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!