Monday, January 13, 2014

Week 73 - D & C 58:4

Hey!

I am so, so happy right now!  My new area (pronounced oco so kwowt la, more or less) is so awesome!  Dad asked me a ton of questions about it in his email so I guess I´ll explain it all in that part.  If you haven´t read the scripture from the subject line it says, ´´after much tribulation come the blessings.´´  Well, suffice it to say that I consider the 7 months in Central and 6 months with my companion to be the ´´much tribulation´´ and my new area to be the blessing.  ha.  I´m in love with this place.  In fact, the first night I was here I was so enchanted by it all that I told my companion that I want to live here.  I´ve changed my mind somewhat, but I still really love it. 

I´ll get on to your emails:

Dad - Thanks for the sports update. It's cool that Florida State won, I´m sure my friends will be pleased. 

1. Tell us about your new Branch.  How many people?  Did you get to play the piano, etc?
     - It's awesome!  69 people went this Sunday, I did indeed play piano...and gave a talk...and taught priesthood haha.  The members are wonderful.  There are a ton of young women and they are all super committed to helping the missionaries.  They´ve given us a ton of referrals and are always asking when we can visit their friends.  We have a branch president, a branch mission leader, and an EQP (unlike Central haha).  There are 3 missionaries that returned in December and one more comes home in February.   It's so genial!!

2. Tell us about your new flat.
     - Another great difference from central.  We live in a house with a functioning bathroom.  I have a chair to study in, we have a washing machine (best invention ever), and many other improvements.  We even have a couch!

3. Tell us about your trip to the new area.
    - haha I was hoping you would ask.  Well, I left at 3 from Tapachula in an ADO GL bus. (they`re nice). 

 There are a ton of stops for immigration and all that, so it takes about 6 and a half hours to get to Tuxtla.  We arrived at 9:30.  I met my new companion (description upcoming).  Then we had to wait 3 hours until the next bus to Ocozocoautla (which is also called Coita BTW, that's easier to say).  So at 12:30 in the morning my comp and I hopped aboard the Rapidos del Sur bus


 (which is the preferred bus for the shady people).  We got home at 1:30 in the morning and it was probably about 40 outside (and inside the house haha).  I was so happy not to be sweating.  But yeah, that was my adventure this transfer.

4. What is the most interesting thing you ate this week?
     - I can´t think of anything too weird. I ate McDonald's for the first time on my mission.  It was really good.

5. Did you have any investigators at church today?
     - yeah we had 5. Our investigators rule!

6. What is the church building like?  I tried looking it up on the Church website, but it kept giving me problems, and I eventually gave up.
    - It's new, they dedicated it about 6 months ago.  It smells really good (like cedar). There isn´t a picture of it on lds.org, it just shows the land that it's built on.

7. How big is your area?
    - Massive.  If you want to get an idea, i'ts everything between Berriozábal to Cintalapa.  We pretty much just stay in Coita though.  It's about 20 blocks by 20 blocks.



8. How will you get around your area?
    - Walking and in mototaxis.   Those are sweet! They are little 3 wheel taxis with motorcycle engines and controls.  Look for a picture of them.


9. Describe the area?  On the map it looks like it is outside of TXG and kind of isolated.
    - It's about 30 minutes from Tuxtla in one of the city buses.  It's a bit far from everything but I like it that way.  We go to Tuxtla every week for a leaders meeting and to Cintalapa every other week for our district meeting. 

10. Tell us about your new Companion.
    - My compy is named Elder Shelley.  He is from Farmington Utah and is a riot.  Everything he says sounds like it comes from Brian Regan.  We get along super well and are just loving every second here. 

11. Are you happy?
     - This has been the best week of my misson. I am so happy!!

I could go on and on, but I will give you a break...

    - thanks haha :)

I did indeed guess my Braves hall of famers.  That's cool.  Everyone knows they deserved it.  Love you dad!  Have a good week!

Mom - Is your life also similar to the book of Exodus?   haha. It could be worse  -could be like Leviticus.  I was wondering about Henry and Karen, there is a huge family here with the last name Trujillo.  The Gospels are excellent. Bruce R McConkie said something about how valuable they are to learn about the character of Christ - it starts, ´´would it surprise you...´´ I read it in Spanish so I´m not really sure how it goes . Look it up though.  I´ve wanted to learn Txotzil but that is looking unlikely.  It's cool that MD is learning a dialect.  I am healthy, happy, and all that jazz.  Don´t worry about me!  Love you Mom!

Andee - I´m going to kill your husband if he doesn`t start writing me.  haha. jokes.  I know he is busy, but thank you for being so kind as to write me every week.  haha.  I don´t remember that happening but I believe it.  My first two weeks at BYU were marked by lots of walking, trying to find buildings, and trying not to look like an idiot.  Both of those pursuits generally failed.   ha. I remember that I once walked for more than an hour looking for Cougar Copy which is only a block from campus.  Good times.  As a matter of fact, my companion and I are doing the same thing right now.  We get lost all the time.  Yesterday we were lost for about 30 minutes, so we had to climb a hill and look to see where the city was.  Good times.  I hope you are loving your last semester.

Time is my enemy.

I love you guys! 

Elder Roth

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