Mexico Letter #2

Mi FAMILIA!

Yes, I'm alive... you can stop being worried now! haha. I know this is a day late, I'm sorry

3 most common phrases or words of the week:

1- ¿Mande? - means to command someone to repeat what they just said, cause I didn't understand
2- ¿Como se dice..........? - means ¨how do you say ............?
3- ¡¡¡Matelo!!! -- means ¨KILL IT!¨haha - we have some crazy bugs and spiders and cockroaches in our house, so we kill them on sight ha ;)

Notice of the week:
- I love tomatos! and onions! why did I not like them before....???¿¿¿ haha well when they are the only form of taste(still can't find the slash button) flavor, they are necessary. when there's not A-1 sauce or something savory to have with your meet. soooo I decided I like them :)

Ok well, my first week... it was alright. It rains here.... alot! and I mean like HARD rain. On Friday, we had the hardest rainstorm I have ever seen! I was like going crazy. Then there was another one Saturday, then another Sunday, and one last night, equally or maybe stronger each time... it is hurricane season and it's normal ha. But it really is unreal. The streets are like rivers, the plumbing sucks here, so there is like 3 foot deep water up to your knees in the streets, we have to detour alot.

Ok I have to tell you about Saturday night. Sooooo sleeping in a hammock.......its not as glorious as I thought it was. I prefered the ground last night ha, I slept on the tile dirty floor! My back and shoulders are dead! It's just because my body is wayy too tall for the hammocks they gave us and it's impossible to have a straight surface laying sideways even. and my shoulders kill! ha I need to order a big one asap, it's bad~ ha! It's not good to sleep on the floor. the thing that hammacks are sooo good for is to keep you off the ground where there are bugs, millions of ants and cochroaches...

TIME OUT- ok tell me if you knew this before. You know that mexican song ,¨a cucaracha! a cucaracha! yayayayayya.... a cucaracha, a cucaracha yayayayyay!¨???    That literally means a cockroach.... I had no idea! hahahahaha I thought it was just a cool word they made up or something.

Anyways, so on Saturday night, I  wake up at 1:30am... it happens alot, miniumum like 7 times a night I'll wake up..... but this time I was stoked! I HAD MY FIRST DREAM IN SPANISH! haha it was sooo tight! I thought it would take alot longer to have one! ha. then about 2 minutes of being happy, it hit me.... that feeling....

YEP! I spent from 1:32am until about 5:03am on the toilet... I was sick. The first time. it....was....horrible. but completely unavoidable-- there is no way to dodge ¨the runs¨ ha, for real. It was bummer! but talk about an emotion swing! 2 minutes I'm stoked then spend 4 hours on the john... wow.

and the next day, Sunday, I wake up from my restless sleep exhausted... go to church that starts at 8, but get there at 7:45, walk into the bishops office and he assigns me the first talk!... bueno... haha. I gave a great discourse about faith and my purpose as a missionary... then sat down.

Also, can you guess who is going to be the ward organist??? ....... me. Ha~~ they sing the hymns acapella cause no one can play, I'm the most qualified piano player so I'm gonna start playing, probably just the right hand ha, but whatev--- gotta practice!

Also, Dave, you told me about a pill that you can take that will help you when the runs come? Well,  a member here game me a pill and a little drink thingy to drink, both presribed medicine made in Mexico. I have the names, are they bad to take for the long run? It helped, the sickness was gone by Monday around noon.

Well,  now on to the real stuff, my investigators--we have a few. Fabiola and her mom and brother Carlos, 2 Sandras, a 90 year old guy and his wife Gustavo haha... and that's all I can think of right now. We have a few referrals to we haven't contacted yet. all are progressing, my favorite people to teach is Fabiola and her family, she is 15 and her bro 21 and her mom-- we have only taught them once, so tomorrow we are going to talk about the Book of Mormon, we did the whole first lesson up to the B of M. I'll let you know how things are going with that next week. It's fun to teach, I don't say much yet- I kinda just poke a few things in to what Elder Chavez is teaching, but it is a lot of fun. I love finding people.

My Spanish is improving wayyy well, and I am starting to understand what people are saying, it doesn't sound sooo fast anymore when they talk. I still have a long way to go. I have set a goal to be fluent enough with a accent by the time I talk to guys at Christmas, I'm gonna do it!

Mom- what are some wayyy simple snack ideas? We don't have a microwave, we do have a stove and fridge. What can I buy that is easy to make for a snack. We get fed a lot by the members but for the night and morning I need some stuff to eat. Any suggestions on what to buy?  The only thing I have bought is milk and cereal and bananas and mangos ha.

Well, I best be going, we have to go eat. We have a member feed us everyday, except P-day, for lunch. It's great—it's like our only real meal ha. I am learning to eat alot more in 1 sitting ha, I have to literally stuff myself beyond capacity. I'ts hard, but I have to last along time. My body is designed to eat smaller meals but like 6 times a day. So I'ts different.

Write me some Qs if you wanna know some stuff for next week.

Hope all is well back at home.
Oh also, there are 2 options to send mail. the pouch service, and the regular mail service.
Pouch is provided by the church as is more secure, but I think it takes like 6 weeks for me to get mail.
Regular is a little sketchy, but I was talking to some elders yesterday at district meeting and they said that regular was fine, they get packages without a problem so letters will be fine. But it does happen sometimes—don,t know how often.

pouch address:
Elder Richard Connolly
Mexico Merida Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150
USA

regular address:
Misión México Mérida
Elder Richard Connolly
Calle 45 #527-Q entre 70 y 72
Col. Centro
Mérida, Yucatán, C.P.97000
México



I cant get the computer to read my memory card to send pictures home... kinda disapointed. I'll try again at another computer next week.

well Love you all, thanks for your love and support. Vaya con Dios!