Iguana Tastes like Chicken

Hi everybody. This week was good. Well, on Sat. I baked no bake cookies for the first time in Mexico. The members thought I was crazy because I told them 2 cups of sugar but at the end they loved them. Then they had family in town y they brought IGUANA.  It was so good y it was rich.  Kinda like chicken, but it was amazing.

Iguana tacos!  I have been wanting to eat these since I first got my mission call.

My no bake cookies.  Do you miss them?

Iguana tastes like chicken, only richer.

Well we didn’t visit Celicio because he is sick, but we are planning to visit tonight y teach baptism. We didn’t visit Jorge because he didn’t have time for us y he didn’t visit church yesterday. We are getting pretty frustrated with him. He is ready for baptism but has a problem y won’t let us visit. We called him for an appointment for the next day y we visited, but he was not there. But we visited tonight and we talked to her about Sunday being the day of rest. She knows everything we teach her is true but won’t go to church.  But the good thing is her less active parents are visiting church again they are being a good example for her. Then another investigator is Hermana Linda.  She can’t move much but she wants to learn more of Christ’s gospel. We visit her every Tuesday. A less active family named Dafine who we eat with every Wednesday is starting to come back to church as well. We are happy. All the hard work we put in for the less activesis paying off.

This is Gina, an investagator y her soon-to-be husband Lember 

  Well again on Friday it rained a ton. It seems like every Friday it rains here. Then this weekend y today it is stormy. Everybody says April is hot with somewhat rain, but May is when the rain season starts again that will be fun. Well transfers are in two weeks so lets see if my companion is leaving because he’s been here for 3 months. Well on Thursday President George did interviews with us it was good. He read me a story about grace. I love you all y that was my week. Thanks for everything. Adios!!!!!

‪Hi Mom.  Love you a ton.  Have Nate y Franky do the activity on page 69 in Preach My Gospel. It will help them know the spirit.

Hey buddy Nathan. How are your papers y your reading Jesus the Christ going?  

 I love my new area. It is smaller but the members are so nice y the weather. But I hate all the hills y hills.  I’ts good. Different than Coita I am just happy I don’t get sick from it y they feed us a ton. For example on Sat. night they gave us 4 corn tamales with cream.

Love you. Its raining. It is raining hard!

Oh well i got to go because we cleaned our garments in the morning.  Now it is raining.  Say bye to everyone y have a good Easter y General Conference. Love you a ton y Happy Easter to all. Love you.

The shadow is us walking.  

The family eating at the table told me to take a pic for them

The red thing is a tradition here in Chaipas - it is bread. They put a red coloring thing. It was good.

The medicine we need to take every 6 months to clean out our bodies.

The popsicle is their popsicle here. It was coconut.    

Chicken claw in my soup

The scenery is just around our area.  

Our Church

Six Months!

6 months!

 Hi everybody. This was a great week. We didn’t visit a lot of investigators, but it was a good week. We visited Celicio y taught to him about baptism. We visit Tonita, but no esta. She is like a sponge. She knows everything we say is true but she dosen’t go to church. There is a lot of Testigos (that is a church here) so it is hard to do contacts. They won’t even accept our pass along cards. There are so many. We can’t talk to them. They say they have there own books y that they are missionaries to y every couple days the wear the same type of clothes we do y go to door to door so a lot of people ask are you Testigos? Y there is not a lot of people in the streets to contact. We visited Jorge. He still wants to be baptized, but this Saturday. We are going to visit him today.

Well at church the have a player piano because nobody knows how to play. Y every Sunday we go with a member to pick up a member in a wheelchair.  We pick him up y put him in the back of the truck then me y my comp hold on to him until we get to the church the same after the church to take him home.

Well on Tuesday I was on my mission for six months. Wow, did the time fly! Well it was a great day. The weather was nice y we did a lot of lessons with new members and future missionaries. Then at night the bishop invited us over for dinner we had Mecos pizza, a very good pizza place here, y hotdogs y Fanta. So that was my day. It was great.

Not a lot happened this week. Our investigators are working a lot so we don’t visit a lot. But on Friday it rained all day. It was nice y on Saturday y on Sunday too. I need a tie pin because there is a lot of wind. The weather is so weird. It rained twice this week but right now its hot, but AT NIGHT COLD. But I don’t bring my coat because it is too hot in the day to carry it.

My Spanish is coming very slowly but the people don’t understand me still. But I’m working very hard. My comp is great. We are working together great. We don’t have problems. He has two older sisters y the is first one on his mission.

Wow, that’s great about Dad’s bonus y Aunt Mindy coming. Give them my love.  Say hi to all for me. I talk to Aaron y Nick wrote to me.

I love being a missionary.

Bye mom. Love you a ton. Say goodbye to everyone y give everybody my love y tell them I pray for them all the time. Bye. Love you y thanks for total. Love you all thanks for the support y love. Gracias y Adios!

Our little house

Our bathroom with the buckets in the shower, our bed room, our kitchen, our closet room.

Our desks.  Mine is on the right.

They Call Me Vazquez

In our aprons after washing a member's dishes

So tomorrow is 6 months on my mission. That’s crazy!  Actually, I have less than one year y a half left because I will come home in August. It’s a rule not to email at a member’s home, so I’m in the cyber - an internet café.

Well, I’m fine, but my backs of my legs hurt from all the hills y hills y all the walking. We don’t have a big map. We have a google map, but it is no good because we don’t really know where our area starts or ends.

So our investigators are: first Jorge -  He is ready to be baptized but has a family problem, but we are planning to baptize him this Saturday the 21st. Then there is William.  He didn’t visit church yet, but we are still teaching him y he has a personal problem. Then there is Elias. He knows the Book of Mormon y the Church is true, but has no time for church y has a family problems. Then Tonita - her parents are less actives but they want her to join the church y her parents are starting to come back. Then there is Celicio. His wife is a less active y her parents, but they also are coming back to church. We gave him a date for baptism on April 11, but he didn’t visit church yesterday.  Y there is Gina.  She is waiting for her divorce to finish then get married to Lember, a member, y they have two girls.

Well every morning I take a bucket shower because our water is super cold. We use an electric heater for a nice hot bucket shower. Y we pay someone 50 pesos to clean our clothes. My clothes were never this clean before on my mission. My Spanish is getting better everyday because I’m reading the Book of Mormon out loud while having a pencil in my mouth y we are doing a lot of practicing. The pencil is in my mouth because we Americans use our tongue a lot, but in Spanish, no.  So it helps you not use your tongue a lot.

All my food from the members here. 

My area has pine trees y yucca trees y some wood house y some nice houses y right now it has been raining. The members here tell us if you are ever hungry come to our house y say you are hungry y they will gave us food. Like today the ward missionary leader is going to feed us at 3. 

 Well yesterday we y a lot of members visited a hermana’s uncle who is having trouble with his heart, y we sang himno #3 y we gave him a wonderful blessing, y then we said a prayer to close it. It was so beautiful. The spirit was so strong. Everybody was crying while we were doing it in a small room full of members y the tio’s family who are not members.

So that was my week. Love you all. Thanks for the prayers y love. Adios!!!!!!!

Hi Mom. Love you so much. I got Grandma V.’s package. Tell her thanks so much y tell her I have a Walmart here if she wants to send me a gift card.‬

How is Emmanuel dong with his Eagle? 

Are you guys going to general conference?

Tell Franky to leer “Our Search for Happiness.” It is made for investigator’s questions.  Tell Grandma I love her y happy birthday.  Tell Caleb y Luke good job on their track meet y I love them . Tell Nate good job on getting his license.  How is he doing with his mission papers?

The board says “Welcome Elder VanBuskirk” but it is spelled like how they spell it y say it here in Mexico. They call me Vazquez because they can’t say VanBuskirk and they think it sounds like my name.  Yah, I know.  Hahaha.  Well, in Coita a hermana called me the green guy from Monster’s Inc., his last name –yah, Mike Wazowski. At least Vazquez is closer. haha

GraciasaqueÉlvive #BecauseofHim‬ - This is a new Easter video from the Church that is coming out soon.

‪I’ve got to go. I hope I answered all your questions. I pray for you all the time. Thanks for total. Tell all my bros I love them y miss them. I love you a ton. Have a good week. Tell Dad I said hi y I pray for him y his work. Good bye all‬!

Raspberry water. We get a lot of it here.

Taking a break in the street.

Using New Muscles

I’m great. I’m in the city, well, more like the outskirts of the city. My area is all hills so I’m using new muscles I didn’t use before. The people have more money than my last area. My house is very small it has one big room for the kitchen y our study area, y then a small step to your right is the bedroom y to the left the bathroom, y straight ahead is a big room for our closet y different stuff.  We have  running water, but we take bucket showers every morning because the water is so cold. So we get a bucket full of water y put on an electric heater for 20 min or so. It is just us, not other elders. It is a small little cute house.

Some houses here are wood y some are big y some are nice. The church is 10 min away y the area is not as big as Coita. Our ward is called the Balun Canan Ward. The members are so nice. They give us so much food y they say if you are ever hungry at night come on over y we will feed you. They said if you are too busy to eat, come any time of the day. We have members feed us every day but it is the same for the whole month y they even give us dessert sometimes. The weather here during the day is fresh with a nice wind, y at night a lot colder. By the end of the day my arms are all red from the cold.

Eating at a pizza joint.

‪My companion, Elder Mena, is great. He has been on his mission 4 months y he is really helping me with speaking Spanish. We are doing a lot of practicing but we are working great. He is a district leader y he only been in this area for 2 months y when he got here it was new area because before it was the hermanas’ y they had a problem so they switched areas when he got here, so this area is new for him. I don’t know where he is from exactly, but it is very close to here. He is funny y he doesn’t know a lot because he is pretty new on the mission. 

Please send me the trail mix from Costco with the nuts y MyMs because I like them y so does Elder Mena. He says hi.

Tell Luke I love him y happy birthday.  I love you.  Tell everybody I love them y miss them. I just downloaded the pics y I don’t have a lot of time left.  I'll tell you what they are next week. Tell everybody to keep up the hard work, y Fran with work, y Nate y Dylan y Derek y Caleb y Luke.  I love them all.  Thanks for total.  I pray for you everyday.  Goodbye all. Love you a ton.

 Investigator Jose Maria. He was going to be baptized last Sat., but i don’t know.

Hermanas Olgui y Esperanza. They are the ones who always gave us a lot of food.

Hermana Caty, a member, y her family.

My last sunset in Coita

The birds are pets, but they let them free in the hose a lot of people have them. We were eating y they were fighting right next me so I took a photo.

My new area