November 22, 2010

awwwwwwwwwwwwww yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wasssssssssup family?!?!?!?! some cool stuff happened this week but i wrote it all down on a notepad and right now the notepad is buried in my suitcase because im GETTING CHANGED!!!! :OOOOOOOO im writing from the offices right now. im going back to zamora-the same exact ward and area where i started my mission. crazy huh? im gonna go there and be a zone leader! i got a paper of the zone and im one of the youngest missionaries in the zone and i have NO IDEA WHAT IM DOING but oh well i´ll figure it out i guess :/ this week i was with elder rodriguez, the leetle guy from american fork that played soccer with me. it was such a fun week. hes so hilarious. i just showed him around the area and went around and met all the investigators and members and stuff. ive known about the changes for almost 2 weeks but i couldnt say anything to anyone so i was taking pictures with members and stuff and they are like ´whats going on are you leaving or something?´ haha. on monday we had a family home evening with this white lady named SALLY JOE and it was soooo sweet! ive never taught a full lesson in english and it was sooooo hard at first but after a few minutes i got used to it and it was sweet. elder rodriguez speaks english and spanish perfectly and his mom is actually from guadalajara so he has tons of family here. in our lesson with SALLY JOE she was talking to us about how mormons just look happier than other people. we gave her a scripture to read in doctrine and covenants about the light of Christ and she seriously read the first 2 words of the scripture and she started crying so hard she couldnt even finish reading the scripture. she was like 'i dont know whats happening to me i feel so WEIRD but in a good way' haha it was way cool. it was one of the most spiritual lessons of my whole mission! it was way sweet. i wish i was gonna still be in chapala to see what happens with her but OH WELL. my new comps name is elder armstrong and everyone has told me that hes way cool. im here at the offices and there are alot of my FRIENDS here that i havent seen for so long. its been way fun talking to them cuz some of them i havent seen since the mtc. i cant write too much cuz theres this training for the zone leaders that are here that i have to go to. im trying to remember what else happened this week.......UMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...oh yeah! today i sent something to you guys and for brooke in the MAIL! HOYEAH! its nothing too big but it was kinda expensive to send :/ but its cool! and dont open it until christmas or ELSE! and i sent it through fed ex so watch for it! i better go but i love you guys tons and hope you have a way good thanksgiving! write me tons this week and i´ll have some stories ready next week from zamora! LAYTUH! LUV U GUYZ! :P LOL!

November 8, 2010

OH. HI FAMILY. its me YOURRRR SON THATS IN MEXICO. first off chapala is soooooooooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeeet WE HAVE TO COME HERE. we have started contacting people on the boardwalk at night time cuz there are a lot of people and its sooo sweet. there are tons of just leetle boats floating out in the water (i have no idea why or how but everyone just leaves their boats abandoned out in the water) and there are piers and waves and palm trees. anyway so we go out on the boardwalk and piers and contact people at night. on tuesday it was dia de los muertos here. its kinda like a mexican halloween. its something that mayan people started wayyyyyyyy long ago and over the years i guess its just turned into something way huge. this is what they do. on dia de los muertos they build shrines of their
loved ones that have passed away, with candles and fountains and statues and pictures and crosses and virgens and just everything that the family member loved. the goal is to make the biggest and coolest shrine and you display it outside your house or out in the plaza. so thats the first part. the second part is that then they go to the persons grave and clean it and put flowers and stuff on it, then they BUY THE DEAD PERSON FOOD AND PUT FOOD ON THE GRAVE FOR THE DEAD PERSON TO EAT AND THEN THEY LEAVE. some people really think that the dead people eat the food so they leave all their favorite food here, and then i guess in the night homeless people just go to the graveyard and have a huge feast! but its kinda cool to see how much they love their families and people that have died. its such a big deal and they spend sooo much money buying dead people food and shrines and stuff like that. something that me and my comp have started doing is on the busses whenever we go somewhere one person gets up in the front of the bus and one person in the back and we make an announcement to everyone about how we're missionaries and what we're doing and say our testimonies. then we go person by person to see if anyone is interested. so we started doing that, then the other day we get on the bus and there was this guy on there singing with a guitar. it doesnt sound that bad, but he sings love songs and at first he sings like enrique englesias, then all of a sudden he goes SOOO LOW like will farrell when he has voice immodulation hahaha! then the other day we get on the bus and we are about to make our announcement and 2 CLOWNS get on the bus and do OUR EXACT IDEA. one goes to the front, the other one to the back, and they do like a monologue thing. they just wear normal clothes and just paint their faces hahaha last week when i bought MY SWEET NEW FAKE ROLEX i talked to the guy who sold it to me and we went and taught him this week! hes cool and his name is hector. we are teaching this other guy named luis
that we met on the boardwalk the other night. hes cool too hes like 20 or 21 and he used to be pretty CHOLO but hes trying to change and stop robbing so much. he has way bad kidneys i guess and cant be away from his house for more than 4 hours cuz he has to do dialisis all the time. i feel bad for him. AND THEN I HAD THE MOST MANLY WEEKEND EVER. listen to this. the family vazquez, well the dad armando asked if we could help him work on the MOTOR OF HIS TRUCK so of course we said yes, as if we had any idea what we were doing. so we get there and he invited us cuz the manual he had about his CARBURATEUR was in english hahahahha. so im reading these instructions and its like `make sure that the valves attached to the nozzle of the pumps are securely fastened to the bolts of the piston valve hoses...rotary....gurder...` hahah and hes like `k so what do we need to do?` hahahhahaha he wanted me to translate words that i didnt even know in english hahahaha i was like `well according to the drawing here...` hahahhaha but we got his truck working and now i know how a FUEL PUMP WORKS! how manly right? so just when i think my MANLY WEEKEND is over, yesterday after church we went with the family aguilera to their ranch to eat again where we went last week and the chickens ate our food. so we get there and guess what we did? WE CHOPPED WOOD TO MAKE A FIRE TO GRILL HAMBURGERS. i feel like the biggest man ever. the hamburgers were sooo good though for real and now i know how to GRILL STUFF. hahah i had my plate in my lap again yesterday and a chicken JUMPED UP ONTO MY PLATE AND STARTED PECKING MY FOOD hahahhaha i love going out to that ranch. the animals are so hilarious. i love you guys tons! thanks for all you do for me and i miss you tons! AND STAY OUT OF MY ROOM MANDY! just kidding thats fine. just dont let fake baby poop in there. that is sooo sweet that its a girl. there is tons of stuff here that i see that i wanna buy it like sweet mexican dresses and leetle shoes and stuff. write me lots this week! thanks for all you do for me! love you guys tons! and next time i write you ill have DIEZ MESES! whaaa???? byebye bye

November 1, 2010

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ITS A GIRL?!?!! i know that maria guadaloupe de la cruz velazquez hyer is an april fools joke so quit! ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEIRRRRRRRRRRRD TO ME! you guys are seriously gonna have to convince me that this is real. LIKE WHEN WE TALK ON THE PHONE IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS! hoyeah. holidays are weird away from home! its cool to see how they do stuff here but we dont really celebrate or doing anything. we just keep working like its a normal day. i guess in only some parts of mexico they celebrate halloween and here in chapala they celebrated it. all the kids dress up like in the states and walk around with bags and yell `QUEREMOS HALLOWEEN` and people give them candy, all the teenagers drive around and throw eggs at people, and> all the adults get drunk. last night was pretty crazy. chapala was all decorated with skeletons and banners and stuff though, so that was cool. oh and before i forget DAD YES THAT IS OUR APARTMENT! how did you find that?! hahaha thats hilarious.
So we are trying to get this less active family back to church named the familia vazquez and they are soooo cool they are one of my favorite families ive met on my mission and they have this 11 year old girl that turned 12 on friday. we wanted to get her something for her b day so we stopped at this store on the way to her house and it was sooo hard shopping for her cuz i have no clue what to buy a 12 year old girl cuz they dont like barbies but not really like women stuff either so i looked in the boys section and ya know the claw grabber things that have grippers at the end to reach stuff? there was one of those but it was A HAND hahhahaha it was soooo hilarious so we bought that for her and wrapped it up. my comp was so hilarious hes like `we thought...you might like...this arm...` hahahahhaha but we went over to their house and surprised her with it and she was sooo happy! it was one of my favorite things of my whole mission! and im not reallly sure why. all that she got for her birthday was a hamburger that her older sisters boyfriend bought her cuz her family doesnt really have any money. she kept bugging her mom and rubbing the hand in her hair and messing it up and then we ate cake together. that family is way cool i want you guys to meet them...some...time... :/ then on saturday we went to this leetle old ladys house to eat and she reminds me tons of a mexican grandma watson. her body shape and how she talks and she even has a black lab. and its named `black` hahahahahhaa anyways so we ate chicken and rice with her and she gave me a glass to fill up with a pitcher of juice and in the bottom of the glass was like a centimeter of dirty water. i couldnt really just dump out the dirty water right in front of her so i just filled it up with juice and tried to drink as fast as i could and not think about it. so i thought that was the worst part cuz the food was ok and nothing crazy happened. i feel soooo bad for her cuz her house is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sad and sooooo dirty and then she told us that she had dessert for us which was sooo nice cuz a lot of times> even the rich people dont give us dessert so you know it was a> sacrifice for her to do it. so she gives us each a bowl of jello that she had made. i started eating it and there was chunks of something in the jello, so i asked her if it was fruit or something and she said `no....` hahaha so i just didnt ask anymore questions. so we thanked her for the food and shared a scripture and left. then yesterday we ate at this farm with this family and we ate> outside and they have SOO MANY CHICKENS and there wasnt room on the table so i was eating with my food on my lap and a chicken came in between my legs and started eating the food off my plate hahahah and my comp went to the bathroom and while he was gone a chicken jumped up and just started eating off of his plate. nobody said anything so i didn't either. :/
well, i also want to let you know that i have a testimony and that i dont just eat jello all day. ive learned a ton on my mission and im not even half way done yet. something that ive learned a ton about is seriously how blessed we are. i think thats what being in this area has taught me cuz there are nice americans houses, then we go to a mexicans house just on the other side of the hill and its soooooooooo sad. theres a part of town here called `cartonlandia` because all of the houses are made of cardboard or scrap pieces of metal or plastic and ive never ever seen anything like it. i dont think i`ll ever be able to understand how people can live like how they do here. but they do it and they are SO HAPPY! the people that live in the cardboard shacks are wayyy happier than the old americans that live in their mansions. they play soccer outside in the dirt alleys that pass through the leetle town and its never ever with a good soccer ball. its always like deflated or an old boot or something but they are so happy and just love talking to people and being around one another. they are also the most generous people too. they wanna give you whatever they have even though they dont have anything. when i was in morelia i was about to finish the book of mormon in spanish but for some reason i felt like i should wait, so i waited and just studied other stuff but then the other week i was kinda bummed cuz i missed baptizing people and teaching people that had never heard the gospel before. allllll of our focus has been on less active people. so i decided to finish the book of mormon to see if it would make me feel better. i finished reading the last couple pages that i had left in morelia and i prayed. i was so happy after i had done that! my comp and i finished studying and left the house and went to work, and it was one of the happiest days of my whole mission. i miss you guys tons and think about you a lot, but i know i don't want to be be anywhere else in the world right now besides getting crappy haircuts and sharing food with chickens :/ i started reading the book of mormon in spanish again and im about half way through. doing that and then going to peoples houses and sharing it with them has been soooo cool. but i just want you guys to know that i know im not wasting my time and that i havent regretted one time coming on a mission! thanks for all you guys do for me and for writing every week! this week my fake oakley watched stopped working so today i bought a new fake ROLEX! hoyeah! anyways love you guys tons and talk to ya LAYTA!

October 25, 2010

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeello. mi famirayyy! how are you guys?? things in chapala are good. the computer im on is sooooooo horrible and keeps freezing so i gotta hurry through this while its working!!!! hahahhaah k so last week after we wrote we both needed haircuts and there was this old inactive lady that we visisted during the week and she said that she cut hair for a living and that business was kinda slow, so we decided to walk up to her house to have her cut our hair. i had a feeling it was a bad idea cuz shes so OLD and i was just unsure about the whole thing hahah but we wanted to help her out so we got up to her house and her ´salon´ is just what used to be her garage but they hung up a bunch of mirrors so now she calls it a salon hahahah anyway, so my comp didnt wanna go first and i didnt wanna make it awkward for her and let her know how unsure we were about the haircuts so i went first and sat down and told her how i wanted it but told her to do it a little bit longer than i usually do just incase something crazy happened and i had to go somewhere to fix it. so i tell her and shes like `ok sounds good!` and she puts on these HUGE glasses and shes like `if ya want a good haircut i better put these on!` hahahha i was like ohhhh no! so she puts the the piece on the clippers and right when she touched it to my head i could tell that she was buzzing it alllll off hahahhahaha i could see my comp sitting behind me in the reflexion of the mirror and he just had his hands covering his mouth and you could tell bad things were happening hahh so i just tried to talk to her and not think about what was happening, so she pretty much buzzed my whole head and then she gets to my bangs and BARELY EVEN CLIPS OFF THE ENDS hahahhhhah shes like `kids these days like to leave the bangs long and everything else short` so my whole head is shaved except for my bangs and they are the same length as before and shes like `so how does it look?!` hahahah i was like `so great! think you could...take some of the bangs off before i leave though?` so she cut a little bit more off then greased it with this nasty gel she had and then i decided i would just fix whatever i needed to at home hahahah i looked so ridiculous. so then my comp sits down and he looked so scared hahahah and hes like `i want mine a little bit longer than his` and shes like ok sounds good! and then she cut the sides exactly how she cut mine but left the top wayyy long hahahhhahahahah he looked way weird too! anyway, so we left and when we got home that night i just took some scissors and stuck my bangs up and cut the rest of them off. my sideburns are SOOO UNEVEN hahhahha she left one and then cut the other one like to the top of my ear! i look like a clown but its been a week and it has grown out and isnt so bad anymore. so we called that lady that published all the antimormon stuff and we talked on the radio on thursday! we just went through and read the article and told all the things she wrote in it that arent true and what we really believe! i said hi to you guys if you were listening! ahhhhhh i gotta say before i forget! i think the baby is a.....BOY. ahhhh i cant wait to find out! but. i got thinking about it. i know how mandy loves april fools. so im thinking this whole thing is a big joke so that when april comes and shes `due` you guys are gonna tell me the truth so i think the fake baby is a boy :) mom thats so hilarious that you went to that dinner with those guys! elder aguilar and sargent are my favorite missionaries from my generation and elder dial is cool too. he was in morelia a couple months before me and then i got to know him cuz he worked as a secretary for a while. elder nichols is cool too he was the assistant and then went home but i liked him! its weird to see pictures of him in normal clothes. elder moberg is way cool too! hes an asistant right now. yesterday 15 minutes before church started we were walking out the door and the bishop called us and said that the 2 people who were gonna give talks in spanish couldnt come and he needed us to take the time in sacrament meeting and speak, but in spanish, so we got to church and i went first and spoke again! ahha i was like `heyyy... again.. everybody` hahah! i was like ' i´d like to talk about Christ today', so it was pretty easy to take up the time. oh dad! yeah your emails work just fine and they are cool with the pictures up at the top! and the address of our house is hidalgo 269 in chapala. its a white three story building. k this computer is awful so i gotta go but love you guys tons! write me lots and let me know what your gonna name the fake baby! love you guys HASTAAAAAAA LUNNNESSSSS CUATE!