A Very Mexican-y Halloween

Only realized after we got back home last week that I forgot to title my email last week, so sorry about that.

This week flew by. At times I would look down at my watch and it would already be 4 in the afternoon. But it was a good week. We met a parakeet who was the pet of a member family who eats Jalapenos. I'm also getting really good at being able to smell if someone is drunk from about 15 yards away. We get to talk with a lot of drunk people, and it's fun, although a lot of times they just end up saying the same thing over and over again and we have to tell them we have to go.

This week was Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, although it wasn't really celebrated very much here. We saw some people trick or treating, although I guess this is the only part of Mexico where there really is trick or treating, and I think that might be in part because a lot of people here have lived and worked in the US for some period of time. Because of that, we also get some people who try to talk to me and Elder Jensen in English, although most of it is pretty broken and basic, but that's okay, because my Spanish is still like that a lot of times too haha.

Dia de los Muertos wasn't really celebrated much at all here either. Most people celebrate it in the cemetery, and we didn't pass any cemeteries on our voyages that night. We did get invited to the Bishop's house and had Pan de Muerto (which is basically a sugar donut) and hot chocolate though! It was really fun to celebrate with them and just talk with them for a while. The bishop actually got his Masters degree at Idaho State, and so he speaks perfect English. 

We saw only ONE festive decoration, so I made my comps cross the street so we could get a picture with it. Elder Jensen did teach me how to make chicharrones Halloween night, which I guess could kind of be counted as a celebration.

It's still hot down here, even though it's now November, which is crazy. I still feel like I'm getting sunburned during the day. Also since it's officially after Halloween, we have started to play Christmas music in the mornings. Not even sorry about it.

The night before Halloween, we made a cake with one of our investigators who works in a bakery during the day too, which was fun, although the only thing that we really did was measure and mix the ingredients, and she put the rest of the cake together.

We met an older member the other week while walking who said that she served a mission, so we went and visited her one day since she doesn't get many visitors, and she told us pretty much her whole life story, which was a rollercoaster ride. She told us that only one of her three sons is still alive. One was poisoned by his wife, and the other was shot in the head by some gang members. After she told us that, we kinda just sat there, stunned that she would tell us something so intense so casually, and not knowing what to reply with. Without missing a beat, she continued the very one-sided conversation by saying "I really like this plant that I have growing beneath my window" and then just continued on for about another 15 minutes talking about that as if nothing had happened.

Something really exciting from this week, we set a baptismal date with one of our investigators! She is 17, and we weren't sure if her mom would be super excited about her wanting to join the church, but she told her that she would fully support her! That and our investigator told us that she wants to get baptized, and wants us to be there too. In fact, our next visit with her, we moved her baptismal date up a week!

Also found some more gnarly bugs that I think you guys will enjoy. Elder Jensen found a giant spider and a cockroach in his underwear drawer this morning too, which was a fun wake up surprise. Also finally found some sunglasses, so you can expect me to look a whole lot cooler in my pictures to come.

Throughout this week, I realized that a lot of people sometimes get caught up in the little things, and forget that the most important thing is to remember to try and be like Jesus and treat others how he would treat them. That is by far the most important thing that we can do here.

Love all you guys!

-Elder Peters