If I Marry a Girl from Here

 

Washing Clothes

 

Family

It is sad to hear that 15 years of elementary Halloween parades now come to an end.

Today is San Judas day. All of the kids are firing of these bomb-like fireworks. hahah we are teaching a war vet he says he wakes up to the explosions and he feels like he is back in the war and within 5 seconds he is under his bed with his knife.  

If I marry a girl from here she would know how to handle a gun and ride a horse. A couple of years back there was a woman here that walked around town with double holsters and was not afraid to kill. She was faster than all the men on the draw so no one dared to stand against her.   Fun fact: The movie "the wild bunch" was filmed here in Parras. The Texas man wanted me to get him a copy of the movie.  

My incredible parents; thanks a bazillion for the box!

 

I loved the articles you sent in the box. I loved the paragraph in the one where he rejects the concept of a God that puts billions of us in a world where a huge majority endure mainly pain and sorrow.... punishing those who don’t believe in him (a majority of which have never even heard of him) all without shedding a tear. When I read that paragraph, I thought of Neal Maxwell’s quote: "there goes another beautiful theory, murdered by a gang of facts."     

 

Yes, so we didn’t have cambios.  My comp is still in his training so it will be probably in 4 weeks. This time in Parras has been definitely my favorite part of the mission. My comp is a stud. I’m super close with the D.L. Carson was in my zone so I have seen him a bunch and parras is incredibly pretty. Also, I now understand how to speak and do this work so that helps a  bit =) ha.   

 

We have been teaching a woman (and her grandson) that reminds me of Nanny McPhee. We helped her paint her adress. She still has some fire in her and she is pretty deadly with her cane.
 

I sent you a picture of me with one of my favorite people here.  

 

 

 

So, I learned this week that for manual labor they make about a dollar an hour.   when my comp heard the usual pay of high school kids in the States, he was pretty shocked.

Wills letter was so great.

 

Chesire Cat:

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

 

Pretty good advice for some afternoons here  =) ha 

 

 

P-day Hike

We had an excellent week this week. Last week I reported to you was one of the longer weeks of my mission. Not that it was bad, it just went really slow. My comp said the same thing I did. But this week went incredibly quick and well.  

We have interviews tomorrow and then transfers on Thursday; so I’m crossing my fingers that the next guy is solid.  My comp right now is a stud. I would be very pleased if he was left with me. 

So Meish will be home for the holidays?  That is fantastic.  

Mom said she had a conversation with the mother of a girl headed to Meisha’s mission about hygiene and other stuff. If anyone asks about hygiene for Elders coming to Torreon, here is the list: WEAR DEODARANT - yep that is about it.

 

Last week - to finish off our Preparation day we went up and climbed to that church. It was incredibly beautiful and what a view. I kept thinking that it would be a perfect spot for a temple. Ha like in Emperers grove when he slams his giant palace on top the tiny house at the summit of the replica hill, shooting confetti and shouting"Cusco Topia, Yeahh me!" We will do the same.  

 

After hiking to the top of that hill last week, we looked out and saw the beautiful mountains that were just calling us to hike them. We had planned on hiking there in the past, but every Monday it had rained heavy or we were in a different city. But this morning we woke up early and headed out.  The mountains were in camel back formation - one small one, then a small valley, then a bigger one, valley, followed by a mount Olympus sized mountain.  We bush wacked our way through the desert brush until we found a small trail.  We couldn’t attempt the hills until the sun was up because of the rocks so we went up to see the sunrise from the monastery.  

 

While we waited for the sun to rise we took a ton of photos and had a killer time.  My comp was tempted to ring the bell.  =)  You can see the rope to the bell just above my head.   haha that would go over well.   

Good story from this week: We were walking and I heard someone say: “Hey, you’re a Gringo. You speak English? I am used to cat-calls in English and lots of swear words (why is it that the only words teenagers know in other languages are the crude ones). Well this man was from Texas. I had a good talk with him. He was a mechanic and opted to go to Iraq for a year about 7 years ago. He was in a convoy that had a fifty percent chance of making it. They were attacked and an engine fell on him. He has 3 herniated disks and should be in a wheel chair, but lives here because the climate eases the pain. We spent some time with his family and he showed us a lot of pics from Iraq. Yikes. But it was way fun to talk him and his wife.           

Meg and Meish sound excellent. I got to head out.

Speen

 

 

 

 

 

Cheetos

Hey, so I really don’t have much to report from this week. We walked and then kept walking and then the week ended =).    An elder has a pedometer and we measured how far we walk on average. Our area is bigger so we average around 12 miles per day but we have hit a 15er. We knocked on one house and nobody answered. Turning to leave we ran into a boy that was heading into the house.  We asked if his father was home. He said yes and went in to tell him that someone was at the door. He came back and innocently said "my dad says that he isn’t home."    Ha - we walked away and then I looked back after fifteen steps to see the dad take off out the front door. Do they think we are the police?    

We actually have some solid families that we are working with. "You can tell a man not by his answers, but by his questions." I love the questions that real investigators give us:“I being born as a Mormon, raised by Mormon’s, growing up with Mormons; I just have a different perspective on life than many.” Try as I might to guess what questions I will receive, there are some that blow me away and completely change the way I look at certain aspects of the gospel.

 

There hasn’t been a baptism here for a year, so we are trying to work on that. We are working with a couple and are trying to help them get married. She has been coming to church for 2 years but we need to help them get through the marriage process. She doesn’t really understand what the lawyers are telling them. The lawyers are in a different town and it costs 15 dollars to go there (which they don’t have). We have finally gotten the members involved so hopefully this month we will see it happen.  There is some really good leadership here - Some very solid folks.     

I am just about to finish Jesus the Christ by Talmage.  He provides an angle to the Gospels that completely unmasks the Jewish culture at the time of Christ. Chapter 40 is a pretty solid grilling on the apostasy. The wording in many of the teachings and experiences he relates is unclear to me and had me confounded. But much of it brings great clarity.

 

Also, I have downloaded and am listening to The Joseph Smith papers which is a TV series from the Mormon Channel. It is a group of historians that dig through the life, times and details of the Prophet. It is pretty comprehensive and sucks you in. 

And that would be the life of your kid. We eat, we sleep, we walk, we gospel it up at every possible opportunity, and then the alarm clock rings =).  

The Chemistry student we baptized in my last area is solid. =)  best find ever.              

I received a letter from the Daniels. Tell them thanks for that. 

Also, thanks to your parents for their letters. I owe them a long one next week.

I have to head but thanks for writing me.  I get pretty excited for Monday mornings

 

 

General Conference, Short Ceilings, and Paper Mache

One of the many things I loved about General Conference

A Hermana in our Ward sent a very concerned message to us that we should be attending conference and that we were completely letting her down. We had gone to watch conference with all the elders in our zone. Conference was incredible. All the Americans piled in an office together to watch it in English, mainly to hear the actual voices. This was completely worth it just to listen to Elder Dube. The other elders said that the Spanish interpreter had a really high voice. We slept over with the zone leaders one night and the district leaders the other night.  

The buildings here are built for smaller people. I have a bit of scaring on my head now.

I won't tell you what this is

 

 These are made out of paper. Incredibly impressive.  They use glue and slices of cardstock

 

We experimented cleaning the bathroom with Coke. We heard that it works and we don’t like Coke. It actually did work. . . . some.

Mom said the next Hobbit is coming out. Oh John Thorton - why aren’t you real?    

 

I gotta go but I will give you a good update on our area next week. So good to see the photos you put on dropbox. I kind of forget about the outside world here.

Also have your listened to "the Joseph Smith papers" podcast? Very good!

Speen