November 17, 2008 - 3rd week in the field

I am still so blessed though! I know I´m learning. Mom, Dad. Before I left I was driving in the car, pondering. I thought to my self - quite randomly, I´m going to Mexico. With certainty, I just knew it. I got my letter and saw Mexico. My first thought was still, wow this blows. But the second was remembering that I thought that. In the MTC 2-3 days before I left, I again was pondering. "I´m going to have a trainer that because of who he is, I will be forced to learn everything on my own". And with very few exceptions that is true. I do not mimic many of his actions. I learn from others, my district leader and my two zone leaders are INCREDIBLE - but my trainer is a ... I can´t bring myself to type fool. He´s not the worst thing in the world, but I can´t stand it anymore and I can´t stand for it. He told me today if I do or say certain things he´s going to hit me. If he does I´ll break his neck! I feel horrible...I just want to take a day and cry. And today we don´t have much time to email caus we have to do laundry. I doubt we´ll get to do it anyway. I haven´t had time for laundry since I got here, lol. My nights usually include washing a pair of garments and a shirt. Elder Hoffman´s having it tough too, he doesn´t understand 75% of what his companion says and much of what he does understand he doesn´t agree with. He´s grown quiet and we don´t talk as much. Added to this he was bitten twice by a spider and it swelled up so big yesterday he couldn´t walk. Went to the hospital twice over the weekend and goes again tomorrow. THis isn´t the same spider but over our neighbors (well we don´t have neighbors in this house, but in this house next to us) window is a normal spider, not a tarantula or something like so, the size of my hand. MY hand... insane. Our house is a dump too, grass to my knees and two overgrown dwarf citrus trees hanging to the ground. The other day I cleared all the trash out of the grass and filled our entire garbage can and found a ton of rocks in the grass so I lined our walkpath with them, then I swept and mopped inside the house. Our walls are pealing and dead bugs line them as well. It´s not a bad house. Definately needs work, but has potential. Problem is, nobody´s cared for it. This is all last Monday before I emailed you. There´s so much to talk about it´s very easy to forget. But this morning, Elder Gonzalez (Elder Hoffman´s companion) used a pick and a shovel that he borrowed from a member and began to renovate the first half of our yard. I helped him and in an hour we cleared a 3 by 10 area of all the grass and leveled the dirt. He said we´re going to go buy grass too which I happily obliged. Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday were utter hell. Up until we ARRIVED at the temple rededication. Yesterday we didn´t have church like usual, the Mexico City Temple was rededicated and we went to the stake center in Guadalajara to watch it. Notice I said when we ARRIVED. Í´ll write that story in a letter or tal vez (maybe) I´ll tell it into my handy dandy voice recorder! You´ll have to forgive me, once again I forgot the cord to my camera, and though I have my camera in my pocket I forgot the cord so I won´t be sending any pictures. Hopefully next week, again. Lol. I´m losing track of my thoughts, so I´ll reply to a few things and hopefully I´ll remember. First off, thank you for the compliment on my emails! I thought they were all just usually gargled jargon. But apparantly they´re witty funny and informative (not in that order). I apologize if some of my usual ´wit´ is missing for the place of sincerity and formality. That´s my current mood, this is a random thought too (I´m glad you mentioned that because now I don´t feel bad for wandering thoughts, lol) but the more I learn Spanish, the more I think about English. The idioms we use, what is literal what is not, my vocab in English is slowly growing as it dies. When you´re forced into Spanish like this, there´s not any English, you forget words - but as much as I ponder I think my English is staying pretty strong. The language is coming good. I teach my entire part in the lessons, obviously badly but I don´t just testify, I teach and everything; understanding is my problem. I haven´t been able to understand anything up to lately. I still still struggle immensly, but now I can understand most of the points I´m told, meaning most of the time I get the jyst. Once I can understand I can use the words I hear too! Lol. Once I can hear how they speak I should be able to translate what I say a little better. It´s the difference the gift of languages and the gift of tongues. You can learn ´Spanish´ but not speak Mexican. I´m sure you get the drift, but for lack of a better way to describe it I had to ´drift´ it. I don´t know if I mentioned this last week or not, but they listen to more English music here than they to Spanish. I don´t think I did. It´s almost even, half the places we go to we hear English blairing out the window. It´s just as bad as we hear Mariachi and Banda everywhere. It´s horrible also. I can´t help but think though that I´ll be listening to a few of those stations when I get home. It´s been three weaks. I´m torn between ´It´s already been three weeks!´ and ´It´s only been three weeks?´. THoughts of home have plagued me lately, video games cars and you guys and else. It doesn´t defect me as much though anymore. I push it out after awhile. It´s great to focus on the work - and here´s a very good lesson I learned about it all. This is a way in which Satan works. He brings to thought many of the sensations that you feel, but emphasizes them. The first week we were here was fast Sunday. It sucked, we do full 24 hours, and it was bad because from 4:00 o´clock Saturday afteroon til 2:00 Sunday afternoon, nothing. Not even water.That was all I needed. We walk around these dusty roads and my throat was killing me. My sensation for the want of water, my thirst was impressive. Incredible. However, when I finally got that water, and I´ve been able to prove this several times since, wasn´t what you imagine. It´s good and just like everyother time. But it´s not that wonderful feeling you have. My thoughts of video games and home are the same. They seem so glorious and relieving. So worth it to indulge in. I think of the games I want to play and they seem SOO fun. Yes they´d be fun but they aren´t how I´m thinking. They´re exagerated. And this is what Satan does to taunt us...to make US think than something else is greater. I find it a tantilizing thought. Using this, whenever a temptaion of this nature hits me, usually quite quickly I think. No its not... it´s not that great. That gamé´s fun, I miss that. But it´s not quite that great. Anyway. I want to reply to the rest caus I do have to go soon! I´m so happy for the houses and the 5 year contract! You truly are blessed! OH! I have to talk about the principle of obedience too! I have a testimony that the Lord blesses us on principles of obedience, I also have a testimony of afflictions and trials of faith, that´s next. This is how I know: we have more or less 20 minutes to work out in the mornings. That´s nothing, I use a Nestle coffee can filled with dirt to work out, with a little stick poking out one end. With this and a few pushups I curl weights and work my biceps and triceps. Usually it´s not much, and in respect and comparatively, it´s nothing. I have grown stronger in the last three weeks than most of my time working out. My arms are growing, I don´t want to say excessively quite yet, but I´m going to test this theory and quizas (perhaps) next week. The Lord blesses us if we show the faith to just do what he asks, simple or whatever it seems. We will be blessed. It´s hard to apply to all things, but we have too. I do have to leave but I´ll tell you the rest another time! Mom I love you... and when I get home I will give you a kiss on the cheek and say it again. Dad I love and respect you, I always have but it´s grown. I Love you miss you and hope you grow as I do. Until later, I´ll write a letter too. When I have time, it will be interesting to do the one page thing. Sincerly with Love, Jacob D. Taylor, Elder