Mateo in MEXICO: Moldy shoes, miracles, and carnitas are dangerous

Well, first of all, know that Zach is in my prayers. I hope everything goes perfect. Keep me updated. I know you will.

Second. This week was another great week. It has been raining so much. My shoes have legit water damage problems. Like 30 minutes ago I just took out the soles because I bought new ones in Walmart.... and the souls were MOLDY. YUCK. I am shocked at how bacteria resistant my feet have been.... who knows how long they have been like that. It also has to do with the fact that they don’t dry all the way because we live in a cave.... and I don’t have many shoe options. Hahah But just thought I would let you guys know. Those are the joys of being a missionary in Mexico City. Moldy shoes. #cool

The fun fact is that there is an hermano in a ward here in the Stake that will fix them for FREE. But I am a little bit lazy to do that. We shall see...

So now, on to the work...

The work has been fantastic and wonderful. We saw miracle after miracle that turned out to be trials of our faith. Mainly because at the beginning we saw the superficial aspect of the miracles, but whatever... because they keep being miracles.

We dedicated a whole afternoon to contact references from the referral manager... and we found 5 new investigators that day through 3 lessons and the people basically told us... “WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU”. And we were like “ah sorry”. So we repented for not being responsible and contacting the referrals right when we received them, but hey - I understand that everything happens for a reason and everything has a time. So it all worked out perfectly. All of them told us that they were going to go to church, but none of them came. Which is totally fine, but kind of annoying at first glance. But then I realized that it’s okay. We are doing our part.

We are teaching M. de J. And she is finally going to get baptized this week. She hasn’t smoked for a week and a half. WHAT A BLOODY MIRACLE. I love Word of Wisdom miracles. They are the best. So their interview is this week on Wednesday, and if they pass, then their baptism will be on Saturday at 6pm. Her niece is going to get baptized too. They are progressing so well. It is a pleasure to work with them. The cool part is that this week we started teaching the daughter of M. de J. Her daughter has always been there in the house while we taught... but never wanted much to do with our message. But finally, her time has arrived. She is a super intelligent lady and loves going to church. She has gone two times now. She is preparing to be baptized in November. He boyfriend ditched her... The bright side is this - now they don’t have to get married. So we didn’t know how to take that... miracle or tragedy. For us, it was a miracle. Even though we did start teaching him too and he was getting super interested in our message. It was too bad to lose a brand new investigator... that would’ve been a priesthood holder... But then he disappeared and we got dropped. So that was that.

They also signed up to give us food some days this month. Yaya. I love that. She apparently is a good cook.

Another fun fact of this week was.... uuh my mind went blank.

I got super sick. HAHA no, actually the whole District got sick. So I have been pretty wooosy in the stomach lately. And then to my great surprise we ate carnitas on Sunday.... pig tacos that are pure pig. Everything that a pig has to offer... is on the plate. They are called tacos de carnitas. And they are horrific. I hate them. I honestly can hardly hold my stomach from jumping out of my throat sometimes. But we ate them on Sunday and the meat was either old and bad and diseased, or the something was in the air... because we all woke up in the middle of the night to die in the bathroom. It was hilarious because we all went through the same thing. hahaha But that night I wanted to throw up... I didn’t know if it was for the food, because I was sick before eating them too.. so I just went to bed early to avoid having to throw up. But the next day, our doubt was confirmed... all of us got sick. Hahaha thanks a lot carnitas.

The investigators are progressing so much. We are still seeing so much progress. But we still need to find new investigators to baptize every week.

We went to the temple this week to get shots. YAYAYA. I love shots. haha shots shots shots shots. My arm hurt for a little. My comp got sick because of it. And everyone was just terribly afraid. It was shocking to see how many people honestly are afraid of the needle. LOSERS. Just kidding. But the tough kids on the block aren’t so tough anymore. I saw Elder Johnson from MVT there. He came up to me and basically threw me around. He is huge. I forgot how tall he was. Tell his family we all say hi. He is the one that you were telling me about a few weeks ago with Andrew’s Homecoming date and I don’t know what else.

WE did intercambios. I went with Elder G. Yeah. He is crazy. He and Elder W. are in the same District. They were comps in the MTC and are the best of friends. It was a fun exchange. We all go home way too soon. It is sickening.

Well there isn’t much else. We found the most beautiful apartment complex to rent in such a great area but it was way too expensive. Elder R. and I fell in love with the house of our dreams, and they ripped it away from our sights. Hahaha, just thought I would add that in. I hope that never happens to me in real life.

I still haven’t gotten my package. Just FYI. And that’s a wrap.

LES AMO MAS,

ELDER MACDONALD