Week 7

So I´m already past my hour from reading and replying to other emails, I still have more people to reply to, and I´m not sure I´ll have time to say much of anything, but my companion is still occupied by something so I guess we´ll see if it manages to last him for another 20ish minutes. The language is getting a little better, I can often understand basic questions from people and I can teach most concepts moderately well albeit with the dialogue of a 5 year old. I´ve realized that my companion in the MTC was truly a blessing in disguise, because if I´d had a companion that I really liked I would probably be extremely annoyed by his high expectations of me, but instead I have to remind myself to be thankful that his attitude is ...different (I´m forcing myself not to name all the things I hated about my previous companion). Anyway, he´s the right amount of silly for me so we have fun together a lot of the time. Oh and also Emily he´s planning on marrying you someday so I hope you like older guys from central America. For mom´s questions, yes we have a lot of investigators here, we have not yet been tracting since I´ve been here, and there will be another baptism this saturday of a kid named Omar in a family we´re teaching, I´m not completely sure but it sounded like he said he wanted me to do the baptism. I really love the kids here, they´re really cute and they all love me, even though I can´t understand most of what they say to me. Our apartment is decently nice although it has those popcorn-like walls and ceiling that shed onto the floor really quickly. Our bathroom is really awful but I´m getting used to it. We don´t have a maid, and no there isn´t really any real cooking at all. The beds aren´t that comfortable but neither were the ones in the MTC so it´s alright for me. We just go to a little shop to use the computers, and yeah I have an hour do do anything I want to (though I´m managing to use more this time). We have a chapel for church and the ward is a decent size for being outside of the US. I don´t know our exact address but I (and my companion) will eat any amount of unhealthy food in whatever package you manage to send. so I´ve gotta go now so I´ll try to cover anything I missed next week love you all! -Elder Jones

Week 6

Hey family, p-day is on monday now. so either Austin or Erik told me that we would probably have more than an hour for this out in the field and got my hopes up for nothing, and also this computer has active spellcheck in spanish and I don´t know how to change it, and also half the freaking keys are in the wrong place on this keyboard, and other than that things are going okay. It´s been one week since I got here. The first day we checked out at 2:30am and arrived at the mission office about 12 hours later for classes about finance and teaching or something, during which I was nodding off pretty much every time I blinked, and we stayed the first night there and then went to the transfer meeting the next morning. My new companion is Elder Rivera, he´s from El Salvador and is obviously a native speaker, but he speaks a decent amount of english through a very thick accent, so he can help me with vocabulary some of the time. We mostly get along really well though. He´s a really punctual guy, and I sometimes get upset at him but it´s usually because he expects more of me than I want him to as opposed to just because he´s a tool (unlike another unnamed individual). I´ve been told multiple times that our area is in the crappiest part of town, which I´m fine with, though the dirty bathrooms and the fact that I have to purify any water that goes in my mouth will take some getting used to. That guy at the temple wasn´t kidding when he said everyone just lives on top of eachother, I´m pretty sure that when someone wants a new house they just pick a flat spot on one of the roofs and pour some more cement. There aren´t as many bums as there are in Salt Lake, but there´s trash and stray dogs and cats everywhere. It´s a little weird here because they have little to no breakfast or dinner and a really huge lunch, which we usually have with members, but I really like most of the food. My attitude about the food since I got here is that I´ll assume that everything they give me is edible and just choke down what I don´t like. In general the worst is over I think/hope. I really love the people, and there are times after good lessions that I feel better about what I´m doing, but most of the time I don´t understand jack squat of what people say to me and it really gets me angry and upset. The first few days I was planning in my head how I would trek back to the US, but I at least feel neutral about being here now. This last Saturday I got to baptize one of our progressing investigators named Kalinka, which was really awesome, I even managed to say the prayer and do everything right the first time! I´m really excited for Lexie and I hope everything goes well. If she gets this message - Lexie I love you and I know you´re going to be great, just be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster. There will probably be people you don´t like, and frankly there will be multiple times when you ask yourself "what in the world am I doing with my life?!", but we have trials so we can become stronger. Just stick it out and it will get better sooner or later (I won´t say exactly because it´s different for everyone, everyone told me "just make it to sunday" and that turned out to be bullcrap.) Love you all Elder Jones