Fam Damily week 7

I flew into Mexico on monday night, the weather was warm and I felt really tired because I had been awake since 2 in the morning. It smelled weird, I mean the whole country, for about an hour, then I got used to it.  We landed, went through customs, and met the president, his wife, and a few of the missionaries. We took a big ghetto white van to the Mission home, which is one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen, Marble floors and stairs, beautiful wood doors, a big table. We all ate together and got to know the president and his family. He is one of those people that is a no nonsense, get to work and obey the rules kind of guys, but he does it in  very loving and personal way. He is about 50 pounds lighter now than in his picture, so I was surprised when I first saw him. His wife is the same way, they are here to work. We spent the night at the mission home, I slept in an awesomely comfortable bed and then Tuesday morning we started getting all our stuff for the mission, a few books, some medicine, and some advice. Then we took a taxi to the Intercambio or changes meeting. All the missionaries in the mission were there in a chapel, we were assigned our new companions, and we got all our luggage, and our areas and off we went. 

Elder Ryan Scott, the former assistant to the President, he is from Gilbert Arizona, he is the middle of 4 kids, and he is golden. We are assigned to the Mayorazgo stake, and the ward is called 16 de septiembre. We took a taxi to our little house, met our district leader and his comp, elder Fryer from utah and elder gutierrez from Mexico city, and got ready to go to work. Our apartment is big, but it smells like a flooded basement full of dirty socks on the main floor where there is just the kitchen and the boiler and two rooms that are being "renovated" according to the guy we rent from. the whole house is cement, as are all houses in this part of mexico. the hot water works if you leave it on for about 4 minutes, and it is suuuuper dusty, as is all of Mexico. 

Upstairs there is our bedroom with two twin beds, our shower, which isn't too gross, and our study room: two chairs two desks, a bookshelf, a fan and iron with ironing board. 

Me and my companion get along soooo good. He actually looks a lot like my brother tyler, and they are a little similar but not too much. I love my companion. 

We arrived to the area and found out we were whitewashed, which means we have no investigators, no appointments, no potential investigators, and we are starting from zero. But this week we have taught 4 lessons to members, asked eveyone we can for referrals, started talking with a less active named ricardo who is deeply offended by the ward (his mother passed away a few years ago, and many members said they would visit him and comfort them, but nobody ever did, he has a strong testimony but feels his ward has no untiy, and wants nothing to do with them right now.) another less active who reminds me of grandma carol named lulu, a very sweet woman who lives in a very humble home, she gave as cold coca cola and made us sandwiches, she is very sweet, just doesnt go to church as often as she should. We did have one lesson with a part member family. Familia monge, they are two baptized parents, with 2 kids at home who are not baptized. the daughter seems very interested and the family knows they should go to church. I think the kids will get baptized soon. 

My ward here is awesome, every single day at 2 o clock we meet up with elder fryer and gutierrez to eat a big delicious lunch, which is the main meal of the day here, not dinner, made by someone in the ward. It always consists of some sort of soup, followed by a meat entree, and vegetables or pasta. It is delicious, a little bit different, but still very delicious. the only thing I haven't like was the fried grasshoppers, that we caught ourselves, and this weird melon looking vegetable called chayote. It's just bad. But I have had, mexican spaghetti, stew, beef, poyo kentooky, (pollo kentucky, or kentucky fried chicken) little ceasar's pizza, rabbit stew, pasta, and every single meal there is a hot stack of tortillas, and some sort of citrus juice. 

We can't drink tap water so we just buy big ten gallon jugs of water at the oxxo (like a 7-11) that is right next to our house. The street food here is not poisonous like everyone says, its actually really good, there are tortilla shops, sandwich shops, taco shops, bakeries, pizza places. Some a little more ghetto and sketchy than others, but just about all of them are the same, family owned little tienda with their own little spin on things. 

The people here are so kind, they will not let you into their home without buying you food, they don't even have food at there house, they just call the nearest taco shop, or send someone to go get us food. and everyone down here loves the coca cola, they call it el poder. The power. 

I havent received any letters or packages yet, nor do I know if I will. I really have no idea how all that works yet. but I did have one letter waiting here for me from lindsie that was from my first week in the MTC. 

The work here right now is unofficially nicknamed lazarus by me and my comp. Because with the help of Jesus, we're about to raise it from the dead. And i mean total zero, no investigators, nothing. So we have work do to. 

I understand anywhere from 40 to 70 % of what people say here depending on how loud they are, how low there voice is, if they have teeth (many do not have teeth, its kind of sad, and kind of funny at the same time) and how old they are. My companion speaks really well though and understands just about everything. He helps me with anything I don't understand. 

Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and saturday were spent walking around trying to find people, old investigators that were dropped, members we could teach and ask for references, less actives we could teach and ask for references, and trying desperately to find people to teach. 

some funny things about mexico, the buses, are more like roller costers, they go as fast as they want, slam on the brakes, have no rules or person limits so people literally just hang on and stand on the steps if it is full, the drivers all have super ghetto decorations for their bus. Emily especially would think they are hilariously ghetto. there are no police here, or traffic laws, so everyone just kind of drives around however and wherever they like, especially the taxis,  Everyone here has these weird vigin mary statues, totally idol worshippers here in mexico, Everyone has super ghetto houses, with cracks, and no windows but everyone has a state of the art sound system for blasting their music. they especially like American pop music. they never take the bones out of the meat when they serve it to you, a lot of people have gold and silver teeth, if someone speaks english they just say, hello my friend, as they pass in their car, they love to eat pan or little round bread rolls about the size of a cantaloupe. they are just finishing dias de las muertas, which is a week long halloween ish celebration where people dress up and kids go trick or treating for monedas (coins) in the streets. it lasts about four days and every night we have seen little kids asking for monedas, but sadly we are to poor to give money to the kids. everything here is suuuuper cheap. I can get new blu rays for about 3 american dollars, and a new pair of dress shoes for about 50 american dollars at the department store. (There is only one near our house.)

I am doing really well, I am really happy, working hard, loving the people and the culture, feeling the spirit, and learning spanish. 

Love elder Wilson