WEEK 10---January 30, 2017---Pain, Food (Week 10 Edition), Older Sweat, RIP, 2 Views, Cockroaches

Peña (pain) with my trainer

Food (Week 10 Edition)

1. Pizza with pretzel crust. Also I put ketchup on it. It is actually pretty rica (tasty). 

2. Milanesa chicken. Always puts a smile on my face and some pounds on my belly.

3. Cactus! The cactus was  put into the meat for a taco. Suppposedly its good for your stomach. It is pretty decent. It just tasted like the hamburger it was cooked in, so I have yet to taste it alone. 

4. An Hermana gave us a whole bag of fruit! 

5. We ate with a family we met at a store. They literally had a bucket full of taco del pastor meat ready to go. I ate So many tacos. It was one of the best meals of my life. 

Older Sweat

On Monday, some friends we are teaching invited us over for some pizza. It was in honor of my birthday. I was super touched that, even though we had met only a few weeks earlier, they were offering to celebrate my 21 years of existence with me. Pretty sweet.  

Also, on Tuesday, we were eating at the house of a family that we are very close with, the Marins, and they sang like 5 different birthday songs to me. In Mexico, every musical artist has hopped on that bandwagon to make their own birthday song, so I heard a ton of birthday songs that I had never heard before. I was pumped to hear them all though.

 RIP Scorpion Friend

A view of the Valle de Bravo area.
 Another view of the area.

 When you find a village of cucurachas (cockroaches) underneath your fridge, things get serious real fast. 

WEEK 9---January 23, 2017---FOOD, ENGLISH, LECCIONES (LESSONS), SCORPION ON MY WALL

Food 

This week I ate some delicious comida (food):

1. Enmolidas - Enchiladas, but instead of being smothered in chili sauce, it is smothered in mole sauce. It was delicious

2. Calo do Cerdo - A soup made with chilis and pork. It was delicious as well.

3. Arroz con huevos - Mexican rice with fried eggs on top. I had this a couple of times. It is simple but delicious.

4. Tacos el Dorado - Deep fried tacos, so of course they made the list.

5. Agua de Guyabas - Water + Guavas + Sugar, I am thinking of renaming it "Agua to Dry My Tears of Hurt," because it is so divine. 

English

We have met some people here that speak English. One guy is from Chicago. He owns a burger shop here, and is Christian as well. We spoke some Bible, a little of bit of Chi Town rap, and a whole lot of English haha. 

The family from England is great. We continue to chat over biscuits in the night time. I hope to develop a British accent by the time I return. 

Lecciones (Lessons)

One of the main purposes for us here is to teach lessons about our doctrine. This week have had the opportunity to teach some people interested in the message. I still cannot understand everything they say, but I have to listen extra hard to understand anything. So I end up staring intently at them, which leads them to turning towards me and speaking even more rapidly and excitedly, all the while, I begin to nod my head so they don't get offended, but honestly, I miss most of what they say. I just always pray they don't ask a question directly to me, because then I would have to say, "So I actually couldn't understand what you just took 5 minutes to explain to me in great detail and emotion..."  But luckily my companion understands and answers. 

Scorpion on my wall

Twice now we've had a scorpion just hanging out in our casa. The first time was super cool and I thought we could be friends and so I put him gently outside on the calle and wished him well on his way. The second time, I threw him out on the sidewalk and had to stomp him.

WEEK 8---January 16, 2017---FOOD, GIL, SOCCER EN LA CALLE, PENA, DOCTRINE, PRINCIPLES, AND APPLICATIONS

Food

A food section might become a necessary item every week. This week I tried tortas. Dang. They are delicious. It's basically a sandwich with a lot of mayo, but the meat we got was fried, breaded chicken called milenesa. 

Secondly, I ate pisoli this week. It's a very common meal here. It's basically a soup with corn as the base, but also some type of meat mixed in with it. The family that made it for us, made sure to make it non-spicy. It was greatly appreciated, because my mouth was still on fire from the "non-picoso (spicy)" version. 

Thirdly, a member bought each of us a hamburger one day. That tasted like some classic American Freedom. 

Also they sell cuties or mandarins for super cheap. I bought a dozen for a dollar. And they were delicious.

Gil

We were walking around, looking for people to talk to, and found a taxi driver name Gil taking a quick break by the road. We talked with him for a while and I shared with him a scripture from the Book of Mormon. We felt the Spirit testify of the truth, and I think he did too. Before we left, he told us he wanted to buy us drinks. He went to the nearest tienda and bought us both a soda. It was one of the happiest times this week. What a great guy. 

Soccer en la Calle

While walking around (that's what we do), we found some kids playing soccer in the street. One of the kids stopped us and started speaking perfect English in a British accent. It was super random haha, but we ended up kicking the ball around and making friends with them. The kid that spoke English told his parents about us, and later in the week they invited us over. The parents are from England, and when they invited us in they offered us tea and cookies. We declined the tea, but chowed on the cookies. 

Pena

Today we hiked a mountain in Valle called the Pena. It was a great view of the area. 

Doctrine, Principles, and Applications

My companion showed me talk this week by Elder Bednar, that spoke about doctrine, principles, and applications. It is very interesting. The gist of it is that everything operates because of underlying truths, or doctrines. The principles give guidelines for what to do because of the doctrine, and the applications are the specific plans we make. Usually, we spend too much time in evaluating and changing the applications. The best investment of time is spent in understanding the underlying truths. Doctrine is the answer every time.

Love you all,

Elder Sweat

WEEK 7---January 9, 2017---FIRST WEEK OUT, FOOD, SQUASH (WE THINK THAT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED, LANGUAGE

First Week Out

This marks the first full week out in Valle de Bravo. It has been good so far. I have been meeting a lot of people. Everyone that we have talked to here has been so kind. The ward members here take very good take of the Elders. We have eaten lunch with the members every day of the week. Even if we stop by a member's house for a quick visit, they invite us in and give us something to eat or run to a store and grab something for us. The members are a blessing to the missionaries.

Food

It is necessary that I dedicate an entire section dedicated to talking about the food here. First of all, we've eaten a ton of tacos. Every meal is served with corn tortillas off to the side. My first taco in Mexico was delicious, and basically every other taco after that has been delicious too. 

We also drink Coca-Cola every lunch. The members run to a little tienda (store) and grab an ice cold 3 liter for the meal. My companion and I drink about 2 liters of it during the meal. It's delicious, and I've also heard a rumor that it's a good way to stay stomach healthy, because it burns any bad bugs that get ingested. It's probably a rumor, but I use it to give me free license to drink mucho amounts of Coke. Haha. 

Also another good thing we've eaten has been empanadas. Another family made us enchilidas and panbasos. The panbaso is basically a deep fried roll with meat, beans, lettuce, and salsa. It's delicious.

The only thing that caught me off guard so far has been manitos de cerdo. PIGS FEET. I luckily ate it in time before the Hermana told us. My companion wasn't so lucky hahaha. He couldn't bring himself to eat it. The texture is just pretty different with all of the nerves inside. But it actually tasted like pork so the flavor was still on point.

Squash (We think that's what it's called)

We met a butcher on the street whose named Jesus. He is a tank of a man. His hands are rock solid. I've never seen someone with hands that strong. He invited us to play squash with him today. Squash is basically racquetball minus the racquet. It is most definitely a man's sport. You just smack the ball as hard as you can with you palm and try to hit the wall. My hand was swollen basically immediately after hitting it once. I couldn't look weak in front of my friends, so of course I played for the next hour and a half. My hand was swollen and completely numb after for about 2 hours.

Language

The language has been hard. I can talk a little bit, but I haven't learned how to listen in Spanish. So it's been a whirlwind trying to understand and help people when I have a very small idea of what they are even talking about. I really hope to learn fast so that I can understand people and be able to help them more fully.

Have a great week. 

WEEK 6---January 4, 2017---GOODBYES, MADE IT TO THE MISSION, NOTE, HAPPY NEW YEAR

Goodbyes

Last weekend was one of goodbyes. It was our last weekend at the CCM and was a bittersweet experience. I was grateful to have met everyone in the district and especially my companion Elder Simmons. We had a great experience in the CCM. 

Made it to the Mission

On Monday, I officially made it out of the CCM into my mission. My mission is called the Mexico City West Mission. It covers part of Mexico City (the west part if you were wondering) and some cities further west of the city.

When we arrived to the mission headquarters, we were assigned a companion and an area. The area we are assigned to is where we live for the next 6 weeks. We are responsible to take care of the ward (congregation) in the area and also to serve and talk with everyone in the city. 

My companion's name is Elder Edwards. He is from Mapleton, Utah and has been out in the mission for about 5 months. He's a good guy and I'm looking forward to working and learning from him.

My area is Valle de Bravo. The area is beautiful. I don't have any pictures today, but I hope to get some. If you google it, I'm sure you'll see what I'm speaking about. We are right next to a lake. The area is a place for tourists and hang gliders, so they are Americans here too.

Note

The day I will email now is Monday (other than today). 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! A great time to reset and reevaluate how things are going. The gospel of Jesus Christ gives us a Happy New Year every day if we let it. We are able to become new people, let go of old hurt, and live lives of true peace and happiness. It's never too late. No one is ever too far gone. The Savior loves us all and is anxious to help us change and heal. This belief will transform your life for the better. All fall short, but with the help of God and His Son Jesus Christ, we are made whole. What a great message. So simple yet so powerful.

Love you,

Elder Sweat

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017---ELDER SWEAT ARRIVED SAFE AND SOUND

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

Tuesday, Jan 3, 2017

Dear Sweat Family,

     We want to let you know that Elder Sweat arrived safe and sound here in the Mexico City West Mission.  We are grateful to have him here!   He and the other 7 new missionaries arrived on Monday morning.  It was a busy day; introductions, orientation and training, breakfast and lunch, pictures, and then meeting his training companion and his first assignment.  Elder Sweat and Elder Edwards, from Mapleton, Utah, then headed to their proselyting area in Valle de Bravo, state of Mexico.

     Thank you for sending Elder Sweat to our Mission.  We look forward to two great years together with your good son.

President and Sister Carl D. Grossen

Mexico City West Mission