February 8, 2017

I have been on a bus all day, then we went to the store and tried to settle in, i still havent had a chance to change my american dollars to pesos which is a pain in the butt. Im going to start from sunday night, because its been quite the week. So sunday night everyone in my casita was being crazy because it was the last time most of us were going to see each other, so everyone was saying goodbye and staying up talking and stuff, and we had to leave the CCM at 1:30, so i didnt even go to sleep that night because everyone was being crazy, we got to guadalajara and president clayton and his wife picked us up and we went to the stake center next to the temple, they said they knew we were tired, and they knew we wouldnt stay awake, so they sent us on splits. I went to an area called primavera which was on the outskirts of Guadalajara city. I will send you pictures next week maybe because this computer doesnt have a USB. but anyways, Primavera was dirt streets with giant pieces of obsidian all over the place in the road, i wanted to take some and make some arrowheads, but it is probably against mission rules, and i would probably hurt myself. It was maybe the most ghetto place i have ever been, my companion said we were going to a place so hood it wasnt on the map, I thought he was joking, he wasnt. We tried to talk to this one member but the back wall of his house had just collapsed so he was busy fixing it. It was way hot, the dust was like volcanic ash so i was sweating mud. We went into this neighborhood/shanty town where the houses were made of scrap wood, on a lot of the houses the walls were just piles of rocks, the ceilings were all tarp and old cloth, some of them had cloth walls, it was crazy. The companion i was with hadnt been in his area for a week because of changes and training and stuff, so we didnt have any plans. for lunch i got some bread from this guy on the street for 3 pesos, and thats it. We didnt have any appointments so we just walked around and street contacted all day, if i had a fitbit i woulda got all kinds of trophies, I street contacted some people, which went alright, spanish is hard. For dinner we had pizza which was good, then we went back out. Being in mexico at night isnt that scary, because theres a lot of night people, but at like 7:30 after the sun goes down but before the night people come out it is really scary because everybody on the street, which is hardly anyone, looks really scary. I saw nathan schank that morning and we talked a bit, he is training and i was hoping he would train me, but hes not. Also, in our house in primavera there is this thing you plug in to get you hot water, but it kinda points toward the wall, and if youre a short mexican its not a problem, but when youre as tall as me you have to put your face on the wall to get any water. because of this i wondered if i could turn the shower head, so i grabbed the pipe, to which the electric heater was taped, and since my whole body was wet, my whole body got freaking electrocuted, so that was neat. Then the next morning we went to president claytons house and he fed us breakfast which was yummy, and then had some trainings, president claytons wife kinda reminds me of mom. After the trainings we went to the stake center and did more trainings, like safety stuff. There is a lot of wierd rules here because of the cartel, our taxi driver was telling us scary cartel stories. We arent allowed to have more than 4 missionaries together at a time because that looks like the cartel i guess. there are certain ways we answer the phone if we have been kidnapped and stuff. and if we get kidnapped, we still have to wake up at 6:30, excercise, and study as best we can, because apparently exact obedience gives you power, even when youre being held hostage. We got our assignments and i am currently in Puerta Vallarta with Elder Stubbs. we just call it vallarta here. We are opening an area, so neither of us know where we are or whats going on, which is neat, and my spanish is almost as good as his, he understands better than me, but teaching might be hard. It is hot and way humid here, i sweat a lot, and we havent even done much work yet. This week will definitely be an adventure. We met this member earlier that spoke english and she used to live in our area but she moved, but she was telling us to teach her people well and stuff, it was really cool, and she gave us some good advice. We dont have much time so i am just typing one email and copying and pasting it, so spread the love and show people. does mom have an email list? if she does i have people for her to add. I will email you each individually next P day, i love you all. take care and stuff.