Letter #9 from Mexico

Dear Family and Friends,

Mom, did you know there are so many missionary rules that aren't in the handbook? It's a good thing they're not, because if I followed them all, I would be so dead right now. Love you. One that I learned a few weeks ago that doesn't really exist is that as missionaries we are to wash our hands before AND after using the bathroom. Hope I didn't learn that one too late. But on a brighter note, I bought the first dispenser of soap our house here has seen in the last year! So, now we have clean hands and pure hearts. Or at least we are working on getting there. It's still a rough rule to follow, cause when you have to go, well, you have to go.

Some things happened this week that pretty much set my life track back to becoming a psychiatrist upon my return. Something worth noting. Nothing big really happened. I talked to a member who is actually a pilot and he told me I didn't want to become one. Maybe that's because all this time I had seen him I thought he would be an awesome investigator--even though he really is a member. I just have never seen him at church because he tends to get stuck in other places while flying. He's a cool guy.

This week we were Chinese. And by that, it means, well, just that. We gave a Chinese Book of Mormon to (of course) a Chinese man. We ate Chinese food today for lunch--which surprisingly tastes exactly the same as real Mexican food. Rice, some type of meat that they usually call chicken, and some vegetables. I'm sure we did other Chinese things, but eating all the food with tortilla chips was easier than chop sticks. Thankfully we didn't have any of those. It's hard enough to cut steak fat with a spoon.

We have a new investigator, Alejandro, 42. His "wife" is just a few years older than me--not sure how many. Point is they aren't married. She's a member though. Don't judge, just go with it. Anyway, them and another couple we've been working with (members that also aren't married) showed up to church where I taught my first Gospel Principles class all by myself. It was nice. But the preparation was awkward. Why? Because of course the lesson was on the Law of Chastity. Whoops. But all went well, and we learned a lot. We're helping them all get married (in the normal way...) whether they know it yet or not.

Hope you all are doing well. The hurricane that was coming didn't really, well...get here. Heard New York and Dracula heard a different story.

Love you all

Elder Andrews

Notes:

Caleb typically only gets a spoon to use for his meals in Mexico.
"Gospel Principles" is a class that goes over the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.