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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:32:17 -0600
Subject: Re: Cuernavaca!
From: brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
To: callitidwell@hotmail.com

Mi Mama

Ok let me just tell you a little about Mexico, First of all i have this lovely little apartment above this little store, and the lights do this cool thing where you flip the switch and the light SOMETIMES turns on. And they have weird names for their laundry machines here... they call them BUCKETS...thats right, i get to wash my clothes by hand. I love it!!! Basically i am camping. And thank goodness that it is so hot here, otherwise my freezing cold showers wouldnt be nearly as fun. So if anyone from the ward tries to complain about going to girls camp because they dont like ¨camping¨ , you can just read this email to them.

But really i do like it here a lot. Whenever you teach anyone, they give you these little yellow mangos that are so delicious. Sometimes i put them in my little freezer so i can have a cold snack later when its really hot. Also they like to crush the mangos into this juice-type thing and then pour it over crushed ice like a snow cone, that is also super delicious. And the food here.... SO GOOD!!!! but they serve it to you like you are going to take it home and feed your whole family. They keep on telling me that they need to fatten me up (its one of the only things i undertand in spanish)

So basically I am the only white person around. Like no joke. The only white people i see here are other missonaries, and its only me and my companion in our big area so i basically never see white people. My companion}s name is Hermana Platero. She is awesome and i love her already but shes from El Salvador and doesnt speak hardly any english. Remember how before the mission i would always joke around about how i would have to speak to myself because i wouldnt be able to speak spanish_ ya.... well its TRUEEEE!!!! Remember in the movie Nemo when Marlin is talking to Squirt the little turtle and Squirt is talking super fast and Marlin goes ¨its like hes trying to speak to me, i know it!¨...thats EXACTLY how i feel when these mexicans try to talk to me. i have NO idea what they are saying. and whats even more hard is that most of them dont have hardly any teeth so its even harder to understand what they are saying. I am starting to question whether or not they actually taught me spanish in the mtc. Any another weird thing is that because i am the only white girl around, everyone, especially the men, just stare at me like i am some alien from outter space. Its seriously so weird. they will stop whatever they are doing or turn around completely to stare at me. And im just like.... ¨hola...¨ (cuz thats the only i know how to say)

So the first day of the mission me and my companion were trying to find the house of someone that we have an appointment for a lesson for and we couldnt really find it so we were searching and searching and then right when we found it and knocked on the door, my nose thought that it would be a good time to start gushing blood. It got all over me and all over my books of mormon and pamphlets and ya..everywhere, it was bad. it got everywhere because they dont really have any public bathrooms here so we had no way of getting any toilet paper or anything. So i got to make a great first impression with that investigator with blood all over me and the books of mormon. I think it kind of freaked them out...

So after that we had a dinner appointment at a members house so we showed up...still with blood all over me, mind you, and i sit down at their table and on their table they had this little jar with their giant pet snail in it and i looked over and right next to the dinner table they had this bed with this really old man laying on there...i wasnt sure if he was asleep or dead until he woke up and started freaking out and saying something about how there was a white girl in his house. Thats when i realized that i wasnt in Kansas anymore. 

But yesterday one of our investigators came to church and he said that he really liked it. So thats was awesome! We have a date for him to be baptized next month so i am super excited for that!

The cool thing about mexico is that everyone just sits on the street all the time. They just hang out on the side of the road so its easy to find people to talk to. 

When we arent walking, we are riding the bus. Which is slightly terrifying. The buses here are crazy. They drive at the speed of light and when you want to get on or off the bus you have exactly 2.6 seconds to either jump on or off before the bus takes off. They dont stop for anything. 

Well even though it is super different here, i am so grateful to be here. The people here seriously have nothing. A lot of them live in shacks but they are so grateful and humble and want to give you everything they have and they are so willing to listen. its so awesome. i love it.

Be grateful for what you have because in all reality, we are the ones that are hard to get along with. We are the missionaries that the other missionaries from latin american dont want to be with because we are so rich and stuck up and need everything (like the light switch and toilets) to work all the time. 

 

Well i love you so much mom! have an awesome week and good luck with the garage sale! Hopefully i will be able to learn how to make this delicious food so i can fatten you guys up when i get home. Fat people life is the best.

Love, Bert

 

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