October 16, 2013

Hello all you crazy hooligans... You{re probably wondering why I get to email. Its because my companion had to travel all his pday to pick me up from the mission office essentially. So we are in a cyber right now, there is some sort of crazy awesome band playing outside in the street, i just purchased bananas, tomatoes, fresh bread and cantaloupe, and I am loving Mexxxxxico. 

Run down of how things went:

We flew to Texas, had a short layover, got on the flight to Mexico, that was fun, the sun was setting for part of it and it was super beautiful... We landed, did customs and all of those lovely things, one of the elders in my district put the wrong nationality or something and so the customs people totally pulled him into scary back room and made sure he was not a criminal. Once we got all of our bags and things, we walked into the main part of the airport. We met our mission president, wife and all of the secretaries. We landed at around 8:30pm or so.

Then we got into all the cars and they took us out to eat at a restaurant in Guadalajara, I don{t know the name of it, but they have the guinness book record for fastest serving time, so that was really cool, and the food was SO TASTY. I don{t know what I ate, but it had some sort of meat and this bacon, and it was in like a soup, then there were these beans and corns sort of stuff that you ate kind of like Xanders roti. Also the horchata was super tasty.

After that, they took us to the mission office, where we had about 4 minutes to grab everything we needed to get ready for the next day. Me and 3 elders in my district walked with 2 of the secretaries to their apartment and slept there for the night. It was soooo hot, and there was a lot of sweating. But honestly, I{m starting to get used to being a sweaty mess any time I go outside. The next day, we got ready for the day, we went to the mission offices, had our trainings and things, and had a really quick interview with the mission president. 

The buses here are a riot. All the vehicles I{ve ridden in so far have been stick shift, and it seems like everyone here doesnt even try to shift smoothly, it is sooo funny, but the bus drivers here, (and everyone else) drive absolutely insane, everyone drives fast and jerky, and it so so much fun. We went to the chapel, had lunch which was like a taco salad, then we sat in the chapel and had somewhat of a devotional and got our companions.

I am stoked on my companion, he is 1.56m tall, which is not very, probably weighs about as much as one of my thighs, and is the coolest. His name is elder Lux, and he is from Guatemala and he cannot remember my name, but I love him. He is very very helpful with Spanish and does not get mad when I say "como" every second, por que he talks super fast and I can never understand him. Oh and they also gave us our assignments. This brings me to my area, which also, I could not be more excited about, Im in Morelia, it is beautiful and my area is called Camelinas. But we are in Morelia, it is beautiful but the past hour is really the only time i have seen in because we got in late last night. 

We went back to the chapel, and then we got on a bus, this bus ride seemed like it took a very long time. We got to our destination, then got on the other bus, the bus to take us to Morelia. Both the bus rides were nice, they were air conditioned, the second one was very fancy, but we were on it for 3.5 hours. Once we arrived in Morelia, we got a taxi to take us to our house. The taxi driver was so funny. I did not comprehend one word he said - he had this super high kind of nasally voice, but it wasnt wimpy, it was high, nasally, and strong - weird combination. This guy was super hunchbacked and also weighed not very much. But he was a safe driver.

We got to our house, and houses here are very different. When you walk into ours it is kind of similarly shaped to a typical family room, but the bunkbeds are right by the door, then at the foot of the beds, there are desks where we study. Then there is a small kitchen, with a small fridge, a camp stove and a sink. There are two other rooms, which are both just used as closets. I like our bathroom - it is this awful awful pink color, but I like it. Whilst using the toilet, I feel somewhat how Buddy the Elf does in the movie Elf. Our toilet is teeny tiny and wicked close to the floor.

I started to unpack last night when we got home, and then finished this morning. But last night most of our time was taken up by planning. This morning we had our typical missionary schedule of personal study, companion study, language study, and then since I{m a fresh crop, we have another hour of training, we then start our work at 1200. 

I am loving Mexico. I am not loving this keyboard, because i don{t think there is an apostrophe in Spanish, sooooo every time you see these {{{{{{{{ That means I{m trying to use an apostrophe but I can{t... I simply can{t.

We did it ladies and gentlermens estamos aquí estamis en mexico.  I{m so excited to be here. Things are different and trying to hear what people say is just crazy, but I{m loving it and cant wait for what at least the next 12 weeks in Morelia have in store. 

Love you guys all so much have awesome weeks.