30 June 2014 Letter -- Week one in Mexico. Whew!

Well I have officially been in the mission field for one week. Whew. It feels like I have been here forever, but I still have no idea what´s going on. It was SO nice talking to you last week. I miss you all SO MUCH!

My companion is Elder Dahlin. He is super patient with me, especially because I can´t speak Spanish. Haha. It´s coming. The people speak SO fast here. It´s awkward where they say something and you have no idea what they are saying and so I would just say "si". Not even the right response to their question. We work super hard here. We always walk with a purpose. Like I thought I walk fast, but no. We are almost at the point of running. I look forward to bed like no other. And then the alarm clock goes off. :) 

  

So about the area. I am in a city called Toluca. You can probably go on Google maps and find around where I live.

I live right across from a Blockbuster and gas station. We work in three areas, San Mateo, Santa Barbra, and Centro. It is pretty in a weird way. It rains EVERY day. I am so grateful for my rain jacket and umbrella. It usually starts out sunny and then rains.

People live in such different life styles. I think I am still in shock. You knock on a metal door that looks like a garage. Then you go in and it´s just walls without a roof (like a courtyard) and then you go into their house. In the courtyard, often there are multiple houses. I am so confused with who is who. Everyone is somehow related to each other. And everyone has the same name. Some parts of families are members, some aren´t. I think I have met like 5 or 6 Ceasars since being here. They all live with their grandparents and whole family. I have to practically study their names and something about them to remember. There are stray dogs everywhere. Very few Chihuahuas, surprisingly. The streets are also difficult because I´ve never heard the names because they are all Spanish names and they all look the same. Some people´s houses are super small and just tin roofs. Our apartment is mediocre nice. (see pictures, we just cleaned really well today) We DO have warm showers, which is nice. I think the mission president makes sure we do. Thank goodness.

We wake up and shower and get ready at 6:25 and then study from 7:30-10:30 and then go out and contact and meet people at their houses and teach them about the Gospel. When people tell a story or answer a question they talk a lot. I get so lost and sometimes start falling asleep. Haha. My companion usually goes ¨my companion is now going to explain...¨ and then I try to explain it and he restates it because I don´t think I made sense. Haha. We are out till about 9:30 and then get home, plan for the next day and then go to sleep. It´s interesting because when people say they will be home or will commit to doing something like going to church they don´t do it.  

We had 4 people in church this past Sunday. They average about 1 baptism a week, which is crazy! We were going to have one this week but it fell through. The ward is kind of struggling right now because they just got split. We are going to fix that... 

The people are so nice. They always are willing to listen to us. It´s hard to tell if they aren´t interested in our message though. Haha. The food is good, pretty different, but good. We have beans and tortillas ever meal. You always put the food in the tortillas. We eat breakfast at our place and then at 2:00 we eat at a members house. We may have a snack when we get home, but that´s pretty much it.

There are some rules they have here which I am not too fond of. Like we aren´t allowed to email girls outside of the family. I think we can write them, but it takes forever to get them. I think we only get mail like every 6 weeks... :(  Also they make us like glue our hair down with a part. I don´t like it that much, but we need to be obedient...

We usually start off our lessons with a hymn, which is always really nice to bring the Spirit. Elder Dahlin is from Utah and is majoring in theatre, so luckily we sound pretty good. Most Mexicans just pick a note and sing the same note the entire song.  Haha.

We have had some miracles this week. We ran into this one member girl who yelled ¨Mormons!¨ She was from Vegas and was with her cousin who wasn´t a member. We are going to try to teach her cousin. It was so nice to talk to someone in English. Right after there was this guy who was listening to our conversation (the parts that were in Spanish) and wanted to know more so we are going to teach him. I´ve definitely had some interesting experiences. There are a lot of problems here with drinking and worshipping the Virgin Mary. Very eye opening. What a different world than what I've lived. I hope to soon love it.  Anyway, that´s pretty much my first week! 

I cannot believe it has been 5 years since Clayton passed away. I have thought about him a lot lately. I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. I miss him so much and cannot wait to see him again. I miss you all family and friends! Love you!

-Elder Thomas