mil aventuras

hello there, migs!!

i hope that everyone's halloween was fantastic! i've been stoked to be in mexico for día de los muertos! i did a bit more working i'd planned on, but i thoroughly enjoyed myself nonetheless. people were dressed up, parties were loud, kids were pidiendo dulces aka trick or treating, and we partook in fun traditions. 

i love my life. 

my missionaries are doing incredibly well. they are progressing with the language and with their ability to teach the gospel. i have fallen in love with them and enjoy my job more than anyone ever before!

just this week my amig arrived. welcome, hermana killpack! florida will soon disappear off the map as it becomes like enoch and is translated. no joke.

actually, speaking of enoch, i'd like to say something.

last week the mission department came to survey the mtc and the missionaries. you know, to check things out. (this quote just came from signs. enjoy. ha ha.)

"it's called probing. it's a military procedure.  you send a reconnaissance group, very small, to check things out. not to engage, but to evaluate the situation. evaluate the level of danger. make sure things are all clear..." 

("tata la garage...es BEHIND!" ha ha kaylynn...)

anyways. 

so elder allen came. from the mission department. and WOW did we have some inspiring meetings or what? the point is that he loves this mtc..and he loves it a lot. he talked about how mexico city is so crazy, busy, polluted, huge, populated, etc...

so when you step onto the mtc grounds, it's like the city of enoch.

we've all commented before about how this mtc is like a bubble of joy and peace, but i'd never thought about it like that before. one of the coordinators here said it well when she commented about how other mtc's close to temples and stuff, but no mtc is THIS huge and THIS close to such a metropolitan city, yet so separated from it all. this is a huge mtc in such a crazy place, and it is all set apart to the Lord's work. so obviously there's a special spirit here...different than all other mtc's in the world!

just living in my own personal little city of enoch...

and loving every single MINUTE of it.

________

so whitski asked me what i've been doing as of late. let me show you.

...

yesterday we hung out with some of the members who graciously invited us over for dinner and an inspiring discussion of agency and conversion. i loved the view from their front door and i loved the way i felt when i left their house. inspired to go and do/be.

remember kevin and his sweet mom? 

well, they know i love mole. so they invited me on over and made me some delish mole. pero dulce dulce dulce!

(meet meagan. she's a great mig of mine whom i love dearly.)

here we are just pulling apart chicken, ain't no thang.

the finished product. see ya later. (she served us a MOUND of food. holy!)

remember how i have arachnaphobia? yeah, me, too. this is what i found one night just before i was about to work out in this room. are you serious?!! 

okay so it doesn't look that huge, but it was GIGANTIC. sheesh.

i got a new roommate! lauren and i decided to move to the other house of sister teachers because we were the only two in 14. sooooo meet kaela. she's the sweetest! and i guess we both channelled stripes yesterday because this happened accidentally!

26 lives on:

so one of the things that i've been dying to see is plaza de las tres culturas. dr. weatherford told us all about this in one of my spanish classes and i was transfixed.

so you can see evidence of three very distinct cultures/time periods here:

precolonial ruins, spanish convent from the conquista, and modern apartment buildings in the background. absolutely incredible. 

then we went to this park. just this beautiful green in the middle of a metropolitan. no big.

then. last week, we went on a little trip:

and we purchased this bananas from vendors on the street. best! 

look how tiny they are! cuuuuuuuuuuute!

 

the drive was absolutely beeeeeautiful. check this out!

just loving the sunset. :)

and then we got to this cutest quaintest little town in the world called...

of course we loved our lives... 

and had fantastic gorditas...  

and had amazing missionary experiences...! 

 

can you read that?

it's kinda small. plus its in spanish.

so it says, "do not park." then it shows a picture of a gun, a knife and a machete, and it says that they're used there. ha ha. 

anyways. 

we got to our destination without being knifed and proceeded to want to die at the unreal beauty before our eyeballs:

it's forbidden to take the coconuts, people. 

ha ha i'm sure. that's such a huge problem.

we'd come because we'd heard of majestic waterfalls. it was our quest!

and we were not dismayed!

so we saw this goodness and were in paradise. we hiked around and played for awhile...

and then we realized that we weren't even at the main attraction yet...

so we swam through a waterfall pool cave ( ha ha what a jOKE, right?)...

and saw this:

needless to say we spent the rest of the day here jumping off cliffs, playing in the waterfalls, swimming around and loving our lives. 

pat made this video for everyone's enjoyment. it's soooo sick!!!

...

then we were thirsting for more waterfalls, so we got some other teachers and organized another shebang. here's patricia rollin' in the dough:

and we were off...

only this time to querétaro!

are you seeing those falls? yep. 
meag and i were in paradise:

i don't have a ton of piccy's right now, but i'll be sure to get them your way. 

all i have to say was that it was beautiful.  

...

 

 casa de toño is a famous place because of their delicious rendition of pozole, a classic mexican soup:

which i love. 

obviously accompanied by horchata sprinkled with cinnamon...

and for dessert we'll split flan and arroz con leche. see ya.

we were quite pleased to say the least. no wonder the place is famous! 

(and then we were off to see the russian ballet performing here in mexico city. fun night!)

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well, migs. as i previously said, life is beautiful. 

long live mexico.