November 25, 2013

            I feel out of place when I am not dressed as a Missionary.

I mean, just sayin', I get attached to the missionary attire. It’s weird. I remember being uncomfortable because of my tie during church and now its natural. But, don’t get me wrong, I like wearing normal clothes. But yeah, that’s part of the missionary life.

 Anyway, I don´t really have a whole lot to write... But I mean, maybe the letter will end up being longer than I anticipate with my ramblings and what not. 

So, here in the state of tabasco, they have a different way of speaking Spanish. They speak "choco". It’s Spanish, but it’s like the English equivalent of how a redneck would talk. I don´t say that in any kind of degrading way, I´m just trying to tell you guys how it is. Sometimes I don´t understand bits and pieces of what they say for the accent, but I mean, it’s not too bad. One thing they do is that they cut off the ´s´ at the end of some of their words. So instead of saying vamos, they say vamo´. It’s different, but there are sometimes where the accent makes words sound cool haha. So that’s my life. 

Anyway, getting to the next topic, Pictionary is probably one of the greatest teaching tools. We had a few different family home evenings planned this week and for a couple of them we played Pictionary. We would give the members a story from the scriptures and they had to draw it out for their team, and their team had to guess it in less than a minute. The losing team had to dance a dance that is called the ´pelusa´. It’s a simple but embarrassing type dance, kind of like I´m a little tea cup or something. I don’t lose so I didn’t have to dance, even when everybody teamed up against me haha, but it’s really great. So, play it with your friends or your families, because it’s great. Well, if you don’t want to play, then I won’t force you, but you´re missing out. 

The next item of business and the last one is that we went to Hawaii this week. We had an activity in our ward where we all went to Hawaii. One of the members made a video of a plane and we all "traveled" from Mexico to Hawaii. When everyone left from the plane and we walked out the door, one of the members was giving out the necklaces with flowers that we always associate with Hawaii.

 From there, there were a series of activities that the people could participate in. Everything from throwing darts to pop balloons to a club. Then later, when we returned to Mexico in the plane, it crashed and everyone "died" and went to the spirit world. From there, based on the games or activities they participated in, they were judged and we explained the plan of salvation and what we need to do to be able to return to live with God. It was a really good activity, and our investigators told us that they understood a lot better the plan of salvation and everything. 

So yeah, that’s my short letter for the week. Love you guys! 

Love, Elder Rios