Week. . .2 I guess?

This is our apartment!  This is the inside of the building-ish.  We kind of have 3 front doors,
 but that´s just the way houses work here.

From 13 August 2015

Wow,  I feel like I´ve already been here forever.  But it´s great, and different, and rather exciting!  I´ll tell you all what´s up, and then I´ll try to answer some questions I´ve been getting:

Life: 6:30 a.m. exercise (running the stairs in our building, yoga, or calistenics (I´m confident saying Alison would be a little bit proud of me)

7:00 a.m. shower, breakfast (usually involves a banana, because they are the best)

8:00 a.m. (this is where it gets tricky) Plan a) Personal study Plan b) walk 10 minutes to the Micro (bus) stop, take a bus for 15 minutes across town to the temple, arrive (hopefully) by 8:30 and work the Open House until 3:00 p.m.

9:00 Plan a) Companionship Study 

10:00 Plan a) Training

11:00 Plan a) Language study

12:00 Plan a) Hit the streets and teach/visit people until whenever Comida is scheduled for 

2:00-4:30ish Plan a) Have comida for an hour at a member´s house (In Mexico, Comida is the biggest meal of the day, and usually consists of 3-4 courses including rice, soup, meat/main course, and dessert--you get stuffed) Plan b) at 3:00take a bus home from the temple (20-40 minutes depending on traffic), run to a member´s home for comida)

Post-Comida (3:00-5:00ish) Visit investigators, follow-up on refrences from the Open House, teach menos activos (less-active members), conversos recientes (recent converts), investigadores progresandos (progressing investigators), and also make citas (appointments) to teach more.

8:00 Be in the apartment, and plan the next day for half-an-hour

8:30 Cook/Consume food, or hand-wash some clothes if you have time

9:30 Prep for bed

10:30 Lights out...

So that´s my day folks!  We live in one of the nicest areas in my mission, so life is pretty good, and we have running hot water, electricity, and no cockroaches!  However, none of the water here is clean enough for drinking, so all of our drinking and cooking water comes from "garrafones" or big water jugs like you see in fancy office buildings.  It´s fun!  Other Culturally fun things: Today for the first time I rode in a Cambi, and on the Metro!  Here in the city, they have a lot of different ways to get around, and most transportation is really cheap, so we use it a lot.  Cambis are vans that act like buses, Micros are mini-buses that are usually stick-shift, very bouncy, and kinda crazy and full, Mexi-buses are like the buses on cables that you see in a lot of bigger cities, and the Metro is like the Subway, or the Tube.  And then, of course there are taxis!  It´s a party! 

Also, I am surprised at the way Americanism makes its appearance in Mexico.  For example, as I was getting off the extremely crowded metro and walking past these tents and open-air food stalls at the station we came across a gas station where they were blasting "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus.  As for food, you have to be really careful what you eat here because a lot of things aren´t sanitized, or they have things in them that will make a Gringo like me sick, so mostly we eat at home, and my cultural experience with food is limited to what the members feed us for Comida.  But the ice cream and baked goods are delicious!

Anywho, the work here in Bosques is a bit crazy because we have to spend so much time at the Open House, but I got my first fecha (baptismal date) yesterday!  Angie is about 23, and she didn´t quite know how she felt about the church, so we sent her to a HAS (Young Single Adult) conference and she just came back on fire.  I´m so excited for her!  We´re also teaching this adorable old man who works as a community gate-guard (but is also apparently independently wealthy...) who recently joined the church and last night we had to teach him the importance of marriage...  It was pretty funny because he was previously convinced that Single Life is really the best way for him. 

Spanish is hard, but bit by bit it´s coming along.  My companion helps a lot, and I´m soooo glad she´s a native speaker, because I probably won´t be paired with another one for the rest of my mission.  Also, I´m racing to bring it up to speed because I might be training in 4 weeks (AAAHHH!) 

I love you all and hope you are having a fabulous time in Tahoe (except for Mom and Luke apparently :( )

Love,

Hermana Houghton #3

P.S. Pouch mail is most reliable

P.P.S. Éxito to Paul and Tess who as I understand it are both heading off on new adventures this week!

AAAaaannnd my next P Day is on the 24th! because of the open house