¿Y si le pide un pez, le dará una serpiente?

Mi Familia,

First week in the area is over! It went by so fast. I love it and am so happy. Things are going really well.

Elder Ballard is a great companion. He has only been in Mexico 5 months and I am his third hijo, or trainee. He studied Spanish 5 years before the mission and speaks very well. I learn a lot from him and really look up to him! He got sick Saturday night so I am hoping he gets better soon. Yesterday after church he just slept. I gave him a blessing Saturday night and he has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning.

I love it here in Mexico. It is so nice. I already feel used to the heat and now am just working on my tan : ) 7 months in Provo can make you pretty white.

We have great investigators, and a great ward. Yesterday at church everyone was welcoming me and were so nice. It is very small but is a ward nonetheless! They love the missionaries so much. We have a pretty good group of investigators. We have a family of 4 and a man named Hernan with baptismal dates for the 9th of April. I love them so much and am so excited for them. It is amazing to see the changes in their lives. The father of the family of 4 is Julio. His countenance looks different from the first time I saw him. He is so happy and just has such a strong testimony. When we talk about a principle with him he always accepts it and tells us why it is important. Hernan is awesome too. He is a 55 year old man, and because of diabetes he had to get his three smaller toes amputated on his right leg. It is nice because we can stop by whenever! He is always home. But he can walk now and says it doesn't hurt. He came to church yesterday and loved it. He is always carrying around the pamphlets we give him and taking notes in his extra large print scriptures. He preaches to his wife and neighbors. He is awesome. He also helped build 3 chapels and the temple. He told us it was the Lord telling him to join the church. Ha - I love him.

We have another mother and son who we are talking to. Her name is Victoria and she is very catholic. Her son Geraldo is 14. We taught them about repentance. I found a verse in 2 Nephi 27 that I really liked and was going to share. It talked about repentance and baptism. I lost it in the lesson and was thinking, oh no, I won't be able to share it, and I really felt like they needed to be invited to be baptized. I flipped the scriptures open to the page. We shared it and asked them to be baptized. Geraldo said yes right away. He has already prayed and knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. She hasn't, and said no. Geraldo looked over and said, why not? Haha - I love him. We invited her to pray and are going to talk about baptism more later.

The people of Mexico are great. They are all so nice, and love everything American. It is really funny. Right now that song Hey Soul Sister by Train is super popular. People also like to try to talk to us in English. There are borrachos, or drunk people at all times of the day. They love missionaries, too. We live outside of our area and take the colectivo or "combis" to the area every day. They are VW Buses that just drive around the city. It is sweet.

Everyone is super nice and usually will talk to us. The problem is when we teach them they say our message is very pretty but don't think of it as true or not. It can be difficult but it is easy compared to most places. We were talking to this one man about the Restoration and he tried to bash with us. He was quite old. He didn't say anything we don't believe but just said that we were wrong - haha. He kept saying the Book of Mormon wasn't the Bible and things like that. We tried to explain that it's different and we have the Bible too but he didn't like that. We bore testimony and left. I felt pretty bad afterward that the Spirit had left. We walked a little and said a prayer and right after I could feel a noticeable difference. As noticeable as a light being turned on at night. It made me feel a lot better.

The food is excellent. I haven't had anything too bad! The weirdest was yesterday’s lunch. That's another thing - we get fed lunch, not dinner, which I love. But it was called camerón, pronounced like Cameroon, the country. It was fish soup basically. You have to get the little fishies out of the soup though and pull off the exterior. It was quite the experience. After lunch we had empanadas. That was amazing. Not sure if it had anything to do with coming after fish soup. Mom and Dad, thanks for always having me eat dinner, to prepare for my mission. So far I have a perfect score on eating meals here.

I feel so blessed. I am learning a lot. I feel like my Spanish is improving quickly, I can understand more every day. Elder Ballard and I are working really hard. It makes it easy when I can think that Dad and my grandpas have gone through the same things. You are an inspiration to me! I love you all and miss you. I think about you so much! Everything is wonderful here. I think about each one of you every day, and try to figure out what you are probably doing. I love you and hope to hear from you soon. Happy Birthday Tanner and I hope Mom had a great cruise!

Con Amor,

Elder Riley Stevenson