Week 2 in the Mexico MTC

HOLAAAA!!

So another week has already past! What everyone says about the weeks seeming like days and the days seeming like weeks is true! I mean, sometimes the days go by really quick, other times they seem really long, but then the time as a whole just seems to fly by! It's weird. Haha! 

I have to admit, it is really nice to have 3 delicious meals a day just made for you. love them all (or most of them). Mexican food makes me happy! We have refried beans, a sort of yummy rice & meat, and corn tortillas at least once every day and I haven't gotten tired of them! I still love it so much! They change the flavors of everything so much that its almost always something new! I feel like they put a lot of work into our meals. They're so nice. I've decided that's one of the really nice things about the MTC: you get these 6 weeks solely to focus on studying the language and the gospel. You don't have to worry about food or cleaning your apartments because other people do that for us. Its really nice, and such an opportunity to just delve into studies! :)

Model of MTC

MTC

Considering I've only been here for 14 days now, it's amazing how much my district & I already understand! Especially the people who came in knowing absolutely no Spanish, yet are keeping up almost just as well as the rest of us! I still have a LOT to learn and study, but when the teachers are talking to us I can understand most of what they say, so that's cool. Although, I know from listening and talking with other natives that the teachers are just being really kind to us. Haha! They really enunciate their "palabras" (words) and talk a little slower than normal for us. I can kind of hold a conversation, but as soon as I get nervous or frustrated, I can't remember anything and then the conversation becomes Spanglish. Haha! But it's coming along. The hardest thing is definitely the verb tenses and their conjugations. "El idioma de Español y" (the language of Spanish and) its "las reglas" (rules) are "muy dificil" (very difficult).

Since the first day here, we all have gotten up at 6:30 a.m. every day, which, like I said, has actually gotten to be quite easy to do. I find that I wake up a lot of times a little before my alarm even! Most days I don't even feel tired! I know that this is a blessing from the Lord because getting up early, or sleeping on a schedule has "NUNCA" (never) been easy for me! Yet it works great here, even from day one! I actually like the schedule. And the most amazing thing was that even the first official day, after having soooo little sleep from arriving at midnight, I wasn't tired the next day! Definitely a blessing. :) 

We have a yummy breakfast at 7:15 a.m. every day. Sometimes they feed us American food too, like pancakes, waffles, corn dogs, hot dogs, etc.. What's weird is that at home I never was a huge fan of ketchup, yet here for some reason, I really like ketchup. I swear it tastes different, but all mis hermanas (sister companions) say it tastes like normal ketchup. Weird. haha!

On the first official day here after breakfast we met our teachers, learned gospel & language stuff, ate lunch, had more class time, got an hour and a half of gym time, ate dinner, and then did more class time. After that, they assigned us our 1st "investigator"! It was a little intimidating thinking we were speaking with a native speaker from outside the MTC, and with almost no language skills yet. But it turns out he is our night teacher, so he was understanding of our lack of language skills, even if he acted like he wasn't. :) haha! It was just practice before meeting with real locals. So now he teaches all our night classes.
During his mock lesson, he only spoke to us in Spanish and he was very good at acting uninterested, tired, and bored. Haha! It was intimidating, but good. I have found my biggest problem when I teach, (among many things,) is that once I get nervous and unsure of what to say because of the lack of knowledge of the language, I suddenly can't stop myself from laughing!!! It is awful!! It's like the worst thing you could possibly do in front of an investigator! They could feel like I'm laughing at them, but I'm really just laughing at my own stupidity and lack of knowledge. It's like a curse. Some people cry—apparently I can't control my laughing. So pray for me to break this habit of laughing during lessons. It's somewhat OK in the MTC, but not for real. Ugh. 

OK, sadly, I'm already out of time. It's so annoying that I can't type faster. I guess I'll just have to wait to write you all next Thursday! Love you all lots! Keep writing, especially letters! But be aware, it takes at least 2 weeks for mail to get here, so don't send anything too close to the date of Dec. 17th. (When I leave the CCM to go to Chile and start "mission-ing" for realz.)