Adventures With Elder Ev's: First Month in Mexico

If you are new to this blog, then let me introduce to you my brother Evan, one of my bestest friends! He is currently serving a 2-year LDS mission in Villahermosa, Mexico and I thought it would be fun to share his pictures, adventures, and mission updates! March 6th he went into the MTC {missionary training center} in Provo, UT...then was in McAllen, Texas for about a month and a half waiting for his Visa to go through...and has now been in Mexico for a little over a month.

He is currently in Palenque which is in the state of Tabasco, only a 2 hour bus ride away from the capital Villahermosa. It is completely surrounded by jungle, rains on & off, and is humid {which means he sweats pretty much all day every day}. They are not allowed to knock doors and they teach those who are referred by church members. 

About the pizza pictured above:

"Amazing enough, there's actually pizza in Palenque. 50 pesos each for a jumbo pizza and 3 litres of orange refresco. Also, awesome fact to know, I'm not allowed to have any form of a dark colored soda, especially coke. So, I won't have coke for 2 years...funstuff."

About the baptism of their newest convert Juan:

"We have a son of a member, about 16 years old, he works everyday but really wants to be baptized. He came to church yesterday, but had to leave right after sacrament for work. I'm looking forward to his baptism at the end of this transfer on July 6th."

"Elder Love and I had a great end to our transfer. After all our efforts we baptized one joven {youngster}, se llama Juan."

How he feels about his mission so far:

"It truly is the best 2 years. Looking back on the 4 months I've had so far on my mission, I can't think of a bad moment on my mission, because they are so many fun and great experiences that I've had."

About the weather/sleeping arrangements in Villahermosa:
"And as far as your bed situation...don't even get me started. Two words that make the difference between your situation and mine: aire condicionado {air conditioning}. I bet Ryan truly appreciates it after serving in Honduras for 2 years. Not to mention, since my apartment is made of stone and is on the top floor, it gets all the sunlight, and therefore feels like a sauna. Heat plus humidity equals a freaking sauna. I am in the habit of sleeping with a fan on me all night. I sweat pretty much constantly here."

About his companion Elder Love:

"He had long hair before his mission. Like, mega long! He showed a picture of his hair to some members at comida {food} on Sunday and she compared him to Justin Bieber. I laughed my head off and said to him: "Tiene la fiebre Bieber?" {Do you have Biber-fever?}"

Biggest hurdle to overcome with investigators:

"The main issue really here is marriage. About 3-4 of our investigators are not married and it's really difficult because 2 of the husbands are borrachos {drunk}. So, it's not our investigators holding up on us, it's their husbands and we have asked if we can talk to them. One of the spouses said he didn't see the point, although he's been living with her for 13 years."

About the Mayan ruins in Palenque:

"I'm going to start out with the ruins...it was fun! It was kind of like the ruins at Chitzanitza (however you spell it...freaking native american word that isn't completely Spanish). We had a member from the church who works at one of the tiendas show us around. It was awesome."

"Side note: heard the howler monkey today, but didn't see it. I'll try to get a pic next time I go to the ruins."

"And patience Bri, you will have your howler monkey pic. I just have to find one first."

{Howler monkeys are found throughout the jungle surrounding Palenque, I have requested that Evan track one down and take a picture with it}

About learning Spanish:

"Time feels a little longer for me cause I still can't understand people thoroughly yet, but I have a feeling that once I know how to speak and understand the language, time is going to fly. Seriously, this past friday at la noche de cine {movie night} we watched "The Best 2 Years". My gosh, freaking hilarious movie. Too bad it was all in Spanish dub. You know that part when Elder Calhoun and Elder Vampelt go and buy bread and Elder Calhoun tries to ask for bread in Dutch? The expression on his face when the lady asks him a question is how I feel almost 80% of the time in Spanish, especially when they speak really fast."

This is our first package we have sent to Evan now that he is in Mexico. We stuffed the package with: peanut butter, nutella, starburst, snickers, twix, gum, 6 cds filled with music {Skyrim soundtrack, LOTR, Zelda with a surprise song from Go West}, cd player, 4 white shirts, Axe hair gel, and 5 ties. We topped it off with a picture drawn by my mom of Evan in the jungle with his new howler monkey friend :)