WEEK 5 - LAST WEEK IN MEXICO CITY

¡HOLA TODAS PERSONAS! I hope you all are well and happy and everything is going good! This is my last week in the Missionary Training Center in Mexico City because  i´ll be flying to Santiago to begin my actual missionary work. I am more than excited to finally get out there and start talking to the people and helping the people and doing whatever i can to be an influence in the lives of the people of Chile. DOnt get me wrong i love Mexico City it has been a blast and I´ve made some really great friends in the past 6 weeks. It´s actually going to be sad to say goodbye to some of them. 

I leave Monday night my flight is at 8:30 pm and we´ll arrive in Santiago around 5:30 am the next day. So thats the most exciting thing that took place here this week just getting our flight plans because it finally became real. It´s crazy because all of us have become super diligent in our Spanish study because i think it all hit us that a week from now we´ll have no choice but to use Spanish for literally everything we need in life. So no pressure right?

But I´m super excited to get to the other side of the hemisphere and start experiencing life in the land down under (not Australia). So while all of you will be going into fall in the next couple months i´ll be starting spring in Chile, its gunna be so weird to have a hot Christmas (just a side thought).

But anyways all is well with me here in Mexico and my next email i send will be in Chile so be excited. 

I love you all. I know that Christ is the Savior and the Redeemer of the World and through Christ we can have the opportunity to live with our families for eternity. Hasta luego y hasta seguinte tiempo.

Elder Carlos Cabrera

WEEK 4 - MONTH MARK!!

Qué Tal everybody!!! (That means whats up) So another week has passed here in Mexico City and exactly 2 weeks from yesterday i´ll be on a flight on my way to the beautiful city of Santiago, Chile. But I´ll talk more about that when the time comes no need to get ahead of myself. 

This week im not gunna lie has been pretty boring we´re all just kind of going through the motions at this point and our rigourous schedule has become a norm for us at this point. 

One exciting thing that took place was that i was called to be District Leader so basically im in charge of all the missionaries in my district and I´m basically playing Dad to them. I make sure they´re on task, i make sure the companionships are going alright and nobody wants to kill eachother, if anyone has any issues or is going through anything emotionally or mentally or basically anything they come to me to help them solve their problems. It´s a lot of responsibility and it can be challenging at times but I´m more than up for the challenge. It´s amazing what can happen when you forget about yourself and are solely focused on helping other people. That´s one of the parts about the mission that im looking forward to the most, just going around and trying to help people and serve them and try to make their lives better. The people of Chile might not know it yet but im coming for them and im gunna shower them with love whether they like it or not. 

But besides that rant i just went on theres not much else to report here in Mexico City im just doing my same old and same old and im learning more spanish each and every day.

Stand by for when stuff gets really excited in t-minus 13 days

I love you all, and I´ll catch up with ya´ll next week. 

ps: if anyone has any questions or if im failing to mention certain things that any of you all would like to know more about feel free to shoot me an email and i´ll try my best to get back to ya and answer any questions you might have!

WEEK 3 - HALF WAY THRU MTC

¡Hola Amigos y familia! Otra semana en la cuidad de Mexico! ALright i´ll be done with spanish for those of you who have no idea what i just said hahaha. Well honestly my time here in Mexico City is really starting to fly by like i swear every week goes by faster than the last and i think it has to do with the fact that I´m beginning to understand and speak a lot more spanish than the previous weeks so that always makes things more fun and time flies when you´re havin fun so there ya go! I´ve been out on my mission for 3 weeks from yesterday and its crazy to think im coming up on my first month mark like wow 2 years really isnt that long. But the key is ya gotta take it day by day, hour by hour and sometimes if you´re super stressed, every 15 minutes at a time. 

Here in the Mexico City MTC (missionary training center) i´ve began to develop some really awesome friendships with my fellow missionaries. Everyone here is so nice and friendly and genuinely interested in who you are as a person, where you come from, and what your life was like before we all started this craazy adventure that we´re on. Figures you´d get people like that from a group of people who have dedicated the next 18 months (women) or 24 months (men) to talking to people around the world and trying to help them with their personal trials and allow them the opportunity to come unto Christ and receive His Gospel. 

This week we had the opportunity to hear from an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe this man to be an apostle just like Peter, James, or John were apostles during Jesus´ministry on the Earth. Anyways, he told us that our main reason for dedicating years of our lives to this mission is to help people around the world better themselves, better their lives, and feel the love of Christ. I truly know that missionary work is as rigourous and as difficult as it is because our purpose is way too important for us to do any less. I´m excited to talk to the people of Chile, i´m excited to hear about their problems and personal trials that they´re going through and i´m excited to have the opportunity to fix those problems. I know that i personally don´t know the answer to every question or the solution to every problem. I am 18 after all. But i know that Christ has all the answers if we just take the time and ask. I know that i´m not serving as just 18 year old Carlos Cabrera, I´m serving as a representative of Jesus Christ and because of that i can truly help the people of Chile. I´m excited for the challenge. 

I´m sorry for any grammatical errors im typing on a spanish computer.

I love you all

WEEK 2

HEY EVERYONE!!!! HOLA DE LA CCM (or MTC) EN MEXICO. So lets see guys for starters this week has gone by soooo much faster than the first week so thats comforting haha. I hear that as the more weeks go by the faster the weeks go and im already beginning to attest to that! Here in Mexico City we havent been doing anything too exciting just español day in and day out (its coming slowly but steadily), teaching lessons with our "investigators" everyday and it's getting easier and easier so theres hope for me yet. I think my whole district and I expect too much of ourselves because we all get so frustrated that we dont just know spanish yet but we have to look back and realize.....it's been 2 weeks hahaha.

My district is all super close and for those of you that dont know what a district is, its a group of about 4-5 missionary companionships and we're all preparing to serve our missions in the Chile Santiago North Mission so thats pretty cool we´ll all be on the same flight and everything as we cross the equator on our dreary like 13 hour flight haha but we still have several weeks before that happens. 

This week we´ve just really been getting into the routine of things (wake up 6:30 am, language study 7 am, breakfast 7:30, personal study from 8-9, language/how to be a missionary stuff from 9-12, lunch at 12:30, Gym time from 1:30-2:30, teaching our fake "investigators" from 3-5, more studying, Dinner at 6:30, TALL (like a rosetta stone kind of program) from 7-8, from 8-9 independent language study and then from 9-9:30 we have a planning session then at 9:30 we retire to our rooms and then repeat.) Its kind of repetitive but extremely efficient so when i get home im gunna be like the most efficient 20 year old in the world hahaha. 

We had the opportunity to go to the Mexico City Temple today and it was absolutely beautiful!!!! It´s so awesome that all the same things and rituals that we perform in the Church take place the same all across the world in their respective languages. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really is for everyone and everyone should have the opportunity to hear it and feel the happiness and joy that it can cause into the lives of so many people around the world. I testify that this Gospel is true, i testify that it is meant to bless families and to better the lives of everyone it comes in contact with. Im so grateful to have that comfort and that happiness within my own family and within my home. Having this opportunity to share that happiness with the people i come in contact with in Chile for the next 2 years is just a miniscule way that im able to repay the Lord and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the impact that it has had on my family which I love with all my heart. I LOVE YOU DAD, MOMMA, KENNEDY, CADEN, AND KAMI AND OF COURSE THE REST OF MY FAMILY (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)!!!  AND A BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY BEAUTIFUL, SELFLESS, LOVING MOTHER HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA YOU DONT LOOK A DAY OVER 25!

-Elder Cabrera