Mexican Consulate

So I'll start with my travel itinerary that I got today! I leave the morning of Monday, March 16 from the MTC at 4:35am. My flight from SLC is at 9:50 straight to Mexico City. I'm expected to arrive in Mexico City at 1:35 PM. I then have a flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca Mexico at 5:10 PM. So I have a 3 hour layover in Mexico City. I am supposed to arrive in Oaxaca at 6:25 PM. I am the only one in my travel group, except there are a couple Hermanas (Sisters) from our zone on my flight to Mexico City! They're serving in Mexico City. It is so exciting to get travel plans but now everything seems so real it's scary. 

Again everything here at the MTC is just more of the same. Some news is that I'm the District Leader for the last two weeks. I have a little more responsibility but its not as big of a deal as being DL in the field. President Doman wants everyone to experience some sort of leadership position. 

So going to the Mexican Consulate was an awesome change of scenery! After being in the same place, seeing the same things for a month makes any new thing an adventure. So knowing that I was going into the real world, my District gave me cash to bring back some real food. The Consulate was a sneak peak of actual Mexico. We walked in and it was stuffed with Mexican families everywhere waiting in line for whatever they do in a Mexican Consulate. It reminded me of a DMV but so much smellier and smaller. As soon as the little Latina police officer saw our name tags and white skin she took us upstairs where it was a lot nicer with a bunch of offices. It was really low key and the lady in charge was super nice. I had a preconceived notion that I was going to be interrogated. It was nothing like that. She asked us one question and it was "so where are you serving in Mexico?" I then got my picture and fingerprints taken and that was it. 

So on the way back we stopped at In 'n Out Burger! My second time ever. So I had $28 in cash from my district. I ordered 9 cheeseburgers and 3 orders of fries. It came out to $28.60. It was perfect hahaha. I had two white boxes of burgers and a bag full of fries. It was hilarious. I stuck the fries in my Man-Pack and carried the greasy white boxes of burgers back to the residence at the MTC. Everyone was at the residence getting ready for dinner when I walked in. I pulled out the bag of fries and everyone freaked out! I opened the boxes with 9 cheeseburgers and they got even louder! They went absolutely crazy! We got a picture of it so at some point ill put it up on dropbox. There are some more good pictures that I still need to put up before I leave the MTC. 

I am so jealous of the snow! We had about an inch if even that, and it made the mountains so gorgeous. Oh yeah and I freaked out when I heard the news about the BYU basketball game. Josh showed me highlights on Tuesday. It was so awesome being able to watch some more BYU basketball for the last time in a while. 

I know I'm going to miss the MTC but I am so excited to get to Oaxaca and continue this awesome adventure. I know my greatest challenges are ahead of me and I need to rely on the Lord and not on myself. That has been the hardest thing for me to do, I realize. Through the Lord I can move mountains and a lot of times I forget that. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and I hope all of my blessings go to the family instead of me.

Love you so much!

Con Amor,

Elder Smith