Some Interesting Foods!

Hey everyone!o

This week went pretty well. We went out to the ranch a few times this week. One of the days out there wasn´t too great though. When we got out there he had a few others over there and they were all drinking. Its not too great trying to talk with a bunch of drunks. As we were trying to talk with them they brought over a bowl of something. Caracol, or river snail. Yep, I´ve now eaten river snails. They were pretty big. You just suck them right out of the shell. It didn´t really taste like anything it´s just weird to look at. One I couldn´t suck it out so I had to just pull it out. It was really long. I didn´t think it could fit that much into the shell. I had 3 or 4 of them. I don´t really want to eat them again but I could if I had to. I guess there´s  a little hard thing that you aren´t supposed to eat because they said you could get sick from it. They told me that after I had already eaten them. But I didn´t get sick at all.

We left them and went and taught his son. We put him on date for baptism and he said he would go to church with us on Sunday for stake conference in Tuxtla. We went to look for him at the bridge in the morning but he wasn´t there again. Luckily Gledys and her husband went with us. Oh, on Saturday we went over to their house and had a nice `breakfast´ of Caldo de pata con panza. Otherwise known as pig foot and cow stomach soup. We were the lucky ones and got the stomach. The worst part of that was, again, looking at it. The stomach looked like it had hair sticking out all over it and on the other side it looked like some weird sea creature. We forced our way through that as if we liked it.

Well, on the way to church we were talking with some members in the back of the combi. Gledys and him were in front of us. The members started talking about food and I got a little nervous that someone was going to say something about the soup. Sure enough they did. Elder Enke said `Ugh!´ and I hit his leg and the member said `No, its good.´ So I just had to say `yep, we had it yesterday.´ We couldn´t tell if they heard or not but we thought they did. But after church they invited us to eat again at their house. That looked to be a good sign. We got there and what did we have? Beans with chicharron, pig skin. Now this tasted a lot better than the other but the texture wasn´t good and I had to pull a couple hairs out of the skin, unlike Elder Enke that had a bunch he had to fight with. After that we had a pretty rough day. We tried to find a bunch of people, about 9, that we had to walk to just about every corner of Suchiapa to get to them and no one had time or they just weren´t there. That was pretty much my week, from what I can remember of it.

We had a lot of lessons and are starting to focus on certain people. Hopefully Gledys will keep progressing and the kid from the ranch, Arjenis. Well, I gotta go.

Love you all!
Aaron

P.S. We did go fishing. We went with the ranch people and they were the only ones to catch anything. I guess I still have my bad luck with fishing in Mexico as well. I really don´t like fishing... When they caught them they just crushed their heads with there teeth to kill it right there. It was pretty gross. I don´t really want to do that.

Independence Day in Mexico

Hey everyone,

This week actually went pretty fast. Now I just have to try and remember what happened.

This Saturday and Sunday was one of the many Mexican independence days. Everyone told us at midnight that everyone screams ¨Viva Mexico!¨ We stayed up a little late to see. There was a big party in the park a ways away that we could here and a lot of people outside of our house. At midnight we waited and waited and nothing. Nobody yelled or anything. Even their fireworks were pathetic. There was a couple ones that just pop in the air and only one like the ones back home. So we just went to bed.

We did go back out to that crazy guys house. He was drunk again of course. We are starting to meet all of his family. Everything over there is going just fine. We now have a code to go over there if anyone ever gives us problems on the way. All I have to say is I´m going over to ¨La casa de mi tio Cheyito.¨

We invited his son to church this Sunday. He said he would go and would try to get his brother or sister to go with him. We told him we would wait at the bridge at 9:30 to help them find it alright. We got a call Sunday morning that we needed to open the church. We went and did that and showed up late to the bridge. There was no one there so we went back to church. We were heading back to go to their ranch later that day and his brother caught up to us before we got to the bridge to tell us no one was over there. That was pretty lucky. Then he told us that his brother and sister had been waiting for us at the bridge at 9 o'clock. I guess they waited a ways down the road in front of it but we took a different road to get there. That sucked pretty bad but it was good to know that the first time we invited them to church they were going to go. Hopefully we´ll get them to go next week.

Well, I can´t really think of much else to write. I better get going.

Love you all!
Aaron

"First Drunk Kiss"

Hey family!

This week went by pretty fast. I´m struggling once again to remember what happened.We did have to pull a nasty dead rat out of the toilet last Monday. It already had some green stuff growing on it and a bunch of flies. It smelt so freaking awful! We put a board over the toilet and taped it up and put a bag over it again.

We decided to have ourselves another adventure yesterday. We went across the other bridge and just kept going. We found a cool side road and went down there. We walked for quite awhile and a dog started barking and we weren´t exactly sure if we were trespassing or not so we turned back.

We got back to the main road and walked by a house with a couple drunks walking back to it. We passed without either of them seeing us... we thought. We ended up at the river and we were just looking around there a little bit. I turned around and saw them walking towards us, one of them with a shotgun. It was a little unnerving. They kept asking us where we were going and we kept saying we were just walking by. We finally got it into their heads and the one with the gun said OK and took out the shell. He asked us to forgive him and his brother was still stuck on asking us where we were going, haha. He invited us back to his house. I was a little nervous at first so I said a quick prayer and felt OK afterwards, so we went.

His wife gave us some limeade and he started to ask where we were going once again and said there was no exit over there. He then started asking how he could get into the states and if we would help him. We of course told him we couldn´t do that. They were pretty excited to have two gueros in there house. He kept shaking our hands, while his brother was stuck on saying `forgive me' over and over. At one point he shook my hand and pulled himself over to me, hugged me, and gave me a big kiss on the side of my head. At least it wasn´t wet or anything.

His son ended up taking us over to meet his cousin and grandma. His whole family has their own little town over there. I can´t remember what they call their ranch. We had a lesson with them and we are going to be going back this Friday. The son seems like he will progress. He feels like God doesn´t listen to his prayers. His dad drinks all the time and he really wants him to stop. I hope we can help him out.

Well, that was the main part of my week. Oh, we told Piste, an investigator that lived in LA and speaks English, about all of that and he said he had never gone over that bridge cause everyone says there's a lot of crazy people over there.
Oops. 

Love you all!

Aaron

Burgers and A Possible Dead Rat

Hey everyone!

Neither of us are getting transferred this time! I’m pretty happy with that. I was getting pretty sick of moving every transfer.

We had burgers again this last Monday. We ate them with an investigator that used to live in California. He knows English pretty well and likes us to talk in English so he can practice. They were a lot better than the last ones we had. He bought a lot more meat and real hamburger buns.

We found a really good family. We had taught their nephew a few times and he said he wants to be baptized. Then when he wasn´t there we talked with his aunt. She´s a little more standoffish but we always have really good lessons with her. Her husband is now listening to us as well. I think they have two daughters and a son but they say they aren´t really interested in this stuff. We´ll see where it goes from there.

I don´t remember if I told you but we have been having problems with rats climbing up the broken toilet in our room. Oh, and that same toilet lets nasty smells seep out of it. We put a bag over it but it still pumps some out. We have heard the bag moving quite a few times and one night a rat escaped. And two nights ago I was sleeping and all of a sudden heard the plastic moving really loud. I jumped awake and at that same moment so did Elder Enke. It wasn´t as loud as I had heard it but my mind must of amplified it or something. I ran over there and couldn´t tell where it was moving. Elder Enke grabbed the broom and ran over there and saw it get on the board that is on the toilet under the bag and wacked it. We heard it whimper and the bag move a little and then all was quiet. We were hoping that it went back down the toilet.

Well, today there is a pretty bad smell coming out of the toilet. We thought it might be dead in there and we don´t really want to check. I checked it once and heard the bag moving really quietly. It might just be injured and possible have a rotting limb or something. I think we are going to open the bag today and see what’s up. I am not too excited about that but we have to get rid of that stench.

We have found a place here that makes really good burritos. Of course the owner lived in the states so that is probably why. We have to try and pace ourselves now though. We might just get one to celebrate not having transfers.

Once again, we had no investigators at church. Plus, there were only about 25 people at church. We are starting to get things going and the ward is going to start home teaching. I don´t know if they had even heard about it but they really need to talk with the inactive people. I think we are going to be working with the members a lot more this next transfer.

Well, I can´t think of too much that happened this week. So I guess we will see what this week brings.

I love you all!

Aaron

Oh! We are going to be on Google Maps sometime! We were just walking down the street and watched it drive by. I forgot what street it was but I wrote it down in my planner. I just don´t have my planner right now. It probably won´t be up for quite awhile but just be looking. It drove by us twice. One of the roads was Avenida Central and the other was...uh....ahhhhh, I can´t remember. I will tell you next week.