Hola Familia,
Hope you guys have had a great week. It's hard to believe I'm already half way through my time at the CCM. Time goes by so fast at times, and slow at others. 

To pick up from where I left off last week, Elder S. left Thursday afternoon for home. I haven't heard any news since he left, but I really enjoyed spending time with him. I hope he can one day continue to serve a mission. My companions are the same I had before. Elder Hilton and Mazaleyrat. 

P-Days are truly the best days. Last week I got haircut. When I walked into the salon, the lady thought my companion was the one getting the haircut. Every time I told a missionary I was going to get a haircut, they would just laugh, and then had to explain why I like it short. Unfortunately they weren't able to cut anything under a 2 on the sides for some reason, so honestly I feel like I need another one. We also cleaned up our Casa, changed our sheets, and did some laundry. My favorite activity to play here is Volleyball. When there's gym time I play Volleyball. Some missionaries are really good, so that's partly why I like to play. 

Last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting, because next Sunday is General Conference. So the Saturday night before we didn't have dinner and that Sunday morning we didn't have breakfast. It was the first time I can remember fasting for a full 24 hours. It was difficult, but our whole district was able to do it. Each week our Branch Presidency assigns a topic from Preach My Gospel so missionaries can prepare a talk based on that topic. I've written one each week in case I get called up to speak. Luckily that hasn't happened yet. I did the same for my testimony. As a few companionships went up, Elder Mazaleyrat looked over and told Elder Hilton and I, "Let's go". We went up and each bore our testimonies. 

Although I could have done probably just fine without notes, I had them just to help keep my thoughts organized. It was tough to speak in Spanish, especially when over half the branch is Latinos, but they all said they liked it and my pronunciation was good. 

My Spanish is definitely improving. I can understand nearly everything someone says. That's mostly true because at the CCM it's at a beginner level, hah. I can carry somewhat of a conversation and work my way around words I don't know. Spanish is a very complex and simplistic language at the same time, but I've learned so much these past three weeks. 

We've been teaching Dayana and Raul, who just act like investigators, but really are our teachers. We switch off every other day for who we teach. Since there are the three of us teaching it's kind of nice, because we each have different ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult because one may speak a little longer. We prepare our lessons based on the topic our investigators need the most. So usually we just split up the lessons in three parts, so each of us gets roughly the same amount of speaking. After each of our topics are assigned we kind of just separate and prepare our portion of the lesson by ourselves. I didn't mind preparing by myself, but it just kind of irritated me. Elder Mazaleyrat would prepare at a different desk, while Hilton and I would halfway prepare the lesson together. Elder Mazaleyrat is a great guy and I love him, but every time I wanted to prepare the lesson together, he would just ignore it. Sometimes he can be a little stubborn. I guess that also might be out different upbringings and personalities. Haha. I finally had enough of it and told him and Hilton to come outside and study. Before we began preparing our lesson I told them that we needed to work together on the lessons and not so much individually. Our lessons were great beforehand, but felt like we were missing something. So hopefully this week we can improve on that. 

The Latinos left Monday, very early in the morning. Which also means theres no one in our Casa. Sunday evening, before they left, we gathered in the living room and had a testimony meeting, then ate some snacks. They were super cool and we're going to miss them. Mosquitoes at night are problem in our casa. It doesn't matter if we shut every window, or door, somehow they get in. Luckily I don't have any bites yet. Even when we go to sleep, out of nowhere you can hear the buzzing of the mosquito. So annoying. 

Well there should be some exciting news coming this weekend. Maybe 2 hour church, and some new temples. An elder told me here that they also might allow missionaries to decide how long they want to serve(12, 18, or 24). I don't think it's true, but who knows. 

Our family is awesome. Thanks so much for the letters this week, Dodo and Ninnie. We are so blessed. 

Love and miss you all so so much. Peace out  

Elder Nissinen