¡Feliz Año Nuevo! (you almost had it haha)

How was the new year? Me and my companion celebrated on the roof with grilled cheese sandwiches and soda and lots of candy haha it was great.Well the first week in the city flew by. My companion is Elder Wittwer, hes about 6 foot 4 and went to Skyline High School, and has been here in Mexico for about 7 weeks. We both have a very limited knowledge of the area, because there used to be 4 missionaries here, in 2 different areas, but they merged the 2 into this area, so we have lots of space to cover. The city is great. Now dont go thinking its a city like the states, but its really cool. The weather is perfect, I use my pajamas and 2 blankets at night I absolutely love it, then during the day I just use my short sleevers and dont sweat at all. Its absolutely perfect, I didnt think I was going to be in a place like this till after my mission. We have few investigadors and most of them are new, there is lots of work to be done. I am super excited to be here and to do my best I can to help the district. We are a very small district, 4 missionaries in total. And the other 2 are the zone leaders (one of them, Elder Outsen, went to Brighton but graduated a year before me, I think I told you about him before as he was my zone leader before also) so its a really relaxed district leader position haha, but Im excited.

To answer some of your questions... We take our shirts to a laundromat here and wash our garments in the back yard. My suit is holding up fine, we only use it on Sundays. My shirts are all good and I have a good amount of ties, thanks for checking and worrying about me haha.

As far as my responsibilities as district leader, I have lots but to sum it all up its to make sure everyone is working well, that they are ok mentally, physically, spiritually, and to be an example. Like I said, we are only 4 missionaries and the other 2 are zone leaders and so the responsibility is not overwhelming, its a good start and Im grateful and humbled to be able to be called.



I love you all. Thank you for your faithfulness, for your testimonies, and for your love. Your faith is strengthening to me and I hope that I can communicate that same feeling to others. I love you all, talk to you next week.



. So we had Interviews, conference, our branch christmas party, and a few other small things like family nights. It was a packed week. On christmas eve, we ate at a members house with 2 other missionaries, and the family gave us piña rellena (filled pineapple) It was half of a pineapple hollowed out and filled with this vegetable salad shtuff and seafood (shrimp, octopus, fish) and melted cheese on top. THey also served it with tostadas (hard tortillas) and there is this soda here that tastes exactly like sparkling cider that they gave us. It was unreal. Best meal Ive had on my mission no doubt. Ill send you a picture next week. Supposedly they sell for about 300 pesos each (about 25 bucks). Then, yesterday we only had the one hour of church and then went to a members house for lunch and had pasta salad, mashed potatoes, and fried chicken. It was good then we made some of the peanut butter cookies you sent to give to some families. Then after that we helped a member move her stuff to her moms house (Is it okay to help move stuff on Sunday?). Her moms boyfriend was helping us move everything, and him and I were carrying the stove out, and he told me, subalo! (put it on my shoulder...) and so I was like, alright... so I helped him get this entire stove up on his shoulder and he started carrying it and looked a little wobbly but hes super strong so I just let him go. Long story short, he forgot about all the clothes lines in the yard and the stove caught on one and he dropped it and fell backwards. He was fine, and nothing happened to the stove, it was just ridiculously funny haha. It was a strange Christmas but I was grateful to be with such humble people, and sweating all day haha. Changes came today, and I am headed to an area called La Hacienda (near the city of Oaxaca... I think...) and I will be a district leader there. Im a little nervous but also excited. It was great talking to you guys on Saturday, I love you all. Thanks for your love and support.