Week 34 - 2/20/12

Before anything.  I loved the little package, the valentines letters were really funny.  Also, Becca you sent me that DearElder and it was pretty good. I laughed a lot.  Thanks soo much.  I have yet to get my big package. The zone leaders left it in their house.  By the time the conference was over it was too late to go to the zone leaders house to get the package...  so I won’t get it until like sometime in march when they come out for divisions...........

Ok well....

Wednesday.  We had our district meeting, and then returned to our area.  Basically at this point we had not had a good sleep since Saturday night.  We went out and made a few visits. And really nothing that notable happened.

Thursday.  Pretty much the most depressing day in the mission.  Part of the reason was….well, it was a bad day……but when we were in the city we were there when the other district reported their numbers, and frankly the other district had amazing numbers and such.  Anyways we started off the day washing our clothes, because we couldn’t do it on our last p-day because we were at the conference. So then we went to a few people that we had contacted that said we could come back, and then they didn’t let us, that’s not anything new.  Then we went to an investigator that we had found in the street and accepted the baptism invitation if she got an answer to her prayer. When we showed up she said she was busy, and that she was going to be busy for the rest of forever. That’s ok, that happens, no problem, we only had taught her one lesson.  So then we went to a family that had been progressing really well.  They were renting their apt from a member and things were going pretty well.  We showed up, there weren’t there.  We asked the member that lived next door and they told us that they had moved and aren’t going to be living here anymore.  They moved to a pueblito, or little town, that is still in our area, just 1.5 hours away....  Sooooo then we had been given a reference from some other elders for an investigator that moved to our area and was ready for baptism and everything.  We called him and asked when we could visit him.  He told us that he wasn’t going to move to Serdan anymore. But he was kind of just making stuff up, so who knows what really happened with him. We just passed the reference back to the elders that gave it to us.  Then.... we went to a less active who has always let us in and we get along fairly well with him. When we got there we knocked on the door of his store.  We could see him on his computer working. He looked at us and then just kept working. We knocked again and he just kept going away on that computer...... and pretended we weren’t there.  Then we went with another investigator and that actually was just a normal lesson.  Then we went back to the house, sad day.

Friday.  At this point we really didn’t have anything to do, after all everyone dumped us.  So we went a knocking.  We made 30 contacts, which means we probably knocked 60 doors.  That was about 1.5 hours.  Then we went and ate.  Then we made 20 contacts.  Sooo far.... nothing has resulted from these contacts... not even one lesson.  That was the most contacting I had ever done in a day.  Basically then we just went with our investigator Edilbuerto.  He is doing good.  He just needs to get married.  But we agreed to do a fast with him on Saturday to Sunday, to help him convince his "lady" to marry him.

Saturday.  We did another 34 contacts.  Fun stuff.  We started the fast.  Wow, 84 contacts in a week, that’s a lot. 

Sunday. Well fasting for the second time in a week fun fun.  We went to church.  Then we visited Eddy again and went with some recent converts but that’s about it.

 Ok well.  hmm. 

Week 33 - 2/13/12

What a very interesting week.   Well not really, but my birthday was interesting. I’ll get to all that later.

The problem is right now I’m in the city [Bosques], and I didn’t bring my journal, so I really can’t remember exactly all that happened...

Tuesday, we started working on the secret birthday prank project that we were going to play on the Tae Kwon Do family.  Basically the plan was to make a box and then pay a cake place to cover the box in frosting and everything.  Then to write on it something to indicate it was not a cake [in English]. After reflecting on it I should have wrote "the cake is a lie", but I didn’t think of it, so I just put "this is cardboard."  It was made out a bunch of cereal boxes, all frosted flakes.

Wednesday, well.... we had our district meeting.  A Mexican elder from our district and was really excited to come to our area and take pictures of the snow on the mountain. I was just happy it was far away; I’m going to be more wimpy than mom with the cold by the time I am done here in Mexico. 

Thurday.... We knocked a whole bunch of doors...

Friday. We just a knocked a whole bunch of doors in the morning.  Sometimes we contact stores, but we feel awkward if we don’t buy anything. So it was my turn to contact, so I grabbed from the top of this shelf some of those wafer cookies with frosting in the middle.  I grabbed it, and then realized that it was covered!!! I mean covered in dust. You could barely see the picture on the wrapping.  Anyways, the guy was watching me and I felt too embarrassed to but it back... so I just took a big breath and blew off allll the dust. It made quite a huge cloud. I paid for them and contacted the guy, set an appointment, and left.  Upon leaving, I saw that the cookies had indeed expired on Dec 11....  I’m pretty sure they had been sitting there longer than I have been in Mexico, and that’s not a joke.  And yes... I still did eat them. They didn’t taste too bad.

Saturday.  My companion woke up at 12:00am to sing me happy birthday. Honestly, for the life of me, I do not remember him doing it.  Apparently I said, thanks, but I really don’t remember anything.  Then we went to a few appointments.  This guy was there and he had a bunch of questions for us and told us, if you can answer these questions I’ll go with you guys, if not, I don’t want to see you again. We were actually able to answer his questions very well and I guess we are going to go back.  But I think he just likes to have deep conversations about the Bible.  Then we went to a one or two more appointments.  We went to the food. We ate fish. It was the first time that I have eaten fish in Mexico. It was literally just a fish that had been thrown on the frying pan. It was watching me the whole time I ate it.

Ok then we went for the [Birthday] cake and took it to the house of the Tae Kwon Do family.  It was actually super heavy to carry, I mean it was huge. When I got there they threw all this confetti all over me. They were super surprised how big the cake was.  So we got the brother to cut it for us and it was really funny.  He thought the knife wasn’t sharp at first.  Then we went out and bought a real cake and they sang me happy birthday.  When it is your Birthday, you have to bite the cake before they serve it. Then they push your face into the cake. I knew they were going to do, I just didn’t feel like trying to resist at all.  It was quite fun.

 Ok Sunday….  We had to go to our stake conference.  We live really far away, like 2 hours away.  So a member told us he would give us a ride if we wanted.  When we got to the church he charged us each 50 pesos! That is how much it costs to get there by bus, and this van was packed with like 9 of us. And he charged the same even though we weren’t going back with him because he said, “I could have gotten other people to come both ways, so you have to pay the same.”  And on the way he ran over a dog!  The van was so packed and hot, that I felt like I was going to throw up.    Anyways we went to the conference. In a talk there was a girl who had put in her papers for her mission but didn’t get her call.  And she said she was talking about it to her boss and her boss told her that she should value her time here in Mexico, because she could get sent to somewhere they only eat a lot of meat like Canada….  because it’s so cold that they don’t have fruit there.........  right........ So we ended up going with another companionship and we split up so go to some lessons and stuff.  Then we went to the apartment at night and sleep [in Bosques].  But before that we go some interesting news.  The president wants all the missionaries in the whole mission to fast today for a conference that we are going to have tomorrow. So we are going to have to stay [in Bosques] another night.  Who knows what it will be about.

 So we woke up, played some soccer until like 9... then me and my comp went to the grocery store and we each bought a box of cereal and a liter of milk since we are in a city away from our apartment.  The corn flakes came with a free spoon and we ate the cereal right outside the supermarket out of plastic cups.  People just walk passed us and looked at us sooooo weird.  Anyways we did this to prepare for the fast, because now we are fasting.  I literally ate a whole box of corn flakes…. well not a whole one, I had like 2-3 more cupfulls left, but I ran out of milk and was about to throw up.  But it was a box of like 660 grams.  Take a look at the cereal in the house to see how much it was.  I really impressed myself.

 Now we are here in a internet cafe, our cell phone ran out of battery, so we don’t have a way to communicate with any of the other elders and we don’t know what we are going to do today.  Yeah, so that’s it!

Elder Wigington

Week 32 - 2/6/12

So this week we had changes [transfers], but I stayed the same.  Elder Izaguiarre is the new assistant; he was my zone leader in my last area.  Then, Elder Rodriguez went home this week. He tore his achilles tendon and will have to be home for 6 months, so who knows if he will come back.  Then we have a new zone leader.

So something really funny happened. The other Elders from our district are in El Seco. They were in a member’s house and the radio was on. The radio station is in our area, Serdan.  The radio announcer gave a shout out to all the people from Wisconsin.  So then the El Seco elders asked us what the heck were we doing that the radio announcer gave a shout out to me. lol.  It must have been for the people from WI that we ran into the other day. I’m just so famous here, even the radio stations are giving me shout outs. lol.

Wednesday.... we taught this family. That is really good. They are good friends of a member.  I think they will progress pretty fast.....

Thursday we went to a member’s house and while we were there all the power went out, and it was at like 8 so it was all dark. So we lit a candle and told stories around it. It was kind of funny.

Sunday.  We went to church, and I taught the gospel principles class. I had a really bad cold and was kind of out of it.  So my comp told me after the class that apparently I said it is important that we hunt in the temple.  Well, it’s because in Spanish “casarse” is to marry, but cazar, which is pronounced the same means to hunt. So I said it’s important that we “cazemos”, when i should have said, “nos casemos”.  So yeah, go hunt in the temple.... But really that’s all that happened that was exciting.

Sorry it was such a boring week.... 

Elder Wigington

Week 31 - 1/30/12

What happened this week? Did I hear yellow submarine sung by a Mexican, did I have to crawl in our bathroom window, or did I find another investigator who says she is possessed? I guess you will just have to read to find out!

Tuesday! So we met someone in the street just doing our contacting and she told us that we would meet up in the central, by the fountain. We were just waiting there and this old man came and started talking to us and we asked him if he would be interested in hearing our message. So then we started teaching him and bit. Then after like 15 minutes, he was like, now that we are friends and in such close confidence, will you lend me 10 pesos..... I felt so used haha. Well, you just tell them that we don’t ever carry money. Then he left. And the woman never came to central.

Wednesday. Today we had divisions, but both companionships came out our area. So I went with Elder Vargas and we went with the family that is teaching us Tae Kwon Do and told them E. Johnson had left (transferred) and they got really sad. We had told them on Monday that one of us was going to be changed. Then they said we want our 2 little whiteys - it really doesn’t translate well, but it goes as gueritos. It was quite funny. Then that night we switched back companions and we went back to the karate family and they were very surprised. lol.

Thursday. In the morning, my comp played a very cruel and unusual trick on me. We left the house, but not the gate in front, and I asked him if he had the keys, because I forgot my spares. Then he said no.... we always leave the bathroom window open, or unlocked, so if something like this happens. So he is bigger, so he wouldn’t fit so I had to climb in head first in this little window. I was about half way through, and kind of got stuck, and my comp ran in the house and took pictures of me from in the bathroom... gerrrrr. It was actually pretty fun, and now you too can enjoy the pictures. Then we went to a family to go with them to teach their neighbor, but the neighbor wasn’t there, sooooo their daughters taught us how to make french toast. It actually turn out really awful, it was way too hot, so it cooked the outside but on the inside it was raw eggs... rocky style?

Friday. We went to a member’s house to teach a lesson with the woman that we met in central.  By the end of the lesson she accepted to be baptized, but before you get too excited, wait for the rest of the story to come later in the email. Then we went with the karate family and we peeled some bean things. Then at night, I tried to make some mac and cheese that I had bought at the supermarket. It looked like it might be good, much to my disappointment, it was rather gross....

 

Saturday. Well when we had contacted this lady, she told us that we could find her house by the Corona, a bar, by an electronic supply store, and she had avocat tree. Soooooo we were walking back and forth between this bar and this electronic store looking for one of these trees. We thought to ourselves, this would probably be a good situation to have a Mexican companion, we both had never seen one of those trees before... Anyways she saw us and showed us the avocat trees. They were like little bushes. There was no way we would have thought they were trees.... Anywho we started teaching her and she was telling us a little bit about herself. Then she said one time I let mormons in my house and they right away started taking down all of my pictures of the virgin. They right after asked us, what religion are you exactly... welll we are the mormons lol, and we explained those other people were probably not actually mormons. Anyways she invited us to come back and everything, but it was quite funny. Then it rained! It never rains, only a little though. We visited another one of our investigators and he played guitar for us (Yellow Submarine), and we harassed his puppy.

Sunday. We went to church!!!... and no one showed up. So sad. We visited some less actives.

And that’s it!

Elder Wigington

Week 30 - 1/23/12

Well what happened this week in the mission you might ask, well let me tell you.

Tuesday.  Well in the morning we went to a less active’s house, and using my great knowledge and skills I removed viruses from his computer and flash drive.  But I told him that they would come back if he didn’t go to church. Not really, but that would have been funny.  Then... my comp lost the keys to the house and to the church.  Good thing I always had the spare house keys in my backpack.  But we still haven’t found his set...

Wednesday. We had our district meeting in our house because the keys to the church were lost.  So that was fun, never a good idea to let other missionaries in your house, they always want to eat your food.  We had a good plan. We hid all of our food, but some old bananas.  haha.  I think I told you about the old man who wants to be baptized.  We went to visit him.  Then we decided to do something super dangerous... cook something.  Yes we made pancakes, or as they call them here Hot Cakes.  We made them and it was pretty tough.  Our pan didn’t have a handle, so we had to use a rag to hold the pan still.  But they were quite good.  Do you know what lechera is? We used it instead of syrup, it was really good.  Then we went to bed with very full stomachs.

Thursday. So we did quite a few contacts this day. I think like 20.  So in one of the contacts we talked to this older lady.  She told us I’m not interested in your religion, but you make really good priests because your handsome, super handsome.  Or in spanish son guapos, guapisimos.  That contact was in the street.  We later had the luck to knock her door.  She came out, and told us, “I already told you I think you are very handsome, but I don’t want to hear any more.”  Then we went and visited a less active family whose father died last Saturday.  It’s pretty sad actually.  They have two sons of 10 and 11.  I guess on the good side they are now doing to try hard to fix things in their lives and be sealed as a family.   They have the biggest house I’ve seen in Mexico. The father was the owner of the radio station here.  We explained a bit about the plan of salvation to the kids and I think the sister of the wife will be baptized soon.

This might be the best story ever.  So we went to a member’s house and when we got there the dad was just about to go out because apparently there was a puppy on the lose behind their house. I’m not sure what happened, but I think some highschoolers were messing with it earlier in the day, and it got away from them.  Anyways, the brother asked if we could help him catch it.  So we went out with him and his daughter Susan.  So we were looking around for it and we saw it run away.  It was pretty hard to follow it because there were a lot of cut down trees and brush where we were.  So I saw it and went around to the other side of where Elder Johnson and the brother where going.  That way I could cut it off.  So.... They scared it out and I saw it and sprinted after it.  It was quite fast.  I ran and to my luck it had a leash on it, must have been from the highschoolers.  I managed to catch up with it and step on the leash.  It managed to pull the leash from under my foot and ran off again.  I caught up again and step on the leash, then grabbed the leash with my hands so it couldn’t get away.  Susan quickly came over picked it up and calmed it down. WOW, what more could Serdan ask for than missionaries that save puppies! lol  It was pretty epic -  jumping over branches and dodging trees. 

Friday. At night we made pancakes in our room, because we sprayed poison in the kitchen and bathroom. We had a bunch of ants and so we sealed ourselves off from the rest of the house and our room smelt of wonderful pancakes and was a bit warmer. yay.

Sunday. Church. Then we went to do some contacting and the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me happened!!!   I found a car with a WI license plate.  But something even better happened on Monday.  We went shopping and we wore our regular clothing, because we buy food, go to internet and then train, just so we don’t have to change like 5 times.  So we went into the grocery store.  We entered.  We went toward the milk.  THEN!!! I saw a woman wearing a WI shirt.  Then I looked down, I was wearing the same shirt.  When we got in check out she was in front of us.  And she said to her little girl in English, "look they speak English." Then I asked her if she was from WI.  And she said yes.  It must have been her car!!! It’s rare to meet anyone from the US that is not from LA.  Or to see US plates that aren’t Texas, but WI what are the odds.  Wow what a day!!!

We went with a member to a waterfall.  It was by far the most beautiful place I have seen in Mexico, with the rivers and waterfalls and everything.  It was quite amazing.  It was close to the mountain, and all the hills were super green and really quite amazing.

Week 29 - 1/16/12

Well another week in the mission, how exciting.

Tuesday.  Well you can see from the pictures, the giant cheeto bag.  It was the birthday of an investigator, and my comp really wanted to get her something big... so that’s what we got her.  It was actually super cheap.  It would come out to be about $5.  Three whole kilos.

Wednesday.  This day we had divisions, with the other members of our district.  However because they live so far away, we work, the both of us in their area.  Most of their appointments fell through. So then they had plans to have me and Elder Rincon to visit this girl of about 20 years..........  apparently she likes green eyes........ to my luck she wasn’t there.   Oh those elders..... they called me Elder Ken........

Thursday. This was zone conference.  We had to go all the way to the city.... so far away.... I hate traveling in buses.  And we got there 1 hour late.  That’s not really a good thing.  Ask Nathan, showing up at a zone conference an hour late is just bad news.  But actually it wasn’t really our fault.  Well kind of.  We were supposed to take the bus 61... and we took the bus 61A.... Who knew there was a difference?  The conference was actually really good.  But it lasted until like 4.  And we didn’t get back to our house until like 8 at night.  Too late to do any work.

Friday. We taught this man who is very old.  Or at least we tried.... he can’t remember anything we teach him, but he wants to be baptized.  So we will see what happens. 

Sunday.  Well Gonzalo got confirmed. We visited a few members.  While we were waiting to give our numbers to the zone leaders we watched this movie called Heavenly Fathers Plan.  It is from the 80s; I would suggest watching it, it made me laugh....

That’s it!!! Have a super duper week!!!

Elder Wigington

Week 28 - 1/9/12

Another week in the mission life.  I would have to say, you would think that I would run out of things to write in my emails, but there’s always some interesting stuff that is sure happen in Mexico.

Monday.  We had divisions with our zone leaders on Tuesday, so we had to leave Monday night.  We left the house at like 5 and we got there like at 9:30.  We slept in the zone leader’s house... on the super comfortable floor. It was pretty great...

Tuesday.  We woke... on the hard floor.  They ran out of gas the day before, so we showered from a bucket; it reminded me of the good old days in La Margarita.  We did our studies and went out in the world to preach!  yay.  Then 2 appointments fell through.  We did a few contacts. And we went to eat.  While we were eating, I saw the most sad thing.  The sister had thrown away a bunch of her child’s toys. They were ones he never used and he very well may have never noticed. But here in Mexico there are a lot of dumpster divers.  And the kid was out playing, when he saw someone open up a garbage bag with all his toys in it. He came running in the house with a few of the dirty toys in his hands, crying and crying.  Yelling, "por que, por que" (“why, why”).  It was really one of the saddest things I had ever seen. 

Wednesday.  We met this family where the dad is a member and the rest of the family isn’t.  We went to visit him because a member had told us about him.  So he teaches tae kwon do. The mom did not want anything to do with us as far as religion, but she wanted us to help her daughters with English.  By the end of the visit, using our great charm, we won their hearts.  We are now good, and soon will come the lessons muahahaha.

Thursday.  So we were super behind on contacts so we were like, let’s go do a whole bunch of contacts to make up for how behind we are.  So we started, first door, DENIED. Second door, WOW they let us in.  It was an older guy, we taught the restoration and we will go back, but I don’t think he is really interested.  Then we continued with our contacting.  We knocked the door. A guy about our age answered, and let us in. WHAT.  two in a row.  That was the first time I had been let in on the moment.  He was super cool.  Who knows what will happen, but we taught him about the restoration. Then it was time for the food and we only got 3 contacts.  But we got 2 lessons out of it.  Now don’t be sad, cause two out three ain’t bad.... did you get it, meatloaf, haha.

Then we had plans to go with the bishop’s son to a lesson in a Pueblito that was a little farther away.

Friday. Well not a whole lot of teaching... not really our fault, but appointments just fell through.  A member had a tandem bike and we rode it and it was really hard to use.  The chain would break and then the person in back would be the only one who could pedal.  But it was fun. Then the 2nd counselor to the pres had to come and interviewed our investigator for baptism, way out here...  Anyways.  That went well. He passed. yay.

Saturday.  We prepared the program for the baptism and went around asking people to give talks.

Sunday. Baptism!!! It was really great.  His name is Gonzalo.  The other missionaries had worked with him and we help him get over the last few challenges to get baptized. It was really good.

Humbly,

Elder Wigington

Week 27 - 1/2/12

Yay a new year, how exciting!  Ok so what happened you might ask, well let me tell you.

I HEARD THE NEW READ HOT CHILI PEPPERS SONG IN THE INTERNET CAFE.  It wasn’t my fault, it was on the radio, I had no choice but to listen, it was awesome. 

On Tuesday, not much happened actually.  My comp had to use the bathroom and we stopped by the church to use the bathroom. And to our luck the key didn’t work.  So weird, because we have gotten in there before with that key. So we had to walk like 25 minutes back to the house. 

Wednesday.  We had district meeting.  We have to take a bus for like 45 minutes to get to the other companionship.  We are just a district of 4 elders.  So we alternate in who’s town in the middle of nowhere we have the district meeting.

Thursday... we ran out of gas (that heats the house) in the morning and so we had to find one of those trucks that drive around selling gas. Normally we could just call them, but we ran out of credit on our phone.  So we went outside, and it was cold in the morning.  My comp went out with his blanket, you know how I used to walk around the house.  We walked all the way down the street to a payphone... and to our luck... it didn’t work so on the way back a gas truck passed and we waved it down. 

We went to see an investigator.  As we were walking in the opposite direction came a giant religious parade.  There was like a woman dressed in all white like Mary with a baby in her hands.  We just walk past them. Wow, i have never gotten so many dirty looks.  I just smiled at all of them. lol.  This happened on the street of the investigator, Gonzalo. When we got to his house, it was his house that was having the party, and the parade was going to come back in 5 min.  He used to live in the US, so we talked in English to the other guests couldn’t understand us.  He was like, " These people really don’t like you guys, just look.  You can just smell the sulfur in the air." So we had to reschedule the appointment.  Gonzalo is a super good guy, he really wants to be baptized, he just has to overcome smoking, but he is really determined.  He is like super ripped.  And he has like bullet and knife scars from when he was younger.  Really great guy, has a pure love for the gospel.

Friday.  So we knocked down a whole street and no one answered... not a huge surprise, but then garabge truck came down the street just as we were finishing. And a weird thing happened, people left from almost every house, wow, what are the odds lol.  Sister Isabel gave us a cake. I at like 2 slices, my comp ate the rest.  I was so full after just a little bit, I have no idea how he at so much lol.

Saturday. With the holiday (New Years Eve), contacting was so lame, like no one was home....  Then we went to a member’s house to eat.  We left at 9:30 like good missionaries.  Went to bed, set our alarm at 11:50 to wake up for the new year.  Pretty much the best new year ever.

Sunday.  Only 1 hour of church!!! I didn’t think in the US we only got an hour that day.  When we left our house and there was this giant white path down the road. Apparently it was made out of sawdust. And I can’t believe how hard they worked on it.  Then when they finish they walk down it with some statue or something, idk I didn’t actually see it. Not a whole lot of work got done this day either, everyone was out partying still.  Anyways, at night we were heading back home and we saw a huge line of cars.  So we decided to follow it and see what was up.  It went to the center in front of a church.  And the people brought their cars to the center and this priest threw water on the car’s engine using some kind of plant. I suppose a little engine cooling never hurts...

And then today.  well no adventures. We have to go to the zone leaders area later in the day to have divisions with them because my comp is our district leader. But since we live too far away we both are going to their area. So that’s like a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to get there  Ok that’s about it.  Fun fun fun.

Love

Elder Wigington

Week 26 - 12/26/11

Christmas!!! is super fun in the mission, NOT. No just kidding ok, I might repeat what I said when we talked, but I’m just going to write everything so it’s all there.

On Tuesday, or first day in the area.  We just went around getting to know the members.  We went with the bishop and he drove us around showing us all around the town.  We got to know the young womens president.  He told us there would be an activity that night, so we went.  It was good to meet more members and what not.

Wednesday, we went out to start looking for members and investigators of the other missionaries.  We did some contacting.  This is when we knocked the door of a creepy lady who was like ahh, you’re the tall, handsome white guys.   Then just stared at us really weird.  Then when we were in the apt at night, the neighbor had a weird party and it was a bunch of people outside our house. lol.

Thursday.  That was when I finished 6 months in the mission whooo whoooo.  I actually didn’t get to burn my tie this day.  We had a ward Christmas dinner activity which was cool.  Got to know more members there. 

Friday. We had a few lessons.  We helped a sister paint outside of her house. A little bit of contacting and that’s about it.

Saturday, Christmas Eve.  We first called you guys.  Probably the most boring part of the day jk not really.  We ate lunch at a member’s house.  Until his son who is on the mission called. At that point we left.  But it was interesting, her son was living in my last area, la margarita, and he went with us for a few lessons in my first couple weeks.  He left on his mission, after I was in la margarita for 2-3 weeks. What are the odds lol.  Then we got back a little early because it was dark and not much to do.  We went to a member’s house to eat at like 8, but they did not have the food ready, and we had to leave at 9, so we just ate in the house.

Sunday, Christmas, really didn’t feel like Christmas.  We went to church in the morning; that was good.  Not a lot of people showed up, very few. Then we went to a member’s house after for food.  And we stayed there until like 5 ish.  We mostly just listened to the life story of an older sister. 

Monday, today.  Wow what a day.  So we really didn’t know what to do for p-day, so we called a few members and they didn’t know anything we could do.  So we picked a hill to climb and we started climbing it.  We climbed and climbed and then we got to the top.  But then then the path keep going to we followed it.  We eventually got to a bunch of corn fields.  So we followed the corn fields.  At this point we didn’t want to get lost.  So we were about to turn back. But then, out of nowhere in the distance we saw a bridge.  A very small long rope bridge. When we saw it we knew we had to cross it.  So we walked like another 30 min to get there.  Then we got close, but the path we were on, took us to someone’s back yard.  Kind of weird; good thing they didn’t see us lol.  Then we eventually found the entrance to the bridge.  It was to a ranch and they charged 20 pesos to cross the bridge. What a deal.  We then crossed the bridge. Lots of photos of this. Then she took us to some other cool places where we could take pictures.   Then we found a bus that took us back to Surdan.  And then we were super tired.

Oh so a member told us his conversion story.  It’s really quite funny.  He had a cousin, or aunt or someone who was a member.  Apparently, some apostle or the prophet, idk, came to Puebla a long time ago to one of the stakes.  The friend convinced him and his wife to go to the conference.  When they got there the building was full, so they just watched it from a tv outside the building.  He said it was the most boring thing ever.  Then after they just stayed around the church for a long time after everyone had gone.  They were just sitting there, and there were some missionaries who were giving baptismal interviews to some other people who were going to be baptized.  He and his wife where just sitting there. And one missionary asked them if they would like to be baptized.  He said to his wife, if you want you, and she said “no, you decide,” and back and forth.  Then he said yes.  So then the missionary took him in a room to do the interview.  He asked him if he had a testimony of Joseph Smith and he didn’t know who that was, but just said yes anyways.  He answered all the questions and they said ok, you’re ready to be baptized, so they gave him white clothing and baptized him that very moment. His wife too.  Then they confirmed him as well.  All that day.  He return to Surdan, never to hear from the church for like another 5 years.  Then a branch formed and one of their family members brought them to church. At this point they still didn’t know ANYTHING about the church.  So the branch pres asked him if he was going to pay tithing.  The brother said he would only pay it to prove that it’s not true. After he started paying tithing, he starting coming to church and was soon the new branch pres.  Once it became a ward he soon became bishop. And now he is a counselor in the bishopric. Wow What a story...

ok thats my email

Love

Elder Curtis Wigington

Week 25 - 12/19/11

Sorry IM writing soo late, but all will be explained.

To answer questions.... for my birthday just send me whatever. Candy is good, there isn’t a whole lot of stuff I need.

Well I guess I’ll just start from the beginning.

Apparently last Saturday, like 10 days ago, there was an earthquake.  Everyone that we talked to felt it, including the other missionaries.  Elder Rodriguez and I didn’t feel anything. We were walking to a member’s house when it supposedly happened, and then the member asked us when we got there.  I guess it is because angels carry from place to place, so i think that is why we didn’t feel it.

I forgot to tell you this, but about a month ago, one of the boys was going to be ordained to deacon, and he asked that I would do it.  I really don’t know why, I don’t think I had ever talked to him...

Ok well. Then we were in the Galaxia.  And we walked by these high school age kids.  They started shouting swears in Spanish at us.  Then like 10 min later we walked back down that street and then they started yelling at us again.  Then one went in the house and came out with a big cooking knife in the door and shouted at us. Ya me ves.  Which means do you see me now?  And it was kind of pathetic.  I thought he was going to cook something for me with, using the knife to cut up the meat or something. But I guess not.  lol.

On Friday we had divisions with our district.  I went with Elder Hernandez to his area.  One of the appointments fell through so we went to this Christmas tree in his area where you can pedal the bike and power the tree.  It was in the day so the lights were not on, but it was still fun.  Hey, it’s our job to give service to the community right? Then at the end of the day, we went back with our companions.  Me and elder Rodriguez went and got some tacos arabes..... then the story begins....

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 with really bad stomach pain.  (edited description of being sick…)  So yeah, I really used to like tacos arabes, but they really don’t taste as good the second time around.... I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat them again lol.  But we had some important apts so Elder Bertha and Hernandez came.  Bertha stayed with me in the house and the 2 others went out.  At this point I didn’t really have any liquids left in my body.  Anyways that’s my Saturday.  The doctor told me medicine I should buy and I spent another 150 pesos on medicine.  How I still have money who knows.  But all is good.  Then Sunday, in church... no one came....  that’s fun.

So the president changed the changes for today, so the other elders that were going to go home on the 26th didn’t have to miss 3 Christmases.  Sooooo......  we had to drop something off in the mission home for one of the missionaries going home, and then to our surprise we got the pleasure of bringing a zone leader with us to sleep with us in our house....  We were going to say good bye to our convert Guadalupe Carmona but.... she is a single sister, but her son is always there who is 14, so technically he doesn’t count and we shouldn’t enter.  So quickly found Spencer, who is the American and I explained the situation in English and he went with us so we could say good bye for the exchanges.  So then we got back to pack because we both are leaving the area.  We packed and everything... super fun. I managed to fit everything in the 2 large suitcases, including the small carry on suitcase lol.

Then we went to a church to get the changes.  I got my new area, it’s called Serdan.  My new comp is from Idaho Falls.  He seems nice, I don’t know if like the idea of having an American comp, but we will see.

We left and took a bus from 2 1/2 hours to get to area. This city is literally in the middle of nowhere.  We drove through so much nothing to get here lol. But the house is nice.  And it looks like it has a shower.  Which is awesome!  But this new area means that I don’t know what will be happening for the Christmas call.  We had plans with members, but they now fell through.  It will be be the 24th or 25th, and we are going to try to find out what we will do for it.  I will take more pictures for next week.

As far as teaching goes we were going to baptize a kid that is 10 and we have worked to reactivate his family.  But he wants his dad to baptize him, so it will take a little bit more time before his dad is worthy.  But that is good motivation for the family to keep active.

That’s my week!

Elder Wigington

Week 24 - 12/12/2011

Happy Day of the Virgin Guadalupe!!!! Very exciting, everyone has parties in the street to celebrate the virgin. My companion said they make promises to the virgin and for something, I think I'll stick with Santa, I think that will work better. lol.

The zone leaders were with us until 2. Longest morning of my life but I think it was good. They saw how hard contacting is in this area. The problem is that there are lots of apartments and people sell things door to door. The people are used to just turning down everything, or just not answering. So I guess that was good.

I just remembered something, Elder Wiennerholm knows David Boshi, he was in his mission while he waited for his visa....

Saturday was ran into an American from Oregon. He made fun of my WI accent. Even here I can't escape it! lol.

Sunday.... no one came to church.... or at least the ones we care about. jk We care about everyone.

Today, what a day. We went to the house of the zone leaders. It is super nice and is in a guarded off area with a soccer field. We played soccer with the zone all day and grilled hamburgers. It was pretty fun. I'm super worn out... to... much... soccer... lol

Week 23 - 12/05/2011

 I got my first package on Wednesday, it was awesome! My companion likes American candy a lot! lol.
Yes, my leg is healing.
You have to buy the water, you drink, but the other water really isnt dangerous, you just can't drink regularly.
I asked Elder Rodriguez about the Feliz Navidad song, and he told me it is like a joke here, no one listens to it, what a shame.
For my call home I'll be using Skype, but I'm not sure if it will be exactly on Christmas Day, maybe Christmas Eve. It depends... because not a lot of members have computers, so we will most likely use a public one, but I think they close on the holidays. I'm still in the process of figuring this out.

OK... for Becca funny kid experiences. We were walking down the street when we passed a little boy. He said to us, "adios policia fedreal." Elder Rodriguez said that mean "those are the tough cops." Anyways, I then said, "adios niño." But after I thought I should have said something more creative like, "don't do drugs!"

Then we were in the house of a less active and the little girl asked me if she went to Wisconsin, if the people there would beat her up. Very funny.

We went bowling on Pday and it was expensive, but really fun.  150 pesos thats like 10 dollers. My first round i got a 59, then next a 87 then a 127. The last one should have been better, but I got a 2 and 6 in a row... so lame. But it was cool.
They have an ice skating rink there too, but its not open on Monday. We are going to try to change our Pday to another day and go as a district.

OK so as far as this week goes. There is a family that we are working with to reactive and they have come to church 3 times in a row, so we are going to baptize there son who is 10 soon. We went to the Christmas devotional of the first presidency, but its really hard to pay attention when everything is in Spanish. I can understand it, but its really easy to lose attention. I really liked how Pres Uchtdorf talked how we shouldn't stress out around Christmas. And of course, President Monson's talk was really good and quite funny with a good message. 

Other than that what else happened?... its hard to think back on a whole week. Just regluar stuff. Contacts, couple lessons, visiting less actives and yeah. thats about it.

Week 22 - 11/28/2011

I did some math to calculate how many pushups I will do with my new program over 6 weeks. Today I got to 80 in a row..

We were playing soccer today and it is a really bad turf field. It is just turf on concrete and the turf is pulling away from the concrete. I was running, and the turf slipped out from under my feet, and I went down and scraped my knees on the concrete...pretty ugly. I'll send photos.

As far as money goes, its all good, my companion was reimbursed 100 pesos from something, so that should last him until the end of the month.

So this week was normalish but Thursday was crazy. We were going to the president's house to eat for Thanksgiving. On the way we passed by a hospital. Some people started shouting out, "Elderes,... Elderes" so we went to talk to them. They wanted us to give a blessing to a family member, but we couldn't go in because it wasn't visiting hours. Soooo.... then we went to eat at the president's house. it was super good regular Thanksgiving food. It was our district of four, the assistants and secretaries.Then we looked at photos from the presidents son's mission. He just got back from Chile on Wednesday. Then... we went back to the hospital and gave the brother a blessing. He was in pretty bad condition, he was completely out, and on a life-support machine.

Missionary work... not much new has happened. We found a new investigator, and have been working with the less actives a lot.

Week 21 - 11/21/2011

Before I forget, Rebecca I heard the Taylor Swift song, that says something to the affect of you’re a life and pathetic and alone in the world... it made me think of you. You could really take that the wrong way lol. There is this song that I hear everyday at the illegal music stands. It says “hello” like 50 times… "hello, hello, I just came to say hello...". Then there is another it’s like.. "day, night, day, night, la gente es muy loca." You should look them up, they are quite a large part of my day that I hear these.

Thanksgiving in Mexico?... who knows, but the President invited us to eat at his house for Thanksgiving!!!!! Sweet deal.

In church yesterday they announced an “activitad missional,” Like a missionary oriented activity for the 26th, next Saturday. So we thought, wow, the ward actually planned something! Later, one of the counselors from the bishopric asked us what we were going to do for the activity. It was like WHAT!?! Sooooo… we get to plan an activity for this Saturday, I think we will be watching a movie on the restoration....

The volcano was smoking on Sunday when were walking back from church. It was pretty cool. Looks like everyone was blowing smoke that day... LOL

As far as missionary work goes… we don’t really have any investigators. Well the couple that isn’t married have been investigators since before I got here. Patience… So we knock a lot of doors. And this week we were let into a door and after 5 minutes she told us she was a member.... but inactive forever. She has like three kids that are between the ages of 15 to 20. One of the daughters is named America. Maybe some day I’ll name my kid Mexico. LOL

Week 20 - 10/21/2011

This week I got bit by a dog while contacting, good thing it was about the size of my shoe! I think Hoppy, Becca’s bunny, could eat it... Yeah, it didn’t make me bleed, the dog came running out and I was like, “Oh… look at that, it’s biting me... lol.”

So for changes..... drum roll..... Elder Rodriguez and I are still in La Margarita. Yeah!... Christmas in the projects! Not that I don’t love my area... but I have heard there are a lot of beautiful areas in this mission, and mine is not one of those. Poor Elder Rodriguez, he is 6 months in the mission and this is still his first area as well.

So guess what?... the Zone Leaders didn’t like our numbers again. Like we didn’t realize that our numbers where bad!.... lol. I think I should start reporting my push-up numbers, that would impress them! I’m doing like 300 a day and I’m at about 15000 in the mission so far. Also I’m at 6 min for holding my breath... just kidding, I’m not practicing holding my breath, I just knew that would freak out mom lol!!!

I’ve been talking Spanish in my sleep again. I was saying “dame las planchas, quiero las planchas.” In English that is, “give me the plates, I want the plates.” “Plates” being like the gold plates.

I played soccer today, which I am actually getting better at, but still… I’m playing with Mexicans. I sun burned my neck below my collar line. I have enough tan above the collar that I don’t burn, but not below.

I helped a sister with her homework this week which just happened to be programming. It was probably the most exciting thing yet. lol No, but it was a language that I have never used, but its not like I’ve never learned a new computer language before! Pssshhhh…. Super easy. Yeah, that was exciting.

So as far as missionary work goes, our two investigators that need to get married, didn’t get married or go to church... so yeah, we have to wait a while longer to baptism them. I think they will get baptized; they have a testimony and are really nice people, just a little bit slow and reluctant. Veronica is always sick... but whatever, they should be baptized.

We actually had good success with our less actives. We got a family to come to church after not attending for 10 years. And then the brother who got stabbed and his mom both went. Another went, too! So that good. To bad less actives going to church doesn’t count for any numbers. LOL… whatever.

We were going to give a super awesome lesson to the singles to motivate them to accept calls as ward missionaries. I will share a bit with you. We used the example of Nephi going to get the plates. He was chosen to be a leader over his brothers to go get the plates because he didn’t murmur. When he went, the first time he let luck decide who would go get the plates and the lot fell on Laman and Lemuel. That didn’t work, he messed up, even though he was chosen of God. Then he had really good idea of trying to trade his gold and silver. A good idea, but again he messed up, it didn’t work. And finally, Laman and Lemuel got mad at him and Nephi went alone and succeeded! The important lesson that we learn from this is that when someone is chosen my God, it doesn’t mean that we won’t make mistakes. The important thing is that we don’t murmur, and with time, like Nephi we will learn how to follow the spirit. There was more, but I think you get the idea. We used this same lesson to teach less actives that were offended by the bishop how the leaders are chosen of God, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t make mistakes. You can really shape this lesson into a lot of things. There you go, ugh… too much typing lol, I feel like I’m in school again.

I really don’t mind doing laundry by hand so much now, but trying to do it when you have a cut on your palm really stinks. With the scrubbing and dubbing and what not, the scab came off. Then the whole time I was bleeding all over my clothes... but it’s good that we only have cold water, because to wash blood out you use cold water lol. 

One of the interesting things that they told us in the MTC is that learning the language, is one of the least important things. We should spend more time learning the things of the gospel then when we want to teach we will know the important things to say that we need in the language. Whatever… the challenges are more that just the language.

Wow!, I’m impressed with myself, what a long and inspired email lol jk!!!

Week 19 - 11/07/2011

OK... another week in the mission! Well actually this week was probably our worst week yet. Lots of walking, no one home, low numbers. But it is all good. I got a cool picture of a rainbow!
So what happened this week that is exciting? A member in our ward who is inactive got attacked and was stabbed in the side. The blade was only a one cm away from his heart. Scary... where he got stabbed is where we walk to go the church but he was out at 11pm at night. We would never go to that area when its dark.
It rained a lot this week. Really not a whole lot happened. Just a lot of walking mostly. I might attend a wedding next week. That should be cool. Gabriel and Veronica are getting married so they can be baptized
Soooo...... Sunday our house didn't have water: no showers before church! I totally blew an impression of the spirit on that one. I actually thought that I should fill up the buckets that night so we could get ready fast. Had I heeded the impression, I would have showered. The reason we didn't have water was that the toliet broke so it wouldn't flush. We tried to fix it, but when we fixed it we used a string and the flapper thing didn't close all the way, so it leaked a little water continuously. I don't know how exactly it works but it makes using the bathroom in our house fun! Fortunately, we left some buckets out in the rain that were filled with water so we could flush!!! Ugh our apartment is falling apart. We almost had a new one, but it cost 2200 pesos a month and the max is 2000 for the mission. That's a cap of $150.... I wonder if Nathan's mission in Orange, CA had a cap like that. Whatever... we are still in the search. I think thats about it.

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.

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.