As promised, I sent some pics with this email. Most of them are from the MTC, but I did send a few from the field. I´ll send more next week.
Life in Mexico is....different. The people are awesome and really friendly, sometimes too much so. Whenever we contact anyone and we make an appointment with them, we have to take it with a grain of salt, because pretty everyone you talk to is going to look like their interested and will want to make another appointment, but will never be there when you pass by. I´m not sure that being rejected hard straight-up would be worse than getting your hopes up only to find that the investigators went ¨chafa¨ on you.
That being said, reopening an area is pretty difficult at the start, because you starting from scratch...which means your walking....a lot. However, things have started looking up lately. We´ve got several new investigators now, including two families that we've taught at least twice, both of them are reading and doing their commitments. They both have doubts, but that´s to be expected at first. One member of one of these families, Hermana Ábrego, came to church yesterday! Her daughter and husband were not able to, but she did! She´s been have hard times lately, so I hope she felt loved by the members.
The other family is very spiritual and really like to talk, but that´s good thing....when you don´t have another appointment directly after them. We learned after the first lesson to set aside a good two hours after the appointment before setting another!
Other aspects of life here in Mexico: the food is great!....just different, so your body has to make certain adjustments,(I won´t go too far in detail about these adjustments, but I just hope I´m almost done). They like stuff really spicy. I thought I liked spicy before my mission (my family can attest to the fact that I basically drank salsa), but, man, my mouth was not made to handle this kind of spice. Maybe that´s why they talk so fast down here, they've got stronger mouths than us gringos. Also they like lime, my companion especially. I like lime too, so that isn't a bad thing, it´s only that he puts it on EVERYTHING he eats! Whatever he eats, he either puts lime or honey on it....and sometimes both.....it´s a little weird, but I´m getting used to it.
Of course, he´s probably writing home right now about how his Gringo companion basically has a love affair with leche. This also shouldn't be a surprise to my family. I love milk, and I've really had to tone it down here in Mexico because milk is a lot more expensive down here than it is in the U.S.(of course, everything else is a lot cheaper to buy here. For example: we bought 3 avocados for about $5.60 Pesos....or the equivalent of about 43 U.S. cents)
Don´t worry all of you, I haven´t drank the water yet. What I didn't realize is that the people here in Mexico don´t really drink it either. They usually boil it and then add fruit juice and sugar (usually lime). So I should be okay during my mission, because everyone here seems to be aware that the water here isn't good to drink. Last week, after playing soccer non-stop for about an hour-and-a-half as a district, I wanted more than anything to drink the water from the kitchen sink in the chapel, but my companion told me that that was not a good idea. He told me he was thirsty too, but that we would wait until after the district meeting to buy refrescos.
Speaking of soccer, it´s funny, at every chapel, there is an outdoor cement field for soccer. So churchball here is basically football. Every friday night, the Plateros and the Puerta Grande wards meet at the chapel to play soccer. It´s actually a way cool tool to meet people and invite investigators to come to the chapel and do the same.
Anyway, time is short, I better get off soon. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I hear that my brother posted my pouch mail info on the blog, go ahead and use it, it´s very reliable because it´s sponsored by the church. There´s about a week delay, but it will get to me.
Con Amor,
Elder Blackham
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