Holaaaa
Over the last week I've realized that everyone can speak a certain amount of spanglish. It just comes down to peoples ratios. As in, the ratio of how much they can speak Spanish as opposed to English or vice versa. This week I have gotten a little better. I'd say I am almost 50-50 here almost after this week. More in terms of listening and reading spanish. Talking is still not as easy obviously but it's coming. Spanglish has become a common term here because they're encouraging us more and more to just speak Spanish as much as we can and as much as we know and fill in the gaps. My district last Sunday for some reason thought it'd be a good idea to do an English fast for a day. So on monday we decided to speak only spanish for the whole day and the one who spoke english the most on accident had to buy the district ice cream.
This was the dumbest idea ever.
The whole day just turned into one big game of charades haha. And our brains were fried by the end of the day and most of us would have rather just bought us ice cream so that we didn't have to participate in the challenge.
Speaking of Sunday, it was a pretty special day. I was the most prepared for a sacrament and priesthood session I probably ever have been and I felt the spirit so strongly. Which means I cried the whole time. The way things are set up here is you have a district over you when you come in, and when that district teaches you the ropes they leave and the following weeks we have districts under us that were assigned to teach this week. The district in front of us was leaving Monday and bore their testimonies to us and almost all of it was in Spanish and I couldn't make out anything but the spirit they had with them and how passionate they were.
Wednesday. Some general authorities came from the seventies. One was in the presidency and he was kind of the keynote talk. His name is Elder Palmer and he was awesome. He had a thick Australian accent and I didn't see him without a smile on his face. He shook everyone's hand in the audience that day and I got to talk to him. Apparently Bastian is a good name to have here because the other guy from the seventy had served with a Bastian, and I just found out that two of my teachers are best friends with another one of my cousins from their mission. I was wearing a Guatemalan Tie Wyatt had given me and my teacher asked where I got it and when I said Guatemala she said Wade's name. Different brothers but cool nonetheless.
Thursday I left the ccm for the first time since I got here. Ironically I'm one of only a few people staying in Mexico here at the mexico mtc so I had to go get my immigration stuff done this week for the next year. I got up early to get in a 9 passenger van and drove two hours into the city. This place is pretty cool. Though I saw a dog get killed by two other dogs and I got carsick from the terrible roads here haha. That in large part was my whole day.
Today has been pretty cool because the whole district got up early and we went to the temple. I LOVE unique temples that just aren't like the other ones. This one was old and big and the inside was all brown wood and set up super cool. It was cool going through it with my whole district and the celestial room was gorgeous. I was happy we got to do that and invite that spirit especially because I gave a priesthood blessing to someone else in my district today when we got home and it was really powerful actually having no distractions and the spirit being so strong. The last one I gave there were people screaming in the halls and no one in the class had prepared really at all or been reverent up until the blessing so it just wasn't an ideal environment. This week I controlled all the variables and it was a completely different experience. It is definitely worth it to take the extra time to make sure the spirit is residing in anything we do involving him instead of rushing through it. I still had given a blessing before, but this time I feel like it was confirmed to the hermana I gave it to how much the lord loves her because she could feel it.
I'm doing great. This week was a little tougher because I feel like I'm so busy and always in class or something so when I get time where I{m not doing anything and I should be studying it's hard not to relax for a bit. To make matters tougher When I do get to personal study I'm in second Nephi so even when I try Im not getting as much out of it because I cant hang on every word so I feel like I don't get the full message and I get discouraged. This week will be better! Just always gotta keep trying.
One of my companions wants you guys to know that he found a cockroach in his shoe this week, not until after he had already walked a block HAHA.
I love you all, already halfway through my time here! Can't wait to get in the field.
Adios
