Go Forth With Faith: MONTERREY, MEXICO...FIRST WEEK HERE!

My first companion Elder Hernandez

The mountains are awesome here. The ones in Utah are rock with some shrubs, the ones here are covered in trees and look amazing. I am looking forward to getting started in the work. I know I am as ready as I can be at this point, all that is left is to get to work. So my first week has been great. I am still trying to figure out how we get around but I sort of know where things are now. I have met most of the members in the ward (area he is in) now and all of our investigators. We have 8 or so investigators right now so we visit 4 everyday and spend the rest teaching inactive or less active members or finding contacts and references.

The people here are really humble and kind. The area I am in is more of a suburb of Monterrey and is fairly tiny. Houses and buildings are never over 2 stories except for large convenience stores(Malls). We use buses and taxis to get around in Mexico. They drive like maniacs. I mean really, the first 3 days were interesting learning how the traffic works here. In terms of driving hierarchy, it goes buses, taxis, cars, bikes, people, with motorcycles mixing in somewhere between bus and car. But I am used to it now and it is fun now.

My companion is Elder Hernandez. He is the first in his family to serve a mission and is from Tijuana. He has 4 siblings and is a convert to the church along with his family. He has 14 months in the mission, so he isn't new. He likes English pop songs but hasn't the slightest idea what the lyrics are or how to say them which is funny. He just substitutes the words he doesn't know with whatever other English word he happens to know. Otherwise, he is a good companion. He helps me understand the context of a question asked and answers what questions I have on proper grammar.

I met Justin´s teacher Ashley, not sure what else to tell. IT isn't scary here, just different. The people are all much poorer than even the poorest American I have met yet they act like they have more than we do. I haven't been sunburned yet but I use sunscreen everyday so I don't expect it to happen soon. The language isn't harder to speak, but definitely harder to understand. the speed they speak at is faster, they have thicker accents, etc. but I enjoy it. I think I will have it by the end of November, but that is a ways off yet.