9/8/22 Weeks 3/4: First Week (10 Days) in Mexico! - MTC

Hola everyone!

It has been a little while since my last email and so much has happened! First of all, I am now in the Mexico MTC or the Centro De Capacitación Misional(CCM)! It is pretty much much in the middle of Mexico City which has right around 22 million people. Mexico City lives up to the saying, "The city never sleeps". Throughout the day there is the normal hustle and bustle, but at night the sounds mainly consist of occasional explosions accompanied by police or ambulance sirens. It makes me glad that I am safe within the 90 acre CCM property. 

My district is the same as it was online so it was a little weird meeting people for the first time even though I had been going to online classes with them everyday for two weeks. I love my district, it has been great to be in-person because the spirit is stronger and I feel like we have been able to help each other learn much better, especially when it comes to espanol.

We have classes and study time basically all day everyday except for Sunday and Thursday, which is my P-Day. Last Sunday was one of my favorite days so far! It was a nice break from classes(which are great too) and we had several very spiritual meetings to go to throughout the day. I have curch at 9:00am with my branch. Each branch has about 50 missionaries. We were told before to always have a five minute talk prepared because they call people to speak during the meeting, like right before you are supposed to speak. The best part is, it needs to be "solo espanol" or only spanish and no english. Last Sunday was fast Sunday so it was a fast and testimony meeting. It was great to hear the testimonies of some of the missionaries in my branch. I shared my testimony too! I spoke about how the CCM is difficult and learning Spanish is hard, but if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it.

On Tuesday, we watched a live devotional by Elder Uchtdorf from the Provo MTC. It was so cool to think that it was being streamed to all MTCs across the world! When the camera was panning to the audience I saw my best friend Elder Ben Peterson! That was one of the highlights of MTC experience so far!

My skills as a missionary and in Spanish have improved so much and I am so excited for everything I have yet to learn!

 "Padre Celestial, dime, ̮¿estás ahí?

¿Y escuchas siempre cada oración?

Creo que ̮el cielo muy cerca ̮está,

pues lo siento cuando ̮empiezo a orar."

"Heavenly Father, are you really there?

And do you hear and answer ev’ry child’s prayer?

Some say that heaven is far away,

But I feel it close around me as I pray."

Elder Kovacs