Technically it’s still spring, but apparently the sun didn’t get that memo here in El Centro. Our car reported 109 degrees (notice it’s not even the “hot” part of the day!)
Pepper and I do our workout in the morning, before it gets too hot, and we decided to take a dip in the pool next to the gym.
Even before 9am it’s in the 90s, so the cool water feels amazing. But we have a lot to do each day, so our pool time is limited to about five minutes. Then, cooled off, we can get going for the day.
We also noticed that in every parking lot, if there’s a tree or the shadow of a building, the parking spots in the shade are always filled. No one cares if they can park near the store– the important thing is to be in the shade! We’re learning that one.
It’s definitely been interesting adjusting to this extreme heat, and hearing all the locals tell us how “ahh, this is nothing”. Luckily our apartment, our car, and all the buildings we visit have air conditioning, so we’re getting by just fine. We’ll keep learning ways to beat the heat.
Everyone knows I love Rosa’s. Although I’m missing their pizza, today Pepper and I found Rosa’s here in town:
We chatted with the owner, whose mom opened the restaurant almost forty years ago. I’m going start eating Mexican food– which I generally don’t like– and I might as well start here. At least the name’s a good one!
Today we had some stuff to do in Calexico, which is a small town that straddles the Mexican border. We stopped to take a look at what the locals simply call The Wall.
That’s the border, of course, and it runs along the length of the town. I don’t actually know how far outside of town it extends. Just to the south is Mexicali, a huge metropolis of at least a million people.
Since it’s a Friday, everyone knows to avoid Cesar Chavez Boulevard, which is the road that crosses The Wall. On Fridays, many of the locals– thousands of them, in fact– head south to Mexico along that road. We were heading north and saw the traffic lined up in the other direction for miles:
On Sunday night, they all come back across the border. Most have jobs in the United States (where wages are higher), but family and friends in Mexico, so it’s just part of life to go back and forth.
Despite all the media hubbub and political furor surrounding the border, we’ve found that everyone here is pretty chill. Of course there are a lot of Hispanics in the town, and just about everyone– Mexican and American alike– is bilingual. But everyone we’ve met has been respectful, friendly, and just living their lives. Surely there are some bad actors we don’t see (a few of our new friends work for the Border Patrol and have stories) but overall I’ve been really impressed with how everyone just gets along and works together.
We finished our second week in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) and left Utah for the “field”. We’ve really enjoyed spending time with three other senior missionary couples, and after many comments about my amazing ties (all of which are the Jerry Garcia brand) I decided to give each of the men a tie from my ample collection. They were thrilled and insisted we pose for a group photo.
If nothing else, I’m spreading the good word of Jerry Garcia ties.
After our last morning of training, Pepper and I hopped in our (fully loaded) car and drove to Las Vegas. It’s about halfway between the MTC and our destination in El Centro, so it made a good stopping point. More importantly, there were two restaurants I really wanted to visit. The first was Maggiano’s, a fabulous Italian restaurant I’ve missed greatly. We had dinner there.
The next day we stopped for lunch at Cheba Hut, a Colorado classic and still my favorite sandwich chain on earth.
I admit it felt a little weird to stroll The Strip wearing our missionary tags while we were approached multiple times by scantily-clad women looking to pose for a photo, and passing billboards and ads for strip shows and call girls. I guess Vegas will be Vegas.
Then we headed south. As we crossed into Arizona and then southeast California, the landscape became increasingly flat and desert-ey.
Eventually we came to an honest-to-goodness desert: the Imperial Sand Dunes. We stopped for a few minutes to enjoy walking barefoot through the super fine (and surprisingly cool) sand.
That evening we arrived at our new apartment in El Centro. The church arranges housing for all missionaries, young and old, so it was nice to be able to move right in. Since we didn’t really bring all that much– just a few outfits and some computer equipment– the move-in was quick and easy.
The next day we went shopping to get groceries and a few other essentials for the apartment. I found a sale and bought a handful of short-sleeved dress shirts (there weren’t any to be had in Montana). The temperature was 101 degrees that day. Even when it’s hot, it’s important to look cool.
Everyone we met kind of laughed and told us “this is nice weather… wait until it gets really hot!” When it’s 101 and people are joking about how much hotter July will be, I’m not quite sure what to say. Uhh, thank goodness for air conditioning?
Today at church we met about fifty people, all of whom were super friendly and introduced themselves, and all of whom we’ll probably have to ask to repeat their names next week. We also met some young adults we’ll be working with, learned about the institute classes we’ll be teaching, had lunch with a bunch of younger missionaries, scouted out new housing for a set of missionaries in a neighboring town, participated in several group chats, planned a lesson, cleaned a new apartment that’ll be used by other missionaries, and did our level best to figure out just what the heck we’re supposed to be doing for the next year. It’s a little overwhelming, but I know we’ll figure it out and have a grand time doing it.
We’ve finished our first week at the Missionary Training Center (MTC)! It’s been an interesting (and fun) experience. When we showed up on Monday, we met with all the other “senior” missionaries who were training that week. There were around ninety of us, and we posed for a big group photo:
It’s been really cool seeing all these older couples willing to leave behind their homes, kids, grandkids, and everything else to serve a mission for a year or two. We’ve been able to enjoy lessons and lunches with many of them, getting to know their stories. I was counting how many people told us “surely you’re too young to be serving a senior mission!” but stopped after a while because so many people said it. In truth, we’re probably ten years younger than the next-youngest couple. I guess that makes us the junior seniors. It’s a strange feeling sometimes.
Also on the first day, we received our name tags. That made us feel official.
The MTC is set up sort of like a college campus, and not only do all the buildings look alike (light brown brick) but they have amazing and memorable names like “S1” and “T3”. After a few days we managed to figure out where most of the important buildings are.
It’s tradition to stand in front of the wall-sized world map and point to your mission assignment, so Pepper and I did that.
Every day was filled with classes where we talked about life as a missionary, how to effectively serve and teach people, and the sorts of things we might encounter. We were put into a small group called a “district”– four couples in all– and had most of our classes together. Like us, all of them are assigned to teach classes on their missions, so we have a common purpose. That said, all of us have very different circumstances: one couple is going to Romania where their area of responsibility covers four countries, another will be working in a building dedicated to classes where they’ll have their own private offices, and the last couple will be working to establish a class group in their area. It’s pretty cool to see the wide variety in mission service, even amongst a group with the same “titles”, so to speak.
Probably one of the best things about being at the MTC is seeing a thousand younger missionaries everywhere. They’re attending classes just like we are, although obviously theirs have a slightly different focus. Many are receiving language training for two to five weeks– we met and chatted with young missionaries heading to France, Canada, Suriname, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and a dozen other countries. Of course many others were going to less exotic places like… Indiana. You can definitely sense their excitement, mixed with the nervousness of being away from home for the first time, or being so far from home, or both. I’m inspired by these brave young men and women.
One of the highlights of our week was attending the Taylorsville Temple open house (it’s scheduled to open in two weeks) and seeing our friend and former seminary student there. Sister Hammack is serving her mission in Salt Lake City, and she happened to have an assignment to work at the open house for an afternoon. It’s so awesome to see her working hard and loving her mission service.
It’s been a busy week, to be sure, but also one filled with uplifting, spiritual experiences and a gaggle of new friends. I’m already loving mission life.
Today is Monday, which of course means the Mahjongg Gang is playing at Rosa’s. And, as I’ve done for several years now, I joined them. I played a few hands and won a few quarters.
Afterward, we all enjoyed some pizza together and then I switched tables to play a few board games with my other group of friends.
When the games ended, we said our goodbyes. For years it’s been so much fun hanging out with the older and younger crowds, laughing through a few hours of fun and friendly competition, and enjoying some awesome pizza. I’m going to miss all of these yahoos, although both the Mahjongg games and the board games will certainly continue without me. In a year I’ll be back to enjoy it all again.
Last night I read a really interesting article. The author talked about the importance of looking forward to something. Anything.
It’s no surprise that when you’re excited and anticipating something big and wonderful, you’re generally happier. That big vacation coming up? Christmas? Time with family? These sorts of major events tend to help people feel less stressed as they focus less on the frustration and challenges of the present, and think instead about how nice that event is going to be. In fact, studies have shown that the anticipation of something good can aid in stress relief as much as– or even more than– the event itself.
But, argues the author, it doesn’t have to be something big. Those big things only come around every few months or years, and although they have a powerful effect, their very rarity means the stress relief is also fleeting. Instead, it can be valuable to look forward to something small. Something mundane. Something that brings a moment of joy but happens much more often.
For me, it might be lunch at Rosa’s. Or relaxing in the hot tub. Or watching a sunset from the front porch. None of these require planning, nor are they limited to every now and then. But simply thinking about them, anticipating the joy they’ll bring, can provide immediate relief from stress and anxiety. I tend to be a pretty low-stress low-anxiety person anyway, and as I read this article I wondered if perhaps I’ve been practicing this little trick without really being aware of it.
In any case, I’ve decided I’m going to give some thought each day to one thing I’m looking forward to that day.
Before every missionary heads out “into the field”, they have an opportunity to meet with their local church leader, the stake president. That person has responsibility for a pretty large area– in our case, most of the Flathead Valley from just south of our house all the way north to the Canadian border. And in our case, President Reed is an awesome guy.
We spent about thirty minutes with him, and at the end of our visit he officially “set us apart” as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When we return in a little over a year, he’ll “release” us from that responsibility as well.
So, just like our boys before me, I’m now Elder Schroeder and, like Kyra, Pepper is known as Sister Schroeder. Woo hoo!
Today Pepper and I decided to surprise our friends, who we haven’t seen for a few weeks. We stopped by their house, but unfortunately they weren’t home. We were a little bummed but felt like we should at least text them a photo of us at their door, to prove we were there.
We had a great hike a few weeks ago in the National Forest behind our house, and this morning Kyra and I decided to do it again. We left from our house and bushwhacked a bit before we found the logging trails. It was chilly, but you should always start your hike cold anyway, and we warmed up by the time we arrived at the overlook high above Flathead Lake. The view was, again, spectacular.
Oh, and we saw a wolf.
It was about fifty feet ahead of us, walking along the logging trail. When it saw us, it bolted. Kyra was a little freaked out, but also excited because it meant she could check off a square on her Wildlife Bingo card. A few days ago, she and Greta were talking about all the wildlife they’d been seeing around our property: deer and turkeys and squirrels and so on. Most of them were fairly commonplace to us, but pretty exciting to the ladies. I jokingly suggested they should have a friendly competition to see who spots the most animals, maybe as a bingo card. They loved the idea and went to work listing twenty-five animals they’re hoping to see during the year they’re living here. Wolf was one of them, and Kyra nailed it on day one! (In our five years here, I’ve never seen a wolf in person, so this was definitely a rare thing.)
Although I hope they don’t run into many more wolves on the trails, I’m also excited to hear how the bingo game progresses…
