First full week in Mexico!

Hey everyone! How's it going?

Things in Mexico are pretty alright! I am learning more and more Spanish everyday; I’m practically fluent now! I’m also going to teach an English class too! So yeah, things are turning out cool. I can see that Hermana Call already sent you some emails of us. Yeah, we got a pretty sick house. But it probably wont last too long, I have already seen another missionary home that was probably the ugliest house I’ve ever seen. But it doesn’t bother me. The food and the weather and the people make up for any living condition. To explain my area a little bit, it’s not very hilly. There are lots of buildings, a bit run down. There are trees. We mainly shop at Wal-Mart, its the only place you can buy anything really. My area is all urban. Roads, roads, roads. It’s pretty dry here, and the architecture is probably best described as "so THATS how many houses you can fit into a street.”

We have a pretty nice ward. Crazy thing, we entered the chapel on Wednesday and there was an attempted robbery! Windows were broken, doorknobs broken off, it was a sight. The window at the top of the secretary’s room was broken, but there were iron bars blocking the robber from entering.

The bishop is a cool guy. We always have food, because every day there is a member feeding us, and there are almost always leftovers for breakfast the next morning. So yeah, I have to be careful how much I eat here. Life is good.

We wake up, and get ready till 8am. Then we study for 4 hours. Language, scripture study, teaching study, all that good stuff. Then we leave the apartment and go to our appointments, and we have a lot of appointments. Mainly though, they are with less active or inactive members. They are all so nice, and all of them try to feed us. The area that I live in is called Santa Elena, and the ward we work in is called Joyas. My companion is from México. I forget which part. He’s great, and a real humble guy.  I love him.  Surprisingly, I eat spicier than him. Also I eat spicier than I thought. I visited a family last week and was completely fine, and the other people in the house were freaking out because it was so spicy. Elder Lopez doesn’t eat spicy, so the family declared that I was more Mexican than him. THAT was pretty funny. But yeah, the area is great; the work is great, I’m having the time of my life!

My favorite part of the day is when we step out of our house and start walking, it just feels awesome!

One of the scriptures that i have found that I really like is in Proverbs 4:25-26.

25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

I love this, because every night we have a planning session for the next day. It’s pretty important that we do this part with the spirit, because its necessary to know what the Lord wants us to do.

I gotta go now, ill talk to you next week!

Love you!

First Day in Mexico!

I’m going to start writing right now because you are probably going to ask me how I’m doing. 

I’m doing amazing. This mission is amazing. My companion is amazing. my house is amazing. 

Currently I’m in the shop of a partially inactive member on one of their computers. We got here and were given forms we had to fill on the plane to get through customs and to get through the immigration office. i was a bit worried because the instructions we were given were outdated. But fortunately we did everything right and we got into Mexico and I met President Call. President call is amazing. he is the nicest guy, as is his wife. We are allowed to email for an hour AND A HALF on p day, which is today, since today we were told to treat like a normal p day. So I get to email you! Then we went to the mission president’s house and had dinner. It was delicious. We had red rice and beans and enchiladas. Then the president interviewed me and I think I left the best impression possible. Afterwards we were escorted to the mission office. During said escort I learned one thing: Everyone here drives crazy. Like really crazy.  And the funny thing is they don’t have as many accidents as us. Fortunately, we don’t drive ourselves, we take taxis. 

So we got to the mission office, (I had already split from my companions in the MTC) and I acted as a translator for the Elders I was with and the Mexican Elders. I was practically the only bridge over the language barrier. We talked and joked and filled out of ton of paperwork, but we slept real nice. In the morning we went over to the chapel that was nearest, and we had an orientation type thing. While we were waiting for that we all decided just to sing hymns in the middle of the chapel and Hermana Call took a video of it. We were told what address you guys need to send stuff to me, (I don’t have it on me though) and also we learned about how the money works and stuff and we also learned about the presidents a bit. Then I was assigned to my new companion, Elder Lopez. He doesn’t speak almost any English. Fortunately, I speak enough Spanish. He’s only been in the field for 3 months, but he is real awesome. We went to our house and lemme tell you, I got lucky. It’s got an awesome kitchen and its own washing machine and everything. It’s great. We then went to a member’s house to have dinner and we had lentil soup and potato patties and rice and sprite. It was delicious. Then we went to the bishop’s house and I got to meet him. The funny thing is he was sick and my companion and I blessed him with oil. So now I can say I blessed my bishop on my second day. And now we are here in this shop where I am writing you letters. From what I understand the weather is perfect 24/7. It’s beautiful here ( at least compared to Utah.) It’s also really safe in my area, so you don’t have to worry about that.  My P Days are Mondays, but President Call said since we missed yesterday, we could treat today like a P Day.  Also, I have a shower!

God sends his prepared servants to his prepared people. he also sends his prepared servants to his other prepared servants. I know that all these perfect things I’ve gotten and my companion were all given to me for a reason. 'Trust in the lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths' proverbs 3:5-6

This is where I’m supposed to be. I know it. 

I love you!!

MTC: Half way mark!

Hey! It's me again. Happy New Year! Just sitting around at a desk on a computer checking in. It's been pretty fun here. The weeks are getting intense though. We have been studying non-stop, every day. It gets pretty crazy. But it's not too bad. 

So the first thing I would like to get to is sweets. If I could upload pictures, (which I can't, because the computers are not doing that right now, says IT) I would upload the gigantic amount of candies and sweets that I have from all of you. I can't eat all this! I mean, I DO eat all of it, but that isn't really good for myself. Just tone it down on the sweets, words are better than candy. 

Second, thanks for all the letters! I've gotten one from almost all of you *coughrichardandryancough* I really appreciate every letter I get, it makes my day that much better. 

I feel good. It's fun here, and my friends here are cool. But don't think I've forgotten about any of you though! 

Gosh its freezing here. No, for real, everything is freezing over. The water in our creek is frozen, there is still snow here. The snow is nice, I still think it's nice at least. I appreciate the jacket, it's been real warm. 

We have faux investigators that we teach. It's almost a real experience, because the people we teach are practically trained actors. It gets stressful at times, but we have fun with it and learn more from that than anything else. 

I am trying to think of other things to say so desperately. I am having fun. The food is pretty good, today we are going to a place where we can get burgers and cheese steaks. Food is good. I think I've talked about food at least three times in this letter. Let's talk about something else. I want to know what's going on with all yall. Did anything cool happen, did anything blow up? Time here moves by weird, by the way. the days are long, but the weeks go by faster than anything. Spanish is a breeze. I learn all the things that are concepts easier than pie. I mean, If schools did the things we did, they would be mas bien. Its almost weird to type in english because we literally talk and write in Spanish all the time. anyways, that's all I have to report. I'll try and write some written responses to letters I've gotten today, so don't you all worry. I love you all.

-Elder Schuhmacher