Church in Mexico

I'm in Cancun with a group of friends.

We went to church on Sunday, and held a little fireside in our hotel room that evening.

I love attending church in different countries, but this is the first time I've done so in a non-English speaking one.  I can pick up a few Spanish words here and there to know the gist of what someone is saying if I know the context, but I really had no idea what anyone was saying until they got to "Amen."

But afterwards, I heard that the lesson in priesthood was a pretty good spiritual lashing of the elders in the ward for their lack of commitment to service.  Though I didn't understand it at the time, the lesson was so harsh that the bishop, who didn't teach it but kind of took it over, apologized to the visitors.

In Sunday School the lesson was on the early chapters of Mosiah.  Part of that bok explains why the Lamanites were so upset at the Nephites.  They felt slighted hundreds of years earlier that Nephi stole their fathers' rightful place in leadership over their younger brothers' decendants.  The Sunday School teacher thought this lesson applied especially to Latin America because the traditions in that part of the world sometimes stand in the way of the spreading of the gospel.

But the church is growing fast here.  Playa del Carmen is getting a new stake and a new stake center.  Cancun has seen its attendance jump so that now three wards meet in most buildings.