. Elder Finlinson, who was in my MTC district, and his trainer Elder Candelario, who lives in North Las Vegas. They are all awesome missionaries and ready to work hard.

I am so happy to have the opportunity to be here in Mexico furthering the Lord´s work. The people really are ready to accept the message, and some already have. I can see the Lord´s hand in everything we do. He is going to help us as long as we are obedient and work hard to further his work. It is amazing how strongly the Spirit can come into a room to touch the heart of someone who needs it. I know The Lord is looking  to bless all of his children who believe on his name. I´m blessed to have the opportunity to help his children learn how to return to his presence.

Love,
Elder Jayson Fraser

I'm in the mission home!

Hey guys! I just have about three minutes to let you know that I got here safely. This place is pretty awesome. There are the three Elders and three Hermanas from my district here plus about 15 Latino missionaries. The President and his wife are very nice, and they make great waffles and buttermilk syrup. I'm happy to be here. I might get to email more later, we'll see.

I love you!

Love,

Elder Jayson Fraser

Last week at the CCM!

the famous eyelash taco

I´m still having a great time here, of course, but I´m looking forward to getting out into the mission field. On Monday morning a las 7 de la mañana my mission president will be here to pick us up and head out for Mexico City North! I´m so excited to get out of these walls and get to work. I can´t wait to talk to real people, have real investigators, and teach real lessons. It´s a great blessing to be a part of this work and bring the Gospel unto Heavenly Father´s children. I am also super excited to experience the culture here in Mexico. I´ve already gotten glimpses of it, but soon I will be living it. The CCM has it´s own culture; it is a strange mix of American and Mexican with a huge dose of extra friendly throw in. Once I´m outside the walls, the culture will be much different. I am looking forward to experiencing it and seeing if I actually know any Spanish after all.

The most exciting thing at the CCM this week was the outbreak of the pandemic of August 9. Some sort of virus started going around and took out almost half of the American missionaries. Not a single Latino missionary was affected. Whatever it was, the symptoms included unbearable pain in the stomach and an inability to speak Spanish. In my district, only two of the six elders were sick. Others were hit harder, such as the district across the hall who only had 2 Hermanas in class the next day. After a couple of days, it seems to have gone away. We still aren´t allowed to shake hands and they installed new soap dispensers in all of the casas. To give an idea of the extent to which this unknown disease disrupted normal daily operations at the CCM, at the Sunday devotional, where there is normally a gym full of overflow seating, there was only about half of an auditorium worth of missionaries. The rest were either sick or at home with their sick companions. One Elder in the district across the hall was hit bad enough that they had to give him a shot. They are not sure if it was a reaction to the shot or if he messed up his back when he was violently throwing up, but either way now he is paralyzed. He can´t move his legs at all. They are sending him back to the United States, but they think he´ll be fine. So basically it has been a pretty normal week at the CCM.

In the CCM, talks in Sacrament meeting are assigned to everyone in the branch and then a few are chosen during the meeting to speak. The plan is that everyone will have six or eight talks written in Spanish once they get out in the mission field. I had always written a decent talk before Sunday--that is until this week. It would follow that this is the week that I was chosen to speak. I had about three minutes to plan a whole talk in Spanish and then get up there and teach. Surprisingly, it actually went quite well. I was surprised at my ability to articulate my thoughts in Spanish. It was probably less me and more of the Spirit, but either way it gave me hope that when I get out in the field I will be able to teach with at least some sort of truth getting through to whoever is willing to listen to me. I know that it will be more difficult out there, but since I will be teaching actual people, I should be able to receive more divine assistance than I can now. As long as we are in the Lord´s work, He will help us in whatever way we need. I can testify of this fact.

Other than the usual classes and such, it has been a pretty normal week here at the CCM. We are just all looking forward to leaving. We´ve been spending our time preparing. We´ve done all of our laundry, got our suits dry-cleaned, and shined our shoes. Now all we have left is to throw it all in a bag and hop on the bus Monday morning. One of the jokes going around is that this is the nicest prison any of us have been in. We are looking forward to getting out of the CCM and experiencing real missionary work. Six weeks is a long time to be in one place and study all day. Yet I know that the Lord called us to be here all six weeks, so we must need to be here for six weeks. He knows better than us, which is good because I don´t know if I´d be ready to get out there yet. If it were up to me, however, I would already be out there. I just can´t wait.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8). As long as we do His will and preach His gospel, we will be blessed. Any trial or difficulty we may encounter in mortality has already been overcome by Christ. As long as we look to Him in our moments of trial and seek to understand what He desires of us, He will help us to overcome them too. I bear my testimony of this fact. I know it to be true.

Love,

Elder Jayson Fraser

Another week in the CCM!

I´m still having a great time, but I´m looking forward to getting out of the CCM and into the mission field. I still have more to learn before I´m ready, but I just want to get outside the wall and start helping actual people. I can´t wait to walk around the streets of Mexico and talk to the people, experience the culture, and of course eat the food. Yet the Lord called me to be here for six weeks, so I must have some more important stuff to learn in the next week and a half.

Spanish is coming along great! I can already understand almost any native Spanish speaker, and I can articulate most of my thoughts (although maybe not with big words like articulate). Everyone in my district was reassigned to the CCM like me, but they are all at various levels from an Elder who took four years of Spanish classes and his companion who lived in Guadalajara for two years to my companion who has never taken a Spanish class in his life. Yet at this point, we´re all at close to the same level. When we get out in the mission field, it is going to be quite a shock. I hope what we have learned here will get us by. One of my roommates pointed out that we aren´t going to get the gift of tongues while in the CCM, but we´re here to prepare ourselves to receive it. We´re putting stuff into our minds, most of which we can´t remember on our own, but when we get out in the mission field and we really need it the Holy Ghost will "bring all things to [our] remembrance" (John 14:26). I truly believe this is how missionaries are able to learn languages in six weeks. We don´t really learn it all here, but we prepare ourselves and demonstrate our dedication to the Lord so He can bless us when we truly need it.

We´ve done a bit better this week at focusing on our studies, and it has made a huge difference! The days where we try to have fun by goofing off and playing hacky-sack don´t end up being as fun as the days we get to work and spend our free time studying hard. It seems like it would be the other way around, doesn´t it? Yet for whatever reason, studying makes the day fly by. I believe it is because the Lord is blessing us when we make good choices and spend our time bettering ourselves and becoming better instruments in the Lord´s hands (2 Nephi 1:24). Most of our time is occupied by classes, assigned study, and other such activities, but when we sacrifice the little time we have for ourselves to the Lord, we will receive huge blessings and be better fit for the kingdom.

Other than classes, devotionals, studying and meals, there hasn´t been too much interesting this week. It´s exciting enough trying to keep ourselves from jumping the wall to buy another taco. Everyone in my district is ready to leave, or at least we think we are. Really none of us are ready. I doubt we´ll even be ready a week from Monday when they kick us out the front door and into our mission. We will be ready enough, though. It will be a hard adjustment, but one I´m excited to make.

I am so glad for this opportunity to serve the Lord. While it may be hard, I know it will be worth it. I am so excited to help Heavenly Father´s children receive the huge eternal blessings that come through the Gospel. I know that this church is true, and trough its teachings and ordinances and faith in Christ and his Atonement, anyone can receive Eternal Life, which is the greatest of God´s gifts

Love, 

Elder Jayson Fraser