Sunday, January 13, 2013

January 7, 2013 (Week 21)

January 7, 2013

As for the CAMBIOS [Transfer]... I'm leaving. To an area in the Centro and ocean front about 20 minutes away. cinco de mayo se llama. Yeah.I'm stoked for a change. It'll be realllllllly nice.  I get a gringo too. That'll be different you'll hear more in a week how that goes.

We had a sweet December 31st. They burned an old dummy in front of our house, with fireworks, and fun stuff. So I stayed up till 12 and went and watched. We bought something like 300 pesos worth of fireworks and lit them off at Familia Jaimes house. I'm glad to be leaving. Elder Castañeda found their daughter and they were getting a little close.. I'm glad to have that responsibility off of my head. For January 6th celebration, they eat a round cake looking thing and it has fruit and stuff. Pretty fun.

My comp and I had a jabañero competition at a home. PONGASE HOMBRE came out hard. We had 3 jabañeros and I ate 2. Dang orgullo. pride. He said I'm eating more because he finished the chile. I said "hermana.. tiene mas?" She brought out another and we each took one and ate, then I took 2, then 3, then 4, then 5, then 6 and shoved them in my mouth and chewed them obnoxiously so he could see I chewed them. I won. By far. I beat a Mexican!!!! haha I love the chiles here, but I took some serious pills after. Pepto, Slka Seltzer, Tums, and my stomach didn't forgive me for 2 days. but I won. and that's ALL THAT MATTERS. hahaha

Elder Boyd and Elder Mortensen

Oh yeah, E. Boyd and Fuentes aren't having success, so E. Castañeda went with them to see. That means me and Elder Boyd were together in my area. That was pretty sick. Taught a few lessons, and then slept in my house. That was definitely a good way to end the friendship we've had these 2 cambios!
 
No baptisms. Hector and Susi never came back from the south... but it sounds like Susi has another boyfriend... I don't know. But I was pretty torn up. I hated to know that they weren't going to get baptized. They seemed golden. Who knows. me voy. As for telling people bye... I hate it. The familia León was hard to say bye to. I've really enjoyed that family. 6 boys and the mom that has cancer and always makes this chocolate drink for us she is the nicest lady. The familia Jaime that we spent all of the holidays with, just more families. Brawlio, and I have Angel y Donata, Guazozon, and Uscangas tonight. That's gonna feel like duct tape in my hair getting ripped out faster and faster. I just feel nothing but love for these people. I guess that's what the Title ELDER does to ya but I also think it's a part of actually living with them. You can travel the world, but until you speak their language and just live with them, I don't think you'll ever know them. I feel blessed to be in Mexico. But I'm excited for a change. I need it in my mission.
 
Elder Boyd
I feel bad for Elder Boyd. He's with his comp in the same area for another transfer. He was so excited for a change. but he's stuck. I feel bad. I'm really not sure what to say. Pretty easy week, the time is flying, and the next transfer has month 5 and 6 of my mission. I do miss my friends some and would like to hear from some of them. I'm in Mexico, but I feel even further without any friends' letters. At least my family writes! I'll always love you guys. I don't want to keep rambling so I'll get this one sent off. Adios!

December 31, 2012 (Week 20)

December 31, 2012

[Movie Quote of the Week]
I've got a hangover. Anyone know what that means?
It means your drunk.
No! It means I was drunk.. yesterday!
   -school of rock

hahahaha Mom don't kill me. It has a point. First off, we brought a drunk to church with his wife and family after 3 Alka Seltzers. He sobered up and enjoyed it, but we went back 2 hours later to his house and he was drunk again. Funny guy hahah.

Second. there are plenty of drunks Christmas Eve and even more so tonight. There are parades of people dressing up as men and women and dancing in the street on stilts and straw hats for money. We will see how tonight goes. Elder Castañeda is actually a little scared. He says its pretty dangerous. More drunks than he's ever seen before in his life.

Third. That's how we felt this last week. We got a nice litlte break from daily life Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, but Wednesday waking up sore from moving blocks and we didn't feel like doing anything. We sat around, and nobody studied in our district, come to find out. It was very hard to get motivated and back into the mission groove again.

Fourth, we have been working with Efren when we can find him. A drunk that smokes Marijuana and drinks a ton, and I guess from his mumblings he has hit his son, who is also a huge druggy and curses at us every time we walk by. Efren is really great, but hard to find. Started fasting to overcome his problems without us even mentioning fasting. Really great guy. Wish we could find him.
That's all the reasons I have :) haha other than that, pretty average week. Baptized Sinai this Sunday. She kept pointing at Castañeda to baptize and it hurt a little because I haven't baptized since Donata, but it was alright. She was really annoying to Elder Cast at church so he told her he wasn't going to baptize her, I was. I was cool with that. He said he's been in the water plenty and wanted to give the chance to me. Really good. Sinai said at the service she wanted me to do it and confirmed that she was chill with it and wanted me to do it. Service went off without a hitch, and like my personal motto: First time, every time. Hahah! That's what's up. Good service, then gave some blessings to other families, and worked with inactives a lot. We have revived this ward that's for sure. Something like 7 or 8 families are coming again. Pretty sweet. 

Really?  How could he hate kids? :)

I still hate kids though. They jump on you, and like to steal your stuff and rip backpacks and have no respect for your scriptures and I really want to give them a nice backhand. If I didn't have this nametag... hahaha but yeah. Pretty chill week. Good stuff. Relaxing and working hard. the blisters are back for some reason! and oh, I'm putting on weight... haha pretty good gut now. No me importa! I hate exercising in the mornings. Everyone walks past our house and watches the gringo jumprope and if I go on the roof, this crazy lady with dogs and cats yells at me in who knows what language. She reminds me of the lady from the Simpsons that has tons of cats, mumbles, and throws things. hahahaha well.. I'll send some pictures. Love you all. I'll see ya in may otra vez :) Glad that[Skype]  went off without a hitch too. Nos Vemos!

`THE` Elder Mortensen.

December 24, 2012 (Week 19)

December 24, 2012

Stoked for skype, first off. Emailing un poquito me aburrè... haha I can't wait to just talk normally. Skype at 8 tomorrow. Stay tuned!

I'm glad the family party went well. I missed the family and grandma and grandpa. Not so much on the little kids.Here, they like to go crazy on my clothes and rip backpacks and steal pens and assorted items, and the parents don't do much. So not much has changed. Kids are kids no matter where you are. At least they are more fun than some of the adults we get... hahaha
Angel our convert hitting a pinata at the ward party
As for the crepe eating contest... hold your breath on that title Riley. We have a family we are eating with tonight and their daughter works for a crepe shop. We are eating dinner with them tonight. What a blessing right? I just know El Señor is smiling right now. I picture him and Heavenly Father just smiling whenever they bless us. It's gotta be one of their favorite things to do.

Except for have dinosaurs as pets. I still think they have them.

jaja anyways... cards. I bought a really good camera today. Pretty sweet little deal. About 12x better than my camera.. haha. Takes SD cards.. so that's a problem. I might buy a small one while I'm waiting. If you can get an envelope and put in like 2 usbs and a few SD cards ill use the usbs all my mission and send the really slim SD cards that wont get jacked or noticed to send home every month or so. So yeah. Send those pronto si se puede. gracias! And thanks everyone for the money! It was nice to see a few thousand pesos waiting for me.
 
Well, the comp is basically "dead". Our area is pitiful compared to the other two wards who easily triple us each with members and people. We just can't get any help. I want to leave so bad. I'm praying that they leave him here to "die" in Nuevas esperanzas and send me somewhere out of the port. That's all I want. I want to see the jungle. It's killing me. Elder Smith said he has hiked the Hill Cumorah where the Jaredites fought, and Elder Bixler is baptizing in lakes, and I've got chiveria. an ugly concrete jungle like daybreak. All the same house and apartment buildings, and lots of different colors. haha but yeah. we were going to baptize yesterday, but Elder Castañeda doesn't think shes ready. She's nine. I keep reminding him I had no sort of testimony when I was 8. And brawlio didn't know the difference between God and Jesus Christ because his brain was a rock, and Sinai the 9 year old girl is no different. That's 3 kids if she gets baptized. We work with inactive families a lot, and they always have a kid over 9 that wants to get baptized. They get baptized, and the family comes back. Pretty sweet deal.

Today, we helped move about 7000 blocks of an building that the family that Elder Boyd lives with. They brought us lunch and we sweated our brains out putting these block through a tiny window. good to get sweaty and work hard again. That's for sure. Good pday, saw the whole black market today. Always an interesting experience as a gringo haha love you all.

Anyways, cuidense hasta mañana a las 8. no puedo esperar a verles. les amo, Elder Mortensen

oh i forgot! Red Red Balloon. goes up up up! red balloon goes up up up!

December 17, 2012 (Week 18)

December 17, 2012

Buenas tardes familia!   Yeah the Garcia incident was nuts, but he's gone and it's over. Finally. But yeah. Something about being a Mortensen that just doesn't let me get rolled by that kind of attitude. Mom gave me some good advice.
View of the Apartment

I might go buy a new camera, there are some sweet deals and it sounds like everyone's putting money on my card to buy something nice, so I might do that. There is a 16.1 megapixel with 5 times zoom that's about 6 years ahead of my camera on sale at the mega, but I'll wait for next week. You didn't send a camera right? It's hard to return things here haha. Instead of so many flashdrives, do you think you could help me with a new SD card? I'm sure we just have one floating around at the house. I'd like that. I don't know. This camera has taken a few too many falls and it glitches and blurs the photos. Or maybe its my hands. But I completely blurred a few of the familia Guatzozon at the baptism and I'm very thankful E. Castaneda has them. No idea. Let me know!

No, I didn't give garcia my scripture covers. I was thinking about giving him the one for my bible but he asked about 7000 times and I really didn't want to after that. But yeah. Elder Castaneda has already looked at 30 stores for a shoe shine kit, and the brushes are non existent. That's why its a big no no to touch it haha.

But the Virgin de Guadalupe was pretty weird. People standing at houses and in front of little concrete boxes with a foto and statue and singing and praising with candles. Weird.... but that was all that was. Nobody really knows who the Virgin de Guadalupe is either. Just an angel I guess.  Sounds like we will be eating a lot, and going to breakfast lunch and dinner with people the 24th and 25th. The festivities last until the 6th of January so it's spread out. I'm going to try calling home on the 25th and we are downloading Skype at the members house that Elder Boyd and Fuentes live at because they are rich and have laptops. Get a name and password for me and for you guys and get me the information next time and we will plan out what hour to be on.

As for this week, it's been interesting. I hit the 4 month mark Saturday, which is pretty big. 1/6 done already. The Spanish is still elusive sometimes and it's frustrating, but I can basically say what I want. Working on my accent. I guess I sound like a hick. I don't expect to be perfect after 8 weeks though. Always something to work on. I gave a talk last Sunday about repentance, and I had the scripture of Alma the younger and the torture he felt and the joy he felt after, I read a verse or two then talked for 5 minutes without notes in Spanish!! I was pretty proud of myself. I can definitely see the Lord helping me.

So we went to a leader meeting and I waited with the other junior comps, but when my comp came out he was a little solemn. I asked him what happened, and he said out of 40 comps, only 10 baptisms this week. As punishment, and to focus ourselves, the pres took out the oceanfront, any stores by the ocean, costco, and we can't leave the area or zone without permission. I literally feel like I'm in a outdoor prison. Oh well. Manuel Guatzozon baptized his son Saturday. After, me and my comp cleared out the undraining dirty font with buckets and mops. Awful, but so worth it. Finally baptized. Saw the temple after and that was pretty awesome when we went to a choir in Mocambo right next to the temple. I'll send some fotos.

I don't think he likes the milk on the left!
I've had this very nice lady in our ward sew my hems of my pants and cut 3 inches off my sleeves. I've spent a small fortune, but it's so worth it. I wish she would take more but she only takes 10 pesos for every article. Such a nice Lady. Hna. Marta Pais. As for the spicy stuff, its been a bad week. Saturday, we ate at this lady's house, and she brought some pure jalapeno salsa. Hot stuff. We started off very little, but we were alone and it started to escalate to be a man. MAS MAS MAS!! We ate so much. Saturday we had tacos that his uncle bought, and Sunday we had Chinese from another lady. Stomach hurt Sunday night, and at about 1:00 in the morning, on the dirty floor, about 4 meals left my stomach and into the toilet and my nose. Most awful thing ever. I'm still a little sick, but getting better. That's the adrenaline for the week! haha. Need to go. No time for pics, have more next time.

LOVE YA! Elder Mortensen,