Hello again everybody!!!

 

I have been getting a lot of emails about dealing with my companion and such but I want everyone to know that we actually get along really well and the language barrier isn´t much of a barrier. We laugh a lot and have a bunch of inside jokes and all that jazz but yes I will admit there are times I want to hit him but I feel that would happen with anyone you are with 24/7.

Anyways on with the random jazzy things of this past week.

 First I would like to announce my success of scoring 5 goals during soccer last p-day so all you who said I wouldn´t stand a chance against the Mexicans...well you were wrong and why Riverton High Soccer never put me in to play will forever be a mystery to us all.

 Also last week we traveled to Reynosa, and when I say we I mean me Elder Mecham (Arizona) and Elder Maughan (Utah). Me and Elder Maughan are from the same generation and us 3 get along really well and me and Elder Maughan really enjoy eating so ya we brought the treats for this long bus ride. And after we took care of our visa stuff we went to Little Ceasers and it was so good! It was a good day of rest and food and much talk of politics and other such things.

 

Ya all you people think it´s all warm and cozy here in Mexico well that is a an awful ridiculous rumor. It has been freezing here for the past week minus yesterday...yesterday was fine. But for real I have had a jacket and beanie and gloves on everyday and in my bed at night!

The other day we were at the part member family´s house and the told me to give the prayer in English and I literally forgot how to do it and luckily they don´t know English cause that prayer made absolutely no sense and just felt super awkward the whole time.

A nickname I have picked up here that nearly everyone who can´t pronunciation my name call me is "Mickey" or Mickey Mouse so ya that´s good fun.

The Familia Leja Torres. Our next golden investigators. They have a son who moved out and has since been baptized and been a member for about 4 months and has visited the temple twice. They found us and we are now teaching them and they rule and love it all and make us pancakes and hot chocolate so really everybody is winning right now.

Our shower is freezing cold. It is like showering in a waterfall in early June when the snow had just melted. So we use a bucket and put this electric coil in it to warm it up.

Also I still haven´t changed much when it comes to church so yes I did fall asleep and usually do fall asleep in sacrament.

 

Well this is all for this week!

Love and Miss you all!

Elder McQ

Not a clue what to title this haha

Hello again everybody!

I´m really sorry but this week has been pretty boring and pretty uneventful.

 

Some other Elders had a baptism this week and our golden investigator Yajaira came and she is just so ready it´s unreal and she´d be baptized already but she is waiting for her friend to get home from her mission. (Nov 25)

 

We had intercambios again and Elder Santana was in my area again so good fun. He´s a nice kid but everything is so routine with him!! Someone will ask where he´s from or how old he is or how long he has been here and everytime his response is.."Guess!!!" By the end of the day I about had enough of it and almost just started screaming out the answer before the questions were even asked. "Hi this is Elder Santana he is from Ecuador, 23 yrs. old, and has been here for 6 months"

Also side note we started talking to this guy that called us over and he tried to hand me some weed and I just kinda laughed and was just "Nah bro I´m alright, thanks though".

 

Got my haircut by Hermana Muro, basically my mom down here haha love her and her family to death. I wouldn´t say she´s really the best at cutting hair haha but hey she has clippers and it´s free and I´m not trying to impress anybody down here so I´m content although the rest of the day was really itchy.

Ok if you are familiar with latin culture the people here after using toilet paper put it in the trash...Think about that for a minute then think my companion is from here...Ya our bathroom has smelt awful for a while but no worries I talked with him one morning in our Companionship Inventory.. "Elder Macedo, I have one idea of something you could do to strengthen our companionship.... the paper in the bathroom, ya, the paper that you use to wipe everything...put it into the toilet after use." He just laughed and said ok haha so glad that is all "wiped up" hahaha

And one more thing. Last night as we were just about ready to go to sleep we start hearing this yelling so we call the Elders that live above us and they came downstairs and we watched these 2 ladies just scream and try to fight each other but there was a guy there holding them back. Haha super entertaining, we even popped a bag of popcorn to watch it all and it was hilarious.

So ya sorry that was my uneventful week!

Love you all!

 

Elder McQ

 

First Week With My Mexican Companion

Hello everybody! 

 

I don´t really have much to talk about since it has been a pretty uneventful week but I´ll do my best.

First is my new companion Elder Macedo who is from good ole Mexico so yep my choice of communication is Spanish or nothing. Honestly my Spanish is pretty good and we can talk and understand each other. He´s a nice kid but sometimes I just need a little break.

The other day as we were walking to our first appointment there was a guy talking to another guy needing to get to the hospital (I still have no idea why) but he was from Orlando and only spoke English so they called me over and I translated to him how to get to the hospital so that was cool!

Veronica. The lady we were supposed to baptize on Saturday never showed up to her Baptismal Interview so it fell through and we talked with the member that has been helping us with her and apparently she gave her back the Book of Mormon and said she doesn´t want us coming by any more so ya still upset and sad about that... We´re going to try and talk to her sometime this week but who knows if that´ll actually happen.

Well my Fasting began at 3 on Saturday and lasted til 6 on Sunday cause we were at the church late so ya a 27 hour fast and I ended it by eating a TON of tacos and afterwards I honestly wanted to just vomit!

One family in our ward, La Familia Muro, has basically adopted me into the family since I am way good friends with their sons Noe and Mizael and I just love hanging out with that family!

Also Halloween happened...that´s about it haha saw some parties but wasn´t able to do anything different just another normal day.

And Finally yesterday we forgot to change our clocks and I´m already never in a good mood in the morning so you can just imagine when I found out I could have slept another hour..I just about flipped out.

 

Ya sorry that was my uneventful, boring, sad week.

Love and miss you all!

End of the First Cambio!

 

Well this was my last week of the first transfer and it hasn´t been an extremely eventful week but hey I´ll try to tell you all about it anyways!

First off we were at La Comida with this guy who has broken glasses that he wears and has a crazy son whose energy never ever leaves! But he took ONE HOUR AND 20 MINUTES to make us something I could have made in literally 10 minutes so that was a bit ridiculous and that was not even in our area so for all you that ask if we walk a lot I´ll tell you yes we do but on this certain occasion was utterly unreal how much we had to walk. We walked for a straight hour to our appointment and lucky that our appointment didn´t fall through cause if it had I would have had to buy a bunch of food cause I eat when I am frustrated!

Well we also had intercambios this week and I was with Elder Santana (doesn´t speak a work of English) in MY area so yep I had to lead around the whole day so that was interesting but hey I found our way to every appointment and only got a little lost like once so ya I´m pretty good at what I do. But as for Elder Santana he is a good nice guy but I´ll just leave at I really missed Elder Muhlestein haha!

One of our investigators, Veronica, the one with the crazy little girl, is progressing so well and I am so excited for her! Ever since she has started going to church and such her little girl has become more tame and she told us that before she met us she felt an emptiness in her life and after she started going to church and activities she felt like that empty spot was filled and she had another family that she felt comfortable around! She is getting baptized this Saturday so we´re excited!

The other day the other Elders that live above us had intercambios so it was straight white guys so we had a "Gringo Party" Haha so we ate popcorn and candy and it was just good fun.

We had to go up to Reynosa the other day for my companion and on the way back the buses we ride show movies so we saw Star Trek 2 so that was pretty sweet! And yes I know that´s "against the rules" but really on a bus with screens everywhere and it being on the speakers there is no avoiding it.

 

 

We found out about Transfers and I am staying in my area and getting a new Trainer who is Mexican. Yipee! (full of sarcasm) And Elder Muhlestein is being made Zone Leader and headed off to Vayrmosa or however you spell it so I´m pretty sad about that.

And for a story I know you all have been waiting for... We ate in this shack like house yesterday and guess what.... FLIPPING HUGE SPIDERS EVERYWHERE!!! I was literally about in tears and about had a panic attack!! I ate that food soo fast and stood up and waited for everyone to be done as I held in all the tears! Ran out of the house right after and just took a bunch of deep breaths. Also as we were walking away there was a guy either totally drunk and passed out on a bunch of bricks or he was dead...I never found out which one it really was so that´s cool.

Love and miss you all!

Elder McQ

 

 

This brace on my neck is a joke just so you know haha

Familia Salizar Torres so that guy and his son will be baptized in probably 2 or 3 weeks depending on his health.

 

Nerd is Life

Well this past week has honestly felt like a whole month! But I loved seeing the pictures of everybody in Cali and hearing all is going well at home!

 

To begin my stories I´ll start with the Fam. Salizar Torres! We´ve been teaching them for a while being the dad and his son cause the daughter and mom are busy all the time!! But this past week we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all that good ole stuff and afterward Isael the dad said I have to admit I had some doubts at first but now everything is so clear! Then he gave a summary of the whole lesson again to show us what he got from it and basically just taught it again cause he UNDERSTANDS IT ever so perfectly and he would be getting baptized this week but his health was doing pretty bad on Sunday so he didn´t make it to church yesterday so we are still figuring out what we can do for him.
 

We talked to the Hot Dog guy again and it was really interesting but at the end of it we were doing all we could to get him to accept a Book of Mormon but he just felt bad for taking it and it was honestly really annoying so then I said "Like when you gave us the hot dogs because you said God gave it to you, we want to give you this book cause God gave it to us." And lo a behold it worked and he took the book of mormon so we´ll see where that takes us.

Also we had a lesson with this other lady and we were talking to her and said which church do you think is true and she said "Your church the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints" And we were a little taken back and asked if she would like to get baptized into our church and she said Yes. Ha really weird experience but pretty cool until we found out she is in a relationship with a married guy so that´s going to be a little difficult. Also I feel like she is one of those people that will just agree to whatever thing we say if it is true or not so I don´t really no how to take it haha.

 

Also we had a missionary activity this week for the ward and it was a Noche de Hogar or Family Home Evening and it was super fun and we played games and the 4 of us missionaries gave little talks or thoughts and I conducted it so that was interesting and I think everyone understood me but I´m still not sure but hey the Bishop liked the activity so much that the ward is going to do a ward family home evening once a month now cause of us so ya it´s whatever!!
 

 

During me and my companions free time we have been making rules and a chant for being considered a true nerd haha so that´s been a lot of fun and don´t worry I have it all written down!

Also last night, don´t be shocked or worried at all but we were riding a taxi home and the driver I guess didn´t realize the car in front of us was coming to a stop so we slammed right into them and it was an accident like in the US someone would be all over someone and it´d go to court and all that but here they both got out and talked about it for a bit and then left and the driver took us home haha it was a really weird experience!

 

Well that´s all the stories I have for today!

 

Love and Miss you all!

Tanner

 

Ps I´ll write people individually later and send pictures but I only have 5 more minutes on the computer right now but in a while I´ll have another hour.

Chep Chep

Pues I´m not really sure how to tell about everything that goes on around here but I can try.

First is about this lady we are teaching named Olga and she is actually a teacher at a christian church so that´s good fun! It actually is though haha she prayed and believes that the Book Of Mormon is true but believes God has branched out and all this stuff but no matter as long as we can find her at home and keep teaching her I think she will be baptized.

 

Also you could say I´ve been here for a good amount of time (4 weeks) and it wasn´t til just recently that I started having stomach issues with the food and what not but no worries I have medicine and I am feeling a ton better. But I kinda need more Ibuprofen so if that could happen that´d be neat.

I know this probably isn´t that "appropriate" but it was funny. So we were at this member´s house and the sons are both returned missionaries and I was talking to one of them and he asked me "Am I a Beaner?" And I said "Yes you are haha." And he was like and would you be offended if I called you a cracker and I said as long as I can call you a beaner haha! So ya you could say we get a long really well!

This past week we had zone conference and that was really fun and us new missionaries were taught a lesson by Hermana Moralez about health and our poop and when it is healthy and when we need more water and what not. It was all good fun and I got to talk to Elder Hale again so that was sweet!

The other day walking out our house for the day my companion started laughing and pointed down and I realized that I forgot to put on shoes and walked out in my sandles so that was a little emberrasing.

We were at another ward member´s house and they were having a party for their son who I am really good friends with and his girlfriend was there and for his 15th birthday we gave him a Law of Chastity Pamphlet and the parents thought it was super funny!

During a lesson we were teaching with an investigator that is progressing very well she started nursing her 3 year old daughter right in front of us and let´s just say we were very confused to what was happening. But they came to church and the girl was actually decently behaved and trust me that was a miracle!

 

I had my first major Bible Bash and that was nuts! Ha this guy did not understand that the priesthood and the Holy Ghost are 2 seperate things! So as this was happening I tied it into the Restoration and we got talking about how we do everything that Christ did and the guy told us all about that and we were just like exactly man you got it! But then I told him how Peter James and John gave Joseph Smith the Priesthood and he said how did they do that they were dead, they can´t come back to the earth and my response¨made him regret his entire argument..."Jesus did it". And he then stopped talking and allowed me to teach so ya the Restoration can win any Bash!

Church yesterday was crazy with fasting and praying the entire time that our investigators would come to the church or atleast the chosen family La Familia Salizar Torres. And they were not walking in and it was freaking us out cause they are too down to get baptized on the 25th so we prayed and prayed in sacrament and someone tapped me on the shoulder so I looked back and behind the Elder who tapped me on the shoulder there was the Golden Family walking through the door and I couldn´t have been more happy!

 

Well that´s all the stories I have this week! Love and miss you all!!

 

Elder McQ

Halfway through first cambio...

Well there many things to talk about so I´ll get right to it cause time is limited as always!

First last week we bought new ties and I got a super fly skinny tie for 30 pesos and 13 pesos is a dollar so you can do the math!

 

Also we were walking down the street and said what are the odds we get a chili dog soo of course we did it and we got talking to the chef guy and he wanted to talk in English so that was good and we talked to him about who we were and such and we got talking about God and it was all really good and when the chili dogs were all done he said "Don´t worry about the money, God gave me this and all that I have and I want to give this to you." So that was really sweet!

 One day while walking down the street me and my companion felt we should talk to a family we passed so we went back to talk to them and I presented so I started off everything and halfway through we noticed they were crying so we immediately jumped into how God blesses families and the gospel and such and they agreed to meet with us again so that´ll be good I think and ya it was just a nice experience.

 We went to one of our investigators house and you can tell she is not going to progress cause she just doesn´t pay attention or try listening! After everything I say she says ¿Como? and it´s like I know my spanish isn´t that good and I know you can understand me! And I just stopped saying things cause if she did that one more time I was going to call her out on it and I was just super frustrated and afterwards my companion was like ya I don´t think she´s interested at all anymore cause you were understandable and she just wasn´t giving us the time of day. But after we went to the Family Salizar Torres and they are the best and gave us food and the Father and the son are so into it but the sister and the mom are just not but are still way nice! But they didn´t attend Conference so that sucked and now their Baptism Date gets moved back!

Me and Elder Muhlestien while waking around the streets look at the housed and think about how to build them on minecraft so that´s good fun haha. Also every now and then we purchase little Halo Figurines and collect them so it´s a good side hobby we have.

 Another experience I had this week was I got to bless a house a ward family just moved into!

 

Also got fed spicy wings this week by and investigator and pizza by another investigator so things are well!

 

One house we were at there were mosquitos eating us alive which happens everywhere but it was really bad!! So the lady put a towel over me and got oils and rubbed our arms with it and it was just a really weird thing haha.

Conference!!! Was just incredible and was over super fast! Favorite talk was of course Elder Bednar cause he is incredible but oh my gosh all of us missionaries were freaking out over the Jorg guy! That said his 6 points, ya, he was phenominal along with that other guy from the 70 that spoke like second on Saturday AM sesh I think! And yes I watched all the sessions in English including Priesthood so that was good!

Also helped my friend Noe Muro with his English homework so that was really good to do something I actually knew!

 But ya that was basically my week! So spanish is still coming slow and me and Elder Muhlestein get along great and life down here is still really hard to adjust to so there you have it!

 Love Elder McQ