Gifts from God

I got your mtcmexico letter, which was pretty awesome!  I didn't realize that cost money though... how much is it?  My clothes are working great!  I do laundry between one and two times a week, and the laundry detergent packets are 4 pesos, so like 20 cents.  And I'm still a little congested, but much better.  The weather is so warm in mexico, I haven't touched my sweaters or my jacket.  Working out is great!  The gym is well equipped, and I can feel and see myself getting stronger.  It's awesome!  I uploaded pictures of my schedule, so you can see a sample of it.  I mostly shower after gym time now, but I might still get up really early to shower.  I feel like I'm missing a lot of music... If you have any ideas, you can upload them to the drive, and I can pull it down.  I haven't gotten the card yet, but I'll let you know.

They do have a barber here, and a dry cleaning service, but they charge for dry cleaning.  I took my suit to be dry cleaned today, and it was 60 pesos, roughly $3!  It's dirt cheap!  I haven't gotten a haircut, but I'll probably get one right before I leave.  I really look forward to gym time, because I get to wake up from the inherent tiredness I have.  That's probably the hardest part, being constantly tired.  My Spanish is pretty great!  I can hold a decently complex conversation in Spanish, and I'm at the point now where they can explain a lot of words in Spanish, and I can understand.  It also helps that there is a lot of informal sign language!  And go Haven!  That's awesome! [Haven had to do a cultural project for Spanish, so she listened to a conference talk in Spanish and wrote a summary.]

I loved conference as well!  I definitely missed you, but I sent a picture of one of the bags of snacks I ate during conference, and it was amazing!

I wanted to tell you something really cool.  In my patriarchal blessing, which I don't have yet but remember portions of, it says something to the effect of I will realize how great a blessing it is to have you guys as my parents.  That is so true!   I have been interacting with the missionaries here, and they have all told me how much they appreciate my knowledge of the doctrine, and my testimony, and my knowledge of how to use the scriptures.  There's been some hard times here, but it all comes back to the scriptures, and I don't know where they all are, but I know key words and phrases, and so I'm able to pull it out of the index.  So because you always used the scriptures in teaching us, I now have a bank of knowledge to pull from.   It's like it says in D&C, "take not thought before hand what ye should say, but treasure up the words of life continually, and it shall be given you the portion that shall be meted unto every man."  That's from memory, so it might be a little off, but I have seriously felt that in my life!

Also, another really cool thing happened!  I was feeling pretty homesick around conference time, and the hermanas wrote us all letters.  In my letter, of which I uploaded a picture, they said all the stuff that people back home said about me!  It made me realize that I can be at home wherever I am.  It was definitely a gift from God.

I also have developed a pretty strong relationship with one of the other elders.  He was really annoyed one day, and so I went on a walk with him, and he totally confided in me, and asked for my help.  He said I reminded him of his older brother, which was super cool!

The morning of Saturday session, I went on a mile run with one of the other elders.  The air is much thinner at this elevation, which I didn't realize at all.  So my legs felt fine, but my lungs were on fire!  So I need to do more cardio.  It's basically like altitude training!

I'm also really starting to feel the Spirit during our lessons!  Our teacher, who was role playing an investigator, came up to us after our lesson, and said that the person she was role playing didn't understand a lot of the words we said, so much that it should have been unintelligible, but she understood what we were trying to say, and if we had asked her to be baptized then, she would have.  I've discovered it's about figuring out what that investigator needs right then, and using that in your lesson.  Every lesson, you need to find a way to solve their problems, be they long term, or ones that come up during your lesson.  It was super cool.  And the whole thing was in Spanish!

Also, we as a district now have a goal to speak only Spanish from 8:30am-9:30pm.  It's pretty hard, and we get breaks for P-Day, but it really helps!  I am learning so much more than I ever did in Spanish class in High School.  This is the way all knowledge should be received, with prayer and diligent effort!

Thanks for everything you did and are doing for me!

Love you!

P.S. Also, I'm writing all of my things in cursive now, because I finally got fed up with my handwriting.  It's surprisingly easy, and my handwriting already looks a thousand times better, which doesn't mean much, but It's still pretty awesome!  I don't know all the letters, but I'm learning, and when I get back, Caleb and I will be able to write to each other, and nobody else will understand a word!  But seriously, it's pretty fun!