Guadalajara- Week Four

so after much thinking and pondering long about the situation and my mission, ive mad a decision. i cant do it anymore. its just not whats for me and im coming home. im gonna be talking to the president this week to schedule my return flight. im sorry for the dissapointment but its just way harder than i ever imagined.

 im sorry but april fools hahah! got youoou...i know its a day late but i just couldnt help myelf haha...

downtown Guadalajara

anyways so last monday was way cool though, we went to downtown guadalajara and walked around the streets looking at the buildings and places and cool stuff in the city. it was crazy how much different the city is from the area im in. its completly different and its crazy contrasting how extreme the two areas are from one another. while in the city we went to a ripleys believe it or not and a wax museum too. 

me getting down with the pope and mother theresa

its fun to be able to wind down a bit from the stress and worries of everyday missionary work. and then this wednesday, aye aye aye. such a butt kicker and trial of my faith and determination haha. as you may remember from my earlier emails, the area im in is huge, and this week we had some appointments in the bottom corner of my area. it was my first time going down there and elder briz had previously warned me that it was a gnarly bike ride, and well it definitely was. from our house it was about an hour so, half up hill and half down. it was cool though because the only way to get there is to take the freeway and it was a crazy experience riding our bike on the freeway with semis and cars and stuff passing us by and ya that part was cool haha. 

mr. markstrum in guadalajara?

anyways back to the story, so we set off for the appointments and of course it had to be like the hottest day yet and so i was dying from the heat and this bike ride to bfe wasnt helping the matters haha, but i kept telling myself that something good is going to come from this trial right here, im gonna work my butt off to get there and something amazing is gonna happen, i just need to perservere trhough this little trial right here. well the exact opposite of that happened. 2 of the 3 appointments fell through and the other told us she didnt want us to come by anymore. and ya not gonna lie i was a lil like what the heck dude, we came all the way here for zilch haha and i couldnt help but think that it was an instance of the lord testing my will to serve. so we ended up just contacting for a few hours, coming across again, no success. 

for all those harry potter fans out there haha

so ya that was a bit of a rough day for me, but thing i always tell myself when things get rough is to just keep going, life doesnt always go how we want it too and you just gotta put your shoulder to the wheel and keep pushing along. the subsequent days were filled the usual missionary stuff, lots of contacting, teaching, rejection, and all sorts of fun mission stuff. things are starting to get a little more accustomed around here. i still dont understand about half of what is going on but hey everyday i progress a little more and i have faith that in no time i wont be worrying about the language anymore. 

african fertilitly idol, the sign below it warns that if you dont desire a family in the very near future dont touch it because the results come forth rapidly ha well im sure as heck gonna prove that wrong haha i got another two years and thats not very soon in my book haha

oh and i got bit my first dog this week. of course after being chased by big scary dogs and never getting bitten, the first bit came from a chiuaha about the size of  a water bottle. it didnt hurt it was more of like a pìnch and then a what the crap to see what had pinched me and there was this little chiuaha pulling on my pant leg. i basically just kicked it off and it flew a few feet haha but ya theres my first dog bit experience. we did have a cool experience with one of our investigators concho this weekend. after bringing him to the morning session on saturday he told us that he was serious about changing now, he has been being taught for the past 2 months and has a baptism this upcoming month. he has a lot of family issues and with drinking. but after the session he was talking  to us about how he wants to change, 

dinner for schmucks?

so we decided to give him one more week. and then on sunday morning he calls and tells us he wants us to come by his house real quick to pick him up for the saturday sessions. so we run over there real quick and he had gathered together hm self his daughter and some of his nephews to come to the conference and it was like wow where did this come from, he made a complete 180 in about a days time and he gave us references and wants us to go talk to his brother and another nephew and some other friends of his, and so im stoked to be able to go talk to these people this upcoming week and visit with him also. so that was a cool experience this week. 

downtown Guadalajara

and then conference, how cool was that? unfortunately i didnt really get much out of the first two sessions because i had to watch them in spanish, but the other three that i did watch were way good. what did you all think about the mo tab guy with the mustache?? he stuck out like a sore thumb and im curious as to how he got past with that one haha. but it was a great conference, a little sad for me because it made me think of home and my family and i missed the usual waffles and pancakes on conference morning haha. but it was good i loved all the talks. 

some cool building in downtown GDL

another cool little factoid that i wanted to share with yall fam bam... so one thing were taught to do in the first lesson is show pictures of our family so people can see that were "real people" too haha...but ya i just wanted to let you all know that youre famous in mexico, every person/family i teach meets you and knows who you are. you should feel special because you are! 

downtown Guadalajara

 i hope all is well back in the states and that the Lord is blessing you for your faithfulness and with those things you stand in need of. i pray for you all and want you to know i love all of you and i appreciate your love and support for me during my service as a missionary. sorry no pics this week, i forgot my camera, but ill be sending some for sure this next week. oh and the subject for this email is what it is because i thought it was really funny how the brother ochoa said it during his talk this weekend haha. les amo!

 

Elder Maccarthy