Gamberro means hooligan, but I am the only person in Mexico that uses it. I found it in two dictionaries. For a while I thought the word for hooligan was bomberro, but that is fireman. So, when you want to call someone a hooligan, be careful that you don't call them a fireman.
Happy past Thanksgiving family. That is sad business that St. George is out of the picture and in the past. But it sounds like you guys had a good time all together.
It is crazy that it is December. Yesterday, when I wrote down that it was December first that was nuts, the other nuts part is that Mexico gets cold. Really really really cold. The mornings and nights are shiver-me-timbers, but all is well. The days are lovely, kind of like that end of september sort of feel, where it is nice and warm in the sun, with some nice fresh air. Love it. I really miss the snow though.
-This keyboard is totes busticated, the Shift key and Delete key rarely work.
-Christmas lights. That is super cool that you guys got all the lights up, I feel like that usually happens later, but I don't know. Elder Lux has a fetish for christmas lights and christmas trees and tacky christmas decorations. It's super funny - every christmas tree in every house he wants a picture of the tree, and him with the tree.
-There is this ice cream place here called La Michoacana, they have the best best best ice creams, its crazy creamy and their flavors are nuts good. I had this one called rompope (I think it might be an alcoholic beverage), BUT IT LOOKED LIKE PUMPKIN, and it had raisins and was tastylicious. But yes blizzards and ice cream are lovely, because sometimes it gets real hot hot hot.
-Good news, I don't have to go to Guadalajara next week.
-So I forgot to tell you this story from one of my first weeks. In the first weeks we kept on going to a house, trying to get a hold of Vlad and C. But, they were never there, but we were always looking for them, they are inactive. Every time we passed by, I had the image in my mind for Vlad as some crusty russian dude. (This mental image came from the bike shop, either this summer or the last summer - there was a crusty old russian dude who bought a small 3500green for his grandson and some other bike for his granddaughter. Nonetheless, I was picturing crusty, grouchy, grumpalumpagous russian dude with a silly accent). After probably 2 weeks of trying to get a hold of them they finally were at their house. When they answered the door, there stood a probably 6 foot big ol muscley black man from the Dominican Republic. Vlad is sweet, he works for a bank, or something, and accents from the Dominican Republic are super.... gangster, there is no other word to describe it. So for the last probably 3-4 weeks we've been having lessons with Vlad and C semi-frequently. They had some sort of weird thing happen to them this week, where there was all this scandal stuff with money and just bad news, that scared the bejeebers out of them. Whatever happened they both instantly, FINALLY, made God a part of their lives, and God helped them out big time. Yesterday in testimony meeting, they both showed up for the first time in at least 8 weeks, and both shared their testimony, which were both incredibly powerful. (Also both of them thanked us in front of the congregation for continually visiting them.)
Couple of things I learned from this:
1. Please don't make it so that having a very serious situation with money and jail be the reason that you realize that you need god in your life. Make him part of your life always.
2. It feels marvelous to have a big beautiful black man thank you in public.
- We have been working with less active members and families a ton lately. The mission president before mine had many rules, mottos, motivations and tactics that I don't agree with. He pretty much had no rules for who you could baptize, and all he cared about were numbers, and the only thing that made you a good missionary in his mind were your numbers, and everyone wants to be a good missionary in the eyes of their president. But there are bad consequences and stories of this. Like people were getting baptized drunk, or they felt like the missionaries were making them get baptized. The result of this kind of leadership leads to TONS of inactive people. So we do lots and lots and lots of teaching to less active people. There is something about the majority of the people here that is just great, for the majority everyone is very, very, friendly, and also very Catholic.
-We started teaching a new investigator, her name issss... blanca. Her husband is a member but hasn't been active for 11 years or so. I really enjoy teaching them, they have an 8 or 9 year old and a 1.5 year old, super cute the both of them, and they are a cute family. But I love teaching them, she has a lot of questions, doubts and doesn't like to be taught with the Book of Mormon, but it's all good. Luckily Elder Lux knows the Bible like mom knows cooking. It's nuts how much of the Bible he knows. I hope that we can help her with all of her doubts because blanca and her family have incredible potential.
-Mom, about you changing your plans to help that lady, and then her bailing. I guess I got part of my frustration trait from you. It is unreal how often our appointments fall through. There are days when we have mad numbers of appointments and then nobody is in their house, or can't talk, or they have some lame excuse. I get really frustrated sometimes. But I know that is one thing that the lord wants me to work on, because it happens on the daily. Everyone here is at least 25 minutes late for everything - it's the culture.
ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS mom
-The only clothes I have purchased are ties, which I have purchased two. I will probably be looking into buying a new sweater while I'm here, one that can take a beating.
-Yes I will be staying with Elder Lux for at least until January 5th. That is when the next transfer is, but who knows if I will be transferred or what. He keeps on telling me that I'm going to train, but who knows.
-I did not have to buy blankets and pillows when I got here, I have my sheets, and my sheets, that I use for sheets, then our landlord gave us some blankets, and I have gotten really good at not using a pillow.
-The citrus here is nuts good, except all of them have seeds, but I just eat them anyways. Oranges are crazy cheep, they are usually only 1peso, or 12 cents. BUT, the oranges here are not orange, pretty much all of them are green and yellow, occasionally you'll see an orange one. Also the clementines are unreal good. The other day, a member gave us a bag full of clementines that were from her tree, and they are spectacular, like the sweetest cuties in the world. Also all the other fruit is super good and pretty cheap as well.
Sure do love you kids. If it snows any time soon, go play in the snow for me. Oh jeez, Sundance is probably going to open this week. WOOOOH!
Have awesome weeks.
-Elder Hulme.
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