Nacho Country

Finally got out into the field! Travelling as a missionary is always weird, because they never really tell you what´s going to happen, so we just have to wish for the best. At times it feels like the blind leading the blind, but we made it to the field safely.

Leaving the CCM was pretty sad, with leaving my big missionary family and all the friends that I had made there. Super excited to hear about all their experiences on their missions though too (you all better remember to add me onto your mission lists).

The first night the mission president had all of us new arrivals stay in a hotel, because it wasn´t going to be until the next night that we would get our area assignments and new companions, so we stayed in a pretty nice hotel in Juarez. 

We received our assignments, and I was assigned to serve in the Laguna 1 area of Nuevo Casas Grandes, which isn't actually even in Ciudad Juarez itself. It's kind of out in the boonies about a 4 hour bus ride from Juarez, and the entire time I was riding on the bus (which was actually really comfortable, even though it smelled like pee), the countryside out here reminds me so much of Nacho Libre it's ridiculous. I guess I never really though that Mexico really was like how they portrayed it in that movie, but it is. At least in this part. Three wheeled motor bike things and all. Also the only time I've seen carpet so far has been in the chapels of churches, and even out of the 4 chapels I've been in, only 2 have had carpet. Most everything here is tile floors or just plain cement. Also there are some old Mormon and Menanite colonies down here too, so walking around downtown while buying groceries and such, every once in a while we'll see white people wearing normal clothes or in the traditional Menanite dress, which is cool. All of them speak Spanish but some also speak German. There are also a good number of Mexicans here who have really light brown or blue eyes too, which is also cool, since we didn't see that in the MTC nor with my latino friends at home.

My companion is Elder Souza, who is a 6'4 Elder from Brazil, who is 9 months into his mission. He doesn't speak any English either, and although I took lots of Spanish in high school and was decently prepared, I still have to spend a lot of time and brain energy translating everything in my head, so sometimes when talking to people, I'm so busy trying to translate everything for myself that I miss the point of what they're saying entirely. Thankfully I can still communicate sufficiently and at least get the gist of what people are saying. Elder Souza hates spiders, so whenever we find one in the apartment he kills it with bug killer and then adds it to a collection of dead spiders he has in a little plastic cup with a lid.

I never thought "Peters" would be a difficult name to pronounce, but some of the natives here have a hard time with it. A lot of the time I miss speaking English, 

We spend most of our days walking around the dirt streets and talking to people about Jesus, even if they don't want to hear our specific message, and it's fun to hear how their spirituality and relationship with God and Christ has blessed their lives.

The church here is pretty much the same as it is in the States, although in English. There's still the same loving, peaceful atmosphere, and it's a great feeling.

We also get to wear sombreros! Although they're probably not the ones that first come to mind when you hear the word sombrero. I'll attach a picture.

But the work here is great. People here are really friendly and like to talk about Jesus. I guess these areas traditionally don't have much success, but we've been meeting lots of new people to teach and it's been great. I guess this mission has lower numbers compared with other missions in Mexico, partly because we're on the border and there's a lot of different churches, but I still feel like we're making a lot of progress, even if they don't want to hear our messages. I do miss the green of Mexico City though.

A lot of the times I miss speaking and reading things in English, but it's fun to learn more Spanish every day (although exhausting), and I can't wait until I'm fluent enough that I don't have to translate everything in my head.

I'm attaching a bunch of pictures. Some are from when we were still at the MTC, some are from the airplane (leaving Mexico city and then Juarez and the Chihuahuan Desert from the air), and others are some of the streets that we walk around every day. My comp looks a little dopey in pictures, but I promise he doesn't look like that all the time. Also the interior of our house is bright green.

Love you guys!