Para todos uds.:
Another week in Mexico! Things are looking up a little. We had our first baptism yesterday. Samantha and Antonio Negrete were baptized(they´re cousins). Antonio´s 8 years old, and most of his family are members, so his baptism was done through the ward and the bishop because it was member baptism. Samantha, on the other hand, is from a part-member family and is 9 years old. Because of that, technically it was a convert baptism, but it really didn´t take much work on our part. We have been teaching Antonio´s mom a lot this week. She already knows pretty much everything that most members do...and then some, but for some reason, even though she knows it´s important to be baptized, she doesn´t feel ready to take that step.
Some things in Mexico are a bit.....interesting. For one thing, I found out this week that my companion occasionally screams in his sleep. Earlier this week, I woke up to him yelling on the top of his lungs....only it was Spanish, and I didn´t understand a thing, but it did wake me up. I got a little angry and started yelling back at him for waking me up, but then realized that I was speaking English and he wasn´t going to understand me. So I had stop and formulate Spanish sentences at 12:00 a.m. in order to complain to my companion that he woke me up. I finally gave up, merely telling him in Spanish not to do that again.
The next day, I asked him about his yelling and he just laughed and said that he does that sometimes, but that he didn´t remember doing it that night. Luckily, I had cooled off by that point, so I just repeated my plea to not do it again. He nodded and smiled, saying that he would try.....but apparently it was in vain because last night it happened again. This time, though, he didn´t yell in Spanish, he just, well, yelled....and yelled.....and yelled. If it weren´t for the fact that it was about 2 in the morning, I might have been impressed by his lung capacity!
The work is difficult at times. It´s the hot season right now, (which means it´s a whole 89 degrees farenheit ¨whew!¨) and knocking on doors and having appointments fall through on you is not much of an encouragement. However, the rainy season is supposed to start in June. I´m not sure if that will cool things up a bit, or if it will merely compound humidity to the heat that is already here, but it is a change, and for that I´m pretty excited. Also, the pollution is said to clear up quite a bit during the rainy season, so I should be able to send better city pictures.
The food here is great! .....aside from the papaya. I really didn´t enjoy my experience with papaya last week, and from that point on, papaya has not been my friend. I do enjoy the rest of the food down here. Tacos al Pastor in DF are some of the greatest foods known to man....man, I´m almost drooling just thinking of them!
Also, the water here is great! Just kidding!!! No, but really, it´s kind of weird, but everything you drink down here is called ¨water¨ or ¨refresco¨ for example. Orange juice anyone....? Nope! But there is water of orange. Everything is ¨agua de something¨ So the first time someone offered me ¨agua¨ I was a little nervous, but everything´s fine as long as it isn´t water from the sink.
As far as refresco goes....people drink more of it here than in the States, but not nearly as much as most people let on....most households prefer the ¨waters¨ to refresco, because it´s cheaper and healthier. That being said, I think I just met my new favorite soda (I realize that I´ve been writing ¨refresco¨ a lot and some of you might not know that that means soda). My new favorite soda is Sangría de Uva. It´s basically grape soda but a million times better than whatever you find in the United States. It tastes so fresh! basically, if there were a sparkling grape cider....this is it. I sent a couple pictures of it to my family so hopefully you can see that it´s coloring is like fresh grape juice, but with bubbles!!!!
The work is coming. We are currently teaching someone who has attended church twice already and plans to go this next week too. She´s great, already she´s reading in the pamphlets that we give her and the Book of Mormon. She´s sharing it with her friends at work already and she´s praying to know if it´s all true, and she tells us she feels good about it. The only thing that is really holding her back is her work. She works really heavy, pretty much all throughout the day everyday except for the two days of descanso every week. So we can´t ever find her to teach her.
For example, this week, we won´t be able to teach at all because she works from 9am-10pm everyday except her two days of descanso yesterday (Sunday) and today (our p-day). Also after next week, her Sunday descansos, which have allowed her to attend church these past three weeks, will come to end for a period of time. And with that, it doesn´t matter how much a person may know this church is true, you can´t baptize them if they´re not going to church. I´m afraid that we won´t be able to baptize her before changes in two weeks.
Oh well, we keep praying and working, contacting and hoping for the best. I don´t have anymore time, so I better get off! Thanks for your prayers and support!
Con amor,
Elder Thomas Blackham
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