September 25, 2017

I still didnt get the package, i did not feel the earthquake. Training is good, my companion is super good, super direct which sometimes make me uncomfortable, but direct is good. Who won the 5k? what is your spar class? i thought cary didnt do box for all the insurance stuff. you should send me workouts that dont involve legs, or effort. we go to church for 6 hours every week and this week i heard some cool quotes, the sound cooler in spanish, but were originally english so ill gfive you it in spanish and you can find the original. "no hay paz si no hay confianza, no hay libertad si no hay lealtad" by Gordon B hinckley. Also i have been thinking a lot about why they are so many freaking less actives and i studied in lehis dream when they eat the fruit of the tree and then leave in forbidden paths. people fall way because they fear men more than the love God. For language study my companion tells me stories of chasing girls, but he tells the stories in english which makes it 100 times funnier. His english is actually pretty good, but sometimes he speaks to me in english and i have no idea what he is trying to say. He said "lets go beach" like lets go to the beach, but with he accent it sounded like a bad word, use your imagination, and i thought i was going to have to fight him right there. this week we took a taxi from colima to manzanillo instead of a bus, which is a few hours, and the taxi driver was from the US and he bought someones social security number to try to join the airforce but the didnt let him in (obviously) and then they deported him for attempted murder, "i didnt even kill the guy, just almost, but now i cant go back like ever because apparently im a danger to society or some bull---", he cussed so much and i was dying laughing. he was a piece of work, ill tell you what, but he gave us pizza so it was chill. The other zone leader is 26 and worked 8 years as a bar tender and is super chill but he knows how to talk people up because of his work, he is super smooth and its way cool. Also, it rained a ton. Thursday night one of the zone leaders slept in my hammock outside and the other one in my bed, so i slept on the ground outside and it started raining in the night and so i went inside, but the person in the hammock didnt wake up until later when he was soaking wet and was the only one outside and he got all mad at me, idk why its my fault it rained. It didnt stop raining until yesterday in the afternoon and after our food we were walking and saw a member that is 86 helping a lady who her store flooded so we went and helped her, and she gave us a hammer and a chisel and we made drainage path things in the floor of her store so that the water would leave, that was super fun. We were talking to the lady about religion and asked the hermano to share his testimony and he said "i know the church is true, i know thomas s monson is the prophet, i cant remember much else but its all true" and  he said he got baptized with us, and said he got baptized three times and the lady said god was going to punish him for getting baptized so much, and he started to explain that that is what he thought until he found the true church, and it was so awesome, then the lady said "and which church is the true church" and the member says "well all of them" and everything went from so good to soo bad so quickly, i was laughing. Thats pretty much all that happened this week.

September 18, 2017

Hey momma, you didnt ask me a million questions this week so i dont have much to go on to write you a letter, i feel like the same thing happened this weeka s happens every week, we walked, contacted, taught a little, walked some more, it rained a bit. We were walking in an alley this week and heard someone running up behind us and so i turned and saw a 18 year old kid in a wife beater running up to us and thought i was about to get robbed, but it turns out he is a member and he just got to the area and he is in a rough spot and wants us to teach him and help him get back to the church and to God, that was super cool. We had a lesson last night which was neat. We also had our meeting with our ward mission leader this week which never happens, and i honestly have no idea what happened but he is like a different person and has a ton of ideas and is excited to help us, im not sure where that has been the last 4 months, but im not complaining. We saw some people killing a cow with a sledge hammer this week, that was brutal, they tied the halter to like a 10 foot rope and were chasing the poor thing around whacking it in the head, we contacted the supervisor. He told us he was the vet and he had to watch to make sure the quality of the meat was okay, but the work environment and the way they kill the animals he cant help, because "thats mexico". We had some cool contacts, we walk a lot, teach a little, and work as hard as we can.Thats my week. 

September 11, 2017

Hey momma, this week was pretty solid. Im still in manzanillo, we didnt feel the earth quake, we are pretty far away from it. Its hard for me to train him because since he already speaks spanish i assume he knows stuff, but sometimes i forget he doesnt know how to be a missionary. But it is good, he is super good, kinda weird. I have a leadership training thing in a couple weeks so i should get my package, that will be rad.  The water was hecka deep, idk if my videos went through. walking in water rushing up to your thighs about takes you off your feet, which makes it hard to proselyte effectively. This week we had a super awesome lesson with a family of 6 and the uncle, 7, that we are teaching. The uncle is 18 and acts like he doesnt care, but he always teaches them how to pray when they say they dont remember, because he has been praying. He also reads the stuff we leave which never happens. Like one of the daughters asked a question and he said "it answers your question in verse 5, youd know that if you read." but we taught them the plan of salvation and everything went well, and after the lesson the mom says "i have something on my mind that i know is going to keep me out of the celestial kingdom, im not married, we just live together" and we were like "well awesome, you know what you got to do", so hopefully they can get married, it was just super awesome that she understands that she is living in sin, she said so herself, and she said she prays every day that God gives her another day to live so she can get married, because she knows if she dies in her sins its bad.She is afraid of commitment, but they have 4 children, which i dont understand but whatever. Because she said shes afraid it wont work out and she knows God doesnt accept Divorce. That was the best part of the week. We also found this cool lady named Nancy that says she doesnt have a religion, but im pretty sure shes TJ because she says we should talk less about christ and more about Jehovah, but whatever. Its also hard to train because i am in charge of keeping us safe, Elder pacheco is from the hoods of Peru, and is muscly so i was never worried with him, but my new companion is  white skinned and scrawny, i feel like we look more robbable so i have to be more careful about where we go now, which is a pain that theres places we went with elder pacheco that i feel like a shouldnt take my new companion, but whatever...Thats about all i got, thanks for the email. Also, in the next package if you could send me a backpack that would be nice, because i lost mine, and backpacks here are not good quality at all. Thanks. I love you. 

September 6, 2017 Late email because of transfers

Theres a thing here to buy stuff, its called the mercado libre, free market, i think its pretty sketchy but you could try it out, im not too worried about my shoes, but my shoelaces broke on one pair of shoes like 2 months ago and i havent been able to find shoelaces, which is stinking ridiculous, so i just havent worn rhose shoes. if you send me light brown shoelaces that would be deluxe. if you could also send me my yellow jumprope i used when boxing, a little black casio watch because my watch is breaking, and like some nyquil that would be cool too. im thinking of all the stuff i should need since i never got a birthday package :p also, on the contents sheet when you send the package, just put missionary supplies and they dont ask too many questions. If you send it through fedex you dont have to put jesus pictures on it either. This week it rained a lot. like up to my thighs, i think it was hurricane lidia, thats what ive heard, but obviously we dont have the news, all i know is it was really windy and rained a bunch. It was insane. Me and elder pacheco cooked some fish and it was so good, and we made yellow rice with peas and carrots and corn. that was the most exciting thing that happened, we also had a district activity and an elder that was a graffiti artist in argentina made us a giant sign with chalk and we made an 8 foot tall book of mormon and contacted people, it was cool. When elder pacheco left i stayed with some other elders and we didnt accomplish much, i havent been in my area to work since forever. wednesday the water was up to my thighs so we had to go in our houses for safety, thursday we had planning all morning, friday we spent the entire day at the activity, and saturday until today i havent been in my area because i had to go to guadalajara and a bunch of junk happened. so i dont have tons to tell you, we found a really big scorpion and i took pictures of it. I've been pretty sick this week, hermana clayton noticed when we were in our training for trainers so she bought me medicine and some centrum vitamins, and a maruchan and some orange juice, shes the best. idk if the vitamins are any good but theyre better than nothing, they arent gel. Ask cary what ginseng does. I love you

August 28, 2017

Holy smokes thats a lot of questions. remember momma, you raised me right, i can take care of myself. also you can probably send my shoes together, but send it FedEx, if you send them FedEx it comes fedex the whole way, mexican fedex gets here was fast and reliable, like 2 weeks, but the mail system of mexico is a garbage, so if you send it through the normal mail it probably wont get here. my shirts are good, washing them by hand gets them wayyy cleaner than a machine ever can. You are finally sending me underwear? i just sent money with the secretaries to buy me some, but send it anyways because it wears out fast. i dont need socks, i havent had time to get vitamins yet, and rama means branch. Im still in manzanillo, transfers arent til next week. elder pacheco is just fun, and familiar. with other companions i was slow to get to know them and like proper and kinda shy ish and stuff, but elder pacheco is super chill and gets to know you quick and is easy to be comfortable around. he taught me bunches of stuff, mostly spanish. Tender mercy this week was our lesson with this family, of 7 we are teaching, they used to be testigos but not anymore because those dudes are crazy. Umm last week the satelite crashed with the moon because of the eclipse and the entire state lost wifi. We did service making a fence for a widow out in the middle of nowhere, today we are going to go make some stairs for her so she can get up the hill to her house. carrying cement up a hill should be fun. Today we went and climbed on these rocks out on the ocean, which im not sure is completely allowed, but it wasnt beach so whatever, we went with some members. nothing much really happened this week. my shoelaces broke like a month ago but i havent been able to find new ones so i just havent worn those shoes in a while. I cleaned our yard, we always sleep up all the leaves that fall but i pulled some weeds and trimmed the trees with my machete, i think i already told you we have a hammock, but its cool. thats pretty much all i got...we had a FHE this week, there is an hermana less actice that we have been teaching since i got here. Her family is sealed in the temple but her dad sold drugs and they were trying to kill him so he had to hide in the house all day, but while he was hiding he was cheating on his wife, so he left and lives in some other state now, and her sister is 14 and pregnant and her mom is kinda crazy, but she FINALLY is going to church, and mutual, and teaching classes, and inviting memebers to her house to get to know her family because she wants her whole family to go back to church, but her whole family just kind of tears her down like "why do you go to church if you come home and arent living a perfectly christian life" which is way stupid and frustrating because they are all inactive and dumb and they tear her down for trying to be good, but whatever. BUT she is finally going to church which is way super awesome. I love you

August 21, 2017

hey momma, i have like 18 journals, i am probably not going to use them all. The fence lady was indeed a member, an active member too, which is hard to find. I mostly just knew, pretty much all my spanish is the gift of tongues, but i remember the stuff i learn really good, this week i said soldering gun in spanish and afterwards i was like "how the heck do i know the word for soldering gun". Gustavo goes to church with his wife and his family. the branches are still just dying slowly. this week we talked to our ward mission leader, and he said the work isnt progressing so he feels...lazy? (desesperado) and so he doesnt do anything. and hes right, we have 0 investigators that are progressing, and it sucks, but we still work freaking hard every day, without the help of the ward mission leader. My singing partner? whats that? I do pushups and abs and i starting doing jumping jacks, maybe if i do more cardio ill stop getting fat. budgeting is good, i am saving money good, i have like 1000 pesos saved. Elder pacheco leaves Friday. Its still hot around here, not much has been going on, walking a lot, working hard, not that much noteworthy stuff happened. We did a district activity and me and elder pacheco made a big book of mormon which was rad. We are teaching a family of 7 which is rad, but the freaking parents arent married. they dont get married because of the commitment. you have 5 children from the age of 16 to 8. thats not a commitment or anything. freaking dangit. But other than that they have a lot of potential, they used to be TJs but then they realized those dudes are crazy and right now they arent going to a church. There dog got hit by a car so we were praying for it, and told them if they had faith God could save it if it was his will,k but then their dog died. She told us the same thing happened with her baby, she didnt have enough faith and thats why it died. next visit we are going to teach the plan of salvation and it will be awesome. The rama manzanillo has been helping us out a bit by having FHEs with less actives that we are trying to activate. It is wild here to see people so strong in the church with families and everything that fall into drugs and it just ruins their lives. We have this one guy who wants us to help all his addict friends, but he is an addict and doesnt want our help, and doesnt really want to return to church, which is sad. We also had an FHE for rama brisas but we were at a baptism so we showed up late and ate the food, and after the food they were going to clean the church, but we had to leave to get home on time because the church is like an hour away. I felt like a bum but it was whatever. you should ask Cary why im getting fat, i walk a ton so i get hungry, but im not burning that many calories, im going to start eating less tortillas,and i got steel cut oats and tuna to eat for breakfast and dinner, so hopefully i can get swole.

August 14, 2017

Pday was good, we cleaned our house really good and rearranged our kitchen, we stole a table from the church, which i kind of bad about, but i feel less bad because now i dont have to prepare my food on an ironing board anymore. but now our kitchen is way nice because we have a table and rearranged everything. Did i already tell you we hang a lot of our food from a clothes line we strung in our kitchen, that way the ants dont eat all our food. its manzanillo, not manzanilla, manzanilla is spanish for chamomile, silly head. Teaching is good, we are still working like slaves. We taught this guy named Gustavo, he has been going to church for 3 years with his wife but hes atheist, he tried to out science me, but i spent a lot of time arguing with ****** about religion, so i smoked that dude in all the science points he tried to bring up, i think he was really impressed that we arent just dumb kids who are only out here because of family pressure, but he realized we actually know stuff. That was probaly my favorite lesson of my mission so far honestly. But hopefully we can teach him some more about faith and get him baptized, he says the church is perfect, the only flaw he has been able to find is that everything is based on faith, and there is no way you can no for certain, we taught him that thats kinda the point, but he is still skeptical, which is whatever. I sewed my pants to make them bigger this week because im getting fat, i was pretty impressed with myself that i figured out how to sew my pants, but pretty not impressed with myself that im getting fat. Ha, funny story, so sunday, we left our house and were walking down the street to catch the bus to church, and the guy walking in front of us was smoking weed, which isnt anything out of the ordinary, and then i look up the street and see two army trucks full of dudes with rifles, also not anything out of the ordinary, but then the trucks stop and they all jump out super fast mode and take down the dude who was smoking weed, and we are all of a sudden surrounded by like 10 people with assault rifles. And they start patting this guy down, and IDing us, but i left my ID in the house, which is the first time ive left my id in the house my whole mission, so the dude is yelling at me, and im apologizing for not having my id. but they didnt kill us and everything was fine, definitely woke me up though. On monday we climbed cerro del toro, a really big mountain here in manzanillo, we went with some members and they said it takes 2 hours, it took us like 6 hours. It was super fun though, we didnt take water and i was super thirsty, so we drank out of this little muddy stream, they told me it was safe because its running water, which i am 100% true thats not scientifically proven, but i drank it and didnt die yet. I also caught a snake which was cool, everyone was impressed with my manliness, im pretty much bear grizz out here (thats the guy from survivorman right?) I also climbed a vine, they tried to teach me how to tell the difference between a vine that is solid and you can climb, and vines that will fall when you pull them, i couldnt really tell the difference, but the people here know how, which is cool. On tuesday we went on divisions to Barra de Navidad, there arent members there so we had to make our own food, and they had fish that some guy gave them, but they didnt know how to clean them, so i taught them how to clean fish and i cleaned like 20 little fishes and then we ate them and they were delicious, i still dont really love to eat the eyeballs, but i do it because mexico. Also, we were teaching a lesson in a little pueblito in our area and we saw a chicken freaking out, and we didnt know why, so we look and theres a scorpion, and then the scorpion stung the chicken and the chicken died,i didnt know scorpions were that dangerous, and then we went to build a fence for this lady, which was really fun, but we had to clear out the brush with machetes because it was really thick, and they told us to watch out for scorpions and i was careful because i didnt want to die like that chicken. And the ground was straight rock so to make holes for the fenceposts we had to pound through with a bar just chipping away little by little, and it was a lot of work but it was fun, i love doing service, especially manual labor stuff, i which we had more opportunities. We also did some painting this week which was fun. Hey, so this week i have been working out really hard so that i stop getting fat, but it is hard to motivate myself, so i was thinking for christmas you could send me an ipod stocked up with music, we can listen to disney music and instrumental, so just get instrumental remixes of pump up songs, like piano guys and pentatonix and stuff, the rules are pretty loose on music, but i want it for the purpose of working out, so think pump up,if you could put skye and baylee and andrew in charge of that that would be great, and an aux cord so i can plug it in to my speaker. I know its only august, but you have time to stock music, and send it so it gets here before christmas, and if you could also send me a nice mission belt that would be nice, one that the wet and sweat wont make the paint stain my shirt, but one thats not crappy synthetic because those get destroyed out here in like 5 minutes. Also, i already said i have been stupid tired all the time, but i think i am going to buy some vitamins, if you could study what vitamins are good and then i will buy them here that would be great, but not iron, that helped you but it wont help me. Ask cary maybe or something, idk, but i would love to here about the vitamins next week. thanks a ton, i love you.