Hace 10 anos...El CCM

Pictured below is the post office in Madrid (it doesn't look like the Savoy post office).
As I mentioned earlier this week, we arrived in Madrid Spain as the sun was rising. I spent a month in Madrid at the Centro de Capacitacion de los Misioneros for additional training in teaching the gospel and speaking Spanish. It was very different from the MTC in Provo; there were thousands of missionaries in the Provo MTC, where there were only 30 of us in Madrid. In Provo we would see the MTC president once a week or so at firesides from a distance. In Madrid the CCM president (President Richards) had lunch with us almost every day. President Richards is a great-grandson of Franklin D. Richards, who is my great-great-great grandfather. Having lunch with the president every day had advantages and disadvantages. One day Elder Swensen and I sat at the same table as President and Sister Richards. I was thoroughly enjoying an apple, when Sister Richards interrupted and suggested that I eat my apple a little quieter. She demonstrated the difference for me between noisely eating an apple and quietly eating an apple. President Richards smiled and said, "that will help you as a missionary." I tried to develop the attribute of being a quiet apple eater, but it didn't ever really sink in. To this day, it is probably best for me to eat my apples in solitude.
Once a week we were able to leave the CCM and see the sites of Madrid. It was incredible how much older things are in Spain than they are in the U.S.
It was helpful to have native Spanish speakers be our teachers in the CCM. One of them had us believe that he didn't speak any English the whole first week! It was also neat to hear their testimonies, many of them were first generation members of the church. Hermana (Sister) Martinez said the first visit from the missionaries, she didn't believe. On the second visit they showed a video about Joseph Smith, she felt a feeling then she'd never felt before at age 14, and has known it's true ever since.
We were among the first missionaries at the Madrid CCM; it and the Madrid Temple were completed and dedicated earlier in the year. It was wonderful to live literally within the shadow of a Temple for a month. Often we would sing at night in front of the temple. Ironically there was a Catholic nunery kiddy-corner from the temple. They had a statue of Christ. When the temple was completed, they realized the statue pointed directly at the temple. Appropriate I think, for in the temple we learn more about the atonement of Jesus Christ and our relationship with him and our Heavenly Father.
The temple is on the left, the CCM is on the right.