May 16, 2011 -letter

Dear Family,

Well, today is Monday.  I wrote you guys this morning, not very much.  I hope this letter will maybe fill you in on what I didn’t say this morning.  We are at an Hermana’s house washing.  They have a washer and a dryer.  It’s the first time that I’ve used a dryer since being in Mexico.  I actually think they don’t exist in Salinas Victoria.  I had to come into the big city.  Our area really is in the big city, but it is mostly residential.  It is so weird being here.

My new companion was born in Brazil, his mom is Brazilian and his dad is Mexican.  For the past 10 years he has lived in Chiapas, Mexico.  He is short and really dark.  He knows how to talk to people and can gain their confidence really fast.  I am glad that I am with him.  For one I am going to be able to speak Spanish better, the other is I hope to be able to talk to people like he can.  This week that I have been with him has been interesting.   Obedience is related with everything we do. 

Monterrey is awesome.  I am still amazed at how big this city is.  It pretty much never ends.  The mountains all around it are really cool also, they are huge.  From our house you can see the Silla (Saddle Mountain), and in another direction another group of mountains that look bigger, but I think it is just because they are closer. 

Today, and all this week it has been raining and one day it even hailed.  Not quite as bad as it was on the hike with the Waldrons but it was still pretty intense.  It’s been pretty nice weather lately.  I have been using my long sleeve shirts more.  I forgot how much I like them.  The primary song about earth right after rain makes a lot more sense to me now that I have been in a city that doesn’t get clean very often.  Sunday afternoon it was really cool.  It rained really hard so everyone went inside and about 45 minutes after, it stopped and everything was silent.  Nobody was outside but us and everything was fresh.  It was pretty cool, or a different experience at least. 

22 May

I fell in love with Mexico a little more last night.  We got to go to a birthday party of one of the sisters in the ward (We baptized her future son-in-law my first Sunday here.  That was cool.)  Mexicans really know how to party.  They got these huge speakers from somewhere and had some karaoke going on and there was also a piñata.  I had the honors of breaking it.  Right now it is early Sunday morning.  We don’t have any baptisms planned but there are lots of people who showed up last week and if they come today they could theoretically get baptized.  We are taking the white clothes just in case.  I am pretty sure we are going to be in church at the same time as you guys.  It is cool to think about that.

Sister Romney (Mission President’s wife) is going to mail this sometime, hopefully soon from Texas, so it should get to you guys pretty fast.  I think about you guys all the time, and I love to show the pictures of us to people.  The usual comment is, “Wow, 7 kids, didn’t you guys have T.V.? “  Anyway, I love you.

Love,

Elder Camden Waite