Friday, March 29, 2013

Culture Shock

Hola familia!

I cant believe I've already been in Mexico for a whole week! how crazy is that?! so first i will talk a little bit more about the area and other different things here that I've noticed and then ill talk about what I've learned so far. So I have a big list so I'm just going to put it all in a giant list.

-So there are Taxis EVERYWHERE! and they make the sound of a police car so it sounds like there's police cars everywhere, but its really just taxis

-Everyone has gates outside their house, i guess for safety reasons, so we never actually knock on a door, but just tap on the gates. haha, weird huh

-This week i've had chicken fried steak, hot dogs, and spaghetti, but all were served with salsa and guacomole. Haha funny story, at the Contreras family house they served us straight up jalepeños on the side, but i couldnt tell what they were so i ate one, after my drink was gone, and my mouth was on FIRE! but i was trying to hide it but my face turned bright red and my eyes started to water so they all laughed at me. haha
- No one drinks water here, its all juices or coke or pepsi
- Literally every time i tell someone I'm from Dallas they ask about the Cowboys
- Everyone tries to speak English to me, even kids we pass on the street
- I'm pretty sure they breed their dogs with hyenas here. They all are super freaky looking!!
- Favorite foods of the week: Campachanas, and Chuletas. I would tell you what was in them, but i don't even   
  know! haha, so google them :)
- For the most part everyone is SUPER nice here and willing to help us out. There haven't been Elders for a few    
  months so the whole ward is way excited to have us here.
- Church is way different! It looks nothing like any church I've ever been in. And there was only about 70 people, 
  the pianist could only play the top note, and only 9 people in Elders quorum. But it was really cool!
- There's ALWAYS fiestas here! There was a super big one a couple nights ago right outside our house so we 
  didn't get any sleep, it literally is never quiet here
Okay so now for the other stuff. We met a TON of people this week. We met all of the active members of the ward, and we have a couple new investigators too. But this week is... holy week i think its called? the week leading up to Easter? So everyone is out of town, so we are probably going to be with members a lot this week. But some highlights, we met a lady who we had on our list who was baptized about a year and a half ago but doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon anymore because she got the idea that we teach that it's better than the bible. Which isn't true at all! so we had a really good discussion about that. And then we visited her neighbor, Rodrigo, he is a one legged man but one of the coolest people I've met here. he is a very faithful member of the church and his testimony of the atonement is way strong. This week has been tough because like i said before we have had to start from scratch. But we kinda know the area a little bit better now and we have a couple new investigators so that's good. But we can't meet with them for a few more weeks because everyone is gone this week! One thing I've had to work on a whole lot is patience. its really frustrating to never know whats going on, because i am learning how to be a missionary and how to speak Spanish  So EVERYTHING is new to me. And like i said everyone speaks super fast here and uses words I've never heard so its been tough. But i know i will learn everything little by little. So I've definitely had to work on my patience a lot this week. A scripture i really like this week is 3 Nephi 27:20-22. Which talks about following the example that Christ set for us. I shared it with a few people we talked to and it worked really well, Christ set the example for us, he showed us what to do, all we have to do is follow the example we set. The gospel is so simple. I was reading through my letters today and Kendall asked if you guys could send me pictures, and.. you can! so please do! i would love to SEE whats going on! Haha, i have my chord plugged in right now so i am going to try to send some pictures of Mexico and the MTC! Love you guys! Idk exactly the best method of how to respond to all of your emails but i am going to do my best! I love you guys and pray for you every night!
Elder Bird

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