Week 3 of transfer 2, Christians, Catholics and Cowboys

There are three types of rain here. Seattle Sprinkle, Nice Little Lluvecita, and Downright Downpour. It´s kinda weird. We´ve had all three for three days, but providentially it cleared up today so my garments will be dry for tomorrow.

I finished Jesus the Christ! Por Fin! I have to say, I was a little disappointed. There were things I didn´t like how he said it or don´t really believe exactly like he does or downright don´t believe at all. But it was worth the read. Zealot is better.

Cada vez se me tienta desanimar en cuenta al idioma, simplemente me recuerdo de cuán perdido estaría papá si estuviera aquí conmigo. Ésto me ayuda mucho y me hace reír un poco imaginándome su cara y cómo se pondría.

Elder Alcalá told me that if Hermana Elida canceled one more appointment, we´d have to "cut off her head," and I responded by asking him how many times we don´t cumplimos. He laughed. But seriously, I really didn´t want to cut her off. I have a good feeling about teaching her and her family and think they can progress, they just need to get to church once to see what it´s like. Anyway, I prayed really hard that she´d be there for our appointment, the one last appointment. And she was there! she had to wake up from her nap, but she listened, we shared the story of Enós and she said she´d be in Church. She wasn´t but at least now she has a Libro de Mormón.

I´ve been thinking a lot about the name of Christ and how we do everything in the Name of Christ, Amen. I have a whole long journal entry about it, but I don´t have time right now to share, so sufficeth it to say that there´s power in doing something in the name of Christ, or as a representative of christ.

Also, has everyone read the Liahona article by Elder Ballard? Bien genial! Elder Ballard is my favorite apostol, along with Elder Uchtdorf.

We´re teaching a familia named Los Córdoba. Felipe and Juani and their daughter Petit. They LOVE us and we love them. Juani told us about how they´ve already seen changes in their lives in just the two weeks we´ve been with them. The first week they couldn´t attend because his taxi was broken and the next they couldn´t because they had gone to their ranch to celebrate her birthday, but they´ve already purchased a new dress for Petit to wear to church. so Yay!

We also just started teaching a familia, a matriarca, her four daughters and the whole crew of cousins. They all had the gripa this past Sunday, but Blanca, one of the daughters, and her three children attended and liked it. Bertalicia, the martriarch, has said very bluntly she does not believe in praying to anyone but Dios el Padre and believes that Children shouldn´t be baptized until they´re older, more like 8 years old. So perfect! two obstacles we really don´t have worry about.

Remember that Rosa María I told you about my first or second week? We met her again! I have a really, REALLY strong good feeling about her. I don´t know if it´s the Spirit, or just her personality or me just being uppity greenie, but I really hope she gets baptized and I hope I´m there to at least see it.

I have completed 3 out of 23 months of the mission or 3 out of 22 fast sundays. The time feels like it´s flying by until I realize how much I have left and then it´s like, Wow...I haven´t been here very long...even though I feel like I´ve been here my whole life and never knew anything before this...

Two nights ago, my compa was standing under a perch of pajaritos. I said "aguas (cuidado en Coahuilense), Elder, le cagarán." He thought that was just about the funniest thing I´ve ever said or done. Apparently "cagar" is a bad word, "Caca" is not. Whodathunk.

The shower...I´ve given up on the shower. I was slowly dying the whole first transfer and Elder Alcala gave up a couple days before I did, so he´s gone to the very unhygienic shower upstairs to use. I just use the sink. But today, I figured out if I heat water on the stove, it´s a lot more pleasant. So I have a new system. I´m sending a pic.

Love you all bastante!

Elder Taylor

week 7

Oigan güeritos!

<something funny happened with the last email and I think I sent it a second time this week. So sorry for hearing from me an extra time.

I´m using a Spanish Keyboard this week so I actually know what I´m writing.

Also, last week se me mencionó that you all received the letter that I sent from México. I don´t remember sending that letter. What did it say?

Speaking of letters, can I have Matthew´s email address? I received two letters from him last night at the correlation junta that made me laugh, both of them. They made me laugh harder than I have since Hermana Wood sat on the whoopee cushion in the MTC, which means I chuckled pretty softly for a couple seconds. 

So funny story this week. I was helping Hermana Navarro with her English pronunciation. She´s been preparing to enter the BYUI Pathway program but failed the entrance test or whatever this last week. She asked me how to pronounce "can´t." So I told her: " Can´t." She responded with something closer to: "Cane?" Because apparently I pronounce the A funny. Anyway, not the first time my "campestre acento" has been echoed by some of the people learning English.

By the way, the hispanohablante misioneros aquí son requeridos a aprender inglés and it´s almost a commandment for the ward members. It´s kinda weird but it´s fun to be able to help other people and I feel like they understand me as a person a whole lot more because they´re all going through the same thing with the language.

On Monday my email time was cut short because we had to go help "train the new recruits" sort of thing. So I was a senior companion for a couple hours to Elder Rosas from the DF. I had no idea what I was doing, he had no idea what he was doing, but he really wanted to work really hard, which was SO NICE. We walked really fast, we talked with a lot of people but we only got in two lessons because one of them we had to wait for about 30 minutes inside the hermana´s house. Which was kind of awkward but it gave ELder Rosas and me a chance to just sit and talk. But then the night almost ended in disaster. No, actually, but it was frustrating. I´ll have to tell you all about that in 20 months.

Speaking of which, cumplo tres meses esta semana en la misión. It feels like the time is going by really fast until I realize that I´ve only completed 3 out of 22 fast sundays. Then it seems like I have forever here in Saltillo. But the time has been speeding up as we´ve been getting better as a companionship. Not perfect, far, FAR from perfect. But I´m learning patience like I´ve never learned it before and I´m learning determination and learning that maybe I should be perfect before I expect Elder Alcalá to be perfect.

I had a golden contact this week that I took a selfie with and was going to send to you but I forgot my camera back at the casa. It was a goat, my contact.

What does everybody want for Christmas? I should start buying things probably this week so I can send them in time.

I´ve been buying a different brand of galletas every week. So far, my absolute favorite are Emperador brand. They´re like oreo but so much better. And please, don´t bother sending me a package of American cookies, candies or other goodies that I know sometimes get put together to send out. There´s nothing that can be bought in the United States that isn´t here. Except applesauce.

Is my name plaque up in the Church building? I know I´m probably really vain for asking this, but could someobody take a picture of it and send it to me?

And Mom, could you send me your periodic pictures of the temple development?

Well, the cold has set in. And so I got a blanket from the mission offices. It has bears on it. And the fog every morning is pretty darn cool and looks a lot like Christmas in Boise and Meridian, so I´m super excited for Las Navidades, even though I have a long time till then. My goal is to be 100% communicable in Spanish by then so I can impress you all with my eloquency. By the way, apparently we get an hour and half on christmas to talk.

A spiritual thought this week: Jesus taught that the two great commandments are Love God and Love thy neighbor as thyself. Implied in this second one is a third one: Love Thyself. If we truly love and respect God, other people and ourselves, we won´t have any problem following the other commandments and fulfilling their purpose, which is to make us become more like our Heavenly Mother and Father.

Tengan una semana maravillosa!

Elder Taylor

last week of cambio

firstamente...La nieta se halló en Acuña probablemente un poquito antes de que les pidiera que oraran por ella. Happy happy day! We haven´t had a chance to go by and see her yet, but i saw the Abuela and the aunt and uncle in church and they seem happy, although the aunt has a broken leg now for some reason. La oración sirve.

Things I´ve eaten so far that haven´t spoken about. Today I tried Gringa for the first time, which is basically a quesadilla with a big tortilla and carne al dentro. It was yummy. And I´ve tried Empanada esta semana, which here is basically the Hostess pies that you can buy in walmart or winco. Actually, basically exactly the same. And I had enchiladas sucias which are coahuilense enchiladas with a green tomato and cream cheese salsa dribbled over them and melted oaxaca cheese.

Also, EVERYTHING is served with tortillas. It´s actually kind of funny sometimes. Here´s a slab of milanesa (which is tonkatsu), veggies and tortillas. Or here´s espagueti and milanesa. ANd tortillas. Espagueti tacos. Yum yum. Here´s sopa de frijoles. And Tortillas. Bastantes tortillas. 

I found out why the rice is orange! it´s cooked with agua de tomate.

Another thing the people here love is agridulce, which is anything sweet with sour or bitter or spicy on it. Piña con chile, sandía con chile, picante dulces...my favorite is the sandía with chili powder. And they have this thing called bollos which are bags with flavored milk frozen inside, like chocolate or coco or mango flavored. You bite a hole in the bag and start sucking and hope that you don´t accidentally puncture it again. That happened to me the first time. But that´s a long story that you´ll have to wait for.

ANd I´ve had chongos and cocoque. Apparently Cocoque is from Michoacán, so maybe Hna Gomez knows of it. No sé.

Last night we had to fill up the pila with water using buckets and trash cans, and even then didn´t get it full in time, so the people had to kneel and lie in the water. It was odd.

Supimos que ya se investó Hermana Esperanza. Qué sorpresas nos trae ella, cada lección!

My week went by much smoother this week and here´s why. I read D&C 121 again this week and last time i read it I got this impression but this time I got it stronger. I felt that, no, we haven´t been working as hard as we can and no, my companion has not been listening to or at least not implementing any of my ideas to mejorarnos. But now is not my time to kick against the pricks with my companion. I need this companion to teach me patience and humility. SO this week I didn´t let myself enojarme, and while I encourage us in planning to plan with efficacy and fill our days with stuff and contribute all I can to push us, while we´re realizing those plans, I follow elder Alcalá and don´t complain even in my head. I believe the time will come when I will have a companion with whom I can work the long arduous hours I want to work, a companion with whom I agree on a definition of efficient. But this is not that time. Good thing I figured this out this week, because I´m with Elder Alcalá for the next six.

Also, we started doing an evening prayer every night. He told me he´d never done that in his mission with a companion before. Mande?! At least that´s what I said in my head. But we´ve been getting along a whole lot better. Now let´s get in a weekly planning session every week...

Well, that´s all I have this week. 

Adios!