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.