Finally in Xalapa

Finally, the gringo is in Xalapa! There are actually a few dozen gringos in Xalapa, but only one is Mexicano on the inside!

I do not have a lot of time right now. We are all just hanging out at the mission office finishing up travel papers today. I do not meet my trainer until tomorrow. I might have two companions again, but we shall see! One of the Assistants told me that all missionaries do language study - either the Mexicans study English or the Americans study Spanish. So one hour each day I will be teaching English! If Elder Davis and I are companions later on, that may be the only exception of which I know.

I had no idea I would be able to email today so I do not have my camera with me to take pictures. It is strange typing on a Spanish keyboard because basically all of the punctuation is replaced with Spanish symbols when you actually type the colon or apostrophe or whatever.

I am glad I got to talk with you for so long for free yesterday. That was perfect timing for a long phone call.

I had fun joking around with President and Sister Lopez last night. The picture we took was silly because he was pretending to be DURO, even though we will say it Dorro. Sister Lopez was amazed that a white person was able to speak Spanish so quickly.

I talked with a man named Pablo on the plane ride from Dallas to Veracruz. He works for the company that publishes the Spanish bibles. We talked the whole ride down there and he said that within two months I will speak PERFECT Spanish. He could not believe when I started asking him in Spanish how to fill out the immigration forms, so we kept talking the whole way! He is from Ecuador and recommends it as a vacation spot in addition to Belize.

Anywho! I have made it safely and soundly. I love the humidity and I love the people. I cannot wait to get serving again! P day is Monday, so I will email you on Monday about my first Mexican adventures.

I love you!

Abram