Como le va,

Thank you for the letter and the package it is awesome to be able to hear from you guys during the week. It helps me not feel like I ran away to Mexico. Ha Ha. It's funny because I got spam mail, I think, but it came with a milky bar which is forgivable.

Just a friendly reminder, next week we will be having P day on thrusday instead of tuesday so I'm not dead I'll be out of the walls getting my visa done. It's really sad though because we won't be going to the temple which means we get it week six or we get jiped. We’re all sad.

Speaking of winter, because it is around the holidays and people are in school there are less missionaries coming. It's really nice because that means more Costco pizza for me and less people in the casas. However, because districts are leaving and not coming in we are getting more Maestros. We started with one and by the end of the week I think we will have four. That's what they say but I think my jokes are just too much so they have called in backup. 

It's funny here in Mexico because they have parties during the weekend. We hear fireworks go off all week but mostly on the week end. They also crank their radios all the way up so that I can hear it clearly across campus. It is nice to hear music but it is funny watching the Maestros cringe when they hear the music and I have no idea why. 

We have fun here. We do tall which is like a Mormon version of Rosetta stone. It stands for Technology Assisted Language Learning. It is kind of boring but that doesn't stop us from having fun. We all have code names and when we put on our headphones we ''call in''. I'm flirt to convert, my companion is Green Bean Supreme Cream, Elder Lee and Graves are Bake and Shake, respectively, and Elder Jones is Rat Tail Jalapanoes (Ha figured it out) (pronounced ja lop a nos not hall a pain os). Most of these came from foods we had in el Comedor. Ha it´s a lot of fun. 

 I like it in el comedor. I have rice and beans just about every meal and they´re different every time. Onetime someone split their tray and the janitor came out with a mop and a blue and red flashing ball going wo wo wo wo. It was funny.

So we had some Americans come this week and some will come tomorrow. I saw Hermana Stone who was in my mission prep class and in the temple too. That makes three from our stake. It was funny meeting up with her. We kind of just stared at each other for about 10 seconds before anything happened. 

I gave a talk in church this Sunday. It was so good that instead of having the six speakers we normally have we had 3. It would of just been me but they already announced the others so they still talked. I´m not joking. Sólo Bromeo

I swear I´m not learning Spanish, I´m just losing English. Ay it´s horrible. Sometimes I look at my notes and go ¨What?¨ it´s hard. 

It´s funny talking to our Maestros and learning about all the lies they taught in school. Like asi asi and other stuff I forget. Apparently, it is so beautiful here in Mexico that they don´t even have a Tropical Guide either. All they have is a thing called The Guide to the Scriptures which is apparently even better. Whatever. 

It is really dry up here and we wash our hands all day so my knuckles get pretty bloody. I fear they may send me home because they think I have problems getting into fights. Fortunately, there is lotion. Mexico probs.

So we watch a Devotional every Sunday which are usually just Provo leftovers. Last Sunday I watched a great talk by Elder Scott. The only problem was when he started his talk he said ¨I feel that I have died and gone to heaven¨ It got really awkward in the room. I think I ´m going to add that to my list of ¨WHAT NOT TO SAY ... EVER¨ It will go next to the line “I’m dead tired¨ from Uncle Ben.

Yesterday went Sólo Español. It doesn´t really mean anything but it helps remind you and others to only speak Spanish. So I´m sorry but I will have to only write you in Spanish. Ha Ha. No it just makes me feel better than the new people. I think it is the closest thing to the dumby dots you guys talked about.

We had a real earthquake this week end. The Air Raid sirens went off and we had to run to the green safety circles. It measured a 5.8 but we weren’t exactly the epicenter. I´ll show you some pictures of my casa. 

Anyways, that was my week. How was yours. Write me.

Elder Nelson

The first picture was titles "My casa before". The second was "My casa afterwards. Only me and Elder Tingy made it out so I guess he´s my new companion." And the third is "¡Here´s my mission!"

Hola familia,

How´s it going in Texas. I don´t know about you guys but the temperature here has been dropping a bit so it feels cooler in the mornings and evenings. I remember one of you asked if it stinks in Mexico; kind of. It´s not too bad but every now and then it can smell a little bad. 

So I have a cool District and zone here at the CCM. All of us are going to Chihuahua but some north and some south. There is me and Elder Evans, Elder Lee and Elder Jones, Elder Graves and Elder Syphus, and Hermana Currey and Hermana Schroeder. Every one but Elder Lee, Elder Jones, and Hermana Currey are going to Juárez. (sorry if I spell things wrong there is no dictionary and how do I know if my computer just doesn´t like english). Anyways, in our zone is also Hermana Villena (who is from our stake) and Hermana Archaleta (David´s sister). Were all pretty close and I think we have the best zone. 

What is really funny is that in Mexico all of the gardeners that upkeep the CCM have Nacho Libre bikes or at least some of them. It´s really funny because you´re like THAT´S A REAL THING. 

The funny thing about being a missionary is that inaddition to loving P-days you also love Sundays. The funniest part is that our sundays are full of devotionals and meetings but compaired to the rest of the week it is relaxed. 

As part of our training here is that we have a progressive investigator that we have to teach in spanish. It´s really nerve raking at first but you get better at it as you go along. It´s ok because all of the investigators are teachers so if you preach false doctrine they can correct it and you don´t have to worry about sending people the wrong way. Our first investigator was named Alejandra Esquinca. She was having issues with her parents being devorced so we taught her on families and prayer. It was horrible. We had no idea what she was saying and so when we asked questions we assumed she was following the script we wrote for ourselves said si and moved on. Some how we ended up forgetting to teach her how to pray so when we asked to pray and she said no (which was not on our script) we had a major panic attack. The worst part was that I had to say a prayer in spanish and I had only been in the CCM for like two days.  It was terrible. I think that was the only day it has rained since I´ve been here and when we walked out we got drenched. It was a sign from God. We finished teaching her and she became our co teacher. It was weird. So now our teachers are Hermano Villalobos and Hermana zuniga (sorry I can´t capitalize zs, spanish key boards). Now we have Delwin Maldonado (Villalobos) and Darian Torres (zuniga) we´ll see how that goes.

It´s great being her I love all my friends in my Casa. I guess I left Bahama Buck´s but it hasn´t left me. Everyone loves my sno cone analogies and stories. It´s like Mission Prep but everyday. I think the all time favorite is the massacre of the 6 babies. 

I love learning spanish because there are even more jokes to say. They call their fire extinguishers; extincors (or something like that) so one time when we were walking by one I was like: So that´s why we don´t have dinosaurs anymore. Everyone loved it. 

As I was coming back from playing kickball one day I noticed these giant metal towers or status. I almost wonder If they are an old olymipic torch but I have no idea. I´m not even sure if they had an Olympics here in Mexico.

The food here is great but some of the mexican dishes are wierd. Mole is the worste thing ever invented. It tastes like microwaved chiken that was dropped in the sand box before making it to your plate. In other words, it tastes like dirt. Other than that the food is great. The deserts are famous for being a bit tastless but its alright. What is awesome is in addition to today being P-day we also get Costco pizza tonight. Whoo Hoo. Tuesdays are the best. 

I love P-day because I get to wear normal clothes. What´s funny is that we have to wear proselyting clothes to the el comidor so I´m always wearing church socks just so I don´t have to change them. I m sure I look goofy but I love it.

We have a store here called La Tienda. It´s nice because I can get cool little do hickyies here and there. Also they have snacks that I can get when they serve Mole (although Ihave only gotten one skittle bags as yet). The CCM is cool because they give us 100 pesos or 7 dollars a week to spend on stuff like soap and snacks during the week. The all favorite snake is Choke´s which are like chip ahoys. 

It´s cool in Mexico because they sometimes have Earthquakes so all over the place they have green circles with arrows pointing inwards which is a safety spot. There hasn´t been one yet but I   hope I see one before I leave.

We have a well here at the CCM so we can use the faucet if we want but the water tastes awful. So they also order water in the huge 20 L containers so we have one of those dotor office water dispenser thingies about ever ten feet. The guys who drop those off are crazy strong. They carry two on their backs and one with their free arm. 

I love saying Hola to everyone I meet in the street. It is funny because it is really dumb but at the same time it makes me feel not stupid which is kind of dumb. It´s also really fun to speak to the latinos because they can hardly speak any english (some of them) and we are struggling to talk to them in Spanish. 

It is so beautiful here in Mexico. You know those dumb black birds that poop all over the place. Well here at the CCM we have Parrots or Parrotkits something like that. They are beautiful green and don´t poop all over the place. 

So over all the CCM is the best MTC ever. Even the manager of international MTC is here not because he´s on a check up trip or anything but because this is the best place ever. Take that Provo kids. Im just playing but no seriously, this is the best place. 

I love to have packages or letters from you guys. My companion has gotten a package or letter every day and a half so far and no one else has gotten anything at all. I don´t know where to love him since we get food all the time or to hate him since he seems to be the postal´s pet.

Anyways I know this has been long but I´ve been saving it up all week. If you want to ask any questions just mail me a letter and some stamps so I can mail you back. 

I love you lots. 

Elder Nelson

District 5A

zone 5 

Awesome

10 November 2015

 

How´s it going y´all. 

     I love it so much here. I love Mexico. 

     So let me tell me about my trip here. I took the Aeromexico flight to Mexico city. It was a tiny commuter jet so economy had only two seats in each row. However, there was no one next to me so I got the whole row to myself. It was a little scary because the flight was pretty much only in Spanish so I only understood about half of what was going on. I got a meal though, which was nice but it tasted funny since we were so high up. While I was also on the plane they gave me a FMM and Custom papers. I was kind of confused but it wasn´t too hard. When we landed was when things got crazy. 

     I couldn´t tell where the airport was until we were basically upon it. I felt as if we were landing in someone´s backyard. That wasn´t the craziest thing though. As I got closer I saw armed solders fully decked out on the flight line. They were everywhere. I think that´s when I said ¨Were not in Texas any more tote bag (my carry on).¨ when we landed the people in front of me asked me what I was doing, I told them and then, things got crazy. There were no other Elders or Hermanas on the plan but the six people beside me and in front of me were all Jehovah Witnesses. What my luck. They were friendly and nice but it was so weird. They gave me a card and we trying to convert me. They said that I could even learn Spanish using the JW language app. Crazy. Well I didn´t get a gate because we wern´t big enough so we just kind of stopped on the tarmax and we got off and were loaded in a very crowded bus. The immigration line was huge but at that point I saw two other Elders. 

     Immigration took forever. They had a Mexican and foreign line but when I was about to get to the desk the moved us over to the other line. I don´t know if I won or lost. I guess that when I went to the desk the guy didn´t understand me so he screwed up my visa. It was okay because they fixed it later. I got my bags and met up with a bunch of other missionaries. 

     Since they screwed up my visa they had to drop me off at another terminal so that they could fix it. After that I had to wait for the next round of missionaries since I kind of missed the bus because of my visa. I tried talking to the guy next to me but he basically said I don´t speak English so I just kind of quietly sat there. The missionaries came and I helped them out. I liked this group better. I helped a Hermana with her luggage and enjoyed talking to her but that was before I learned about page 33.

     The MTC or CCM is wonderful here it is so awesome. I live in casa 4 room 3 closet 4. My district is the best Cinco A. In my district there is me, Elder Evans (my compañero), Elder Lee, Elder Jones, Elder Syphus (the District leader), Elder Graves, Hermana Schroeder, and Hermana Currey. We are the best. We have the coolest Maestro ever, he is Hermano Villalobos and he is a blast. He just got off a 3 year mission to mexico and attends college by night but he is the best. No matter what he is always full of energy and the spirit. 

    I love the food here and all that we do. Right now we are teaching Alejandra an ïnvestigator¨ its crazy though. I had so many oh ya moments. Having to pray in spanish, bearing testimoney in spanish, teaching investigator in spanish. It´s crazy. 

    Here are some pictures. 

     I love snail mail. it is always exciting to have things to keep and I only get one hour each week to write on the computer. Everyone else I love your emails but I just can´t get to all of you today. I love y´all very much I hope you have a great week.

Elder Nelson