Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Pictures of MTC life....

















Elder Janda welcome to Mexico!!!

Hola!
So I got to Mexico fine and all is good. I was going to call when I got to Houston, but I ended up only having a couple minutes because our flight was a little late, then they changed the gate, and the card wouldn't work anyway, but that's ok. At least I got to talk to everyone a lot in Salt Lake. So Saturday night, we got here around 9. The secretaries picked us up and we all just went to the offices. Of the four secretaries, three are from Mexico, and one is from Alabama. The three from Mexico can all speak some English, but not much. And they can all usually understand pretty well. The one that's from Alabama is pretty cool. Anyway, so we got here Saturday night, then Sunday morning, we split into two groups and went to a few different wards. It was pretty cool. They didn't have anyone to play the piano, so I had to ha ha. I didn't understand everything that they said, but I understand quite a bit, I was surprised. ha ha Anyway, after church, some of us hung out at the chapel and some of the ward members fed us there. Their church building is very different from ours. They have two buildings with a little open walkway between. In one of the buildings is basically the chapel and the overflows, and then the other building is the classrooms. After we were done eating, we had to wait around for a bit because two missionaries had gone with this other companionship to go eat at a members house. After they got back, we just went to the offices and the assistants came and then a little later the president came. They basically just talked to us about specific rules and ways they do things in this missions. They are really focusing on members in this mission. Were supposed to go to a members house every day except Sunday and Monday and talk with them and teach them basically how to share the gospel. Then, they president started doing interviews with all of the missionaries. And that was basically what we did the whole day. Then, today, the president came over again to finish the interviews. Then we went to a chapel and talked some more about specific things about our mission and how they want us to do things. Then all the trainers came and the president talked with all of us and all the trainers about the new training program. Then we had our transfer meeting. I'm serving in the same area where we went to church yesterday. Its in Pantitlan which I believe is in the more northern part of my mission. My companion is Elder Rogers. He's most recently from Globe, AZ but before that he lived in Chile for about 7 years. He seems pretty cool. I had met him yesterday at the church. He's pretty new. Hes only been here for 3 months. But he already new Spanish before from living in Chile. I think my Spanish is pretty well, I can usually understand what people are saying. Like at church yesterday, I understand almost all of what the speakers and the teachers said. My only problem is being able to speak back. I'm sure that will just come with time though. Its weird thinking that I'm in Mexico right now. I like it though. The weather here is super nice right now, or at least it has been since I got here. Hopefully it continues ha ha. Well I hope everything is going well, and that you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda

2/10/12

So this week has been pretty eventful. Yesterday, we finally got to go to the consolate. We were there for about 5 hours, and all we did was get our picture taken, get fingerprinted, and sign a couple papers, but it was worth it. This morning, we were getting ready to go to the temple, and they called us down to the travel office. Apparently, they are going to go pick up our visas sometime today, and we are leaving tomorrow morning at 8 am. Three of the elders in my district got to leave last night and flew up to Boise to go get visas at the consolate up there and they are flying down to Mexico tomorrow as well. We'll meet them in Texas and we'll all fly down together. The other two missionaries in my district, the ones that are going to Villahermosa, got their reassignments on Wednesday. They leave Monday morning, and will be serving in Dallas while they wait for their visas. I'm super excited to leave. The MTC is a great place, but I'm ready to get out and try to help some real people. Tomorrow morning, we leave the MTC at 8am, and then our flight leaves Salt Lake at 12:45, so I should have time to call at the Salt Lake airport. Then we arrive in Texas around 4:30 and leave around 5:45, so I might have a few minutes to call at that airport too, but I'm not sure. I got your package, the queso was good. They have a microwave in our residence, so I heated it up and then just let people eat it. They all seemed like they enjoyed it haha. I hope everything is going well down there and that you are all having fun. The address for the mission home in Mexico City is in the book that came with my call. It's:

Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission
Av: del Taller No. 540, Col. Jardin Balb
Delegacion Venustiano Carranza
C.P. 15900, Distrito Federal
MEXICO

or the pouch mail address is:

Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

I'm not really sure how the pouch mail system works or anything, but that's the address haha. I'm sending my memory card down with my letter to Katie, so she should get it either Tuesday or Wednesday I think. I love you, and I'm grateful for all the support you give me.
I'll talk to you tomorrow. Elder Janda

Elder Janda welcome to Mexico!!!

Hola!
So I got to Mexico fine and all is good. I was going to call when I got to Houston, but I ended up only having a couple minutes because our flight was a little late, then they changed the gate, and the card wouldn't work anyway, but that's ok. At least I got to talk to everyone a lot in Salt Lake. So Saturday night, we got here around 9. The secretaries picked us up and we all just went to the offices. Of the four secretaries, three are from Mexico, and one is from Alabama. The three from Mexico can all speak some English, but not much. And they can all usually understand pretty well. The one that's from Alabama is pretty cool. Anyway, so we got here Saturday night, then Sunday morning, we split into two groups and went to a few different wards. It was pretty cool. They didn't have anyone to play the piano, so I had to ha ha. I didn't understand everything that they said, but I understand quite a bit, I was surprised. ha ha Anyway, after church, some of us hung out at the chapel and some of the ward members fed us there. Their church building is very different from ours. They have two buildings with a little open walkway between. In one of the buildings is basically the chapel and the overflows, and then the other building is the classrooms. After we were done eating, we had to wait around for a bit because two missionaries had gone with this other companionship to go eat at a members house. After they got back, we just went to the offices and the assistants came and then a little later the president came. They basically just talked to us about specific rules and ways they do things in this missions. They are really focusing on members in this mission. Were supposed to go to a members house every day except Sunday and Monday and talk with them and teach them basically how to share the gospel. Then, they president started doing interviews with all of the missionaries. And that was basically what we did the whole day. Then, today, the president came over again to finish the interviews. Then we went to a chapel and talked some more about specific things about our mission and how they want us to do things. Then all the trainers came and the president talked with all of us and all the trainers about the new training program. Then we had our transfer meeting. I'm serving in the same area where we went to church yesterday. Its in Pantitlan which I believe is in the more northern part of my mission. My companion is Elder Rogers. He's most recently from Globe, AZ but before that he lived in Chile for about 7 years. He seems pretty cool. I had met him yesterday at the church. He's pretty new. Hes only been here for 3 months. But he already new Spanish before from living in Chile. I think my Spanish is pretty well, I can usually understand what people are saying. Like at church yesterday, I understand almost all of what the speakers and the teachers said. My only problem is being able to speak back. I'm sure that will just come with time though. Its weird thinking that I'm in Mexico right now. I like it though. The weather here is super nice right now, or at least it has been since I got here. Hopefully it continues ha ha. Well I hope everything is going well, and that you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda