Week 27 in Mexico, Week 9 in Cruz del Sur

Hi everyone.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I had a pretty good Christmas here.  It was great to talk with my family.

This week we began to teach Larsen.  Larsen is a person that came to church last week, and has a Book of Mormon.  He has been reading it, and he says he knows its true.  We had an interesting lesson with him after a baptismal service he came to this Saturday.  He asked me for forgivness because he had always judged the Americans, and said bad stuff about us.  He also is trying to decide if he should be a member of our church.  He is determined to pray and find an answer.  The only problem with him, is that he just acts weird, and we think he might have a problem with the Word of Wisdom.  Also recently we finally got a new list of the members in our area, but the problem is that lots of them have moved, and didn´t say anything to the ward.  So now we have to go check all of the houses to find the members that still live here.  We have found quite a few less active members, and we now are having lessons with them.  

Hope everyone has a happy new years!

Elder Carey

Week 26 in Mexico, Week 8 in Cruz del Sur

Hi everyone! hope everything is going good.  This week has been good here.  We went and found an investigator from our area book, Some other elders taught her about 3 years ago.  She didn´t want to accept a baptismal date, but we gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said that she is going to read it and pray, and we have an appointment with her for tomorrow.  We also had an investigator that came to church this past weekend.  He says that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true.  We are excited to work with them and see what happens.  We also are going to start to have an english class here soon to find more people to teach.  I hope everyone has a good week, and a Merry Christmas!

Elder Carey

Week 25 in Mexico, Week 7 in Cruz del Sur

This week was really good, we had an Apostle come to Guadalajara.  We had 1 meeting  with the 2 missions, and another one specifically for our stake.  They both were really good, Russel M. Nelson came, and he is 90 years old, and walks around like he´s 60!  During the stake conference with him, he was talking, and then he sang a song in spanish about Guadalajara (He doesn´t know spanish)  After he finished singing.  He looked out, and said that "If I can sing in spanish, I can talk in spanish!" He then looked over at his translator, and said "Thank you very much, but I can handle it from here."  and he just started to talk in spanish!  He had an accent, but everyone could understand him, and it was a great experience.  I got to shake his hand 2 times.  During the meeting with the 2 missions.  He talked about how there aren´t lots of members in Guadalajara, but that just means that we have lots of potential to convert people.  It was a great way to motivate us to work harder and invite all to come un to Christ.  Then Christmas is coming up soon, it will be a great time to help people.  Not much else has happened here, but this week we have a Gira Misional with a member of the 70 and we have to memorize lots of stuff for this saturday.

Good luck everyone

Elder Carey

Week 24 in Mexico, Week 6 in Cruz del Sur

This week was the last week of the combio.  I stayed the same.  I'm staying in Cruz del Sur with Elder Filidor.  Today some of the new elders are going to come and sleep in our house.  Sorry, I don't have time to write more.  Have a good week everyone.

Elder Carey

Week 23 in Mexico, Week 5 in Cruz del Sur

Sadly, we didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was just a normal day here.  I almost forgot what day it was.  Oh, I am going to have 2 meetings with Russel M. Nelson.  We have a meeting with the missionaries Saturday the 13th.  Then on the 14th he is coming to my stake for a conference.  

This week we are going to finish another exchange!  Not sure what will happen, but not much I'm sure.  Also, the open house was really good.  We didn't have that many people come in, but one person came back for church yesterday.  Just for that, I think it is all worth it.  Sorry, I don't have a lot of time today.  Have a good week.

Elder Carey 

Week 22 in Mexico Week 4 in Cruz del Sur

This week has been good, but we also had some new things that happened.  This cambio is coming to a close, in 2 weeks.  This week I had the opportunity to contact someone from India.  There is a service center for Comcast here close to my area, and in part of my area, there is a part were lots of people from India live.  They don't speak spanish, so it was weird.  We were in a lesson with an investigator, who owns a laundry mat, and indians just kept coming in, and the investigator doesn't speak english, and they don't speak spanish.  So I talked to some of them, but it was way hard, because I am so used to contacting in spanish.  I said "sí" like 5 times, but we understood each other.  My companion doesn't speak english, so I don't know if we could teach them very well, but none of them wanted to know more about the church.  We found a new family to teach.  It is a husband and a wife, but they are hard to teach.  The wife doesn't really want anything, and her husband is a little interested.  We got them to commit to read the book of mormon, and they said they would take like 1 week to read part of it, and pray to know if its true.  We wont know how it went till Friday.  We are going to have an open house at the church, and they said they would come.  We had a leadership seminar this week.  It was really good, and helped me think how I can be a better missionary.  Not much else happened.  I ate pigs face for the first time.  It has a really weird texture, but it doesn't taste too bad.  Otherwise, not much else happened, we have been looking for more people to teach, but lots of people give us fake addresses.  There are some people that actually listen to us, but we have to work to find them.  Good luck everyone this week!
Elder Carey

Week 21 in Mexico Week 3 in Cruz del Sur

This week has been good, I´m getting used to my new area.  The people here are really closed, or they seem nice, and give us a fake address.  We still haven´t found that many people to teach.  The good news is that someone came to church last week, and he gave us his address to go visit him.  We still haven´t been able to visit him, but we did find him one day in the street, and he asked us what he has to do to be baptized, so we are going to see him this week and set a baptismal date.  We had a zone activity today, which was pretty fun, it could have been prepared a little bit better, but its okay, because it is the first activity in a long time.  Not much else happened this week, we have been doing a lot of walking, and today, I found out that their is a capitacion de liderazgo, or a leadership meeting tomorrow in the morning that I have to go to because I am training.  It will be good to see my old companions and stuff.  We´ll see how it goes.  Everything else is going good, Hno Isaac is still doing good after his baptism.  It was interesting because we had food the other day with a family and the brother of the Hermano that is in our ward was there, and it turns our that he went to Orem High from 2007 to 2010 and then to his mission and no he is here.  He was on the football team there, I think his name is Gus Rica.  But it was interesting, because he spoke almost perfect english, and then spanish as his native language.  Not much else happened, but good luck this week everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 20 in Mexico Week 2 in Cruz del Sur

This week was good, I am still getting used to my new area, but everything else is good.  We had a baptism this week, his name is Isaac, and he has been waiting a while to be able to be baptized.  Its good we were able to baptize him because he has lung cancer and right now his health is alright, but who knows for the future.  Everything else is normal, its just weird that the district that my area is in now has the secretaries, hermana capacitadores, and the matrimonio misioneros.  The mission office is about 15 minutes from our house and district meetings are held there.  This week we have been trying to find more people to teach, but the people here usually don't want anything.  We do have some investigators that are sort of progressing, and yesterday, we went and talked to a family that the missionaries before us were teaching, and the two sons went to EFY one year, and they want to be baptized, but their parents have doubts about the Book of Mormon, but they are very nice and we are going to help them and try to resolve their doubts.  This upcoming week, I'm going to finish 6 months in the mission, on the 14th and it is crazy how fast the time went! I can't believe that 6 months ago, I was about to leave my house, and it seems like yesterday!  

Good luck everyone!!

Elder Carey

Week 19 in Mexico

So far everything is going good here!  I began training, we had 6 zone leaders in our house one night because of a meeting they had with the president.  This area is way different from my other area.  Its a lot closer to the city but the people are way harder to talk to.  One guy, we tried to talk to him, but all he said was "I don´t like your church" and walked off.  It was interesting, but we have found a chosen few that are ready to hear the word of God.  This week we didn´t find that many new people, but this week we are going to go look for a couple of the people we talked to this past week.  We also should have a baptism this up coming week if everything works out.  This week we also found bonsai trees that people were selling in the street, so my companion and I bought one.  We also had a zone meeting, it was different being in a different zone, but I liked it.  So far everything is going good with my companion, Elder Filidor, and he is from Veracruz.  Its weird training someone who already knows the area, and has half of his training.  We get along well and I hope we start to get things going here in Guadalajara.

Good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 18 in Mexico

This week was really interesting, Firstly, we had a baptism!  It was great, his name is Jorge, and we found him one day when we were coming back to the house.  He lives like right outside of our house.  He asked us what we believe in and what we teach, and so we taught him, and when he had all of the lessons, and had come to the church enough times, we baptized him.  That was one of the big things that happened this week, the other thing is that I got changed!  My new area is called Cruz del Sur, and we are right here in the city.  This area has a lot more things then my other area.  We have a dairy queen, MacDonald, and other stuff like that.  I also am training a missionary.  Its a little different, because he already has finished half of his training, but I am going to finish the other half of his training with him.  I wasn't able to write yesterday because we were helping get all of the new trainers to our house, because our house is extra big for when other missionaries come for a meeting or something because the mission offices are like 15 minutes from our house.  My new ward consists of my companion and I, the secretaries, and the sister training leaders.  It definitely is a big change from my other area to here.  I will have to send pictures of my area next week, and this week, I have some pictures from the baptism and other stuff.  Good Luck everyone.  Elder Carey

Week 17 in Mexico

This week has been good so far.  We should have a baptism this week if everything goes well.  We have 2 baptisms set for the next 2 weeks, but we still have to make sure that they are ready to be baptized.  This is the last week of this exchange, and we´ll have to see if I end up somewhere else next week.  Not much else has happened.  We had divisions with the district leader, and I went to his area.  It was good to be with another american, its the first time in 2 months haha.  I don´t have much more to right, but good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 16 in Mexico

This week was good, it was a little different from last week.  We got a lot of references, mostly from the other elders in our ward.  When we went to go find them we found out that some of them aren´t married, but we are trying to help them get married.  We got a couple more baptismal dates set.  So far we have some baptisms ready and if everything works out, we will have a couple in the following weeks.  Some of our investigators are a little tough though.  The mom of Fernando, my first convert, now has a baptismal date, but it is like the 5th one she has.  She hasn´t been praying or completing the commitments.  She says that if she recieves an answer she said she would be baptized.  She has come to church with us a few times, but not recently.  Her son is helping her work and read some. Our other investigator that wants to be baptized, we found out that he did some things bad, and can´t be baptized for now.  He had an interview with the president of the mission, and we have to get permision from the first presidency to baptize him.  He is a really good person, and our president thinks so too.  He wants to serve a mission, and our president told him to prepare, and he is excited to for his baptism.  

Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Carey

Week 15 in Mexico

This week was really good!  It went by really fast, and now its P day again.  General conferance was really good.  I wasn´t able to watch it in english, but it still was really good, and I understood most of it.  Before conference we went to a candy shop, and bought some candy for conference, I still have some left over.  We had 5 investigators come to general conference with us.  Eizan, one of the investigators, came with us to 4 of the sessions!  Starting Saturday afternoon, priesthood, and both of the Sunday sessions.  He is 22 years old, and he is really interested.  After the last session, he asked us what are the requirements to be baptized, and if he can be a missionary!  He really wants to be baptized, and if his work doesn´t keep him from coming to church with us, he will be baptized the last Saturday of this month.  We also started to teach an old couple, and they want to be baptized too.  They also came with us to general conference. The husband can´t walk because of a stroke, but he is getting better, gradually gaining more movement in the one side of his body that is affected.  We had to get him to general conference pushing him in his wheel chair, which was interesting, but we got him there without any problems.  The talks from conference were really good,  it was cool that everyone could talk in their native language, especially the ones in Spanish.  Good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 14 in Mexico

This week has been pretty good.  We have been looking for the future investigators that we found last week.  It has been a lot of work, but we did find some new people to teach.  We are still trying to get some of them to accept baptismal dates, but some of them are stubborn.  We will work with them and see what happens.  This week some of our investigators actually came with us to church, 2 to be exact, which is better then it was last exchange.  Yesterday, we were in the house of an investigator, when it started to rain, and then it changed to hail, the size of big marbles.  We were really lucky to be in a house with a roof.  It was really crazy, but it didn´t last to long.  Earlier in the week, it rained really hard one day, and when we left the house of the family that gave us food, the streets were rivers. The weather here is pretty weird, but we´ll see how it goes. 

Hope everyone is doing well!

Elder Carey

Week 13 in Mexico

This week has been really good!  My new companion is a good elder, and we are having fun together.  This week we talked with a lot of people, and found 22 future investigators.  We also had a zone conference here this week con presidente.  It was good.  It lasted from 9 to 4 in the afternoon.  We got food, and learned a lot.  My companion and I both bought these tops called trompos, all the kids here use them.  The goal is to hit the other top enough times to break it.  It is hard to get the hang of it, but we are trying it out and the kids in the ward are helping us.  Not much else happened here.  We have another investigator with a baptismal date, but he is a little weird.  He did come to church with us, so we are hoping that we can help him partake of a baptism.  I don´t have any more pictures for this week, but I will be sure to take some this week.

Good Luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 12 in Mexico

This week I finished my first 12 semanas of training.  We also had cambios and went to the temple!  My companion went to Lazero Cardenas, which is the part that is the farthest away from the offices.  It is about 9 hours in bus.  My new companion is called Elder Cano.  He is from Merida and I think we will get along great. Today we went and bought some things to cook, and he said that he is going to make a chile with habaneros.  

I´m a little worried, but I am used to the spiciness of things a little more now.  When we went to the temple, it was really cool to go to a session in a different language,  I don´t think that we will be able to go again for some time, but I am very grateful for this opportunity.  We had an investigator go to church with us this Sunday, one of the others couldn´t go because of work, but he wants to change his schedule so he can come to church.  I think they will progress.  We don´t have lots of investigators that are progressing, but we are trying to help them, and also to find new investigators.  It has been a pretty exciting week and now I´m looking forward to this week.

Good Luck Everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 11 in Mexico

This week has been good!  It is my last week of my training!  It has gone by way fast! Our investigator wasn´t able to be baptized.  She still doesn´t feel ready, and has some questions about what we believe.  We did go and visit Rodolfo, the person that asked as to come back when we went to visit his uncle.  He is very interested, and seems like a very good person.  He talks about how he doesn´t know why he asked us to come back, and how he could have just left.  It is easy to see that he has been prepared.  We also found other people to teach, none of them were able to come to church this week, but they said that they should be able to next week.  We had the zone meeting this week, and we are going to go to the temple tomorrow!  It will be really interesting, and I can´t wait!  

Good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 10 in Mexico

How are things going for everyone?  This week has been really good.  We found a family to teach, and one of them accepted a baptismal date, and I think the others will accept one soon.  One of the members of their family had to leave right after we got there, but he told us that he was interested, and we have an appointment with him today! Also, one of our other investigators, who hasn´t accepted a baptismal date, accepted one for this week!  If all goes well, there will be a baptism this week!  Good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 9 in Mexico

Wow time flies fast here!  I only have 3 weeks left in my training!  So far everything is going good here.  We have had a little bit of trouble with our investigators coming to church, but today we are going to visit some future investigators, and try to put a baptismal date, and commit them to coming to church.  This week we went to explore the other part of my area. It is about 30 minutes in bus to one part of my area, and then who knows how long to the other part, walking.  It is very far away, and there haven´t been missionaries there for about 5 years.  We went and didn´t get there because it was taking to long, but we are going to go again a different way that will be faster.  We ran into the state police because we were walking around a juvinille detention center, but we explained what we were doing, and where we were trying to go, and they helped us a little.  That took up a lot of time so it should be faster next time.  There are pictures of the other part of my area.  Lots more fields and open areas, it is quite beautiful.  

Good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 8 in Mexico

How is everyone doing?  so far everything here is good.  We have had some trouble with investigators coming to church.  One of our investigators can be baptized this week, but she won´t accept a baptismal date because she doesn´t feel ready.  We are working with her to help her feel ready.  All of our investigators need 5 asistencias or to come to church 5 times before they can be baptized.  This week we are going to work especially hard in finding new people to teach.  We did have lots of the less actives that we are teaching come to church yesturday, which was cool.  Otherwise not much happened.  Best of luck to everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 7 in Mexico

This week has been pretty good!  It has been a little tough now and then because lots of people are on vacations, and it is hard to find people, members and investigators.  In the begining of the week, we went to go visit the family that was coming to church and everything, and they said that they don´t want to be taught any more because his wife isn´t super inclined, and they want to try more in a different church.  It was really sad, because they were listening, coming to church, reading and everything.  We still are going to try and send over members, one in specific, who is a recent convert, and had almost the same situation before his baptism.  We did feel the hand of the Lord when we decided to go to a members house, and found the member, her son and his wife (who are investigators), and the rest of their family.  We were able to teach a lesson, and talk with them for a little bit.  It was a really interesting day.  We also had a zone meeting, and in zone meetings, we get the letters from the month.  It was great to get letters and hear from people.  Not much else happened this week.  We went to the central of Tlaquepaque today, or the main city that is in my zone.  It is a really cool city, and I have a picture of one of the cool buildings.  It is really interesting to be in a big city in another country, and not as a tourist.  I sometimes hear people speaking english, and honestly, its sort of weird sometimes.  Time is really flying by, I only have 4 weeks left in my training and it is the middle of August already.  I am grateful for this opportunity to serve, and to learn and grow.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Carey

Week 6 in Mexico

Hey everyone! hope everything is going good!  So far, this week has been pretty good.  Sometimes the days are long because lots of people are gone for vacations.  Overall things are still pretty normal.  I finished my first exchange here in mexico!  My training is half way over.  The work here is going good, but our investigators didn´t come to church again :(  We don´t have any new ones, but the lessons with all of our current ones are going pretty good.  We are teaching an hermana named Jessica, and we taught her about the plan of salvation.  She has some doubts about it because she believes in reincarnation, but we explained to her that if she reads the book of mormon, and comes to know it is true, than reincarnation isn´t true.  Sometimes the people here are weird with their religions and beliefs.  The ten commandments here says to ¨sanctify your parties¨ and doesn´t mention the Sabbath day. The good thing is that when people understand and agree with us, we can tell that they have been prepared.  We had a change in the zone leaders this past exchange because one of them finished his mission and is on his way home.  I have a picture of him, and a picture of part of my zone that I am going to send.  Time really is going by fast, and it is interesting to see how the Lord works with people of different cultures. Well I´ve got to go, good luck with everything everyone!
Elder Carey

Week 5 in Mexico

This week has been pretty good!  It has been pretty normal as well.  We found another family to teach!  They were a refural of a member, and it was cool because the day we got the refural, we were out and about.  We finished up a lesson, and went to our next, but just about no one was home.  I was talking with my companion, and mentioned that we should go to this house, but it was sort of far away, so my companion thought that we should try and go somewhere else.  Then like two minutes later, the same member called us and told us they found someone who wanted to hear more!  It is a family, and they are doing really good.  We have had  2 lessons with them, and they came to church!  They are catholic, but there are things that they disagree with.  The two parents aren´t married so we can´t get a baptismal date, but they have plans to get married soon so they can be members!  I can tell that they were prepared for us to teach!

This week we also went to KFC twice because members didn´t have time to make us food, so they just gave us money, so we went to KFC!  I also bought a nerf gun at a members house for way cheap. My companion bought 2 nerf guns, and a light saber.  I´m not exactly sure, but it is an interesting souvenir.

So far spanish is coming really good.  Everyone tells me that I´m doing good, but I still have a hard time talking to people in the street, because I haven´t learned a lot of the words or phrases.  I have talked with people in the street, and usually they understand me, and I can understand part of what they are saying! 

I´ve got to go because I don´t have lots of time to write today because of a meeting I had in the mission office because it is my 6th week.  Good luck everyone with everything!

Elder Carey

Week 4 in Mexico

This week has been a blast!  I went on exchanges again, but this time I stayed in my area, and my companion went to the other area.  It was interesting because we had to do weekly planning, and my companion for the day didn´t excactly know my area, but we still got it done.  We also found this hermana outside trying to clear a path so the water in the street could drain, so we helped her.  After we helped her, she invited us into her house, and we started to teach her!  Now she has a baptismal date, and we are going to teach her again tomorrow!  I also had another baptism this past week of a sister whos family was converted only a little while ago, and she wasn´t there for the lessons, so we taught her, and now she is a member! In the picture, her father is standing next to me, and she is more in the middle, by my companion.  The city here is certainly interesting!  I had this really good soup yesterday that had bacon, and some other type of meat in it.  I shouldn´t be supprised but people here put chili on just about everything.  The food is good, but the members always want me to put chili on my food, but I almost never do.  I have had salsa de habanero, but pretty much anything that has salsa, not chili, or pica in the name isn´t spicy.  Its weird because the weeks are going by so fast,  I´m already just about half way done with my training!  spanish is coming good, I had to give my first talk in spanish this past sunday, and I didn´t have that much time to prepare, but I went in with 3 scriptures and was able to talk for just about all of the time that was allotted me! It was a good experience and I could tell that the Lord has helped me with the language.

Sounds like everything is going good back home and everywhere else!  Keep up the good work!

Elder Carey

Week 3 in Mexico

This week has been good!  How is everyone else doing?  This week we have another baptism on Friday, and we are looking forward to it!  Another one of our investigators, his name is Viktor, finally came to church this past Sunday!  He has a problem with the word of wisdom, but we got him to commit to living it! His baptismal date is August the 16th, and I think he will make it!! We just started teaching his brother, but he hasn't accepted baptism yet, but we can help with that.  I hope that they can both make it to the baptism this Friday of Lilia, another one of our investigators.  This week we had lunch one day at a families house who owns a butcher shop, and it was amazing!  He brought out three trays of steaming hot meat for tacos.  Pastor, bistek, and one other that I don't remember.  And then a bowl full of chorizo or sausage.  There was guacamole, limes, onions and this drink that is similar to horchata, but is blended I think. We ate till we couldn't eat any more, and then he brought out this cake stuff for dessert, and I couldn't even finish it.  It was by far the best meal that I have had here in Mexico.  Other times the food is terrible.  Just the day before the amazing food,  I had tostadas, with onions, and this stuff that looked like onions, but had the texture of extra thick gelatin, with a weird flavor, I almost finished it, but couldn't do it.   

I went to go sign my visa today in Guadalajara central, and the city is very beautiful with lots of cathedrals and parks, I'll need to get some pictures next time I go.  The people here are pretty nice,  almost always, the members will give us food, or drinks.  They are always very excited to see the elders, and its fun to teach, but usaually my companion talks most, because he is a fast talker, and likes to talk, but people can understand me when it is my turn to teach, and lots of people say that I have good spanish for my amount of time in Mexico, and I know that the Lord is helping me.

Good Luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 2 in Mexico

Hey everyone! 

Hope everything is going good!  So far things are great here in Mexico!  Had my first exchanges this week, it was for the 4th and the 5th.  So for the fourth of July, I bought an ice cream, and was thinking about America when I ate it.  I got to see another baptism this week, it was an 8 year old girl that the hermanas in my zone have been giving lessons to.  I don't have a lot of time to write today, but it sounds like everything is going good in the MTC, but you'll all be going out to the field in a day or two, and I wish you the best of luck!  So far my companion and I have two baptismal dates coming up, and a couple more that we will be asking to be baptized soon.  It is cool to see the work of the Lord progress here in Mexico!  One of our investigators, his name is viktor, has a problem with marijuana, but is very interested in the church.  He has asked us for a bible, because whenever we use a scripture from the bible, he can't go to it with us.  When we start lessons, he asks us if we can begin with a prayer.  I can tell he wants to know more about the gospel.  

The zone leader in my area is from Peru, and it is cool because he is the beat boxing champion from Peru two years in a row, and I think he can make any sound with his mouth.  Sorry about not having pictures, this computer wouldn't work with my camera, but it just means more for next time!

Alright,Good luck everyone!

God be with you till we meet again!

Elder Carey

First week in Mexico

Hey Everyone!! 

So far Mexico has been good!  I had my first baptism last week!  in all honesty, I did nothing but teach part of the law of tithing, and fast offerings, but it was cool none the less!  He asked me to confirm him a member, which was great!  But I still can hardly speak Spanish.  I did it and it was great!  It was very tough, but the spirit was very strong. As for my companion, his name is Elder Rodriguez and he is from Pueblo, Mexico.  I like having a native companion so I always have to speak Spanish.  So far the language is coming good. Usually I'm not completely lost, but I don't talk that much, because everyone is talking about stuff I don't understand , or can't say.  But during gospel related discussions, I can usually pick up on what everyone is talking about, and sometimes I contribute.  Everyone says that my Spanish is good, which is good, but I can't wait till I can understand everyone.  Sometimes, when people look at me for questions and stuff, I just say si, and hope that it answers their question, and nod.  I think people think that I understand more than I do, but it is good.  The area I'm in is nice, and there are lots of members.  They feed us lunch every day.  Tortillas are with just about everything!  I've had tortillas and spaghetti twice this week.  The other day I had tortas ahogadas, which is just a drowned sandwich.  It was pretty good, you just take the sandwich and pour broth, or some type of chili on  top, and then pick it up with your bare hands and eat it!   As for other weird foods, 

I've had this meat, I'm not sure what it is, but it is just a fried slab of meat, and my companion said that it was some part of a cow, the second time I had it, I was pretty sure it was chicken. 

I don't have many pictures of what the area looks like, but all the houses have flat roofs, and that is where everyone keeps there dogs.  There are lemon and lime trees EVERYWHERE, along with stray dogs.  All the streets are either cobble, or paved, and sometimes a little bit of both.  With in my first week here, I have been in 2 or 3 big storms. They don't last very long, but they are very powerful.  Today (p day)  we went into the actual city, with tourists and stuff.  We ate at this burger place called cuarto kilo, which was way good!  All of the burgers had patty's that are a quarter kilo, I'm not sure how much that is in pounds but it was good.  Next we went to this ice cream place, were the ice cream is made by people just shaking it in buckets surrounded by ice.  It was pretty good!  Also, the zone leaders live just 5 minutes away from us, so we always eat lunch with them.  Its funny because just about everyone says "sauce" instead of crap, or snap.  There are a lot of weird phrases in the field, its like there is a second mission language that I need to learn also.  So far  everything is going good! good luck everyone!  See you in 2 years!

-Elder Carey

1st day in Guadalajara

Hi everyone! 

I made it into Guadalajara last night around 11, It was cool to see the city at night.  My P days are on Mondays, but they are letting me write today because it is my first day.  It was good to get to sleep last night, but I only got like 4 hours, I had to wake up at normal time, and I got to the apartment sometime around 1. Today we had our introduction to the mission, and we had our first meal at a members house.  It was good! We had pasta, rice, and some type of cow meat.  I´m actually not sure about the cow meat, I asked my companion and he said that it was cow, he just wasn´t sure what part.  Oh ya, my new companion is a native speaker, he is from Wahaka which is a town in Mexico.  He talks very fast, and I have a hard time understanding him sometimes, or when he uses words that I don´t know.  So far spanish is alright, I can get the gist of what people are trying to say, but it is good.  He is a great guy, his name is Elder Rodriguez, and we will get along just fine.  Mexico is very different, there are a lot of stray dogs, but it is quite pretty, I will send pictures of the apartment and everything in my next email.  I got sent to an area called Tlaquepaque, and this is just outside the main city, and is only about an hour away from the mission home,  When we were walking over to our meal with a member, it started to rain, and it turned into a small typhoon!  When we got to the members house, we were soaking, but I am dry now, these clothes dry pretty fast, thank goodness. We also have an investigator with a baptismal date for this Saturday!  I had nothing do do with it, but  I am excited to see it.  They try to get at least 1 baptism per week, so I am excited!  So far everything here is good!  I will write more next week!

Love you all!

-Elder Carey

Final Week!

Hi!
How is everything going back home?  A lot of things have happened this week.  Sorry for not sending an email yesterday, it was our in field orientation all day, so our P day got moved to today.  Also, Happy Late Fathers Day Dad! I did go to Las Vegas to get my visa, and it was an all day trip.  It was pretty cool overall, in the SLC airport, we saw Mitt Romney, and shook his hand, and while we were waiting for our plane, some random person gave us a box of doughnuts!  Then we saw that lady from the church travel offices, who took that picture for us and sent it out, which was cool.  Then we flew to Vegas.  When we were there, an elder Greer came and picked us up, I found out he is the Greer's in our stakes uncle!  Then we got our visas, and went back to the airport at about 3.  In the airport another member bought us all frozen yogurt, and then some other members took our pictures again and sent it to you.  It was a pretty cool day.

Guess what I found out?!?!  We are allowed to call home when we are waiting in the airport, so, this Monday, expect a call early in the morning.  I leave the MTC at 2 in the morning here, but probably won't be able to call until 6 Virginia time, and then again after we land in Texas for our layover.  I am excited to talk to you guys.  That reminds me, I haven't got my travel plans yet, but I am told that because I have my visa, there shouldn't be a problem with my travel plans.  All of the Hermanas in my zone are also going to Guadalajara, and one of them is the travel leader, and she says that my name is on the plans, so I should be alright.  It's okay that you can't send me any more packages now, because we have tons of food and other assorted things, so I will probably end up sending some stuff home.  I did get the package grandma and grandpa Dickerson sent me, it was very nice!  I also got another letter from Grandma Carey.  Thanks for all of the letters and support everyone!

I did see the painting that Jasmin did for me, and it is very good!!!!!  Tell her I said thank you!!  I also got my hair cut the other day, its shorter now, but not super short, I like it.  I also ran into a lot of people I know over the past two weeks,  I saw Sydney Greene, from a different ward in our stake, and Zach came to the MTC two days ago, and then I saw Mckay, my room, room mate yesterday during the In Field Training.  But then last P day, I saw Lynnette Jex! it was crazy!  Then yesterday, I was talking to a sister, and she asked where I was from because she thought she knew me, and it turns out that we were in the same third grade class!  It was weird, but since coming here, I have ran into a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while.

Its weird almost being done with the MTC, I am a little nervous, but I should be alright, I just can't believe how fast the time is going!  I've already been out for a month and a half!  Spanish is coming along good, but I know that once I get to Mexico, it will be totally different, but I am excited.  I met some people from Mexico, and they all say that I will love it.  I am still nervous though, my first Sunday will be a fast and testimony meeting, so I will probably get asked to share my testimony in Spanish.  It will be interesting, and I will try not to make a fool out of myself ha ha. Spanish is coming good so far, I am at the top of my class, and everyone thinks I'm crazy because I study the least, but it is good, but when I went to the consulate, people spoke Spanish, and I had almost no idea what they were saying.  The good news is I definitely know enough to get the important things, like "I'm hungry" or "I need to use the bathroom"  So I'm not super worried about that.  Here is the Spanish sentence for the day " Yo quiero tacos" which means I want tacos.  So it is a pretty important phrase ha ha.  I can't wait to talk to you guys, its only  couple of days away!  Good luck!!

-Love Elder Carey

Week 4

Hey!

How is everything going back home?!  So far everything is going pretty good right here!  It is crazy because I am down to the last week and a half.  Its crazy how fast time flies.  I think at the beginning of my time here in the MTC was the slowest, but now the time just flies.  People here say " the days are months and the months are days"  and that really starts to apply here during my last couple of weeks.  Thanks for all the letters!  This week I actually got a lot of packages.  I have a picture of the single cinnamon roll Dean, Melissa, and comp. sent,  It is huge!  as a district we have received snacks out the wazooo!  I also got a box of Krispy Kreme donuts from Janice, Phil, and Matt.  We have been having food "parties" (as much as a party as it can be in the MTC) for the past couple of nights.  Pretty much the elders from the Zone come to our room and we just eat stuff and talk and laugh, its pretty fun!  My companion got some african food from home, its called Mandazi and it is pretty much a scone, that is really dense but tastes good.  Its really funny because the four elders in my room are funny, something funny will happen, and then Elder Habonimana will start laughing at it, then, Elder Slade and I start laughing at his laugh which is super loud, then he laughs at our laughs, and it just goes downhill from their.  We laughed for a half an hour straight a week or two ago.  I was so sore.

So we have had a progressing investigator the past couple of days, and that is coming along pretty good, we have taught a lot of stuff, and we got him to try to be baptized on the 21st of June, but we still need to work with him a lot.  He is a nice guy and we see him all the time around the campus.  So here, they have people that just walk around the campus and pretend to be investigators, but they want us to go up and talk to them about stuff and try to teach lessons, so we met one guy, and now we have a lesson with him on Saturday! It should be good, his name is Brian.

As for my visa, I haven't got it yet, but I'd be alright with just going stateside for a bit, I could end up in Tempe, which would be funny, or go to Alabama with Elder Habonimana, or just some other random place for a little bit, and I wouldn't have to worry about montezumas revenge for a bit longer.  Oh, and this past Sunday, we got a new branch president, which is sad because president Evens was super funny, we haven't really met the new president besides at the meeting where he was set apart.  Because we got a new presidency the president of the MTC came to our meeting, and then I was called on to talk.  So every week everyone has to prepare a talk, and then they pick you at random to give the talk.  It is in spanish, which is good, because the president of the MTC doesn't speak Spanish, so I didn't have to worry so much about it. 

Alright, I've got to finish up. Write lots!

           Love - Elder Carey

Week 3

Hey Everyone!!!

How are things going back home!!!  So far everything is going good, this past week has gone by way fast!!  As far as my visa goes, I haven't got anything about it yet, but they notify you in the mail.  I am the only one in my district who hasn't got my visa notification yet, but I'm not super worried yet, some people didn't get their visa notification until the week before they left.  When the notification comes, the missionary needs to go to the Mexican consulate, which is in Salt Lake, or they go to Boise or Las Vegas.  I'm hoping that I don't get sent to one outside of Utah.  I did get the package you sent me, it came in last night, and it was great to get it, the back pack helps a lot.  I also got the cookies from Grandma, but now I have tons of sweets that I need to eat ha ha.  Sounds like everything is going good back home! That's exciting that Raymond is taking lessons again!  I did get the message about the clinic, and when I went to make the appointment, they said to just take some allergy medication, and now that I have the eye drops I should be fine.  I think it is from this one tree, that has weird bumps on the leaves, whenever we are outside, near that tree, my eyes usually start to itch.

Missionaries do get some spending money, 6 dollars a week for elders, 8 for sisters.  This money works in the Creamery by our apartment, and in the bookstore, we can also use it to buy detergent from this detergent vending machine thing.  As for me using it, some of it goes to good things :)  I bought a really cool high lighter, that is like a crayon almost, and works great for scriptures.  I also bought some creamies, because 2 years with out them, so that's pretty important.  I also bought a 6 pack of apple beer.  So I'd say its been put to pretty good use ha ha.  I should be fine, before I leave for Mexico, I will get some useful stuff.

So far everything going good with the food, and sleep.  The food is really good usually, occasionally I will try to avoid something, but its good.  On Sundays, we get Ice cream from the BYU creamery for dinner in little half quart containers, or whatever the little small ice cream sizes are, which is good.  As for Spanish, it is coming along pretty good!  we took an assessment to tell us where we are at, and I am right smack dab in the middle between fluent and incoherent ha ha, I think i did pretty good, I did better than everyone in my district, but none of us are super great to begin with ha ha.  Once I get to Mexico, I'm sure it will be very different, and I will not understand a thing for the first month or two.

On Monday nights we do this TRC thing, where you teach a member a lesson in Spanish for about twenty minutes, but this upcoming Monday, we were told we might be teaching a lesson over skype to someone in Mexico, so I am a little nervous, but it should be alright.  This week we also got a "progressing investigator" to teach a lesson every day for 2 weeks.  It was really funny because my companion and I got Alan, who I mentioned earlier.  He is a member, but we are pretending he is an investigator.  The lessons are going good, they are supposed to be 45 minutes a piece, and we are doing pretty good with that.  We asked him if he would like to be baptized, and he said he would try to be ready for the date we set, which was the 21st of June.  It is pretty cool to do lessons like this and see what I will be doing for the next two years!!

Okay, so today, I don't have that many pictures of me, but I did take a couple pictures of this cool river that is outside of our classes.  It is like a fountain that turns into a river and goes downhill for a ways, than runs into another fountain.  It is very pretty, and we call it the Waters of Mormon.

-Love Elder Carey

Second Week at MTC

Hi everyone!  Hope everything is going well back home!  Happy Birthday Olivia!  Its too bad I'm not there for everything, but I'm there in spirit.  This week, nothing super exciting happened, except for a couple things.  It was pretty much like last week with the same type of lesson schedule.  I did figure out how to put pictures up!  Guess who came for our Tuesday devotional this week?!  Russel M. Nelson came and gave us a short talk about being missionaries, and how we need to teach investigators, or people not lessons.  There was one quote that was super funny, "having character is better than being one".  I thought that it was pretty funny.  During my P day last week, after I was done emailing, we went and played volleyball, and then to the temple.  It was very nice to finally have a day off. 

 

The hermanas that were in our zone left this past Monday for Mexico!  It was cool to have them in our zone, and we got 6 new missionaries this week!  4 hermanas, 2 elders.  One of them is 6'7"! I'm not the tallest person in our zone anymore!  They all seem like nice people, and I'm sure they are.  I also got to see Tevin yesterday!  He was one of my roommates in school, and I knew he was coming in, and I saw him in the Cafeteria, and went over and talked with him for a bit.  It was good to see another person I knew.

Okay, so in this email I have 5 pictures included, I will send another email with just pictures because I can only get 5 to fit.  There are some pictures of me at the temple, and one of my companion.  Oh and by the way, he speaks 5 languages now, swahili, kerundi, french, English, and Spanish.  In the next email I will send some pictures of us at the big map.  I'll try to remember to get lots more pictures with the rest of my district today.

Spanish is coming along pretty good so far.  We did this thing on Monday, where we meet some volunteer members who let the missionaries teach them a lesson in Spanish, and it was pretty cool and fun.  Our teachers also pretend to be investigators during the first hour of each class, and 2 companionships are assigned to teach them.  I think those are coming along well.  We can understand the questions that they have for the most part, but the hard part is responding in Spanish.

I realized I might need a couple things in the package you send me.  I could use some more socks for gym time or P day, some of my socks disappeared, and they might be in my room but I don't think so.  I could also use some eye drops, I don't know what it is out here, but my eyes get itchy a lot.  Also, send lots of pictures of back home.  Some of the elders in my district got pictures of them, and their families and should them to us, maybe you could send some to me like that.

Thanks for all of the letters, keep writing lots!  That's great that other people want to know more about the church because they hear that I'm serving a mission!  Tell lots of people to write me!  Getting letters is the best.  My time is almost up, so goodbye!  Happy Birthday Olivia!! don't have too much fun without me!  Good luck with school, its almost summer!  I'll email again next week!

Love- Elder Austin Carey

Elder Carey and his companion at the Provo Temple

Elder Carey and his companion at the MTC