Wesley's Letter 4-23-12

¿Ba'ax caualík sokuum'o?

Elder Hansen, no stinkin way! Once I heard that Josh was heading down here to Maya-landia for his mish I literally yelled NO WAY in the public internet-server. My comp wondered why, and I told him that someone from my ward is going to be serving in my mission. Ahhh no way, that’s way too cool for school! I’m super psyched.

Yo Joshy-boy, send me a letter with a list of questions and I’ll tell you all you need to know about where you’re going to serve and how you can be prepared.

Trust me it’ll be pretty useful and I highly recommend you start studying Spanish now and maybe even Maya. I really hope you spend most of your mission in the state of Yucatan so you come home super Maya. The sad thing about Cancun is that it’s a tourist zone so all of the people here are from other parts of Mexico, so although all the white missionaries here can speak Spanish almost none have accents. I’ve lost most of mine.

Yep, well here’s some more news from here in Cancun (oh ya sorry Cancun means snake pit, not land of snakes, my bad) Ok, well this week we didn’t baptize anyone :( but that’s ok because this next week we have 3 planned and yesterday we found a family that had been investigating the Pentecost church for 3 years and just by going one time to our church they knew it was true, so that’ll be mega tight if they all get baptized.

Also this week Elder Anderson stopped by to say what up to all the missionaries. We had 8 missionaries stay in our house including the assistants to the president, so that was mega chill sauce. It’s pretty funny talking to the missionaries who came from Merida because they all had super thick Mayan accents.

When one of the other missionaries was kneeling down supporting himself on his hammock I put a little peace of ham on his back and our cat jumped on him to get it and startled him half to death! It was pretty funny.

Ok, well I really liked what Elder Anderson said to us. He even spoke in Spanish. He actually speaks more French so when he spoke Spanish he had kind of a French accent, but the message was the important part. He told us that the missionaries that come to the mission to just have baptisms had come with a frankly pathetic understanding of what missionary service was. And I liked that a lot because there are some missionaries here with mostly that goal. So yeah, that was my favorite thing he said. I also got to go up and shake his hand and everything!

Never in all my time here have I seen my mission president look uncertain until when he went up in front of an Apostle to introduce him and to bare his testimony, I actually recognized the fear in his eyes that he might mess up.

So, most of these pictures are of some of the other missionaries from my generation and me. Also, of us in a minivan on our way to the house with all the other missionaries that were going to stay with us.

Don’t worry the rabbits didn’t get hurt, that is how they hold rabbits here.

Hey tell Alec he needs to write me again, he’s completely stopped for like 3 months and it’s super sad.

Much love-Smith out

Wesley's Letter 4-16-12

¿Que pasiones les dominan carnales? Sup FAM so guess what?... Trasero de pollo!

But seriously all these pics are from my new camera whoooooooopppyyyyyyy! And it’s pretty chill. It’s nice but not too nice. It’s a Nikon.

Anyway I’m psyched to hear about some more news and what not. Tell the Dustins thanks for sending me that letter! And I’m still psyched about Matt’s mish call.

So, this is what’s been real here in Maya-Landia.
This week we baptized an 18 year old named Ana,, so that was pretty cool. Her brother is now working on going on a mission and getting his mom baptized.

Also this week I think I’m finally starting to gain weight again I’ve been eating a lot more protein so that’s good.

This morning we’ve been Rush Limbaughing to clean the house for what will probably be 10 missionaries staying in our 2 room house, so that’ll be chill.

Yesterday we found another super investigator who can be baptized within a week. His wife is a member and before he’s even baptized they have been making plans for getting married in the temple.

Even though the mission is easier here in Cancun because of the better weather, more laid back people, and the convenience of the modern world, like Wal-Mart and stuff, I can’t lie, being in little towns or villages is pretty cool too, because of the experiences and culture. Not that there aren’t cool or funny cultural things that happen here, because obviously there are, but those stories don’t happen in here as much as in Mérida or beyo xaan pueblo’s (the small villages in Maya Spanish)
So, I hope I can be sent back to Mérida at least one more time before se acabe la mision.

So yep we’ll see what happens before this transfers over in 2 weeks and who will be my next comp. Hope he’s not white, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, also in other news these last 2 weeks, I’ve been kind of sick so it's pretty much elbowed my verbalized Spanish in the jaw. I’m speaking like a genuine gringo, anyway, I’m off like a Yucateco's seat belt.

Smith out

Wesley's Letter 4-9-12

¿Que honda se man? I’m just kickin it here in Cancun as usual, liven the life.

Hey, tell Matt Passmore I’m bummed he’s not coming to the Mexico Merida Mission, but he should be super syked he got the second best mission call in the world!

And tell every one of my friends they’re dropping the ball by not writing me a letter. If you guys really think you would, if you had time, its obvious you’ve never served a mission because if you did you would really know what it’s like to literally not have any time! I want to hear from da peeps Breh!

Ok, well this week down here in Maya Land has been pretty chill teaching with the spirit and all that.

I’ll tell you who I’m teaching but I can’t say what their circumstances are and they’re stories are because that’s against mission periodical, and it’s a lack of respect to my investigators. I’m teaching a 30 year old named Ana Cecilia and her son, also a different Ana and her mom, a 24 year old named Yesica, Artemio, Alejandra, Rosalinda, Fernando, Nestor, Dulce, etc.
Alli esta hahaha

This week I’ve been kind of sick with the cold so I’ve been speaking some horrible Spanish with zero accent.

There’s my newsletter for the week. I’ll be talking to you guys by telephone pretty soon, on Mothers Day.

Sorry this was short but time is of the essence :(

Elder Smith

Wesley's Letter 4-2-12

¿Que transita por tus venas familia mia?

Ya, I’m pretty Chilango. So guess what? Little Jorge got baptized this Friday. That was the fastest baptism I’ve seen yet in the mission, in only 6 days whoo! This Sunday we should be baptizing a young woman. Her story is pretty sad because right now she’s about 6 or 7 months pregnant, her boyfriend abandoned her, and all of her family, live in Chiapas. So she feels pretty abandoned, but she’s accepted the gospel and she’s been smiling a lot more since the first day when we found her.

This mission is a perfect example of a modernizing world meeting a traditional culture. What I see a lot of here are little wooden huts with palm leaf roofs, sandwiched between two 4 or 5 story international style apartment buildings. Also, little huts with satellite dishes and when you enter the house they have a 46-inch plasma screen TV.

When I said Yucatecos are the rednecks of Mexico I really mean it haha, because they all love wrestling haha!

So today I was eating chorizo eggs and beans for breakfast and I realized I was eating it with a ton of habanero sauce and it wasn’t even spicy. I thought I was some hot stuff but when I asked one of the ward members if there was anything hotter than the habanero. He said habanero doesn’t even come close to the hottest and he gave me a suggestion to look up the Maya kuut pepper. Supposedly the hottest pepper in the world. Most Mayans won’t even try it, so my last day in the mish I’ve gotta give it a whirl.

Anyway after conference now I’ve decided that Elder Christopherson is my favorite apostle. This was the first time I’ve seen all 5 sessions, 4 of which were in Spanish. Also, big news, on the 17th Elder Anderson is coming to our stake center to talk to us. Every missionary in this mission will be here for a day. We’re going to have like 8 missionaries staying in our house all in hammocks so I’ll send you a pic of that later.

Psyched to hear Bear is alive. Is there any more news from home? And I got Ashley’s letter but not Alec’s yet.

So I just sent you some picks of our cat eating a lizard, us washing clothes, Jorge’s baptism, us hitching rides in truck beds and all that good stuff.

I don’t know if you’ve all noticed but I’ve gotten stupid skinny here in the mish and it’s all because of the heat, can’t wait to get back to my old fat self again.

Anyway les amo a todos de ustdes,
Elder Smitty

And hey seriously I haven’t gotten a single letter from a friend in a pretty long time, I’m dying here man.

Mom, still haven’t gotten a list of where every one is serving! Thanks for the wall posts from my birthday you sent me, it was mega chill. Just a bit of advice, you don’t have to type them you know you can just copy and paste it hahaha!

Happy birthday Bella, love you soo much.