Ethan's Best Two Years: Week 5 - Last week at the CCM

This was Ethan's last letter from the training center. He's heading out next Tuesday for Chiclayo. We're excited for him to get out to his area and get working! He is ready for a change and ready to head out and meet his trainer. The only downside to this is that he leaves early next Tuesday and won't have a pday until the following Monday. So, it will be almost two weeks before we actually get a letter from him. Hopefully he'll get to send an "I'm here" email. His mission president also has a facebook page, so we're also keeping our fingers crossed they post pictures of the new missionaries!
Here is Ethan's letter for the week:

"Hey how is it going at home? This week is a bit better since we are all getting ready to leave. I am excited to get out of the CCM and into the field. It has still been kind of rough for me though. In the mornings I usually feel pretty depressed and stressed, but then in the evening I usually feel pretty good. Last Saturday we went out and proselyted for a couple of hours with some of the other missionaries that are in the mission here. The missionary that I went with was from Trujillo, so he didn't speak English and I don't really know enough Spanish, but he was pretty nice. It was also pretty crazy that the people here will just stop what they are doing and listen to what we have to say. We talked to quite a few people and I tried explaining things and talking about the Book of Mormon, I hope that they understood what I was saying. The area that we went to was pretty poor as well. all of the roads were dirt but it is still a city with buildings everywhere. We got to go in and teach a lesson to a family and they only had a couple of small rooms, with no roof over the laundry room. I got to say a prayer with them and I had a little kid crawling on me and others laughing around me, but it was fun. I also got to give away a Book of Mormon to one of the guys that we talked to. Lima is still very dirty though and there is grey dust everywhere. The temple is still closed and I don't think that we will be able to go back to it before we leave. For p day we went and cleaned another church building again.

Spanish is getting easier for me to understand but it is still pretty difficult to say things back. I realized that I don't know a lot of Spanish when it comes to just talking with people, since most of the things that we are taught or that we teach all have to do with Church. Hopefully the people in Chiclayo are patient with my Spanish, and that they don't talk too fast. There are a couple of latinos here that came from Chiclayo or some of the other areas and they are some of the nicest ones, always smiling and laughing. They also kind of have a different accent in Spanish. Other than that the days here in the CCM are pretty much the same. The food is starting to taste better, or maybe I'm just getting used to it. We still have rice everyday for lunch and dinner, and a lot of toast for breakfast. I'm still curious if the food is different or the same in Chiclayo. Inka Cola is really good though. I usually get one every couple of days from the vending machine.

I am way excited for the package. There is some crazy stuff that goes on but not too much. Some missionaries dressed up last night with sheets and hats to tried and go trick or treating. Sometimes we make forts in our rooms with extra sheets, and for physical activity we play rugby which is pretty fun.

Some regular food would be nice, thank you for the package. I'll make a list of anything that I would need and send it next time. One of the elders has a calculator watch from walmart that is pretty funny, like Dwight from the office. It might be nice to get a couple cheap ones so I don't get my nice one stolen. I have a couple more pictures they just take forever to send.

Until next week. Love Elder Lamb"