¡hola mi familia!
I cant believe another week has already gone by! Zac told me the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days... so true! By the end of each day, I am so sweaty, dirty, and smelly that I can barely walk. Ive never been so tired. Usually, I am so tired that as soon as we finish planning I just collapse in my hammock, but lately Elder Valdivia and I both started showering at night too because as the days get hotter, we are getting nasty and decided we should probably take care of ourselves. Then it seems like our weekly district reunions in Playa are everyday. Elder Valdivia and I are so isolated out here in Tulum. There are no other missionaries until Playa which is an hour bus ride, so we have to drive to Playa every week. Luckily, they reemburse us the money because we dont have much as it is. It is kind of nice because the buses are so crowded that there is nothing you can do but sleep, so we get two hour long naps every Monday. Opening an area is sweet because the members are so excited, but it definitely has its struggles. We finally got a mini fridge and other cooking appliances this week which is way sweet to be able to drink cold water and stuff, but I only have twenty more pesos for the month. I am not sure where my money went this month. The only thing we have eaten for breakfast for the last two weeks is stuff from my last package and we dragged it out as long as we could, but it is gone now. Thanks for sending another package, but you sent it at like just the wrong time. We had entravistas with President Cardenas on Sunday so that was my last chance to get a package for at least three more weeks. All well, I am excited to get it.
Oh I am glad Zacky got a little experience of my mission since I got a little taste of his. Ha ha except in spanish it is Jesucristo, JesuS Cristo is Portugese. But ya every meal the members serve us and then just sit and talk to us. There are a couple families that feed us here that are alright financially and I think they just eat after we leave, but others dont eat when they feed us. It is so hard. The people here are so sweet and everyday I can understand them better and better. Every week in church so far, we have had some family from the US on vacation come to our meetings, but yesterday they were from Logan! They were way sweet and took more pictures of me and are going to send them to you and call you when they get back home in a week or so. It is so weird to speak english. Right now, I am not really fluent in either. Everything just seems like one language that is interchangeable. Like in lessons sometimes I will just throw in a couple english words without knowing, and then when I talk to the english families that are visiting I throw in a little spanish without thinking about it. Pretty much I cant communicate with anyone right now.
I cannot believe school is out, Frank already gave his farewell, and the next wave of my buddies are about to leave on their missions. Like I said, each day seems never ending, but then it seems like I just got dropped off at the MTC yesterday. That is so weird that Jordan Rupp got called here because it was like I already knew he was coming here. When I read the email I like wasnt surprised at all like one of you already told me. Ha but tell him to email me all of his questions and things. That is way sweet.
Holy cow Lex you are freaking gorgeous!! I dont know if it is because no one here has a full set of teeth, mom can work miracles on photo shop, or that hairstylist did something amazing but you look way good in that picture! ha jk you have always been beautiful. But seriously, I have seen some really amazing sets of teeth here! Everything from solid gold to none to teeth growing out of their ears just about. I swear some people here have like twice as many teeth as us and they just grow willy nilly wherever inside their mouths.
ok the events of this week.. We were teaching Roberto (I dont remember if I told you that he found us so we have continued teaching him) but he now lives clear in the freaking middle of nowhere. It is a good mile walk from the edge of civilization. We had a sweet lesson on tithing in which we demonstrated with a bag of bubble gum. We give him ten and ask for one back like what Bishop Misener did with the babies, but then we added a little spice. We read the scripture in Malachi about how the windows of heaven will pour out a blessing that their shall not be room enough to receive it and then we poured the rest of the bag of bubble gum into his hand so it overflowed onto the ground and everywhere. This is a little object lesson I learned in the MTC from Hno. Johansen. It was way sweet and humbling to see him accept this law when he has nothing. He rents his house for 500 pesos a month and I think that is a rip off. He has worse living conditions than homeless people in the US but he pays a monthly rate. Anyways, as soon as we left that I had a sudden impulse that I need to use the bathroom, so we freaking sped walked like 2.5 miles back to our house (our next appointment was on the other side of Tulum anyways) and I barely got to the bathroom in time. The worst was that Elder Valdivia didnt get the message that I was in a panic and contacted some catholic guy that tried to give us some big schpeel so I just ended it and kept walking.
The work here is crazy. We have been promised that there are 15 escogidos or chosen people in each area that are ready to accept the gospel, so, in other words, if they arent a golden investigator we shaft them unless we have nothing better to do. I am having a hard time getting used to it, but it is what we have been instructed to do. In our contacting we ask if they are married to the person they are living with or if they work on Sunday, and if they answer wrong to either of the questions we just invite them to our church meetings, give them a pamphlet, and leave. It is so different.
Right now we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates and are teaching 5 more that are really promising, but need a little boost in the right direction. Roberto is a freaking stud. He is scheduled to be baptized May 15 and is heading in the right direction. It is rare to find someone like him because he is a 20 or 22 year old guy that doesnt already have like 3 kids. I dont know what goes on here but there are some of the youngest families ever. It is totally normal here to have a family with a 15 year old mom and 18 year old dad and already have one kid. Then they just live their lives in poverty instead of finishing school. So Roberto is definitely an escogido. He has accepted tithing, the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, and comes to church with us. Then we tracted into a couple that she, Rosa, has been an inactive member for like 5 years and her husband, Samuel, isnt a member. When we found them they were about to separate and everything. Now they come to church with us, Samuel is set to be baptized on May 8, and they are so much happier. It is so sweet to see how the gospel has changed them in such short time. He used to have a drinking problem, but says he hasnt touched it since we first taught him and will never touch it again. Then I think I already told you about Ana. She is also set to be baptized on May 8. She is excited to be baptized, but I guess she likes to party so when we taught her the word of wisdom we really stressed the blessings and the strength that God will bless her with in order to overcome temptation. She is way sweet and I hope she stays strong. Then we are teaching a couple that are way sweet, but still want to learn more before they are baptized.
Things are going well here. I think I am losing weight because my clothes are getting baggier and I keep having to tighten my backpack, but it is sweet!
I love you all!
Elder Jergensen
No comments:
Post a Comment