Wow I do not even know where to begin! Life as I know it has been flipped upside down overnight. You all dont even know where I am! Ha crazy! I guess I will start there...
On Wednesday, I got assigned my trainer, Elder Valdivia, and our area... we got assigned to reoped TULUM!! It is sweet to be back here, but lets just say it is a lot different than I remember. It is against the mission rules to go within 200 yards of where the sand starts on the beach, so the ocean is dried up for all I know. This area has been closed for over a year, and now we get to open it back up. It is such a huge area because the whole city is our's whereas all the other cities in the mission are divided up into like a whole zone or two. We were talking to the zone leaders the other night after our zone conference and when they found out we are reopening Tulum they couldnt believe it. Apparently, Presidente Cardenas told them that he has been waiting this whole time for two clean elders that he trusted to reopen it and find all the people here that are ready. It is so humbling to have him trust me so much. It is definitely not just me though, my trainer is the bomb. We have so much fun, but we work our butts off! I have NEVER sweat so much in my life. The only time I am not sure if I am sweating or not is when I am in the shower. I do not even want to hear complaints about the snow. Ha the heat actually doesnt bother me too much. It feels so much like those days of road construction. You just get used to constantly being sweaty. My clothes are constantly sticking to me and I contantly have to carry a hankerchief to wipe my face, but I love it. Sleeping in a hammock is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I sleep like a baby. I get a little swing going and close my eyes and the next thing I know our alarm is going off.
As for our house and living conditions. I never thought I could live like this, yet alone love it. Luckily, our branch is ecstatic to have missionaries back in the area. The branch president hooked us up with an apartment next to his. It consists of one room and a bathroom. I will make a little tour movie sometime like Zac did for us. Our first night was Wednesday night. We finally got there around midnight after having to travel from Merida to Cancun to Playa and finally arrived in Tulum. We walked in our new apartment to find geckos on the ceiling and cockroaches flying all around. For the first hour or so we were just killing cockroaches. So nasty!! When we finally got them under control, we had to put a bucket over the bathroom drain to prevent more from crawling in. Luckily, we havent had too many encounters since then. It is also good that the members are so kind because we have no fridge or anything to drink or eat in our apartment, so we depend on the member meals. The branch president and his sweet wife have brought us breakfast everyday except fast sunday and are the sweetest people ever!! They gave us the chairs to their dinner table until we could find two other chairs. The people here are so generous and kind that it breaks my heart. They have nothing and give everything.
Their food is actually way good! I seriously love it. I have had the juices of guava, mango, strawberry, jamaica (a flower) and tons of other way good fruits. My favorite drink so far is horchata, which is rice milk with cinnamon. So good! The milk here is different but way good too. It is like drinking straight half and half. It cant be good for you, and they dont even refrigerate it. It is just in a box and it is like a milkshake. Sometimes, the people will blend the milk with bananas and make this way good warm banana milkshake. The food is definitely different, but way good.
In our front patio, there is a wild coconut tree, lime tree, and two other fruits that I have never heard of. As Mark said, it is always a soup kind of thing. Basically, we eat breakfast in the morning and then they feed us a big meal at two everyday and that is all we eat. The soup is always the appetizer and it is a lot like top raman noodles. Just a really liquidy broth with noodles. It is just fine, nothing amazing, but not bad. Then they bring out another plate with the real meal. We have had steak fajitas, chicken drumsticks, and always some kind of rice or bean side that is way good. Then they always have the most delicious salsas. They are all made with habaneros, and Mark was right about those. My first encounter was my second day here, when I was still in Merida, the APs took us out to lunch. The salsa is hot going in, but coming out about brought me to tears. My first encounter with travelers was that night. Luckily, I haven't had it that bad since, but I am definitely not back to normal by any means. ha. The worst part about that is that we don't even have a freaking toilet seat. I dont know what the deal is here, but toilet seats are hard to come by. If you want a humbling experience, try squating every time you need to go to the bathroom. Ha it makes you think twice.
As for the language and teaching things, it is coming along. I can understand pretty much everything that is going on, but I can't keep up with their converstations usually. I do participate in the contacting and lessons though. So long as we are talking about the gospel, I can talk to pretty much anyone. We have a special way of doing contacts and knocking doors in this mission that the area president or someone taught them. We just introduce ourselves, ask their name, then testify, testify, invite. They recommend testifying of Christ and a way that their life can be improved through Christ, like eternal families, happiness, forgiveness, etc. They tell you to keep your testimony to like two sentences each. Then invite them to hear more, invite to church, give a pamphlet, ask for referrals, or as much of that as you can before they leave. From all the things I heard about missionary work in Mexico, I expected everyone to just have this huge spiritual experience when we teach them about the gospel and line up at the font, but it is definitely still work here. Everyone is so busy with their work and other things that they dont like us invading their time off. We have taught a couple lessons and had two investigators at church yesterday. One of them, Cualberto (or something) is a friend of the president and has tons of potential. I will write you more next week about our investigators and stuff.
Well it sounds like dad gets the grease ball of the week award! good grief I got a good laugh out of your emails. Well I have to go to our district meeting in Playa now! I will figure out how to send or email pictures and videos home. I made a little video this morning of my washing my clothes by hand... yup no washer or dryer. All of our white shirts are hanging in our front yard area. My clothes are going to be so trashed, but all is well. Just imagine every aspect of your life and I am experiencing the complete opposite. ha but it is so sweet! I cant even explain in words, so wait for my pictures.
I think I am especially living moms dream (except for the heat and bugs). Everyday I just think how much you would love this mom. I know how much you love these people and I do too. They are just the best. Spanish is sweet and the food is good. Also, one of my buddies from the MTC, Nick Stevens, his mom just found us because she is on vacation here in Tulum. She will be sending you a picture of us that she just took. She gave us some money for lunch and is just the best. She always sent us orea balls in the MTC and they are the bomb so ask her for the recipe. Gosh I have so much I want to tell you, but I am out of time. Keep asking me questions in your emails to spark my memory!
I love you all so so much!
Elder Jergensen
Oh and Elder Colligan and Cluff (from missionary mom) I know them and they are studs!
Oh and yesterday in church, I bore my testimony and it was just way sweet. Then for the closing hymn, the branch presidents wife was leading and announced the hymn number and then said it again in english and gave me thumbs up. They are so cute to me. I am in good hands!
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