November 24, 2014

Please read this part of the letter in the tone of “tired” or “exhausted”. This should not be read as “pessimistic”:

Well. This week was not very good. I got to do balloon figures at a birthday party, which was nice. The unfortunate part was that the food served I could not stomach, so the missionary looked like a jerk gourmet. I apologized profusely, but still. That is the only meal here that I have not eaten. We invited twelve individuals to attend church this week. None came--this after many promises, questions about if they could arrive late, the works. Pretty much everyone we were working with dropped us. So we got to do contacting and knocking doors a lot. Nothing. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we walked. Tried to talk to people, but nothing doing. Wendy and Jesus, 2 kids (14 and 11) that we had baptismal dates for are getting baptized in a Christian church. They did not specify which, only that it was the denomination to which their father belonged and that we were not to come back. Bleh.

Then there are the problems we have that are not missionary related that we get to help with, too. One of the Sister's mother has a serious medical injury in her big toe; it will cost roughly 100000 pesos to fix. Then will come the after treatments, which means more cash. The bishop doesn't have time to work with everyone right now because his job has him out of the house a lot, so the viciouscanaries [missionaries] are the transit to him. I was in a bus car wreck. Noone wants to listen to missionaries in ´The Season,´ too busy giving, partying with their friends, the works. Our Mission Leader does not attend church, and when we ask for help we get excuses. Just a whole lot of bad.

I have decided that next week will be better.


You may now read in whatever tone you wish. :)

On the up side, due to the wreck, bus transit was free. I bought a car speaker which works wonderfully. Some of the members are really great and work with us a lot. They even give us presents (usually food although sometimes other things). The infection on my foot is now accompanied by a blister, both of which I know exactly how to handle. In the other birthday party I attended (yup, I got invited to 2 in one week--hooyah) they had rootbeer especially for me! I am not going to say I cried, but it was a very emotional and tender time.

All of the other missionaries are you best friend, which is a little weird sometimes but also nice. Writing this letter is difficult because I cannot remember specific words and how to say them in English.

I am still pretty much the most unique person I know--with the whole lots of countries and life experience thing going for me.

So, yeah, going to be a little frank here. Pretty much all of our investigators who were progressing? They dropped us. They have their kids tell us they are not home after they open the door and we see them, say they are really super busy, don´t know when they will be able to talk again, etc. There are many excuses. On the plus side, I have gotten very good at being rejected. When we are received, that will make it feel even better than it normally does. We contact, knock doors, and visit members all day. It would be nice to have an investigator again.

I had Chinese food; that was interesting. It was like someone took the food, cooked it, and then poured buffalo sauce on top. It was good but not what I was expecting. And you know what? I love greens. Veggies are the best. We rarely have them because basically everyone here is a tortilla-eating carnivore. And beans. Cannot forget the beans. Those are really very important. A meal would not be complete without them in one of their many forms, including but not limited to soups, charcoal, paste, and many more types. Also Coke costs less than water here, which would be great, but I do not like it. Go figure. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a store that sells rootbeer. I must encounter one.

The zone leaders changed. I know absolutely nothing about the two that we have currently. It should be fun.

Yup. Life is hard right now. Hope to report some good stuff next week.

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí, (Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you)

Elder Scott