This morning Natalie and I went with Alannah, Lyndy, and their host mom (as well as Laurita and Rachel) to go to church. That host mom isn't LDS (most of the host moms aren't LDS; my own host mom is Catholic), but she still knew the bus route to get there so she went along to show us what bus to take. I thought it was very kind of her to do so. Along the way the bus picked up William and Tyler from our group, as well as some of the other girls, so our group gradually grew bigger before we arrived at the bus stop near the church building.
The building itself isn't all that big, being a three-floor white building that doesn't take up very many square or cubic feet. The parking lot is especially small, which surprised me. Apparently more people walk or take the bus to church than drive a car. Anyways, we were greeted there by a few men that I presume are part of the bishopric, and they directed us to where Sacrament meeting was to be held in a room up on the third floor of the building. The room itself looked nice, with white walls to help with keeping the room cool and a podium set up at the front of the room with a piano off to the side. Really, it was rather nice to be in a room with arrangements similar to the church buildings I've been to back home, right down to the signs that had the hymn numbers listed.
Today was fast and testimony meeting, and I suddenly had the feeling to go up to the podium and bear my own testimony in Spanish while listening to ward members share theirs. However, I was also rather nervous about actually speaking to people I'd never met before AND speaking in a language I was still learning. However, then Ryan, the photography guy in the group, went up to the podium and bore his testimony in between the ward members testimony. It was great. Instead of feeling sorry for myself that I couldn't speak Spanish nearly as well as he could (I mean, he served his mission in Chile and could speak VERY well!), I was actually encouraged to go up and bear my own testimony. So, then I did... after a few girls from my groups and some more ward members shared theirs. YAY ME!!!
Funny part about today - our program director Prof. Alvord had told us on Friday or Saturday that we were only going to have one hour of church because of elections going on today, but turns out he'd gotten wrong information. So, yay for me, we had all three hours of church! (And no, I'm not being sarcastic). Truthfully, I had a hard time understanding the lessons, especially in Relief Society where the teacher didn't seem to be referring to her manual much or at all for her lesson. Go figure on that. I need to get some scriptures (probably for my Kindle) in Spanish to help me out in church; I totally forgot to bring my Spanish Book of Mormon.
Our group just outside the church building after church (picture taken on Laura's camera)
After church, we took the bus back, and we didn't do a whole lot afterwards. Just a good day for sleeping, putting aloe vera on my skin (yeah, I got burn at the beach), and doing some last-minute homework (which I should've done earlier, but still...).
Today is Laurita's birthday, so we're planning to go to El Colon tomorrow and getting ice cream to celebrate! YAY! :) That'll be before or after FHE, naturally.
Oh, and while I think about it, I have a few pictures of me that I haven't put up yet, so I'll put them right here at the end of the post.
A picture of me from the first day that we went to el centro; I really loved my outfit that day.
A good picture Laurita took of me with her camera when we arrived at el cenote on Saturday
Yay Amber! Way to go bearing your testimony in Spanish. And thanks for putting the subscribe by email link in your sidebar. Now I'll read all your posts the day after you post them (yay for me!)
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