Alive and in Kansas

Pues, I am in kasas now. It is indeed hot and humid. But it is awesome. We have a car and we can alternate each week having it with some sisters. I like it though. 

My comp is a native spanish speaker from mexico. He is awesome. So the missionaries that I spend most time with are my comp, who works out hard and has great muscles. Then two other Polys: Samoan, and Samoan/Hawaiian. They both played rugby and are huge. I look super small next to these guys strength wise. I am the tallest but by far the weakest. 

I am learning spanish and it is getting better. I had a hard time in church, it was in spanish. I almost fell asleep many times. But I made it!! There are some awesome families here. And unfortunately, I am having a little bit of a difficult time readjusting food wise. My stomach doesnt like it. 

And if you want to send stuff, you have to send it to the mission home. Use priority mail or something. That we they readdress it and send it out fast. If you don't, I wont get it for a month or two, and don't use like ups or fed ex.

love you all! peace

                -Elder Daines

One more thing:  For p-day today we are going up to Manhattan and playing nerf in the church then basketball. I am very excited. I will miss greatly the daily soccer with latinos though. Love you. Wish Maren happy birthday for me. I will send some letters soon. I have presents for the boys. Sorry. In the missionary store in Mexico there isn't anything really, except food, ties and a few other pieces of junk. I got one for Maren.

Last Week in Mexico

Once again, same thing. Except we also had our first american friends leave this week. So I am a first generation here. 

The food has gotten much better, and my spanish is getting much better. I am excited to get out. I got to go to the temple this week! 

We have played a lot of football this week. By football I mean soccer. With latinos who are really good now, we have some awesome games. And with my three week experience in soccer, I normally played frisbee, basketball, or ping pong, I am getting wrecked, sort of. I am a big chap and can use my excess weight to my advantage.  It is so awesome how you guys are in alaska again. I liked that a lot. I am excited to get out there.

 

Side note: thanks to everyone for the letters, like the tahoe clan, and Rachel (who I did the handshake with), but it can take up to 28 days, true story it happened to my friend, so you should not send anymore for a little because I am leaving, my last week. thats right, six weeker right here!

Day 28

[I'm posting this letter exactly how we got it. At least we know he's having fun and hasn't lost his sense of . . . Brady.]

day 28

28 days in this cage. I have heard rumors of an outside world but have seen no sign of them.  I look out over the wall and only see smog. The people with white name tags get to go on explorations outside the wall.

they say its not safe for me, the tacos could make me sick.  I am stuck in here, reading the BOM and watching old church videos. I play soccer in here. and frisbee. and ping pong. but I see no cars. nor remember the taste of strawberries. nor the touch of grass. just kidding. we have grass. but we play street soccer. I mean football. I am not a man of many words however I believe in harvey dent. I believe that this is the place to be. the outside is dangerous. we had our latinos leave again, this time however, they were the last graduating class from here, this used to be a school before mtc. they all played soccer for them, they had to give their jerseys back at the end of the year though. so they stole them earlier this week. and gave them to us. awesome. however they are beyond my reach. they left the safehouse. I will probably never be able to see them again. our dorm is beginning to look like a war zone. carcases all over the walls and celings. these dang misquitos man. my amigo elder jones came and fought with us for a night. he got 361 in about an hour. we won that fight. I also started my frisbee work out every day. pretty soon 45 jump squats will be nothing.  Elder Grant Owen made it safely into the safehouse. we played that one sport together where you throw the disc around and try to catch it in the endzone. I cant remember the name. even though I typed it a little bit ago.  they also started to figure out the food. even though we still have rice and beans twice a day now, it is getting better. unlimited fruit loops also. what what.

mucho amor

Me (Elder Daines)

Elder Castillo and Elder Slavens (he's being weird); [soup?]; Elder Packard: he ate the coin;

Entrance to my dorm, Elder Crook and Elder Butterfield.