First week in Mexico City

2013-07-29

Classic MTC photo, last night at the MTC Provo

Familia,}

It is P-day!

Shopping on P-day

Okay first things first. It was so great to talk to you in the Atlanta airport. I loved that. It was a good thing I know the Atlanta airport well because all the other elders in our travel group didn't have travel experience. hahah

So we landed in Mexico City, went through customs and then met the two secretaries and President Valadez outside the airport. President Valadez is so nice, and he doesn´t speak ingles. We all ate Carls Jr. together and then went to the mission home. It was crazy, there were 19 new missionaries that day, only seven American. We all slept in that house together, we had mattresses all over the floor, it was awesome! In total there were 27 people staying there that night. The AP´s and the secretaries live there with a counselor to the president. There were so many people. The house was really nice, the nicest house I have seen the whole time I have been here. 

 

Mission home with 29 people sleeping there the night I arrived

 

So after a training the next day we were assigned our trainers, which I'll be with for the next 12 weeks. Elder Perez is my trainer; he is a hard worker from Tijuana Mexico. He has been out a year and knows a lot.

 

Elder Perez, from Tijuana Mexico and Elder Quinn

 

 So the training was at the stake center, a huge building with a full size gym in the middle and a chapel on each side. It is huge!  It’s really nice because that is where our ward meets too. Our ward/barrio is Espartaco. There are usually two missionaries in each ward but we have four in ours. You should look at my mission website and look at the Espartaco ward... those are my area boundaries. Our church is on corro de jesus. It is by Tasqueña metro station. It’s the really nice stake center. We have to take a conbi to get to church. Cerro de Jesús 115, Col Campestre Churubusco Del Coyoacan04200 MEXICO

We live by a big park and walk through it many times each day. Our street is Tarascos, you should be able to see it on Google maps through the church website. There were only two beds in the house, or should I say basement broom closet, literally 10' x 30' so so small, and no kitchen, and our only refrigeration is like a tiny wet bar fridge. So since there are 4 missionaries now, we received two more beds from the secretaries this week. The conditions are not the best, but they work fine.

Our new beds

Our kitchen area outside our front door.  The stairs come down from the garage of a member, and our front door is on the right.  The kitchen sink strait ahead, and the bathroom on the left under the stairs.  I cannot believe I'm not sick yet.  I swear by those probiotic pills.  Oh so we eat lunch everyday at around 2 with a member.  Huge meals that are so good!  Always at least three courses.  I am doing a deep clean on the house today because it is a mess, and I want it CLEAN!

This is looking down from the stairs at the front door to our humble abode.  10'x30' with 4 Elders

 

 

 

To get around we use Conbis, they are bright green VW buses and they are everywhere! They are like a form of public transit, 4 pesos every ride. You have to know the routes and where to get off, they are crazy... and they won’t go anywhere until there are at least 10 passengers... hahah. Yesterday we had 15 in one! Craziness.

Thursday we met up with the secretaries and took the metro for about an hour and a half to the west side of the city to the embassy to change our Visas to permanent residences. The metro is crazy! In the mornings it is packed with people. We had to push our way into the train car; I honestly have never been so close to so many people at one time. It was an adventure.



Typical Street

 

Elder Perez and I on our street

Now a little bit about the work. Well the Lord is so involved in His work. He really has prepared a lot of people here. Literally everyone we talk to is receptive to the gospel and wants to hear more, it’s awesome, and so rewarding! We work almost 100% off referrals. We only contact in the street when the spirit tells us to. I cannot believe how receptive everyone is. We told a young family about temples and they were like '' oh yeah, we want to go and be sealed forever... how can we go with our family?' It was pretty sweet. Anyways the work is busy and rapid, I love it.

On the roof of the house de familia Luna.  They are less active members in the ward.  We helped them paint a wall and move a ton of sheet rock to their roof....not really sure why they wanted sheetrock on their roof, but whatever...it was an opportunity to share the gospel with their Dad.

 I ate street tacos, so so so good!  I am healthy, no sickness or diarrhea  or anything. All is well, count your blessings!

I am loving life!  It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun!  The pollution is not really bad....I mean it is dirty, but not bad.  The temperature is perfect, cool in the night and just right in the day.  In the early afternoon when it is starting to get hot it rains for about 15 minutes and then clears up again, the rain is nice because it clears out the pollution.  The sky in this picture is the most blue sky I've seen the whole time.  Usually it is polluted and white until it rains in the afternoons,  Life is good.

Sorry if this is super hard to read or something, the Spanish keyboard is tough to type on. Please correct it as best as you can .. thanks}

Love, Elder Quinn