Week 11: David Arrives in Mexico ...Culture Shock!

Hola Familia!

I'm in mexico wirting this! haha oh yeah.  Im loving it right now its so awesome here!

so I got here on friday night.  Right when i stepped off the plane I started sweating! its so humid here its ridiculous. And then when we went into the ¨"airport", its sooo small but when we walked in there was a army guy with an automatic weapon just hanging out in there.

Then after secrituy check and all that i got to meet the president and his wife. They´re really nice. When i fist met them i was sweating like crazy because i was in a suit and long sleve shirt. Then once everyone got through security we went to the parking lot and the first thing i see is this armored vechicle like a mini tank truck thing with a 50 cal turret on the top of it driving in the parking lot and another truck with 4 guys with thier automatic weapons pointed at different things! its so crazy. Sister Jordan said dont worry about it. just dont look at them and they wont bother you.

Then we went to the mission home and had dinner. It was really really good. It was like a ton! of tortillas with some kind of meat and pinneapple. I had like 8 tacos of that. You just make your own taco with all the different stuff they had there on the table.

Then we took all of our stuff to the secretaries house. I had to go down this really narrow alleyway then up this ladder that was really narrow and steep. I had to carry all my bags up that! It was really hard. SO their apartment was really small and pretty disgusting. Which now i think its pretty clean and I wouldn´,t mind being there.

Anyways the next day we went to the mission office. and got "trained" for 5 hours on different kind of stuff. Just a little about the mission. obedience, and money stuff. Then we went out to eat at this italian mexican place. They had PIZZA it was really good. so i had 9 pieces of pizza. I was starving.

Then after that we (all us new missionaries) went to the stake center thats right by the temple to get our interviews with president. Then after all that we got put with different companioinships. I got put with one of the APs. His name is Elder Stockard. He´s really cool! We went directly teaching!

First we went to go get a member. So we had to walk pretty far to his house. Walking and seeing everything really humbled me! Every street and building are run down and look like crap! I dont mean that in a mean way but its like rebel every where! Trash and streets torn up!

Oh and the traffic here is insane. NO one really follows the rules of the road. Like saturday morining we took a taxi from the secretary house to the mission office. The taxi driver went 60 on a road that should have been 25 it was funny but insane then he ran like 5 stop signs haha it was kinda scary. There aren´t really any cops here because the are all corrupt and work with the drug lords. SO they have speed bumps every once in awhile. to keep the speed down. But in some areas the speed bumps are dug up in spots to you can go through it just right without stopping haha

SO anyways elder stockard and i went to this members house and we get talking to his son....well not really me because i couldn´t understand him fully...So elder stockard told me that he served in Gaudalajara mexico on his mission! So i asked if he knew dallas persinger. and he said yes! The one with the glasses? I was like yes thats my cousin! that was really cool. What are the chances i met a person in tampico mexico that knows my family. hahah that made my day...at that time...

so then he takes us in his"house" if you want to call it a house. to get his dad. I walk in and im amazed at how someone could actually live there. They had 3 rooms i think. The kitchen, which was brick wall that was kinda falling apart and they only had one lightbulb, that was pretty high on one wall. It was dark outside so it was pretty dark inside too. Then they had another room that i couldn´t realy see. Then another room that had a door that was made out of driftwood looking wood. Seeing all that really humbled me even more! I just couldn´t believe people lived in places like that.

SO we go the dad...oh by the way the guys name is Marcos Estaves, the one that knows dallas!...SO we walk for it bit to the mans friends house. And we find him sanding a piece of wood. My comp and the man start talking to him. And then his girlfriend comes out. And after a bit we start with a prayer and start the lesson...outside on the balcony because the live on the top of the building. they didnt want us to go inside so we all were standing up!

so i dont really know whats going on haha i pick up a few words. and caught on a little bit. I heard that they both have met with the missionaries 5 years ago but didnt get baptized because they are both married to other peolpe and they could not get married to each other because to get a divorce here in mexico is really difficult.

Then my comp teaches some things and turns to me and says "now my comp is going to talk about prayer and what it is and how it can help us" that kinda surprised me. but i just started speaking spanish. I said that prayer is a way we can talk to god and that he will and does answer our prayers and i told them that when i pray i feel peace and happy and when im sad i can pray and feel better. and i bore my testimony.

I tried to say all that and more in spanish.  And the man said something but he said it so fast i coulnd´t understand. but after my comp told me that after i bore my testimony the man told us that his son died recently. and that it was really hard on him and he prayed and felt better just like i said. SO that was pretty cool.

And after i bore my testimony i was looking at the women..sounds creepy but it wasn´t. I was thinking about people here in mexico and stuuf. And a thought came to my head while i was looking at her. and it was that she WILL get baptised. Then i felt the spirit so strongly! I just know that she will some day!

Then a little later in the lesson something really funny happened to me haha  so there were crockroaches on the ground and crawling on the walls of the building and stuff. They are pretty big ones too! It didn´t bother me at all until one of the crockroaches jumped onto my shoulder so i tried to brush it off all nonscholauntly (i cant spell as you can see throughout my letter haha) trying not to make a big deal and that i didnt care it landed on my shoulder and i thought i got it off. But NOPE! It crawled up my shirt onto my HEAD!

I didnt notice it was crawling up because i couldn´t really feel it. but the investigator saw it and his face changed and pointed at my head and then i felt it and like freaked out and threw it off my head as fast as i could! and the crockroach flew and landed on the investigators shirt and he freaked out it threw it off his shirt! hahaha we all started laughing. So i ruined the spiritual moment there haha but it was funny.

Then we left and my comp laughed at me! oh by the way he´s white so we talked english to me. Then we taught another family with Marcos this time. It was cool. THere was 10 people living in this other tiny "house" And then i got to bare my testimony and teach a tiny bit about why god gives us trials and how we can grow and prayer and how it can help us again.

And after i did that i felt good but also felt bad because i couldn´t contribute like at all because i didnt know where in the lesson we were and what the family was saying or what has already been said. I have never felt so out of the loop in my entire life! I feel so retarded because i can barely communicate to other people haha but besides that its so awesome here!

Then after the lesson my comp told me again that after i bore my testimony it brought the spirit in the room so strongly and affected the family! I was pretty happy with that. Then we went back home and met up with his real comp...Elder Salazar the other AP. He´s mexican and can´t really speak english. He is the coolest kid though! He´s so funny and helpful! HE wants to learn english so we help each other learn the words we want to learn.  Like tattletale haha he didnt know what is was so i tried to explain it to him in spanish so he could tell me it in spanish and i could tell it to him in englsih.

Then we ate and planned and went to bed! Oh i dont sleep with blankets at all because its so hot and humid that i sweat all the time and there is no need for blankets! And after i take a shower..by the way there is no hot water...i sweat in the shower and when i dry off i sweat and i cant tell if im wet from the water or my sweat!° haha it sucks but im getting used to it kinda.

Then sunday we went to 2 churches. Which in both i couldn´t understand what people were saying or what was going on haha  i could pick up some words but i couldnt put them together fast enough to understand what they were saying.

SO after 7 hours of church we went to eat at a members house at 5. My first real meal in MExcio...scary!.. They had this soup with beans and 3 different kinds of meat which i couldn´t tell what it was. But i had most of it so i was pretty good. And the had flour tortillas, and meat and guacamole and salsa! OH MY GOSH the salsa and guacamole were SOOOO good. I dont really like guacamole but the stuff here is so good. Because its home made the real mexican way! I had like 8 tacos.

Here you made your own tacos and put everything in it you want. And the salsa here is SOOO good too! I wasn´t really spicy either. Oh and everyone here drinks Coca-cola. So i had a lot of that too! because the mission says not to drink the water here unless its bottled. so i drank the coke. Then we taught some more lessons after dinner with different people.

Walking around the streets reminds me of CAll of Duty! haha because everything here is run down..buildings are half destroyed or falling apart or not finished. Trash is all over. People live in house that i would think weren´t liveable. military guys with automatic weapons that you see sometimes. BUt its awesome. Its like an adventure!

We are only allowed to go to people house that are refreals. NO knocking on doors or contacting or stuff like that. and here when you go to a persons house instead of knocking on their door you yell "buenos noches!" to get their attention.

I love it here its so much fun being down here and walking around, trying to speak another language! I love it!!! Its a million times better than the MTC thats for sure. BEing a missionary is awesome haha especially in Mexcio.

If anyone wants to know i still haven´t poop my pants. Ive pooped like 3 times since being here. haha oh and the mail here is slow. It takes about 3 weeks to get a letter from here to the US. Im not happy about that because its going to take forever to get letter from Katie! I can get emails from you guys every week. so ill write a little at the bottom of each email to katie if you could send it to her and take it off before you put it on my blog please.

Well today im going to go with another companionship for a week. then ill get my trainer next monday and it will only be us,. and my trainer wont speak any english so its going to be crazy!

Please write me! I love you all so much :)

Love
david

p.s here´s is my address


Elder David McNamara
Misíon México Tampico
Ave. Ejército Mexicano #501 Local 17
Colonia Lomas del Gallo
Madero, Tamaulipas 89470