Week 12 (Anáhuac, Mexico)

I am doing great, my week has been going great too. I have learned so much, we have done a lot of walking because a lot of investigators are not home during the day, they go to Cuauhtémoc for work.

They do celebrate Halloween a bit. It is nothing like at home but the parents take their kids to the main street where all the stores are and they trick or treat in the stores. A lot of kids just wore masks and rode around on their bikes.

The time change has been so nice, that extra hour was perfect. The time here is exactly the same as in Utah. It has gotten colder here too but probably not even close to what it is there. I am usually good wearing the cardigan that you guys sent me and I usually only need it after the sun goes down.

 This is Elder McKay my old zone leader.

Thanks for the birthday wish and the birthday card picture haha . Thanks for sending me a package, I have not received it yet but it is probably in the mission home. Anything that you guys send me is good, but for the future lots of granola bars and NutriGrain bars anything of that manner would be good.  I love the candy but I can't snack when in the on it because no sugary treats after seven o clock and we get to the house at nine at night.

The new missionaries are great. There is Elder Garivay from Mexico somewhere he is nice but I don't understand a lot of what he says, but he is our district leader and he seems pretty cool. Elder Babb is from Utah, from the Provo area and he is brand new so I get to help him out now, and I know just enough Spanish to roughly translate things for him and help him out.  He came into the MTC knowing no Spanish what so ever and his accent right now is kind of funny but he is doing well.

I have been having a great time, it has been such a great experience. For me it isn't really about the results, I am happy as long as I am working hard, doing all that I can to be a good missionary and I know that even if the people don't get baptized I have planted a seed.

Luz and Manuel have kind of stopped progressing, they say they know the church is true they just don't want to change. Last week we went with the zone leaders and taught them a lesson (about the gospel, the way I wrote it sounds like we punished them or beat them up haha). Luz said she will get baptized if Manuel is baptized because she has seen the way that he has changed. and Manuel just doesn't want to be baptized and go to church because he owns a tortilleria and doesn't want to take a break on Sundays and he know it would be bad or hypocritical of him to do so, well this is what we have come to believe.

He says that he will be baptized if he gets an answer. But the lesson was crazy, he got a blessing to receive an answer and he got a great powerful feeling he said, and the zone leader then did this: he said do you believe that god can speak to you through the scriptures? And Manuel said yes. so the zone leader flipped through the scriptures and told Manuel to tell him when to stop. they stopped randomly somewhere in the third Nephi I can't remember and neither can my companion but I think chapter seven.  And it talks about how having a hard heart is bad or something of that manner and Manuel said ya, I think maybe that is me. And maybe I need to change. So we asked him if he wants to be baptized and he said no. So we are not sure what to do we are kind at a dead end.

 These are all of the missionaries that were in Anáhuac with me.

There is always something keeping me busy here in the mission and it is easy to just get lost in the work.

The weather here has also gotten a bit chilly, it has been pretty windy the past two days but I only need a light jacket every once and a while.

The rules are strange but lots of them are easy to follow.  Some are actually good, like the candy rule, I would be eating candy like crazy if it weren't controlled.  And the soda rule I like that a lot because I don't want to get hooked on the stuff because from what I hear the soda here is amazing.

I had a coke one time in an investigators house, he was a drunk old man and he asked his daughter to bring us something to drink she brought us some coke and my comp and I looked at each other and my comp said in English that we can't because it is soda and I nodded because I knew.  The drunk guy saw that we weren't drinking and said something like what my food isn't good enough for you? Do you not trust me? Something like that and my comp looked to me wide eyed and said drink it! It was actually a funny experience we were never scared or felt that we were in danger, we were there trying to speak with the daughter who was like 30 or so but the coke was nasty and flat. But the rules have been good and I realize they are for my benefit and health and am fine with them.

The language has improved so much I am able to understand a whole lot more. I feel like I can almost always at least pick out the main idea of what is happening. I still talk like a bit of a caveman but in time I will improve.

Love

Elder Blanchard