Semana Una

Dear family,

First off sorry for any typos but this computor is horrible. so i must have been the most prideful person in the world. i am in tepachula for my first area which is six hours from tuxtla and closer to guatamala than tuxtla. i dont even know where to start right now.

in the mexico city airport we had no clue what was going on and luckily there were missionaries leaving who translated for us haha. presidente cardenas is great. doesnt know english. his wife went to high school in huntington beach and speaks a little english so that was fun. basically the first night was awful because i forgot bug spray so my face got eaten and swollen. talk about good first impressions of the gringo. my first meal was a hamburger and the next day after orientation sister cardenas made spaghetti and chicken cordon blue. what the heck. then i met my trainer. elder gamez and yes i spelled it right. he is from monterrey and he knows like ten words of english so this is fun. also he said he speaks faster than most other missionaries so i need to tell him mas despacio all the time. plus the people in indeco (my specific area) apparently talk faster than the rest of chiapas. not kidding but i probably only understand 5% but at least my spanish will be good. the first meal i had was amazing. soup chicken and tortillas. the next meal was beans eggs and some nasty pork but i ate it and told the hermana it was delicious because people are so poor and her stove was broken so food was cold.

also we went and visited the bishop and he gave us home made pan which was amazing and warm chunky milk... i about threw up... the ward here is amazing... there are five young men about 17-19 and one of them goes out with us every time because elder gamez is new to this area also so we know nothing. also he said our apartment es the worst of the mission haha. it is a really poor area and it rains every day and is super hot but the people are so loving. except the drunks on sunday morning.

in church the first counselor told the ward to help us out because we are new and i dont speak spanish and everyone just looks at me and laughs. also all the young women literally watch my EVERY move and its a little creepy being the only white person. i am in so much culture shock right now its unreal. oh well i love being in the field.

i had my first two lessons yesterday. first one i didnt say a word and i dont even know what elder gamez taught. the second we stopped by the house of this man who was in the area book. federico. we taught him baptism and i undertsood that he asked about infant basptism so i taught from moroni 8 and he agreed and then i shared my testimony at the end and we committed him to baptism. i didnt have a strong spiritual experience or anything but it was pretty exciting.