sorry i didnt get an audio done this week...This week was pretty cool, we brought 13 investigators to church on sunday! Two families and some other people, the little casa de oracion was completley filled with people and some even ended up filling other rooms and standing. total there were 90 people, which is a ton for this tiny branch which usually has 25-30 people. Ok so, my comp and i were contacting this lady and all of the sudden these two dogs started "using their powers of procreation" behind her and i dont know why but is was really funny cause the lady had no idea and so to distract myself i focused more in the contact and then i happened to glanse back at the dogs and they were stuck together! the poor dog was trying to walk away and was so confused what was holding him back. I almost started busting up laughing so i caughed it off as a diguise and looked over at my comp who was trying his hardest not to laugh so that made me laugh and so we both started laughing which made the lady so confused so then we had to explain the whole thing to her which was pretty awkward but then later she told us that that is actually pretty common and explained why, which i think was even more awkward. the other day we went back to the ladys house to teach her and there were two geckos on the wall doing the same thing which was pretty ironic but this time i was able to keep it under control. i guess it is just that time of year or something. well that is my story of the week. On a better note this week we had a zone conference and we watched a talk that jeffery r holland gave at the mtc in january which was amazing, sorry i dont remember what it was called. oh well. I love you guys I am praying for you. Stay safe as summer starts rolling in! Adios!
Love Elder May
Monday, June 6, 2011
7 MONTHS!
7 MONTHS...wow crazy, I am starting to get to the point where i can tell people how much time i have in the mission and they dont say things like ow wow your just starting or aww you have a long time left. I havent really thought a lot about how much time i have in the mission and i think that is why it feels like it is going fast. This week i have been focusing on forgeting myself and going to work. It is worth getting rejected 99 times to find the one person who will really listen to what you have to say. I am learning that success isnt always in the outcome, sometimes it is what you learn on the way. Everyday i try to push myself a little further and i think of you all at home praying for me which motivates me. you all should definitely send me more pictures. Send me pictures of everything that goes on this summer. Ok so i ate menudo yesterday for the first time which is cow stomach...that was hard. It tasted like a dog smells and it feels like you are just chewing on a piece of fat. it has little flabby pieces on one side which look like little hairs and the other side looks like skin. it is cut up into squares and its in a broth. oh well i at least there was cebolla, limon, oregano, tortilla y chile to drown out the taste and agua de jamaica to wash it down with. eehhh ni modo. I love you guys !Portense bien¡ adios.
Hot salt!
Hola familia,
This week was pretty normal i am not going to lie. We have been working a lot with menos activos and trying to find solid investigators. It is pretty hard contacting because everyone is in their house because of the heat. I hope that everything is going good over there. I was going to send another audio but i forgot my chord. Ni modo. I cant believe that at this time last year i was turning in my papers to leave on my mission. It is crazy how fast time flies by here. Today we went and played volleyball and i noticed how incredibly white my feet and legs are, especially compared to my burnt face and hands. jaja. Ok I am going to try to get a package out this change so in the next four weeks. I love you all and I am praying for you.
Elder May
PS Mom, thanks for the package it finally got here..It is good to taste your hot salt again!
This week was pretty normal i am not going to lie. We have been working a lot with menos activos and trying to find solid investigators. It is pretty hard contacting because everyone is in their house because of the heat. I hope that everything is going good over there. I was going to send another audio but i forgot my chord. Ni modo. I cant believe that at this time last year i was turning in my papers to leave on my mission. It is crazy how fast time flies by here. Today we went and played volleyball and i noticed how incredibly white my feet and legs are, especially compared to my burnt face and hands. jaja. Ok I am going to try to get a package out this change so in the next four weeks. I love you all and I am praying for you.
Elder May
PS Mom, thanks for the package it finally got here..It is good to taste your hot salt again!
Hola Familia
Hola Familia
First and foremost...Hang in there Rach! You are the focal point of my prayers right now. Just remember that when you put God first, everything will work out the way that it is supposed to because he will put you first.
So I got a new companion, his name is Elder Rosas. He looks like a Gringo and speaks english pretty well but he is from Puebla, Mexico. He is a pretty big nerd, but that is ok because he knows the scriptures really well. So this week the dad of one of our investigators died. It was really sad. She is like 40 and has her own family now but their whole family got together and was crying. We went there and helped to cheer them up and reassured them that this life is a breif moment. The crapy part is that she has a sister that is a TJ (JW) and she was trying to argue with us the whole time we were there about stupid stuff and then she refused to be there when we were going to say the prayer. Oh, well ni modo. Well I am sending you guys some audio stuff I hope that it works and that you can listen to it. I love you all and you are in my prayers!
First and foremost...Hang in there Rach! You are the focal point of my prayers right now. Just remember that when you put God first, everything will work out the way that it is supposed to because he will put you first.
So I got a new companion, his name is Elder Rosas. He looks like a Gringo and speaks english pretty well but he is from Puebla, Mexico. He is a pretty big nerd, but that is ok because he knows the scriptures really well. So this week the dad of one of our investigators died. It was really sad. She is like 40 and has her own family now but their whole family got together and was crying. We went there and helped to cheer them up and reassured them that this life is a breif moment. The crapy part is that she has a sister that is a TJ (JW) and she was trying to argue with us the whole time we were there about stupid stuff and then she refused to be there when we were going to say the prayer. Oh, well ni modo. Well I am sending you guys some audio stuff I hope that it works and that you can listen to it. I love you all and you are in my prayers!
Hope you know Spanish!!
Solo quedan dos semanas en este cambio. Voy a llamar a ustedes el 8 de abril, pero no estoy seguro si yo puedo llamar antes para decirles cuando voy a llamar para que todos esten. Espero que pueda hablar con todos. Yo voy a tener 6 meses en la mision en dos semanas. Disculpe mama, pero aprovechando que tengo muchas corbatas voy a quemar una para celebrar.
Estoy contento que todos estan bien, y estoy orando por todos. Les quiro mucho. Mama espero que esta progressando con su español porque me dijo que iba a estudiarlo. La verdad es que esta semana fue bien rapido y no habia historias espectaculares. Por la semana santa no habia nadie en casa entonces muchas de nuestras citas caiyeron. Todas estan en la playa. Ayer vimos una obra de teatro que fue transmitido via satelite de Utah. Fue bien padre la verdad. Todos los actores hablaban español, entonces no necesitamos subtitulos. Espero que todos ustedes puedan recordar la razon verdadera por la semana santa(easter) porque se les olvido a todos aqui. Les quiero y les hecho de menos y espero que todos ustedes que no hablan español se diviertan traduciendo esto.
Con mucho amor,
Elder May
P.S. ¡Escribanme! La verdad, me animan michisimo sus emails y paquetes.
Estoy contento que todos estan bien, y estoy orando por todos. Les quiro mucho. Mama espero que esta progressando con su español porque me dijo que iba a estudiarlo. La verdad es que esta semana fue bien rapido y no habia historias espectaculares. Por la semana santa no habia nadie en casa entonces muchas de nuestras citas caiyeron. Todas estan en la playa. Ayer vimos una obra de teatro que fue transmitido via satelite de Utah. Fue bien padre la verdad. Todos los actores hablaban español, entonces no necesitamos subtitulos. Espero que todos ustedes puedan recordar la razon verdadera por la semana santa(easter) porque se les olvido a todos aqui. Les quiero y les hecho de menos y espero que todos ustedes que no hablan español se diviertan traduciendo esto.
Con mucho amor,
Elder May
P.S. ¡Escribanme! La verdad, me animan michisimo sus emails y paquetes.
Interesting week
This week was interesting. We decided to contact people teaching a little about baptism and then asking if we could prepare them for baptism. One guy told us that he didn´t want to follow Jesus any closer than he was cause then he would be blessed too much which would make him get back into drugs....Another lady told us that when a baby is born and it is about to die than all you have to do is throw some water on it and it is baptized...We also had a couple of people accept to be baptized right there on the spot which was cool, but saying it and actually doing it are two different things so we will see what happens. It is getting hotter outside and so all of the lacranes(scorpions) are coming in our house. This week we found two in the house which is freaky cause they like to hide in shoes and clothes and if you get stung by ones its bad news, especially the little ones cause when they sting they cant really control how much venom they release so they release a ton. Ok so I am guessing that everyone is either working really hard or having a blast cause the only person that i got a letter from was niki...uh hello...is anyone there.........Oh POR FAVOR half of you guys have internet on your phone which you have with you all day! ok ya terminé regañandoles. Ok so i saw in one of niki´s pictures that skylee has dark hair. that crazy, it even looked kinda red too. So is this finals week or is that next week? how is everyone doing in school? I heard that my comp might get transfered today for some kind of special transfer but it is not for sure. I am always scared that i am going to get a companion tht i can´t stand. Well... I am going to sign off now. I love you all! ¡Portense bien!
Elder May.
Elder May.
Hola Familia
¡Hola familia!
¡Como estan! Esta semana hizo un buen de calor. El verano esta veniendo...y tengo miedo. I think that this week everyday was around 95 degrees and it is only april! During the summer it gets extremely hot here like above 110 and we have to be out walking in the streets all day. I think that i drink like 4-6 liters of water every day and then sweat it all out! I am turning mexican and all of the mexicans are turning into black people! Hopefully it rains soon cause i hear that once it rains it cools down for a little bit because when it rains here it pours. All of the streets turn into rivers, well some of the time the roads are actually just drainage ditches. So lately i have been teaching the other missionaries in the house how to say the "ee" sound so that i don´t laugh when they try to say beach and sheet. jaja. I learned this week that may is a bad word in peru and in mayan, luckily my companion said that they hardly ever use it in peru. It would be pretty funny if i got a companion that spoke mayan though, cause there actually are a few in the mission. Hey i was wondering if some one could send me my copy of the book of mormon in Korean, it is in my room in the box with all of my books in it. I want it to be able to show it people. Thank you all for all of your support I hope that you are all doing great, I am praying for you all! ¡Que les vayan bien hasta el otro lunes!
Y tambien...a los que esten en la escuela, enfocense por los examenes que vienen y buenas suertes. ¡Ahorita estoy orando por ustedes especialmente!
¡Como estan! Esta semana hizo un buen de calor. El verano esta veniendo...y tengo miedo. I think that this week everyday was around 95 degrees and it is only april! During the summer it gets extremely hot here like above 110 and we have to be out walking in the streets all day. I think that i drink like 4-6 liters of water every day and then sweat it all out! I am turning mexican and all of the mexicans are turning into black people! Hopefully it rains soon cause i hear that once it rains it cools down for a little bit because when it rains here it pours. All of the streets turn into rivers, well some of the time the roads are actually just drainage ditches. So lately i have been teaching the other missionaries in the house how to say the "ee" sound so that i don´t laugh when they try to say beach and sheet. jaja. I learned this week that may is a bad word in peru and in mayan, luckily my companion said that they hardly ever use it in peru. It would be pretty funny if i got a companion that spoke mayan though, cause there actually are a few in the mission. Hey i was wondering if some one could send me my copy of the book of mormon in Korean, it is in my room in the box with all of my books in it. I want it to be able to show it people. Thank you all for all of your support I hope that you are all doing great, I am praying for you all! ¡Que les vayan bien hasta el otro lunes!
Y tambien...a los que esten en la escuela, enfocense por los examenes que vienen y buenas suertes. ¡Ahorita estoy orando por ustedes especialmente!
Monday, April 4, 2011
that was fast!
ok its official...i have 5 months in the mission! whooo. thank you all for your support, it really motivates me. Niki i got your package the other day, thank you. all of the packages get sent to the mission offices in guadalajara so we only get packages when there is a reason for the zone leaders to go up there or for the president to come down here. Wow i really loved conference. i dont know why but for some reason it went by extremely fast. I have a quote for ashley and rachael from the priesthood session...getting married is not about finding the right person, it is about being the right person. They really planched all of the guys of marrying age that are not married. We were all just laughing because there are elders that are about to go home and they were getting all redfaced. So our pres said that if it rains that we should stay out of the rain as much as possible because of the radiation from japan. thats kinda scary. so i actually noted something this week that i thought was funny so i could write it to you guys. so there arnt really stop signs here just speed bumps...everywhere, and when we take busses we always sit in the back so that we go flying. the other day we were on a bus and i think the bus driver forgot that there was a speed bumb or something because when he hit it me and my companion went flying like 2 feet off of the seets. of coures he being this little peruvain went way higher than me. oh and i forgot to say, he didnt get change during transfers so we are still comps. which is cool because we get along really well and we have tons of good investigators. so today a cruise ship arrived i think for spring break. and out came all of the gringos! it was so funny because they looked so out of place and awkward, i hope that i dont look like that. jaja. we met one huge family and they gave us 40 bucks! then they took our picture and they said that they are going to send it to you, mom. then they bought us ice cream. it was pretty cool. they also had a son that had just gotten home from his mish in oct. from virginia. we also met 3 other lds families, of course all from utah. jaja. ok so i am planning on taking some more pics and sending them off next week cause the ciber that we are at charges a lot. so i am going to sign off. I love you guys and am praying for you, and remember...smile, cause the future is as bright as your faith! :)
5 mezes whooo!
Wow 5 months, the time is flying by! Hoy vamos a ver cambios, mi compañero problamente va a cambiar. I hope that my new compañero is cool! wow i cant believe that skylee is on the verge of crawling, and becket is riding a bike without training wheels and rachael is about to graduate so much stuff is going on. ok so i have to admit that i completely forgot to write down the stuff that i was going to tell you guys this week. this week is semana santa for the catholic church and there are always crazy mexican fireworks going off that sound almost like gunshots. we have tons of cool new people that we are teaching. we taught this one family about the word of wisdom and that week they stopped drinking coffee and started praying as a family. they are really poor cause they are really young, like 23, and they just had their first baby and they just moved so they have absolutely nothing in their house. one night after a church activity there was a bunch of leftover food so we took it all to them. they were pretty excited. it was cool. We also helped a lady paint her house, so she fed us breakfast. We were eating pozole and my compañero was squirting some salsa on his food from a little bag when the bag exploded all over him. there was kind of a awkward pause and then i pretty much was laughing for the rest of the day. you gotta laugh at the small stuff! So yeah we do a ton of walking we walk EVERYWHERE. i think we probably walk about 5-10 miles a day. dont worry though my feet are fine. the first few weeks tenia ampollas un BUEN. we occasionally take buses which is fun because i think all of the buss drivers are also aspirering nascar drivers either that or they just dont really know how to drive and so everyone kinda gets out of their way. Most of the time when we take busses we are standing too, because they are always packed. we also rented a washing mashine these past two days...oh my gosh i will actually have clean cloths. i dont really think that rubbing my cloths on a bumpy tablet gets them clean. the other day we were studying and we left the front door open to let the air in and a chihuahua wondered in too....freaking mexico jajaja(this is how mexicans write haha) :) this week we also went to manzanillo centro to teach to some patients at a drug and violence rehabilitation center. that was really cool. they are all really humble and they have a lot of faith. they were all really excepting of what we had to say, except for one who called us all anti-christs...he was probably still on drugs jaja. well those are my stories for this week. if you want to send me something you can send some more of that mtn dew flavored chapstick that stuff is pretty bomb, or rootbeer flavored. water flavorings are good. mints, gum, sweet ties, PICS, idk other lightweight stuff. well thats it for this week kiddies...love you all and i am praying for you too! Portense bien!
Love,
Elder May
(ps to all of you who are wondering if i have recieved stuff in the mail from you...i havent) the mail here is pretty slow so send my birthday presents for next year now! jaja
Love,
Elder May
(ps to all of you who are wondering if i have recieved stuff in the mail from you...i havent) the mail here is pretty slow so send my birthday presents for next year now! jaja
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
March 14, 2011
Congrats Niki on your new baby, it is still pretty strange that you have 3 kids now. how do you kart them all around? Oh yeah and i can´t believe that deven got married finally! haha. It was good hearing from everyone. this week was pretty average, i haven´t made the pizza with Eva our investigator yet but she is still up for it. No se preocupe mama esta bien tranquilo aqui, yo nunca he tenido miedo o sentido peligro. Right now we are helping an niña named emily get ready for her baptism this saturday. her mom is less active so she is pretty much like a normal investigator and we don´t really see her dad around that much so either me or my comp is going to baptize her which will be cool. thank you for all of the pictures. i like having pictures to hang up and to show people. so my companion has a little mp3 that can record voice and he sends voice messages to his family every week through email, that would be pretty cool. So i really like the food here and i have not gotten sick once yet, but there is this thing the missionaries call the double dragon where you get really sick and you have diarrea and you are vomiting at the same time. The missionaries say that it is like a right of passage haha. idk ask steven about it he should know. or Dan wickenshimer i know he´s heard of the double dragon haha. i think that the traveling season is starting cause i am starting to see a lot of gringos down here. i even saw my first cruise ship today. Manzanillo doesn´t get a lot of cruise ships. So did you guys here about japan...that is so crazy. we even got a tsunami warning over here but no tsunami. Where is trever myers i know that he is serving somewhere in japan. i also knew missionaries in the mtc that are in japan. I also heard that north korea and south korea have been haveing some kind of stand off and that some shots have been fired. crazy. these are definitly that last days. oh well don´t worry i will be home before the mayan calander ends haha. oh yeah did i tell you guys that i have a copy of the book of mormon in mayan. its pretty cool. so i am hearing that there are a lot of really good surf spots down here like pascuales or melaque. i def need to come back after the mish and tear it up! alright i love you guys. i am praying for all of you. peace.
Love
Elder May
Love
Elder May
Monday, March 7, 2011
hola familia,
it is good to hear that everything went well with niki and her baby, but uuhhh....any pictures?? Everything is good here, there is now a new rule that just went into effect however...we are not allowed to listen to any more music because there were some missionaries who were abusing the privlege. oh well, other than that not any other big news. I went on divisions with this other missionary this week for two days because my comp had to go to guadalajara for a conference since he is district leader. anyways this missionary has less time in the mission than i do. the good thing was that he is mexican, the bad part is that he has this weird lisp thing so i couldn´t understand a word he said. those two days were pretty interesting. haha. so any big news news or news in bakersfield or anything. i just realized that i am going to get home like 3 days after the primary elections in 2012 and like 2 months after the 2012 summer olympics. you guys are going to have to send me a ballot for that and record the olympics for me. well i gues i will talk to you guys next week. write me letters please...thanks! love you guys and i am praying for you.
your missionary
Elder May
it is good to hear that everything went well with niki and her baby, but uuhhh....any pictures?? Everything is good here, there is now a new rule that just went into effect however...we are not allowed to listen to any more music because there were some missionaries who were abusing the privlege. oh well, other than that not any other big news. I went on divisions with this other missionary this week for two days because my comp had to go to guadalajara for a conference since he is district leader. anyways this missionary has less time in the mission than i do. the good thing was that he is mexican, the bad part is that he has this weird lisp thing so i couldn´t understand a word he said. those two days were pretty interesting. haha. so any big news news or news in bakersfield or anything. i just realized that i am going to get home like 3 days after the primary elections in 2012 and like 2 months after the 2012 summer olympics. you guys are going to have to send me a ballot for that and record the olympics for me. well i gues i will talk to you guys next week. write me letters please...thanks! love you guys and i am praying for you.
your missionary
Elder May
Thursday, March 3, 2011
February 28, 2011
wow a lot of stuff is happening back home sounds pretty exciting. haha i told one of our investigators that i like to cook pizza so she said she is going to take us shopping to buy stuff to make it at her house. haha. i hope it turns out well cause if not that would kind of be an epic fail. my companion got assigned to district leader so we get to travel a little bit sometimes to do baptismal interviews. this week we went to cihuatlan and i was talking to an investigator of some other missionaries and had know idea what he was talking about cause of the way he spoke so when he asked me a question i said know cause i thought i knew what he was talking about...anyways it turned out that he was talking about something really awkward and saying no was definitely not the write answer. the other missionaries and the hermano all started laughing, it was pretty emarassing, but kinda funny to. well... i have to go right now cause i no time but it was good to hear from you guys and just know that i am praying for all of you and things are going good over here. LOVE YOU ALL!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Feb 21, 2011
Nothing to crazy happened this week. We are working with judiths(our recent convert who has cancer) daughter. she is excited and wants to get baptized. her son does too but he is 7 and doesn´t turn 8 until october. he says that he wants me to baptize him, i don´t know if i am going to be in manzanillo still but maybe they will let me come back for that. that would be cool. ok so wasn´t niki due in feb. this is the last week in feb i figured that she would have had her kid by now. ok so for cambios the only other gringo in the house got transfered out and a mish got transfered in from puerto vallarta. alright i know that it is far away but for my birthday i want an ipod ;) my comp has one and he showed me a way download a bunch of church music onto it. it doesn´t have to be a big one. There is another mish that has a digital voice recorder, you guys should send me a recording and then i will send you back one. The mish with the recorders name is elder hadden and he is from redlands or somewhere over there. isn´t that cool. i sent a voice recording to his mom about the show with jillian cause he said that she likes the biggest loser, and he said that she said that she remembers seeing us and says "i thought that they were mormon" haha. Well i´m glad that gus has a little house that he can go into. i felt bad too when i had to put him out in the mornings. so how is everyone....i´m asking cause i only get emails from mom. haha. so i asked and we might get mail the begining of march. man it is crazy that it is already march. i remember march last year, with the show and me being antsy to start my papers and swim season and you guys always cranky cause you were only drinking protein shakes and nothing else. haha. man that doesn´t seem that long ago. by the time i call you guys in april i am going to have 6 months. that is crazy. it is weird to meet missionaries with less time than me in the field, cause i still feel really new. well i am going to go....until next week. i am praying for you all.
your missionary
Elder May
your missionary
Elder May
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines Day--Feb 14, 2011
hola familia y amigos,
This week went by really fast. tomorrow is cambios so we might get a new elder in the house. i will mostlikely stay here in manzanillo for another 2 cambios which are 6 weeks long. So is it cold over there yet, because it is bien caliente aqui. I am guessing that everyone is really busy doing amazing stuff cause the only email i got was from mom...haha i guess i cant really complain cause when rachael was on here mission i only wrote her like 3 or 4 times...haha sorry rach. yeah so we had a servicio baustismal este semana con la hermana que tiene cancer. It was really cool. we also had a talent show this week and me and the other missionaries played if you could hi to kolab it was pretty good i played the guitar and my companion played the piano and the others played flutes. We also met a man this week who speaks english but he is here cause his wife got kicked out of the country. I have met three people who are here because of that...kinda sketchy. anyways it was funny cause the guy opens the door and my comp starts talking to him in spanish of course and then he says turnining to me um...sorry but do you speak english. it was funny cause it was exacly what i was thinking cause i could tell that he was a gringo. so we talked for a while and he is a pretty good investigator. he was reading the book of mormon but his dog chewed it up. he wants to start coming to church, so i guess we'll see what happens. we also met a drunk inactive member who wants to come back but needs help. he said that he thinks that God led him to us and i think he is right becuase we were originally headed the other direction when my companion wanted to turn back and knock doors where we just were and that is when we met him. well, i am going to go because i am using a computor that has sticky keys and i have already deleted my email 5 times by accident and i am getting pretty frustrated...anyways i love you all and i am praying for you!
love your missionary,
Elder May
This week went by really fast. tomorrow is cambios so we might get a new elder in the house. i will mostlikely stay here in manzanillo for another 2 cambios which are 6 weeks long. So is it cold over there yet, because it is bien caliente aqui. I am guessing that everyone is really busy doing amazing stuff cause the only email i got was from mom...haha i guess i cant really complain cause when rachael was on here mission i only wrote her like 3 or 4 times...haha sorry rach. yeah so we had a servicio baustismal este semana con la hermana que tiene cancer. It was really cool. we also had a talent show this week and me and the other missionaries played if you could hi to kolab it was pretty good i played the guitar and my companion played the piano and the others played flutes. We also met a man this week who speaks english but he is here cause his wife got kicked out of the country. I have met three people who are here because of that...kinda sketchy. anyways it was funny cause the guy opens the door and my comp starts talking to him in spanish of course and then he says turnining to me um...sorry but do you speak english. it was funny cause it was exacly what i was thinking cause i could tell that he was a gringo. so we talked for a while and he is a pretty good investigator. he was reading the book of mormon but his dog chewed it up. he wants to start coming to church, so i guess we'll see what happens. we also met a drunk inactive member who wants to come back but needs help. he said that he thinks that God led him to us and i think he is right becuase we were originally headed the other direction when my companion wanted to turn back and knock doors where we just were and that is when we met him. well, i am going to go because i am using a computor that has sticky keys and i have already deleted my email 5 times by accident and i am getting pretty frustrated...anyways i love you all and i am praying for you!
love your missionary,
Elder May
The Chef!--Feb 7, 2011
I bought maseca, which is like corn flower that you use to make tortillas. I am getting better at making them but they are still a little off figuring that all i have to use is a sketchy little electric stove and rock salt. which reminds me, mom when you send that package of stuff you should throw in a container of hot salt. Anyways to make the tortillas you have to squish them down really thin and since that is really hard by hand i stick a ball of dough in a plastic bag and then grab a bucket and squish it. It works pretty well. I think if i get fat down here it will be because of the tortillas. they eat tortillas with every meal. they are good but they sneak up on you, before you know it you´ve eaten like 6 or 7, because you use them to wipe your plate clean and stuff. sometimes they don´t even use utencils, they just use a tortilla to pick up the food off their plate and then eat it like that. So far i haven´t eaten anything too weird cause i am in a city, but i have heard that they eat some pretty discusting stuff in the little pueblos.
Hola--Feb 1, 2011
I am writing today because we did not get a chance yesterday. We went to the centro which is a bunch of little shops right on the coast. The coast is beautiful here. The water is so clear and you can just look down into the water and see tons of different kinds of fish. I even saw a couple of blow fish which they call pez globo, so threw a bunch of rocks at it to see if i could get it to puff up. There are also a bunch of sea enemamies, the ones that are spikey all over. My companion showed me a picture that he had taken before i got here when they went on a tour of a navy ship of hundreds of medusas (jelly fish) in the water!! Good thing that was in the harbor cause that would really stink to swim in. I bought a guitar yesterday for 542 pesos which is right around 50 bucks. I figured since there was a member who gave us a bunch of food for the week that i wouldnt have to go grocery shopping and i could use that money for something worth while. Yeah so we arnt allowed to play soccer because there have been so many missionaries who have gotten hurt playing...dang. I also ate pizza and hamburgers this week...they should stick to mexican food. the pizza was terrible! they like to top their pizzas with hot dogs and chorizo which is a greasy mexican sausage, and since they dont use pizza sause or ranch they squirt catsup on top of their pizza. Talk about an epic fail. one of the elders said to me that he liked he pizza and i told him that he had been out of the states for too long!. the hamburgers werent as bad as the pizza but they still werent that good and the catsup that was at the members house was the consistancy of water so i looked at the ingrediants and they were in this order water, sugar, tomato concentrate...luckily that was a one time only thing and they actually usually have normal catsup here. So if you want to send me stuff food is always good. Peanut butter and root beer are both really expensive here. water flavorings are good cause we drink water all the time. Jerky or chips or stuff like that. Or you could send me pictures, that would be awsome. I also use a lot of hand sani and baby powder. I dont really know how i am going to do this 2 week best package contest since we dont get our mail that often. we only get mail like every month. oh yeah, crazy story of the week. we were in colima for a colima for the day for a conference(colima is a pretty big city right next to a volcano!) and we were walking to the bus stop to head home and we saw this guy riding a bike and his like 5 year old kid was sitting on the handle bars. the kids foot accidently got stuck in the spokes of the tires as they were riding and they both got catipulted! the dad went like 10-15 feet and the kid went straight into the ground since his foot was stuck! We had to jump the divider from the walkway to the street where they were riding and get the cars attention so they would slow down. the kid had a knot on his forhead the size of a freaking golfball (cause of course neither of them were wearing helmets) and the dad was just laying in the street. Eventually the dad started moving and sat up, i think that he got a concusion or something. We had to pretty much wrench the kids foot out of the spokes. amazingly i his foot was fine and i dont think that either of them broke anything, well...except for the bike which was trashed. Someone called the ambulence and we stayed until they got there and then jetted cause we were late for our bus. Pretty crazy huh! anyways i have to go. I love you all and i am praying for all of you. I hope everything is going great over there. Everything is good here. Talk to you next week!
MANZANILLO--Jan 24, 2011
hola familia
YEAH SO I AM AT A PUBLIC COMPUTOR LIBRARY RIGHT NOW AND THIS IS PROBABLY THE GAYEST COMPUTADORA EVER!! THE KEYS ALL STICK AND I CAN´T GET THE CAPS LOCK TO TURN OFF SO EXCUSE ME IF IT SEEMS LIKE I AM SCREAMING AT YOU. MY NEW COMPANION IS FROM PERU AND HE SPEAKS NO ENGLISH...LUCKILY PERUVIANS DON´T SPEAK AS FAST AS MEXICANOS SO I CAN UNDERSTAND HIM MOST OF THE TIME AND THERE IS ALSO ONE OTHER GRINGO IN THE HOUSE WITH ME. ahhh there we go i got it. so the mission pres is kinda strict. no soccer, p days end at 3 or 5 depending on what month it is, and everyone has to have a part in their hair. ashley thank you for the trimmers because my hair came off real quick after i learned that. i think i did a pretty good job. it is long enough but too short to part...yessss. yeah so mexico is crazy awesome. the drivers here are crazy and take the lines on the roads more as suggestions. people and dogs roam the streets including the highways. i saw a semi tipped over on the side of the high way and all of the fruit was spilled on the road. i got a picture of it but i don´t have my camera with me cause i didn´t know that we would becoming here. the place where we live is really nice and we actually have a balcony and a hammock. no washing machine and only one burner on a little portable stove to cook with. peanut butter is ridiculously expensive here!! you know the people that rome around bakersfield selling random stuff and honking there horns and whatever to get peoples attention..this is definitely where they come from. there are constantly people driving around playing their little jingle over their loudspeaker or honking their horn or just straight up yelling to get your attention that they are coming near your house. they sell jugs of water, gass, bread, and other random stuff. it is also crazy seeing the police drive buy cause they are pretty much the army, they all carry around rifles and drive around in a normal truck with officers standing
in the bed. don´t worry though, because everything is completely chill where i am. i have felt completely safe the whole time that i have been here. mom we have this investigator named judith who has cancer and i want to get her something small to help her out but i don´t know what have any suggestions? alright well i have to go cause i only have a couple minutes left (back to 30 min computer time) and i stilll have to write my letter to the president. i love you all and i pray for you. the church is true!
your missionary,
elder may
YEAH SO I AM AT A PUBLIC COMPUTOR LIBRARY RIGHT NOW AND THIS IS PROBABLY THE GAYEST COMPUTADORA EVER!! THE KEYS ALL STICK AND I CAN´T GET THE CAPS LOCK TO TURN OFF SO EXCUSE ME IF IT SEEMS LIKE I AM SCREAMING AT YOU. MY NEW COMPANION IS FROM PERU AND HE SPEAKS NO ENGLISH...LUCKILY PERUVIANS DON´T SPEAK AS FAST AS MEXICANOS SO I CAN UNDERSTAND HIM MOST OF THE TIME AND THERE IS ALSO ONE OTHER GRINGO IN THE HOUSE WITH ME. ahhh there we go i got it. so the mission pres is kinda strict. no soccer, p days end at 3 or 5 depending on what month it is, and everyone has to have a part in their hair. ashley thank you for the trimmers because my hair came off real quick after i learned that. i think i did a pretty good job. it is long enough but too short to part...yessss. yeah so mexico is crazy awesome. the drivers here are crazy and take the lines on the roads more as suggestions. people and dogs roam the streets including the highways. i saw a semi tipped over on the side of the high way and all of the fruit was spilled on the road. i got a picture of it but i don´t have my camera with me cause i didn´t know that we would becoming here. the place where we live is really nice and we actually have a balcony and a hammock. no washing machine and only one burner on a little portable stove to cook with. peanut butter is ridiculously expensive here!! you know the people that rome around bakersfield selling random stuff and honking there horns and whatever to get peoples attention..this is definitely where they come from. there are constantly people driving around playing their little jingle over their loudspeaker or honking their horn or just straight up yelling to get your attention that they are coming near your house. they sell jugs of water, gass, bread, and other random stuff. it is also crazy seeing the police drive buy cause they are pretty much the army, they all carry around rifles and drive around in a normal truck with officers standing
in the bed. don´t worry though, because everything is completely chill where i am. i have felt completely safe the whole time that i have been here. mom we have this investigator named judith who has cancer and i want to get her something small to help her out but i don´t know what have any suggestions? alright well i have to go cause i only have a couple minutes left (back to 30 min computer time) and i stilll have to write my letter to the president. i love you all and i pray for you. the church is true!
your missionary,
elder may
Manzanillo-- Jan 17, 2011
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:15:19 -0600
Subject: Manzanillo
From: david.may@myldsmail.net
To: sillyvictor@gmail.com; ashleyruthmay@hotmail.com; ruthmayrn@hotmail.com; rachaelbrooke@gmail.com
I have arrived safely to guadalajara, and have met my president and everything. My first area is in Manzanillo and I am heading over there tomorrow morning. My mission president is president saucedo and is really nice, and Mexico is awesome! It is nice to be somewhere where it is warm!!! The assistants to the presidents met us at the airport and we headed out to the saucedo´s house and they fed us a mexican rendition of spaghetti and meatballs called albondigas and a smoothie type drink called agua de fruta, which was bomb. Then we had crepes with cream cheese and and jelly which was way good. They kept wanting me to eat more but i had already eaten so much that i felt like i was going to explode. President Saucedo doesn´t speak english and advises us to do the same. He says that if we will memorize a scripture a day that we can be fluent in a month. I have to go but here is a revised address that is more correct.
Elder David May
Misión Mexico Guadalajara
Volcán Vesubio 5106
Col. El Colli
Zapopan Jalisco C.P. 45070
Subject: Manzanillo
From: david.may@myldsmail.net
To: sillyvictor@gmail.com; ashleyruthmay@hotmail.com; ruthmayrn@hotmail.com; rachaelbrooke@gmail.com
I have arrived safely to guadalajara, and have met my president and everything. My first area is in Manzanillo and I am heading over there tomorrow morning. My mission president is president saucedo and is really nice, and Mexico is awesome! It is nice to be somewhere where it is warm!!! The assistants to the presidents met us at the airport and we headed out to the saucedo´s house and they fed us a mexican rendition of spaghetti and meatballs called albondigas and a smoothie type drink called agua de fruta, which was bomb. Then we had crepes with cream cheese and and jelly which was way good. They kept wanting me to eat more but i had already eaten so much that i felt like i was going to explode. President Saucedo doesn´t speak english and advises us to do the same. He says that if we will memorize a scripture a day that we can be fluent in a month. I have to go but here is a revised address that is more correct.
Elder David May
Misión Mexico Guadalajara
Volcán Vesubio 5106
Col. El Colli
Zapopan Jalisco C.P. 45070
Hello from Dallas--Jan 17, 2011
hi everyone!
i am waiting at my terminal in the dallas airport. they actually had computers with free internet access, but i am on a timer. It was good hearing from everyone that i talked to on the phone earlier. sorry that i called so early! I might call again for a little bit later, but all the phones are being used right now. I feel official already because i have exchanged all of my us dollars for pesos. i even exchanged some korean money that i had left over. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good, because that means my prayers are working! i am really excited to head out to mexico, even though that means no more english for almost 2 years. maybe i will start writing all of my letters and emails in spanish so that all of you will learn spanish too. thank you for all of your support! i am definitely going to get some pics out as soon as i can so that everyone can see what it is like where i am. For those who didn't already know, i have already baptized one person. His name is jose santiago. He is such a good guy. he has actually been going to church for the past year and just now finally got baptized...isn't that crazy? well i only have a few minutes left so... i love you all and i am praying for you. How about this, who ever sends me the coolest package in the next two weeks, i will send you some thing cool from mexico! haha i will talk to you all later.
i am waiting at my terminal in the dallas airport. they actually had computers with free internet access, but i am on a timer. It was good hearing from everyone that i talked to on the phone earlier. sorry that i called so early! I might call again for a little bit later, but all the phones are being used right now. I feel official already because i have exchanged all of my us dollars for pesos. i even exchanged some korean money that i had left over. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good, because that means my prayers are working! i am really excited to head out to mexico, even though that means no more english for almost 2 years. maybe i will start writing all of my letters and emails in spanish so that all of you will learn spanish too. thank you for all of your support! i am definitely going to get some pics out as soon as i can so that everyone can see what it is like where i am. For those who didn't already know, i have already baptized one person. His name is jose santiago. He is such a good guy. he has actually been going to church for the past year and just now finally got baptized...isn't that crazy? well i only have a few minutes left so... i love you all and i am praying for you. How about this, who ever sends me the coolest package in the next two weeks, i will send you some thing cool from mexico! haha i will talk to you all later.
Salt Lake City here I come! Jan 10, 2011
Ok so first and foremost my new mailing address is:
3487 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106-2951
Utah is cold! No me gusta! Luckily there was an elder who accidently left some gloves and a beanie at our house so I used them for the past couple of days. I am in a tri-panionship with two elders, Elders Flaquer and Gomez, who are both from Spain. Luckily one of them actually speaks english pretty well. It is helping my spanish out a lot having fluent companions, but there accent throws me off sometimes. We live with a bishop who is like 90 years old, and i don't know his name. I get really confused with our investigators because they are all Jose, or Santiago, or Jesus, or Carlos, or Juan Carlos. My first Sunday here they had the elders sing Called to Serve in sacrament meeting, and i didn't even know until my companion starting going up to the podium and tapped me on the shoulder to follow him. Apparently the bishop said it earlier on in the meeting but I can't understand him because he talks fast (just like everyone else). We have two investigators that we are preparing for baptism, one might get baptized this Saturday. This week went by really fast, even though I was shivering pretty much the whole time. Haha JK. Sorry but i didn't get any letters out this week, because i was too distracted by everything. I will try to get some pics out next week. I am trying to be more specific in my prayers so if anyone has something that they would like me to pray for don't hesitate to email it to me. Can someone figure out what Dads email and mailing address is and send them to me please. Anyways...that is pretty much all I can think of right now. This past week was pretty much a blur! Mom, Elder Flaquer wants to know where you got that wooden puzzle of the plan of salvation. He thinks it is really cool. So yeah...I am glad that the area that i am in is relatively small, because we walk everywhere. The walking has its benefits though. The food here has been amazing so far! It has been a long time since I have had real mexican food! We just got done eating lunch at this little deli called Apple Spice, and they gave us our meals for free because we were missionaries. Alright...I love all of you, and I am praying for you! Thank you for all of your support!
Your Missionary,
Elder May
3487 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106-2951
Utah is cold! No me gusta! Luckily there was an elder who accidently left some gloves and a beanie at our house so I used them for the past couple of days. I am in a tri-panionship with two elders, Elders Flaquer and Gomez, who are both from Spain. Luckily one of them actually speaks english pretty well. It is helping my spanish out a lot having fluent companions, but there accent throws me off sometimes. We live with a bishop who is like 90 years old, and i don't know his name. I get really confused with our investigators because they are all Jose, or Santiago, or Jesus, or Carlos, or Juan Carlos. My first Sunday here they had the elders sing Called to Serve in sacrament meeting, and i didn't even know until my companion starting going up to the podium and tapped me on the shoulder to follow him. Apparently the bishop said it earlier on in the meeting but I can't understand him because he talks fast (just like everyone else). We have two investigators that we are preparing for baptism, one might get baptized this Saturday. This week went by really fast, even though I was shivering pretty much the whole time. Haha JK. Sorry but i didn't get any letters out this week, because i was too distracted by everything. I will try to get some pics out next week. I am trying to be more specific in my prayers so if anyone has something that they would like me to pray for don't hesitate to email it to me. Can someone figure out what Dads email and mailing address is and send them to me please. Anyways...that is pretty much all I can think of right now. This past week was pretty much a blur! Mom, Elder Flaquer wants to know where you got that wooden puzzle of the plan of salvation. He thinks it is really cool. So yeah...I am glad that the area that i am in is relatively small, because we walk everywhere. The walking has its benefits though. The food here has been amazing so far! It has been a long time since I have had real mexican food! We just got done eating lunch at this little deli called Apple Spice, and they gave us our meals for free because we were missionaries. Alright...I love all of you, and I am praying for you! Thank you for all of your support!
Your Missionary,
Elder May
Happy New Year--Jan 3, 2011
yeah so basically I am going to get reassigned for sure. There is an elder in our district who knows someone who works at the Mexican consolate and she said that they are going to be closed for all of january for some reason...ugh. oh well hopefully i will get temporarily reassigned somewhere warm because i'm not well aquiped for the cold. :( So i can't sign for my "VISA" until they open back up. yeah sorry i've been focusing on how much time i have on my meeter than on my spelling jeesh! It stinks cause there is an elder who actually got his visa and he can't sign for it cause they are closed. I was wondering if someone could send me dad's address? So everything else is going pretty good. My teacher Hno coles came back from christmas break and my other teacher is leaving. this week we pretty much just have a bunch of extra time for teaching and studying since we are technically not supposed to be here. We went to a diparture meeting yesterday and it made me jealous of everyone that gets to leave straight for their country. It was funny though cause there were a bunch of elders going to mexico and none of us have our visas yet. we sang 'God be with you til we meet agian' at the end of the meeting and the person playing the piano was playing like 4 times too fast and everyone (especially the foreign missionaries) had a really hard time keeping up. It was pretty funny. I've heard that the top 3 hardest visas to get are for mexico (the hardest), spain, and brazil. Pray for me to get my visa, especially if i get reassigned somewhere cold! We took a spanish grammar test the other day and i got an 89% compared to the 45-69% that everyone else was getting. I was two questions away from getting the highest score in the class, oh well there is always next time. So all of my teachers tell me that BYU starts up tomorrow, good luck Ash. You'll do great! it is funny to hear about elders who have girlfriends that are waiting for them and are going to BYU. Everyone makes fun of them saying that they're going to get married in a couple of weeks. Well i love all of you! I will try to let you guys know as far ahead as i can when i get my travel plans so we can coordinate a phone call! I am praying for all of you and i hope that you can all accoplish your new years resolutions! One of the things that I am focusing on during the new year is the Be attitudes given by Christ. Hopefully we can all be more like christ this year! I love all of you and i am so thankful for all of your support! Keep it coming.haha. But seriously.
Your Missionary,
Elder May
Your Missionary,
Elder May
Last week--Dec 27, 2010
This is supposed to be my last week at the MTC. No word on the vistas yet, they said our names are in for re assignment. the official word comes this wednesday at 4 if we got our vistas. I really want to get my vista! hey so i was in the store the other day and i saw the bags of new stuff for new mish and i saw ben estill's bag, isn't that crazy. I am going to be hosting on the day that he comes in so maybe i can show him around. Yeah so i feel really fat cause all i ever eat is junk and my cloths are getting tighter. I can't waite to get down to mexico and eat the food there, and actually be able to walk around all day. We basically sit all day here. Christmas was way cool here. We got to here from Russell M. Nelson 3 times. Twice on christmas and in preisthood meeting on sunday. He gave us 2 apostolic blessings and some really good notes. Did you ever think that it is a sin to fear...cause Jesus commanded us to "fear not". thank you again to everyone for the presents, I had an awsome christmas! i am not sure what day i would call home if i didn't get my vista and i guess i would just call mom's cell phone. I will try to give everyone notice if i do get to call. I am really missing the temple cause it has been closed for the past two weeks for cleaning. My district actually got to go in to clean it this morning it was pretty cool. I think the only way to really become proficient in any language is to immerse yourself in it. I can speak and understand really well, i just don't speak it enough here. I want to be able to impress my mission pres when i get there though so i am practicing my pronunciation. one of our teachers was showing us the difference between the accents of mexico and ecuador the other day, it was so funny cause i noticed as soon as he started speaking in the mexican accent and it immediatly reminded me of bakersfield and all of the mexicans there. Haha Talk to you next week. I love all of you and i hope that all of you had a merry christmas. Mom tell your cousin that i am praying for his family. I am definitely praying for all of you tambien!
Your missionary,
Elder May
P.S i love pictures :)
Your missionary,
Elder May
P.S i love pictures :)
Merry Christmas Dec 20, 2010
It kinda stinks that i can't call home for christmas...oh well. I might get my travel plans this thursday, fingers crossed. I haven't really checked up on my vista yet. Haha i saw brandon carter here...the missionary who spoke the same day as garrett. He was sent to st george for like 5 months while he waited for his vista and then he came back to the mtc cause he finally got it. it was so crazy. maybe that is why i had to waite so long to come here cause vistas were just not coming through over the summer. the district before him had to be permanently reassigned. that would not be cool! I have been hearing that vistas are getting better cause a member of the 70 went down and spoke with someone though. Man everone is getting there mission calls back home the bishop told me about caesar and marco and ben and there are probably more. Sorry for not sending letters last week i stuck them in my drawer and then forgot to mail them. so when you get them the date will be crossed out haha. Ashley...I was on my way to go on the temple walk when you were up here then me and my companion decided not to and to go to chior instead haha. I think it would have been really weird to see you and the twins up there. they tell us to avoid that but a missionary in my zone got ambushed twice by his family yesterday haha. thank you to everyone for all of the letters and stuff. I ran out of soap so i could use another bar. not too much though cause hopefully i won't be here for that much longer. thanks for the piano book, I have already learned how to play noche de luz. I am excited to see who is going to speak on christmas...hopefully it is someone really cool. yesterday this guy came and did this whole monolog for willard richards it was so good then we sang we thank the o god for a profet after, it was way cool. So my district is officially the oldest one in my zone. that is so crazy. I think it is going to be even more crazy when i am in mexico though. Oh yeah i discovered that there are like four little islands in my mission. I don't think a lot of people live there but it is still a possibility. I hope i get sent somewhere where there are friendly monkeys not those mean ones that attack you and throw their feces at you. my teacher showed us a pic of his pet monkey when he was on his mish that would wake him up every morning. His name was martín he was so cute. It has finally started snowing here, it is crazy the weather has actually been really warm up til this point. well i love all of you and i hope that you all have a safe and merry christmas!!!
your missionary,
Elder Mayo
your missionary,
Elder Mayo
3 weeks left--Dec 13, 2010
hola familia,
Man i can't beleive that i only have 3 weeks left time is going by way fast...at least its going faster than when i was waiting to get here. I can't really think of anything that i really need for christmas but i am always excepting sweet ties! The polyester retro ones are the best! I have pretty much gotten into the routine here and barely have to look at my schedule anymore. one of my teachers is already saying his goodbyes because he is leaving for christmas break. I guess he needs a longer break anyways since he just barely got engaged like a week ago...he still doesn't want to introduce her to us haha. I am amazed at how muched i lucked out with my teachers. it seems like everyone else is jealous of my district. We have 3 converts in our district(although 1 already left for the peru mtc). that is so crazy cause they are the only converts in the zone. You can learn so much from a convert. it seems like we focus so hard on trying to get them to understand what we are talking about but all of them stated that they were confused during the their discussions with the missionaries and that the only reason why they decided to be baptised was because they felt the spirit so strong and they had a ton of support from members. It is crazy how much of a process convertion is, and everyone in the church plays a part. I have heard stories of people that had strong testimonies then they went to church and weren't fellowshiped by the members and fell away. I have also heard stories of people that were completely against the church until they see the support that the members of the church display. they see their children or grandchildren being accepted by all the kids in primary and their hearts are softened and they start to gain a testimony. Don't ever forget how strong an influence you can have on a person for good or for bad. Remember others and love and accept them for who they are. Show charity and service especially during this christmas season. I think people are too blinded by all of the sparkles, lights, trees, presents, treats, and snow to see the real reason that we even celebrate this holiday in the first place...Jesus Christ. If you are stumped on what kind of present you should get someone then you should turn to the scriptures and look at the gifts that christ gives to people. I encourage everyone to do a blind act of charity this christmas season, cause not only will it bless their life it will bless yours as well because you will start to better comprehend the unconditional love that the savior has. I love all of you and hope that all of you will be safe during this christmas season. I am constantly praying for each of you! Thank you for your continual love and support!
your missionary,
Elder May
Man i can't beleive that i only have 3 weeks left time is going by way fast...at least its going faster than when i was waiting to get here. I can't really think of anything that i really need for christmas but i am always excepting sweet ties! The polyester retro ones are the best! I have pretty much gotten into the routine here and barely have to look at my schedule anymore. one of my teachers is already saying his goodbyes because he is leaving for christmas break. I guess he needs a longer break anyways since he just barely got engaged like a week ago...he still doesn't want to introduce her to us haha. I am amazed at how muched i lucked out with my teachers. it seems like everyone else is jealous of my district. We have 3 converts in our district(although 1 already left for the peru mtc). that is so crazy cause they are the only converts in the zone. You can learn so much from a convert. it seems like we focus so hard on trying to get them to understand what we are talking about but all of them stated that they were confused during the their discussions with the missionaries and that the only reason why they decided to be baptised was because they felt the spirit so strong and they had a ton of support from members. It is crazy how much of a process convertion is, and everyone in the church plays a part. I have heard stories of people that had strong testimonies then they went to church and weren't fellowshiped by the members and fell away. I have also heard stories of people that were completely against the church until they see the support that the members of the church display. they see their children or grandchildren being accepted by all the kids in primary and their hearts are softened and they start to gain a testimony. Don't ever forget how strong an influence you can have on a person for good or for bad. Remember others and love and accept them for who they are. Show charity and service especially during this christmas season. I think people are too blinded by all of the sparkles, lights, trees, presents, treats, and snow to see the real reason that we even celebrate this holiday in the first place...Jesus Christ. If you are stumped on what kind of present you should get someone then you should turn to the scriptures and look at the gifts that christ gives to people. I encourage everyone to do a blind act of charity this christmas season, cause not only will it bless their life it will bless yours as well because you will start to better comprehend the unconditional love that the savior has. I love all of you and hope that all of you will be safe during this christmas season. I am constantly praying for each of you! Thank you for your continual love and support!
your missionary,
Elder May
Half way--Dec 6, 2010
hey so i am half way! that is so crazy it has gone by so fast. i have already seen two mish go home one cause his grandma and the other cause his health. I love being able to go to the temple every week. they put alll of the christmas lights up here and it looks so good. I feel like this christmas i am really gonna learn the true meaning of christmas. I hope all of you can remember Christ during this special time of year. don't get to caught up in the crazyness and show love to people. My goal is to do something nice for someone everyday without them knowing that it was me. I watched the joseph smith movie last night, it was so good! Don't take this the wrong way but i am not homesick at all. I will always remember elder holland when he said that any reason that we have to be homesick is an even better reason to serve with all of my heart! I absolutely love singing christmas songs, especially in spanish! I was going to try to send you guys pics last week but the line to print them out is always so long that i didn't have any time. i will get you guys some pics this week though. thank you for all of the mail that i have been getting. Mom that little calender book is perfect! Ashley if you are going to send me food don't drop it off cause they will sniff it out and throw it away. i will send you letter that says exactly when the mail gets here so that you can send it fresh! I love all of you guys so much and i am constantly praying for you. good luck with your finals ashley and rachael. Happy birthday Rachael, i hope that it was great! niki tell ella and jake thank you for the pictures, they are hanging on my wall. sorry i this one is going to be a little short. I love all of you so much! I will try to write more to all of you.
Almost a month--Nov 29, 2010
ok so i have almost been here a month now...thats crazy! i feel like i havn't been here for that long, but then again i feel like i have been here forever. guess what, on thanksgiving jeffrey r holland came and spoke to us and i got almost a front row seat. he said that thanksgiving is a good time to think about family and he said that for thanksgiving we were all apart of the holland family. he had all of his grandkids sing a primary song and he told us to picture them as our nieces and nephews. it was pretty cool. then he gave a really cool talk about why we should never be homesick because every reason we would have to be homesick is even a better reason to serve a mission. he said that the more we preach the name of jesus christ the more he preaches our name to heavenly father. it was pretty cool. we had more of a thanksgiving lunch than dinner because all of the workers go home for dinner and so we had a sack dinner. haha. sounds like you guys are taking pretty good care of gus. :) its wierd...they keep preaching to us that learning languages is extremely hard and everyone is saying how hard spanish is and that they all scared for when they have to speak spanish constantly, but i don't have any fear at all. I am totally comfortable at the rate i am learning spanish and i know that if the time comes when i am left speachless the lord will fill my mouth with inspired words. spanish is so easy to me, I always compare it to other languages. spanish has so many cognates its practically like speaking english with an accent. One time that is exactly what i did, i spoke with a thick mexican accent and mixed in some spanglish and everyone in my class thought i was fluently speaking....haha i was like good thing there is the gift of tongues cause you guys really need it. spanish has universal pronunciation, so you will always know how to pronounce and even spell everything unlike english. i always think of those kids who have to learn languages like russian and finish, and i feel like i have it pretty easy. so for christmas i wan't a how to play piano book(a small lightweight one) and a calander cause i always lose track of what day it is. there is a saying the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. i couldn't explain the way i feel anymore than that. haha. i can't think of anything else right now, maybe a little bit of christmasy stuff to put around my room. i am always talking to the missionaries going to korea and i say that i have been there and i talk it up, but i always like to see the fat ones get nervous when i tell them how it smells like low tide at every meal. LOL. i had a scripture that i was going to give you for my mission plack but i forgot i will send it in my next letter with some pics. i love you all!!!!!
Your missionary
Elder May
Your missionary
Elder May
Week 3 Nov 22, 2010
Mom: Thank you for all of your letters. I have gotten two packages with chips and salsa so far so i'm guessing that you are telling everyone to send me that. haha all of my room mates think that is funny cause they are getting candy and stuff and here i am eating my chips and salsa, but then they get jealous cause we eat lunch and 430 and don't go to bed til 1030 so everyone gets hungry. It has started snowing...i need gloves. haha it is so weird to live where it snows, if you're not alert then they float right into your eye and melt which is the weirdest feeling ever. I think everyone knows who the missionaries are who arn't used to the snow cause they are shivering the hardest and trying to dodge the snowflakes. I am still searching to find a really good scrip for my plack, i wanted to have it by now so that i could just email it to you. i guess i ll just write you. i will go and print my pics today and send those too. hey can you send me some of my regular socks and my black k-swiss shoes? i am using church socks for gym and the gym shoes i brought are not good with the gym floor. The devotionals here are so good i need to send you some of my notes, i can't think of them off the top of my head right now. I think my two new favorite hymns are if you could high to kolab and god of our fathers. they sound so sweet with all of the missionaries singing and the organ blasting so lound that with the vibrations you might think godzilla is coming. I learn so much everytime i go to the temple, i am really learning to love it! I promise you that you can learn everything about this gospel in the temple. I encourage you to go to the temple as much as you can! I love you so much and I am praying for you!
Ashley,
I love you! I am so excited for you to go to BYU! maybe while you are there you can go to the mtc and throw goodies over the fence haha jk....really don't cause i would prob get in trouble. ok so i had all of this stuff that i wanted to tell you and now that i am on the clock i can't remember so i will write you a letter later. Just remember that i am praying for you and the lord always wants what is best for you, so pray in faith and ask for it with a sincere heart.
Rachael,
It was funny when i first got here because all of the sister mish reminded me of you. it was so weird cause i kept expecting you to walk around a corner with your comp and see me and give me a hug. Ok it is so hard not to hug the sisters cause they are so awesome and we had some sis leaving today and they were all sad cause they were going to miss us and i really wanted to give them a hug but i couldn't. Man i really wish that i would have learned how to play piano befor i came here. this one guy was like busting out som mad skills earlier today playing that holeluyaih song from shrek. OK i don't know how to spell that. I love you so much and i pray for you every night. I know it is probably hard but i hope that you never forget the way that you felt when you were on your mish cause it is what i am feeling right now and it is beautiful. I love you
Janiece,
How was you birthday? How was becketts? sorry i didn't send you anything ill make sure to do that when i get some cool stuff down in mexico. I love you so much and i am so thankful for your testimony and example to me. we get to watch church movies on sunday night and everytime i see the joseph smith one i think of you and how i saw you balling after we went and saw it for the first time. ok i am really running out of time so i love you
niki,
thank you som uch for the package. I love you so much and i am praying for you. tell everyone i love them and take care of yourself. I hope someday that you can feel the love of this gospel that i feel. tell dad that i love him and that i am praying for him.
just remember that i pray for each of you specifically by name and i love you so much
Ashley,
I love you! I am so excited for you to go to BYU! maybe while you are there you can go to the mtc and throw goodies over the fence haha jk....really don't cause i would prob get in trouble. ok so i had all of this stuff that i wanted to tell you and now that i am on the clock i can't remember so i will write you a letter later. Just remember that i am praying for you and the lord always wants what is best for you, so pray in faith and ask for it with a sincere heart.
Rachael,
It was funny when i first got here because all of the sister mish reminded me of you. it was so weird cause i kept expecting you to walk around a corner with your comp and see me and give me a hug. Ok it is so hard not to hug the sisters cause they are so awesome and we had some sis leaving today and they were all sad cause they were going to miss us and i really wanted to give them a hug but i couldn't. Man i really wish that i would have learned how to play piano befor i came here. this one guy was like busting out som mad skills earlier today playing that holeluyaih song from shrek. OK i don't know how to spell that. I love you so much and i pray for you every night. I know it is probably hard but i hope that you never forget the way that you felt when you were on your mish cause it is what i am feeling right now and it is beautiful. I love you
Janiece,
How was you birthday? How was becketts? sorry i didn't send you anything ill make sure to do that when i get some cool stuff down in mexico. I love you so much and i am so thankful for your testimony and example to me. we get to watch church movies on sunday night and everytime i see the joseph smith one i think of you and how i saw you balling after we went and saw it for the first time. ok i am really running out of time so i love you
niki,
thank you som uch for the package. I love you so much and i am praying for you. tell everyone i love them and take care of yourself. I hope someday that you can feel the love of this gospel that i feel. tell dad that i love him and that i am praying for him.
just remember that i pray for each of you specifically by name and i love you so much
Week 2--Nov 15, 2010
Man i can't believe i have been here for 2 weeks already time has flown by. i am getting used to the schedule and i love it here. i was talking to someone who had been here for 3 months and was about to leave and they were saying how it was weird that they were leaving that they had almost forgoten that they actually had somewhere to go ahah that is crazy but i can totally understand because i feel like i am going to be here forever...the devotional yesterday was awsome it was by some guy named mark lusvardi. he was an amazing speaker and really entertaining my companion and i got really excited that we were going to mexico after he was speaking cause we know that that is where we are ment to serve. everything is going good here. i am one of the strongest spanish speakers in my class which is cool cause they all come to me with there questions, i do need to study the scriptures more though cause there are a few guys who could totally school me in the doctrine. so my class and i are convinced that my teacher hermano coles is one of the three nephites! haha he is so amazingly smart and is only 23. we think of questions that we could ask him all day and he does so effortlessly and in a simple and profound way. there is a story that he once made an elder think so hard that the kid got a nosebleed! haha idk if i believe that one. thank you to everyone for all of the letters and packages. I love getting mail! especially when everyone else gets made that most of the mail is for me.lol is that bad? lol It might take me a little longer to get back to everyone though. it has been snowing slush a lot lately....miserable. i hate the cold i am so glad that my mission is somewhere where it is hot all the time. i also can't find any spicy food in the cafeteria i tried to load up this wrap that i got with jalapenos and a habenero sauce and it still wasn't hot haha. well i only have 3 minutes left to email so i just want to tell everyone that i love them so much and that i know that this gospel is true and it so amazing. my testimony grows exponentially every day that i am here and i know why that i had to wait 4 months to come here so that i could be with my teachers and my companions. isn't crazy that my whole district had to wait just as long if not longer that me!! well i love you guys a ton. write me letters! :) god be with you til we meet again.
your missionary
elder may
your missionary
elder may
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