Our Jerseys for the zone and our baptism with Jose!!! My comp and I, and the mothers day activity in one of our wards. It was really cool.

May 21, 2012

Hola todos! We had another baptism, this time on saturday. It was really a miracle, we had been working with him and thought he was stuck and wasnt going to do anything and out of the blue Jose tells us he wants to be baptized. And he chose me to baptize him, which was sweet. There really is nothing quite like it. Definitely the highlight of the week. I had some interesting experiences with the food this week, accidentally didnt notice the jabanero in my taco... and we didnt have drinks, that was a little hot. And we got to try mole (mo lay) two days in a row, the green and the brown kind. Ironically my companion from mexico had more stomach problems than I did, but neither of us were really sick. Really shows how the Lord takes care of us, even when our stomachs arent quite use to everything. Our zone just got soccer jerseys, ill try to send a picture. Im betting/hoping that i will be a little better at soccer in two years, we play every week. We are hoping to have another baptism this saturday, it depends on his dad. Even after he is married and living on his own with his wife, the family has a huge influence here, and everyone is catholic, jw, or a member. Almost completely catholic. The good thing about Gustavo, the guy we want to baptize this saturday, is that his wife is a member. Members really make the difference. Love you all! Que les vaya bien!

First Baptism

May 14, 2012

This week has been crazy. We finally got a couple married on thursday and on friday I got to baptize them!! It was awesome. First baptisms in mexico! It was also great to talk to the family on mothers day. It was nice to see that the u.s. still exists. The world is completely different here. We almost got trampled by a heard of sheep that belongs to my stake president, wake up to roosters and dogs, and get freaking awesome food. And we get to live next to a volcano that looks like a scene from land before time. The members always give us agua, which is water with sugar and real fruit juice (like guava, mango, peach, lemon, etc) it is always really good. And the sweet bread here is really good too. It only costs like 2 or 3 pesos (like twenty cents). Its also been really nice to not have the language barrier. I can understand everything in lessons, and almost everything in all the other places, so that has been really nice. The culture is very different, but the people are really friendly. We also had one of our towns go crazy this week. They celebrated their patron saint this week  and we got almost nothing done there. We did get to see one of their parades go by, which was fun. they may not have a lot but they know how to go crazy and have fun. We also got to play soccer again on p-day. Give me two years and I will be pro. Its been especially crazy because the championship for the regional teams is coming up. My comp was ticked when his team lost, but we still have fun with it. We have an awesome family of 5 that we found, and we are really excited to teach them. Also, I apologize for lack of spelling and punctuation, the spanish keyboard still throws me off. Love you all, cuidense mucho! 

Pictures from Mexico!

May 7, 2012

Mexico!! It really is a completely different world here. My companion has been out the same time as me, buy he is from here, so he's had three months in the field in mexico. He doesn't speak english, so I've been learning a lot, no one except for other missionaries in other areas speak english. It's really cool, the people are really nice, the food is really good, and it's not to hot. My area has six little pueblos, we're actually outside the federal district in the state of mexico. Our zone is called los volcanes (or the volcanoes) becuase we are literally right next to the volcano (el popo). My first day it rained ash on us all day long and the members gave us masks to wear. We got back and all of our clothes were gray from the ash. Luckily it hasn't happend like that since, the wind has taken the ash to the other side, but it was a cool way to start out. Some people have left to the city (mexico city or other pueblos farther away), but most don't think anything will happen because this happens a lot. Everyone is catholic here. Everyone. And since no one speaks spanish, I'm really grateful I got to go to texas first so I could understand before I got here. Understanding isn't a problem, which is such a blessing, speaking is still a bit, I feel like I have the vocab of a one year old. We had a cool experience with a girl who just got baptized and is going to get confirmed this sunday. She couldn't last sunday becuase here parents took her to a priest to ask for advice. He told them she was at least going to church, which they weren't, and said mormons are good people. She said she knows with out a doubt the church is true, we had an awesome lesson with her. We gave a blessing to a guy to help him stop drinking and he hasn't since, which was cool, and of healing to a baby with a rash that he had for two months, and it has almost completely disappeared. Our area is supposed to be really tough, but the members help a ton, so we'll get it done. The mission goal is for everyone to baptize once a week. It's hard to do, but hopefully we'll be able to get that going. It's a completely different world here, but there are so many awesome things. And as far as dogs, there are dogs everywhere, but we manage to avoid all the ones that bite, my comp is pretty used to them. He is from aquas calientes. We don't have a lot of time spent our day washing clothes on the washboard (they tell me it's way better than a washing machine, which we don't have anyway) and playing soccer. That was a lot of fun. Some people are really good here, and the white missionaries look pretty stupid, but we try. Love you all! Que les vayan bien! "La fe en Dios significa fe en su tiempo." Y ahora estoy aqui debido a todo.

May 1, 2012

Peter was not able to send a letter this week because he was en route to Mexico!
Here is the address for the mission home there:

Elder Peter Gardiner West

Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission
Av. Del Taller No. 540
Col. Jardin Balbuena
Delegacion Venustiano Carranza
C.P. 15900, Distrito Federal, MEXICO