Arrival in Guadalajara Mexico Mission

October 3, 2016
    Okay so my day started at 1:15 this morning when I took my carefully packed bags to the reception area to be weighed.  Somehow, one of them was 60 pound and the other was 37. Don’t know how that happened, but I got it straightened out.  My carryon was a perfect 22.5 lbs, but that meant that I had the heaviest sidebar and all of my overcoat pockets stuffed with books. It was a super huge pain to go anywhere. I was a disaster, but nothing happened.   I managed to help everyone on the bus to the airport and then caught about 10 minutes of sleep.  I woke up SUPER tired and groggy. We said goodbye to all of the Elders going to different places and then we went to wait for out plane.  I tried several times to call my parents, but it never really worked.  I got to at least say hi to Mom and hear her voice, but that is about it.  The flight to Guadalajara  was only about an hour long.  I passed out completely so I can’t tell you anything about it. Everyone’s bags made it there without a problem, so my first “calling” in the mission was a success.  Glad it is over.

    We were greeted by President and Sister Clayton and their assistants.  They took us to a chapel by the temple and gave us s snack breakfast and some copies of The Book of Mormon.  Then they told us that our first day would be working in the city as a third member of an existing companionship. I was paired with Elder Simpson and Elder Fowley.  Elder Simpson was cool and taught me a ton of stuff.  He has been serving for almost 22 months so he knows his stuff.  His companion is a new missionary of only 6 weeks and knew about as much Spanish as I do.  Anyway, we walked and contacted for hours in the heat.  I had a long sleeved shirt on, so that part was miserable.  We taught 3 lessons, well actually Elder Simpson did all the teaching.  I only spoke when he asked me to.  During one of the lessons with a less active member, we watched a talk by Uchtdorf from conference and I straight up passed out for the whole thing.  We finally made it back to their apartment and they made me some tacos.  I got to sleep on their couch for the night.  All in all, I was more or less “awake” for 41 hours so that couch sleep was fine by me.  It was a long long day, but it was still one of the best days of my life.  I am actually a missionary now!

October 4, 2016
    We woke up early, as missionaries do, and went to the mission president’s house, which is a mansion compared to everyone elses.  Guadalajara is interesting because many people have super poor homes filled with very expensive things.  There is a lot more money in this city that there appears to be by the architecture of the homes. Sister Clayton fed us a very good meal  (really it was amazing) and then interviewed each of us. Then we went back to the temple to meet our new companions who will be training us for the next 12 weeks.  My trainer is Elder Long from Oregon.  Elder Long is really cool and his Spanish is very good even though he has only been out for 7 months.  We are assigned to Manzanillo, which is a costal city several hours south of Puerto Vallarta.  We did some training as a group and then they fed us pizza and sent us on our way.  Manzanillo is too far to go in one night so we stopped for the night in the mission home in Guzman.  

    The bus ride…it was the most awful experience ever!  I got so very sick and had to throw up in the bathroom of the bus.  I have never in my life thrown up so violently for such a long time.  It was ridiculous and I think with every heave I shook the bathroom so hard that the light bulbs burst.  It was awful.  We finally made it to the mission house which was kind of nice actually.  There were lots and lots of rooms and beds to house missionaries that come and go.  I was so tired that it was a good night for me.  Elder Knight from the CCM was with me to keep me company in not understanding any Spanish.  So yeah, cool place, terrible ride.
October 5, 2016
    Okay, finally I am at my first area in the mission!  I had to take another long bus ride, but this one was a lot easier for me.  We went through some beautiful countryside along the ocean on our way to Manzanillo.  I stepped off of the bus and it was like stepping into a steamy shower.  It is really not that hot, but it is exceptionally humid so it feels hotter than it really is.  I got to go home first and unpack a few things before going to a recent converts house for the meal of the day.  They were a really nice family who made the most awesome enchiladas.  “We” (using that term loosely) taught them a lesson and then left to go contacting.  We also taught a lesson to a less active family and during the lesson, one of their son’s showed up.  We taught him about the restoration and set a baptismal date with him.  We set a date with him for another lesson, so we will see how that turns out.  We went shopping for our food for the week and I only spent about 10$.  My house is okay, super small without air conditioning, no washer, but we do have a frig.  Even though I spent the whole day drenched in sweat, I love it here and I already love the people even though I can’t understand them.