Brothers and sisters, I knew my seminary journey would be difficult. I started down the path feeling unprepared for rigorous academic study in my second language. The first week of face to face class left me with a headache from the mental exhaustion of non-stop translation. As bad as that was, the next week things became even more difficult when I returned home and was learning via zoom. Half the class was in the room with the professors and the rest were distance learning as well. Things actually got a little easier during the pandemic when everyone was learning via zoom. 

Now that campus has re-opened, we are back to the difficult task of Zoom learning with half the class in the room. Due to safety protocols, the professors are all wearing facemasks. So now it is learning in a second language + learning via zoom + learning without being able to see the speaker’s face. Thank you, God, for Google Translate! It may not be perfect, but it makes things easier. Little by little my mental effort to translate is diminishing as my English becomes better.

As you know, I started my internship a few months ago. As part of the internship, I have to preach in Spanish and in English. In August, I had my first experience preaching in English. Honestly, I was very nervous; not because I had to be in front of all of you, but because I was afraid of not making myself understood because of my accent. The day before my first English sermon, I practiced for three hours. Thank you Susan Otto for your great patience. I know that all of you will also be patient with me in this process. Many of you had to make a mental effort trying to understand my preaching. And I thank you very much, but do not worry —   little by little that mental effort will diminish as we walk together on this journey. We are all learning in this process.

Edwin Aparicio, Spanish Language Minister