We also had a great weekend here. (I will elaborate in the official E-mail. this is only to respond to the things in this E-mail)
I didn't really want you to buy a new snuggy (or spend any extra money, only if it fit in the box). I put mine in the boxes with the rest of my stuff (it is a blue one). for future reference when I ask for things like a stuggy or something like that, that are wants not needs. I don't want you to send extra packages than what you would have sent other wise. it is expensive to send stuff here to Mexico so I don't want extra packages. one every 6 weeks is more than enough.
I was actually about to suggest that we come back some time for a visit after I get back. I know of a few really cool places to visit and there are also a few that I haven't been able to really go to because they are closed on Mondays (Los Fuertes for example). I will start to make a list when I can find the time.
As for the BYU stuff. I remember that awhile ago I sent some drafts of some of the essays that they ask for. I think it was back when I was in Alamos with Elder Swensen. look about a year ago in your E-Mail because It has already been over a year since I got here to Mexico.
here are some pictures that I have been meaning to send for a while but I kept forgetting the cord for my camera.
1: mother's day photo
2: my lovely socks... they all seamed to get holes at the same time.
3: this one I just took today of the peach cobbler that Elder Graff and I made today for a district breakfast (it ended up as more of a lunch). It was really good but not quite as good as if it had been made in a dutch oven over hot coals.
PS. if you want to come to Puebla with me bring something for car sickness because we are going to use the public transport and it can get pretty bad at times.
PPS. have dad get the Hot Tub 100% ready for when I get home because I will really need it.
Elder Jason Blanding on the right.
Elder Jason Blanding's holy socks.
Yum!
It can be interesting to see how one moment you can feel like everything is turning out wrong and the next that everything is going your way. that was how it felt from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday we had an interesting experience... we were running behind because we had planed double appointments. we hoped that we would be able to do divisions with the ward to be able to attend to both of them. but we ended up not being able to do the divisions. as a result we were running all over the place to get to all of the appointments we had but we would have to go early to some and late to others to be able to accommodate all of them. we showed up to an appointment with a family that had committed to coming to Church last week but never showed up.
We knocked on the door (about an hour late for the appointment) and the brother answered. He didn't let us come in (not because we were late, that is normal here). He then told us that he and his wife did indeed arrive at Church (obviously after the meeting had started or we would have seen them) but that they didn't go in because some members who were out side offended them by "sweeping them from head to food with their eyes" (that is about the best translation I can think of) and they got offended because they felt that they were judging them because they didn't come dressed right (he wasn't warring a white shirt and tie). for this reason they didn't even go into the meeting but instead just turned around and went home...
We spent a good 15 minuets trying to figure out what really happened and help him see that he was judging the book by the cover and he should give it one more chance. in the end he basically told us that they weren't interested anymore (but was very clear that it was nothing against us two). I have a feeling that more than anything they had gone to Church with the wrong attitude. They were looking for any reason to just turn around and go home and when they saw the members in the parking lot looking at them they felt that they were judging them for how they were dressed and therefore decided that that was a good enough reason not to go in.
This whole experience just made me upset for the rest of the day and into Sunday morning.
The happy ending to this story is that on Sunday 6 investigators and 2 less active members came to Church. They were two different families (the less actives are actually family of one of the investigator families that came, kind of funny).
Elder Jason Blanding.
Elder G