Week 8 (Anáhuac, Mexico)

Transfers here are every three weeks, but that is not in every area, they only do transfers in some areas every three weeks. And everyone says I will stay in my first area for a while. But it seems like they are pretty random and people seem to stay in areas more than three months.

(Right before leaving the MTC with my District)

Lunch appointments are great, I have really enjoyed them. The food has been great. Every week it's the same people on the same days. Except Monday's, we eat where ever we want. No favorite member, but there is an investigator who feeds the missionaries who always makes something good, Manuel and Luz. They kind of remind me of Abelita and Abuelito because they are not members and they love to feed and talk with missionaries. Their food is nowhere near the same as Abuelita's but it's usually good.

The customs aren't really that different here, it's a lot like America. Just angry birds are on every drink they are obsessed with the game here. They have the Kinder chocolate everywhere, chocolate eggs with toys. Everyone always has a coke with them and there are ads for coke everywhere. And every store is super, e.g. Alsuper grocery store, super laundromat, super food etc.. The place isn't the richest and some people are pretty poor but it's not that extreme or different for me. And when we drive to the city of Cuauhtémoc it looks like park city, lots of green hills, not many houses.

The rain isn't too bad anymore when it rains it only comes down hard for a bit. My shoes have been great and just like new except they are a bit dirty. It really doesn't get that cold here, all of the Mexican's say that because they are used to the scorching heat. I talked with someone who knows Utah winters and they say it's not even bad here. They are all freezing right now but it's not even cold haha.

It is a great opportunity to spend so much time in the scriptures. Right now it is tough because I have been told to study in Spanish and it's hard to understand a lot because the scriptures talk in a form that is very formal and hardly used, and the vocabulary is very different. I refer to my English scriptures a lot when I don't understand , as well as a couple dictionaries from the MTC.

I would love to tell you more about the ward, but we have only had one real Sunday with the ward and it was fast, seemed really short, and I understood almost nothing. My companion is great. He knows the scriptures really well. He is from Pachuca Hidalgo Mexico, played football. He is district leader. Um, I don't know what else to say, he understands too much English I wish it was less because I want to learn faster. it sucks being restricted by the language, but it will come with time. My companion is the life of the party I guess.  Whenever we have meetings and stuff he is the center of attention everyone loves talking with him, and he loves to joke. He is fun to be around. He also recognizes that there is a time and a place for it. he is really good with investigators and stuff.

 (Where's Waldo (Tyler)?...Missionary Training in Cuauhtémoc)

Our investigators are Maunuel and Luz right now, they just won't crack I guess. They love having us over and feeding us but they have no desire to change churches. There are others but we have only started teaching them the first lessons and they aren't that interested in what we have to say as of now. We have a baptismal date for a nine year old girl, but there are lots of problems in the family and she doesn't go to church and her older sister tries to persuade her not to. She is always indifferent to what we have to say and does home work or plays on her phone. I don't know much of what goes on because it's hard to understand.

No need for a CD player, we have a little DVD player that reads music on USBs and CDs.  My companion has a bunch of music from lds.org that we listen to a lot.

I will let you know when I get the package, thanks again.

Conference weekend was great.  I was able to watch it in English, luckily.  Me and like six other missionaries watched it on a computer in English, and it wasn't just new missionaries either. And we were able to hear all five sessions which was nice.  It was so different watching as a missionary.  The talks went by so fast, and I didn't get tired or want to sleep. It was pretty cool that the speakers were able to speak in their native languages. It seemed like they were having fun with it like when Holland got up he said bien hecho.

I haven't had to get a haircut yet but I will probably get one next week.  I got one right before I left the MTC.

Haha that is funny to hear about Emily wanting to serve in Chihuahua Mexico. But it's cool to see that she has a desire to serve. It was cool hearing the numbers of temples, numbers of missionaries, and number of places where missionaries it is crazy seeing those numbers.

There is no better way to learn a language, I feel, than to be immersed where it is spoken. I have learned so much in the short time I have been here.

I have been eating really well here and am happy with the food. I just miss some of the food I know I guess. The only thing I don't like too much is their spaghetti.  They try to make their own spaghetti here and its not too great. But if there is ever something I don't like I just stuff it in a tortilla and dip it in beans and I can barely taste it. I haven't been able to learn how to prepare any of the foods but I will have to start because there is some really good food that I would like to know how to make, especially the desserts. There was this one I think it was called dulce de lemon. It was like a banana cream pie, but it had a lemon foamy liquid around it with bananas, and they gave us frozen peanut M&Ms to put in that made it really good. 

I have been able to experience eating my own food and budgeting my money and stuff.  It hasn't been hard or bad at all for me.  I think the only problem that I would have in the future is getting the money. But I have learned a lot and I have gained experience and knowledge here that I will be able to use the rest of my life.

The missionary work has been going well we have to travel a lot to Cuauhtémoc and we lose a lot of time doing this. But we only have one investigator who has really been progressing I guess and that is Luz and Manuel, I kind of talk about them a bit earlier. Same with the nine year old girl, but I don't think she will be baptized, she never seems to have an interest in what we say, and every time I have been there when she was asked to be baptized she says no. We went on splits one day and when I met back up with my companion he told me she said yes, so I guess we will see what happens. 

I start the lessons, but I don't do much else.  It's hard because I don't understand what they say because some people don't talk very loud and they all speak fast, but I bare testimony when I can.

I have taken pictures and I will try to send but the computers are slow at uploading  the picture and it takes forever. The browsers I'm on right now is an outdated internet explorer.

Love Elder Blanchard