Hola y'all. Turns out y'all is usually singular, but can be plural and all y'all is plural. Also, you never say yea. It's yes mam or yes sir. And in general the people are pretty friendly. Viva Texas. So President Sagers met us right off the plane and spent the day orienting us. All I really remember from that was contacting while we waited for other missionaries, and President saying a few things like "This is Texas, we eat meat." or "Don't you dare ask a man to turn off a Dallas Cowboys game if it wasn't a prearranged appointment. That is his kingdom." "He also told us these are good, God fearing people. Jesus people." It's true, in general (we still get doors slammed in our face and stuff like that) most people are willing to hear who we are and either politely say no, or in the case of most hispanics say they are at least willing to let us come back because they won't say no to anyone who wants to come back. The first day out with my companions (Elder Wagner and Ward, the current zone leaders and one a former assistant) we met this awesome lady. Her name is Esther, she's from Mexico, Catholic, and by our second visit had a baptismal date. She rocks. We whitewashed the area, so we didn't really know anyone and the previous Elder's didn't have anything going, so we're pretty much starting from nothing. We already have eight investigators, plus several families that said we could come back (one of them has 14 people and the dad is so humble and willing to learn). It's kinda sad not knowing how long I'll be here, hopefully I'll be able to be here for Esther's baptism. The hispanics and Tongans here have so much faith and are so nice to the missionaries. They'll feed us even when they don't have a lot, just saying they need the blessings. So far the mexican food has been pretty good, and the Katsu and Kalami (no idea how to spell them, but they're tongan foods) are way good. We spent most of our p-day getting our apartment, car (which is a nice truck, it's sweet), and some other Elders all moved in. My companions are great, Elder Wagner is on his last transfer and Elder Ward has been out about a year (he reminds me of the funny big white guy on remember the titans). It'll be sad to leave here, Texas rocks (it was 72 degrees outside when I got off the plane), but I'll still be excited to get to Mexico. It's definitely a little more work out here than the MTC, but It's still great to be here. Oh yeah, the language. So I can understand pretty much everyone (which rocks, but also means my comps make me do a ton in the lessons) except for when they get excited or it's over the phone. When they get excited (especially a really interesting lady we had dinner with) they talk so fast that I'm amazed they can even speak that fast, and I only get about half of what they say. But that's more than the other new guys, so that's a blessing. The other Elder's that came out with me started in beginner so they had a lot farther to go, and didn't get to spend the extra week in the MTC with a hispanic district. Apparently I was sleep talking in spanish again. I'm sure I won't understand anything when I get to Mexico and they're not all speaking slower because of all the English around us, but for now, things are going great. It's also funny to see the Texas pride. It really is practically it's own nation, but that's not all bad. Texas is pretty great sometimes. Well I'm about out of time. Oh yeah, my mission office address is 1331 Airport Freeeway #305 Euless, Tx 76040. I don't know when I'll leave, but I'd love to hear from y'all (and I can say y'all, it's texas). Vaya Con Dios! Love Elder West

ps: General conference rocks! It teaches all of the lessons in preach my gospel, and it gives us everything we need for investigators and ourselves. It really will answer your questions if you go in with real questions. General conference weekend for missionaries is like superbowl weekend. Except one of my companions still didn't know who played in the super bowl and was shocked to hear that Steve Jobs is dead. Life in a bubble, even in the real world. But being a missionary rocks, we're finally really trying to help people. Also, since my companions are the zone leaders and our area is huge, we have a car (a brand new truck), so it'll be cool to get that experience too before Mexico. We teach some of our lessons in spanglish, going in and out of spanish and english, it's really funny. But I can't wait for this week, hopefully we won't have quite as many appointments fall through, and if we keep up our investigators, we're going to be doing so well. Cuidense!