Missionary mannequins

Happy Birthday, Mom. 

 I haven't seen Elder D since our first day in Mexico. I wonder what's become of him! I know he's still in the mission, but we've never been in the same zone.

Yes, Elder V is doing better.  We had an easy week because I didn’t want to stress him out with the burden he is carrying.  But he is doing great and is ready to work hard again.  I still can’t imagine having a parent die while I was on a mission.  But I am proud of him for staying on his mission.  The spirit truly can comfort us in ways we can never imagine until it happens.  We had some fun this week and took some silly pictures like the one above to keep his mind off of the sadness.

To answer your question, in Mexico it's more common to say manejar. In Spain they say conducir.  I was thinking about those verbs the other day. ''How weird would it sound to say 'I'm managing a car?' '' Then I thought about the etymology of 'drive' and I'm pretty sure it comes from driving a horse team, which has an even funnier application to the concept of moving a vehicle.

I can't wait to eat cookies again. The Bimbo company equivalent (Marinela) are nowhere as good. Although I love Bimbo bread, chocolate chip cookies can't be compared to homemade treats. Thanks for taking such good care of me. 

We really are such a blessed family. That was the first thing I learned on the mission. Even the basic blessings I never really considered as rare before the mission. None of my companions have been born in the church nor have two active parents. Not a single one of them.

And Elder V says hi to everybody, happy birthday to you, and thank you so much for everything.

Thank you dearly for sending me so many packages. I keep all the boxes I can because they represent how much you love me and miss me. I just hope that being a good missionary make it worth it for you!

 A chihuahua in my mochilla.  How did that happen?

Trying on glasses.  I liked these ones as well.

Pray for my companion

Elder V's dad died and President Greer just told Elder V today in the morning. We took a taxi down to the offices where President talked with Elder V and gave him a blessing and everything. He is going to be staying in the mission with me and relying on the Savior to help him get through his trial. It's basically the worst thing that can happen to a missionary. So I'm just going to send a lot of fun pictures today.  We don't have much time for email.  Just please pray for Elder V that he will be comforted and be able to bear this burden.

I can't possibly imagine anything worse that could happen to a missionary. It's a good thing everything is going so well for us and he's so happy and stress free or I think it would be unbearable for him. He says on the mission is the best place for him to be for something like this to happen to him.

I'm so glad we were left together for this transfer.  We are truly brothers and I am glad I can be with him during this difficult time.

This week

I'm glad you all got home safely and had a fun trip to Canada.  I can't believe you met a grizzly bear on your hike.  Actually, with your luck that doesn't surprise me at all.

Quote of the week:

Elder V: ''How do you say 'tijeras' in English?''

Elder Dorrough: '' 'Scissors.' ''

Elder V: ''Oh, ¿como Little Ceaser's?''

We both died laughing. It's so funny that many Latinos absolutely do not hear the difference between 'business' and 'bees knees.' To them it all sounds like the Spanish ''i''.  Most Gringos have similar problems with Spanish, though.

All is well in Xalapa. Both M and J have their baptismal services this Sunday, I'm having a blast with Elder V, the members are so awesome, and Elder V is teaching me how to play football. I also went and bought a France ball at a super discount price because this kid loves football so much that we need a ball in the house and to take to play, because sometimes everybody gets together to play and then somebody asks, ''Wait, where's the ball?'' and then we have to pick something else to do.

Today we played football in a lava crater! On Macuiltepetl hill there's a rather large crater upon which the city parks department has put a synthetic football field. We played all morning and got some very good excercise. Elder V still isn't used to the altitude here so his lungs are adapting to hours of play. On another note, I'm actually getting really good at football. It's actually come to the point that when captains pick teams I'm the first guy chosen! Isn't that something? I'm not a super master at juggling or ball control or anything but I'm fast, I don't get tired, and I kick with my left foot. Well, with both feet, but I'm better with the left foot. In today's game I scored 4 goals! When I get home I'm definitely going to want to play football with the guys. Wait, we say soccer in the states, don't we?

I got a super sweet hair cut. This time I walked in with a picture and said, ''cut my hair exactly like this.'' In Elder V's World Cup Sticker Album I spotted an Italian player who is possibly my long lost older brother (because we look similar), Ignazio Abate. His haircut is stylish and European and also allows me to control my cowlick because it's with the 1 all around.

8 months... in 5 days I will be 66.7 percent of the way there. I'm pretty sure my return date is going to be 29 April. Nobody has told me but that's just my best calculation. It's also crazy thinking that my next area could be my last.

Also, one night this past week I remembered the day the Brazil ball went down the cliff and I felt so bad about it. It sounds silly, but my heart started to pound and I couldn't sleep for an hour remembering the sad sight of the ball bouncing just over the fence and into the land of unrecoverable...  And then that part about losing the second one also made me feel even worse... even though that was so long ago it still made me feel sad.

Dad says everything has grown a ton in the backyard.  I can’t wait to see it when I get home.

Until next week!  I love you.

 

Spanglish name for a ''cocina económica'' where we eat lunch most days. The only English most people here know here is from movies. Hence why such a random English word as twilight is easily recognized by the Mexican population.

This week

How funny to see Mom's pictures of the city where I started my mission. I still look back at that mission as a real mission. I'm really grateful I could be in Vegas for 5 weeks to know have good companions and get going on missionary work.

Well, this week was fun. We baptized G yesterday! His entire family showed up and his grandma made a million tamales for the refreshments. That kid is so spunky. His mom is so happy that he decided to get baptized. 

This week we definitely worked our butts off. We made sure not one moment went to waste in looking for new people, talking to all the people we could, visiting less actives, and so forth. While we had worked hard before this week we really did all we could. We were blessed primarily with a great satisfactory feeling on Saturday night and were able to see a great blessing on Sunday. Sister M  has given us many references before and we've taught them and committed them and everything, but nobody ever goes to church here. To our not-astonishment, her friend this week who had committed to go to church did not show up. But - somebody else did. And she lives in the same house! J just moved from Chiapas to Xalapa (to the M family conjunto de casas) to go to school on Saturday and Sister M took her to church. She loved church, made friends with 5 different families who are active members, got to learn how to say prayers, was given a Book of Mormon, and saw a baptismal service - and all that before we taught her last night! Easiest baptismal invitation I have ever made in my entire mission. She basically asked us to baptize her.   She wants to be baptised on her birthday later this month. Woo-hoo!

I know that wherever somebody is serving in Mexico there's always at least 1 prepared person to receive the gospel. At least 1. The good news is we should have 2 baptisms for the 31st. With all the rest of our efforts we will be putting in day after day I know the Lord will keep blessing us. Even though there aren't a lot of interested people in my little colonia we are finding all the people we can and loving the members and with that I am a happy Elder.

I'm eating up the French grammar book you sent me. The tenses are exactly like Spanish ones but you just don't speak in four of them. I wonder how many languages would be like that. Is German at all similar in that regard? Could there possibly exist more than 14 tenses? I can imagine some weird rules like conjugating differently for all females or conjugations for one, two, or three or more people, or things like that, but I'm not sure if another tense exists in another mindset. It's hard to imagine that.

Also, Anton sent me a German poem of his and the verb ''lassen'' is just like French ''laisser,'' but obviously it's with an n because it's German. Languages are so fun.

My goal is to be fluent in 4 languages before I graduate from BYU - English, Spanish, French, and German. I'm pretty decided after French I'll tackle German with classes at BYU and a friend to Skype and ask any question I want to. This reminds me! Anton says that he's likely going to visit us this upcoming summer with a friend of his who also went to the states for a year. His friend went to California so they're planning to tour the west coast. I told him when he comes he's totally welcome to stay with us and party.

That's it for this week.  Just a picture of a tiny version of the Liahona magazine (at the top) and one picture of G's baptism.

Mis lentes nuevos

I am seriously going to be blown away by technology when I come back home. Here I am on a computer that still runs on Windows XP using a cell phone that's now 10 years old.

This chapel has the worst keyboard of all time, except for the island in Belize. Even the Casio keyboards are superior to this one. As soon as you sent me the Piano Guys music and I got moved out of Tuxpan I haven't touched a real piano since. There was a piano in Xanath but when I actually played it I found out it was horrendously out of tune and the primary room is always way too full of kids there for two Elders to slip in, so I never played it. One day I will play a real piano again. one day.

I'm getting along super well with Elder V. He's mature and easygoing and we laugh all day long. He's also educated, likes to read and study.

I'm having a very hard time getting investigators to church in this ward. I honestly don't think this tiny area is meant for 6 missionaries. Maybe 4, at the most. Since my time started here we have had a grand total of 4 different people come to church, and one of them was V who had already been attending for a year.  As long as I am out on the streets all day giving everybody the chance to use their agency to accept or reject I'm doing my part. Preach My Gospel states: ''A missionary's success is primarily measured by his or her determination to find and invite people to be baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.'' I don't see the words results or obligation, I see the words determination and the word invitation. So I'm good.

Xalapa is the greatest place in the mission to find cheap souvenirs. (I love that French loanword. Is that what that's called?) I found an official Club América Nike jersey for me, (the one I found proudly has the word 'crown' in Spanish written in huge bold letters on the back just like the real deal. I'm sure the people at BYU will love that one). I'll be on the lookout for more, of course. Now that I'm finding all the nooks and crannies of Mexican markets I'll be sure to find one soon. Another awesome Mexico kid's jersey for Zack (I bought it in a big size because I know he's going to grow), and other awesome Mexican recuerdos to give to the family when I come back. Your wool Huipil is still the coolest thing I've found, though. It's so beautifully hand embroidered and it took a sweet Mexican lady two entire weeks to make it.  The America jersey I found was the greatest steal of my whole life. I bought it for two whole dollars. 25 pesos. That's actually less than 2 dollars. I felt fantastic. Sure, used, but still the greatest buy ever because it's official.

Also! The alcohol completely removed the stain from my authentic Mexican fútbol jersey I bought. That was such a relief because I was so proud of that shirt. It's the one the team actually wears when they play. Thank you so much for the tip!

I took Elder V to McDonald's today. I told him it's a gift from my mom because she loves him. I managed to eat four hamburgers, a large fry, and drink a large coke. 1700 calories later I felt pretty satisfied. Fountain coke does taste a lot different than bottled coke.

Honestly, I feel like my mission on the mission was more to become completely immersed in a culture enough to replicate my brain several times and create enough space to learn more languages. 

I'm also here just to love the people. Members, investigators, random kids on the street, everybody.  The people here are so loveable.  

I have a very strong feeling I'll get transferred this transfer, we'll see if that leads me to a piano or not...

I’m thinking instead of McDonalds for dinner on the night I get back, we should all go to La Costita or to Rockwood or something and I’ll order the most authentic Mexican food I can find.  Then we can go to Winco and get Jarritos sodas and load up on Mexican treats.  Then for lunch the next day I would like to go to McDonalds.

Elder V dice que en nueve meses le mandemos una foto de todos en el restaurant el torogoz

Guess whose curse is still in effect. Ding ding ding! That's right, this time, I broke the lock on the door simply with my own existence. It was totally inexplicable and it had to be removed the old fashioned way. Ohhh yea.

The fancy eye exam glasses of L, who is a million times more cool and honest than the last lady from whom I bought glasses. The lenses had gotten WAY too scratched up and it was bugging me and giving me headaches every time the sun came out. I went for new lenses and she told me how the optometry market works in Mexico, how to get the best deals, and how to make your lenses last for a long time. It turns out the ''anti-reflective'' stuff they put on lenses here they do intentionally with the intent of getting people to buy new glasses every 9 months. They charge you 30 dollars more to coat them with something that comes off really easily, even when you just wipe dust off. Then they're scratched up and you have to buy new ones. (sure, the chemical helps so you don't perceive the reflection of indoor bulbs, but other than that... nothing) It also turns out that the people in Teziutlán lied to me because my prescription definitely stayed the same and didn't get better, so I've been seeing in low-def quality for 10 months. I thought so...

Fortunately our investigator M is her best friend so we worked out a special deal. I got new lenses for the glasses I have, AND she repaired my old Ray Bans!!! The metal got slightly stained from the soldering but that's a natural effect of intense heat. Also, I bought a pair of '30s/´40s glasses with the birthday money Grandma and Great Grandma sent me. Because with the great connection I made, it was a price I seriously couldn't refuse. It was an 80% discount and I couldn't say no because the glasses are definitely my personality.

Family home evening with silly kids! Who made the funniest face? I would say M wins, hands-down. We're going to baptize G this Sunday. He's 8 and a half and his mom has been a member for several years now. He didn't get baptized when he turned 8 because he is scared of water. I told him I taught kids how to swim and I'm a lifeguard... and I made him laugh a lot, so we 

convinced him.

A's family is so fun to talk with.

Me helping D to fly in his super man pajamas. Those are my new glasses. D was wiggling around a whole lot and it's not the greatest picture of me, but trust me, my new glasses look extremely stylish.

A member took us out to eat at a vegan restaurant this week. It was the first time I've actually gone to a legitimate restaurant all my time in Mexico. The member of course isn't a vegan but he wanted to try something fun. I do say, Mexico is probably the only place where the vegans serve you cactus as the main vegetable on your plate.  It was a fun adventure and I am so thankful for this member's kindness.

Adventures on Macuitepetl

Yes, I do remember the story of my toy rubber snake breaking when I was 3.  2 inches of the tail broke off of the 3-foot-long snake, and I threw the whole snake in the trash because I thought it was no good.   I can understand how sad Savanna was to get a scratch on her brand-new scooter.  I'm glad she figured out it wasn't such a big deal.  The same thing happened to me this past week with a Mexico jersey I bought. It got stained with black marker immediately after bringing it home and I thought it was all ruined. Of course I didn't cry or freak out like with the snake 17 years ago but it kind of frustrated me. It was mostly sad because I hadn't even taken the tag off and it was already stained. However, the stain actually washed out for the most part and looks a lot better. A good reminder to always be careful where you put your markers.  My comp said rubbing alcohol will take out the marker, but we didn’t have any.  I think it didn't go through the dryer. (Xalapa is the only city in the entire mission with dryers. Random thought.) In any case, I'll buy some rubbing alcohol and see what magic it can do. Also! Tell Dad I bought him a jersey, too. I bought one in each of the team's three colors - black, green, and red.

Yes, currently I'm going for a European look now that I'm becoming a Frenchman. Tomorrow I'm going to get the sides buzzed again and the top trimmed just a little bit. I've decided I look better with a real hair cut, even though a buzz is so easy. All I have to do is keep the sides buzzed every two weeks for my cowlick to not be so noticeable. Do you love how I can't part my hair formally but I can make it a ginormous swirl?

This week whilst reading the scriptures I found two I would not have been able to understand without knowing French: Jeremiah 10:22 and Isaiah 52:14. The noise of the bruit sounds pretty redundant so it made me laugh. I also recall the word appellation being somewhere in Alma or Helaman... but I'll be there shortly enough again and I'll find it.

This week I had my favorite meal of all time with members. We ate lunch with a couple that has been married for 65 years and have been members for 53 years. The brother is the oldest in the ward and two weeks ago celebrated his 90th birthday! They are the cutest, sweetest people ever. First off, when we walked in the door we felt like we entered the waiting room of the temple. It was so peaceful and reverent.

As for the food, not only were the meatballs and white rice absolutely delicious, but so was the homemade wheat bread. That's right. Wheat bread. Made by hand. Just like you always make for us. I an entire loaf because I was so happy to see such a treasure on the table. Apart from the food that reminded me of home, the company of the members was so precious. They were splendidly enchanting and continually joking with one another. When the brother was pouring us water slash juice he served us and then himself, and then he almost poured some into his wife's glass but set the pitcher back on the table. ''No, not for you. You're punished.'' Then he got more juice out of the fridge and told us, ''This one's sugar free'' and proceded to serve his wife. After the meal they told us the whole history of their family from the pictures they have on their neatly painted walls. It was so precious.

 Little A turned 9 this week.  Her mom invited us over for cake. 

 I found the perfect Mexico souvenir for me.  A copy of Don Quijote, en español!

On Friday we had a hilarious activity in the ward with games involving balloons, musical chairs, and finding candy hidden in flour. Only the pictures can describe the fun.

 Little J and I with our flour-covered faces.

After the taking candy out of flour without your hands game.  So much flour in the air and our faces.  Elder Valdés is the silly guy on the ground.

We spent some time today at the hill Macuiltepetl.  There is a zip line, a bird sanctuary, some ruins, a cave and a cool tower to climb on top.  If we ever go on a family vacation here, we can spend an entire day on this one hill.  There is a beautiful view of all of Xalapa from the top.

 A fun adventure to a cave (which was closed) today.

  Pictures from the bird sanctuary today.

 The view from the top of Macuitepetl Hill.

I had a crazy idea this week.  Rather than going out and trying to find people, we set up a table in the market with a sign that says Everything Free.  We had lots of people stop and talk to us, and we will do it again next week.

This is the sweet couple that gave me the wheat bread.  I had to take a picture of them with the loaf.  If you wonder why there is so much light in the picture, it is because they are so celestial they are about to be translated.

Tacos, toys, a mask and a mountain

This is a picture of Mount Orizaba covered in clouds.  It makes it easy for me to know which direction to go with this beautiful mountain as a reference.

Things have been getting to the offices faster now. The letters you sent got here in 2 weeks! I appreciated Jon Scott's random comments about faith and dark energy and nerdy things. It reminded me that the ward I grew up in is still real.

Thanks for sending me a jersey.  I can't wait until it gets here. The French uniforms really are so cool. If anybody in the family wants me to get them a Mexico shirt or jersey I can get those for ridiculously super cheap here.

French - I think with past participles it's only with verbs conjugated with ''etre'' that the number of e's changes, right? ''Nous sommes alles'' ''elle est allee''? What other random questions I had...

I love President Greer. The man is awesome. When I was talking with him I could feel a genuine love and concern. ''For the next 9 months I am your father, I am your bishop, I am your priesthood leader. You are my son and the Lord's charge for me is to take care of you.'' It was such a different feeling than the other interviews I have had before. 

President Greer asked me to tell you thanks for the blog. It helped him a lot to understand the state of the mission better when he arrived. He told me his philosophy as mission president is teaching us correct principles and letting us govern ourselves. The last thing he will ever do, he says, is try to micro manage everybody in the mission. So when I asked him if I could keep studying French during our language study time he said, ''That is your decision. Just think of how it will benefit you and if it's worth your time and you decide yes or no.''  Je connais la réponse.

Elder V is as awesome as ever. We're still not seeing a whole lot of visible success in this ward but I know the Lord appreciates everything we're doing as long as we give it our all and are diligent.  Loving the people here is the greatest work of all, and it's really easy to love the people here.

 There are two things that Mexican kids love to do in the street:  Play soccer and fly kites.  There were so many kites in the sky the other day!

 Brother R making Arabic tacos for us.  Yumm!

 "Dorro, ¡eres mi mejor amigo!"  This is A, my BFF here in Xalapa.  I told him if he could learn how to talk in English (his dad is learning English) I would buy him a Captain America toy to complete his collection.  So he learned some English from his dad and I bought him a toy.  He drew me a super cute picture to say thanks and gave it to me on Sunday.

 Another picture of my buddy A.

 This mask belongs to a different little kid.  I put it on and the family was like, "He's actually Captain America!!"