Wesley's Letter 1-21-13

Guess who?

It’s Wes. So this last week has been pretty crazy awesome sauce. My comp and I, for about a week and a half, have been going back and forth in busses and combis (to Merida), until just recently we found a gigantic awesome house. Actually mom that’s the reason I pulled out money the other day. It was so I could make the down payment on the house, but don’t worry the mission has already paid me back for it. But yeah, the house is really really awesome! We have a mango tree and a coconut tree in the back.

Yeah so, like I said Motul is about as rural as it gets. I have had several lessons where I teach in Spanish and a native translator translates it into Maya. We’ve been having a lot of success here, and I mean a lot! Almost every person we’ve talked to has accepted a baptismal date. But beyond that I feel that over all our teaching has been pretty awesome here. At almost every lesson there has been an undeniable spirit that what we are teaching is true.

I’m psyched because here I’m sure I’ll be trying my first plate of Iguana haha. There’s a member here that’s always super psyched about making us Yucatecan plates of funky stuff, but the one where we told him yes was the one about Iguana. So I’ll let you know more about that when it actually goes down.

Man, I can’t explain why, but there really is something beautiful about being in the small towns here (pueblos) because we’re always traveling and even though we don’t have much time because of all of the traveling we still are having a lot of success. I don’t know how to explain it but the humility of the people here is something I really admire.

That’s about all the time I’ve got.

Love ya tons. Hope to hear from everyone soon in letter or in person because I only have 5 months left tomorrow. So, holy smoke that went by fast. I’m still not sure if Motul is going to be my last area, but we’ll find out as we go.

Much love,
SMITH

Mom, get me everyone’s address, thanx

Wesley's Letter 1-14-2013

Sorry guys,

The computer I’m on doesn’t have an SD card reader so no pictures this week, which is a bummer because I had a lot of funny good pictures. So don’t worry your baby is fine.

Well just to let you know, Motul is about as rural as it gets haha. The branch told the Mission President that they’d have a house prepared for us, but their interpretation of having a house ready meant that they looked at about 2 diffent houses that are being rented so one thing lead to another and none of them worked out. We actually got to the point of shaking the rent ladies hand on a deal on one of the houses, but she ended up backing out at the last second. So this entire week we’ve been going back and forth from Merida to Motul in buses or in combis every day, and we’re currently staying in the house of some of the other missionaries.

Funny thing, Motul is one of the more impoverished areas in the mission but the missionaries in my district are actually in the 2 wealthiest wards in the entire mission, so that’s a funny contrast.

Actually Motul has been closed for so long that I guess the area book got lost, so all week I’ve just been going around meeting people and looking for who were the last few people the missionaries were teaching. We’ve been going all around the area to all of the smaller pueblos around it, Kaxatha, Dzununcan and other places named in Maya. Actually this is one of the last few places on earth where the majority of the population can speak Maya, which is sad because when I come back here some day with my kids and stuff there will be a lot less Maya. The new generation of kids hardly learn any Maya from their parents, so this language is on the verge of dying.

This week we had several cool experiences, one just kind of cool was when we needed to go to Kaxatha but by feet it would have been too far, about 40 minutes, so a member that accompanied us took us out on his tricycle. 2 of us sat on the front while the other one pedaled and we did that switching off. Upon arriving to the house we found a nonmember family whose son is on a mission in Paraguay. We talked to his brother Rogelio and put a baptismal date for the 2nd of Feb.

One other thing that helped my testimony of our church is that here in Motul they have a brand new church that was dedicated in December and honestly its bigger and nicer than most I’ve seen in the United States. In any other religion or church the beauty of a church is determined by how economically well off the local members are. I see here in any other church all of their meeting houses are cinderblock tin roofed houses, which proves that there is no international organization of those churches or if there is they simply respect more the people who pay more towards the church. However in our church it exemplifies the phrase that God is no respecter of persons, or that He doesn’t make exceptions of what a worthy member deserves based on what they can give. I know that if it was based on what the members here could give there would be no way they could pay for a church like this. But the church doesn’t care about how much the physical amount of tithing you pay just that you pay the 10 percent and with that you get all of the same benefits any other worthy member would get.

Love ya bye,
Elder Smith

Wesley's Letter 1-7-13

Sup Familicious,

I bet you’re wondering why you’re getting this letter soo late. Well I have some news. I finished Elder Fabelas training and now he’s going to train another new missionary. And I also just got the news I’m going to open up another area, this time a small pueblo called Motul. Motul is a small pueblo that hasn’t had missionaries for more than a year so I’ll see how it goes.

I still don’t know who my new companion is because I’m also going to train again, so it should be pretty crazy tomorrow. I have a conference with all of the trainers and the new kids, then also tomorrow we’re going to take a bus to Motul and get to know the area.

So that should be fun! This last week things have been going pretty well. We found a lot of families and I feel good about how I left the area for Elder Fabela and his kid. Apart from that I spent a day working in another pueblo called Uman and that was fun! Most of these pics of the big church are of the Catholic Cathedral in Uman.

There really isn’t that much to tell about this week, just that I went and worked in Uman and I feel good because I went and bought José a tie. I’m really going to miss the people I have met in that area.

Right now I’m hanging out with Elder Geramine and Elder Arellanes, Josh’s trainer in the mission. He’s actually right next to me writing his family. And then just waiting for tomorrow when the real work begins.

Yep, so I think I’m just going to send some pictures and with that I’m good, I really don’t have much more to say.

Love you all tons and I’ll see you in mere months 5 and a half to be exact crazy eh?

Peace out brown trout,
Smit

Wesley's Letter 12-31-12

Sup Fam and friends,

How are things swinging state side? Well once again its going to be a fun filled week of conferences, and because of New Year’s they’re going to make us lock ourselves in the house all day tomorrow until 4. Then on Thursday another conference and on Friday another, so pretty much were only going to be working 2 full days this week. Bummer sauce.

I got some good news though. We’ve been teaching a lady who had just had a baby, which they couldn’t think of a good name for a while, until yesterday. They told me the name that had stuck, Diego Smith Ko Om , hahaha which is funny because the Elder Smith from San Diego has been teaching them for the last 2 months hahaha!

Ya but honestly not too much has happened this week. I had my first run in with an exorcist experience with a possessed guy, but I’ll tell you guys that story when I get home because as a missionary I feel like my letters should be of good tidings of great joy.

The ward also gave us a bunch gift bags and stuff to show their support so that was pretty cool. Any who I think the letter this week is gonna be a little shorter than the usual, but just know its like the average Mayan, although they’re short they’re full of love and grammatical errors (you’d get that part if you understood Spanish and have heard a Yucateco speak),

Love,
Wes

Wesley's Letter 12-24-12

Haha, good news! Do you remember that whole 2012 end of the world thing? It wasn’t necessarily that it wasn’t true. I’m pretty sure you were all blissfully unaware of the eminent destruction you were all in for, but don’t worry I solved the Mayan riddle of Oczcutscab, went to the Mayan pyramid of the sun, Uxma, and I read from John the Revelators book of apocalypse, in Maya. And instead of ending the planets natural cycle permanently it just started it over again so the world is safe until 3012. So you can say thanks if you want, but don’t worry about it, it wasn’t like that big of a deal. I sent some pictures that are attached.

Yeah, so in other good news there’s this one guy in our ward that recently told us how much he loved us, so he was all like, “Come to my brother’s taco shop and he’ll give you whatever you want. And from my smoothie stand I’ll give you what ever liter drink you want"
So we went there last Monday and his brother was so psyched on us he was all like " Hey, I want you guys to come here every day from now on for free tacos and tortas ALWAYS!"
Well, we can’t go there every day so we settled on going there every Monday from now on.

Also this week we had more zone conferences, we played football and had some good food while we were there, including OJ served from a paint bucket haha!

Yep.

Man like I told you before our house is stinkin full of giant scorpions. There are some pics of one that we caught, but don’t worry, I later released it into its natural habitat in the back yard to be free, then stepped on it.

Oh yeah, funny/sad story, that paper Christmas tree you sent me, well I hung it up in the house and started putting those fun ornaments on it. I went to bed and the next day found out that a gecko had tried to scurry across it but had scurried across some of the exposed double-sided tape and got super stuck, it was kind of sad because we tried to get it off but it was too stuck.

Here are those pictures of me saving the world; some of you didn’t believe me but here’s physical evidence☺

Anyway I’ve got to get going I hope you all have a super merry, fantastic Christmas. I’m excited to hear your beautiful American accents over that phone call tomorrow at 4:00.

Much Love,

SMITTY W.











Funny "Indiana Wes" saving the world! Ha ha ha!!!!