The Motive

    So I wanted to describe to you all a little bit of the motive and preparation for this marvelous study abroad, before I actually take off on Sunday.  As you all know, I served my mission in Fresno California speaking Spanish.  Spanish has always been a favorite for me, that was my one greatest desire for my mission, to be able to serve the Lord's children in the Spanish language.  It was also a desire to go somewhere foreign and get a full immersion experience and really feel the language and culture interact.  Well the Lord granted me my first wish and I absolutely loved serving and teaching the people of the Fresno area!  I saw so many miracles!  And through diligence in study, and a true desire to learn to speak like a native, I was able to come as close to fluent as any state side missionary could.

    Coming home from my mission I took a Spanish class for return missionaries, mostly just so that I could get credit for all the Spanish I learned while on my mission.  While in this class, I discovered that my mastery of the Spanish language was far from complete.  I could communicate to the people on the streets,and I could read and write well enough, but not in an educated setting.  Most of the people I communicated with during the mission were suffering immigrants that came to the United States for an opportunity to improve their lives.  Most worked on farms, and had had no real education at all.  When I discovered my lacking ability, I desired more, but knew that I did not have the time or desire to minor in Spanish.

    I was able to get a summer internship at the City of Naperville, at my home in Chicago, and was able to use my Spanish on a daily basis while on the job site, relaying orders and specifications to the mostly Hispanic construction crews that I supervised.  It was wonderful!  I was praised for it!  But it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted real conversation, real Spanish without all of the English, slang and cuss words mixed in.  I went back to school.  I try really hard to stay in touch with my recent converts and friends from the mission, and call them frequently.  Amongst these phone calls, many a time I was poked fun at for how much I had lost my accent and hadn't been practicing.  This frustrated me immensely.

    One day I got the idea that I should look at the study abroad programs that BYU offers, and see if there was one that interested me. I found one to Mexico, and one in Spain that interested me.  I looked into them and weighed the benefits and the costs, and decided that since I had never been out of the country really, why not got to the place where Spanish was born to fully immerse myself in it?!  So I applied, and got in!!  I was sooo excited!!!  I will be there for just over seven weeks, and will be taking two Spanish classes.  Each class counts as a University general credit, which moves me closer to graduation, and these two classes allow me to put a Spanish certificate on my diploma!  Meaning I will have university recognition that I can speak Spanish fluently!  It is soo wonderful!
                                        

   So I will fulfill my other wish that I had before my mission, to go to a foreign place and be fully immersed in Spanish, plus be closer to graduation, get certified by the university, and just have an incredible time!  I leave on Sunday!