Guacamole Santo!
Guess what? I’m 21 in 2 days! What, WHAT?
So I forgot the camera and cord again, my bad, but just know the good experiences keep coming.
On Saturday Santos's wife Teresa got baptized and he did the ordinance so that was sweet. It was pretty funny because she was pretty hard hearted in the beginning, but the persistence of her husband played off.
Last night my comp and I walked all the way to Kaxatha, in the dark, where a member introduced us to one of his family friends. It was he, his wife and his 3 children. After a short lesson we invited them to be baptized and they all accepted.
From Kaxatha to Motul is about a 30 minute walk with nothing but
Moonlight and more stars than VH1, Ayo!
Last night we had transfers, I’m still here but apparently things have been going so well here for us that they’re going to send some more missionaries here and divide my area. And whom should they send, but my old comp Elder Barrow. He is going to open Motul 1 training.
I’m telling you my English has gone right down the toilet. I can’t remember how any of the hip young slang goes any more and it stinks.
Today I don’t have much to say except some other missionaries and I are going to a local restaurant called Trompos for my birthday.
That’s all for today. Just want to wish all merry Elder Smith’s birthday.
Con Cariño,
Elder Fransisco de Montejo Gustavo de los Angeles de Guadalupe Smith
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Wesley's Letter 2-11-13
Sup guys,
Good news, I brought the cable today so I’ll send some pics.
Whelp the good news is that we’ve got a sweet market right down the street, so I’ve been learning how to really cook these last few days. It turns out cooking is actually a very simple and easy thing to do. This last week I learned how to cook legit burgers, straight up in n out in Motul.
Yep, also just to explain some of these pictures, there’s one of me and my comp Elder Torrentera holding the championship belt of Itzimna Zone, basically me and my kid rock so we’ve held on to it for the last 3 weeks straight. But you know whatever.
Another is of when Santos and Leonardo got baptized last week, which was a pretty spiritual baptism. We ended up giving them ties and hymn books as congrats gifts.
There’s a picture of me and Elder Torrentera walking the long road from Kaxatha.
Quick fun fact Maya is actually a very vulgar language, in their idiomatic phrases they use crude objects to express normal things. You can see 2 old women talking together about innocent things and if you translated it directly to English the translation would sound like drunk sailor talk. Anyways, I recently found out the translation of what Kaxatha means in Maya, Kaxa means "hold on to" and that means "poop" so roughly translated it means "hold your poop."
Pretty much the rest are just pictures of Motul.
Later.
Much love ya,
Smith
Good news, I brought the cable today so I’ll send some pics.
Whelp the good news is that we’ve got a sweet market right down the street, so I’ve been learning how to really cook these last few days. It turns out cooking is actually a very simple and easy thing to do. This last week I learned how to cook legit burgers, straight up in n out in Motul.
Yep, also just to explain some of these pictures, there’s one of me and my comp Elder Torrentera holding the championship belt of Itzimna Zone, basically me and my kid rock so we’ve held on to it for the last 3 weeks straight. But you know whatever.
Another is of when Santos and Leonardo got baptized last week, which was a pretty spiritual baptism. We ended up giving them ties and hymn books as congrats gifts.
There’s a picture of me and Elder Torrentera walking the long road from Kaxatha.
Quick fun fact Maya is actually a very vulgar language, in their idiomatic phrases they use crude objects to express normal things. You can see 2 old women talking together about innocent things and if you translated it directly to English the translation would sound like drunk sailor talk. Anyways, I recently found out the translation of what Kaxatha means in Maya, Kaxa means "hold on to" and that means "poop" so roughly translated it means "hold your poop."
Pretty much the rest are just pictures of Motul.
Later.
Much love ya,
Smith
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Wesley's Letter 2-4-13
Hey got news, I forgot to bring my camera cable so I won’t be sending any pictures this week. But the good news is that this week we baptized 2 people, one named Santos and the other Leonardo, both are recovering alcoholics and both are legit converts. Leonardo told my comp in the baptismal font, after getting baptized, that he had “forgotten everything” with tears in his eyes.
Santos was one of the first people we met here. He’s actually the ward mission leader’s brother. His daughter was listening to the missionaries and her father Santos was against it. After about 2 months of not letting his daughter progress or go to church she lost her enthusiasm and stopped trying. Later when we arrived, he’s the one that was basically begging us to baptize him. Haha we`re also working with her but now she lives in some other small pueblo that’s kind of far and its hard to get a hold of her.
So these last few weeks I’ve had some seriously hilarious experiences. Yesterday the bishop permitted us to take some of the chairs from the church to put them in our house because these last 4 weeks all we’ve had were our hammocks and the floor. So we brought the chairs in another trici-taxi. That was pretty funny, us both and 4 giant chairs in a tiny trici.
So one dumb thing about Motul, basically there are no stores or shops with any fixed prices. Everything here is family owned, and the reason its bad is because none of the prices anywhere are labeled, so when the people see me enter the shop they figure that I’m just an oblivious rich tourist that has way too much money. So whenever I ask for the price of something they always kind of look at me for like 10 seconds configuring how much they could sack out of this dumb Gringo. But what they never seem to get is that I’ve been living here for more than a year and I get the ropes of how much things should cost and how the market works. The really sad part is that when they say the ridiculously high new price and I know they raised it just because I’m American. I ask if there is any way to lower the price to about the normal price where it should be, and they keep playing the "Oh I’m sorry there’s just no way, I can’t go any lower than where it is now", but I know they’re lying. So in the end I end up not buying it and they end up not getting any sale out of it. Now I’ve just gotten to the point where if any one tries to raise their prices on me I decide to never go back and buy from them again. And another sad thing is that it happens in basically EVERY STORE UGGGGGGRRR.
Anyway I’m all outta time PEACE
SMIT
Santos was one of the first people we met here. He’s actually the ward mission leader’s brother. His daughter was listening to the missionaries and her father Santos was against it. After about 2 months of not letting his daughter progress or go to church she lost her enthusiasm and stopped trying. Later when we arrived, he’s the one that was basically begging us to baptize him. Haha we`re also working with her but now she lives in some other small pueblo that’s kind of far and its hard to get a hold of her.
So these last few weeks I’ve had some seriously hilarious experiences. Yesterday the bishop permitted us to take some of the chairs from the church to put them in our house because these last 4 weeks all we’ve had were our hammocks and the floor. So we brought the chairs in another trici-taxi. That was pretty funny, us both and 4 giant chairs in a tiny trici.
So one dumb thing about Motul, basically there are no stores or shops with any fixed prices. Everything here is family owned, and the reason its bad is because none of the prices anywhere are labeled, so when the people see me enter the shop they figure that I’m just an oblivious rich tourist that has way too much money. So whenever I ask for the price of something they always kind of look at me for like 10 seconds configuring how much they could sack out of this dumb Gringo. But what they never seem to get is that I’ve been living here for more than a year and I get the ropes of how much things should cost and how the market works. The really sad part is that when they say the ridiculously high new price and I know they raised it just because I’m American. I ask if there is any way to lower the price to about the normal price where it should be, and they keep playing the "Oh I’m sorry there’s just no way, I can’t go any lower than where it is now", but I know they’re lying. So in the end I end up not buying it and they end up not getting any sale out of it. Now I’ve just gotten to the point where if any one tries to raise their prices on me I decide to never go back and buy from them again. And another sad thing is that it happens in basically EVERY STORE UGGGGGGRRR.
Anyway I’m all outta time PEACE
SMIT
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Wesley's Letter 1-28-13
Sup Dawgs,
Good news, things just keep getting better and better here in Mo-(too cool for school) eh yo! So I’m psyched to hear about the Crickmores getting more and more prepared for their mission. I’d be psyched if they ended up being Merida’s mission presidents. And it is actually a possibility because president Salinas is ending his mission in June. It’s also good to hear about our new stake president.
So news around these parts, Opening an area is hard in the beginning but gets better as time goes on. I remember the first day we got here, we came in an 80s Van and upon arriving we asked, " So is this Motul?"
So yeah, in the beginning we were pretty lost, but little by little things have been going up. This next week we are planning to baptize 3 people. And in the weeks that follow even more. I am really psyched about this area. It’s pretty exhausting at times. This last week we had barely bought our refrigerator, and the way we got it home is we mounted it on one of those tricycles and we peddled it home haha!
Also the last week or so people have been getting all hyped up about another holiday about the Virgin de Guadalupe which is kind of cool to see some of the traditions the people have here. But one thing in particular that I’m not a big fan of is that every morning for the last 5 days a marching band has been passing by in front of our house playing the same song at 5:00 am haha! It does do a good job of getting your attention and reminding you about the holiday that’s coming up.
Anyway this letter this week is going to be shorter than others.
Peace,
Smith
Good news, things just keep getting better and better here in Mo-(too cool for school) eh yo! So I’m psyched to hear about the Crickmores getting more and more prepared for their mission. I’d be psyched if they ended up being Merida’s mission presidents. And it is actually a possibility because president Salinas is ending his mission in June. It’s also good to hear about our new stake president.
So news around these parts, Opening an area is hard in the beginning but gets better as time goes on. I remember the first day we got here, we came in an 80s Van and upon arriving we asked, " So is this Motul?"
So yeah, in the beginning we were pretty lost, but little by little things have been going up. This next week we are planning to baptize 3 people. And in the weeks that follow even more. I am really psyched about this area. It’s pretty exhausting at times. This last week we had barely bought our refrigerator, and the way we got it home is we mounted it on one of those tricycles and we peddled it home haha!
Also the last week or so people have been getting all hyped up about another holiday about the Virgin de Guadalupe which is kind of cool to see some of the traditions the people have here. But one thing in particular that I’m not a big fan of is that every morning for the last 5 days a marching band has been passing by in front of our house playing the same song at 5:00 am haha! It does do a good job of getting your attention and reminding you about the holiday that’s coming up.
Anyway this letter this week is going to be shorter than others.
Peace,
Smith
Thursday, January 31, 2013
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
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
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
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
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
Sunday, January 20, 2013
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
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
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