Hey everyone!
So my first week in my new area went amzingly well. I will just go down the list.
My area is a tiny town, with only a few paved roads, no stoplights, and extremely friendly people. It reminds me of a larger St. David. We live in an apartment that is part of a 4 apartment building owned by a member in the branch. His sister lives with him and his home all the time, due to the fact that she only has one leg. She has been on crutches for who knows how long, and i wont want to mess with her even with the missing leg. She is very nice but I can tell she doesnt take anykind of crap. This morning when i went to go wash all my white shirts, she looked at them and pretty much rebuked me because the colars were stained yellow from all the sweat. She then made me hand wash all my collars and sleeves with soap ad bleech unti they were as white as when i got them. She taught me how to do it, which is surprisingly harder than you would think. My knucles are now raw from all the scrubbing, cause you cant just use your fingers.
The best part of my area is the fact that includes all surrounding towns as well. There are about 3 or 4 that we know of that are all about an hour away, that have their own branches, or at least a few members. Saturday, we went to the next biggest branch in our area, a little tiny town called "Ideal". The branch out there is run by a family of 7, and their tiny little shack house doubles as the house of prayer. They have about 21 member in total, but only about 10 go each week, and thats including thier family of 7. These members deserve more than what they have for al their hard work and faith, but none the less, they are truly happy. Its exteremly humbling when i think about everything i have always had.
We put together a branch family home evening, where we did a popular activety on the plan of salvation. There were games set up, both games of the world, and games of the gospel. Depending on which games you played and how many times you played them, decided which glory you would achieve. There was three separate rooms set up for each room. The smallest and darkest was telestial, the little larger and more lit the terrestial, and the biggest, well lit with food and music the celestial. Im pretty sure Elder Rodrigues way down there in Guatemala Land did the same type of activity. It turned out really well. We have plans to spend 2 or three days at a time in each little pueblo to try and get the activation rate back up and help out the branches. We did a few visits with the family in Ideal, and 3 out of the 4 visits had to be translated by one of the members from spanish to mayan so the inactives could understand. That should be interesting. But a really awesome member of one of the other surrounding peublos, San Angel, told me he would start teaching me Mayan. Sweet deal...
But back to Leano Vicario. We have about 30 members attend each week to church. The house of prayer is a little shabby but it works none the less. It definetly is a little cooler here than in the city, which is really nice. We got the bikes to the point where we could ride them, but the are still in bad shape, since they are from like the 70s i think. We decided to hold off on riding them until we have the time or money to fix them completely. The seats are so old that after riding them just the one day, we were both walking like we had been beat with a paddle for 10 hours straight.
With such a litle town, comes the small town drama. I met two of the converts from one week and 1 month ago. They are two teenage girls, 19 and 16. I guess one of the elders before me was flirting it up with some of the young women and wouldnt work, so pres pulled him and put in my comp, elder gutierrez, only one week before i got here. Anyways, the 19 year old girl isnt happy that there are two new elders, and now she doesnt really want to come to church. When we taught her, all she wanted to talk about was the elder that just left. It got really annoying. The other girl, actually has a strong testimony and doesnt mind that the other elders left, but now is starting crap with her friend, the 19 year old, because she is being a deeby downer all the time and not coming to church. And we, the missionaries, are cuaght in the middle of it. Its calmed down, but highschool drama isnt exactly what i signed up for here. Especially in mexico, its like a soap opera...
One of the counslers of the branch opened up an account with a local bank not to long ago, and desposited a million pesos that he took out on loan from somewhere. Well the million pesos went missing and now he has had to flee to Merida to hide from the cops. Its a pretty big deal among the members that know about it here, and since the missionaries almost run things here, of course we know. So now we are a counsler short and have a crap load to do.
My comp is awesome. We get along really well and both have the same ideas about how to go about this area. It should be a really fun change. He is from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico. He is extremely humble, since from what he has told me, his family has next to nothing. He slept on the ground so that his other siblings could use the small bed they had. He is always smiling.
As missionaries, we always offer to help with whatever anyone needs. That means service as well. In cancun, we always offered, but they always said no thanks. Here, people will turn us down when we contact them, but when we ask if we can do anything else, they glady accept, and we then pick up trash in their yard, pump water out of the well (thats not fun), Move large objects, etc. $ out of the 7 mornings, we are at someones house at 6 in the morning helping do stuff. Service here means hacking away dead palm frawns with machetes, and burning trash. Its not too bad...
They dont celebrate Easter here in Mexico...Sad day. They do Semana Santa instead, or Holy Week. Nothing too crazy, just a lot of congrating in the local churches.
Well i got other peeps to write. Im sure you can figure out the pics for yourselves. if not, just ask me next week. Have a great week!
Love, Elder Kitterman
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