Queretaro Mexico Week 15

Heyo!!

 So Liliana got baptized!!!!!! Elder Alonso baptized and I confirmed!!!! We have a family scheduled for early february to baptize, and theyre awesome. The kids are all grown up and The mom, Concepcion, is awesome with our commitments that we leave her!!! Her husband is now  living with her again and everytime that we leave her a commitment, she reads the chapter, lives the commandment, and gives us feedback without any encouragement!! She also hugged me after new years! That was the first hug I got on the mission and it was so weird!! I felt like a terrible person and just awkward!! Welcome to the life of a missionary!! and Laura Patiño took a photo of me, yeah :) I told her to put annies name because I knew she would respond. that was when we visited an investigators house and they were having a party for their granddaughter. It was pretty fun, Laura is a member. and no, I dont know a juan velasquez

            

 I already got my christmas stuff this week and it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it thank you guys so much!!! Elder Alonso is officially a seahawks fan now and wants a t shirt, so we are gonna visit celaya to buy one. also a christmas card from you guys because he said he liked it and wanted to start a tradition of mail cards like ours for christmas in his family. transfers are this february 3rd. Nothing more, just loving it here and cant wait to teach more!! I am a bit scared because it is possible I become a trainer!! But who knows! Bye And love you guys!!!! Miss you and thank Gma and Gpa Eaton for the american candy!! I love it and the sour patch kids are almost gone already! Elder Alonso tried one and that was awesome to watch!!! A bit too sour for him!

Love,

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

1)say hi to our shower!!

2)I finished the missionary library!

3)I like it a lot!

4)kids of liliana!!

5)photos of pre baptism!! (dont know why elder alonso is biting me)

6)my goodies!!

7)Elder alonso is lazy so he passes the numbers to our dl as he lies in bed

Queretaro, Mexico Week 14

   I am doing great mommacita and dad!! I still love it here! The baptism we had scheduled with Liliana might not go through. We talked to her and she said she was super nervous and didnt know if she could do it. She only wants family and us there, no one else, and we said if she really was scared, she didnt have to do it. She said she knew it was something she needed to do, so we will see. I am feeling spiritual yeah! I am almost finished with Jesus The Christ and finished the Search for Happiness already. I can study the scrips for hours on end and still want more! Ipray every moment of our lessons in my heart for our investigators and for Elder Alonso. Its been super hard to concentrate on the lessons and  the prayers help a ton.
   The new house is awesome we love it, only problem is the gas. It costs 400 pesos, but we live off 1400 a month. Its a big tank and since we are really sharing a house with the family, it was gone in a week. now we get a bucket of water, put in a agua resistencia (no idea how to say it in english) to heat up the water, then scoop the water over ourselves in the shower.  Welcome to Mexico!! And we aren't bugging our neighbors too much don't worry!!  I have made six resolutions so far, but haven't finished. I'll share when I'm done!! I am doing good and language is coming super easy for the most part now. And thats where I am! Love you guys and pray for you always!!

 Love
 Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

 PS turns out that I have unwittingly eaten a rabbit! That really made my day yesterday. not

 photos
 1)so i finally fell on my bike!! Didnt get hurt, no worries
 2)WE had potatoes and gravy for new years, and the first thing Elder Alonso
 said was holy fetch, this is good!
 3) The other elders didnt show up to the lunch appointment, so we ate
 double. Elder Alonso got sick and threw up when we got home, so we rested
for a bit. well, he did
 4)hard to see but I tackled him as i took this picture

Queretaro, Mexico Week 13

So I have had fun and I am loving it a bunch here!!! We spent christmas with the Trujeques and I will be sending the photos in two seconds and also of our new house!! We are now neighbors with members and whenever they invite us to eat dinner with them theycan just knock on the and we hear it and know there will be food! so when we ate lunch the other day with the members, they forgot that it was their turn to host us, so they ran and got pizza. I was in heaven!!!!! Although the pizza here doesnt have tomato sauce, still awesome!! The other elders called us and said they had a problem so they wouldnt be able to attend the lunch. So since the members brought 3 boxes of pizza and we only ate 2, they gave us the other one!!!!!!!!! That was gone in about 2 days.

But we found out what the problem was the next day and I am so sad i didnt get to take a photo of this! Elder Guzman, the one learning how to ride his bike, has it pretty much down now, the only problem is that he doesn't like using his brakes. So we visited a members house with them and Elder Guzman had brought his bike. He said that he ran into a street curb but there's no way. The front wheel of his bike was bent backwards until the tire was touching the gear of the pedeals. Destroyed!!!!!!!! It was so insane and he was pretty embarrassed so I didn't pressure him but wow. We also played pictionary/charades with members, and seeing as how I have a limited knowledge of spanish, I lost. hahahahahahahah by like a lot!! but it was super fun and everything

I am know fully leading lessons know, and in an effort to help my spanish, Elder Alonso and I agreed to let me answer all the gospel principle questions. Whenever an investigator asks a question, he just looks at me and waits for me respond. Needless to say I have been forced to improve, because he knows when I don't know the answer. He just smiles and waits for a few seconds and almost starts laughing, but now I can respond to the majority of all the questions. Another thing about my companion is that he has a firm belief that every small town in the USA has a ville at the end of it. So when I said that Gilbert was pretty small, he has called Gilbert, Gilbertville ever since. I love him and he is an awesome Teacher. THats all I got, Love you and Hope my letters continue to answer your Qs!!!!

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

FOTOS!!!!

1)So weird combination of food that I am addicted to and eat every day: Hot sauce and doritos, nacho cheese

2)We are the ´cool companionship´

3)Our little gift we got from trujeque, hot wheels and a chocolate candy!!!!!! Loved it!!!

4)Family Truejeque (and daughter Mildred)

WE HAVE A RABBIT IN THE PATIO!!! Its actually the Lees, who live next to us (LEES!!)

pictures of house OUR BATHROOM IS INSIDE!!

Mexico Week 8

   Ok, so mexico is pretty legit, we have 3 new investigators, everything is good, language is improving, love the people here!!! I am feeling really sick right now. nothing to do with the bowel movements, I just have a super high fever, a head ache, and a sore throat. I am going to the mission doctor right after this, dont worry!! I know now what really being poor is like. We taught a family on a dirt floor, no lights at all except for a kerosene lantern. We have a recent convert that got her house trashed by people who said she stole money from them. She called us up and it was bad. Elder Alonso and I went as fast as we could to her house and found her crying on the street.

          We asked what happened and she told us about everything. She was hysterical and begged us for money, to pay off the guys. She grabbed onto me and just said help me guerro, help me. over and over again. We are only servants of God, Elder Alonso and I have literally nothing, except the bare necessities. It was probably the saddest moment of my entire life. We took her into her house and everything was destroyed. I came out to see what life is really like and now I know...

           She asked us what she should do and we simply said to follow her heart and what God tells her to do. And  thats all we can do in our lives. That humbled me to the point I am wondering when I am gonna get back up. I meet people and I want to cry for them and I spend a whole lot of time praying for them, that God can touch their lives and make it infinitely better. and he can. One of our investigators who is going to be baptized used to be an achoholic druggee who was not the best with his three daughters. I met him after the transformation and I never would have guessed!  He is maybe the nicest guy I have ever met and he is one of my favorite investigators!!!! I freaking love him! Not that I dont love all my investigators but come on, gotta have favorites!! jkjk, heres some pics of the house and other stuff!

1 my hand after service of redoing a guys lawn

2 selfie with another elder in the middle of zone conference (yes we got yelled at)

3 selfie on the bus ride

4 that late night study though

5 our kitchen window (already like that when I arrived)

6 all our lights are like this

7 views from the street

8 our house

Mexico Week 7

   This place is so awesome!!! I love it!!!! It is the greatest place ever! I live in the ghetto, surrounded by dogs everywhere! There are a couple on our roof too, at night we can here them running around. So I am in Cortazar, Guanajuato, not Queretaro, our mission has big boundaries! The flight was good, except I dont have any pictures because my camera was stolen. I wasn't robbed at gun point, but we all fell asleep on the ride from Mexico City to Queretaro, Me with my bag open. Our driver of our van took it! hahahahahaha dont worry, I have the polaroid and its been upgraded to my mission camera. I left my bag open, camera on top, asleep. after the guy dropped us off, I was in such a hurry to get all my stuff that I did not notice until later that night. The mission home is only where the secretaries stay, a heck of a lot nicer than ours! 

  We have to turn on the gas (it is a tank in the back) light the boiler, wait for ten minutes, only then can we have hot water!! It is loco!!! I am companions with Elder Alonso, we are about two hours away from queretaro by bus, and we actually have bikes here! Woohoo!! Sorry I dont have very many photos of the outside, If I take photos outside, then I will probably get mugged, which I haven't and probably never will. I am one of two guerros (gringos) here and I am about 5 inches taller than everyone here. The only other guerro is Elder May and he's 6'2, so while I'm big to everyone, he's a giant! 

We stayed with other missionaries at their house (again, sorry no photos) when we first arrived here. everyone is super nice here and it's pretty great. Our investigators are legit, one has 3 bulldogs that hate everything that moves except for missionaries (lucky us). another is the comandante of the Queretaro police force (like captain). We have another that is like dirt poor, has no electricity dirt floors, he lives with his mother and 3 daughters, who are the cutest little girls I've ever seen!! I only got to take a photo with one and her name is América! We have a couple others, two are living together, dying to get baptized, but the woman is still married to another man, this is actually super common in mexico. 

  Elder Alonso got to baptize the comandante ( Alfredo) and I had to confirm him, in sacrament, in front of everyone!!!! I almost died!! I had to confirm/bless him because it's all in one!! It was intense, let me tell you! after that it was fine, I just bore my testimony, also 8 investigators came to church!!! It was crazy!!!! like what?! The language is coming along awesomely, I can understand the gist of what nearly everyone else is saying. I had to go back to Queretaro for my visa with another Elder who has been here for a week too (only us). so it was 2 guerros who already stick out like sore thumbs, traveling together. YAY!! But as soon as I opened my mouth and started talking spanish to him, He didnt understand a single thing I said, so I was a flippin latino compared to him! I translated everything for him and had to give the cab driver directions but yeah, I'm good! I was with all the new guerros in the city and it turns out, since me and my companion can actuallly talk to each other, we are the closest out of all the new companionships! It may sound stupid but I can joke in spanish now! MILESTONE!!! 

  Elder Alonso is seriously awesome! He's super funny, all the members and investigators love him, and he loves american music! It's awesome, we just  sit there and name off songs that we like and try to sing them to each other. He knows all the lyrics, but has no idea what some of the lyrics mean, so I point out all the songs that he probably shouldnt sing, which is a lot of eminem, rihanna, and some others. But we get along great, I'm teaching actual sections of preach my gospel with him to investigators, and he's super patient with my spanish, but he especially likes it when I accidently curse (which doesnt happen that often) so many spanish words are similiar!!! but here is awesome, culture shock was there, especially when I first walked up to our house and all the sudden dogs were barking at us from the roof. He just looked at me and nodded, smiling. He is from Tijuana and is 20 years old, almost 21. I seriously could not have asked for a better companion! He is the best! Also I have to learn spanish because that's a lot easier for both of us, so yep, spanish protoge, right here ;) hahahah jk, but honestly, I love it here!! Now pictures!! First are of the house,then others. The clothes hanging up? Yeah, thats our closet. Our  house is pretty legit, we have a little courtyard we have to walk to our kitchen, it's lemon tree.

Queretaro, Mexico Week 6

  All right, so I made it ok, a guy was waiting at the terminal for us and took us to the mission house. It took 3 hours to get there from the airport, much more than we thought! I am dead, I fell asleep at 1:45 cuz I couldn’t sleep and then woke up at 2. No sleep at all!! But I am good. We just had a Mexican dinner, met the president and his wife, who both speak English really well! After the Mexican dinner we had Little Caesars, who knew? Elder Cueva, a missionary here wanted to say hi! We will be sleeping at a members house tonight, have intro classes, then I'll be assigned my trainer, and wont get into my area that night. Also, I can't speak Spanish :P everyone said that it would take a couple weeks before I get used to the speed. All right, that’s pretty much it, I miss you, love you, and think of you guys all the time. 

Adios and wish me luck.

Provo MTC Week 5

  I got your package, thank you so much!!! I'm pretty pumped and kind of

nervous. I got my flight plan, my first flight is delta airlines at Salt

Lake City at 7:10. I have to wake up at 3:00 and we leave at 3:30 on the

shuttle to the airport. This is probably when I'm going to have the most

time to call you, also Utah is now in daylight savings time. I arrive in

Atlanta, Georgia about 12:45 pm. I have only an hour layover and I leave at

1:45 to Mexico City. I arrive in Mexico at around 4:21 pm. I have 8 missionaries in my group, traveling to Mexico.  I land in Mexico City, where someone will find us and take us to Queretaro, which is only like an hour away. They said everything would be explained by our travel leader.

  I'm probably going to miss my district the most, that's going to be the hardest part, for sure. Not really scared for Mexico, a little nervous about teaching and sticking out like a white thumb, but not really. I'll make sure I'm extra careful. I'll for sure get some food. The past week and a half hasn't really been anything different, other than welcoming new districts, we got a New Zealander and it's tradition in our zone to assign a spirit animal to everyone (I was the white-tailed lynx) and so we called him "The One Wombat to Rule Them All" since New Zealand is where they filmed Lord of the Rings!!  He got it and loved It!!! I gave up the Scottish accent.  I couldn’t handle going 5 days without talking normal English!

  The time is going super fast!! I thought these would be the

slowest days but they're insanely fast! For the last week we tried to speak

only in Spanish and only a few of us made it, (your son included) but it's

P-Day and we don't want to try that hard.

1)thanks for the bubbly
2)we said goodbye to our investigator Jose, who actually wasnt a member,
and it was sad because he's the greatest guy in the world!! We will miss him