June 13, 2017

I got the package, thanks a ton, the sourpatch kids and the twix were bomb, good call, and the jerky too, mexicans had never tasted jerky and it blew all their minds. I liked the drawing, have you been practicing? i liked that their wasnt a note on it or anything, just random scriblles. Thanks for the protein powder too, my new companion is from peru and he is swole, hopefully he teaches me his ways and the powder can help. I think so, who knows. That cambio is in the rearview so were just going to go forward with it and get back on track. This week elder ramirez asked me my favorite last name and i said sommer, so he wrote elder sommer on tape and put it on his plaque and was elder sommer, the new elder to the zone and i had to lead him and train him and he acted really stupid and it was really funny and really frustrating, but it helped a lot to get me ready to show the area to elder pacheco. This week i learned if the senora is cooking in clay pots you are about to get some crazy delicious food. We ate some bomb mole this week. This week we had a contacting activity with the other district and all the young women from the district, the young women sang and we contacted, this guy was setting up some stuff to sell and was setting up speakers, so we asked him if he could wait qa little before playing music, and he offered that we could put our hymns on his speakers, which was way neat. and after, they set up a tiangis and set up a huge dance and music in the centro, because thats how mexico works, so you couldnt hear our hymns so all the young women went out and helped us contact, it was sweet. We met this familia who seem like members, and they used to be active but they fell away because of some apostasy going on, but they were never baptized, so we have been visiting them and they are way awesdome, they already know about the church and they seem like members. they are so nice, and they have a special sun thats 5 who cant talk but he is so funny. I bought an ipoid this week, in case youre wondering why i spent 1800 pesos on my card. On friday we saw a dog fight, it was wild. We were visiting a less active and eating breakfast and we hear all this barking and squealing like someone was dying, so we went outside and this pitbull had a little terrier by the head and was shaking it like a rag doll and it was bleeding everywhere, we threw rocks at the pitbull until it dropped it but we were too late, i felt like i was on the animal planet. Also, we had some pretty wild partys this week. the mafia is doing...spring cleaning, so we have to be inside at 6, which is awful because the way the moon and the tides and the time of month and the 46th parallel, a wormhole appears in our apartment which takes us to the surface of the sun. It is so hot. But anyways, because we had to be inside at 6 some other elders came over, because being in your house that long is way boring. In our boredom elder ramirez taught me how to machete and i macheted all the hill down below our house and it looks way nice. Our colony is on a hill so the houses are all just built on top of each other and you get around on stairs, theyre called favelas, people say theyre like the favelas of brazil, i havent looked it up, cuz im not allowed, but look up favelas of brasil and i think youll get a good idea of where we live. But were at teh bottom of the favelas so theres some hill below our house and some trees, we have a little yard thing, and i macheted it real nice. Then we played baseball with the machete and almonds, but i was the only one who could hit them, and the mexicans were all way impressed with my american baseball prowess, and then i showed them how you put your forehead on a broomstick and spin to get dizzy and then race, so we did that too. Then the night of transfers some elders from the outlying pueblos came to stay the night so they would be closer to the busstation because they had to leave at 3 in the morning. And since they had to leave at 3 we had an all nighter, we played uno and they told us funny stories of their area, because pueblos are always full of apostasy. Then we playerd hide and seek in our 1 room apartment, the seeker had to close his eyes and he had a stick to get around like a blind person and to feel around for us. it was so fun. I also finished reading jesus the christ last night, so i have officially read the entire missionary library and the book of mormon 4 times since i have been out. Elder pacheco my new companion is way sweet, he is district leader and is ready to work, i cant wait. it is honestly going to be like were opening an area because we wasted so much time last transfer we dont have tons of investigators, but im excited to get working.

June 5, 2017

Yes i am still keeping a good journal. I have been praying that we can work hard and be obedient and not die. Elder Ramirez is pretty cool, he taught me how to do a rubix cube, and he taught me a lot of spanish, and he knows how to sew pretty well. Transfers are sunday, president already told elder ramirez hes leaving. This week we had interviews with president and they challenged us to read the book of mormon and mark certain topics and to pray that we can atune ourselves to heaven and pray for personal revelation, which has been going pretty awesome. They also did an accounting to make sure we are doing everything we are sposed to that they can check, like if we have memorized what we need to memorize, and studying what we should and all that nice stuff. This week we made friends with a group of like 8 kids that were walking around with boxes on their heads with eye holes and mouth holes cut out pretending to be robots, that was pretty funny. We also went to a cocodrilario with a member, thats why i emailed early in the day last week, he offered to take us, 4 missionaries and him, in a 5 seater car, perfect. oh ya, and his famliy of 5, oh ya, and the neighbor kids. We had 12 people in a 5 seater car. We took a picture of us 6 in the back seat, with all the kids in our lap, and me holding the missionary handbook open to the page that says we shouldnt let kids sit on our lap. It was an adventure for sure. I held a 4 year old crocodile, and they dont have safety rules here so i put him around my neck, ill send pictures next week. Also, some fool secretary ordered put in an order of soy mormon pass along cards for 20,000. Little did he know it was 20,000 boxes, not 20,000 cards. They dont have room to store that many boxes, they are coming out of our ears, we have so many. Needless to say that cuate is no longer a secretary. He is now serving in the middle of nowhere as the branch president. After district class we made brownies and they were so good, and we had eggs left over so we played catch with them, they ended up all over everywhere but it was fun. Also, one day this week we were walking for a billion hours and we were tired so we sat down at a busstop and then elder ramirez sarcastically set out some pamphlets like the jehovahs witnesses do, and then we started giving them out and talking to people at the busstop, and contacting people in the cars at the red lights, it started as a joke but we got some good contacts and it was actually way fun. Our branch here in manzanillo is pretty rough, nobody comes, and nobody plays the piano, so the hymns are dry and nobody sings, and me and elder ramirez rotate giving talks every other week because nobody ever comes, but they always call elder ramirez to lead the music and me and him and Hno Pelayo are the only ones singing and i always break off halfway through because im dying laughing. Hno Pelayo is like 1000 years old. He lived in open union  with his wife for like 60 years, and they both went through the temple and everything, and have a bunch of kids that are strong in the church, but his wife died and everyone thinks they are sealed, but they were never legally married so they could never get sealed, and since the arent legally married he cant get married to her in the temple, but when you ask him how he is he says "not dead yet" which is pretty sad. BUT he doesnt really have vocal chords and so when he talks its like a wheeze, and when him me and elder ramirez are the only ones singing, its fairly comical. Also, we went and ate with this lady that has parrots and the parrot went on my head. I dont really have much else to say, let me know whats going on. Also, from now on, if you want to send me anything, this is the address of the offices, they have been having problems. 

Volcan Vesubio 5106

Col. El colli Urbano            ¾¾® Este SI!! :D

Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico

C.P. 45070

I love you, thanks for the update, take care of dad, hes getting old.

Baylee's letter

THIngs are sketchy around here, i dont feel like writing it all out again. Ask andrew, i told him, and i told dad some. Our branch is so dead, they dont have ward council so we cant coordinate any missionary work, the food is witht he sae people every week so we dont know most of the members. the attendance is way low, if you asked me to point out the branch presidency i couldnt, in our 2 branches i know 3 of the 6 branch presidency members, and i have been here for a whole transfer. One of them that i do know kills sea turtles illegal and sells them on the black market, we ate sea turtle. which on one hand is kinda cool but on the other hand is like...ummmm.  i feel like its 2 steps forward and 3 steps back every time. With president he talked to me about how hard the area is, and how he knows its hard. Plus its gigantic so we cant cover it all.

May 29, 2017

Hey momma. The girls name is clavel, her dad isnt around, her mom is
inactive because she works a ton and is never really around, her
grandpa is our ward mission leader, she was born with something where
she cant read or write, but shes 11, but she is smart, we teach her
the lessons, and then help her teach the lessons to her 6 year old
sister which is way fun, jesus christ is jesukito and joseph smith is
santo smitt. we should probably correct them on that but its funny,
and we tell them that the pictures of families int he pamphlets we
teach with are pictures of their grandparents when they were yound,
even though theyre little white children. My spanish is coming along,
i think people know what im saying every once in a while. Me and elder
ramirez are pretty friends ish i guess haha, were get along just fine,
but we arent like best friends either. I am realizing how close i got
with elder stubbs, he was a stick in the mud and i always messed with
him to tick him off, kinda like a brother or something i guess. SOrry
i dont have more to say, ask dad