Monday, January 30, 2012

Wesley's letter 1-30-12

Hey friends and fam,

Just holdin it down here in the heart of Merida. I’m in an internet café, that’s behind a hair salon, which is behind a sunglasses/ wristwatch stand. Idk how we found it haha!

Well, once again this is going to be the last time writing you before transfers so the next letter you get from me could be from Cancun or Oxcuxcab, or I could even stay here in the same place for another 4 months but who knows?

My mom's been asking for more stories so here’s one: two days ago we were walking a member home after divisions at about 8:45pm and our curfew outside is at 9:00pm. I got a feeling that we should go visit the Hermana Bertha and as I was telling my companion the cell phone rang and what do ya know it was La Hermana Bertha and she wanted us to come to her house as quickly as possible so we told her we were already on our way.

We rushed to her house and when we got there, she came out to greet us and everything, then she invited us in to meet her niece.

Her niece was sitting on a stool weeping. We did the typical missionary stuff to calm her down and started asking her what was up. As it turns out she had a mountain of problems some of which I won’t explain in this letter because they were really messed up, what had been going on with her life.
She told us how her Aunt Bertha had explained to her the difference the gospel had made in her life along with her baptism. For her, her Aunt Bertha was the only real person in her life she could look to for help. Before we even finished the lesson she asked if us she could be baptized. We have a baptismal date for her planed the 18th of February.

I feel that a story like this has happened for the majority of the people that have been baptized in my mission and each one is unique to the individual.

Anyway I’m almost out of time so I’ll just explain some of the photos.

The one with kids fighting in the street is actually pretty funny, there was just a group of chavos hangin out in the street and when we walked by they asked us for candy we told them we have some thing better. We gave them a pamphlet and went on our way. As we looked back it turns out the kids really like Jesus because they had all started what looked like a game of keep away with the pamphlet.

There’s one where my companion is on the back of a motorcycle because the trici taxi was too full, so he had to hop on back with the rider.

I’m outa time, write me more homies,
Smith out























Monday, January 23, 2012

Sup Fam and Friends,

How you been these last seven months?

Things are getting pretty sweaty and hot again here in Mayaville. But I’ve got good news, this Saturday I baptized my first family! It was a family of five but only the parents and the oldest of their kids were old enough to be baptized. The dad bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and they’re all pretty psyched to stay firm and to get sealed in the temple in a year from now. It was actually the same family that I told you about a month ago, that heard Mormon stories and didn’t want to talk to us. I’ll send you a photo of them.

I have a lot of stories but not a lot of time and my English is pretty poopy so I can’t really explain them in the time I have so I’ll try to write a few as they come to mind.

Alright, to explain some of these photos, the one of the “puke spewingly ugly dawg” is just so “puke spewingly ugly”, naturally I took a quick snapshot of it eating garbage. Sad.

The picture of the scorpion in the hand happened when we were sitting in the house of an investigator and a scorpion, or here "Alacran", came walking into the house. The investigator’s brother who is a Mexican Green Baret said ‘Don’t worry I’ll take care of it” Then he picked the thing up by its tail like it was nothing! I took a quick picture then he just put it outside to let it go on its merry way.

The picture of me holding a bird in my hand you could say is worth two in the bush.

There’s a picture with me and Elder Higginson and other homies.

The picture of the cat up on the wood pole is because what you can’t see is that there are 2 rat dogs barking at the bottom of the pole, don’t worry the cat got away. Quick fun fact: cat in Maya is Miic (mees).


Oh ya, the picture of me and the other missionaries in sombreros is when we played ping pong today. The other kid not dressed up as a missionary is named Alfredo and he was baptized about 2 weeks ago. He already has plans for going on a mission.

I’ll try to go more in depth on the spiritual stories next week, don’t worry I have a lot of them. It’s just hard to explain them in the short amount of time I have, especially when I send pictures, but for now that’s all the time I have.

Later Cocodrillos,

ESMIT FUERA

Ps mom one thing I would love in the package is more hydro-cortisone ya things are getting awful red around here if you catch my drift. Also, I would love to know exactly which areas Casey served in and what years so if I meet one of his converts I could send him a what up.











yikes!







More lawn mowing.
















A bird in Wesley's hand

Monday, January 16, 2012

January 16, 2012

Sup FAM and Mom?

Just another week here in Mex-ville. This week has been a little more hectic crazy than the rest and I am not well rested.

I’ve got a few different funny stories this week but first I’ll explain some of the stories behind these photos.

The one of the man barbequing is of a guy from our ward who actually served in the same mission as Collin, at the same time (Elder Chan don’t know if you ever met him). Anyway he’s cooking what is the Yucateco classic Poc-chuc on a fan grid resting on a tire rim. That’s how we do barbeque in the Yucatan.

The photo of the missionary holding the puppy is Elder Soto from Bolivia and the puppy is the pet of a family we’re teaching. The way they found this puppy is they went out into the forest when they were on vacation and found it.

Actually the entire family is getting baptized this week.

The story behind Elder Soto is that when he was in Bolivia the missionaries found him and his family, however, they were all pretty devout Catholics so Elder Soto was the only one that got baptized. From that point on he started preparing for a mission, in secret, without telling his parents. Later over a few months he collected shirts and ties and luggage bags. On the day of his flight to the MTC in Peru, he was leaving his house in his suit and everything; his mom asked if he was going to one of his church meetings.
He said “sort of”
She asked when he’d be back.
“Oh, around 2013”
Every one started crying and everything. He got set apart an hour later and then went his merry way on to Peru.

The picture of the woman is la Hermana Bertha on the day of her baptism. Hermana Bertha is in 3rd Nephi now in the Book of Mormon and is a full convert and preparing for the temple to do her deceased husband’s work. So I’m pretty syked about that.

The picture of the pink house is just a fine example of Yucateco engineering. “Lets put in a second story entrance just in case we feel like building a staircase. There’s no way we’re building it now, we’re on a budget.”
That’s what they were probably thinking when they designed that house. Or they’re just some pretty messed up pranksters.

Well, one other story before I tie this up, is the other night we were waiting for our bus to take us home when a boracho comes trotting down the road in his truck bed chariot (plank of wood with a truck axel underneath being pulled by a horse, I’ll sent you a picture of one) Then with new found confidence or just wanting to show off to the Mormons, his face got stern and full of focus he threw his beer on the ground and yelled "¡Vaya Relamapago!" whipped his horse and went storming into the night passing us on his way!

That’s all for today nos vemos,
Elder Smith

Ps Tell Garrett and Matt Passmore I want their addresses so I can send them letters.











Tricky Elder Smith




Elder Soto and puppy found in the forest.




Bbq on a fan faceplate that is on top of a tire rim!




Door with no stairs




Baptism







Elder Smith the elf




Tortilla deliveryman and Elder's Quorum President

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Wesley's letter 1-10-12

Well, just shootin ya a noteski from Maya land, unfortunately I’m not going to be able to send pictures because I left my card reader at the house and I’m gonna have to write a little bit less today because we’re running late.

Anyway, how’s everyone doing? I’m doing pretty good here. We spent about 2 hours cleaning the house today with gnarly chemicals. Pretty much just sprayed acid all over the bathroom. It literally sizzles as it touches the tile floor and I still don’t think it’ll be enough. That bath room is sick!

And for stories this week there aren’t a ton. One of the guys in the ward’s tailor gave me a zoot suit from like the 50s, so that was pretty sick. I don’t think I can wear it as a missionary, but well see. Maybe I’ll just send it home to enjoy later.

This week the Hermana Bertha (Verta pronounced in español) got baptized, so that’s pretty crazy awesome! And she says she wants to go to the temple someday, so that made me super syked.

This week wasn’t really story filled. The highlight story was when this one investigator showed up to church completely boracho, so instead of letting him go to the other ward’s sacrament meeting he came with us to Elders Quorum and made a scene. Don’t worry, nothing bad, just kind of yell-talking his thoughts, so that was mostly funny.

I’ll talk to you a lot more next week,
Elder Smith

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Wesley's letter 1-2-12

Alrighty well, I thought I’d actually send you some photos this week because the computers for some reason are letting me do it now.

So this last week a lot has been happening, my Spanish has been getting worse because of my white comp, but in terms of numerical success I think this transfer is probably gonna be as good as it gets on a mission!

These last few weeks have been a little more hectic than most but that’s ok because I’ve gotten some cool stories out of it!

I know Elder Higginson pretty well now and we’re totally homies so you can tell the Holmes that. There’s a photo here of when we did division and went to a Costco so he could buy a camera and we got some pizza too, so that was chill.

Allright, I’ll explain some of the other photos, so you know what they are. One is of us, and our ward’s Bishop. The other one of the dog is just funny because it shows the dumb funny stuff that goes on here, some Padilla (gang) or something, tagged this stray dog with spray paint so naturally I had to take a picture.

These other pictures are of when we went Christmas caroling in El Centro. The photo of the three dummies is actually a pretty sweet tradition here. They are all supposed to be old men representing the year 2011 and are full of fire works! On New Years you’re supposed to light it on fire. At midnight Saturday we were both sound asleep until everyone encendió sus viajitos. Then it was about 20 minutes of the entire city going off with every sort of bombita.

The picture of the man on his vespa is our Elder’s Quorum President and that’s his business, he’s a tortilla deliveryman.

All right, I think that covers most of the photos. Oh ya, the one with the lady with the machete, that’s la hermana Valencia Espadas and she is one of the sisters in the ward that usually feeds us.

Not much more to be said. I miss you all way too much, so I need more letters. Include in the letters more news stuff. For you guys, most things now a days aren’t a big deal, but for me, I don’t have Facebook or have news readily available, so the United States could be in world war 3 and I wouldn’t know about it.

Not just world news but personal news too. I would like to know what everyone is up to these days. For me it’s a lot more interesting than you would think.

Oh, and for the 2012 end of the world “schpiel”, I’m here in Maya land so don’t worry, I’m working on it.

Much Love,
Smith out



































Wesley's letter12-26-11

Merry Christmas! What's up fam and friends?

As it turns out I’m still in Kukulcan, but Elder Villanueva left for Cancun. I’m now with an Elder Southwick From Utah, he’s pretty chill sauce and I’m pretty sure well get along well. That means now I have my first gringo compañero so my Spanish will probably get bad this transfer.

Anyway, it was awesome talking to you all yesterday! A few more things I want you all to tell me are: whenever some kid in the stake is going to serve a mission, I want to know who and where, so be sure to tell me everything about that. Also, whenever someone comes home from a mission, or gets married I want to hear it, so please write me about that stuff because it’s what I wanna hear.

Unfortunately the computer I’m using isn’t letting me up load photos so I’m sorry because this week I did take some outrageous pics.

This week not a ton happened. Our President organized a big lunch talent show for all of the missionaries in Mérida and Campeche, so that was pretty fun. Everyone had to do a talent so I played a big 10 gallon water jug as a drum and it actually worked pretty well. After that, my zone all went to El Centro and sang Christmas carols. It was pretty sweet because we all wore Santa hats and I got a few cool pictures of us in front of a big Spanish era cathedral with palm trees, which created a nice tropical Christmas clash. You’ll like those photos.

Well, I don’t have a lot of time this week or that much to write so be sure to write me this week because I love hearing from you.
Elder Wes Smith