July 3, 2017

Answers to your questions...Best food, we had some fried fish that were good, Elder pacheco taught me how to suck their eyes and brains out. I made arroz con leche this morning, i used 3 liters of milk, which is a lot, but it was delicious. If you sent me recipes that dont need that many ingredients, or an oven, that would be really neat. We said a prayer before we went into the abandoned building to ask if it was a good idea, and we decided it would be fine, and it was. Its really hard for the members here to get to church because it is so far away, they used to have a house of prayer, but they closed it because the church is trying to consolidate its buildings, but our attendance is a 3rd of what it used to be because people cant afford a bus to get to the church. And the bus prices this week went up 2 pesos, which is a lot. That definitely isnt going to help our attendance. We had zone conference this week and i learned a ton of awesome stuff about how we can have more faith and how we need to push ourselves harder, do more. You probably didnt listen to the right birthday song, because the one we listened to was hecka festive. This week it started to rain. A lot. Instead of being really hot, I get the pleasure of being really wet, and still really hot. Haha so this week we contacted this guy and he was outside this house up in the hills and he mentioned like 5 times that this was his house, and if we liked his house and stuff, then he invited us in, but he had a stick that was like 8 feet long and says "this is my key" he stuck it in the window to open the back door, then he runs around and lets us in, so we go in and hes telling us hes not religious, never belonged to any church or anything. but the house had santitos and the virgen all over, and we asked if he believed in the virgin, and he said no, then looked around and got flustered and said "theyre my nephews". Then we finished the lesson and left and I say, " i dont think thats his house" and elder pacheco says "not a chance". It was way funny, so then later it was night and we see a guy climbing a balcony by our house, and we get closer and see he is cutting through the bars on the window with a hacksaw, and elder pacheco says "thats his key" in reference to the first guy we met. It was so funny. Not much happened this week, we are teaching a family of 5 and thats really cool. We had a good lesson with the 18 year old daughter, she is way smart and all scientific and isnt really sure if she believes in anything, but we taught her about prayer and it was pretty powerful. We are still working on carpetas and walking a ton, we havent found anyone new to teach in a quick minute. I love you, take care, thanks for the email. I havent gotten any packages or letters yet.

June 26, 2017

AHHHH PREGUNTAS. my first birthday in mexico was just about the same as every other day in mexico. I never got grams letters, maybe tomorrow. Things are good, im loving it, my companion is awesome. The area books will take the rest of this transfer and then some to clean up, we have to consolidate the area books from what used to be 5 areas into 1 binder. Our zone only has 2 elders the same since last transfer, so we are being way obedient and its awesome. I am reading the book of mormon, with studying wherever i am led mixed in, read some new testament and doctrine and covenants and stuff. We havent taught the girl from the restaurant yet, we go back friday so hopefully we can teach her then. We are out til 9 again which is way awesome. Elder pacheco is a machine, i am learning so much from him. For service this week, HA! we got a call that an hermana needed help moving some stuff, so we plan it like a service project, we thought she was moving houses or something, we carried a walmart bag with some tomatoes and a piece of chicken like 6 blocks, but they called us they night before and were all worried so we thought it was going to be an actual service project, that was funny i guess. What worries me most? I think you should be careful not to ask questions you dont want to know the answer to momma :) Today we hiked in the rain, We hiked this mountain and explored some abandoned buildings and it was way fun. Elder Pacheco is awesome, this transfer is going to be great with him.  I have had parasites for a little while, which isnt the greatest, but they started getting worse, so me and elder pacheco took parasite medicine, its like draino, but for your body, so we slept at the church because our house only has one bathroom. That was fun because the church has air conditioning. We can stay out til 9 now, which is nice, the days we had to be in early i mostly just slept cuz i was pretty sick. But our house is so hot it was hard to sleep. Elder Pacheco is teaching me how to bailar trompo, google trompo, theyre these mexican tops but you do tricks and have wars with them, theyre way cool. I pretty much forgot it was my birthday, which was okay. We made an AC unit this week, we got a styrofoam cooler and cut i hole in the top and stuck a fan in the whole, then we cut another hole and stuck some pvc in it, then filled the cooler with ice and stuck our faces on the pvc and felt joy, that was pretty neat. Elder pacheco is a super good missionary, he asks crazy good soul searching questions and the investigators pretty much just teach themselves the gospel, its really sweet. We had a family home evening with some investigators this week, and i sang some taylor swift with their 9 year old daughter, i think were going to baptize her, and hopefully the mom too. Elder pacheco sang in portuguese which was sweet. Here people say "working like negros" and apparently its not racist, but it cracks me up when the members say it. Elder pacheco is teaching me slang in spanish so i am teaching him slang in english and its way fun, here they dont really have slang words, jsut phrases that rhyme and are funny. Elder Pacheco is also teaching me how to make peruvian food which is neat. Yesterday we went to a family home evening and they made pizza and it was so good, it was almost like i was in america, the best pizza ive had since i got to mexico, Then as we were leaving elder pacheco told them it was my birthday and they put on the birthday song, which is pretty sweet here, its called mananitas. And that was my week. Elder pacheco is way awesome, he always says stuff in english at the best times and its so funny. This week we got super duper lost, like climbing a hill in the jungle lost, nd he says "i testify with all my heart this is not the way that the hermana told us to get to her house". peruvians have this accent where they go down in stead of up at the end of the sentence and it makes it sound gangster, Its like marcus speaking spanish honestly. ill take a video of him talking. We walked a freaking ton this week, we are cleaning out the area books and walking around looking for people that half the time the address doesnt exist. Lots of walking, and its really hot, but lots of fun.

June 19, 2017

Hey momma, things are good around here. I didnt have time to read my journal today so this email might be a little lame, but elder pacheco is way cool and is teaching me all the slang in spanish, i use it with the members and they think its really funny, to get people laughing i tell them im from yucatan and when they dont believe me i tell them im more mexican than napal, they like it. Take care of yourself. This week was good, really hot. a bunch of dumbness happened, so we have a code thing in the mission for in case someone kidnaps you or something like that, and tuesday we had district class and the district leader from the other district didnt show up. so we were all a little worried, then we get a text that says come to the house, its urgent, so we call and he answers and doesnt do his end of the code, and he says ïm locked in my room, and dont know what happened to my companion" so we get the district president and go to his house and hes hiding is his room and out the window he tells us his companion is trying to kill him, so the district president made me go in first because apparently im the biggest. i thought they were getting killed but it was all for mongol. I almost killed them both. Then we had divisions because all the leaders went to guadalajara for a training so all their compaanions and i were together and i got some parasite and was dying and the were imposing all their mexican weird beliefs about health and i wanted to kill them all. thats about it, take care momma. thanks for the email. i love you. me and elder pacheco are working a lot in the area books which i like a lot, cleaning out old stuff. and we went to a fonda which is like a restaurant, but, mexican, and you sit with strangers, its hard to explaqin, but we sat with this 17 year old girl and she prayed on the food with us and was asking us doctrine questions and were going to go visit her at her house and teach her, its going to be awesome. That was neat, idk what else.