Walking, Walking and More Walking

First week of this change went well. The only change that happened that affected us was that we received a new Hermana fresh out of the Provo MTC. Other than that things have been mas o menos the same. I think that a lot of times Atempan (our ward) is used the train new missionaries. I know two or three other Elders whose first area was in this ward as well. Interesting to think about.

This week was pretty normal, a few good lessons, lots of contacting and walking, lots of appointments falling through. We´ve been trying to contact more the past couple weeks and because of that we have been getting more appointments. This is a great thing, but many times it seems like we show up at the house and the person is never there. It´s frustrating but there isn´t much we can do about it. Just need to keep working with what we have.

Also this week my rock climbing skills came in handy ha ha. On Saturday we stopped by the house real quick in the afternoon, and when we left and shut the door behind us Elder Delgado realized that he locked the keys in the house! Luckily our house has a balcony with a sliding glass door and this kind of ledge thing below it. It wasn´t that hard to climb. For all you climbing people our there I would rate it a 5.7 or 5.8. However once I got up to the balcony I realized that the door was locked. Also luckily there was a pre-existing hole in the glass door that was just covered by some tape. So I ripped through the tape and used a stick to unlock the latch. It was actually pretty fun, I felt like McGyver or something.

The Elder's Apartment

Success!

"The Hole"

We also had some pretty interesting food this week. On Tuesday one of the members that was going to feed us had to cancel and gave us some money to go get food and we went to this Chinese place in the grocery store. It actually wasn't that bad, and also interesting to hear the Spanish of the Chinese family that run it. 

On Friday we had a pretty normal la comida, but at the end they brought out these worm things. They showed them to use when they were alive and it was pretty knarly. I thought they were going to eat them live for a second, but they cooked them. They were alright, kind of a neutral flavor and crunchy. Elder Delgado wouldn't try them though haha. 

We also had the chance to have Chiles en Nogada which are very good. It is actually a dish that originated in Puebla and is a kind of national pride food becuase it has all the colors of the Mexican Flag. It is a chile that is stuffed with some fruit, meat and some other stuff and covered in a cream sauce and pomegranites. It was really good and you get a chance definitely try it!

There is also kind of nationalistic feeling right now becaue about a week from today is the Mexican Independence day. There have been a lot of flags around and a lot of sort of Mexican type items being sold at different places. That will be fun, but I´ve heard that on the night of Independence day if you aren´t a missionary from Mexico you have to stay in the house.

Chiles en Nogada - ¡Viva Mexico!

Yup, things are still about the same here, doing well. I hope all of you are doing well! ¡Hasta luego!

-Elder Hartvigsen