Week 13 - 09/26/2011

Well a lot happened this week.  Never a boring day in Mexico LOL!

So Wednesday morning Elder Rodriguez woke up with a bunch of bug bites.  So we sprayed down his bed and mine with some chemicals to kill anything that might be in it. Then we had to sleep over at Elder Bertha’s house. We also used the chemicals on other places in our house that we thought had a lot of bugs. Yeah, we sprayed behind the fridge, it was the grossest thing ever... There were cockroaches running everywhere out from behind our fridge.  That is because they like the heat.  We also sprayed down our suitcases.  I think mine only had like maybe one, but one of Elder Rogriduez´s bags had tons.  We then had to sleep at Elder Bertha´s again, that was pretty exciting, not really, but still. 

On Thursday or Friday, idk, the mission assistants came over to bring some medicine for Elder Rodriguez’s bites. They were also going to take a new fridge to Elder Bertha’s house.  We got to their house, and apparently Elder Bertha had made a deal with them to give them both ties if they would bring the fridge, but then he didn’t want to give them a tie, so then the assistant’s said “fine, you don’t get a fridge.” So they gave it to us and they took our cockroach infested fridge back to Elder Bertha, and of course he didn’t want it.  We did spray it down so I don’t think there was anything living, but still.

Anyways.... Elder Bertha was mad at the secretaries, I don’t blame him. The secretaries are made at Elder Bertha, I don’t blame them. But gratefully, we have a brand new fridge.... idk mission drama. LOL!

On Saturday the assistants came back to pick up some packages from our house that the secretaries left. They told us we should us the whole day to clean the house.  So that is what we did.  We cleaned EVERYWHERE.  It was super gross.  We bought these chemicals and gases and sprayed like everywhere to kill as many as we could.  We also got rid of a lot of the wood furniture that were infested. 

I cleaned grease off the wall that was really quite lovely, I used an old CD to scrape it off.....  Yeah... but now there are less cockroaches.  There still are some, but I think that we should be able to slowly kill them off if we maintain a clean house. 

While the assistants were over they saw my cube and mixed it up. I haven’t used it much. I solved it in like 10-11 sec. They videoed it, and they said they would email it to me. I hope they don’t forget.  It was awesome.  So they pretty much think I’m a genius... with a very unclean house. 

On Sunday I gave a 10 min talk!!! Yeah, in Spanish. Actually it went really well.  I first wrote it in English, then translated it to Spanish. By that time when I gave the talk, I didn’t even have to look at my notes.  I even went impromptu for that last like four minutes.

Soooo… today we went to central and went to this giant Catholic Church.  It was quite large… quite quite quite large!    It was funny because when we went in there were other missionaries from a different zone there.  It was a Mormon party in the giant chapel.  There were like 10 of us in all. The door says “puerta del perdon,” so I think we are clean from sin now.

An area in our misson called Gallixia (sp?)  idk super small houses.

Yeah!... Poisoned Cockroaches

Mask for Toxic Fumes... even though it wasn't meant to filter roach gas.

A little boy named Moroni showing me his pen trick after i showed him mine.

Visit to the Catholic Cathederal; I'm "free from sin" now.

Week 12 - 09/19/2011

Week 11 - 09/12/2011

Well another exciting week in Mexico. While we waited for our ward mission leader to show up I taught my companion how to play piano a bit. I’m sure grandma was laughing at me (because she couldn’t teach me). Then I saw a donkey!!! That was exciting, that’s more how I hoped Mexico would be. LOL!

Curtis' Apt Complex; Note Donkey

Waiting for Companion in Bathroom

Two days ago, there was a fight right outside our window. Yeah, 2 guys were rolling on the ground and punching each other like crazy. They were shouting stuff, most likely... not so good stuff, but I don’t know many words in Spanish so it’s all good! So then that same night I woke up to the song "With or Without You" at 3 AM in the morning: the apartment above us was playing karaoke or something. It was quite awful singing... fun stuff...

Apartment Window on 1st Floor

 So what else happened this week... hmmm... we played soccer again... and the Mexicans are still amazing. We played with Brian, the president’s son, as well. He is pretty cool. Our district and he went to the market buying stuff and talking in English. I feel for him... he is in his house all day, on the Internet like all the time.

OK… so now for the big news, because I can’t think of anything more at the moment. We had a baptism!!! Yeah!... Guadalupe Carmona, was baptized on Sunday!!! She had to attend church two times before she could be baptized, so she went to church at 8 and then her baptism was at 5... but because we are in Mexico it really started at 5:45ish. Nothing ever starts on time here. LOL. Yeah it was pretty awesome, her cousin baptized her. Pretty exciting stuff!!!

The district leader has to do an interview before she can be baptized, so our whole district, all four of us were at her house. For some reason the interview took 2.5 hours so it was Rodriguez, Pech, me and her son Pedro, about 14, who is a member. Kind of a weird story, but he was showing off how strong he was by doing seal push ups. I told him to try one handed, and he failed. I laughed, then he told me to try, so then was like uh oh... idk how strong I am... but much to my surprise, I was able to do 10. Yeah, don’t look so impressed LOL

Apartment in Much Better Condition

Baptism Font Still Full of Water; Hadn't Been Emptied and Cleaned Since Last Baptism

Anyways back to the baptism, it was great, took pictures, you will see them. Then we took some extra special district photos. Our district leader, Elder Bertha, made it a rule that we all have to have masks... so yeah, enjoy the pictures.

Waiting for Baptism Interview

Elder Bertha, Elder Rodrieguez, ???, Guadalupe Carmona, Elder Wigington, ???

 

 

Margarita Ward Elders

Week 10 - 09/05/2011

So testimony meeting... great stuff... the bishop gave a 15 minute testimony on tithing. He said that tithing is like the missionaries… they give a tithe of their lives. And because they do this they will be blessed with a good career, beautiful wife, and not have problems with neighbors and such. I was thinking sweet, but might be a bit of false doctrine. Then a brother started talking about how he has studied the Book of Mormon and knows where the Nephite villages were. Elder Bertha, our District Leader, said that one time a brother proposed to a sister during a testimony meeting. LOL Imagine that!

 Anyway.... we started teaching a niece of the Relief Society president on Monday. We set a baptism date for the 9th, but then she was sick and missed church. They have to go to church two times to be baptized, so yeah we should have a baptism soon. And that is rare for this area; this is apparently a really hard area. We got super lucky, because of her aunt.

Our district was going to go to this special market place, but it is out of our area. We need zone leader permission but they didn’t like our numbers. All the zone leaders are new because they made all the old ones trainers. We are working hard but I can’t speak Spanish yet. lol. Elder Rogriguez and I were not sure if we were going anyways. Then, Elder Bertha had breakfast at the mission president’s home and offered to take Brian (the mission president’s son) to the market, as a result we got permission direct from the president! LOL

 Oh… we do our laundry in a bucket... pretty fun stuff.  OK… well that’s it I’ll upload some pictures.

Week 9 - 08/25/2011

So idk where to start. First of all this keyboard stinks, it is all Spanish ish. Anywho… I guess the first thing I have to tell is the name of my ward... the Margarita Ward. Yes, I live in Margarita.

So let me tell you about what has all happened. After we got on the flight after I called you, I arrived in Puebla, but the Mission President wasn’t there. There were a bunch of soldiers with big rifles.... Kind of scary... but I see plenty of that all the time so it’s no big deal anymore. Then we went up to one of the officers who didn’t have a gun and struggled to talk to him and use his cell phone. Eventually, after an hour the President showed up. Then we went to the mission home. The mission home is super nice… nicer than our house, but a little smaller. We slept there and yeah it was great; however, I did not know that was the last time I would take a real shower. So… we had training and then went to our apartment. Wow!... what a dump lol… it’s not that bad, but that was my first thought. So… then we didn’t do much because it was like 6ish, so we just went and visited a member. Then we got back and the sink was full of dirty dishes... super gross. So… we woke up early to clean up a bit. Everything was messy because his companion before me had been sick so he didn’t have time to clean.

Oh… my companion is Elder Rodriguez. He only speaks a little English, the other 2 missionaries from the states got trainers that are fluent (English speakers). Oh well.... in the morning I was washing the dishes, the grossest dishes I had ever washed! There were cockroaches in the sink too and I said a little prayer in my head, “let me love this....” then the music that we were listening to switched to Zelda music. LOL. I was like OK I can handle this a bit.

Yeah… so there are cockroaches in our apartment, I secured my desk with duct tape on the legs and pulled it away from the wall so I at least don’t get them in my books any more...

The rain is super random, so that little umbrella is perfect. Also, these shoes are like 100% waterproof, my feet didn’t get wet at all. There are so many little things that mom told me to pack that are perfect, and I’m super glad I have them. I can’t even remember them all, but there have been a number of times I thought, “Thanks, Mom.”

 Well then... I actually took notes so I wouldn’t forget anything. So we visited this member. I couldn’t understand a thing she was saying, but she sounded like Aunt Janet for some reason, kind of weird. We had dinner at the Bishop’s house and I was playing with the kids and I couldn’t understand them, but that doesn’t matter. Anyways… they then attacked me with their dirty hands and got food all over my shirt.

Oh, I saw a license plate 373LYM (our car at home is LYM, too).
Then there was a less active member who we visited who was had on a Wisconsin Dells T-shirt, she didn’t actually know the Wisconsin Dells... how sad.
So then we ran into a guy who had lived in the US for quite a few years and he spoke broken English. So I told him I was from WI and he said, “oh they have a lot of buffalo there right?....” No, you’re thinking of Wyoming. lol.

So you know it is sad went you get excited to hear the song that goes "Sweet Dreams are Made of These, who has the mind to disagree. Yeah, also “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.... but today at the bank I heard “Walk” by the Foo Fighters. That was awesome.

So these kids in the street ran up to me and asked how to say German in English, that was pretty random.
So everyone here gives dead fish hand shakes... kind of lame.

Yeah, Wigington is impossible for anyone to say. So when people try to talk to me in English when I don’t understand them, it just makes things worse. lol. Usually it makes absolutely no sense at all.

So our bathroom is super musty gross smelling, but on the brightside it never stinks like poop, the must covers it all. lol.
So we have a prison in our mission too… that’s kind of cool.

Yeah, my district lead, Elder Bertha said that this is one of the most dumpy areas of the mission. But my District Leader is super cool. He is from California.

Oh shoot. I forgot to bring the address. You can send mail through the regular mail and it almost always comes, packages too. Just send it to the mission office or what ever I’ll see if my comp has the address. I’ll put it at the end. So yeah… we played soccer with the zone today. That like super sucked lol. The last time I played soccer was in gym in high school and all these Mexicans are like super good. lol Yeah, I think we should play water polo or something that’s kind of like soccer. So Elder Bertha told me that one time they tried to play flag football but none of them could catch or throw. lol.

My companion has no money, and they only gave me 300 pesos, that’s like $30. So I’ve been paying for both of us with some of my own money. I was pretty careful with the 300 they gave me and we have just been eating corn flakes for breakfast and dinner. We do however eat lunch at a members house every day at 2 so that’s cool. The food is pretty good, a little hot, but not too bad. We will get more money on Wednesday, I think.

To be completely honest, it has been really tough. I understand more and more, but only big ideas. I feel kind of useless because I don’t say much in lessons but I’m OK if I’m talking one and one, but if two natives get going, I'm done.... Yeah, it is really frustrating. but whatever.... It is interesting though because we have gone to two members homes to eat that have gone on missions; I could understand both of them really well. They talked less slurred than others which I thought was interesting.

There are no pretty spots in my area that I can go. The roads are nuts.

Let me tell you about my shower. I fill a 5 gallon bucket of water about half way and then I put this heating rod in the water to heat it up. Then I fill it up the rest of the way with more cold water, so it is about the right temp. Then I take a cup and scoop water out of it and pour it on myself.... You really don’t feel super clean after that.

My apt is in Margarita across from a supermarket, Blockbuster and a pizza place. It is a big red brick building and my building is the one with "Plaza de Venus" on it. It is about a 5 min walk from the mission home.

Anyways all is wellish... it’s really hard to be in a lesson and not understand a thing that is going on. We only have two investigators; this is a really tough area because it is super catholic. We spend most of our time hunting down less actives.....

Well I hope all is well back home, take an extra long shower for me.

Oh so the other day we were teaching a lesson to a less active of like 20 years. I couldn’t understand anything that was going on and the kid was making a lot of noise. It was quite distracting, so I did what I do best: I started making subtle smiles and eyebrow raises at the kid and took control of the situation. The parents then were paying attention while I was using my non-verbal skills to keep the kid from making noise. I don’t think the parents even noticed, they were focused on my companion. I may not be able to speak Spanish, but I can entertain kids from across a room, without talking. There is a little kid that is in a family that we stop by a lot. They live almost right next to us. They have a kid about 3-years-old named Moroni and he likes to play with me. I don’t know why because I have no idea what he says. Swim America has taught me a lot.

Dad, when ever I’m feeling down about Spanish, I think, well I’m not learning Chinese!

The following are photos from Curtis' apartment during the first week. Yuck!...