Hairy Chickens are not normal

Nick's letter was later than usual because Mexico had their daylight savings fall back this past weekend.   Nick and his companion were somehow not reminded and they showed up to church an hour early.  He was so bummed about not getting that extra hour of sleep.  




So this week was a lot better,  or at least I think it was, the weeks go by faster and faster the longer you stay here. 

But I ate hairy chicken with Elder Manglinong. His philosophy was just tell yourself it's normal. So I did, and ate a patch of hair, until Elder Cruz was like, "Why is it hairy, that's weird?". So yeah, hairy chickens are not normal...

We also broke into the chapel through the window to play piano before we had a junto with the district. I forgot to talk about that. 

So how Elder Cruz cleans.  One day I go upstairs and he has our broom scrubbing the sides of that walls in the shower.  Now we have a bunch of hair in our drains and so they don't work anymore. Another day he was pouring cups of water on the floor. I still don't know why, but we got it figured out and our house is slowly becoming clean. You just have to tell yourself it's normal.

So I realized I've been gone for almost 3 months. That's already 1/8 of my mission gone. Crazy. 

Ate burgers yesterday and cheesy potatoes. That was a highlight. 

We've run out of money and food and water. Reimbursements take 2 weeks, so just have to hold out for another 4 days and then all is well. (Nick has money in a private account.  He won't starve.)

Had our activity!! everyone loved it.( I asked about this.  He told me they played Minute to Win it games and they earned talents.  Then they separated them into the 3 degrees of glory )Except for this lady....

So about this lady, we found her on Wednesday. She was like sure come in. So we talked to her and her sister for about 40 min and at the end she was like yesterday I prayed for help from god and here you guys are, and its a sign and you're the best, etc. 

So we went back Thursday and had an awesome lesson, invited her to our activity. She was like hmmmm.... I'll go,  come and pick me up. So we were like, sure no problem. 

So then Friday came around. We baptized 2 kids that day and then directly after had the activity. It was a really busy day.... but it wasn't until we got back to our house we were like, WE FORGOT ABOUT PATI! 

So we had to go back to apologize on Saturday, cause we really felt terrible about it. We get to her house and shes leaving. Shes like, yeah when you guys didn't come, I was like,  maybe God doesn't want me to go. It's a sign. So, I made other plans and  I am leaving for a week. Talk about feeling like getting hit with a sledgehammer. So yeah that sucked and we're trying to be better.

But yeah 2 baptisms happened, it was fun.  We got a nice rock to block the plug. (Nick said they found out on Tuesday that they were getting baptized on Friday)

We got on a bus on Saturday. There were 5 Jehovah witnesses waiting for us. I've never been so scared for my life. (I asked about this too.  He said they just awkwardly stared at them)

 I MISSED DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. We woke up, got to church and were like where isss everyone???? I get two days to sleep in for 9 hours and I missed one. Muy triste.

Sunday, that was rough too. This lady in our ward was going to go pick one of our investigators up to come to church.  12 o'clock rolled around and she still wasn't there. So we called her and she's like, oh I'm sick...... uhh. HOWEVER, our other investigator came on her own regardless. So that was awesome to see. But then the talks, this one guy gets up there and just calls everyone out. I wanted to cry. 

So that's really what were working on right now. Just helping our ward become friends and grow up and stop being mean to each other. It's like teaching a bunch of 2 year olds, but eventually :)

This is what happens when you don't listen to how to sew or get your pants hemmed in the MTC like mom said to.  UGH!

Elder Arvanitas' first baptism with Dante and Donald

The church mat.  ha ha

Ernesto and his son.  Nick and his companion are teaching Ernesto's wife.  It was his birthday.

I've never been so excited for a buffet

So this week, I didn't have anything like Sydney's catching a thief story.  Sorry.  If a package got sent to my house and someone stole it, I wouldn't know the difference. 

But I forgot my list of stuff to talk about (I have to make a list... I don't have much time)

But this week was pretty hard for the most part.  By the end of October we want to be teaching 30 different people.  Right now were at 19, so it's not bad. 

But we found this home this week with 13 people living in it.  Keep in mind its more of like a 3 room apartment then a home.  And they didn't have couches.  So, we just sat on the floor and talked to this guy Jesus, and this other guy Omar who's 18 and has a wife and a kid.  So that's pretty crazy. I  don't remember what we talked about though, we just kinda told him who we are, what we do all day,asked him about his life, the usual.

Oh have I said the carpeted floors don't exist in Mexico? Neither do dryers. And this week I saw both. It was a pretty big day for me. 

But this guy and his wife, Marroquin, they took us out for lunch this week that was 20 mins away.  It was this buffet, I've never been so excited for a buffet in my life. They had mashed potatoes, and french fries, and mini hamburgers, and pizza.  Everyone was probably like, look at this american... eating the american food. But that's okay, I forgot about everyone else and ate 6 plates of food. It was weird though cause it felt just like America, except for the fact everyone was Mexican and speaking Spanish. 

But Wednesday this week, was probably one of the hardest days of my life. It was another one of those days where literally everyone blew us off. We looked in our list of houses, (were not allowed to just knock houses anymore, cause people hate that. Also we might get shot.) but  we walked around for 5 hours looking for anyone to talk to.  Nope.  But finally at lunch time, we talked to the lady that fed us, and it was like really short, but special. She started crying. I don't remember what it was about though, but it just shows that it's not all about success, as long as we try hard we can feel the love of god.

Speaking about the love of god, I gave a talk Sunday, and played piano( The lady tried to tell me what songs I had to play cause she doesn't like singing the same songs. I told her no). The biggest problem is the all the people here gossip about each other. So that's no good. So I talked about loving each other and Elder Cruz told everyone that its time to wake up and do something.  So everyone possibly might hate us.

Also we have to plan an activity for everyone once a month. We planned one for this week, no one showed up. And also, the mirror that we took from our house to the church fell and shattered where people walk. So once again, everyone hates us. Now we don't have a mirror, except for a little slice that I cut myself on yesterday. 

Oh so there's this lady, Marta, she owns a chicken place, and she still loves us. The other day we walked by her house and she was like,  are you hungry at all? We're like,  just like a little bit. She cut a whole chicken in half and gave it to us and drinks also. So that happened too. 

But that's basically all I think. I'ts hard here, I"m completely drained, but it's worth it. I love the people here, they take good care of me. I"m good with Spanish now, just can't really speak it. Miss you guys though, I'll talk to you soon though. 

Elder Arvanitas

So the other ward had a baptism. They got to the font and it was full of dirty old water. So, they drained it out with buckets for an hour and then started filling it again, but little did they know it was all draining out the bottom. So I stood on a rag trying to keep the water in for 30 mins, only for them to cancel it. 

I'm legal in Mexico!

I don't really have a lot to talk about this week. It was kinda just an average week. I feel like eventually all my letters are going to turn out like this. 

But we had 3 elders get sent home in our mission. No one really knows what they did though. So of course, the rules are now more strict. So that's no fun. But we had a zone meeting on Friday where we kinda just talked about everything. In the beginning of the week E. Cruz was kinda just getting on my nerves a bit.  It happens after you live in the same house with someone for that long.  But we had that conference and I kinda just realized how dumb it was to let the little tiny things in life bother us and keep us distracted from what is really important. It's a cycle that happens so often in life, and if people don't learn how to fix it, it ruins relationships completely. So yeah, everything's good now.  I love Elder Cruz, he helps me out so much.  And, if hes 20 and still doesn't know how to pick his dirty socks up from all over our floor, I don't think he ever will. And that's okay :)(Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?  I'm sure I've told Nick to pick up his socks more than once)

Oh!  So you know how some people in the US don't have teeth and its really hard to understand them, just imagine it in Spanish. It's 100x harder. I swear the guy was just making guttural noises for words. And he was talking directly at me too. So yeah, he should be fun to talk to in the future. 

Today we went to go get our immigration papers. I'm officially legal in Mexico. Yay.  I saw everyone in my district from the MTC today. It's crazy that it's already been a month that I've been in Mexico.  But yeah, this one kid's showering with buckets of water, and this other kid's investigator just died one day. So that's always fun... But it was good to see everyone, but at the same time depressing because, the next time we'll all be together like that is when we all leave. 

But that was my life this week. Can't really think of anything else exciting that happened.  Had this day where literally everyone blew us off, even our lunch appointment.  So that was a no fun, very bad day. But I still love it out here. Even if somehow 3 flying cockroaches have found their way into our house, and I got bit by a spider twice this week. (We asked Nick about this and he says the bites have disappeared, so he's good.)

Love you Guys!

Elder Arvanitas

NIck was still online when I wrote him a quick note and asked if he was teaching anyone.  Here's his response.  Very cheeky if you ask me. 

What else would I be doing in the middle of Mexico?.... :p

Yeah, we teach this lady now whose daughter is paralyzed and kinda just lays in bed all day and can't talk. She left her alone in the house for an hour and a half to go to church. You can kinda just do that here.

Nick studied on the roof of someones apartment building.  I love how Queretaro is so colorful!

The lady with no address

It sounds like it was a good week for Nick and he continues to write about some of the things he notices along with his experiences.  

This week was awesome.  We talked to so many people, I love it here. Here's some things though... 

So, every night, outside our window there's  a group of 5 dogs that just go at it and they bark and whimper till like 12 am. Every night.

There's also butterflies the size of your hand, that are brown and look like giant killer moths. We were eating at this lady's house and I just looked up and found a HUGE one right above my head. No fun.

But speaking of lunch with that lady,  I went on changes for the day with our zone leader Elder Dalhberg.  I went to his area, so we called this lady and were like ¨Donde esta su direcion?¨ her reply ¨No tengo direcion¨. So, we were like, great this lady doesn't want to tell us where she lives. But, it turns out she really didn't have a street name or anything.  We met her at a gas station, walked down this dirt road that overlooked the city into these tiny homes and met her son who has a mental disability. He was the coolest kid ever. But, they came out with food, and gave us chicken and all this food, while they only ate fruit. You could tell they didn't have a lot of money, so it was hard not to feel bad.  But, at the same time, it was one of those moments that just made you think. It really helped me remember why I was here. 

So conference, I had to watch the entire thing in Spanish, so I didn't get anything out of it. Turns out, I really suck at Spanish. But Elder Manglinong and I tried to watch it in English on a computer in the other room, clicked a button and all of a sudden everything went silent. Next thing we know, Spanish people come in and are like ¨Que hace!¨. Yeah we screwed up the internet and it took 30mins to get it back on.  The Mexican people were not happy...

Oh so remember when I said root beer doesn't exist here?  I was right. 

So Elder Manglinong and Sanchez lost their keys. We had to break into their house, which is the 2nd time in the 3 weeks I've been here breaking into someones house. This guy came with us with a big screwdriver, put it in their window, hit it once and it popped right open in 30 seconds. I'd expect nothing less in mexico. 

So after we got back from changes with the ZLs I took my Ariel pillow with me.(Sydney took the Little Mermaid sheets but Nick swiped the pillow case with Ariel on it) But, we had one more appointment with this family before the apartment.  So, here I am sitting with these two young parents teaching them, while holding my pillow with Ariel on it. I clearly didn't think that one through. (Serves him right for not letting Sydney take the pillow case)

So in Mexico, every time you look for a house it's like playing ¨I spy¨. The house numbers, unlike in America, are not in one designated spot. So it takes like 2 mins to find out where you are, and by that time you've past the house by 2 blocks.  Also, no houses have mailboxes. 

Tianges. Certain nights all these like merchants come in with tents and take over side roads. It's where you find the cheapest fake stuff.  But, there were these ladies that I saw during my day with Elder Dalhberg.  They work for the tianges, get up at 4 am everyday and make 300 tamales, every day. 

The other day I tried to pet this really cute stray dog in the street. It didn't like that.  I've never been more scared in my life. 

 Mexicans, once every 2 weeks, they water the trees. You know those water cannons they use in riots.... yeah those. I don't know who thought that was a good idea.

Joshua (pronounced ho-sway). One of the coolest guys we've met. Granted, he's addicted to  all this alcohol and like sniffing paint and stuff. We tried to go visit this old member, and found him. The other person had moved. But he let us in, gave us water and told us his story. He's really been through a lot, but its awesome to find someone that actually needs our help. The next lesson Elder Cruz and Elder Harland  (the other ZL) had with him, he ended up throwing away all his alcohol to quit his addiction. It's gonna be really hard, but I know he can do it. 

So there's all these houses here, that are like apartment complexes and they only have one exit and entrance with a huge gate. Its the most frustrating thing in the world. One day I'm going to set the gate on fire so they can see how flawed their logic is... only kidding...

So the other day i was looking at the wall on the back side of our house. On the top is just a bunch of glued down broken bottle pieces. It works i guess..

Hot dogs at the store are like neon pink here and I don't know why.

Taxis. Even if it only seats 4, you can still fit 6, and no one cares.. because its Mexico. 

But yeah that's all.  The people here are the best, they do so much for us. I feel like I'm getting fat from all the food so I'll have to work on that.  I love you guys.  Hope all is well. Talk to you soon. 

Local graffitti

Going down the road to the lady's, with no address, house

Elder Dahlberg and her son, Jose

Nicholas named this "Mariposa de muerte"  Seriously?  This is the one above his head.  What a wimp!

Jose taking a selfie

Jose and Elder Dahlberg

Elder Arvanitas and Jose

Breaking into the elder's house who locked themselves out

Nick went to a skateboard museum for pday, today.  

Faith, Hope and Charity

Nick sounds like he's adjusting to life in Mexico and his Spanish is getting better each day.  




So this week...

Monday night we looked at the clock and realized we had to be home in 10 mins when it was a 30 minute walk, and we just missed the bus. So we were like shoot.. while we wait for the bus might as well buy a taco and sit. While we were doing that this guy comes up and is like, Elders!  I love you guys, let me buy you tacos. We tried to turn him down and thank him, and we went to catch the next bus but it just blew right past us.  They do that sometimes.  So he was like, it's a god-sign. Anyway, we just sat and talked with him about what we do. He said his brother was a missionary and he always talked about how hard it was sometimes so he wanted to make our day a little better. Then he also drove us home in the back of his truck. So here I am with Elder Cruz, sitting on the edge of the back of this truck, going like 40 mph down this road, looking over Queretaro, just thinking, this doesn't happen in America. Really cool experience. 

But more of the small things about the week...

I'm getting fairly decent at Spanish, so I can talk to the people sometimes. But what I suck at more than anything is the small talk in the beginning in Spanish. But then I realized, I cant even make small talk in English... so yeah.

Laundry... You were always like, "you'll thank me when you leave to go to Mexico and have to do your own laundry and stuff".... nope. We give it to this lady who I swear is a professional, and she washes, irons, and folds it all for us. I took a picture of it.  It's so nice. So there's that.  (I so hoped he wouldn't have someone to do his laundry.  Maybe in his next area. )

Singing in Mexico. Cruz loves to sing.. but he cant. Oh well

Cars.  The most popular car here is a VW beetle from like the 50's. Everyone has them. I thought that was cool.

Music. People here just blast music from their houses that you can hear from 3 streets away. It's really hard to teach a lesson and focus on Spanish when all you can hear is Gangnam Style playing.

Dance. When girls are like 15 they dance for their birthday. And it"s like a big deal. Kind of ridiculous.

So I learned that the Spanish word for cockroach is cucaracha, like the song. You know why I know that now? because one freaking attacked me while I was going to the bathroom. Scariest moment of my life, those things are so fast. I killed it with a butcher knife. (He must not remember the Palmetto bugs in Florida)

Coke. Everyone's like "Cokes different and better in Mexico". It's the same.

Dog peed on my backpack.. that was fun

Tuna is the fruit of a cactus. You eat it but while doing so you swallow like 120 seeds. and it just tastes like crappy water.

3 Liter bottles of pop. Favorite thing in the world. 

Circus, they have all these animals in cages outside. So i high-fived a sleeping brown bear, and touched a tiger. Thought it was worth reporting... but while I was walking back, the monkeys reached out of the cages and grabbed my shirt.  2nd scariest moment of my life. 

Horchata here. Tastes like candles. 

Chucharron, the death of me. This lady was like "Here I brought you this huge bowl of chucharron". It was soggy, and wrinkly, and moist. The last bite I left too long and it got cold but I still had to eat it. Started heaving at the table but it went down and she didn't see... never again. 

English classes. Every Saturday. It's so much fun.  Mexicans really can't speak English.  But, it's so hard thinking of what to teach. Cause we really don't think about English at all and how we have irregular verbs and stuff, and how it;s dumb how read and read are spelled the same but you say them different at different times. 

Anyway, other than that though this week was pretty hard. We talked to this lady that's a member.  It was our 3rd time visiting with her. Really one of my favorite people here, that has taken care of us. She told us that her husband is cheating on her. I guess that really just struck me. Here's this lady with two little kids bawling her eyes out to us, because her husband threw it all away for personal gain. I don't know, we're going to help her as much as we can.  It's just really hard to know how to, when I've never like gone through anything close to that. We saw their family later that week, they just pretend everything is alright, meanwhile it's hell on the inside. That must be so hard.. But I'm sure we'll figure something out. 

But,  I thought a lot this week about Faith, Hope and Charity. We need all three.  Faith is when you act on a belief.  We can't have faith without hope.  Charity  is when you love everyone no matter what.  I remembered what my teacher told me in the MTC.  She said its like this... Faith is when you believe in god.  Hope is when you believe in yourself.  And, Charity is when you believe in others.  I really liked that.  I know its hard to love people sometimes, but it's so important that we do anyway.  Because, we never know whats going on, on the inside in someones life. 

 

Nick's freshly folded laundry by his miracle worker laundry lady

A moth outside the window at 6:30 am

Nick touching a panther

Playing around on an accordian.  I'm guessing this is a members home. 

Elder Cruz

Tiny Coke

20 things I bet you didn't know about Mexico!

We got to talk to Nick on the phone last week, so there wasn't a letter.  We had to wait a whole week to hear from him.  He did have a stop in Houston on the way to Mexico, and we weren't sure he was going to be flying into Mexico with all the flooding.  His flight took off a little past schedule, but there were no problems.   He seems to love it there already.   We're happy that he has a native companion.  His language should be able to improve quickly.  

SO my first week in Mexico!!!  First impression... everything we know about Mexico is a lie.  It's so nice here though, I love it so much.  My companion is Elder Cruz from Pueblo Mexico. He learned English from just talking to people in the mission.  He goes home in 3 months.

So the first few days took just forever.  All day I would just look forward to the end of the day.  I could only pick out like a couple of words in Spanish so I'd just sit there lost while Elder Cruz did all the talking.  But, it got better. (Oh! by the way I'm in Queretaro, Fresno, in the city )

Anyway back to what I was saying, I was only focused on the end.  Well that's not how its supposed to be!  Life either.  We need to enjoy the moments we have, the small things with the time we have.  So here are some small things about Mexico...

1. Ice cream trucks in America, they're white and pretty and play fun music.  You know those trucks that you see at Halloween and you don't go up to cause their going to kidnap you.  Yeah those are the ice cream trucks here.

2. Stop signs. They're optional.

3. Garbage cans, they're like on a basket on a post in front of your house.

4. Doors. When you go up to someones door or gate, you knock on it with a pen and somehow they just know with their 6th sense and come out.

5. Light switches, are sideways. I don't like it.

6. Penguin guys. These guys dress up penguins and drag around coolers full of otter pops to sell.

7. Dogs. Freakin stray dogs everywhere.  They leave us alone but I still don't like them. And at the same time I must admit it's a little bit depressing. But to get rid of them, you pretend to pick up a rock and they just run.

8. Words with Elder Cruz.  Just trying to explain words like furry, or what prom is, or how being overwhelmed feels, in Spanish. Lots of charades.

9. We went to this restaurant and the refrigerator was full of dead baby pigs. So that's fun.

10. Fun food. Ate mayonnaise corn, and Chicharron,  which is fried pig skin. Same texture as dried mangoes but tastes like wet dog.

11. Waters actually clean? I use it to brush my teeth and stuff. On top of that,  no diarrhea. Actually have been a bit constipated for the past week. Life's good.

12. Got locked in the bathroom my first time, since the doorknob was somewhat broken. That was fun.

13.  Mosquitoes. Every night I get like 6 new bites.

14. We were talking to the bishops wife the 2nd night, to say take care is "cuiasay". I said "cayasay" which means shut up... luckily no one heard me.

15. Bus rides. They don't wait for anyone.  They start driving while you're looking down counting money.  It's fun though.

--( I should probably tell you about the second night now. So after  the new elder orientation, me and Elder Cruz got into a car with all our bags. Only our bags took up 2 seats alone. So my first memories with him are him sitting on my lap for a 30 min ride to the other side of Queretaro.  Get to our house, wrong keys. Ended up putting our bags in this random ladies house (who were teaching now) and had to stay in a secretarie missionarie home with no pillows or clean clothes. But it all worked out in the end)

16. Chile pepper juice in your eyes. Imagine pouring hot coals into your eyes, it's similar.

17. Singing. Mexicans can't.

18. Dinner doesn't exist in Mexico. :( It makes me sad, but we always go get late snacks.

19. Cop cars/trucks/mopeds.  Whatever they can find really, and always drive around with their lights on.

20. Sweet potato guys. I hate them. They drag around this cart with a whistle on it that produces the same sound as a 200 ton train. It hurts my ears.

 

 

Anyway thats all I can really talk about.  Other than that I have no idea what happened this week.  Everyone calls me a nuevecito which is little new kid.  And I dont really know Spanish, but I'll get there.  I do what I can, and from that I've gained a love for the people here already.  They're all awesome.  We had this guy tell us yesterday that whenever we need food or anything,  no se preocupado. Just call him up and its done.  He's also teaching me how to make tamales, eventually.(Did he forget his mother made tamales for him for his farewell?) People like that make me happy!

Nick's MTC district and teachers

Nick and his MTC companion

Queretaro

President and Sister Mejorada

Nick's new home away from home

Queretaro

Nick's shower in which he says they ignore the purple stuff in the corner and the extra hair.  Ewwww

Their beds

HIs view outside his house

Meat for the tacos

Tacos in which he said he felt them that night.  

Elder Cruz

One Week Left in the MTC!

Nick did tell us his travel plans.  He leaves in a week.  He is going straight to Mexico.  No stops.  He also was made District Leader and says he does like having personal interviews with each missionary.  He says they are different one on one.  He's ready to leave the MTC and the language will come.  His sister, Sydney left for Korea today.  

But this week. The 2nd to last one!   I'm almost out. I feel like the past month has just flown by, its unreal. With only 23 months left, I don't want to go home and have to go to college and stuff. But spanish, I feel like I haven't made that much progress this week. I learned preterit and imperfect, but I'm just like not at that point where I can use it casually in lessons and stuff where I don't have to think about it as much. So I don't know, it'll eventually come. I'm not worried about it. 

      I guess I'll tell you about Elder C..... He's the guy I've been having the hardest time to like  during my stay here. Just a loud obnoxious kid, obsessed with sports, talks himself up and just lies all the time, stubborn too. Just gets under my skin everyday. Anyway,  yesterday we were talking to him, just about life and things and he told us his story. He talked about his life back home and how seriously messed up it was with everything. His dad beats his mom, and they argue non stop. Hes unemployed, and now they're separated. Of course his mom refuses to see the bad in him, so she just justifies it with other means. It just makes me feel like a crappy person, you know. We take so many things for granted in life, and we just automatically think people have grown up in the same conditions.  But,  that's not true at all, nor is it fair.   I just feel a little ungrateful, not for like dumb stuff like laundry, thats not that big of a deal, and frankly is a mom job.  Just  kidding. But just the fact that I have a good family, that's strong together. Couldn't ask for anything better in life. 

     Que mas. This week was kind of dry. The older district left so we were in charge of everything. Its weird. There's no way I'm ready for Mexico either. But I'm excited.  I just wish I could get to that point where I'm not a scrub at speaking in Spanish, and being a new missionary.  Can't wait to be fluent and fit in with the people.  Last week when the old district left they mentioned that it was their last day in America for 2 years. Thats so weird to think about. I'm sure I'll get used to it, its just I don't know. 

    I'll have to look in my journal for what else happened. BIt was a pretty normal week. I saw Syd last Monday and Tuesday.  We said  goodbye and everything. She'll do well, just has to avoid being nuked by North Korea.  (you gotta love brothers, such compassion.)