The title of this week's email is Mexico Moments. These are what I call special little interesting things that happen to me that otherwise would never have happened if I was still home. Please enjoy.
In the last two weeks:
1. I have been peed on by a dog. Hermana Wong and I were walking along under one of the many homes that has a porch on top and we felt a little sprinkle coming from above. We look up and see this dumb little dog lifting its leg and sending a shower of sadness upon us. Hermana Wong freaked out and I just started laughing. What are the odds? Not gonna lie though, I am ready to start chucking a lot of these yippy little dogs like a football. They are EVERYWHERE.
2. I lost my cute little blue cardigan. As we were walking I laid it over the side of my bag and next thing I know it's gone. Heart breaking. It's probably long gone by now, sold en los tiangis (street tent markets that fill entire streets).
3. I watched a drug deal go down right in front of my eyes. A man in his truck waved us down to ask us about an Elder who used to teach him. As we talked, another man walked up and asked him, "So how many packets of marijuana did you ask for again?" as he was holding a mysterious looking bag. The man who had been talking to us hurriedly tried to shush the other guy and said that "We're not talking about this right now!" Hahahahaha I mean it was bad, but it was quite amusing too. Never thought I'd witness that one.
4. Another shower of sadness, this one coming from my own toilet. As I mopped my bathroom floor this morning I accidentally tapped -- literally just lightly touched -- the connecting hose of the toilet with the mop and it burst. Toilet water spraying EVERYWHERE. The entire floor of the bathroom and just outside the room became a full pool of water. I braved the spray and tried to shut the water off as I desperately called to Hermana Wong but she was no help whatsoever (teehee love you Hermana :) So as of right now my toilet does not flush. Que cosas.
Those are all the Mexico Moments I have for now but I am sure there will be more to come.
On to more uplifting things now. This last Wednesday we had a zone conference (a gathering of all of the missionaries in a particular geographical area of the mission) with Elder Brent H. Nielson, of the Seventy, and his wonderful wife. He is the executive director of the Church Missionary Department. What an amazing day. I learned and felt so much. It was one of those times where I could feel eternal truths touching my heart that I had once known before this life. Very, very neat. Afterwards, I had the very special opportunity of being one of four missionaries to have a special interview with Elder Nielson. We talked for maybe 15 minutes about my family, the mission, safety, areas of focus in the work, and doctrine related to a question that many people ask me here. Afterwards he asked to take a picture with me to send to you, mom and dad. I just sent him your emails today so you should receive that hopefully soon. He and his wife are so kind and hard working and wise. The Hermanas had a special meeting with Sister Nielson first thing in the morning. AMAZING. During that meeting she shared with us some of the factors and blessings associated with the missionary age change. Also, the opportunity to study the Gospel in depth every day and rely on the Spirit is preparing us to raise a future generation and build eternal families. She also spoke about the holiness found in every day life. There is so much beauty in the every day things around us. Sometimes we just need to change our perspective to see these things as God sees them. I loved that. This really helped me because my physical surroundings here, in this part of the city, are not exactly what I would call beautiful but there is SO MUCH beauty and holiness in the lives that people lead here.
It's been a great week and I'm looking forward to another one! Love you!
Love, Hermana Jones
Zone conference. We love President Stutznegger:)
I love my companion :)
I took this picture of the Mexico City Temple back in August while serving at the open house.
Enjoying pan de muertos -- very traditional for Dia de Muertos and Halloween here. It's pretty tasty.
Starting this past week Presidente asked for all the Hermanas to return home at 8 p.m. since it gets darker much earlier. We start working around 10:30 in the morning. On Friday night we made BANANA BREAD. For not having measuring cups and just barely figuring out how to work the stove, it turned out pretty well. Also it was gluten and milk free...hooray for Herman Wong! We ate almost the whole pan Friday night and finished it off Saturday morning. So tasty.
It looks burned but it was really good, especially for eyeballing it and not timing how long it was in the oven haha.
We were not allowed to work on Halloween after la comida so we returned home a little after 3:00 p.m. and had ourselves a grand ol' time. This is a little sugar skull that I ate after taking these pictures. Very traditional here for Dia de Muertos.
We also were not allowed to work on Dia de Muertos (Sunday...yesterday) after 5:00 p.m. so we made ourselves some pancakes! Super fun :) I'm telling you, this whole cooking and baking without measuring cups thing is fun. I think I'll be a pro by the time I come home.
Picture of our Zone Conference with Elder Brent H. Nielson, of the Seventy.
