Sunday in Mexico

Hi, it's Valerie here.  I feel like I should say this is a guest post, but I suppose this is sort of my blog too, though I'm not very good at posting.  

On Sunday we went to a few churches.  We started out in Jen's ward, which was an adventure since I don't speak any Spanish.  I can't say I followed what was going on exactly, but everyone was very nice and friendly.  I certainly tried to understand what was going on though!  I tried my best to pick up on Spanish and communicate.  It was exhausting!  I can sympathize a little more with missionaries now.  

That afternoon we took a bus over to see the basilica, a catholic church.  I expected to see one beautiful old church.  It was much more than I expected.  It was a whole square of beautiful churches.  I may not agree with the doctrine of these churches, but they sure do know how to build beautiful churches.  I was in awe of the beauty of the churches and the grounds.

Straight ahead is the basilica, and to the right is one of my favorite cathedrals.  The city is sinking, which you can see from the slant of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral

Celebrating the day of the dead

Our lovely group.  Jen's friends were so nice to let me tag along with them.  They are great!

There might be just a bit of a height difference...

We picked the right day to go!  There was a group of people dressed up in costumes that looked like they were from the Aztecs and were playing drums and dancing.  "A group" makes it sound small, but it wasn't.  The entire square was covered with the dancers.  It was ridiculously loud, but awesome to see.  We took a few pictures with the dancers.

This costume was one of my favorites.  There was a jaguar and an eagle on his head.  And his headdress was enormous.  He thought it was pretty cool too, because he would only take pictures with people who paid him.  It was Sunday so we didn't pay him.  I might have sneaked a few pictures when wasn't looking...  Whoops!

The basilica from up above.  We climbed these stairs (as pictured below) past beautiful gardens to a church at the top.  I didn't care so much for the church, but the garden and stairs were incredible.  And the view of the city, magnificent.

This is how I spent my Sunday in Mexico.  Pretty fantastic!  Good people, good food (the MTC there has pretty delicious food), and beautiful sights.  I would call it a success!