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Mexico #6 Good times just keep on Rollin´ ... HOLAAA FAAMILIA!!!! SLC where the whole city has 1 universal address system, 1st east, 2nd east, 3rd east... whatev. It'd be like Harvard- yale having it's own calle 20, federal heights having it's own calle 20, foothill having it's own, sugarhouse having I'ts own... soo on. I'ts kinda dumb ha, but I guess when you figure it out, if makes sense. |
MEXICO #5!!!! ( its a good one ;) )
OKKK FAM!
OK FIRST OFF, I heard about the Utah BYU game... (from a Mexican, no, I didn't check epsn.com or anything). I didn't even have an idea it would be this early in the season. Wow... this is a great time to be on a mission-- NBA lockout so no NBA and the game wasn't even good... I don't even care that BYU lost 54 to 10-- go Utes! Haha!
MY FAVORITO WEEK IN THE FIELD SOOO FAR!!! I had some good things and some bad things, but you know what?- it happens sometimes!
So, wow, I' m just gonna name this email ¨TODO¨ because just about everything on a mission that can happen... happened... I think?? haha I wish I could just send my journal entries home because they are in a lot more detail and explain alot more but with this timer going up and the pesos counting up with it, I gotta keep it brief. I type my fastest! And I hope is makes sense, ha!
Well onto the letter. I have a few requests...
OK, mom, did you check up on a Costco joint membership? and Sams club? See what you can do, I might just buy one. And a SAMS Club, It is very cheap, like 33 USD bucks.
Well what else happened this week... oh, it was the 4th of July of Mexcio last week, Sept 15... pretty lame, NOTHING like the celebration we have in America. Ha!
A missionary here just got his call to New York City, New York. 2 things:
And guess what? Our ward has 2 missionaries out serving right now and guess how many in the next 12 months??? 15!!! FIFTEEN missionaries, Isn't that cool? There is a huge group of kids that age and like 5 sister missionaries a little older as well. It is so cool the majority of the girls here all serve, of the young couples I know, all the wives served. Literally everyone serves- we had the opportunity to talk to the primary again—we do that every week. This week we talked about how to prepare ha, they are only like 4 - 10, but it was cute to hear their ways they were preparing already.
So spiritual experience this week... there was a lot actually. This week was my FAVORITE week of the mission. One with Sandra Luna again, we watched the Joseph Smith movie with her whole family, and had a 20 minute lesson and testimony sharing that was awesome. but I think my favorite was with Orlando. It was awesome! The lesson was no more than 12 minutes, very short, very powerful and probably my favorite lesson. We invited the spirit with prayer-- he had a problem with baptism again because he thinks his Catholic baptism was valid as a baby. We explained 3 things..
And we used 2 Nephi 31, invited him to be baptized and he accepted! So that will be cool, I hope he follows through! This will be the first baptism we have that I was present for the whole thing-- like we found him, worked with him and see him get baptized. All the others we have planned still were progressing before I got here. So yeah, ended with prayer and we were on our way. It was awesome how the Lord had prepared him-- he said he had been thinking a lot about his spiritual life lately and wanted to change! I hope so much!
And of course the baptism was AWESOME!! I'll attach pics of it to this! It was E. Chavez and I and Maria and her daughter.
Funny thing, all the envelopes I brought from home are now sealed shut with nothing in them because of the humidity! haha, I have to buy more. and mom I am sending a letter home the slow way. I am putting a tracking device on it, so you can watch it, I'll give you the tracking number next week—it's cool, it costs a little more but worth it, my comp says the letters get to where they are going with a lot higher percentage with it too.
AND GUESS WHAT!!!?? We get a laundry machine in November!! It's the one we´ve been using in the past but the members are getting a new one and giving it to us. It really is ghetto haha, but it works and is better than hand washing, which I had to do last week..... and it took forever... the mission is just an EXPERIENCE!! and I LOVE it!! :)
The food is soooooo.... gooood? haha no I love it, it's just different. My stomach is getting more and more accustomed... the dumb thing is I can't get full, I honestly just can't eat anymore because it is soo fatty. So there is room in my stomach but I would throw up if I tried to eat more. It is a bummer because I am hungry like 5 hours later and we only get 1 good meal a day, and quesadillas can't keep me sustained forever... ha. I have eaten meat here that I NEVER would have touched back at home, and I never knew was even edible. Let me tell you though, it's a lot easier to eat in the dark-- if you can't see it, it goes down a little easier... and I am gaining weight still.
Well I best be going! ... peace fam! I love you all! Thanks for your letters, I had 11 emails in my inbox today! I didn't get to all of them, I'll write back when I can! or hit you up on the Postal Service haha. Thank you so much for your prayers, love, letters and support! U Da Best!
-Elder Connolly
MEXICO!!!!! #4 with pics!
¿¡Bosh Onda Familia!?
(¨¿Qué Pasa?¨ en Mayan or ¨Whats up?¨ in English... haha)
Holy Cow... where to start-- ok first off, I did have a moment of silence on Sunday morning for Sept 11... my companion didn't give respect...¨nobody cares....¨ wow... messed. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!!!
anyways, about me, this week included ALOT!! (aside from THE WORK itself)
Ok mom, I transferred money from my savings to my checking, it got denied today shopping at
Walmart, I had like a dollar in it haha. I had to use it because
all adds up to about 80% of my money for the month and still have about 18 days until I get more.... soo I used my credit card- I can pay it off online banking next week, or you can do it, whichev.
OKKK onto the work!
Well it was a GREAT week this week
We´ll start at church, we had 5 people in our gospel doctrine class this week (which means that they came to church), only 2 of them were investigators, 3 less active members.
Mayra- we set a compromised baptismal date on October 3rd? I believe, so that´ll be the first baptism!
The family of 3 we´ve been teaching- I don't know what's happening with them- they haven't been very open to us teaching them this past week and made it very difficult for us to set an appointment with all sorts of excuses, but we´re still working with them. It's sad, I want them sooooo bad to come to church and be baptized! I'm trying my best!
Orlando- we found this guy! He's cool, but we found him Saturday and actually haven't taught him yet-I hope all goes well with him this week!
Sandra Reyes- she is the most animated little ball of energy I have ever seem!!-especially for a 32 year old woman! haha. She is crazy awesome though, she got baptized a few weeks before I got here, and is a primary teacher. We are working on her son who is 9 and boy friend hopefully- we´ll see.
¡HOLA FaMiLiA!
SOOOO today was a much more enjoyable P-day ha, wow. We actually did our laundry this week...........
2 things this week:
1- I finally learned my lesson: wear the ugly, dummie lookin' poncho... holy cow, the rains here are crazy. and i'ts on the clock, literally between 2-4 there is a 30-40 minute rain storm, and I mean like hurricane steezzz! They are soo powerful.
2- When I knock on doors, I can't do the classic. beeep, beeep, bep, bep, beeeeeep ---------- beeeeep beeeeeeeep! You know, that classic honk mom does all the time?? In mexico, its bad, my comp got mad at me for doing it, it means something bad, I don't know what.. haha.
Soooo, I thought I would actually talk about my area, Brisas. I´ve been here for 2 weeks now and still get lost in the streets ha, it's kinda confusing, and without the mountains, I don't know which way is east, north, west of south! I'm just starting to get a feel for it.
So Brisas is an older part of town. all the houses are cement, probably built in like the 30's or so. there are alot of older, strong catholic people in our area, and some areas, its every door we knock. It's rough ha. My ward has about 80 people in it, our chapel, or ¨capilla¨ is tiny and the most ghetto one is Merida! but it's tight, its unique, it's not the general ¨cookie cutter chapel¨ they have everywhere else.
We don't have bikes because the streets aren't very bike-friendly and the drivers here are crazy. So we either have to walk or take the bus, which I hate, my companion doesn't like to walk and we take the bus everywhere at 6 pesos a trip like 10-16 times a day, which takes like half our money! haha. When I'm the Papa, or senior comp, we´re walking EVERYWHERE ha.
We can't drink Coke.....and I think we are the only 2 people in Merida that don't (other than the other missionaries) ha. If Pres Salinas had the chance to write the word of wisdom, Coke would be in it. And I'm not a pop person but at every meal, the members always have coke for them and a strawberry fanta drink for us without fail... I hate that drink ha. But whatevs. The Spanish is sooooo rough- there are on and off days with it and it is really discouraging and super frustrating sometimes. I get so annoyed not being able to understand. Then sometimes it comes and I can understand. But for the most part, it is still hard. I'm trying something new this week, so we´ll see if it works!
My companion: his name is Elder Chavez, de Oaxaca. He's alright-- He's a great teacher, I wish he were a little more patient with me, but we´re chill now, it was rough for a bit. Funny thing, he wants 13 kids and want to be a dentist! He told me that before I told him about my family—weird, huh?? He´s Dad-- is Mexican form!! But not at the same time!~ haha
OK the teaching, it's going good. We had 4 investigators at church this week, 3 for the first time! It's a family, 1 mom, 2 kids, 15 year old girl and 21 year old boy, they are my favorite people to teach. I look forward to their lessons. We teach them tomorrow again and gonna hopefully we will commit them to a baptism in 2 weeks after they have been to church at least 3 times. The other, Mayra, this was her second time at church, and we have a baptismal date set for her on the 17th! but she is being weird, she doesn't want to until the beginning of Novemeber....because it's her birthday...? I don't know, that's 2 months away. So more info next week.
Funny story: so we were on our way to visit a 90 year man Gustavo ha, hes sooo tight. wayyyy old, he's Catholic and won't be baptized-- the missionaries have been visiting him for over a year ha, but he likes us to visit, so we sing him hymns. Anyways, on our way, a lady came out of her house and called us over. Her 15 year old son had questions about religion, and she wasn't prepared to answer them, so we made an appointment for the next day. Turns out their family is atheist. And when we started teaching, the 15 asked ¨so, is god a man or a woman?¨ .... and ¨did Adam and Eve have a belly button?¨... haha! it was like a joke, Chavez didn't know how to answer them cause it was the first time we´d been asked questions like that ha. We obviously could tell he had looked up online some stuff about the Mormons, probably anti stuff, and was bringing it up. He did visit the new. www.mormon.org and stuff. anyways, Chavez said he had never had a lesson like that haha. You don't run into an athiest much in Mexico ha!
Q´s to answer.
1. What is your apartment like?
Here's a google map link. If you go to street view, there are 3 cars, 1 the first there a silver nissan with a guy looking in his trunk or something, then there is another silver car and then a black one-- mine is the house where the black one is in front of, with the big green tree (and orange (fruit) tree! ripe in like 6 weeks, I'm stoked) and trash on the fence to the drive way gate, and white with a green strip on top. I applaud google, I didn't think they´d have it on street view!
It's way tight, It's made for 4 missionaries and was last transfer, but now there is only me and Chavez. The only things are...(there's a lot actually)
overall though, I really like my apartment.
2. What is your compaion's name and where is he from in Mexico. What is he like? Is he a hard worker?
answered that somewhere else ha
3. What is your daily schedule? Will you usually write on Mondays?
yes, every Monday. Last p-day I was sick in the morning so I was in bed for a while then we had stuff all day and I didn't even get to do laundry.
4. Have you taught any lessons?
yes ha, there's alot.
5. Are you getting our letters and when do you get DEAR ELDER STUFF?
I haven't received anything yet, but I might tonight, we get mail from the misson home every Monday night, and I didn't get any last week. we´ll see.
I use the picture of our family every day at least once, sometimes more-- thanks for that. Also, the picture of Dad and Emily at the temple and some other pictures at the temple when we talk about how at temples we can be sealed to our families, its perfect. Could you guys email me a picture of the slc temple? I need one and I can stick it on my card and print it out here.
Well my new motto is from my companion after trying some of the nastiest candy I've ever had ha! Why do Mexicans love chilly soo much, even enough to put it in their candy, or dulces? haha my new motto is , ¨YOU ARE IN MEXICO—ENJOY IT!.-- in broken English, of course! I laughed sooo hard. but I figured I might as well enjoy these candies, the humidity, bein´ a gringo, 6:30 mornings, marathon days, restless nights, dirty hands, cold showers, mom-less cooking, and even sleeping in a hammock, cause this is my life for 2 years :)
By the way, good news! I bought a new hammock from my bishop! I get it tonight, so I haven't tried it yet! I hope it's more comfy.
Word of the day:
¡Cuídense! - which means- ¡take care!
Love you Fam,
Elder Connolly
