Elder Ethan Crisp

Hola!

This week has been super awesome and super different at the same time. I literally can´t understand a word these Mexicans are saying to me--its too darn fsat. Whenever they talk to me i have to look to my companion Elder Young for a translation. He´s patient though--he knows i´m learning. He says my spanish is wayyyy better than any gringo he´s met. That makes me wonder how those who don´t speak well feel. So we´re in San Blas in the northern most zone in the mission. Its super ghetto. Not like gangs but like quality. Its a tiny little ranchito. We don´t even have a chapel--its a Casa de oración or a house of prayer. There are some really faithful members here though. Its really hard for them to get to church cause its a pretty big area and most everyone doesn´t have a car but they make it. Also Elder Young is new to the area too and the last missionaries didn´t leave anyone to teach so we´ve had to find people. We found these a couple of like families that are pretty interested. They say not to say their names on emails especially if you´re gonna throw it on a blog so i won´t. But one of the families is this family that lives in like a hut. There´s 4 kids and the dad is interested too but the kids are super cute and they actually came to church yesterday so that was cool. So i told you that they´re making Elder Young the new branch president right? They did that yesterday whcih is super weird. Anyway i´ve got some cool stories--they´re like weird. Becfause we don´t have many people to teach I don´t have cool teaching stories yet. Anyway in these little ranchitos we have to catch rides from people like hitchhike status. Two days ago we got in a van with this guy and he started yelling at us cause his grandkids are in teh US and he´s not allowed in like we had anything to do with it. Anyway that was weird, then later there was this drunk lady that came up to us and she started crying that she wasn´t worth anything and stuff and as we were leaving she grabbed my companions hand and kissed it--she was super gross she had food all over her hands and stuff like that. Anyway cool stories right? San Blas is really tiny and poorly built but our casa has AC which is weird. According to Elder Young, there are only a coupole mission houses that have AC but also nothing is as ghetto as San Blas. So after i leave here i will be burning up when i sleep but i won´t be walking for miles in a place that has as much civilization as a 19th century town. So that´s good. Did i tell you about the new program that the church started? It actually started August 1st but its a 12 week new training program that is basically like the Mtc extended to the field. ÇThe newbies have an extra hour of comp study and we learn about extending commitments and cosas asi imean things like that. Anyway the point is when you´re done with the program you should be ready to be a trainer. Obviously for us gringos its different but there´s a native that is only 3 months in and he´s training (this mission started the program early but it officially started in my generation). So that´s kinda cool. I am actually having a part in contacting and teaching--even though i can´t understand a thing they´re saying back to me i have a part. That´s another reason for the program--to get the newbies involved instead of just standing by while the trainer does everything. I mean i do like 1%of the talking but before it was nothing. So anyway, i don´t know what much else to say. Its ridiculously hot. The people are superrrr nice though which is way cool. There´s like a trigger--if you say like Buenas Tardes they like have to say it back even if they don´t like you. It´s kinda funny--like you can tell they hate your guts but something in their mental makeup makes them respond. Also little kids, teenage girls(and really old women), and drunk peoplle love us. The drunk people are funny. More serioulsy though the people here are superrr humble. They have to be, especially here. There´s like 4 or 5 kids a family living in a hut made of trash the size of my room back home. The members are superr faithful and go to church even when they´re sick and can barely move. Like there´s this like 80 year old man, Teoldulo (?) who goes to church every week even though he can barely walk. I remember we had this awesome tacher at the mtc who left like a week in whcih sucked but he told us that we can teach the people about the gospel but they´re gonna teach us about humility and faith and i see that´s true already. It kinda sucks right now cause i can´t speak spanish well and can´t understand the people talking to me but i know that if i keep working hard it´ll all come and i hope that i can bring many souls to the knowledge of the truth and rejoice with them in the next life as D&C 18 says.

A couple things. One: getting mail and sending mail is a major pain in the butt. I get mail like once a month here cause the zone leaders have to go to Culiacan and pick stuff like that up so email is the best bet for me except i can only send emails to you guys. I´ll have to figure out exactly how to send letters----i know i can but its a pain in the butt. Buenas suerte to Stephen and Ben. Remind ben to actually try to learn Spanish in spanish class. That´ll pay off i think. I love you all.

--Elder Crisp