HEY YALL
wow....i dont even know where to begin. the CCM (mtc) is such a....unique place. the spirit is so strong here all the time. its kind of weird how its a safe haven amongst so much craziness here in mexico city. we can hear fire works, gunshots, dogs, music and all sorts of comotion around us but within these walls on the 90 acres of the campus it is so peaceful. not all the utah kids are so bad, but they can't believe how my life was before in chapel hill and wilmington. the idea that there are only a handful of active members in all of uncw is crazy to them. but i like it.
Who did she say liked being crazy?
so yeah we started teaching an investigator right from the start and now we stopped with her and we have two, different and new investigtors. (they are still our teachers, but they are really good at acting) the investigators are modeled after some of their past investigators. Hermano robinson served in argentina and hermana rivera served in texas houston east. now that we have two investagors and a better idea of what it means to study my days are going by alot quicker.
the mtc president and his wife sat in on our branches sacrament meeting this week, and i had to give a talk on repentance. we had just got a new district and i did it all in spanish and the new kids looked absolutely terrrifed when they heard me speak. but once i told them i took it for so long before they werent as nervous. we also started playing volleyball every night with the hispanics. we have about 25 people on each side of the court and its a free for all. one of the mexican elders came up and said "can i play?" we all said yes and then he said "....but i am brown?" i dont know why but it was so funny. they all are super giggly and love talking to the americans.
so as part of being a sister trainer i took it upon my self to lead a daily yoga class. i follow some of the sequences i printed out before and then have them lay down and i just make up some hippie-sounding meditation stuff. its pretty funny, becuase im totally making it all up on the spot, and none of it makes sense, but then all the sisters come up after and are like "i felt the spirit so strong.." im like uhhh really? its weird but funny. anyways so last night a few of the hispanic sisters joined in too and i did a bilingual meditation with them. my best hispanic friend would help me out if i didnt know a few of the words but i think i did pretty well.
the one with the big smile in the floral top is my mexican twin, hermana azauras
after meditating i had an idea that everyone should turn to their neighbor and talk about how we all feel about the gospel, why we were serving a mission, why we had a testimony, etc. well it turned out that there were exactly the right number of sisters so that every american and latina could be paired up. so were all sitting in a circle. talking to a person from the other culture trying to talk about out lives. not only was it really good language practice but it was such a relationship builder and testimony builder between both cultures.
its funny because right before we went to gym time i was reading my patriachal blessing and it says something about being a good leader of women. everyone always tell me how i have all these great ideas but i always tell them they arent my ideas. they just come through me. its always the spirit. my blessing also talks about the great work of the latter days about 10 times and i dont know how i didnt realize that meant missionary work before, but i guess hindsight is 20/20.
the only downside of this week is ive been a little sick. everyone has, but i think its kind of like elementary school where everyone has to get sick the first week just to get it out of the way. it started out as a cold and i dont think ive ever sneezed so much in my life. that was like friday-sunday and then i thought i was going to get better then i got the stomach bug. it was kind of a bummer but it wasnt too bad. as soon as i said i was sick all the elders in my district asked (anxiously) to give me a blessing. i think they are all a little preisthood power hungry. i didnt end up getting one but maybe in the future. hmmm what else....the temple is closed for the next few weeks so we might not go for a while.
its crazy to think im already starting my 3rd week. it doesnt even seem like real life. i guess the mtc isnt really real life but i can see my self changing. i cant wait to get to ecuador and get in the real world. we watched legacy on sunday about eliza williams, and everyone got all weird when they kiss in the movie....it was pretty funny. i actually dont mind all the rules. waking up is hard at first but since i have roomates its alot easier. im still the same person, and i still say crazy (and usually innapropriate things) but i dont really mind not watching tv or getting on facebook or anything like that. i know ive said it before but im seriously so glad im here in mexico. we can go outside during study time and just sit under the palm trees in the sun and read in spanish with some natives or we will have class outside and its just so perfect. and since its so laid back here we can go to the store whenever and buy snacks (i.e. chocolate) and we are totally in charge of ourselves. its a really good balance. i guess thats all for now
P.S: the address is wrong in my call. its to the old mtc at the temple. the letters will still get here, it will just take a while. and with only 3 weeks left i wouldnt take any chances. the new address is (get ready its a long one)
Hermana Kendra Lynn Harlos
Carr. Tenayuca-Chalmita no. 828
Col. Zona Escolar, Deleg. G.A. Madero,
C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
OH one more quick story! so our dryer wasnt really working all that well, and so we put in a couple reports to get it fixed. it was like turning but there wasnt any hot air blowing. So anywyas one of my really good friend that works at the reception desk (her name is mitzuko) called one of the maintence guys to come fix it. well on the way out the door to go to breakfast today i realized that there was a line connecting the hot water heater and the dryer and that one of the valves was closed...so i was like oh ill try and open it up. and it totally started working after that. well about two or three hours later the maintenece guy shows up and and im like oh i opened the line up and told him the whole story and hes looks at me like well why the heck am i here then? (even though we put in the report a week ago) i was just super proud of myself for figuring out what was wrong with it, fixing it, and then explaining it to a mexican maitence worker...in spanish. all the sisters are like......who are you?...how do you know so much about life....? its just funny to me (not to mention a huge ego-boost). my brain is working so much more effeciently now (although mostly in spanish)....the spirit does some crazy things.
PPS: here are some pictures of my comp and i in our cooridnating (on accident) outfits.
LOVE YALL
2 weeks down, 76 weeks to go (dont trust my math)
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