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.

Halfway Done

[We didn't get a proper letter from Brady this week, just some email snippets as we emailed back and forth in real time. Here are a few of his thoughts.]

I am half way done. Not much has changed though...

We play frisbee on sunny days. And I saw me amigo Grant Owen. The food has been a lot better since he got here. Unlimited fruitloops now!! So thats a score. And my friend swallowed a big copper coin on accident. Kind of funny. Thats about it.

There isn´t really much to tell. Everything is the same. My friend is waiting for him to poop out the coin because it is a special one from the 1700s. I can't send pictures right now, I dont have my camera. So probably next week.

I am happy. The mtc is fine, my campanion is great, and very in tune with the spirit. 

We are teaching two investigators, Isai and Louis. Isai said he would be baptised first lesson, now his family isnt happy. Next is Louis, he is going fine. Like a normal investigator.  My schedule is I wake up, go to breakfast, study language and teaching, lunch, more language and teaching, then dinner, study, gym, then bed. 5 days a week. Sundays we go to church, then study, then a devotional, then a movie, like Legacy or The Testaments.  P-day we do what we want. Until 7:30 and watch a movie. 

Spanish is fine, I am slowley cacthing on. Grant says hi. I love you, my testimony is getting stronger. I really like isaiah 53.

How about this Holland quote:

"I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my “last days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days."

I have to go now. Thanks so much! Love you!

Corndogs for Breakfast

I hate to break it to you, but right when I got here I ate what I wanted and drank whatever.

Well, this week was long. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is hard, the Spanish is coming though. I feel like I am picking it up a little fasterthough.

The food is... special. We had more hotdog soup. Tasted like dirt. But the spirit is good. I guess I will try a recap reallly fast. First, we continued to go through the same schedule. End of recap.

Quote of the day "I feel like a robot." But we did watch a broadcast from the Provo MTC with Elder Holland, that was good. 

This p-day, since we didnt go to the temple, we had lots of down time. We woke up early and did laundry. Then went to the gym and played basketball and ping pong and soccer and frisbee for about 3 hours. It was really nice. We still have about 5 hours left, yay!

More on food now. For breakfast it is a very hard hit and miss. Mostly miss. One of the better ones we had was corndogs for breakfast. Lunch is typically good. And dinner is alright. They have Mexican cereal out for dinner most of the time so I can fill up with about 3-4 bowls normally. And they have chunky yogurt....  no bueno. 

Also most of the instruction is almost all in spanish.... My second day here we started teaching a pretend investigator... Me and my campanion didnt know any spanish. Getting better though.

Also our roommates who were Latinos left on Monday. They were really funny and tought me Mexican slang. How padre is that? I did an awesome tie trade. I traded a green that I didnt like much for an awesome brown and pink one. It is exciting.

I just realized I also used the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days last time, sorry

First Week in Mexico

To who it may concern:

I hope they have pizza also.... they do have that arizona drink here for only 10 pesos.

My pday is on tuesday, and so today we went to the mexico temple. It was lots of fun. But I will start from the beginning of my first week.

Tuesday, we got here late, you already know that. 10:30 Wednesday I woke up. Elder Crook is my companion. He is a person. And he is very in tune with the spirit. Also he keeps a layer of spit on his lips. But he is a nice kid, plays baseball and stuff, lots of fun. My dorm mates are Butterfield and Slavens.  Butterfield has blond hair, went to USU like Stu and loves it there. He's in the swing-dance club. Also in tune with the spirit, and nice. 

Slavens is awesome. He has great t shirts during gym time. We also watched a lot of the same shows, and played the same games. He is also awesome. We really lucked out and got an awesom3 dorm team. Don't fix that 3. We also have two latino people in there. They only speak spanish. Lucky Butterfield took 3 years of spanish, Slavens took 5. So we can communicate. We taught them to pray in english. 

The first day though, it was hot hot hot. We were wandering around for an hour so super parched and trying to find water. It was funny, had to be there though. Later we went to our classroom and met our district. Our district is seriously the coolest. Everyone in there is super funny and awesome. We have two hermanas in there, Tollman from Cali to Utah, and Vance, from Utah to Hondoras. Then Elder Budge, Utah to Kansas, his companion Jones from Idaho to Kansas. then Packard who is super awesome. He played soccer on a high level and lived in the Caribbean for a while, and his companion Elder Carlson. Both to Kansas. We have the best district.

Our worst fears have been realized.... the food is very dangerous. From soggy tortilla chips, to corndog for breakfast, to gross hotdog soup, to cordon bleu, which was very good.

The days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days, I now understand that expression. It is very good, but is starting to blur together. Everyday is about the same, me and my campanion have been teaching an investigator (actor)....... in spanish. Both of us never knew any spanish before we came here. So that is difficult, but it is cool to see how fast we can progress our language skills. Both of us are learning so fast. We have a good time here. Also the buildings are awesome, they just stack and stack. I can send a picture soon. 

Adios. I hope you have a good one.

post script: Sunday, was awesome. We were going pretty normal and by the end of the day my camp had a migraine. so I gave my very first blessing. It was cool. Then we went and watched the Testament video with the Nephites and Jesus crossover. At the end the spirit was so strong, it was so cool. After that we went to our dorm and Butterfield shared a little of the poem called A Missionary's Prayer, if you don't know it, look it up. Then to conclude my day, I read Isaiah 53. mucho bueno.