Buenas tardes Presidente,
Esta semana mejoramos mucho en muchas cosas. Sentimos que
realmente nos esforzamos con mucha diligencia y por eso, enseñamos más y
también pudimos hacer más contactos y encontrar una hermana que estaba muy
lista a aceptarnos. La encontramos el jueves y le enseñamos sobre
"El Libro de Mormon", y despues regresamos sábado y le invitamos a
bautizarse. Aunque no dijo "sí", ella está guardando todos los
compromiso que dejamos (lectura y oraciones tanto como asistencia a la
iglesia). Estamos muy animados por eso y porque sabemos que al seguir
trabajando con diligencia, el Señor nos va a bendecir con más personas así que
realmente son los escogidos de Él. En esta semana que viene vamos a esforzarnos más por trabajar con
los miembros y llevarlos a lecciones. También, nos vamos a esforzar en
contactar usando los principios que vienen en el atributo didactica de
"Como comenzar a enseñar", y creemos que vamos a poder entrar más
casas para enseñar lecciones despues del contacto al usar esos principios que
vienen de "Predicad Mi Evangelio".
End letter to Presidente and buenas tardes family :)
Sorry--although I do still have those "Wow, I´m in Mexico"
moments still, I´ve definitely started to take for granted how different it is
here and how much I´ve adjusted to it. Thanks for the prompts :) that
does make it a little bit easier for me.
1.
In response to Jared's question about the girls and your answer last
week, Anna wants to know if there are any cute guys her age. I told her
that she would probably be taller than the boys there, but I wasn't sure.
Any answers for her?
Well, I
definitely can´t judge that one as well as Jared´s question, but I would think
so. She would probably be taller than the majority (I´m a giant here, I
love it), but in our ward I think a few of the young men are around her height
or taller. And they wouldn´t care anyway because everyone is short
here. It’s not really as big of a deal
as it is in the States. The standards of attractiveness are very
different here. Basically, the taller and whiter (not necessarily whiter,
just lighter complexion, especially if they have lighter/blondish hair) someone
is, the better looking they are. Y así es la situación. I find
it kind of humorous.
2.
Tell us some more about the food...
Food... we eat
a ton of chicken here. About every other day we eat a plate of about half
rice, a quarter vegetables, and some kind of meat (usually chicken, which is
why we eat so much of it). They prepare the meats really differently
here. They´re always covered in some
kind of sauce, which you usually mix with the rice to give it
some flavor. The other half the time we eat a variety of other
things. Taquitos, some kind of attempt at American food with a Mexican
twist (which although it usually tastes nothing like American food, is usually
pretty good), or some kind of stew.
There is also a really good kind of fried chicken that they usually
serve with a "salad" (iceberg lettuce and tomatoes) and beans or
something like that. That meal is a
favorite of mine. They also serve fish
(like the pictures we´ve seen, a whole fish with the head on just fried up and
it is really good) and sometimes enchiladas (also a huge favorite), and
sometimes mole (not the animal but a chocolate/chile kind of sauce thing),
which is usually put on chicken and rice.
I still don´t really love yet. One thing that I do love about here
though is the drinks. They blend up a fruit in water (papaya, watermelon,
and stuff like that, not apples or bananas or oranges or anything) and mix it
with sugar and it´s pretty tasty. They also make an oatmeal drink thing
where they blend up oatmeal in water and mix it with sugar--also really
good.
3.
So, I'm sure by now you have gotten attached to some of the families
in your ward. Tell us about some of them. Do you eat at a lot of
people's homes or really the same people over and over again?
You may have
to resend this again next week, because I don´t think I really have time to
talk about this right now. There are just too many families in our ward
that I love and could talk about forever. We do eat in a lot of different
homes. I think I finally have it figured out where everyone lives that we
eat with (I think there are probably about 25 houses).
4.
Do the women cook in what would seem like "normal"
kitchens to us?
Most food here
is cooked on the stove. Probably only about 40% of the Hermanas in
the ward have ovens, so that´s a big difference. The other huge
difference is the lack of a kitchen sink which is replaced with the tank and
scrub board. We use this to wash our
clothes (although I think the majority of the Hermanas have washing machines,
just not driers. Everyone here hangs
their clothes out to dry). And really, the biggest difference is that
about half the time, the kitchen in a Mexcian house is outside. So basically, no, the kitchens are not
very "normal”.
5.
You mentioned going to the "Centro" a couple of weeks ago.
Is that a market? Is it for tourists (are their tourists there?) or for
the regular Mexican people? What do you buy there?
The centro is
crazy. It´s not really for tourists... nobody there speaks English.
It´s pretty crazy though. It´s just thousands of little tents or tables
selling a million different things. That´s where I bought my hammock, and
you can really just buy whatever you would need there.
I got the first package that you sent in May this week when we had
interviews.... looks like I just barely missed the second package. :( BUT
I definitely loved getting the first one. The beef jerky is definitely a
fave, as well as the M&Ms, and I am faithfully taking my pills. Also,
I am officially a favorite of the primary children, as my tootsie pops are
already gone. There was a big demand for chile and chamoy flavored
suckers, and it was pretty funny informing them that those flavors do not exist
in the United States.
I was definitely thinking of some things this week that would be
nice, and I forgot to write them down. So, I´ll keep you posted on those
because I can´t remember what they are right now.
Also, just an update on the package that I´m trying to send to
you. The lady who makes the pulseras has
disappeared from where she was selling before, so I continue in my search for
her. Apart from that, it shouldn’t be a ton longer before I
can finally send it.
Also, just wanted to share a quick experience this week. We
had more contacts this week from trying to find people than any week since I´ve
been here. We had many, many doors shut on us this week. But, out
of all those contacts, we found one sister Thursday night that was definitely
prepared to receive us. We taught her about The Book of Mormon that
night, and left with her the pamphlet of The Restoration and 3 Nephi 11.
We came back Saturday to "teach" the restoration and she basically
taught it to us from what she had read in the pamphlet. She came to
church yesterday and then read the first 5 chapters of 1 Nephi between
church and our visit that night. She’s getting baptized the 4th of
August. The Lord definitely rewards our faith and our efforts when we
work to follow Him with diligence.
Love you all!
Con amor,
Elder Nickerl
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