Derik's 9-29-14 Letter

So, of the 9 people who committed and promised to show up at church  yesterday, not a single one came. For everyone’s information, because  apparently tortillas are very important, I have eaten like twenty. They are provided at every meal, but the amount of food in the main dish is so vast that I can barely eat whatever the side is, let alone tortillas. My companion usually has 2-4 dishes of the main though. I cannot for the life of me figure out how people eat so much. Most tortillas here are made from corn, which is alright. The good ones are flour tortillas, and they cost about 2x as much. Also, they are made in very few places, and are basically only for gringos.

Some of the food I’ve eaten here has been... interesting. I ate this really strange soup yesterday. It consisted of pepper, pig fat, tiny corn cobs, lime, and more pepper. The pepper actually bubbled out of the soup into little pepperoni looking shapes. It was incredibly spicy. This might be hard to get used to if everything is like that. It was really…interesting. Coca Cola is a really common drink here, so I have had to drink it a couple of times, but I find it absolutely disgusting. On a brighter note, tang is very common, and the variety of flavors is amazing. Also, had a chamoyada, which is kind of like a shaved ice. But they mix the flavoring with pepper. And stick a stick of pepper in afterward. It was incredibly bad, I thought. That will change I hope.

To answer some questions: Most people here have really bad teeth. They may be missing many, have them misaligned, any number of problems, but everyone is really nice. All of the streets are super broken; potholes may be as deep as up to my knees. Cars have to drive really slowly. The terrain is super uneven too, depending on where you walk (and that might be opposite sides of the road, you might be walking over hills, or on completely flat road, or in many dips. I am not missing my Magic Cards as of yet, because I don’t have time to try to do anything extra past what I do with investigators. I do not sunburn as far as I know, and people have mistaken me for Mexican and been really surprised to find out that I cannot speak Spanish fluently. I live in Valle Alto, in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas. Basically, if you are old here, if you were rich you have perfect teeth; if you were anything else, you have little to no teeth. Apparently, I have a really good accent, and a lot of the elders and sisters that are American and from the USA speak less well than I do. We have one who can only say three things, but he’s a great missionary. He carries around a picture of Jesus and asks them if they know who this is. When they answer yes, he asks them if they want to learn more. When they answer yes, he turns to his companion and says he wants to know more. Then his companion gets their info, and they set up an appointment. He can’t talk at all. I am very grateful for my progress. The heat really isn’t all that bad. Donkeys and horses are used here to haul around garbage, which I find entertaining.

About that dreaming in Spanish thing, I don’t remember any of my dreams, and my dreams are more visual than auditory, so I won’t know when and if that happens. I do find myself thinking in Spanish first sometimes.

I quite enjoy the jokes here, but they are all in Spanish (huh, who knew?) and they are generally plays on words, which when translated into English are no longer funny. At all. If an English speaking Elder tells me one that works in English I will tell you because the Spanish ones won’t make any sense. Ok?

Shooting is fun. But I’ve heard being shot at is not. I haven’t been shot at, so that’s good. There are people here who do that kind of thing though, and that’s bad. The military patrol the streets all the time, and I was incredibly surprised during a lesson to look over and see tank roll past the home we were in, followed by an armored jeep and a pickup, all in army camo, and loaded with soldiers outfitted and ready with machineguns. I didn’t get a picture, unfortunately. Also, the police have helicopters, because the bad people here have informants with walkie talkies on every corner to inform them when ground police are coming, and from what direction. We cannot talk to those people.

I’m working with my companion. Hopefully we can work together better. All of the elders and sisters are friends. It doesn’t matter whether you have seen someone before, they’re your friend. My mission President is really nice. I try to play basketball with the elders in neighboring areas on P-days. Some of them play in a very interesting way. One of them knows not how, and his dribble involves both hands. He also runs backward, and should you try to block him, you engage in a dance move commonly referred to as grinding in the states--you trying to get away from him, and he trying to stay with you. It is very awkward. Except for one elder, no one can actually make the ball go into the hoop, so the games are very funny.

Not sure if the baptism is going to happen anymore, because turns out the sister is trying really hard to divorce here husband, and that is strictly against the law of chastity and the whole adultery thing. We have been unable to explain this effectively apparently, but she wants to get baptized.

So, funny story, during one of our lessons the investigator, who was female, turned to me and asked me a question that I didn’t understand--really fast. I had her repeat herself a couple of times, but I could not understand what she was saying. So I just said yes. Turns out, she asked me if I wanted to marry her. I learned this about an hour later while talking to my companion. The investigator, my companion, and the two young men we had with us, not to mention the investigators daughters (3) and grandchildren who were present, thought this was very funny. I was less amused.

I managed to actively participate in a conversation that lasted 2 hours yesterday. We joked a lot, and I got them!

So, one pair of shoes is already ruined. Due to the excessive amount of walking we do on weird terrain, the right heel on my right shoe has come off partially.

I went to a pizza buffet, and the amount of food I ate was less than the amount Members provide when we go to their houses.

Mom, if you send me a package, whatever you choose to send will make me happy. But, if possible, I’d like to have a large container of tang (orange kind please) mix, because you can only buy them in little packets here. Whatever else you want to send will be great, too.

 Well, Love ya guys! Talk to you later.

 -Elder Scott

[P.S. Here are some pictures. My favorite is the one with the skeleton! :) ]