Mission Blog of Elder Seymour: Sometimes I Think I Am Mexican... [Mar. 25, 2014]

Hola from México,

Before I left the MTC, it hit an all time low for the past 18 months. There were only about 700 missionaries there. So, the cafteria was very spacious and nice. It feels weird to talk about the MTC. It feels like it happened months ago even though it was only about a week.

When we were traveling to Puebla from Provo, my MTC companion lost his passport. He isn’t here with us now, but I am praying that he can get it soon because I really love it here. It is so hard to express everything that is different from the US, but I will try.

First, the people here are so nice. You can say -Buenas Tardes- to anyone and about 85% of the time they will answer back.

Second, most of the people here are religious. You can walk up to someone selling bread and have a religious discussion with them about faith or Jesus Christ. In my area, we have a decent amount of Catholics and Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is quite interesting.

Third, the food is some of the best I have ever had. This is real México, so I have not seen a single burrito or really anything that you would find at taco bell. Nothing is really that spicy and I actually seem to tolerate spice better than my companion. The tortillas are so good here. Also, the biggest meal of the day is at 2 pm and is called La Comida (food). We always have it at a member’s house and the food is always so good. At our apartment, we mostly have cereal and salchichas en una tortilla.

Fourth, my companion is from Guayaquil, Ecuador. The interesting thing about this is that I told my MTC companion that I thought my first companion would be from Guayaquil, Ecuador before we left. I have no clue why though.

Fifth, there is very little law enforcement here. Amazingly enough, they do not seem to need it here. There is not really any crime that I have seen, except perhaps on the road. There isn’t really a speed limit here. Instead, they put speed bumps if they want you to drive slowly. They also have these small buses called Combis. We have to ride these if we want to get anywhere without walking. Sometimes they get so packed with people that someone has to hang off the back. They are a lot of fun to ride though.

Sixth, no one here speaks English. I know this may seem a bit obvious, but since I got here, I have only seen one person here who is white and isn’t a missionary. Sometimes I forget that I am actually not Mexican. The language is coming along fairly well, but there are some people here that I can never seem to understand. Also the keyboard here is a bit different and it is a little annoying.

Seventh, nobody here has air conditioning or heating. It generally doesn’t matter though because the weather is always perfect and it wouldn’t do much anyway.

Eighth, they have nesquik cereal here. It’s a lot like cocoa puffs, only better.

Ninth, there seems to be no law against excessive noise here. Sometimes the people here will blast music out of their cars, and every day without fail, the gas truck will come playing the tune as it drives by… EL GAS.

I was assigned to the Fuertes area of Puebla. Our apartment is a new one that they got just for us. Unfortunately, that means that we had to do a lot of setting up. We didn’t even have a way to heat up the water when we first got here, so we couldn’t take showers. We are doing well now though. It was also hard getting started because we were added to a ward that in the past has only had two missionaries. We didn’t have an area book and we have had to do a lot of contacting and we are struggling to get new investigators, but it is going well. We just have to take it one day at a time and let the Lord guide us.

With the new additions to the apartment, we have been very tight on money because we don’t have very much at the moment. This means we don’t have much food in the apartment. However, our neighbors (who aren’t members) are super nice and they brought us some of their food at night after we got back. However, it wasn’t just a few tortillas, it was a FEAST for two people.

Words of the week: Libélula (dragonfly) and babear (to drool)

Les Amo,

Élder Seymour.