August 26 first letter from Mexico!

ok where to even begin this is the craziest place on the planet. i flew in on monday night as you all know and found out what 20+ million people look like it was like driving in to vegas but way way way bigger. we arrived that night at 8 30 and stayed at the presidents home. all of us north americans were pretty tall over here. any ways we played basketball for a little on the cement court out back of the presidents house. i can stil throw it down. and also we talked with the president and he asked how our spanish was and how we were doing. it was good. after that we went and got our new companions. my companion is named elder figueroa. he also just got released as the assistant to the president on tuesday. he is an awesome trainer! and he has 24 years so he has a little age on me. after that we just  got put in an area that neither of us knew. we spent most of last week getting to know people and getting refferals for investigators. it was really good and crazilly at the begining of the week i had no idea what was going on in any of the lessons. when ever spanish was spoken i had no idea of what was going on. but little by little i have been picking things up last night i was able to have 2 or 3 decent conversations in spanish and i know what is going on for the most part in all of my lessons. so thats my update on language.

getting around with 20 million people... well first off i need to explain that they do have roads and stop lights and lanes and all the other good stuff.... the difference is they look at those things as a suggestion.. taxi rides are crazy, people cut each other off and drive on the wrong side of the road. but i haven't seen an accident the whole time i have been here. oh and the speed on most of the roads that would be like main street in kanab have a speed limit of 60 miles an hour. ha ha its a little fun to cross the street.but my favorite is the micros. they are kind of like a bus but smaller(hence the name) but you will have to have mom derek or savanah explain this but it is comparable to standing up in the indiana jones ride in disneyland... they are pretty fun. for the most part we walk everywhere. my companion somehow knows where we are going and he gets us where we need to be.

food... well its hot and makes you sweat when you eat it but its pretty good. ok first day in mexico and you will never guess what my meal was... in mexico its reffered to as panza. but as us north americans would refer to it, it would be called cow stomache. the taste it was GROSS... and the biggest problem i had with it was the texture. it was kind of like fat but you could chew it up a little. then you could see the linning of the stomache. when we got it i told elder figueroa not to tell me what it was until after i ate it. yea crazy food already this place is great!! but its also getting to the point where without spice food is a little bland. so im getting used to that too. also we only have one real meal called comida which takes place at about two in the afternoon. at nights we usually just have pan dulce and leche wich is amazing.

my house well i live in a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and a main room and a bedroom. we dont have any hot water. so while we are exercising in the morning we have to put water in a bucket and heat it up with an electric water heater and then dump the water on us in the shower. its sweet i feel like a more civilized version of ¨the other side of heaven¨ and on saturday i had a member call me collie pocki it was funny but seriously it is way different down here. i miss home when im not talking to people but when i talk to the people they are so nice to me and i can get my point across wich is nice. but i have been able to explain a lot of things to people about the church and we have a baptism lined up for this saturday.so excited!!!! well love you guys lots ttyl