October 22, 2012 [ First email from Mexico!]
I dont think we are in kansas anymore... Sorry about the keyboard. Its in spanish hahaha but yes im here and loving it. Well most parts! I dont have too much time, only 45 minutes to write and send pictures. In any case, my mission area is Nuevas Esperanzas in the Villa Rica stake. My address as far as i know is yañez and prosperidad. Yellow building with a big front porch.
Basically.. Mexico Veracruz. Im dying here. Its so hot haha i sweat so much. Holy. Welcome to the land of the Crazy Taxi Drivers. Seriously. if you could compare them to New York in taxis its a fair statement. Except they dont have lines. Or stop lights.. The people just fly around corners and work their way through intersections. Freaking crazy. The buildings here are solely made of concrete. If youre lucky. If not, they are tin and rotten wood. The poverty here is kind of crazy in areas. If you have more than one car, youre richer than everyone here. If you have a dishwasher or AC or a sink youre probably richer than most people... Its insane. We have eaten, my compañero is Elder Castañeda and he is pretty chill, but weve eaten at some houses that are straight tin. Speaking of eating... The food here is comprable to the Hairy Chicken and stringy corn Brad ate. Can you say mystery meat? They drown all their soup in this wierd orange stuff too. But their soup consists of usually meat, potatoes, and whole vegetables. You heard me right. Some people cut up a cucumber and zuccini in 4 to 5 parts and throw them in soup. HUGE. Its crazy...
Ive already had my first bout with the food. I think i won. But the next day, Sunday, The curse of the Headache is back. Thanks for those crappy genes dad... Hahahah so i suffered through sacrament with my head throbbing and then through countless meetings of the natives speaking 60 mph.. Sheesh. Couldnt walk without the blood pounding. I think ive got the Gripa! Every sickness here is the Gripa to these people haha. I love it. My compañero had dengue so we chillled at our apartment and went to a few doctors visits with him, one of which i had to watch him get a shot in the butt... Awkward haha so we eat about 1 time a day. Lunch is the big meal. People feed us soup, tortillas, and rice, and meat. Pretty good. I wake up, eat a slice of bread, make it till 2, eat alot, need to take a nap, make it till 10, eat another peice of bread. Im dyin. We get to go to Costco today, so im going to stock up on food for breakfast haha
Man. What else. Most of the roads here are potholed and trash and dirt littered. The others that arent potholed are just dirt with small streams of who knows what kind of water running through them.
im sitting at a pay computer and writing this, which is different. I cant understand the people very well and its hard because they dont realize that i cant understand. Even when they do they still speak fast. When i try and teach some english, which i had to do on sunday night at the ward, i spoke slow, and used easy words. They dont really comprehend that principle.. Kinda sucks. Dont feel like im doing much in lessons. Especially when they speak about non gospel stuff. FREAK. so hard to pay attention. My brain just shuts down. I understand most of the words but they speak too fast for my brain to put them together. Drinking from a fire hydrant perhaps....
But in any case, amongst all the infirmaties, and sweating, and wanting to punch a wall or fall asleep for lack of understanding, im doing great. I love it here and i love the people. We are good friends with a family of who knows how many, and they have a few 12 and 13 year olds that really like me i think. They are fun to mess with. I speak engilsh really fast when they speak spanish too fast. Remembering names is a nightmare too. These people have 10 of em and they mumble them all. Latinos do not move their jaw very much when they talk and their syllables are soft. Makes it even harder. But yeah. Love it here. Couldnt think of anywhere else id like to be.
Its a great time here, and we are working really hard to get this old couple in their 70s to baptism but their kids dont want them to change religions. They are Angel y Donada. Great old couple. Finally know the problem with this mission, people arent serious about it. We commit a ton to baptism and a lot say yes, but dont follow through. That leaves us with a few for the picking. But these people are receptive to our words. Seriously the Chosen People like the Book of Mormon testifies of. Im literally fullfilling scripture by being here teaching the gospel to the people of the Lamanites. Pretty cool to think about.
Cant email friends, only family. Dear elders are the most reliable, and they take about a month to 1.5 months for me to get them and about a month for it to get back to the states. So warn people. I still want letters though! Love em. In any case, I Love you Mom, Dad, Garrett, Riley, Brad, Shay. You guys mean everything to me and i think about you alot! Not more than the chosen peeps though :) haha anyways, logging off to send pictures! expect em! LOVE YOU ALL. Les amo! Quidese.
Oh yeah. My tolerance for pica is much more than before. I ate a chilpaya pepper. This small little thing and my mouth burned for a day and my nose ran for 3. Literally the hottest thing except for one other. The small little green thing haha is very very hot.
Como estan! man love you all. The comp is getting better, still waste a lot of time i feel like, but its ok. I need to relax a little on a few things. The stress of the mission. Ill tell ya. But i sure do love being here. Not a doubt in my mind this is my home and it feels so natural already. Not the spanish, but the culture. There are still things that im not used to, but ive forgotten about america and being white already. Sometime s i forget that im even Conner. Im now Elder Mortensen the mexican. The people dont really notice my American background as much and i kind of start to fit in i hope!
Oh what else. I handled a boa, got followed by a guy that wanted to jump us, and helped a borracho (drunk) to his house haha that was exciting. Not having too much success, but we might have a few more baptisms coming up! i hope! i want more.
Phew. where to start. I dont even know. My comp is still being a micromanager, and i finally lost it friday. Not even sure how it started but in the best spanish i could muster i told him what i was frustrated with. Told him that hes a district leader, my senior companion, my trainer, and ive been here for 2 weeks and i shouldnt have to be the one that says ok, time to leave, or start lessons, or such. He didnt say much, except for Ok. I told him that i know his mission is almost over, but mine is just starting and all i want to do is work, and i dont want to waste 3 precious months with him being like this. Things were good until sunday, when he volunteered me to go with E. Mielnickowikz to get one of their investigators 30 minutes away. I did and came back to find that the class i prepared for 2 hours to teach and was really excited to teach was 20 seconds from being over. I dont know why he chose me. All they needed was another male over 18. That really made me upset because i was super stoked to share some insights with the members on why missionary work is important and why we need them. I cant help but think its because he loves the spotlight and i really hope he wasnt getting rid of me so he could talk by himself. If so, it was an extremely low blow and it made me mad. He doesnt fill me in much, and when i ask him what the plan is he mumbles something and walks in to the house and i just sit there trying to catch up when we are reading the bible in spanish. I usually just sit there and look like an idiot for 2 hours. Thats right. 2 hours at some appointments... but yeah. If he would just fill me in i can help but usually he likes to talk for a while and then gets mad at me when i dont keep my little bits "brief" ugh. He loves to control my life and wont let me buy an alarm clock. That stupid egg one already broke. The light kept spazzing out and wouldnt shut off and the alarm beeped for a solid .5 seconds before killing itself haha. Anyways, im trying. I dont know what else to do but try. I like to do my own thing but he wants to do our wash together, wants to do everything, including standing behind me in the bathroom and Burger King. awkward... My time is precious and he just wastes it. He threw a fit because i wouldnt let him shine his shoes with my kit. I was willing until he started using the polish brush to clean the dirt. He keeps telling me how to shine my shoes but hes never seen a kit in his life and scoffs at me when i clean them with water and acts all annoyed while i wait for them to dry... He will walk around me and turn down the water while im shaving, and put away the ironing board before im done and take my card out of my hand and pull my money out at the ATM (even though there are buttons in English). AAAAGGHHH. It feels good to vent. Trying to be patient. not working too well. Need to get through a transfer and a half with this guy. I want my space haha.
First off! The water. Huh. Its really interesting. It smells like rotten eggs, we shower and brush our teeth and do all that fun stuff in it and hope i dont get sick. Everyone buys water from either Coke, or another competitor, but Coke basically has the market down here, so everyone walks around with these huge 5 gallon or whatever jugs and use those to drink from. When someone says do you want water? you say, yes. Nearly everyone offers when you go into their house, but its hardly ever water. These people love juice and lemonade and coke. I dont drink much water. Oh well. But yeah. The agua is nothing to brag about down here. I miss taking a nice hot shower too. We only have cold water, which feels nice, but sometimes a nice hot shower would be fantastic haha. 
We finally baptized angel y donata yesterday by the way! Font wouldnt fill up so we had to take taxis to the other chapel. It took my comp 3 tries to baptize angel, and it took me one time to baptize donata. Shes the nicest lady. Both are in their 70s and i love em both. Nicest old couple. I want more baptisms! But my comp doesnt want to work for them. He would rather do breakfast dates, wake up at 730, 8 and hang out at members houses all day and night and play with their kids and eat. I wish we would be more obedient cause i need the blessings...
Not a whole lot has happened this week. I wish i could write more, but its been a review week and nothing too exciting except for hosting! Oh well. things will get shaken up a tad in about 3 days... gulp. jaja Garrett i'm glad you had fun on your dance date. Enjoy those, and keep talking to the women after. That was something me and Brad were never very good at... Haha funny stuff. Can't belive i've already been out for 2 months! its so loco! I'm stoked for mexico and i can't wait to hear from all of you guys this next monday! more info on that later. Pues... i'm still studying hard. well trying at least. Its hard to see being this close to the light at the end of the tunnel. That analogy is so so true though... Windowless box and no sun for 8 weeks and literally the flight out of here is entering the light at the end. I'm ready for it.