Hola!
Another week has gone by already, and I feel like this one went by even faster than usual. I think that mostly has to do with the fact that I missed class on Monday when I went to Salt Lake, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Being busy makes time move pretty quick.
Spanish is coming along nicely, with the possible exception of a couple of verb tenses that we haven't covered yet. Conjugation is kinda getting tricky to remember. But I'm gonna keep on practicing until I can at least tell that I'm saying it wrong. Fingers crossed on that one, I've only got two weeks left in the MTC. After that, they decide where to send me, and I take a crash course in how Spanish actually sounds when it's spoken by real people. The computer can only do so much. Fortunately for me, I've always enjoyed learning, so it should be an interesting challenge. Wish me luck!
We've started going over the Preach My Gospel lesson plans in Spanish, which has been made much easier since we memorized it in English first. There are some pretty cool ways that Spanish differs from English that make it very interesting to study. For example, in Spanish, there are two verbs that mean "to be". One of them is used for things that are permanent, and the other is for temporary things. So something like where you were born is permanent, whereas being sad is temporary. Well, as you read through some of the different lesson plans that talk about how Christ died for us, you can see that they use the temporary verb when they describe someone or something as 'dead'. It's a really cool parallel, because obviously we believe that death isn't forever, and the entire Spanish language agrees with that. Pretty awesome. Languages are so cool.
On Saturday, during my break between classes, Zach and I went on a bike ride down the Peñasquitos canyon, down to the waterfall. We spent about an hour and a half down there climbing around on boulders, and hanging out. It was super fun, we had a great time.
On Sunday, I got to attend a friend's farewell talk. Jefferson Daynes, called to Costa Rica. He's been in the MTC for a week and a half, and it was awesome to be able to be there for his farewell. He gave a great talk about how excited he is to teach the gospel to people. It's definitely crazy to me seeing people close to my age who are also serving missions. Kinda makes me feel old. Oh well.
Today was a bit confusing, on account of daylight savings time not starting until April 4th in Mexico. But we got it all figured out, so my morning class doesn't start until 8:00, and my afternoon class until 3:30. It's definitely nice to have more time in the morning before class starts to get breakfast and shower and such. Definitely not the worst schedule change ever.
Here's a scripture for thought: "Ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save." - 2 Nephi 31:19. I like this scripture because it reminds me who I need to rely on, and who has strengthened me in the past. I know that I will need His help a lot on my mission, and even more in the rest of my life. So I would encourage all of us to remember who to rely on when we are in need.
Hasta luego!
- Elder Blankenbiller
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