Weekly Letter: September 21-28, 2010

My first change in the mission. I don't know why, but somehow I thought I would be in Plateros forever, but here I am in Toluca. Toluca and DF are completely different animals. DF is HUGE! and Toluca, while not small, is definitely not at the same scale. The areas in Toluca are a lot bigger than those in DF, thanks to the less dense population. My area is Toluca Centro, but it includes several other small towns, including Lomas, Almoloya, Suteym, and Colinias del Sol. Unfortunately, I have gotten in the habit to sleep in the buses or taxis if the journey takes more than 10 minutes(which was the longest journey we would take in DF) Luckily, we haven't had problems with that, even though my companion has the same tendency. However, it seems that whenever he's asleep, I'm awake and vice versa, so we've always gotten off at the right stop.

This area, also has a lot of more hills and mountains, Plateros had a lot of hills, but none of them were this steep and all of them were completely blanketed in houses and buildings. Here in Toluca there is a lot more nature. Anyway, there are a lot more opportunities to take photos here, but I just have to find a way to make my connection work with the computer to send them. We also can see El Nevado de Toluca from our area in a clear day (which happens a lot more here than in DF, thanks to the pollution there). It's a dormant volcano that basically dominates the valley. We've talked to a sister in Lomas, who says that the view from the hill just outside of Lomas has a great view of the entire valley and volcanoe. So I think that one P-day we're going to hike it.

I also had the chance to meet my new companion, Elder Chavez. He is a great missionary, and very humble. I have learned a lot from his example of teaching. It's funny, you'd think that since I have more time in the mission that I would know how to teach better than he does, but the fact is that we're both learning from each other. Actually, I don't really have all that much time more than he does in the mission. We just figured it out today, with my MTC experience, and my coming late in the field due to my visa, we basically have the same amount of time in the field, so really, I do have more time in the mission, but we have about the same experience level: Two areas and 5 months in Mexico.

I am basically out of time. I'm sorry that with all the new changes in the mission (including having to use time on internet to write the president) I don't have nearly as much time as I did before. Anyway, thank you all, like always for the support and keep me in your prayers!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham