Derik's 10-13-14 Letter

So, one pair of shoes is unrepairable because we walk everywhere and the streets 

are really bad. It would cost more money for me to repair my shoes than it would to 

just buy a new pair. I think that is really funny. But you can buy shoes here for 15 

dollars like the ones we paid over 100 dollars for in the states, so I am not too worried 

about it. The exchange rate on pesos to dollars is 12:1. When I grow up, I want to live 

so close to the border that I can cross it in order to buy things, but work in the US. 

Does that not sound fabulous?

Also, basically the only way you can use credit cards here is to withdraw money 

from ATMs. Everybody wants cash. 

This week was great. We had intercambios, which I do not know the word for in 

English. Basically, 2 elders switch places for a day. [Editorial parent note: we call 

those “exchanges”.]  Elder H and Elder B switched. Elder N is a really fun guy, and 

what that meant was I was in charge of the area for a day, with some help from 

Elder N, the district leader. He has 4 months left in the mission, and while I was 

talking to him I discovered that he started playing video games when he was two 

and his plans for after the mission are work so that he can buy all the video games

--ALL the  video games--and attend classes at the community college. He told me 

he can remember blowing over 800 dollars in a single night back when he was 

working to buy video games. The stories he told me were rather amazing.

So, our investigators who moved, Oscar and Alejandra, came to our church this 

week. And they want us to continue teaching them. They are progressing rapidly, 

and Oscar knows the Book Of Mormon is true. Elder H asked for permission from 

the Mission President (extenuating circumstances and all), and we were given it. 

This did not go over too well with the elders whose area they are now in and with 

the zone leaders. To make a very long story short, problems are occurring. I have 

also had the opportunity to observe some of the other elders, as well as the 

opportunity to sit my companion down and have a heart to heart, or man to man, 

or whatever you want to call it talk. Sure, he is not perfect, and neither am I. But 

you know what? What I have seen from some of the other elders is more outside 

of the boundaries set in the white handbook, and we are actually friends now 

better than most.

It is really strange speaking a different language, because I will learn something in 

Spanish and forget it in English; sometimes I will then forget it in Spanish as well. I 

remember when I had to translate everything from English to Spanish in my head 

before saying it. I am now doing the same thing, but I will say something, and then 

afterward I will translate it into English. I find myself thinking in Spanish first. A lot. 

Apparently, you are supposed to dream in Spanish at some point, but I can never 

remember what or how things were said in my dreams. Oh well. The thinking is 

enough for me. 

I discovered my two new favorite things. The first is tianges. They are the equivalent

of a flea market but so much better. Every city here has at least one. I am lucky 

because my area has two. You can buy almost anything there. And, at the most, 

it will be around half of the price it would be in the states. Needless to say, I enjoy

them. There are stalls for everything. I found a limited edition Nintendo 64, the 

Pokémon snap version, selling for 50 dollars. There are things here that you cannot 

buy in the states, and they are dirt cheap to boot. My other new favorite thing is 

collecting these little objects that come in Sabritones products. They have a picture, 

and they will say something like 54/150 classic. There are a bunch of different types, 

and you can find them in the street because people want the food, not the little 

collectible. I do not know how many I have, but it is a lot.

SO, salsa and peppers are great. They make basically everything better--except 

for Ice Cream. Never put them in Ice Cream. 

I quite like that dad cried during Meet the Mormons like a sad middle aged man. 

I found that very funny.

I got a free coca cola with my name on it. It is really too bad I can’t stand the flavor. 

Everyone drinks it here. It is cheaper than beer, which is cheaper than water. You 

can buy a 3 liter bottle for 75 cents. (9 pesos)

The pizza place, we only go there on special occasions because it is kind of 

expensive, at 95 pesos (8 dollars).

Oh, also, many of the members changed what they feed us due to them knowing 

me (woohoo!) The regular diet here is tortillas and meat and peppers. Well, I like

veggies, and I told one person. Now, whenever we eat with members, they usually 

serve us veggies (yay). I still cannot eat nearly as much as my comp. But, I ate two 

sandwiches the other day (each one had 4 chicken breasts in it, ugh) successfully.

I really do love it here.

With love, warm thoughts, and missionary excitement,

Elder Scott

Derik's 10-6-14 Letter

So, this week was alright. Tuesday we were not allowed to proselyte due to all of the shootings in our area as well as all of the police, marine, and army helicopters that were patrolling our area. I found that interesting. Army convoys have gotten more frequent here, which is nice.

One of our investigator families got threatened by a creditor they could not pay with having the bad people sicked on them. As a result, they moved. We lost all contact with them for a couple of days, but we found them again yesterday, and they are very happy and safe as well. That made me really glad.

I do not know if I have already mentioned Virginia, but she is a very interesting woman. We found her because she saw a flash of white out her window, so she sent her son to go take whoever it was into the house. Which I thought was weird, but, whatever right? Turns out, she’s been listening to the missionaries in the states, but on a drive she got in an accident that resulted in her getting her right leg impacted into her gluteus maximus. We taught her almost all the lessons, and she is getting baptized on the 23rd. We gave her a blessing, and she is healing remarkably fast, so fast that she was able to attend conference with us at the chapel after being bedridden and not healing for almost 4 months. The power of faith is wonderful.

Imelda, our investigator with the divorce problem, has discontinued conversing with us. We will keep trying, however.

Oh, so funny story, Elder J, whom I met this week (and is almost exactly like Garret Vance, for reference) asked me about how I am doing, and I expressed to him some of my frustration about my companion. He had Elder H in the past. He explained to me that he has never, in all of his 15 months here, worked out. I was somewhat astounded by this declaration--because it is in the white handbook I thought we all did it. I was wrong, apparently. There are other things he does that I find incorrect, so I discussed them with my zone leaders, and they explained them to me. I had the wonderful idea of going running in the mornings, in order to force my comp to work out, but we are not allowed to leave the house because it is so dangerous. I did this after he suggested buying a basketball, because we live right next to a park, but when I voiced my suggestion he shot it down immediately. I was astounded, and after Elder S (zone leader) explained this to me I was simply confused. Oh well.

I am very thankful for all of the things I learned to do before my mission. I had the opportunity to make balloon animals for a couple of kids, I made them a dog, a swan, a cobra, a butterfly, swords, while, suffice to say it was fun. Beatboxing has helped start conversations with other missionaries, and is very useful for teaching tempo. I have had the opportunity also to teach piano, solfege, and how to sing and read music to some of the other elders as well. That was interesting, because I do not know how to play piano, but when I sat down to help him play I found it not to be too hard. Of course, I could only do one hand at a time, but hey, it was a really cool experience.

I have found that most highly technical words are the same in every language, so teaching this stuff to people who do not speak English was not too hard.

General conference was great, I filled 8 pages of paper with notes I took from it. The Spanish talks were great, although the one in Portuguese was hard because it sounded similar, although the meaning I did not understand at all, so I listened in English to that one. General Conference is so much better at the Church building. You are dressed up, you are focused, you are sitting with others who are focused and the spirit is tangible. It was amazing.

I have found that the only hard days here in the mission field are those where WE cannot proselyte and when our investigators have huge problems in their lives.

My favorite people are the ones that call out the Mormons in order to invite us to come teach them a lesson at their house. That does not happen often, but when it does it is great. The mission is great.

The pizza buffet here gives me stomach problems every time we go to it, and we have gone twice. I actually eat less at the buffet than I have to at the homes of members. We went this week to celebrate the birthday of Elder Ortiz, and it was great. The birthday song they sung lasted 3 minutes. All of the elders jammed out in the bathroom to hymns, and Michael Jackson. The employee we did not know was in one of the stalls was very appreciative.

Oh, the elder who uses the picture of Jesus Christ is not my companion in case anyone was confused about that. I have yet to meet him.

Well, that about all I can think of right now.

With Love for all,
-Elder Scott

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! :) ]