I don't have a lot of time today because Elder Heath wants to go to the Wax Museum in Centro with Elder Black, one of his friends from the mission who goes home next week, so yeah. I'll be brief.
Regular P-Day schedule - Normal except we only have one hour of companion study, then we clean the house, drop off our laundry at the lavenderia down the street, walk to Chedraui (a target-like store close to our house) for groceries, come back change the clothes to the dryer, print off letters, go read them, get laundry back, fold it, put it away, write, do whatever (play basketball, go to centro, get a haircut if needed, etc.). 6:00 P- Day ends and we go teach people and assume regular missionary life for the next 6 days.
We got a lot of good references from members this week and a ton of new investigators. I'll tell you about the ones that end up progressing next week. But there's one named G, a reference from Hermana S. She's 23 and has a pretty lame family life- like her parents still hit her and everything. Lame. But she wants to change and set a good example for her siblings. She's been looking for God lately and has been going to some other church where her uncle is a pastor. But she feels the spirit a lot with us and really likes listening to what we teach her. She didn't come to church this week because she had already promised to go with her uncle, but she's coming next week. We feel like she could be pretty great. She was super interested in the Book of Mormon and really likes reading, so she'll read it, pray about it, and get an answer, and hopefully have the courage to act on that answer.
We couldn't find F all last week. I hope he's still alive.
We taught C the restoration this week. It went really well. He understands what we are saying, he just doesn't really feel the need to change yet. We decided not to go back with him the rest of the week because his friend who referred us to him has been out of town and we want to take him with us next time.
The N family is doing great. They are super busy, but still read and pray and everything and really want to know if this is for them. They aren't sure still, though. And they couldn't come to church. How do you think you can be sure if you don't come to church? You can't. But they'll make it one of these days and know that this Church is true.
No, we didn't have anyone in church this week again. Kind of disappointing, but at the same time, I'm kind of used to it by now. We did manage to get another inactive to come out. His name is Hno P, he's about 28 years old and is a marijuana addict and his brain is completely fried. So there's still some work to do there. But hey, he came. And Hermano C came again, so that's a good sign.
We went with Hermano R again this week. I love that Dune buggie of his! Also, he bought us tacos on the way home, so he's pretty much just the best.
We had a stake activity this week to celebrate Mexican Independence day. We weren't going to go because we didn't have any investigators to bring, but about 1 hour before a member told us to go with his friend and invite him, so we did and he came! His name is L, he's an old guy who lives alone. He was very talkative and friendly and had a good time at the activity, so we'll see what happens with him. They fed us tamales at this activity, and the next day they did not do good things to my belly. I felt pretty nasty all Saturday morning, and then after we took a bus ride to lunch it was just too much. Yep, I barfed in the street. But after that I immediately felt better and we had a good rest of the day.
Yesterday was Mexican Independence day, which pretty much just meant more drunk people than usual and more people not home. Fun fun.
Yesterday they also called some ward missionaries (finally) and counselors to our ward mission leader. One of them is the old ward mission leader, and the other is a recently returned missionary. He served in (be excited dad) Oaxaca! Which sounds like a crazy place! He said there were a lot of indigenous people who didn't even speak spanish, just weird native american languages. Also, they fed him crickets, parrots, and armadillos (which he said are delicious). Anyways, we're enjoying the extra help.
I'll respond to letters next week, hopefully I'll have more time. But to explain the picture if Timo didn't, there were always super weird commercials on the Spanish channel when we watched the world cup for "El Indio". There was always a guy with a huge indian hat thing speaking in spanish that we could never understand that we always laughed at. So yeah.
Also, I don't think we can go to the office to check for packages on p-day. We aren't supposed to leave our zone. The zone leaders go there every once in a while for some reason or another and bring us back our mail and packages and stuff whenever they can, so I just have to be patient. So far I haven't gotten anything, so maybe I'll get it soon. Or maybe it didn't make it. Oh well, that's life in mexico. You don't have to send me peanut butter, that's just the only thing I miss so far. No, I didn't go to the temple when we arrived. We did our training and met our companions in a chapel right next to it, but we didn't do a session or anything.
So the strap on my shoulder bag broke last week, and I've been looking for a place to find a new one but so far every backpack I've found is either pink or has a WWF wrestler on it, so I haven't bought one. I'll look in Centro today, but I'd love it if you could check and see how much it would be to order one online or something and just have it shipped to the mission home instead of our house. Let me know next week, ok? If not, I'll just keep looking.
I've read enough of the letters to know that BYU lost. Lame. Glad I'm in Mexico. I hope Timo had fun at homecoming and everyone had a good week! I love you all! Also, Granny, Grandpa, Teresa, Erika, or whoever are all family, so they can actually send me emails if they want. It's not against the rules. So if you want to spread the word about that, that would be great.
I can't think of what else to write. I'm excited for this week though. We're working with a lot of people and a lot of them are pretty solid. Pray for them to accept the message and that we can find the others who are ready. And especially that people will come to church this week. I love you all! Talk to you next week!
-Elder Pew
