Tuxpan

I am currently in the city of Tuxpan. It´s the nothernmost part of the state of Veracruz and the farthest possible area from the mission home. It´s actually a pretty big city. I think there are 300.000 people or so! It´s been about 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity. What fun!

Guess who is still in a tri-panionship? Elder Dorrough is! Out of the 26 or so Elders who arrived Monday, three were assigned to trios with some Zone leaders... and I am one of them. I will have been in a trio for the first 5 months of my mission. The Zone Leaders and Assistants are always in a one gringo to one native ratio to help deal with any issue that arises. My companions are Elder P, from Puebla, and Elder M, from Utah.

The house I stayed in until yesterday was basically a poop hole. Literally. Even for Mexico, it was bad. 5 elders shared a bedroom and a bathroom, with a tiny little space for studying. I took pictures of how gross it was...but I forgot my camera today. I am with other Elders today because my companions had to go to Xalapa for a ZL meeting, and I forgot to pack my camera in my overnight bag. Oh well! You´ll all get double pictures next week!

Mexico is definitely a blast. I'm going to start off with my favorite part... the peoples´s reactions to the fact that I actually speak their language. And not only that I speak their language, but also that I speak it like a Mexican!

The Bishop: "Is your mom Mexican? Is your dad Mexican? Did you go to a Mexican ward?"

An investigator, after about 5 minutes of the lesson: "Were you born in Chihuahua?" In Chihuahua, there are white blonde Mexicans.
(After that one, I decided to just start telling everybody I am from Chihuahua so they believe that I speak Spanish.)

A native Elder: "Are you Mexican? No? Because you sound exactly like a Mexican. Your accent is strongly Mexican.

A member: "You don´t have even the slightest hint of American in your voice. You sound like you live here."

The ward mission leader: "Not only do you say the vowels correctly, but you say the "eres" and "doble eres" precisely right. Americans can never do that."

An investigator: "Oregon? You mean Obregon!" (Obregon is probably the most dangerous city in Mexico.)

Something else I like about Mexico is how cheap everything is here. A 500 ml bottle of coke is 40 cents. Food costs nothing. The rent is a joke. It costs two dollars to take a Taxi all the way across town. Of course, it´s all in pesos, so it looks expensice with the same $ sign, but everything is so barato. I don´t know how these people make a living charging me 3 bucks to eat food it probably took them half an hour to prepare, but I´m cool with it. The missionaries in Mexico probably get the least food money out of any other mission, but it doesn´t even matter.

The local elections are going on now, so there are a bazillion cars with posters and loudspeakers driving around. They´re pretty obnoxious and fun to joke about.

Probably my favorite slang phrase here is "¡Qué fresa!" (That´s a strawberry!) Which basically means, whatever is being compared to a strawberry is super cool. Also, "¿Qué trampolín!" (Oh, trampoline!) Which is like saying "Wassup, dawg?" Just imagine the slang I´ll know in 20 more months...

Yes, I put the electrical tape over the "ugh" in my name. (This was Mom's suggestion to avoid Mexicans being confused at the pronunciation of a last name with 3 letters you don't say)  Elder Dorro is rocking it in Tuxpan. It´s much different than the stateside missions... lots of baptisms, teaching 40 lessons in a week, walking from house to house, keeping lessons super short because you have too many of them... but it's fun.  I love the people.

At morning sports today I made a goal as the goalie. It was pretty funny. I also climbed up to the top of the Church roof and over a wall that also had a fence to get the ball kicked out of the park twice. The Mexicans now call me "Captain América", which makes me laugh because Captain America is my favorite

Love, 

Elder Dorrough