Temple, Teaching and Taquitos

OH MY GOSH, I begin my last week in the CCM this Monday. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! Seriously, it has flown by being here it´s absolutely insane. And SO MUCH has happened this week, if I didn´t keep a journal, I don´t know what I´d do. The Lord truly has blessed my week.

FRIDAY: Being 9/11, I was prepared for a rough day. But through the gospel, ALL can be comforted. And it ended up being a great day of studying, volleyball, bonding with the new hermanas, and teaching. Alejandro had a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Overall a great day.

SATURDAY: Today was rough... So we had a standard day of studying until our teacher Hermano Trejo wanted us to go home and grab pictures from back home. It was cool seeing everyone´s family but soon after, you could tell it got hard for all of us to really not think of home. Later, Hermano Guerrero had us watch the 9/11 survivor mormon message and roleplay him as an investigator, which was hard for me, but a great spiritual experience. Then Elder Johnson and Elder Sheppert taught out of the Book of Mormon in Alma 34 about the Atonement which really humbled me to know that the Atonement is for everyone. Not just those being converted to the church. ALL of us. And we should take advantage of it everyday. Then after dinner, for the rededication of the Mexico City temple, the city had a celebration of acting out and dancing to the story of how the church came to Mexico. AND HERMANO MARTINEZ was in it. As a district, we were dying laughing everytime he showed up. But it was completely in Spanish, so to keep ourselves awake, we played MASH as a district. That night, I really wanted to prepare myself for the rededication tomorrow morning. I prayed more than I´ve ever prayed before, and it was totally worth it.

SUNDAY: The amount of reverence this morning was incredible. For a room full of 500 people and not hear anything but the soft piano music, it really opened up the room for the spirit to burn within all of us. The rededication was one of the most amazing experiences of my life thus far. The messages conveyed by everyone that spoke were truly divine. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Henry B. Eyring attended and both spoke of their testimonies on temples. Their words had such power and authority that I was brought to tears. I have never had a stronger desire to be inside a temple then I did at that moment. I am eternally grateful for the availability of it here in Mexico City. After the rededication, we were sent back to our classrooms for a testimony meeting. Being at first silent and at a loss of words, our district leaders began the most touching and spiritual testimony meeting I have ever been able to witness. There is so much power and faith in every single one of the members in my district. Four weeks ago, I didn´t think each and everyone of their testimonies would bring me to tears. But they did. And I know they can touch anyone they meet on their missions with the same spirit and power they touched me. I will NEVER forget the feeling I had in that moment. The Holy Ghost was there. In that very room. And I will never deny that.Then we were able to hear a devotional from Elder David A. Bednar on turning outwards like Christ and learning OF Christ and becoming like the character of Christ which I encourage all of you to do. He challenged us to reread the Book of Mormon solely studying on the character of Christ. And I am doing exactly that. I challenge you all to do the same. Then we had choir practice where I had to sing the second verse of I need thee every hour in Spanish. The whole song sounded incredible and can´t wait to perform it in front of the whole CCM on El Día de Independencia. Then, I had to say bye to Hermana Priebe and her zone! Agh, they are so sweet and going to do amazing. Then we watched multiple short videos on John Tanner, and the Atonement. The spirit was so strong. It's always so strong. John Tanner video really got to me. The missionaries for John Tanner exemplified such power and faith in God and I hope to be half the missionary they were to John Tanner. Then, as a district we wanted to end the day singing hymns. We sang Te Necesito once more as a district acapella. Turns out we found our new hobby and it sounds like angels sing with us. LOVE it so much.

Monday: We began as a district SOLO ESPAÑOL this week. Meaning we can only speak Spanish to teachers. It´s rough and hard, but we try so hard. The language is coming way faster. Christian´s lesson went great as he has committed to keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Then, this week we began to ´be investigators´where we have to take the role of a person we know who was converted to the church or in need of the church and be taught by missionaries. I lovingly took the role of Katelyn Bellows and it´s going great. I teach Elder Riggs (Jake) who is an ¨inactive¨ member in the church. It´s a challenge to teach something different than the standard lessons but it´s good practice. Then. Elder Johnson teaches me (Katelyn) in the afternoons. it´s a change from the normal schedule so we LOVE it. Then we played ultimate frizbee and volleyball with the new districts. Slayed them as usual. Still undefeated in everything. Then had dinner with Hermano Guerrero. We accidentally came across some notes from our teachers about our district being very irreverent, having no spiritual sensitivity, and never participating and paying attention in class which made us feel terrible because thought we were doing great this week. At first angry, we all decided to just try to be better and hope these notes about us changed. And we did exactly that, and it has gotten SO much better.

TUESDAY: FELIZ DíA DE INDEPENDENCIA.Great day full of fireworks and gun shots all the day. Everytime one would go off, the district would pretend we were in the hunger games because we´re ¨districts¨ and cannons sounded making it seem like someone died. Fun fun. Got a cute letter from Grandma Cox. LOVE YOU. Language study, we got to do mafioso again.Still our favorite game as a district.Gym time played volleyball with ELDER BRYCE JORDAN. He´s doing great and we slayed in volleyball. Then we had to prepare for the devotional where we sang Señor, te necesito. Solo went great and sounded like a gospel choir. Been my favorite performance so far. In the devotional, we watched two videos about Mexico and they were SICK. Ugh it got me so pumped to get out there and meet all these amazing people and TEACH THEM! I´m so excited. Then, we watched Legacy. Got me in the feels because i absolutely LOVE that movie. Sang some more hymns as a district and it was a great day. We were immediately sent to our homes afterwards though because of danger from fireworks and gun shots falling into the CCM from outside celebrations. Scary but soo so so fun. LOVE IT here

WEDNESDAY: Had a great lesson with Christian. He confessed to drinking last night and felt bad so we taught him the word of wisdom and he´s doing a lot better now! Also, Elder Johnson committed ¨Katelyn¨to baptism and committed her THE EXACT SAME DAY AS HER REAL BAPTISM. It was insane, awesome, and just made us both laugh. Shoutout to Katelyn, I love you. Had a great language study, gym time of world cup with the district, and went to our service activity, which bummer the new missionaries got there too late so we actually didn´t do anything but watch the huge lightning storm and play piano and sing. It was nice and got to talk a lot to the front desk hermana who is such a sweetheart. Love her. Then taquitos for dinner which Elder Sheppert ate 14... yes 14 full taquitos. I challenged him. He won. Then there was TRC which went really well and we were recorded during our lesson. It helped me realize how far I´ve come since arriving here and there's no way I could have done it with out the Lord. Then we learned about teaching people, not lessons, and Jeffrey R. Holland has a ton on that if you want to look that up.

THURSDAY: Woke up bright and early, because OUR DISTRICT GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE TODAY FOR ONE OF THE FIRST SESSIONS. And it was COMPLETELY in Spanish. I didn´t understand everything said. But I knew a lot more than I thought I would. And I definitely felt the SAME spirit and the SAME presence of the Lord in that sacred place. It was an incredible feeling and I am so grateful I was able to go ONCE at least on my mission. Don´t know if I´ll be able to once i get to Puebla so it was a special blessing that brought me to tears once again. It was even more special to be with all the people I love here at the CCM. The sweet front desk hermana from service projects also was there and she told me I was her favorite hermana in the generation and it just brought me to tears. I love the people here so much. They have a special light in their eyes and I know they all feel the same way as I do for this gospel and our loving Heavenly Father. After the session, we went to the store and I got giant copies of the book of mormon and the bible in spanish. They´re like cookie tray size. It´s legit. Then a CTR necklace in spanish and that´s been the week thus far.

I LOVE YOU ALL and love hearing about your amazing lives back home. Sam Doane, shoutout to you for your desire to be baptized. THAT IS INCREDIBLE. I wish I could be there to witness it and see you one last time before you serve for our country.

I pray for all of you everyday. Please continue writing. I take pictures of the emails so I can read them during the week and think and pray for all of you. You´re all beautiful and I´ll see you soon in 17 months.

The church is true. I´ll never deny it.