Monday, July 22, 2013

Another Week Is Gone, Gone Gone!


Hey how are you all?

Can’t believe another week has already come and gone . . . this week I complete 8 months in the mission - a third of the way done!!  

Sorry I was so short last week.  What happened is the laws for the visas for us gringos changed a while back. The visas are only good for a year and they used to be good for 2.  So the Church paid for 2 years and paid like 4500 pesos extra for every gringo that got here after the changes.  I think there were like 12 of us so it was a bunch of money.  So had to open a bank account down here from Mexico in the name of the church so the church could receive the money again and redeposit it in the missionary fund.  I stayed and worked in TJ with the secretaries because i came from ensenada and the mission.  I didn’t want to have to pay for my trip back to Ensenada Thursday night and then back on Monday morning, so when we have to stay in Tijuana for a bit, we always stay in the house of the assistants and secretaries.  So that’s where I was the past week.  I got back here to Ensenada on Tuesday.  Actually President Carreon was gonna come by the assistants house to pick us up to head back to Ensendada but he totally forgot and left to Ensenada alone ha.  So we traveled back to Ensenada by bus.  It actually worked our really well because President took me out to eat after the interviews at Carls Jr. Ha paid for my lunch too :) and him and I had a nice lil chat about the family, Mexico, and whatever else ha.  Pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity to go out to eat with the President alone ha ;)  I am still amazed that I can communicate fluently and have a nice lil convo in all Spanish with the President only after having been in Mexico for only five months ha. Guess I’m a fast learner :)

The work has slowed WAYYYYY down here in Ensenada.  Our golden family just didn’t show up to the last appointment and didn’t come to church either.  We were teaching them in a member’s house so we never found out where they actually lived.  The members gave us a general direction of where they lived and we spent about 4 hours yesterday knocking doors trying to find them up by the castle and we never found them. Their cell phones aren’t working either right now.  So we are a little disappointed. Our other two possibilities to get baptized are still waiting for their answers to their prayers to come.  So we probably aren’t going to baptize in July and it makes me sad because it’s the first time in my mission that I have blanked in a month but it’s all good and we will just keep working and finding people to teach!

To answer questions from last week, I haven’t learned how to cook anything all that cool. I have a general idea. I want to learn how to make the flour tortillas before I leave the mission.  Something real quick and tasty though is to fry a flour tortilla with vegetable oil and then a sprinkle a bit of sugar on it. Quick snack that tastes great!  If we had more money and time I could try to cook more stuff but we only have enough to buy breakfast food for 2 weeks and then transportation.  Money is holding out well though.  I haven’t had to dip into my own account for a while now.  How much of my own money have I spent? Do you know? Elder Vargas receives 50 bucks from his family every week so he spends a bunch of money in the street with tacos. I always try to budget my money out and if I have a lil bit left over, then we always go for tacos :)

We see cruise ships leave and dock just about everyday.

The monsoon season here is from October to the first of February. They say it rains a ton here in Ensenada and gets super cold too!  Glad I’m here in the summertime :)
Mom, the secretaries have a contact in San Diego that they are going to call and send you the address sometime soon. I’ll call them later today to remind them to get it to you :) Please don’t worry about me hauling around my suitcases. I don’t have transfers for another month so I’ll be just fine :)

I’m super jealous that you all went boating and that you’re headed to Arizona for a bit.  Just make it a trip and come here to Ensenada while you’re at it ha ;)  I hope you all have fun and travel safely!!

Time is flying by!  I received a package from Grandma and Grandpa Roper this week, so please tell them thank you!  I hope the package with my pants comes tomorrow in zone conference because I’m gettin chubby!! ;)

Glad to hear you’re all doing well! 

Love and miss you all!

Here are some pictures from the last district meeting and of the beautiful sunset here a couple weeks ago!






Elder Roper :)


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