Week 25

Hey everyone!!!

Dang why does time go by so dang fast when you're emailing?? haha

But yeah another interesting week here in Mexico!!

First off want to say that General conference was great!! Even though I
couldn't understand any of it!! haha
we watched it in the Church building with the ward, and so they had it all
translated into Spanish! And so yeah I had a hard time with that haha

For those of you who may not know, General Conference is a worldwide
broadcast of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints!
we have a conference every 6 months, and every time, it's such a great
experience! even if you don't understand it! haha
During Conference, a number of Apostles speak to the world, and the Prophet
speaks to the world as well!!

Every conference is a great opportunity to find answers about the gospel,
and even just life in general, and the people who speak are truly people of
God, and the only testify, and speak of the truth!!
The Church has a website: lds.org

If you want to know more about what Mormons believe, all the conference
sessions are on that website, each message applies to different situations
that people have in life, and are always inspiring, uplifting, and
comforting, and healing.

I invite all of you to listen to the Words of our Loving Father in heaven,
through the words of the Prophets :)

anyways, now time for some funny stories haha

So yeah I like got super fat in the MTC, and in Arbolillo haha
My new area is La presa 1, and is one of the biggest areas in the entire
mission! it's all on the side of a mountain haha
if you been to san fransisco, in California, you know the mountains are
steep, so just imagine those steep mountains in San Fransisco, but only 10
times bigger!!! haha

But despite the fact that these mountains are bigger than those in san fran,
the mountains here are super small. Before my mission, I would be able to
get to the top in about 20 minutes, but here I'm like dead haha 6 months of
getting fat will do that to you lol

But man it feels so good to be doing some hiking again!! I miss it so
much!!

my first week here, My comp and I were on one side of our area, and we had
an appointment set with some one on the other side of our area, so we walk
down one mountain, and start walking up another. It was hot, I was all
sweaty, throat was dry, had a head ache, hard time breathing and my heart
was pounding (thanks to that MTC food) after about 45 minutes, we get to
the house where we had a few people to meet. a
and guess what, they weren't home -_-
Don't you love it when people don't keep commitments? haha

But I'm getting in shape now haha hiking, and climbing these mountains all
day fells great now!!!

And also here in Mexico city, it's all straight concrete. Like there's
absolutely not a single significant patch of open ground here, it's all
concrete. (I miss dirt haha)
And there's also a ton of little kids here. and the kids have figured out
that they can slide down the concrete roads on plastic water bottles haha
so that was fun to see lol but also sad that the only thing these kids have
here to play with, is just garbage they find in the street.
I've also been to a few homes that have only tin roofs, dirt floors, and no
food in the refrigerators...
So yeah my first area felt like Sacramento, but here it's like legit
Mexico!

there are also parts of my area, where the construction of the city
resembles a prison. Which I though was funny cuz there's a large number of
Mexicans in prison in California haha
(not to be racist at all)

But speaking of being rasist!!!!
My name has changed again here in mexico, before people would pronounce my
name in Spanish, but here they don't even try. They just say El Wero (weh-do)
(means Gringo)
I hear that all the time now!! I always hear, Wero, El wero, werito and WERO!!!
and people always want money from me -_- news flash to the world, not every
American is rich!! there are multiple people here who have a ton more money
than my family!! (there's a full on legit castle in my area)
but then again that might be because they're drug traffickers hhaha
but yeah people in this area are pretty racist haha

oh also something I though was pretty funny during conference was during
the Priesthood session (for men) of conference, you could see a bunch of
Shiny bald heads in the congregation hahahaha with the new camera angles
they use during conference you can see the people in the foyers, and it was
funny to see a bunch of spots of light in the conference center haha

Oh and also this past saturday was the Saturday of Glory!!! haha that's the
name of a party day for people here, lol any excuse to party right?
but on this day, people like to get other people wet with buckets of
water!! like you'll be walking in the street and random people will run up
and soak you!! haha my comp and I were careful to avoid that, cuz we were
in our suits for conference. one girl almost got us, but she decided not
to, when she saw our suits haha I told her thank you lol
but yeah it's just a fun game that everyone joins in here haha

But yeah another great week here!!! hope you guys had a great week too!!
sorry if I didn't get to reply to all of you.
Love you guys! Miss you too! we're gonna party like Mexicans when I get
home!! haha
Have a great week!

Elder Elkins