Week 79 in Mexico, Week 2 in Sahuayo

Okay, so here are the pictures from Christmas, check the date on the ring puzzle picture ha ha.  I also have some pictures from what we did for Christmas eve, we bought pizza and ice cream. It was pretty good!  Here the big day for presents is January 6th, the day of the wise men.  In this part of Mexico, Santa doesn´t bring presents, but the wise men do.  It's a little different.

The next picture is the new suit, I tried it on the first time yesterday, and I think its alright.  Next is a weird new fruit I tried today.  I think its called a Chinese pomegranate, its sort of like a pomegranate, but the seeds have a texture more like boogers, or slimy, but it tastes pretty good.  The member also gave us some to take home.

On Christmas we visited some people.  We visited one of the branch presidents counselors, he gave us lunch, and then we had to go home.

They celebrate Christmas, but not a lot, actually, the 24th is a bigger holiday, and basically everyone has lots of parties until really late.  It also depends on what part of Mexico, because in Guadalajara I think the 25th is a bigger holiday.  Sometimes baby Jesus brings gifts instead of Santa.  

I hope you have a great week.

Elder Carey

Week 78 in Mexico, Week 1 in Sahuayo

Hi everyone!  So far everything has been going pretty good!  Yesterday was the big Christmas party.  It was really fun.  We started off with a zone conference with both of the zones that lasted about 3 hours, after that we had about 1 hour in a zone conference with just our zone, and the other zone was practicing for the Christmas program that we had, then after that we changed, and we practiced for the Christmas program.  After that we had some activities outside, like piñatas and stuff like that.  It was way fun.  After the activities we had the dinner.  There was tons off food, turkey and mashed potatoes and stuff.  Then at the end, we had flan, and I got super full.  Then after that we had the Christmas program, we sang and stuff. 
  

So here in my new area, there is a lot of work to do.  The members are pretty nice, I really like the area because it´s a very nice little town.  We do have to do a lot of travelling to get to district and zone meetings and stuff.  We were able to find a member who will let us use his computer, Christmas day.

Oh, also, today, some sister here gave us lunch, and afterwards she let us try out some dried fruits that she made.  She also gave us a pomegranate jam, and some dried rose petals covered in sugar, which was interesting, but pretty good.

Elder Carey

Week 77 in Mexico, Week 17 in Del Valle

HI Everyone, so to start off,I got transferred from Del Valle to a branch called Sahuayo. So far it seems like a pretty nice place.  Its like a little town, and my companion and I are the only ones here.  My new companion, Elder Ruiz says that its very calm here, and that its sort of like farm.  I still haven´t met anyone, but its a pretty nice place.  It was about a three and a half hour bus ride, mostly because we were in Guadalajara.  So I´m going to be here for Christmas. From what I´ve heard, we are going to be able to use the camera in the house of prayer.  Oh also, there isn´t a church building here, and its not a stake, just a district.  Tomorrow, we have to travel 3 hours to get to the district meeting.  I´ll still be the district leader, but there are only 2 companionship here in the district.

It was very sad to leave Del Valley, actually when we told a family that I was going to leave, they bought me a cake, and I got a picture of it.  It was pretty sad, and my companion was a little sad, but mostly nervous because he is going to train now as well.  I hope that all goes well, and that they can have success.  My companion so far seems like a good guy.  I´m sure we are going to get along.  He also told me that we do have some investigators, and that if we work hard, then we should have lots of success.  The area is pretty big, we also are going to work in some of the little towns that are close.  It does seem like it is a nice place, and I´m excited to work here.

Elder Carey

Week 76 in Mexico, Week 16 in Del Valle

Hi so this week has been pretty good!!  It went by super fast because we had splits, the zone meeting, and some other stuff.  We just barely got back from buying suits.  I don´t have a picture yet, but its dark navy blue with pinstripes.  I also bought 2 ties that look pretty sweet.  Its a pretty nice store.  I´ll get some pictures maybe next week.  Oh, also, transfers are this coming week.  I might end up going but who knows.  Christmas is coming up.  There will be a huge 3 zone activity, and Christmas dinner on the 23 if I stay here, we also talked with a family for the night of the 24th to go have dinner at their house, which is very nice.  

This upcoming week is also the dedication of the Tijuana temple, and they are going to broadcast it to all of Mexico, so we are going to be able to go.  Besides that, we were also able to find some new people.  Yesterday we found someone who is super prepared.  His wife is a member, and he is very excited to learn more, he even took a picture of us so that he could remember the first day he received us for when he gets baptized, so he is super excited.  Also, I bought a fried ice cream this week, it costed 12 pesos, almost nothing!  It was pretty good, we might need to go get more soon.  

I also have a picture of a cool graffiti, and the zone meeting we had.  There is also a picture of an elder in my district and I putting on glasses, it was funny because it wasn´t planned this way, we just sort of ended up that way with the timer.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Elder Carey

Week 75 in Mexico, Week 15 in Del Valle

Okay, so everything is going good so far.  I have decided that this week is going to go by super quick because we have to do splits 2 times, and I´ll have to do 2 baptismal interviews.  This week, the day when we were with the zone leaders, we were able to give 4 blessings the same day.  It was pretty cool, and we were able to help lots of people.  Today in the zone activity, it was pretty fun, we got to play volley ball, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, and eat pizza.  We liked it a lot, but we just had the problem of getting back on time.  

So this week was pretty good!  We started doing splits with the zone leaders.  I was with the American zone leader which was pretty cool.  Besides that we had a lot of stuff going on.  We had a stake conference this past Sunday.  President Egginton talked and the temple president talked too.  It was really good.  After that we saw President and his wife and that is where we took all of the pictures that are on Facebook.  We had a couple of investigators that went.  Ana was one.  The family that gave us food to eat on Thanksgiving also went.  Ana liked it a lot.  Some other people went, they have been going to church, and we went to go see them the first time yesterday, and it was pretty good.  They are pretty chosen, but they aren´t married.  The good news is that they just need his birth certificate, and to go sign the paper.  Besides that, there is this brother who always go with us, and his mom came to visit him because of the stake conference because he was going to be ordained elder.  Anyway, his mom brought us some stuff from the temple store in Mexico City.  She brought us new backpacks, that I´m going to send some pictures of.  They´re like special missionary backpacks, because they have a waist strap and stuff, and fits all the scriptures great.  He also bought me a new oil container because my other one started to leak a little.  So that was the big things that have happened this week.  
It was a good week.  Here are the pictures from Facebook. 
Elder Carey

Week 74 in Mexico, Week 14 in Del Valle

Hi everyone!  Sorry for writing late again, we had a district activity playing kickball and eating pizza.  So far everything has been going good this week.  For thanksgiving, we are going to go eat with a family that always gives us lots of food, and I told them that it is going to be thanksgiving, and it should be pretty good.  

Okay, so this week was pretty good.  We had lots of stuff going on.  I am realizing that almost every day this past week we had to give at least 1 blessing.  It seem like everyone is getting sick.  It was a cool experience.  Besides that we visited some people during the week.  We visited Israel this week, and we shared the story of Adam, when he obeys, and makes the sacrifice just because the Lord told him to.  He told us that he was going to go to church and everything, but he never showed up yesterday.  My companion and I decided that we are going to have to tell him that we can´t go back until he has gone to church.  We were also able to go with Ana.  She also couldn`t go to church but because she also got sick.  We were able to teach her, and her daughter.  On the good side, Angel, on of the kids we were teaching a while ago went to church.  We stopped visiting him for a bit, but this past week, we ran into his mom, and she told us that they were going to go to church, and they actually did this week!  We also made an appointment to visit him, because he really wants to be baptized.

Here in my area people think if your feet get wet, or if you are standing on the cold ground, or if you eat to much ice cream, or if you change the temperature really fast, it will make you get sick.  It has never happened to me.  The weather is cooling down.  It is now in the low 80's, and some times the upper 70's.  It is still pretty nice.  

Here is a picture of my companions birthday.  A really nice family in our ward that we are going to eat dinner at on Thanksgiving insisted on making a cake for my companions birthday.  The mom thinks birthdays are very important, and you have to have a cake on your birthday.  It is really nice.  We like going to see this family.  
Elder Carey

Week 73 in Mexico, Week 13 in Del Valle

Hi everyone!! So far this week has been pretty good.  It was a little stressful at first, giving my first district meeting, but it all turned out alright at the end.  Tomorrow, we have another district meeting, so it should be good.  Besides that, I got my hair cut this week.  Its sort of short, but that's alright, because its still pretty hot here.  Also, this upcoming week, we are going to have a meeting with president De Hoyos from the area presidency.  We are pretty excited to see what happens.   
This week we were able to work, and find some new people to teach.  First, we were able to go eat with this sister who was less active for a little bit, and we found out her son, who is ten years old, isn`t baptized, so we are going to work with him. Besides that, we are still working with Israel.  He didn`t go to church, and it turns out that he has a pretty big problem with coffee.  We are trying to help him get over that.  Ana is also doing good, she wants to invite us to dinner this Wednesday, and she says that she received her answer and wants to be baptized, but she didn`t go to church this week.  It might have been because her dad is sick, and she has to take care of him.  
I forgot how many chosen people are in this area.  There is the sisters area, and our area is a lot more poorer, so they are more humble.  We were walking around yesterday , and several people came up to us and said "Hey, missionaries visited us before, can you come to my house again.  It was pretty amazing.  We are working hard, and have a lot to do.  So that's it for this week.  I`ve got to go now!!

Elder Carey