Monday, April 22, 2013

 

This week was super sweet! On Tuesday we went to changes and I was super nervous. I was like shaking for fear of getting another bad comp. I was sitting with Elder Lopez one of my favorite comps and talking to him and he was also kind of nervous. So they go through all the zones and missionaries are hugging and getting to know their new companions. Then he calls my name and called me to Barrio Ecatepec --in the Ecatepec stake. That’s like 10 away from my old ward. Then he said that I would be serving there as district leader with Elder Ames. When he said Elder Ames I thought, wow that sounds a lot like an American name. Then some American stood up and I thought holy cow it is an American. So I am now with Elder Ames from the state of Washington. He is pretty cool, really relaxed and just wants to work without any stupid problems. We get along great and he’s the first companion that I have ever had that told me that he wanted to clean up the house. All the rest of them just slept while I cleaned the house or helped me a little bit. He actually does a lot --it’s really cool. He is new and has like 3 months in the mission, but one and a half in Mexico so I'm teaching him a lot of Spanish. Honestly he’s picking it up a lot faster than I did. I didn’t speak as well as he does when I had his time. We are working good, but I did feel kind of lazy this week because I didn’t know the area. We just kind of walked around talking and teaching people as he guided me. But that will wear off after awhile. We baptized the first week as they had a baptism ready for this week. We baptized him and from what I saw of him he was pretty ready --a real champ. So this week we worked good and need to find some more investigators, but hopefully we’ll find some this next week. I really feel like Mexicans get along better with Mexicans and Americans with Americans. Not that I was thinking about doing it, but I would never get married to a Mexican girl for just that reason. There is just a ton of cultural differences. Actually a lot of things that Elder Ames does reminds me of American culture. I thought that I hadn’t forgotten that much about the states, but I think I have. He has a lot of American products that I haven’t seen in a long time like mechanical toothbrushes, and pomade. These are things I don’t really miss, but had forgotten they were so popular in the states. He filled me in on a lot of things from the states --kind of cool. We are doing our best to talk in Spanish even though I feel like sometimes he doesn’t understand me. By the way my comp is part of a 60 something wave of missionaries that have come from the USA and about 40 from Mexico. My in trainee was one of the 40, but my comp right now and my last comp got here the same day. Since the training period is 12 weeks I guess you could say I’m still training. But Ames really got a hold on things fast. 

 

This week I got a killer bad cold, but I’m all over it now. I lost my voice for a day or two so that was fun for Elder Ames as he got to speak a lot. It was kind of funny because I would understand things and he wouldn’t. But then I couldn’t speak, so I felt useless ha-h! It worked out and I have about gotten my voice back now.

 

Sounds like Mom’s in Utah and Brynlee and Parker are throwing parties. That’s what I used to do when mom and dad where out of town. So this week was pretty sweet. It’s kind of fun to see the new guys, they’re all really stoked about the mission. I was talking to one guy that had about 5 days in the mission and he was telling me about how he didn’t understand anything, but he loved the food. It was hilarious, they crack me up! I don’t know if you remember Elder Vazquez I had a really rough time with him and it was super hard, but now I am his district leader. I will be going on divisions with him, so hopefully he has shaped up a little from when I was his comp. Anyway thanks for everything I will see you next week.

 

Elder Hendricks

 

 

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