Monday, February 24, 2014

A Few Things about who we Teach

First. 

I'm sorry, I didn't write last week. But like Jesus said, if your mad in your heart at someone its a sin and I invite you to repent. 

But first, what happened 2 weeks ago. What I've been thinking a lot about lately is the people I've met while I've been here. We started to find a lot of new people to teach. 13 this last week. Here are just a few... 

Freddy..  Hes a legit Mexican cowboy.. he has about 30 sombreros, and always goes to Michocan to ride horses.  One day I'm going to get him to lasso me. He's also a pain in the butt to talk sometimes cause he just yells at us and say ¨me entiendes!?"(Do you understand?)

Victor..  This guy was really "sent" for us. We had this investigator, Elena, who always invites people to her house when we go. We've taught her the same lesson like 5 times. 
So Victor. He said one day he prayed to god to help him, and started walking to work. Elena yelled for him, even though she doesn't know him, and invited him to her house to talk with us. He was all depressed and he can't read, so that's kind of  problematic, but he's nice. 

Gaby... another friend of Elena's, she's a Jehovah Witness. The first time we went with her she was just mad, and everything we said she opposed. But, then she came to the realization that she's not happy at all.  Now she complains to us about all the stuff she has to do in the JW church... so that's kind of funny. 
We had this really special lesson with her... we were just talking about faith and repentance. I just asked her 
"What do you think about all this?" 
"You can tell huh... you can tell I'm far away from God.... I'm thinking, one day, I'm going to go to your church." 
She started to cry a little. And I did too. 

Jorge... He knows everything about the bible. He was explaining to us the difference between what the bible says in Hebrew and (Greek?). But he's nice... he just always touches my arm.

Roxanna... We never taught this lady, just a funny story. She was a reference. So we went to her house to "contact" her. She opens the door... 
"Oh I'm changing houses... right now... well its not my house it's my boyfriends... well ex boyfriend.... I'm sorry... I cant... I cant.." 
shuts the door bawling her eyes out... 
I turn to Duran... "Well at least now we can cross her off the reference list"

and finally Elena... 
She just got baptized. She believes more in the church than half of the members.. every lesson we had with her she brought someone new. Most of her family hates us, cause they think were of the Devil.   She's special and I'm always going to remember her. 

And then all the other stuff...
Almost touched a power line and died..
Talked with a drunk guy that wouldn't let go of my hand. They always touch me.. 
and  then we went back to Queretaro, for interviews. 

And that's my life-.

Elder Arvanitas
That's a lemon, it's as big as a grapefruit

Elena's baptism

Elder B...... selfie

The person who was supposed to baptize someone didn't show, so Nick did it.  Needless to say, he didn't have a change of underclothes afterward, so he just put his clothes back on.  That's why he's wet.  

Monday, February 10, 2014

Six Month Mark


Nick's letter is really, really short because he ran out of time because he sent a slew of pictures.  So, be prepared to be bombarded at the bottom.  I'm a little jealous that he's in shorts and sun and we're freezing here in the snow.  I sent him a picture of the snow and he said it looked amazing.  I think he would welcome a coolish day.  



Well it turns out I have been out 6 months.. 18 more to go. It seems like a lot of time but, what I'm starting to realize is, it's really not... 

So what have I learned in these 6 months... 

Sure there's the obvious, about hard work, being clean (I'm sorry for all the times I was messy, mom), and how to walk in the sun all day, and well, Spanish. 
 
But really what have I learned is.... 

How to be grateful, for basically everything. A lot of people down here don't have a lot, and yet they feed us. They'll decide to skip breakfast the next day, or decide to eat the same food for 2 days. only to feed us for one day. 

And really that's something special to see... because really no one's obligated to help us out. But, they do it anyway. 

Also, really what it means to put trust in God. Sometimes we open up our planner for the next day, and we just have nothing.  99% of the time, those days really, really suck.  But, if you leave with a prayer in your heart and an open mind, miracles happen. Those are some of the best days. 

Love you guys.
Elder Arvanitas 

Gerrado with his shrimp (in his last area)

Nick just said this was a crazy little girl ( in his last area)

Marta and her family (she owned the chicken shop in his last area)

Elder C.... got pooped on and Elder L... in the background

Last week's service project, 5 hours cutting down a tree with a machete

Freddy and his wife and her family

Nick and Freddy

Climbing Pena de Bernal last week on P-day

No shoes!  That's my Nick!


Top of the mountain



Hello Mr Rooster, come right in

Sunset

Monday, February 3, 2014

Busy in San Juan del Rio

This week we worked really hard.  Everyday in this area, if we are not teaching someone, we are walking or taking a bus to another area to go teach someone. We never reach that point where we're just like "forget it, let's go get tacos and figure out what were going to do next" 

But it's a good thing to always be busy. I cant complain, I came here for a reason.  You know sometimes, I know I make it sound like a vacation where we just walk around and funny stuff happens, but I promise that's only like 5% of the time. 

This week though we had the baptism of Freddy.  He's 19, and married.  So, it was kind of weird teaching him. But, he really is a good guy. His wife (I think she's 20) is a member. 

And their entire family is awesome too. 

Actually, all the families here are awesome and they help us out with whatever we need. 

"Have you eaten breakfast?" 
"No Hermana, we don't have a lot of time either" 
"I don't care. I'm feeding you breakfast" 

So yeah, it's just weird being here though.  My other ward, a lot of the work was helping the ward with the problems and gossip that was going around and trying to get people to love each other. 

 And here it's kinda just like, well you guys are all perfect...

We went to the Peña today too. (He means Pena de Bernal, I attached a stock picture at the bottomIt was a nice mini vacation. We slept in the other Elder's house, in Tequisquiapan, yesterday. We put together their 2 mattresses and fit 6 people in there.  Felt like I was 10 again, at a sleepover, except it was with 3 Mexicans a Dominican and a Guatemalan. 

But, we climbed this mountain. Didn't wear shoes. Felt like I was at home again. Pictures next week. 

Anyway, love you guys, thanks for all the support and letters and everything everyone has shown me since I left. 
Special thanks to the Logues for the package!  I loved the card with the kitten on it. 

Elder Arvanitas
This is a stock photo of the mountain they climbed.  Nick couldn't load his pictures today.