Elder Long in Mexico City: First Week!

Hey everybody!

First, I want to apologize for my poor grammar and spelling. The more I learn Spanish, the more my English degrades. It's a vicious cycle. I'm in that awkward stage were I really don't speak Spanish fluently, but now my English is really suffering.

There's only two words to describe the field. Cra-zy. It is an overwhelming experience.

So I'll divide this letter into a few catagories: Mission life, the language, the culture, and the area.

Mission life.

I love it. Relative to my life before the mission, I've become a much more organized person. I study extremely hard every day, I walk a TON everyday, and I do everything in my power to obey the rules and work hard. It's really nice having so much time to study the gospel. I was given a great talk called the 4th missionary. I'm sure some of you guys have heard it, probably read it, etc. It's basically the cheat sheet on having a successful mission. Well, I've already read it twice (which is saying somthing, because it is 24 pages long), and heavily annotated it. Now I'm reading it in Spanish. In conclusion, I love the work so much.

The Language

This is one of the truly challenging parts of the mission. the language is extremely difficult for me. Apparently, I have extremely good Spanish for a first week, but it is still difficult to understand people, the grammar is challenging, and I'm limited by my small vocabulary. But every day is better and better, and pretty soon I will be able to understand and speak proficiently. I just need to stay exactly obedient, practice as much as possible, and take advantage of the hour of language study I'm granted each day.

The Culture

I feel like I have been trained and prepared for this every day of my life. I'm eating the same food, speaking (well, mostly listening to) the same Spanish I've been around, and enjoying a culture that I am already so familiar with. I absolutely love the people here. They are so nice, so friendly, and so proud of their culture. It's amazing.

The Area

This is probably my favorite thing to report on. The area here is so beautiful. We are in a little town in the country named Amecameca. Its so beautiful. We are directly underneath Popocateptl (I probably misspelled that), and It is truly stunning. It is, without a doubt, the tallest mountain I have ever set eyes on. It is so massive, and so incomprehensibly tall, that it appears to stretch the sky into distortion. It is gorgeous, and I love serving in an area that is mountainous. The area itself is a little challenging. It's extremely difficult to locate the houses of people we contact, and we walk a ton. But that being said, I'm very happy. The church members in our ward are just the best people ever. They are so kind and loving. Although it's tough, I love the area, and the people.

Now, a little bit on my trainer.

His name is Elder Ramirez, and he is from Guatemala. I was very excited about him for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted a native speaking trainer. I felt like it would help my Spanish, and it really has. He helps me immensely. Second, he's from Guatemala, which is so cool!!!!! He´s 100% Chapin, and I have an absolute blast talking to him about Guatemala. I get along with him very well, and I am very grateful for him.

I apologize for not having more photos, we´ve been working like crazy every day. I haven't had the opportunity to take that many. Next week, I'll send lots of photos!!!!