¡Hola!                                                                                                          November 5, 2012
Hey everybody how`s it going? I can`t believe it`s already P-day again it`s crazy how time is flying. Tomorrow I will have been out on my mission for almost 3 months total...weird. Well I`ll first try and answer the questions that you had. Okay so no my comp. and I probably speak more English together because its just hard to communicate in Spanish still. It`s not good I know. One of my goals is to start speaking Spanish with him more. I`ll work on that. Yes we walk everywhere we go, but our area is really not big at all, so It`s not a big deal. We have a couple of out-lying houses that are a pretty far walk, but other than that and how everywhere is steep hills its fine. There is only little tiny stores here in Atexcac, so on P-days we take a taxi, bus, or combie to the nearest city called Huejo. We actually decided to write here in Huejo that`s why I`m writing earlier than normal. Huejo is pretty big and a lot crazier than our nice calm little town up in Atexcac, but its fun to come out here. We just ate some really really good tacos at this restaurant mmm. There is a pretty big grocery store here that we like to do our shopping at. As for bugs we do have spiders, but there aren´t very many not a big deal. Flies are everywhere and I hate them haha, but we control them in our house. There are bugs called chinches which are like bed bugs, but worse. Elder Tinoco and I pretty well got ride of them with bug spray, so no problems anymore. As for zone conference and zone leaders I have only seen my zone leaders once at a meeting we had last Tuesday, other than that I don`t even know who is in my zone yet ha. We actually have a 4 person District up here in Atexcac. Elder Shipley (DL from Cali) Elder Betts Elder Tinoco and I. They have a bigger area just below us. We see them all the time, and they actually live pretty close to us. And yes Dad, I`m writing in my journal every night. I never want to forget the experiences I`m having. Yes Mom Popo is active and it puffs smoke or whatever every day, but just a little like in the picture. It doesn`t reach here or anything its not that bad.

That`s cool to hear about all that is going on at home. I`m happy to hear about Micheal Wells and Dave Clarke! We have so many missionaries from our ward its nuts. Tell Brother Harris congrats and thanks again for being a great teacher and leader over the years. He is an awesome guy. Also hearing about Krissy makes me so pumped! First girl of the Ellsworth family, that's cool. Tell her good luck and that I`m proud of her for me. Mom/Dad thank you for all the uplifting and kind things you always send me in the emails. Mom it`s cool to hear about your class and all the things you`re learning from the scriptures. The learning is endless. I`m always learning from the scriptures and I`m confident that I will my whole life. I love all of you guys so much. Keep up the good work. Oh and yes mom I know what siempre fuerte means :) Good phrase. Oh and Dad I just read your email! That`s awesome! Now I can just use the Eccos on my mission and save the Johnston and Murphey`s for when I get home. Cool news. Thanks for doing that for me.

Okay so a little bit about my week and the work. First of all I`ll try and tell you about the big changes we had in the meeting I was talking about on Tuesday. It was with 2 zones, the APs, and the Mission Pres. I`m sure he did the meeting with all the mission over time. So it is a big change that came from the Area Pres. of Mexico and stuff and it is effective for every mission in Mexico. I`ll start with the biggest thing first: No more tracking, and only contact when the spirit directs. We are going to be working along side of members a lot more. There is a lot of work to be done with members, and there is a ton of less active members in Mexico too. Another reason could be the danger I don`t know. Other changes: We will be teaching active members the Restoration and then setting up appt. to teach it again with a non-member friend. Also, we are going to be teaching less actives all 5 lessons! We`re about to get a lot busier. We`ll be able to strengthen member and less actives through teaching, and we will be able to get more referrals through the members. There was a couple other changes, but they weren`t big and I can`t remember them right now. I know that this is the way the Lord wants his work to be done here in Mexico. I lot of the other missionaries said after the meeting that this is the way it should have been for a while now, so it`s a good change. Also Elder Tinoco and I have some referals and potential new investigators on the horizon. The work is really starting to pick up it seems like. As for this week, we did a lot of helping members, and teaching less active/members. I actually have some sad news about our investigator family. We visited them on Wednesday to set up an appt. and long story short we won`t be teaching them lessons anymore. It was a sad day for us. They are really having a hard time with the idea of changing their religion. Their whole family in Puebla is Catholic. Also another and probably bigger reason is they have had a few bad experience with members not treating them very good and stuff. hmmp. That`s why we need to work with some members haha. It`s too bad when that happens though. Obviously they didn`t read the Book of Mormon with real intent and pray with real intent we could tell. We will be able to visit them still, so we are still hopeful. Also, Margarita and Hector (her member husband) still haven`t made a wedding date, so we`re working on that still. I`m excited for the work coming up.

Well I wish I had more time to tell you about my Sunday yesterday, but I don`t. Next week maybe. We ate a soup with Chile De Arbòl and it was the hottest spicy-est thing I`ve ever had and same with E. Tinoco. We were both sweating and crying hahaha. I had to pray my way through that one too. Anyway I love all of you!! May God be with you and continue to bless our family. May the Gospel light and the love of our Heavenly Father continue to uplift and enlighten your lives.

Until next week
Siempre Fuerte :)
Elder Kitchen