Mikes newest email!

Minus the extra 2 Xs but I thought why not it looks cool hahah what to say about Mexico? Alot actually. I really love it here. The first "culture shock" you could say is how crazy the driving here is. Its nuts how terrible people are at driving or you could say good cause not a ton of people are getting hit haha but its just crazy driving E. Tippets said "And I thought NY driving was bad." so that shows you something right there. Red lights are more of a caution then a law, cops at night drive with there lights on all the time, people of course drive super fast, lots of speed bumps, and the camion (bus) is a bumpy ride. Its great. I actually ride a bike. My bike is pretty terrible we need to get the seat fixed and the handle bars, but safe enough to not die on. Yesterday we rode like 6 miles and could find the house. The ride was uphill and against the wind. I was getting really frustrated, probably the most frustrated Ive gotten since January 21st. But putting that behind us haha > > The food, the food here is soooooooo good. Honestly I love it. I havent had one bad meal in the week Ive been here if the food is this good every where than Im pumped to eat haha I like beans, I had tapioca pudding for the first time in a long time and actually really liked it, some corn soup and not sure what kind of other soup but it was good. For breakfast I just have bread and jam, and then the members feed us lunch around two, then dinner we dont really have....not sure why so I will grab something if Im feeling hungry. I feel like we have a ton of money, depending on the exchange rate 1 dollar is like 13 or 14 pesos and we get 1000 pesos a month and thing like water, electricity, some food and other stuff is reimbursable. So thats sweet, not like Im blowing money but if I want a snack then I can get one :) Oh its kinda strange drinking OJ out of a plastic bag, its really good though not 50 percent juice 100 percent of deliciousness mhmmmm So overall food, really good. > > Companion, my companions name is Elder Lara and hes a native. He knows a little bit a english here and there so that helps, but besides that its me and my good friend the dictionary. Im saying "Correcto manera decir" or "como..." alot aka Correct way to say blah blah or like...but he is really patient with my spanish well lack of. I cant wait for the day when my accent is dead people can tell so easily how terrible you are at spanish with your accent so yeah. Other missionaries say but the end of your 1st transfer you understand most everything that is said during discussions about religion and then by the 2nd transfer you understand a good amount of everything, not 100 percent but a good amount. And by 3 months in mexico youll be talking just fine with the natives. So Im excited for 2 months and 3 weeks down the road for my language knowledge. Some things are just starting to click so thats sweet. Being immersed in spanish is defiantly very very helpful. We have investigators. About 4 at the moment, dont have time to go into detail with all of them. But one of them is named Ana Laura and she was planning on getting baptized friday, but a not so smart person at church said at the pulpit "lots of people just arent prepared enough for baptism" so now shes second guessing and wants to get baptized april 23 which is good, but a ways down the road so were gonna try to change that. Lots of catholics here. Its annoying when we try to start up a converstation and people go "Im catholic, maybe some other time" lame! Oh well we just need to be more bold about things. Oh and every night, I mean EVERY night without fail the catholic I dont know where exactly but they shoot of canons or something else really loud. I asked Elder Lara why and he said "I dunno" guess they just like to be loud oh well. It ends before bed time. This email is waaaaaaay to long sorry. And I probably didnt answer both of your question but to sum things up everything is good here, defiantly hard physically and mentally but thats okay I just need to remember its the Lords work and dont be lazy. Love hearing from you guys and forward the email to the fam.> > Oh if you want my address here it is, you can use it for just normal letters and packages but if you do send something dont make it look fancy or people will steal it haha> > C.Sierra de las Vertientes No. 310> Col. Lomas de Chapultepec> Del. Miguel Hidalgo> Mexico, D.F. C.P. 11010> > Heard it takes 2 weeks to get to here or for my letters to get there. Just fyi.> > Love you all!> > E. Westbrook>

Update from Mikey!

Hey everyone! Sorry I have not updated this blog for a few months now! I tottaly forgot to! Good news! Mike is in Mexico!!!! Yay!!! This is his letter he sent before he left to go.


Hola familia,> > I would write it all in spanish, but then it would take forever or probably the whole 30 minutes to get the conjugation right and all that fun stuff and then my sentence structure would be terrible, pero esta bien. Today has been a good prepartation day. We taught the second lesson in spanish which of course is always good practice and it's fun. Like you said though practice lessons are good but nothing beats the real thing. I'm excited for the day I get the real thing. Before i forget I did get your caramel apples mom and my companions loved em, along with another missionary in my district elder turner, and i gave one to one of my teachers hermano bahr cause he hadn't eaten anything for like 5 hours so I'm sure he appreciated it as well. I love getting letters from you guys it's great a big confidence booster. I feel like spanish is still coming along, but I guess I didn't read the rule book (white handbook) close enough because you have to wake up at the same time as your companion(s) so my waking up at 5 o' clock and studying is a no go. But that's okay God will bless me for being obedient with the language. So everything is still going good. Oh today got our flight plans!!! Yes i'm super pumped to get out of here and get immersed into the language and teach mucho mucho and along with that get embarrassed with my spanish, good times :D Some news for everything that really isn't big news. I ate meat/eating meat not a big deal, trying to eat in small quantities (follow the w.o.w yay yay!) so meats okay, but evergreen cafe beats all the food in the world. > > What going on with everyone else. I know mom you're feeling stressed with school and work. Sorry to here about that story with the little baby that's super sad, but it's such a comfort to know the plan of salvation. How about you Dad doing great being a missionary? I know so. It'll be cool for you to be a missionary again I know you'll love it again. > > Well I'm done for now hopefully this isn't too short or long, but I got 15 minutes to write a few more e-mails. LOVE YOU!!!!> > /elder westbrook>