Week 7 Ahome Area

Wow a lot of things happened this week. I literally have my journal right here next to me so I won't forget anything important. Our eating schedule is different here. We have cereal in the morning at about 7:45 after we read the scriptures, excercise, and shower and all that. Lunch is always at 2:00 with a member of the church. Unless they forget, then we eat nachos at an Oxxo store. Apparently the missionaries don´t eat dinner here, because they don´t give us a time to eat. I always buy a street hamburger at 9:00 on the way back to the casa. I really like the food here, I love all spicy chiles that they put on everything.

There are tons of animals here. There are dogs everywhere just wandering around that don´t belong to anyone. Also there are chickens and roosters in everyone´s yard. Roosters are so annoying. A lot of people ride horses on the side of the road also.

I don´t just serve in Ahome. There are a lot of small pueblocitos around here that I travel to to teach people. Sometimes we take a bus to those areas, but most of the time we hitch a ride in the back of a pick-up. That is how most people travel. The police don´t care either. The police are hardcore here, They drive around in pickups, with someone standing in the back holding a huge gun. The people who are willing to give us a ride will only slow down when they pass us. We have to run and jump in the back of the truck while it is moving. It´s pretty awesome. Yesterday, we were in the back of someone´s truck, and he ran right into the truck directly in front of him. He just kept going as if nothing happened.

There are a lot of luxuries that I don´t get to enjoy here in Mexico. Those include: A dishwasher, a washer, a dryer, water pressure, clean water, and an oven. I can´t complain though, my casa is a lot better than some peoples. I do have electricity, warm(ish) water in the shower, a bed, a fridge, a microwave, an iron, and air conditioning in my room. 

The shower has its own water heater attachment, so half the water that comes out is hot. It is like 6 inches shorter than me though, and it sprays straight down. Also I have to wear flip flops in the shower.

We have to wash all our clothes by hand which is super annoying. It takes forever to fill up a bucket because the water pressure is so bad, then we have to scrub each thing individually. Rinsing is horrible also. Our living room has clothes hanging everywhere because we have no dryer. I don´t mind washing dishing by hand anymore, but the clothes suck.

My companion is a super cool dude. We are bonding more now that we know each other. He probably knows as much English as I know Spanish. So we can teach each other. He likes when I talk in a "Texas" accent. I am really bad at it, but he is from Ecuador so he doesn´t know the difference. My companion is super nice. He does things for me all the time. For example, while I´m taking a shower, he will shine my shoes just to be nice.

Church yesterday was interesting. They told me to play the piano, so I did, but I had no practice so it was really terrible. What was even more terrible was their singing. Because none of them know how to play a piano, they never use a piano. Every single one of them are tone-deaf, and they sing the wrong rhythm at the wrong tempo. That makes playing the piano extremely difficult, but I got through it. I got the opportunity to introduce myself in front of the congregation in spanish. It went a lot better than expected. Church was pretty much the same as back home, except in spanish, less people, and there are no teenagers at all. The still have the same structure and order of things. I like how you can go anywhere in the world and still find a mormon church and it will be pretty much the same.

We actually get to teach a lot of people here. We probably have around 5 lessons a day, and we do a lot of contacting on the street. My companion does most of the talking, because I can´t understand much spanish, but I am participating more and more with each lesson. The people talk a little differently here than in Mexico City. Their accent sounds almost like they are talking while plugging their nose. The people are super nice and always willing to talk to us.

I hope you guys are having a good time back home. Sounds like Missouri has had some snow this week, so that is cool. Send some more pictures. I´m gonna send some before and after pictures of my apartment after I clean it. It´s gonna take me forever, but I can´t live with it being so dirty. I got that from my mom. I love all you all and I´ll write you next week.

Filling a bucket to wash our clothes..Drip, Drip, Drip.
It took us over 4 hours to do laundry this morning. 
That water was especially slow, and we didn´t even rinse our clothes.

This was our ride in the back of the truck with my new companion Elder Coello. 
He is from Ecuador.

Week 6 - Leaving the CCM- First area- AHOME

I don`t have a ton of time to write, but I´ll hurry and get the important parts.

I made it out of the CCM and into the field. I left Monday afternoon to go to Ciudad Obregón. I got there around 7:30 that night. We met Mission President Munive and his wife. We stayed in a hotel Monday night in Ciudad Obregón. I really like that city. Tuesday, we had meetings for a long time, and I met my new companion, Elder Coello. He is from Ecuador.

We left Ciudad Obregón at 5:00 and took a bus down 4 hours to Los Mochis, Sinaloa. We stayed in the Zone Leaders apartment. 4 guys had to sleep on the ground on one thin mattress. It was probably one of the most uncomfortable nights that I have ever had. I thought their whole apartment was pretty ghetto until I saw mine this morning. I wish I had their apartment.

My area is in Ahome, Sinaloa, about 30 minutes away from Los Mochis. There is dust and dirt everywhere. Maybe next week I will send you all pictures of the place. I feel extremely poor. I have never experienced living this way, it is gonna be very difficult. 

I thought that I knew spanish at the CCM, but I really don`t. Talking to people is extremely difficult, but the people are super nice and patient and willing to talk to me. I´m gonna have to learn spanish fast because there is no one that speaks English. Anyway, I´ve got to go. I just want everyone to know that I am here, and I´m working as hard as I can. Thanks for all your emails, keep than coming. I love you all.

The District departing the CCM

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY JADEN

Just sending a sweet valentine to our Awesome Missionary..

"DO-NUT" forget how much we love you!!

Happy Valentines Day!

I wonder which package was his??

Week 5 - CCM

4 more days in the CCM! I leave Monday at 2:00 to go to Ciudad Obregón. My P-Day will then be on Mondays probably, so that is when I will be sending emails. I´m super excited to get there, I definitely feel ready. I finally know all the grammar rules in Spanish, now all I need to do is practice speaking Spanish and learn more words.

Last week they made me the new District Leader just for the last week and a half of the CCM. As District Leader, I try to keep my District focused on what they need to be doing. It´s kinda difficult during the last week because everyone has "senioritus" I guess you could say. If anyone does anything stupid, I´m the one that gets in trouble because I´m supposed to know where everyone is and all that.

I wish I had more interesting things to talk about. Every week here in Mexico City is about the same. I haven´t left the CCM since we went to the consulate 2 weeks ago. After Monday, I´ll finally have experiences worth telling everyone because I´ll be out in the field. My first companion in the field will be a Latino guy, so it´ll be super awesome. I love talking to the Latinos.

When we get really bored here, we will try to remember some of the songs that we used to listen to back in America, and we´ll try to translate the lyrics into Spanish. Also, we translate some funny sayings into spanish. Also we stop daily at the tienda to buy Chokis and JuMex. Good stuff.

When the newer districts come to the CCM, we always welcome them with skits, and some of them are pretty funny. My skit was teaching them helpful spanish words because most of the new guys don´t know any spanish. I taught them that "ummm" is "morsa" in spanish. Also "I need a moment" is "necesito un matón." "No more regrets" is "No más sacapuntas." I taught them cognates, or spanish words that sound like english words. So obviously, "Estoy embarazada" is "I am embarrassed" right? My favorite one is when I taught them to refer to the brethren of the priesthood as "hechiceros." I´m a pretty good teacher.

A Birthday Poem to Dad

As a mom, I wanted to post this poem he wrote his dad on his birthday.  It was the best birthday present he could send his dad.  It definitely brought tears to his eyes.

When I´m a dad, I´ll be like you

I´ve many reasons, but here´s a few

You taught me what matters in life

You taught me how to treat my wife

Even times when we were really poor

Your children´s needs you wouldn´t ignore

At school sometimes I´d feel neglected

But home I always felt protected

I really loved the way you raised me

When I did good, you surely praised me

You jump at chances at the door

Even now at age forty-four

You taught me how a man should dream

The world was mine as it would seem

Your grip is on the Iron Rod

You really are a Man of God

I think he got the talent of writing poems from his dad.  They are both good men!!

Week 4 in the CCM

Hey Everybody! 

This week is gonna be difficult to talk about. Not much happened except for one kinda scary thing that most of you probably don´t want to hear about. I guess I´ll share it anyway.

As I said last week, my district was assigned to be ushers for the devotionals. (We had a really hilarious initiation by the previous ushers, but that´s not important) We are in charge of seating everybody in an orderly fashion and then we take a seat in the back row away from everyone else. We sit there so we can see whats happening outside the auditorium and to seat anyone who arrives late. Anyway, on Tuesday night, during the devotional, something really scary happened. 

For some reason, three of the guys from my district had to go the bathroom at the same time during the devotional. I had the feeling to get up and walk over to the bathroom, even though I didn´t even have to go, but I ignored that feeling. The bathroom near the auditorium is huge, and for some reason, my district leader Elder Stephens, decided to use the stall all the way at the very end of the bathroom.

After a few minutes of being in the bathroom, he heard someone just outside his stall talking to himself and pacing around in circles. It was some Latino and it was that guys very first day. Elder Stephens can understand spanish, so it scared him to hear what he was talking about. I don´t wanna scare anyone, but he was talking to the devil about some really dark stuff.

Elder Stephens got out of the stall to try to fix this. The Latino was shaking as if he was nervous, and he continued mumbling spanish. He was not himself, he had something inside of him "possessing" him I guess you could say. Elder Stephens ran out to get President Jones. When I saw him get President Jones, I still had no clue what was going on, but I could tell it was serious because I have never seen President Jones look so distressed. When President Jones entered the bathroom, the poor Latino looked at President Jones, and slowly backed up as if he was scared for his life. President Jones got him to snap out of it, and they went to talk to the psychologist.

I am glad that I wasn´t in the bathroom during all that time. Even afterwards when I walked into the bathroom, I could feel the presence of something very dark. We were all scared that night, and none of us could stop thinking about the demon thing that was present during our devotional. We knew what we had to do.

When we got back to the casa, we all knelt down as a district and prayed to God. It was an amazing experience. Elder Stephens said the prayer, and he asked God to cast out any unwanted spirits, and then he asked God to send us his spirit, stronger than we have ever felt before. I have never had a prayer answered so fast. The dark feeling immediately left my heart, and it felt as if God was hugging me, I could feel the spirit so strongly.

What I learned from this experience is that the power of Satan is real. More importantly though, the power of God is real too, and it will always be more powerful than Satan. That night, I thought of the scripture in Joshua 1:9 that says "Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, withersoever thou goest.