(Week 5)

Well this was certainly a week of challenges, and yet it has also been one of my happier weeks on the mission. The start of this letter is gonna be a little depressing, but I want you to know that every single time something happened this week I got to see some act of kindness because of it. So because I am new they decided to not really give me money, which is kind of bad when you have to pay things like rent and electricity and the like, so they shut off our lights after 10 days of not paying. Normally I would not care, I have a flash light, but in Veracruz, it is so hot that it gets to be 90 degrees (which feels like 100+ in this humidity) in our room without airconditioning. Because it rains with huge winds and thunderstorms, you cannot open the windows either. So because we figured we´d be spending the rest of the month without clima, we went over to a local members house to ask if we could iron some of our shirts. The dad (who is not a member) looked at me, and said come here, I´ll go pay for the electricity. We still had to spend one night before they reconnected the stuff, btw that night was just awful. When we went back to thank that family the next day, they had prepared some food for us, because they knew that we had no money to buy any, and I was just so thankful and happy. On Wednesday I do not know what I ate, or what, but I was throwing up enough that it like burned my throat. I ate some white bread and was fine, but the miracle today was as soon as we finished with me throwing up, we went to an investigators house and he just absorbed everything we said and agreed to get baptized on the 27th (we have a baptism planned for this Saturday too) Then on Saturday we were going around with a local priest and he took us to one house. Well (and you have to realize the average male height here is 5´6´´) I was looking down at him talking, and I hit my head on a cage. It knocked me over, and while my companion was laughing his head off, the boy noticed that Part of my hair was turning red from blood. Woopsies!! I had to go to the hospital, and I was fine, but I still have giant cut on my head (no stitches). Anyways, in this case, again we did not have money to buy medicine so that I do not have a welt the size of Texas on my head. So when the Bishop heard what happened, he and his wife bought us a small dinner and the medicine.

I just really want to tell you guys how much respect and love that I have for the members of this ward. They have nothing, absolutely nothing. The poorest people you know have more than the members of this ward, and yet they still take care of us and show us such kindness. I will admit that there are some investigators that we have that I just love, they are honestly trying to learn, and though htey may be simple people, they try their best. I will admit there are others I am trying not to feel just extreme dislike for, but hopefully those feelings fade with time. 

What I really wanted to share, on a much happier note, is on the power of prayer. I really had never felt like so many of my prayers had been answered for the longest time back home. Ever since I came on a mission, it is amazing, not a single one of my prayers has gone unanswered. It really is powerful just to see that if you pray to receive references, you receive references, if you pray that things will go well at home, they go well at home. If you pray to be able to understand people, you can understand them. I want to testify of the simple power of prayer, you are not talking to a genie or to the air or to anything like that. You are talking to your Father in Heaven, who loves you, and who may sometimes answer no for our own benefit, but who listens and answers every prayer.

Although this week was a hard week in terms of the stress (it was also President Trevino´s last week as President, meaning we had to plan a bunch of festivities and stuff like that) I must admit that I was simply so much happier than I have been in the past. I´m starting to grow into my place here, and I´m learning, slowly but surely. My Spanish is passable, I can understand what people are trying to say 90% of the time, and I can explain what I want to say even if I do not know a word. 

I love you all lots, and miss you, but I really just want you to know that missions are great, they give you  chance to face the different aspects of yourself that are simply weak, and to try and overcome what you are faced with.

Kevin

P.s. It turned into like death silence here for 2 hours when Mexico lost, and no one wanted to outside or talk (a little funny) But I´m sure everyone knows what that´s like and will be watching the US game back home tomorrow because we all love soccer so much :)