This has been a rather
interesting penultimate week here in Mexico. Monday (9/16) Was Mexican Independence Day. As such the CCM let us have some fun. Saturday night they had a local
youth group come (I believe they were all members) and they did some traditional
dances. It was quite simply amazing. They had authentic costumes and the colors
and skill shown by the dancers was mesmerizing. At one point there were four guys who did some
cool tricks with short little metal sticks almost like swords. There was flint
on the swords and so when they’d hit the swords together sparks would go
flying. It was all very, very cool. I
won’t be forgetting that for a while.
On Sunday night was when
the big event happened. First a little history so this will make sense: Spain
had been oppressing Mexico for several centuries and was treating them about as
well as conquering countries did at the time. Then in 1810, Father Hidalgo had
had enough of the oppression and poverty and started a revolution. On the night
of September the 15th there was "un grito" (a cry) where they chanted
¡Viva México! 3 times before the revolution started the next day. Eleven very
bloody years later they finally won their independence from Spain and
established a constitution much like our own. Fast forward almost 200 years
later, every September 15th the President of Mexico holds a national cry commemorating
Father Hidalgo's call for revolution. He chants ¡Viva Hidalgo! and the rest of
the country (yes - the entire country; its televised) chants back ¡Viva! He
then does a couple more things culminating in ¡Viva México! three times. It was
actually a really cool experience. Even though I’m only here for 6 weeks it was
cool to be a part of something very special to them. If you all would like, I’m
sure a quick YouTube search of "Mexico El Grito" would probably yield
useful results so you can see what I am talking about.
So thus far in the
CCM the food has actually managed to become somewhat tolerable and dare I say
good? For example, today we had barbecue chicken that actually tasted like
barbecue chicken. We have also managed to work out what works well together to
make the meals more desirable. For example, the pancakes when covered in mango
or blueberry yogurt (yes, yogurt) are surprisingly quite good. Having said that
however, I feel like some serious desensitization to the food has happened and
I can’t wait to get back stateside and have an actual taco.
So here’s a cool quote
we were told this week. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make it drink, but you can put salt in its oats." I was told this in
context to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ but I still thought it is a
great quote that can be used for a lot of stuff.
After six weeks and
talking with "greenies" or newbs, beginners, what have you, I can
pretty safely say that I have learned more Spanish in the past six weeks than I
did in three years at High School. No offense to the teachers, but with the
help of the Lord and the fact that I’m in Mexico speaking with natives my
ability to speak and comprehend has improved a million times over. For example,
we had a devotional speaker (they give talks about different spiritual
subjects) who started his talk in English but slipped into Spanish and it took
me (and my district) a minute to realize he had changed. Obviously there are
still light years to go but it’s been amazing to see the progress. I can
actually hold a normal conversation in Spanish. It’s great.
So during one of our
classes we were talking about different conjugations (I am, he is, we are, that
sort of thing). When talking about a single person, there is the personal, you
(informal - talking with friends, young kids), and you (formal - like talking
to a king or an elder)/he/she/it form. In Spanish they are (respectively) the “yo”,
“tú”, and “él/ella/usted” form. Long story short so this doesn’t turn into a
grammar lesson I always thought English just had the first and last but
apparently I was wrong. In English, (I’ll use “to have” because that’s the only
one I know this in) it is “I have”, “thou hast”, and “you have/he (or she) has”.
Who knew that all along Shakespeare was talking to us like a bro? Definitely
would have made English class a bit more entertaining.
And now a funny story to
end today. Every other week, we get to drive to our temple that’s about 45 -60
minutes away (this is unrelated but we did it in 30 today; we think our bus
driver was just exceedingly hungry). As I’ve explained before, traffic laws I
am sure do not actually exist in Mexico and everyone drives like mad men
down here. But I would have to say that the most entertaining (and most horrifyingly
frightening) thing to happen during a bus ride was when we got cut off by
nothing other than a backhoe. Yes, a giant yellow construction backhoe. It just
decided that it would drive across the street to the construction site. I was
too busy freaking out about running into it that I didn’t see where it was
coming from but we did indeed get cut off by a backhoe. Fun times down in
Mexico.
And thus ends the update
for today. I leave early next week for Washington to start the main part of my
mission. I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn and grow and will let
you all know what it’s like (mostly because I fear the wrath of my mom should I
stop emailing).
Until next time,
Elder Kupferer
