December 28, 2009

I´m really tired.... Nothing new there, is there. Well I am currently writing having not bathed in three days vomited 3-5 times and bed-ridden for half a day. I´ll explain in a bit. I would be so excited to hear from R.J., that´s one of the biggest things I look forward to in my life is seeing the changes that have happened in his life. Brazil. The week he gets back we´re going for a pedicure and Sparkling apple cider while playing darts and mario party. Ha. I loved the red Nintendo Shirt it was hilarious and awesomne. Elder Perez isn´t a very emotional guy, but he was thankful and he said to say thanks, alot. He loves (and needed badly) the watch. He put everything on that day and wore it around lol. Kid drives me crazy every once in a while, but a few hours later my head cools and my heart calms down and goes out for him. He was worried that his family had been kidnapped and learned later that they had moved houses but their old house had been shot out by narcos (drug dealers) and his dads public bus service business, several buses had been ransomed for money. It´s been rough. He goes home March 15. I woke up good and read the Book of Mormon (two pages...oh well) and dealt alright with the attitudes going around the house. BUT...they just got to me before we came here. I´m not thinking very positively...lol. It´s allll good I just want to relax today and get away from the norm. By norm I mean, not he daily routine, but the daily list of annoyance I deal with which is now by standard .. a norm. A daily expected occurance that I´m steadily adapting to and dealing with better. Lol Now the story. This week was as follows!:
Monday...changes, We went to a pueblo hour and a half from here, killed a pig, cooked it and ate it. While cooking we got our hands on a pistol and blew a coke bottle to hell and back. We were taught where the Mexican army had come to destroy several acres of weed that had been planted and then we enjoyed carnitas de peurco. YEAH! Lol. Then we got bussed back to the highway where I distanced myself from the other crew and started asking a ride. A kind man and his friend rolled off to the side and asked me where I was headed. I answered: ¨Guzman!¨Hop in he tells me. At this point a parade and stampede of missionaries and young single adults who had come with us (totaling eight) come running from their former hiding/congregation place and piled in the poor pick up who was foolish enough to stop for us. I climbed in as well. IT was a pleasant ride home. Elder Perez had also gotten sick and started to throw up.
Tuesday: Elder Perz is still sick. We stayed in the house as I washed his, mine and Elder Guevara´s clothes. WHich took for EVER! 4-5 hours... Christian came over and we talked video games and wrote down more random game facts to my growing list of characters and stats. Lol.Miercoles: Guadalajara. We get up at 4 o´clock and hitch a bus at 5 to Guadalajara, we sleep on the bus and miss our stop and arrive in Tonalá (a district of Guadalajara VERY VERY FAR AWAY from where we were going). So we grab a taxi for 200 pesos. We arrive (Elder Perez is still sick) and we have our Zone leaders council. It was cool, I got to see and meet a few new people. Elder Oakes still doesn´t want to talk to me. (He´s a zone leader now too). Bus ride back was a ... difficult. Get back, Elder Perez is still sick. And Myself now too. This was my spiritually draining day.
Thursday: Repentance process continues. We plan in the morning and visit Angela a recent convert with cancer, bedridden and fighting hard. We said hi and headed over the meal in which we enjoyed and started for the church to meet up for the caroling group activity. We met with three of the young single adult girls and headed out 6 missionaries and the 3 sisters. Several others couldn´t make it. We went to several less active/inactive homes. It was quite enjoyable. Friday: Christmas: I talked to you and complained about alot. Lol, sorry. 45 minutes went by fast. As all things do. Very pleasant to hear from you, I wasn´t affected at first, but after awhile I started thinking. It´s pretty cool to hear from somebody, talk to the family. You in specific yes. Lol. Realized 9 months is not very far away and as much as I love the mission and am grateful for what I learn am looking forward to it. Mission work is incredible, but it´s a process. I want to prove char estes ultimos meses. Afterwards we went to la comida in which we had a traditional favorite Pozole and I put WAY TO MUCH chile on it. She had gone caroling with us the day before so I gave her the Hershey´s chocolate bar you had given me. Afterwards we went and taught a reference we had received who I will tell you about here in a second and then we went home. I changed 40 bucks out and spent it all already. I bought pizza for everybody. 1 Macro and another large. Macro is like a Godzilla pizza if you can imagine. It was good. They bought chips and soda and stuff while talking to their families. Saturday: The ´Day´I woke up vomiting and pooping. Who knows what time it was when I started but I was pooping then at 6 something I reluctantly succeeded to throw up. From 7 -9 I proceeded in this process. From 9 until 3 I lied in bed with shivers and a headache and soreness all over. At 3 the other elders got back to the house and asked if I was able to go to Tuxpan to do the interviews, I said yes and we left. I was half way dead. But that´s ok. I interviewed the daughter, Elder Perez the mom and the son and we stayed for the baptism. I fell asleep in the sacrament room while they were preparing for it all. We sang a pretty musical number and then they were baptized. Cleaned up and then they invited us over para cenar... ugh... They just could not understand that I was sick. I can´t eat, I don´t feel very good right now. They respond, He doesn´t like the food down here much does he, speaking to the other elders. The other elders reply no, it´s just cause he´s sick. The family says. He hasn´t gotten used it yet, doesn´t like it? No I¨M SICK.. If I eat I WILL VOMIT!!! Now offended, what you don´t like our food or what?? Glory... This is at 10:30 by the way. Well not the exact conversation but the point is to express what they said to me. It was annoying. Lol. We stayed the night in Tuxpan with Elder Nichols and Elder Aulestia. We put he two beds together and all ..relaxing... very comfortable! = D Lol. Well... Sunday we got up late because we went to bed at Midnight to 1 in the morning after they gave us a ride back from their little town they live in outside the city to the house in Tuxpan. We caught a bus at 8:30 and arrived in Guzman at 9:30, again having missed the proper stop. We popped and caught a bus to the church and there we arrived. Rememer I had not showered yet that day and the day before was sick in bed and their was no gas, so we couldn´t take a warm shower and therefore postponing the time left to Tuxpan without showering. We called before getting there the other Elders to bring out suits and and fresh paiir of garments. We stayed for several meetings and went to a recently reactivated members house who is also our new branch mission leader. Got to the house everyone was home already. They partied until 11:40 and I chipped in the conversation seeing as I was in bed and they all on the floor in the same rooming on their little pads. Lol. Oh well. Woke up at 6:30 but DEATH could, (conditionally speaking) Elder Danielson had gotten there at 2 a.m. from Manzanillo to visit a convert. He hitched a ride with a member from manzanillo in his 18 wheeler to here. We layed around until 7:30 when I got up and started reading. We then commenced district class later and here I am. That´s my week. The investigators I mentioned earlier are Erika and Fernando. Erika showed up at church several weeks ago with her Aunt, Hna. Rodriguez. We arranged that we´d call and put a date later for when we could come by. Called and they called us bck and put the date for Christmas! Lol. We taught her and her husband Fernando who was there asking questions, understanding and all in all it went very well. He works Sunday´s and so we´ll work with that, but Erika came again on Sunday. She´s liking it alot. The family that we ate with on Wednesday´s is struggling bad and can´t afford to help us anymore, and called in to the Relief Society President informing that she wouldn´t be able to attend us. THe issue was addressed in the Relief Society this week and who signed up... Erika, our invetigator... what d´ya know! Lol. That was awesome, she had also shown up to church by herself, the week before she came with her aunt but now she was solo her aunt was out of town. Wow, she´s awesome. Just got to get her husband out of the carniceria and keep helpin´m out. So that´s my week hope you enjoyed it´s already been about an hour in here so I´m out of here!-JakeLOVE YOU SO MUCH OH MY GOOSNESS YEAH LOVE LOVE LOVE! YEHA!----