Week 6 (Anáhuac, Mexico)

We were able to hear from Tyler on his first p-day since going down to Mexico.  His new address is:

Julio Velazquez-Elder Tyler Blanchard
Po. Box 1486
Presidio, TX 79845 

There is a member in Texasthat will take any packages or letters down to him in the mission in Mexico.

Letter from Tyler:

____________________________

 

My companion is Elder Maldonado, and we are serving in the city of Anáhuac. It is right next to Cuautémoc.  Cuautémoc is the city that everyone wants to serve in because the people are nice and it´s not too hot. 

(The Chihuahua Mission is outlined in red with the State of Utah overlapped to see to size and dimensions of his mission.)

The food here has been really good so far, we have to eat a meal at two o'clock every day with members. Nothing too extreme just stuff like burritos, soups, and chicken. 

Our apartment is good, except for we don´t have a mirror, and the bathroom door does not close. Luckily we have hot water. I don't know much about the ward because there was a conference this last Sunday, and no I haven´t had to give a talk. The weather here is perfect, not too hot and not too cold but it has been raining a ton.  The streets get flooded pretty bad in some areas and the water goes up to the mid-shin area, not too bad but it sucks for our shoes. To cross these streets, we wait for a car to cross the river area and we run behind the car because it pushes the water out of the way.

On Saturday after personal study, we went over to the chapel to help clean for a baptism. Once we got there they told me that I was to baptize someone. So we went back to the apartment which was like a 15-minute walk to grab my white clothes. On the way back it started pouring rain.  We got soaked even though I had my umbrella.  They took a bunch of pictures of how soaked we were and I will try and send them to you.  Luckily my bag is water proof and my books did not get wet.  But I was wetter from the rain than from the baptism.

The baptism went well but on the way to the apartment, I had to memorize the person's name and the baptismal prayer in Spanish.  After this baptism, I baptized someone else that I did not know about and I did not have time to memorize her name. She was an older lady with a last name that was long and way hard to remember.  My companion just had to end up whispering the name to me during the baptism.

For most of the week we shared an apartment with another set of missionaries.  Elder Hurtado and Elder McGavin. Elder McGavin is from Holiday, Utah.  He went to school and knew a kid I played with on Sparta.  I don´t know a whole bunch about the other missionary because he speaks too fast for me to understand, but I´m starting to understand him better.

Yesterday, my companion and I moved one apartment over for more space.  We got a whole bunch of new stuff.  The bathroom door still doesn't close, we still don´t have a mirror, and we don´t have a boiler or gas so no hot water.  So for showers, we go over to the room next door with the other missionaries and use theirs.

None of the elders from my district are in the same area.  I think we are all spread out across the state of Chihuahua. Elder Rudy who was in our travel group (who I had made friends with when I went to the Mexican Embassy) is serving in the city of Cuautémoc the city right next to Anáhuac where I´m serving.  I get to see him every once in a while because we travel to Cuautémoc (half-an-hour bus ride) to do baptismal interviews for some of the people in our district that serve there.  We do this because my companion is the District Leader.  We also do our laundry in Cuautémoc and use the computers here.

I´m going to try and send the pictures now but I don´t know if I will be able to find them because the computer is in Spanish.  It´s way old and I think it´s using Windows 95 or just some really old OS.  

Talk to you guys next week.