The Mish Life!

From 2 November 2015

Dear Everyone,

Wow.  It´s been a crazy week in Bosques, and every night when Hermana Bracamonte and I get home, we are pretty much exhausted, happy, and did I mention exhausted?  We have been contacting a lot lately, which is actually one of my favorite things to do.  It´s really awkward at first because you just walk up to random people and say "Well Hi, would you like to learn about how Jesus Christ can bless your life?" and they´re really confused for a minute, and then they get really excited sometimes!  Anyway, long story short, we´re busy, happy, and completing our goals, which is all a missionary can ask for in life.  

Also, yes, we did have Halloween and Día de Los Muertos here in Mexico.  Here are some of my observations and the things I learned: 

1: Halloween is not what it is (at least in Bosques) in the United States.  Yes, people decorate with pumpkins, black cats, etc. but they don´t really go out trick-or-treating of anything (at least on Halloween)

2: People DO go out trick-or-treating on Día de los Muertos (the first one) or November 1st.  However, this first day is designated to celebrate the children who have died, and the second one (Novever 2nd) is to celebrate those adults that have died.  Anyway, last night we were contacting some references we received, and there were a TON of kids and families running around Bosques, all dressed up with face-paint and fancy hair.  Also, they use face paint a lot more here, I think.  

3: Celebrating the dead is very different from traditional Halloween celebrations in the U.S. that celebrate creepy things like zombies and mummies, etc.  Here they´re just remembering those that have died, and it´s kind of special (in my mind) instead of just creepy.

In other news:  Today we had our Zone activity, and we played water guns (everyone got nice and soaked) and then we played broom hockey, ultimate frisbee, and (of course--this is Mexico) soccer.  It was a lot of fun, but I think I´ll probably be sore for a few days.  Fortunately, they also bought Little Ceasars (yep, that totally exists in Mexico) and each companionship sat down and ate their pizzas in silence for about 15 minutes.  BTW, missionaries are ALWAYS two things: Hungy and tired.  Period.  End of story.  And when you´re on a mission, you can eat a lot.  yep. 

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying fall colors, cooler evenings, and preparations for Thanksgiving celebrations soon!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

P.S. sorry, I let you all down on the picture front, I´ll try to do better next week!