1st Month in Mexico

You won't believe this week!

What up, what up!? I hope this letter all finds you currently safe and sound wherever you may be! I hope you all know that this week was crazy, and I won't just type on and on about stuff, but this week a lot of cool stuff happened!

Ok, so I realized that I haven't really told you guys a lot about the culture of Mexico, so i figured that I would let you know! First off, their cleaning supplies: a broom. That's is... a broom, and a 10 liter container of all purpose cleaner. they use a broom to clean EVERYTHING. Cars, their streets, their floors, their walls, their side walks. They don't use mops or anything, but not gonna lie, a broom works pretty good. Well, I'll tell you one a week so you guys have something interesting to read each week.

Ok, first off, my stomachs most uncomfortable feeling in my entire life. We went to do service, which means that we went to a ladies house and she then took us out to eat carnitas, which are just tacos for breakfast. So I had already eaten a lot that morning, and I didn't know we were going to eat, but I ate a taco, again, out of cow intestines and who knows what else... i saw this bowl of onions, and I thought "i love onions" so I put A LOT of them on it. I then proceeded to go to town on this taco. Right before I put the last bite in my mouth, it hit me.... I didn't know what it was, but I felt like I just got ran over by a spice truck, and then i realized what I had just eaten, they weren't really onions. I had just eaten onion salsa, which is really sliced jabaneros and a little bit of unions. I had literally just jammed lit 2 jabanero peppers down my throat. I started sweating soo bad, and i started to black out because it was soooooo hot. So they gave me this other thing. It was like a deep-fried half quesadilla with meat inside. I ate it. After I ate it, my companions asked me if i wanted to know what I had just eaten. I told them to give me 5 minutes. Five minutes later, they tell me the thing that I definitely didn't want to hear. I had just eaten SESO. What they really were telling me, was that I just ate A PIG'S BRAIN! it had the texture of like thick soup, but didn't have any real meat to it, but what's werd is that I kinda liked it :) haha 

next story... A BAPTISM! of my companion :/ We were visiting one of our investigators, and it started to pour, and we walked out, and the water was probably 6 inched deep in the street, so instead of heading back to our house right then like I wanted to, Lugo decided he would like to wait a little bit to see if the rain stopped. We waited 2 hours... it didn't... :( so the next time we went out, it was about 14 inches deep, and was covering the huge speed bumps they call topes. I saw that the other sidewalk was a lot higher, so i jumped off the car onto the tope, and walked over to the other side walk. I told lugo to come on, and i told him that he should step off the car, but he didn't. He jumped. Instead of landing on the top of the tope, he landed about 6 inches to right of the top, and his foot went under, and he lost it. Both legs whip up in the air like two people were running with a rope and tripped him, and then i lost him! He goes completely under, and then he comes up, soaked, with a now broken umbrella and more angry than I have ever seen him before. So then, after he changes into some of Michael ( our investigator) clothes, I got an idea! I thought of Paul Blart mall cop, and I asked Isabel (his mom) if she had garbage bags we could use? She did! I then put bags on my shoes, and put the large bags up to my thighs. Instead of trying to tape or tight the bags to my pants, I rolled my slacks up into booty shorts, and we taped the bags to my thighs! not my best idea... haha We then started the trudge home. About halfway down the street, the water is about halfway up my shin, and I feel my right foot go titanic! I just feel water rushing into my sock, shoe, and all over my legs. There was no point in stopping then, so we kept going. We didn't realize that the street we had to cross to got to our house was half way up our thigh... I thought that both my shoes and feet were soaked by this point, so I walked right out into the deepest part of the street, and asked Lugo to take a picture. it was then that i realized that my left shoe USED TO BE DRY! I felt that aweful feeling of nasty water running into my shoe and sock. We made it home, but I didn't feel good the next day. Culture fact number 2! The sewage and draining systems here suck, so when we were walking home, we were literally walking through thigh deep sewer. Their was trash and "other stuff" all over, but i wanted to get home SOOO bad! I got in the shower as soon as we got home, so I didn't get an infection or anything, but I hope it doesn't rain that much again. My shoes still haven't dried, and it's been 5 days! :/

Next story! Lions, Tigers, and Bears? OH MY! That's right, the neighbor of one the members that we ate with last Tuesday own a freaking LION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CRAZY! It looks just like scar off the lion king! Also, they have horse dogs. These things are ginormous! they are easily up past my belly button, and they probably weigh 3 hundred pounds, and there are 3 of them! This house also had peacocks and parrots. We're pretty sure that they are drug lords, but we didn't care because they were super nice and let us take pictures and play with their "dogs". So, this one time, I was standing with my back up to cage, and all of a sudden I just here like the sound of jumping. I look back to see the lion flying at my, and it attacks and bites the cage right when my butt is touching it! Scared my soo bad! I mean honestly, why would it want my butt, it would only hurt its teeth on bone! haha It was seriously the coolest thing, especially because I touched it!!!! Yes. I touched it! It was such a cool experience! ok, so these are the pictures of the Lion, and we were invited to a party, and if you lost the game, you had to have something drawn on. Luckily I already hadn't shaved for a couple days! haha

Ok, so this part, I really am talking about a baptism, and not just a baptism, but I got the opportunity to baptize him!!!!!!!! We have such an incredible investigator named Hugo Olimpo, he has always had problems that we could never find the answers to, and therefore, we couldn't ever baptize him. He also had a stoke and lost all motion in his right half of his body, but he has made tremendous progress, and he can walk now! anyways, I was on divisions with Elder Holley (the one with dark hair that's white) and when I got back home yesterday morning to grab my suit for church, Lugo told my that all of the problems had been figured out for Lugo, and we were going to have his baptism yesterday! I was SO excited because Hugo Olimpo is one of my favorite people. I love him so much more than I thought I would love people here! I baptized him, and it was such an INCREDIBLE experience, because even though he still has his physical problems, when I brought him out of the water, I grabbed his shoulder and told him that he was perfect :) I have never felt so much joy from me or from someone else. He was SO READY to get baptized, and I know he will be such a great member of the church. Also, we had SO much support from the ward; we didn't have enough room for everyone in the baptismal font room! There were incredible testimonies, and I am really starting to understand a lot more of the language. It truly is a blessing, and I can't wait for the other baptisms that we will have in the future!

Elder Holley. He's from Vegas, and he is probably my favorite person here. Sadly, but exciting, he goes home in 2 weeks, and he is the first person and maybe one of the only people that I told he could take ANY ONE OF MY TIES! It was so hard to watch him take my bright blue,white, and gray tie, but memories and friends are worth more than a tie :) I also got a wool tie from him, he has one, and I have one, and both other the tie's names are rachel, and they have a scripture on them that says Genesis 29:17. Look it up! :) 

Ok, so my scriptural story for the week is Mosiah 9:14- the end. It describes how when the people of Mosiah were prospering in the lands, they were out watering their flocks and working with their flocks to provide, when Lamanites come from the borders of the lands and started to kill them and take their flocks and food. They asked for protection from king Mosiah. He armed all of his people, and they went up with their might, "crying mightily unto the lord". Each day, especially when we are "prospering in the land" Satan has the desire to come into our land and attempt to take away our freedoms and blessings. It is so important that we constantly cry to lord to give us the strength we need, after we are already going forth with our might, that we may be able to conquer our temptations and attacks from the adversary. Everyday is different, but we should always pray for the Lord to help strengthen us and give us the assistance we need to come off conquerors! 

I hope you all know that this church is true, and through prayers, we can continually receive the strength we need to keep fighting, and keep pushing each day to conquer the temptations and weaknesses that we may have. I know God loves each of us, and wants to help us. I also know that we are far more capable than we may think at times, and if we are willing to put our strength and faith in the Lord, he will show us our true potential. 

I love you all, and hope you have a super-duper fantastical week!... ok that sounded weird, but for real! Have a good week!  I love you all again and wish you the best wherever and in whatever you may be!

Love,

Elder Nathan Norr

That giant red thing is the "coyote" it's an 80 foot tall metal sculpture in our area! it's sweet!

Later this afternoon I received this email from Nate I thought it was to sweet not to include

Hey nat, 

My companion for the day wanted to go back to the computers for a minute, so I thought I would tell you something. Mom told me that you guys visited. She also told me that when roar came on the radio, that Hallie knew every word of it. I had never heard it, so I put it on youtube (we can listen to music, as long as it doesn't talk about things that are inappropriate and super intense), as the song started, and katy perry started to sing, especially the chorus, I could almost hear Hallie singing it. I almost started to cry because I know that i will miss a lot over the next two years, I'm actually almost crying now while I type. Just make sure that Hallie and Gracie know that I love them SO MUCH, and I wish I could be there to see them. Please, keep me updated with pictures and stories. And tell Hallie she has to show me her singing and dancing when i get back! :)

 

ok, now I'm crying...

But I love you guys, and wish you guys the best, especially since Matts back to work!!!

Love Your brother, Uncle, and missionary

Elder Nathan Norr :)