Week 4 -- Mexico CCM

¡Hola!

¿Comó le va? I am great!  I love the CCM but I can't wait to leave and start my work in Ecuador.  To answer your questions, no I did not see the new temple video.  I really want to though.  As a zone leader I makes sure my zone is doing what they are suppose to and I help them in anyway I can and I make sure the Sacrament gets done every week.  And I don't understand your questions about the gunshots?

The spiritual experiences that I have had are as follows: I call it, "FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK!"  No matter how bad our situation is we need to forget ourselves and go to work.  Christ has suffered all things so we don't have to suffer and because of that He knows exactly what we are going through and maybe even worse.  He asks us to work! We need to preach the gospel to everyone so they can know what Christ did for them. (D&C 4:2)  We can't serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength if we are focused on ourselves (D&C 34:3-6, 10-11).  All of our worldly concerns must be put off--we can focus on those things when the work is DONE.

-family concerns, families are forever

-health problems, can be healed

-language problems, we can learn a language

-home sickness, home will be there when we are done

-laziness, we just need to work

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE LORDS HELP! (John 3:16) He died for us. God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man and He accomplishes this purpose by bringing people unto Him, through baptism. We need to forget ourselves and go to work.  The Lord is coming and we need to follow Him. He is hastening His work.  We need to stand blameless before God and tell Him when He comes that we did all we could to further His work.  There's a poem by an Elder Whittle and it's called "He´s Been there Before" (full poem below). We need God! God needs us to further his work. We have to choose GOD or OURSELVES. Are we going to put our wants ahead of God's wants? Tell Kendall and Cami to FORGET THEMSELVES AND GO TO WORK. They should be on time to seminary, feast on the scriptures everyday, and pray with real intent everyday.  They need to do this because when temptations come they will fall if they are not doing ALL they can to further God's work.  I fear that they are not built as strong in the gospel as they could be (Helaman 5:12).  In Lehi´s Dream there were four groups of people; the first group were the people who were in the building mocking the people at the tree, the second group of people were wandering in darkness not knowing where they were or where they were going, the third group of people held to the rod and when they got to the tree they were envious of the people in the building and let go of the rod and were lost, and the last group held tight to the rod and when they got to the tree they fell to the ground, partook of the fruit, and recognized where they were and why they were there. The iron rod is the word of god, or in other words, the scriptures. Are Morgan, George, Kendall, Cami, Davis and Hayden CLINGING to the rod? We all need to forget ourselves and go to work.

Well that is something I have learned while here in the CCM.  I hope it brings to you guys a better understanding of things.  The temple was awesome!  I loved it!  I thought it was so beautiful. The only kinda hard part was that it was in Spanish.  But I understood most of it so it wasn't so bad.  I love everything about the MTC.  I LOVE IT A LOT!  I can't wait until I can start my work in Ecuador.  I love you all and make sure you hug and kiss Chase everyday for me.

Oh one more thing--so at the CCM we are not allowed to go outside.  All the guys in my district wanted street tacos.  There are guys on the street selling tacos so for this whole time we have been here we have tried to get our teachers to get us some tacos.  They wouldn't get us any, so yesterday Elder Parrish talked to a Mexican custodian and we paid him to get us tacos.  He did it!  BOOOY were they good!!!! So that's the cool story for today.

Love you, Chou

Elder Farley

He's Been There Before 

by Elder Whittle

The alarm bell rings at 6:30, I stumble to my feet
I grab my companions bedding and pull off his sheets

A groan fills the room, is it already time to arise?
It seems like just a second ago, I was able to shut my eyes
The morning activities follow- study, prayer and such
When it's time to leave the apartment, you feel you haven't accomplished much

"We have a super day planned,"
My comp. says with a grin
I lowly utter a faithless breath,
"Yeah, if anyone lets us in."

With the word of God and my faithful Schwinn, we ride off in the street prepared to
Face another day of humidity and heat
It's 9:30 in the evening, the day is almost through
My champion and I are riding home not accomplishing what we thought to do

We ride up to the mailbox, hoping to receive a lot
Only to look inside and hear my echo reverberate "air Box"
We go up to our apartment, the day is now complete
The only thing to show for our work is a case of blistery feet

It's past 10:30 p.m. My companion is fast asleep,
Silence engulfs me all about and I begin to weep
In the midst of sadness, I kneel down to pray
I need to talk to father, but I'm not sure what to say

"Oh, Father" I begin, "What happened to us today?
I thought we'd teach somebody, but everyone was away
My hands, my aching hands- worn, hurt and beat;
If our area was any smaller, we'd have knocked every street"

"Why on missions are the days so much alike?
The only difference about today was the flat tire on my bike
Will you send some cooler weather? The heat is killing me
I sweat so bad, it gets in my eyes, it's very hard to see"

"Why do I have to wear a helmet, isn't your protection enough?
People always laugh at me, and call me stupid stuff
Please send us investigators so I may give them what they lack
I want to give them Books of Mormon, the weight of them hurts my back"

"And what about my family: They don't have much to say
I'm sick of not hearing from home day after day after day
Oh Father, Why am I here am I just wasting time?
Sometimes I just want to go home, I'm sorry but that's on my mind"

"My companion, Heavenly Father, what are you giving me?"
The way he rides his bicycle, I don't think he can see
Now you have it, I can't go on, I don't know what to do
That, my Father in Heaven, is the prayer I have for you"

My prayer now finished, I stand up, then jump right into bed
I need my rest for tomorrow, we have another long day ahead
Sleep start to overtake me, I seem to drift away
Then it seems a vision takes me to another time in another day

I'm standing alone on the hill. The view is very nice
A man walks to wards me and says, "My name is Jesus Christ"
Tears of joy well up inside, I fall down to His feet
"Arise," He states, "Follow me to the shade. You and I need to speak"

My attention's towards my Savior, total and complete
He says, "Your mission is similar of what happened to me
I understand how you feel, I know what you're going through
In fact, it would be fair to say I've felt the same as you"

"I even know how you felt when no one listened to you
At times I felt not quite sure what else I could do
I know you don't like to ride a bicycle, for you a car would be sweet
Just remember the donkey I rode wasn't equipped with 21 speeds"

"I understand you don't like sweating, in fact it's something you hate
I remember when I sweat blood from ev’ry pore, oh the agony was great!
I see you don't like your companion- you'd rather have someone else-
I once had a companion named Judas who sold my life for wealth"

"It's hard to wear a helmet and have people make fun of you
I remember when they put thorns on my head and called me King of the Jews
So you feel burdened down by the weight of your pack
I recall how heavy the cross was when they slammed it on my back"

"Your hands hurt from tracting and knocking on doors all day
I guess when they pounded nails into mine, I ached in a similar way
It's hard not to hear from home when your family's not there to see
I lost communication on the cross and cried, "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

"We have a lot in common, but there's a difference between us you see
I endured to the end and finished my mission, so follow and do like me"
He embraced me with His arms and His light filled me with His love
With tears in my eyes I watched as He went back to the Father above

I stood with awe and wonder when a beep rang in my head
I listened and heard the alarm, then realized I was in my bed
My companion let out a groan, "6:30 already, no way!"
I sat up and said, "Come on, I'll even carry your scriptures today!"

No matter what we go through,
When we feel we can't take more
Just stop and think about Jesus Christ,
He's been there before!

By Elder Troy Whittle
Texas Houston Mission

Elder Farley and Elder Mecham -- CCM Companions

Garrett's District at the Mexico City Temple

Elder Farley at the Mexico City Temple

Strike a pose Elder Farley

Yum...the highly anticipated "Street Tacos"

Week 3 -- Mexico CCM

¡Hola!

I still don't know how to send emails to more than one person and I don't have everyone's emails.  But other than that I am doing amazing.  I love the CCM.  Today we went to the temple and it was super awesome. The Mexico City temple is amazing.  It was a little weird hearing it and doing it all in Spanish but I was able to understand and speak almost all of it.  If you guys have a chance you should look at pictures of the Mexico City temple.  We just got back from the temple and I forgot my camera other wise I would send you pics.  Next week I will send you a bunch of pictures of everything.

To answer your questions;  I am doing fantastic.  I love learning and I love teaching in Spanish.  I want to do it all the time.  I am healthy and I think I am loosing weight, but I just love everything about this place.  Elder Mecham is doing amazing.  I think he feels the same way I do about the CCM.  He and I are getting along really well.  He is my favorite compañero thus far.  Mí español es muy bueno, yo estoy enseñando mucho porque el señor es ayudando me enseñar español.  I am learning a lot.  I have a scripture journal and it is becoming full of the things I am learning.  All I really want to do is study the scriptures.  Some experiences I have had are hablando con el don del languas, y enseañando a mis compañeros y mi districto. I have been photographed by a photographer for the article sobre el CCM aquí en Mexico.  I don't know where it is though.  And yes I am very happy. I love the CCM and all it has to offer me.

I will look for the packages when I am in Ecuador.  I received the letter from Hayden and I wrote him back so it should be there anytime soon.  I also sent dad a letter.  Tell dad that I know he will do great in finding places for the firehouse stores.  He will be an awesome businessman. And yes mom I approve of the blanket it looks awesome.  Keep up the good work!  And I miss you and Chase the most out of everyone.  I can't wait to see more picture of him and you and the family.  In the next email I will tell you guys something I learned and I want Kendall and Cami to read it and to follow what I will say.  It might even be a good family night lesson but once you read it you can decide that for yourself.  ¡Tell Davis to continue to be a CHAMPION and tell Hayden to continue being AWESOME!  I miss you all and I cant wait each week when I can hear from you guys.

Now let me tell you some of the things that happened to me these last couple of weeks.  Sometimes we have grape juice for lunch and each time we do have grape juice (we call it "vino" Spanish for wine) we all have a drinking contest  to see who can drink the most. Elder Mecham has the record with 16 cups.  So yesterday Elder Jorgensen tried breaking the record and after 11 cups he threw up everywhere--it was awesome!!!! We were laughing sooo hard.  It was the funniest thing I have seen here.  After those 11 cups, he drank 6 more to beat the record.  We were outside and he had just drank his last one and he held the cup in the air, for drinking the most vino and the CCM president walks by and asks him "what are you doing?" he said "I just broke the vino record" and he was a little pale from throwing up, and President Pratt gave him a thumps up and walked away. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen here!!!!

I took the money out of my card just to buy some things at the tienda and I wanted some souvenir money for Mexico.  That is all I have for today.  Next week I will share with you some spiritual things and I want  everyone to hear it especially Kendall and Cami.  I love you all with all my heart and I can't wait to hear from you every week.  Btw, how is the missionary work coming?

LOVE- Elder Farley 

Dad-

WOW that does sound like a crazy day.  I hope you can do everything you can to help everyone.  I don't have a lot of computer time so I will keep it short.  A mission is hard but its hard in a way that is good but fulfilling at the same time.  I am giving all my time to the Lord and I am learning so much.  I can't wait till I can learn again.  I will always remember your example and strive to make my mission better than yours.  Sorry but I am going to! :-)  I love you.

Garrett 

Week 2 -- Mexico CCM

Family & Friends-

Let me preface this week's post with an observation about Garrett :-).  He is killing us with the way he is sending emails! :-)  We are bewildered but laughing all at the same time! Instead of sending one email to the entire family, in which he would answer all of our questions, he sends several emails just answering one or two questions.  Today we received 5 different emails and in each one he only answered a few things and then ended. Luckily we could tell he was on the computer so we sent him some emails back in which we got immediate responses.  That is the only reason why we got most of our questions answered.  Oh man, we were laughing and almost crying as we read these.  We are realizing that in all of his mission preparation, we NEVER taught him how to write emails, how to attach pictures, and how to be efficient with his computer time.  We won't make that mistake with our other boys. :-)  We are also pretty sure that he just skated by in all of his English classes because he doesn't know how to spell, form complete sentences, and organize his thoughts.  So, I am posting his letters as completely edited for your benefit. Yes, you are welcome!  With all of that said, we loved his emails and they are certainly full of Garrett's personality and flair.  He is doing great!  I know that most of this post will be disjointed but I tried to put some points of reference in parentheses so you would know what he was talking about.  We are thrilled though that by the end of his computer time he figured out how to send us a few pictures.  Yeah!  My favorite email has to be the last one though.  Oh, how I love that boy!  Enjoy.  :-) 

Jenny

Hola Mi Familia-

¿Comó le va? When I said I want to know about Chase, that means that I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT CHASE!!!! I want to know juicy dets (details) about him. MOM, I want to know what he is doing, how he is feeling, what he thinks, and what he knows.  I want more than one sentence!!!!!! jk. But it's good to hear from everyone.  Tell Davis that those are very good drawings.  No, I didn't figure it out (sending an email to more than one person) because I have been too busy learning the gospel and Spanish.  Um, and I don't know how to send pictures and quite frankly it has been pretty normal.  We wake up at 6:30, shower, get dressed and go to breakfast.  Then we have study time, then classes, then lunch at 12, then more study time, then gym time, then language time, then more classes, then we usually teach an investigator (yes they are teachers), then we go to bed.  It's a pretty simple day really.  All of the days are starting to blur together though so it is kinda cool. Well my computer time is almost up so I will send this one and then send another email containing the rest.

Nos Vemos- 

Hola Padre-

¿Comó le va? ¿Comó estan ustedes? yo Estoy bein, muy bein: peru yo se que español will come if I be patient.  It was just the first week missionary high where I wanted to know everything about the gospel and I wanted to be fluent in Spanish but I just need to be patient and the blessing will come.  Richard G. Scott spoke to us last night in a CCM broadcast and he gave us an Apostolic blessing of the gift of tongues.  All we have to do is be patient, study, and pray fervently and the blessing will come. 

I got released as District Leader, and Elder Mecham and I got called as Zone Leaders.  I think that this will be the first of many leadership positions in my life.  I am learning a lot in Spanish.  I am starting to get to the point where I am not learning as much as my first couple of weeks, but that will change quickly as I get to Ecuador.  Elder Mecham is great!  He is an amazing guy.  When he was in high school he got 15 concussions in a row, and in turn he almost couldn't go on a mission.  Also from the concussions he received PTSD and so he has triggers which set his brain into a super painful, shutdown mode and it's quite scary when it happens (not that often though).  I do all I can to help him, so if you guys can keep him your prayers that would be wonderful.

Um what else?  Nothing really, I just wanna know about you guys and life.

Elder Farley- 

Umm, what else do I want to say?  The CCM is great.  The food is pretty good.  It's getting worse by the day though, but whatever.   My teachers are super nice.  They are Brother Sagers and Brother Brown, they are great.  I got released as DL and Elder Mecham and I got called as the Zone Leaders.  As a DL all I really did was get the mail and assign hymns and oración.  As Zone Leader all I really do is assign people to be in charge of the Sacrament. Elder Laing thinks Kendall is 22 and he doesn't believe me that Kendall is 16. I don't know what else to say except just that I love the CCM and I can't wait to get out in the field. 

No, I have never left the CCM.  I wish that I could though.  I leave the CCM on September 10 (to go to Ecuador) so don't send packages to me here--only to Ecuador.  No I have not gone to the Temple but I want to really bad.  I will get to here pretty soon.  I don't know what else to say.  I honestly don't.  I didn't bring my notebook otherwise I would share with you what I am learning, so next time will be filled with more stuff.  It helps me if you ask all the questions first then tell me about your lives second because then I can answer all the questions right off the bat and then I can tell you more stuff, does that makes sense?

Elder Farley-

Hola-

Chase really did that? He and I are BFFs.  He is going to miss me, and I will miss all of you guys, pero I will probably miss chase the most, Sorry.  I will try to send some pictures but that's all I got to say for now.

love you guys

Elder Farley-

Hola-

As Zone Leaders we just make assignments to have people prepare, bless and pass the Sacrament. and we help the Branch President, his name is Presidante Rosales.  We have not yet gone to the temple but we will go probably next week.  I am excited though.  Gospel learning is going amazing.  I have learned a lot.  I would share what I have learned but I forget my notebook at mi casa.  I will share what I learned next week. I have learned a lot in the scriptures.  That's about it,  I will try to send pictures.

love you too Dad,

Elder Farley-

Hola-

Were those good E-mails to send or do I need to write more?

Elder Farley-

 Elder Farley

 The Elders in Garrett's District

The Sisters in Garrett's District

Week 1 - Mexico CCM (MTC)

Hello family,

Umm where do I start? My flights were just great.  I arrived in the Atlanta airport (with just me and Hermana Deem) and we actually got lost in that airport so after finding our gate we met up with about 10 or so other missionaries and we flew to Mexico.  We arrived at the CCM (Centro de Capacitación Misional México) or the MTC late on Tuesday night with total about 20 missionaries--we picked some up at the México airport.   My compañeros name is Elder Mecham.  He is from Brigham City and he is serving in Tempe Arizona. He's 6´ 5´´ and he's super funny.  In my district there are 10 missionaries.  I actually got called to be the District leader so in our district there is me, Elder Mecham, Elder Parrish, Elder Banks, Elder Laing, Elder Jorgensen, Hermana Rawlings, Hermana Day, Hermana Martin, and Hermana Shepard.  I love the CCM.  I love it!  It's so fun!  All of the Elders in my district are funny--I love them all.   

 

Umm what else?  It rains every day at 6 pm without fail.  Me and my compañero taught our first investigator and we taught with the spirit and we taught with the gift of tongues it was amazing!!! Umm I am running out of things to say so this is about all there is to say.  Tell me about everything at home especially Chase? I just want to say that I love you all so very much.

Adios, Nos Vemos !!!!  

Hola,

Dad thank you so much for starting the Mission Prep Program.  It has helped me so much.  My only real struggle is translating English to Spanish.  I have taught with power and by the spirit and I have taught with the gift of tongues.  It is an amazing experience.  I love you and love your example to me. Honestly Dad if you hadn't served a mission and taught me by your example and made missions exciting I don't think coming out here would have been such an easy choice.  Thank you so much.  I love you so much!!!!

Also, I have an idea for your Mission Prep Program that they do here at the CCM.  What they do is, our first day here they have one of the teachers act like a real investigator.  They have a new name, for example our investigators name is Rogelio but he is actually a teacher here at the CCM and his real name is Hermano Brown, and he acts just like an investigator.  He doesn't know English and we have to teach him all five lessons and then he becomes our teacher and tells us what we did right or wrong.  Does that make sense? If not just ask and I will explain.

I love you soo much I couldn't ask for a better Dad!! I love you.

He's Arrived in Mexico City!

Elder Farley saying good-bye to the boys

Elder Farley saying good-bye to the girls

Sweet good-bye with Dad

Chase will be 3 when Elder Farley returns

One last look before he went through security

Farley Family

Elder Farley right after he was set apart as a full-time missionary

Dad thanks for all of your support I will miss all of you.  I am just checking in letting you know I got to Mexico safe and sound.  From Phoenix to Atlanta there was only me and Sister Deem then From Atlanta to Mexico there was about 15 elders and sisters and when we got to the MTC there was about twenty of us. So that is about it I am just here in Mexico waiting to start learning.  Show everyone this email because I couldn't figure out how to send it to mom.  But anyways I will miss all of you remember to feed my pet lizard jk.  Ummm... just remember that I love you.

Bye, love you all very much

Elder Farley