Week 18 - 10/31/2011

Party week in Mexico! I don’t remember what night, but the people that live above us were having a party. It was hard to sleep... They were shouting Helloween!..., Helloween!!..., over and over. I don’t think parties get more fun that that! Then later in the night they had this song that went something like this... “night, day, night, day, night, day. The party es muy loco....” and that repeats. Ugh… lol. But it’s all good.

 The kids here trick or treat everyday. It’s like the whole week is free game to dress up and get candy. But then again they don’t use big pillow cases.

We had a baptism on Wednesday. I baptized Lola. It was pretty great because the zone leaders were on exchanges with our district leader, so one of the zone leaders came to the baptism. They were expecting me to totally drown her. Apparently, the first time you baptize someone most people dunk too fast. Phsshhh…, I’ve taught enough swim lessons to know how to properly dunk someone lol.

Pretty much normal stuff happened the rest of the week. We are working with Gabriel and Veronica to get married and baptized. Gabriel has quit smoking completely so that is good.

On Sunday we were walking to church and a guy drove past us and swore at us. It was pretty exciting, it’s the one swear I actually know! But then he pulled over a little ways in front of us, we turned around and took a different route to the church. He was fat, so we could have took him if we need to lol.

Also, we walked past these girls and they purred at us, it was kind of weird day Crazy Pueblanos.

So... what’s more? I realized than my letter are very, unmissionary, or no spirituality filled. I would like you to understand that the things that I write are the things that keep me happy here. Lessons are the most frustrating part, because it is a struggle to understand and to express my thoughts clearly. Soooo… as soon as I know what’s fully going on in the lessons, I’ll let you know more about them! lol

Week 17 - 10/24/2011

I ate hamburgers at a member’s house this week. That was cool.

I don’t know if I told you this before, but we ran into an American the other day. Turns out that he actually is in our ward and he lives really close to us. We went to his house, he married a Mexican girls. I’m still not sure why they are in the margarita. Anyways, he is having problems finding a job, because he can’t work until he gets something with done his visa. idk. Anyways, he wanted a blessing, and I gave it to him... in English. It was quite amazing; I could actually say his whole name. Lol.

Sooooo.......... we should have a baptism this Wednesday. It is Lola; she is 13... I think. Yeah, but she was a steal from the assistants, they taught her about half the lessons. Then it turns out she really lives in our area, so yeah cool deal.

Yep... not sure what else happened. We are meeting with the zone leaders tomorrow to maybe get permission to change houses. That would be nice.

On Sunday, one of the speakers didn’t show up and the Stake President was there. He asked us to give a experience about the Book of Mormon from before our missions and the bear our testimony. Wow!... who knows what I said. LOL I didn’t actually give an experience about the book of Mormon from before the mission, not because I couldn’t think of anything good... but it was umm… revelation, yeah lets call it that. Actually the story that I told was how as I have been learning to speak Spanish. I have only been able to say the most basic parts of my testimony, but what I have learned from this is that the most important parts and truths of the gospel and from the Book of Mormon are very simple. Truths like God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ atoned for our sins... and other stuff. Who knows if that is actually what came out, but that’s what I was going for.

Week 16 - 10/17/2011

Ok… So what has happened this week? I can never seem to remember. I really don’t feel like my Spanish is getting any better, but the other night I was apparently talking in my sleep in Spanish. My companion told me. I don’t think my dreams are in Spanish, but maybe they are, I don’t remember.

On Friday we had a zone conference which was pretty good. A little long. And then... Saturday and Sunday we had a stake conference. They were good, but listening to talks in Spanish for that long gets a little old.

Oh… so this week I saw a little kid running around in Robin pajamas, I almost took a picture, but then realized that would be super weird. But i was still pretty excited. (Curtis loved his Robin (of Batman) pajamas when he was a kid.)

So… I don’t write about much of what happens with missionary related stuff. My bad. Right now we are teaching a 13 girl, Lola Solar, who has friends in the church. She is pretty excited and we have a baptism date for... I don’t remember. Then there’s a couple, mid 30s, Gabriel and Veronica. Gabriel smokes but has quit completely by now, I think. They aren’t married, and the problem is she is in the process of getting her ID renewed. So we have to wait for that to clear, before they can be married and be baptized. But it should be soon. Then Ires, I think that’s how it is spelled. She is 30ish and is a friend of the sister, Guadalupe, who we baptized in September. She is super excited and wants to be baptized, but we have had only one lesson. We will see what happens. Yeah… so that’s pretty much what’s going on here between my visits to less actives. Ok… that’s about it.

Week 15 - 10/10/2011

Well there really wasn't much that happened this week. Kind of a slow week, but Mexico never leaves you with out a good story.
Sooo... on Friday night we were going to a new convert's house and when we were just about to the house someone yelled, "Hey, Elders tengo una pregunta." We turned and looked, it was a white guy! What the heck?... He just moved to the Margarita and didn't know where the church was. He was a returned missionary from Paraguay. We got his address and looked for him, he is barely in Elder Bertha´s ward (our district). Our ward mission leader is moving and we were really hoping we could get him to be the new one, but I guess not.
So... another testimony meeting. I should bring popcorn next time. jk. There was a brother who bore testimony that when Pres. Hinkley died he had a revelation that President Monson would be the Prophet and not Elder Packer. And he knows that this was a revelation, because it came to pass! Yeah... how exciting!
On Saturday, all the power around where we lived went out... all of the street lights and everything. I'm surprised no one died on the crazy round about thing near our house, half of the lights on the intersection were out. It was really dark, and we went to a members house.  We stayed in their house with candles until the power came back on. I took about an hour.
Today, I went to immigration to sign some stuff. So yeah!.. super exciting and that's about it.

Week 14 - 10/03/2011

OK... so starting off the week. Tuesday morning TJ or Testigos, or Jehova Witnesses came knocking at our door. I was fully dressed, but E. Rod (Elder Rodriguez) was not. I don/t like answering the door because I can't speak Spanish lol. So... then the Testigos were there, and I was in full missionary gear. They gave me there little short message, and I actually understood it, but I didn't what to fight with them. I actually know how too... we may or may not of had a district meeting where we learned how to disprove them.... Anyway, I did what I do best "los sientos, no yo hablar español." Yes the bad grammar was intentional, they gave me a confused look and left lol. 

We had exchanges with our district again. I went with Elder Pech. It was cool. This time we were in my area, so I was in charge of what we did and where we went, it actually went really well. 

Ummm... then Saturday, we went to Walmart before general conference, it was pretty amazing. Not really there was only like one thing we needed. Is it sad if I think that everything at Walmart is super expensive. What 30 pesos for that?!! lol. That's like $3.... 

But yeah they put the conference on for us in English in the high councill room. So yeah Elder Bertha and had our own private viewing room. We were pretty much VIPs. It was cool. 

Sunday the President had us come to the mission house for a unknown reason. Turns our the new missionaries from Provo had to come early, so we took Elder Garlick to our apt for the night. Yeah, I have definitely been too hard on myself about my Spanish, things could be a lot worse. 

I think that having Elder Rod. as a companion has helped me a lot. The secreties told me that they have been to the other to American missionaries that came when I did, and they said I was the only one who could understand and talk to them somewhat regularly.

It was fun to watch this new missionary, because he was a lot like I probably was. But I was able to give him more that stale cheerios to eat... and he didn't sleep in a cockroach infested room... its all good.

So today Elder Piña requested my great computer skills. So I reformeted his hard drive and resintalled windows. He didnt have the original install disk, no problem, didn't have the product key, no problem, now that is one language that I can speak! However, Spanish is improving, still hard, but improving. I feel comfortable talking with natives without E. Rod by my side lol. I don't get everything, but I can pretty much figure it out. But still there are days where I understand nothing, but its all good. 

Oh yeah, so Edwin Piña was on his mission with Jackson Emery (BYU basketball star), that's pretty cool.