October 11, 2010

herro me famirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDDDD . k. sorrrry for not writing last week we had to go to guadalajara for pday to get some more stuff from the offices that we needed to get things started here in chapala. we got there and spent all pday MAKIN COPIES of stuff and getting all the stuff we didnt have. i still bought a tie though :O ummm so yeah we didnt have anytime to do anything else then that night we got back here to chapala at about 1030 and i was soooo exhausted. we took a taxi from the bus station to our house and we always talk to the taxi drivers about the gospel and the things i was saying didnt make any sense i was like ´so...you believe in God?....` hahaha this week was way crazy too though i dont think ive ever been so tired in my life. we leave early and get home late and then sleeping is the best thing. this town is hilarious. its like 30% white OLD people and they dont speak any spanish so on busses and stuff they just yell ´I WANNA GET OFF!´ hahahahhaha they are all way ornery it seems like and always wear hawaiian flower shirts and stuff like real retired people hahahaha its so funny. theres this couple named jim and joan REED and he is soooooo ornery and mean and shes the sweetest old lady ever hahaaha they had us over at their house this week for lunch and we got there and the lady was like ´IM SOO SORRY I FORGOT THE POTATOES!´ and jim´s like ´DAG NABBIT JOAN you ALWAYS do this!´ hahahahhaha me and my comp were just trying to make her feel better and my comp has to try to speak english its sooo funny hes like ´eets okay seester reed...´ hahahahhaha ohhh i wish someone was here to see what i live every day! hahaha one day this week my comp got sick at about 730 at night so we went back to the house and he got in bed and i finally just had time to sit and think. it felt soooo good i didnt sleep or anything i just sat in a chair for ever and just let my brain stop for a leetle. so i guess the sunday before we got here only 11 people came to church and you should see the church its so leetle so anwyays me and my comp worked and went with as many people as we could and talked to soooo many people and yesterday there were 50 people at church! it was way cool. it was testimony day and people kept saying in their testimonies how happy they were to have missionaries here haha it made me happy so that was cool. so on saturday we decided to dedicate the area and we wanted to do it on top of this mountain that over looks all of chapala and the lake and stuff and its kinda by our house so we looked around for a little bit for a trail and never saw one, so we decided to just start hiking which was the worst idea EVER hahhahahaha it was seriously like a jungle. ya know how in the movies theres the long vines that hang down and they cut them with machetes? those really exist and it really would have been nice to have something to cut them with haha so it was soooo thick with trees and weird animal sounds and soo humid, and as we got closer to the top it was getting steeper and steeper and i seriously didnt know if we were gonna get to the top but we finally did and my comp was sweating so bad hahah we got to the top and hes like `are you keeding me?` hahahaha but when we got up there the view was SOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOL ohhhh my heck we took some pictures then said a prayer to dedicate the area. we looked around up there for an easier way down cuz there was NO WAY we could get back down the way we got up and sure enough there was this nice leetle trail and some parts even had STAIRS hahhahahahahahhahahaha like remember the movie almost heroes when chris farley goes through all that to get to the beach and there was a little path the whole time? it was EXACTLY like that haha but when we come back here we have to hike up to the top cuz its so cool ill try to send some pictures really quick. its been weird eating with the members here cuz they are either way rich white people that take us to restaurants or have us eat at their house with all their way nice dishes and stuff, or we eat in little concrete huts with the mexicans and something the mexicans do here that they didnt in morelia is they dont use utensils its so weird but its kinda fun to me now. like saturday we ate with a mexican family and we had chicken (i think :/ ) and beans and rice and no utensils at all haha so you just pick everything up with your fingers haha i kinda like it better. anyways thanks for all you guys do!!!....love you guys tons and miss you lots! write me this week and i´ll seeeeee yaaa layyyyturrrr!

September 30, 2010

herrrrrrrrrrrrrro familrrrrrrrryyyyyyy!!!!! ha k i have lots of things to EXPLAIN. hahah ok so last week on sunday me and my comp get home from working and we are getting dates together and everything and we talk to the zone leaders at like 11 and they said that president was sending me to open up a new area called chapala. no body knew really where it was or what it was like so we got asking and its like 45 minutes south of guadalajara. they said that i had to pack and be at the bus station at 830 monday morning. so i got all my stuff packed and i have so much crap! ayways it was way sad cuz me and elder smith got along way good and i loved our ward and just everything. jose luis came over and helped me pack until about midnight then he went home. in the morning tomás came over to say bye and it was so sad hahah i didnt really know how attached i was to these guys haha anyways so jose luis drove me to the bus station and then my new comp got there named elder GONGORA from cancun. hes...coooooool.....hahahha :/ hes big and round and has about a year in the mission. from there i had to say bye to elder smith and that was sad but we rode on the bus to guadalajara and got to the offices and just ended up hanging out there all night cuz president wanted to explain stuff to us but couldnt until tuesday, so we spent the night at the offices then in the morning we got ready and the president came. he took us into his office and talked to us about chapala. he said that the ward here speaks ENGLISH and that makes it so that the mexicans dont wanna go to church so there are tons and tons of inactive mexicans and only like 25 people that go to church in total, so we have to go to the inactive mexicans houses and get them to come back to church and as soon as we have a big enough ward they are going to split it into 2 branches-one english speaking and one spanish speaking. he looked at us before we left and he´s like ´this assignment is the most important thing thats happening in our mission right now. dont let me or the lord down.´ hahahhahahahahahahahahahhahha i was like ´ughm. k.´ so the secretaries drove us in the van the 45 minutes from the offices to chapala. we were on the way there and there was a part where you drive over a hill and you can see all of chapala and it felt like something on a movie hahah its the prettiest place ive ever been in my whole life i think. the town is built on the banks of this HUGE lake and then the town is surrounded by these HUGE mountains that are soooooo GREEN they are covered in those rain forest type trees and they are soooo cool. when they bought our apartment they thought that there was gonna be 4 missionaries, but its just me and my comp so we have this huge apartment thats sooo sweet all to ourselves haha its so cool and it overlooks the lake. its so sweet here we HAVE to come back and visit i just wanna go swimming in the lake or just go to the beach or something cuz theres all these piers and the whole town is covered in palm trees and stuff. the reason that the ward speaks english is cuz a lot of old people move here to retire so all the members are either inactive mexicans or 90 year old white people hahahhhah when we got here we put all our stuff in the apartment then went to the church (which is the size of the gym of our church) and met the bishop. hes this 85 year old white guy named DON WYVELL hahahhaahhahahahhahhh ohhhh my gosh me and my comp have been so weirded out hahah so we talked to him for a while on tuesday and got some ward lists printed out but everything here is such a mess. its been hard cuz neither one of us knows where we are and our house is way dirty and has nothing so we had to get all moved in and today we cleaned all morning, and we had to buy a bunch of stuff that all the houses need and its just been a way long process. yesterday we set up an appointment with this lady named sister EDNA hahha so we went to her house and shes this 88 year old white lady that lives in this gated community and its soooo nice hahahah oh my gosh im moving here. so we talked to her then she invited us to ´supper´ hahahah so we went with her and 2 of her mexican friends that she invited and we went and ate at this outdoor restaurant that was sooo good oh my gosh. it was so funny cuz they all 3 were so old and the mexicans dont speak english and she doesnt speak spanish so they just yell back and forth in their native language trying to get their sentence across hhaha ohh my gosh its so funny. so she bought us hamburgers there and i seriously am so bad at speaking english i feel like this biggest idiot hahahah she was asking me about the family and about the mission and i wasnt making any sence im gonna be so dumb when i get home. me and my comp have been working way hard im exhausted just cuz theres so much stuff to do. last night we were up late trying to get these ward lists figured out and where people live and trying to get to know everyone and get the house set up but at the same time trying to find new people to teach and baptize its been stressful but its been good. anyways so thats whats going on with me hahah my comp is freaking out cuz we go places and 3/4 are white people speaking english hahahahha it really is so weird. its way cool here though you guys have to look it up on google or google earth or something cuz it seriously looks like a place out of a magazine. i havent really been able to take very many pictures cuz we´ve been way busy but i´ll try to take some more before i write again on monday. wish you could be here in paradise with me but....love you guys tons and look up chapala! your gonna die hahah love you guys BYEBYEBYEB!

September 20, 2010

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it feels like this computer is my best friend cuz i use the same one everyweek. it was the 200th anniversary of mexicos independence on i think the 16th. its hard to really know cuz they do all the celebrating on the 15th. on the 15th we had a huge party in our church it was soo hilarious hahah me and elder smith sang and wore those fake moustaches. there were all these people singing and we did the ´grito´ its way cool its when everyone yells ´VIVA MEXICO! VIVA MEXICO!´ hhaha its hard to explain but everyone just screams its way cool. after that they had food and dessert and drinks and stuff it was funny. i was gonna tell you guys last week but i decided not to until independence day had passed, but i guess that on the 15th of september is when people here like to KILL white people hahaha but...kinda for reals hahahahahah and every year all the people go to the cathedral in centro and celebrate until midnight and there are thousands and thousands of people there and i guess last year someone through grenades into the crowd and a bunch of people died :/ we had to stop working early on the 15th. haha but im still alive so thats good. right now we are just looking for new people to teach mostly. we found some more new people this week that are kinda cool. we talked to this girl named estefanie a couple months ago, then when we went by her house she wasnt there, so we thought she just didnt wanna talk so we havent gone back to her house, but this week we went to the house of that family that got deported and those guys werent home, and when we turned to walk away we saw that estefanie girl walk into her house across the street. we decided to go over there and talk to her so we went and knocked on the door and she opened up and we talked for a while. shes like twenty so we started asking who else lives there with her and she said that she used to live there with her mom and dad, but then they got divorced, then about 2 months ago her mom went to have a surgery and something went wrong and she ended up dying. she said thats why she invited us over the last time cuz she wanted to know more about God and stuff it was so sad so we got talking and we´ve visited her a few times this week. she just lives there with her little sister thats like 18 its way sad but we´re teaching her.... anywayyyys oh yeahh hahahhahahah k so yesterday we were walking to church in the morning and we walked over there with that homeless guy pepe cuz he always just walks and talks with us, so we keep walking and he always just leaves us at the gates of the church but never wants to come in, so yesterday i asked him to tell me a story and he was just talking and talking and i dont think that he realized it, but we walked into the church and sat down in sacrament meeting hahahaha he finished his story and then we were just in there and it started, and he stayed for the whole thing hahah he smells bad :/ but he didnt yell or anything he just sat by me all calm the whole time. he started taking off his jacket and he wasnt wearing anything underneath so i had to stop that, but other than that he was good! he left right after sacrament meeting and went and layed down out in the street again, but that was kind of a cool thing that happened haha i love pepe. my comp is going to guadalajara today for some conference things and im staying here again with elder DOGOOD hahaha and his new comp elder glazier. oh yeah! the gomez family got baptized yesterday! it was way cool. all 5 of them got baptized. the coolest part was that we invited other hermanos to baptize with us, so hermano navarro baptized the dad, tomás baptized the mom, my comp batized the daughter, i baptized the son and the bishop baptized the littlest girl. it was way cool. after that we had to empty the pila with buckets agian so that part wasnt way cool, but it was way cool seeing a whole family get baptized like that again. i think thats....ALLLL...write me tons this week and have fun. love you guys tons! byebeybyebyebye

September 13, 2010

herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro my fammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmiry!!! this week we worked with that same gomez family getting them ready for their baptisms this sunday coming up. so you guys remember ruth? the lady that got baptized a couple months ago and has had some DEMON problems in her house? anyways so this week she called us one night and asked if we could go over there to her house, so we go over there and are talking to her outside her house for a little and says that shes been having more demon problems. she said that its only in her bedroom, but that the night before she got woken up and could hear a guy and a lady laughing and saying that they hated her and all these swear words and stuff so she prayed and it all got better, but that weird stuff like thats been happening lately. so we cant go into houses if theres not a man there, so we called an hermano and had him come over so we could go in. so we talked for her for a second downstairs in her living room and she told us some more weird stuff thats been happening, then we went up into her bedroom to give her a blessing and to bless her bedroom. it felt soo weird in there. we had her sit down on her bed and we gave her a blessing, then we all kneeled down and the hermano blessed her bedroom and said for all the evil spirits to leave. i was just looking around during like ´is this really happening?´ hahaha but anyways that was something different that happened this week i guess hahah but what else...oh yeah on saturday we had this address of a lady we contacted in the street so we went to her house to visit her and shes like ´hey im glad you guys came i want you to meet my son´ so he comes to the door and its this drunk kid that speaks english and always yells swear words at us in the street hahah so he comes to the door and hes like ´ohh...hey...´ hahah so we went inside and it was actually a way sad story cuz they had gone to the united states like 17 years ago but illegally. the kid is my age that always yells swear words, and he has a 13 year old brother that was born in california. so they start talking to us and i guess that the kid thats my age got into trouble there with the law and they found out that their family was there illegally and they ALL got deported back to mexico. the dad and mom both lost their jobs and had to come back. the kid thats 13 was born there so speaks english perfectly but doesnt understand ANYTHING of spanish and is way frustrated and has to go to spanish schools but doesnt understand anything, so in the lesson we had to speak in spanish, then translate everything for him into english. it was kinda cool cuz it was way harder for me to explain stuff in english than it is in spanish haha one time i explained something in spanish then looked at him to tell him in english and i had NO IDEA what to say hahah it took like twice as long. anyways that was just a way sad thing that happened cuz they said they were way happy in the states then all cuz that kid got into trouble the whole family got deported. oh yeah and another depressing story! ready? k so yesterday at church the CASE family didnt come, so the bishop told me he felt like we needed to go visit them. so he took me and we did divisions and elder smith stayed at church. so during sunday school me and the bishop drove to the case´s house and knocked on the door and no one answered, so we got back in the car and on the way back to the church we passed mirella and saraid´s house, who got baptized about a month ago. they hadnt come to church either, so the bishop pulled over and we went to go visit them. we knocked on the door and mirella, the mom opened the door. she looked SOOOOO BAD she had this huge black eye and her face was all cut up and her lip was all swolled and about the whole right side of her face was bruised she looked wayyy bad and its sad cuz shes like 60 and OLD, so we went inside and got talking to her and she said that the night before she was walking home from work and it was dark and she tripped and fell and landed right on her face and went to the hospital and her head is cracked and all this stuff, and that if she starts feeling nausious she could die and all this crazy stuff, so the bishop told her we could give her a blessing and she was crying way hard and said yeah and that she had been praying to feel better, so me and the bishop gave her a blessing and she was crying so hard and thanked us so much. so we left the house and we got back in the bishops car and we started driving and hes like ´you see why we needed to leave church today?´ it was way sad but it was cool to be there to help her out and talk to her and stuff. we went and visited her after church and she said that she felt so much better and she looked way better too. i think i always write way sad things hahahhaha ummm oh yeah! I HAVE 8 MONTHS TODAY! HA! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. we´re finding cool new people to start teaching....oh! i wanna buy a turtle way bad! theres this place in our area and they sell these LEETLE turtles hahaha they are sooo sweet! and they´re only like 35 pesos! i think thats about it! i finally got my hair cut last week so that was good....i think thats about all! thanks for writing me and being my PEOPLE! love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 6, 2010

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii my leeeetle fammmilyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im in MEXICO. hey! i remembered the leelte paper thing to write to you guys so i have some stuff this week! sorry last week was kinda lame. except for the baptizms! haha BUT. k remember the guy eduardo thats cool that got baptized this week? he hasnt been going to school this week and we asked why and he said that its cuz it got taken hostage haha we were surprised and stuff and he told us that it happens at about this time every year. its a UNIVERSITY and someone takes it hostage every single year hahaha its kinda turning into a normal thing i guess and people leave on vacations and stuff cuz they shut the school down for like a month. what else....oh yeah, so theres tons of fake stuff here but they use the same logo, like nike and rolex and all of that but its pretty crappy quality but it looks pretty much the same, anyways this guy elder lopez in our zone has shoes that are ´dr. martinez´ hahahahha like dr. martens? hahahaha i thought that was pretty funny but no one else really did hahah oh well. oh and dad! i never really answered your question about bistek haha yeah we eat that all the time here. did you try it?? i like it a ton. it just tastes like stake, but its like paper thin. i think mom would love it hahah actually mom i think you would like all the food here. they dont put too much meat on the tacos and they are always spicy. i think im ruining my stomach haha i eat spicy food every day and i guess that gastritis (its the same in english right?) is way common here for that :/ And theres lots of dead dogs here. hahaha and they are all so nasty looking and no one cleans them up. The other night our buddy tomás took us out for tacos and he bought us tacos de buche, and if i understood right, its pigs entestines hahah but they were way good. Right now we are looking for new people to teach cuz pretty much everyone that we´ve got right now isnt really progressing or has gotten baptized, so we contacted ANOTHER GUY that owns a popsicle store and hes COOL again! ahhaha we get so much free ice cream here i love it and its homemade and way good. yesterday we set a fecha with another family of 5. theyre name is the familia gomez and their way cool. we set the fecha for the 19th. We worked way hard in july and our zone baptized 9 people and 5 of them were ours! again we worked way hard in august and our zone baptized 15 and 6 of them were ours so the work is good and that was cool! we played soccer today in that indoor place with our zone it was fun. ashley´s cuñado, jose luis and his dad came and so did eduardo it was way fun. well i love you guys tons and miss you lots! oh yeah! and yesterday the case family and eduardo all got confirmed and it was cool cuz we asked hermanos of the ward that had never done a confirmation to do it and they were way excited cuz they might have never been able to do somthing like that. anyways the hermano that confirmed eduardo blessed him to be able to go on a mission one day, but i dont think he knew that eduardo´s 26 and has an 8 year old daughter :/ hahha but oh well. love you guys tons and write me NOW! bye bye bye byebeyebeyebeye