Halfway there!! Week 3!

HOLA HOLA familia y amigos! Another week has gone by here in Mexico. I have hit my halfway mark!! YAY! This week was interesting for sure...

After last pday, my whole district started feeling sick :( Then later we discovered the whole MTC was feeling sick!? Haha I had heard that for at least one week here in Mexico many times entire districts will get sick. So I guess this was our week lol. There are several different reasons we could’ve been sick. First of all, the water here es no bueno for us to drink and we can get parasites if we drink it (we can only drink filtered water). Second, the cafeteria food is sometimes questionable... many people in my district claimed the tacos we had on Monday were what made them sick. Haha this past week I’ve been sticking to toast and bananas :))) Or third, there could just be a stomach bug going around. I’m hoping it was just a bug and we all feel better next week! Haha gotta love the mission life. Hahah pero esta bien!

Also funny story... so on Wednesday night after pday last week me and Hermana Hughes decided to take our showers at night like we normally do. We live in apartments basically where our bedrooms are separate from our bathrooms and the bedroom door automatically locks when you close it. Well, normally me and my companion shower at the same time and we always leave our bedroom door open so we don’t bring our key with us to the showers. On Wednesday though, for some reason I didn’t get in the shower until like 10ish minutes after her and walked from my room to the bathroom IN ONLY A TOWEL and for some reason instinctively SHUT OUR BEDROOM DOOR!! So I’m in a towel only and Hermana Hughes is just getting out of the shower and OUR DOOR IS LOCKED. Thankfully I have the best comp and roommate ever (shoutout to Hermana Dobson) who let me shower while they ran all the way across the CCM to the reception desk at 10 pm to get a master key. Hahaha I still feel bad but I mean it made for a funny story haha

So my district has two teachers in the CCM, one for morning and one for the afternoon. Sadly, our afternoon teacher Hermana Salas left last Thursday and we got a new teacher. It was super sad because my district got pretty close with her!! But it’s okay because she’s going to BYU next year! #GOCOUGS

Anyways so we got a new maestro Hermano Enriques. He’s actually a pretty good teacher and knows 3 languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and English) !!!! Lol I have no idea how?!? I am struggling over here to just learn one language haha. Hermano Enriques emphasized how everything we learn and study here in the CCM is spiritual and connected to each other because it is all to help benefit the people in our missions. He said our grammar study is just as important as our scripture study. Definitely a good reminder to me when I want to zone out of our lessons on the prederite vs imperfect tense :)))

This week in class we talked about how important it is to truly let the Holy Spirit guide our teaching and our lessons. We watched a video where Elder Bednar said “teaching is not talking, but listening, observing, and discerning.” I really liked this quote because I think it’s important for me to remember that missionary work is not about me or the lessons I prepare or the phrases I memorize in Spanish, but about the people I am teaching and what the Holy Ghost wants to teach them. We can bring the gospel to the heart of the person but the Spirit is responsible for their true conversion and change of heart.

On Thursday last week, Hermana Hughes and I got to lead the Book of Mormon study in class. We choose to read from 3 Nephi 11, one of my all time FAVORITE chapters!! It is like the climax of the Book of Mormon, when Jesus Christ appears to the Nephites. I love verses 14 and 15 where it talks about how the multitude came unto Christ “one by one” and thrust their hands in His side. We too can come into Christ in our own symbolic way by following His example!! Our missionary purpose is to “invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo” but we too must be doing all we can to come unto Christ. He will receive us one by one as we make an effort in each of our own lives to repent daily and exercise our faith in Him.

I also testify that the gift of tongues is real!! Even though I feel pretty inadequate at times because my Spanish vocabulary is still pretty limited and it’s hard to remember all the grammar rules, when I look at the big picture and remember how much I’ve learned in the 3 weeks of being here, I realize that the gift of tongues has been helping me here everyday. As we have now passed the halfway mark in our time here, our teachers expect us to primarily use Spanish in our classes, prayers, devotionals, and lessons. They also mainly speak to us in Spanish. It seriously is a blessing that I can understand and bear testimony of the simple truths of the gospel in my broken Spanish. As we have learned here, I know that the gift of tongues requires diligent effort and worthiness. But if I do all I can to learn and be obedient, I know the Lord will provide a way.

Sunday was also AMAZING again!! SO much revelation and SO many great devotionals and counsel!! We got to listen to a devotional from Elder Garrett W. Gong and his wife and it was awesome!! One of my favorite things his wife talked about was that on our missions Heavenly Father wants us to be ourselves!! The Lord has called us, knowing our background and who we are, to be His servants and to serve in our specific missions. It’s comforting to know that Heavenly Father doesn’t expect me to be perfect overnight or be someone else. He simply needs me to be me!

In Elder Gong’s talk, He extended a couple of invitations to us as missionaries. One of them was for us to remember that perfection is in Christ, and not perfection in the world. Often times, the world wants us to be perfect by looking or acting a certain way in appearance, but the Lord seeth not as a man seeth. He looketh on the heart. Elder Gong reminded us as missionaries to not be so hard on ourselves. As long as we are doing the best we can, we will receive help from Christ. This was a good reminder to me! Even though at times we may feel inadequate, Christ will see and bless us for giving our best efforts. We too, should also strive to see others, not as the world would view them, but as God views them.

Also.... totally forgot to add this in my past emails, but I have a missionary blog!! The link is https://sistermckenzietate.blogspot.com/. My dad has been taking my weekly emails and pictures and uploading them to my blog! So if you want you can go check out and get updates by subscribing to my blog instead. Thanks dad! :)

Anyways, I miss you all!! Hope you all had a great week! I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and has the power to change lives. Sending my love from Mexico!

Con amor,

Hermana Tate

All the Hermanas here wear these Mexican skirts from the tienda! And Hermana Hughes grandma sent us matching shirts!