Mexico Week 1

Hello everyone!

I left the MTC last Monday.  We were supposed to leave at 2:30 am, but left about 3:30 am.  Checking our bags and getting through security took a long time.  We barely made our flight.  I was able to call home during my layover in Dallas.  I loved talking to my family.

This keyboard is a Spanish one and it is hard to type on so this is going to be a challenge for both of us.  There are so many extra keys.  Nothing is where it is supposed to be.  :)

Ok, now the real work begins (just kidding, the work began on Monday and it was exhausting.)   I've been in Mexico for a week now.  Mexico is awesome.  I've also never had such a big culture shock in my life.  It is going to be hard to write everyone back while I'm here because we only have 1 hour because we meet with investigators all day.  We have 3 investigators right now:  Enrique, Ireri, and Erfren.  They're awesome.  Enrique is the one I know the best because I'm teaching him English.  He was the first person I met in our area.  He has a lot of doubts but came to church this Sunday and promised less than 30 minutes ago to pray tonight!!!  So excited!

My trainer is Hermana Medina and she is the best.  She doesn't speak a word of English so we both have to carry dictionaries in order to talk.  It is quite funny how much you can get across through hand motions however.  There are only 4 people in our district.  The 2 of us and Elders Jackson and Villasboa.  They're super cool. 

The plane ride to Mexico City was great, but I couldn't teach anyone because I was between 2 elders.  Once we got to the airport everything was in Spanish and it was hard.  We went through customs and it took 3 hours.  The elders that left an hour after us caught up to us.  We took a bus to Queretaro.  Apparently 1 peso=13 cents.

My mission president and his wife seem awesome.  Their son and daughter are even more so.  Kissing on the cheek is a thing here.  It was weird the first time-I freaked out a little bit (well, that's an exaggeration, I jumped.)  I don't know anyone and I'm not used to people touching me. 

My trainer is from Cunyecta.  My Spanish is improving, but I still can't understand some people.  My companion helps me with my Spanish.  She keeps a notebook of things I need to practice so we can work on them.  The people speak so fast my head explodes.  Everyone can understand me pretty well.  It helps that everyone wants to learn English here.  I say as much as possible in Spanish when I'm not teaching English. 

I am in San Jose in Queretaro City (from Sonia-she writes that she is in San Jose and San Juan, so we will find out which part of Queretaro it is next week.)   You'll have to look it up because I don't know where I am.  The Lord prepared us and this area.  We are in a new area of Queretaro that we are opening.  It is very large.  The ward is pretty big.  Most of the members have never had sister missionaries so they like to do little things for us.  We wash our clothes by hand and line dry them.  Such an adventure.  A nice family let us use their washer.  (neither Hermana Medina or I can remember their name right now though.)  The members here are wonderful.  We have such delicious food and they are all such happy people.  Every house we visit we get at least one referral.  We've eaten at a member's house every day.  We only eat one meal a day because we eat so much at 2:30.  We eat traditional Mexican food.  We have a lot of soup.  There are so many mosquitos!  It looks like I have chicken pox.  It is so funny!  We walk or in desperate times (when we are late) we take the bus.  One bus ride=6 pesos. 

I haven't felt sick at all, so the probiotics must be working (although, sometimes I forget to take them-oops.) 

They stamp their eggs here.  That's different.

 

 I'm super sunburned.  There seems to be no way of getting away from it so I deal with it.  I've gone through 2 bottles of sunscreen already and have bought more.

We have a dinner appointment in a few minutes so I'll send more info next Monday.

 

Love, Hermana Talbot