A Tourist In Mexico City

Hello.

This week was eventful with some pretty interesting moments. On Monday night, we went to go visit a guy and his girlfriend, we arrived about 10 minutes early and they still weren't home, I asked my comp if they'd already knocked all the doors in the area, he said yes, but I pointed to the house next door, and asked if they'd knocked that one. He said they hadn't so we went to knock it. Some girl answered and we contacted her. She said she would like to hear a message, and she said she’d come to the church one day for a lesson. That was cool. Plus we didn’t have to go all up and down the street knocking countless doors, so that was cool. We had a lesson with this guy named Carlos and his girlfriend Diana which was cool.

On Tuesday we had some exchanges with Tepeji. They came over to Jilotepec to work with us. I was able to go with my former companion Elder Sanchez. It was cool to catch up and talk for a while. We went to visit Jorge, the guy we just baptized. After that we were gonna visit Moroni and his family. Moroni’s a kid were gonna baptize soon, theres also a guy there named Vicente who were teaching. They only thing was that it was already about 5 and they live super far and we were afraid if we went, wed get stranded there in kilometer 107 again. We decided to visit a less active family. We started knocking doors and asking people and found the house. They weren’t home but at least we know where they live. We were walking back to do who knows what when we saw a message from Moroni’s mom saying they had an "investigator" in the house who wanted to learn we felt bad for not going, but right in the moment we saw the text, we saw the bus coming up that would take us to kilometer 107. Knowing that by going, we were probably gonna miss the last bus that leaves from there, we got on anyway. We went over and there was Moroni, his sister, mom and grandma (all members) his stepdad Vicente (I’m actually not too sure the guys actual relation to the kid is) and a young girl who wed never seen before named Vanessa. They all listened well as we talked about the commandments. They showed us a quicker and cooler route to take us back to the freeway with a view of the lake and hills and stuff. We got there, with still time to spare, but our companions called us saying the last bus had already passed and we should probably go in taxi, so we left the bus stop to go to a taxi, and in that moment the bus came in and left (eerily similar to the Spongebob episode "Rock Bottom") our companions then called us and said they were coming to get us with a brother from the branch, so we waited...and waited...and waited. The hour passed, it got dark, the second hour passed and it was even darker. Me and elder Sanchez started to discuss the probability of narcos (drug traffickers) roaming the area and we calculated the probability was likely high. Also we weren't necessarily too pleased to be stranded on the side of a busy freeway full of angry semi truck drivers. We were gonna climb the yellow bridge that crosses over the freeway to the other somewhat brighter lit side, but as we got to the bridge, we saw there was two people standing at the top waiting, elder Sanchez said that was a common tactic for people who rob and assault to wait at the top of those bridges at night so we decided not to go up (I think we were honestly just scaring ourselves at this point) 2 hours after the initial call our companions said they were gonna get us, they finally arrived with the member and we safely arrived home.

Wednesday the most eventful moment happened at night, we left a little late from a lesson. my comp and I. We had gone with Carlos and Diana whom I’d mentioned before who are really good and sell really good chilaquiles. We were close to the house and we left about 9:05. It was completely dark and my comp mentioned how the street we were on was dangerous. There was no one else but us on it, but we walked faster, we turned the corner and arrived to a completely dark street with no light. We started uneasily walking down it, when all of a sudden, the strongest feeling of fear I've felt in my mission seemed to overcome me and I felt goosebumps rise from my arms to my face and my chest started pounding and tears nearly came to my eyes. I guess my comp felt the same thing cause we literally just looked at each other, I think I managed to choke out the words "fetch, dude" and we both just started sprinting in the opposite direction. We arrived home quick and safe, but I have no idea if the intense fear we felt come over us so strongly was just our imagination, or like a warning or something. It was pretty crazy.

Thursday we just had time for one lesson. It was with the lady we'd knocked the door of on Monday. It was a good lesson. Later that night we had to go spend the night at the AP’s house because on Friday morning we were gonna go early to immigration in Mexico City and get my green card renovated because in a few weeks It’s gonna expire and I'm gonna be illegal here.

We got up at about 4 or 4:30 so everyone could shower and get ready. We walked over to the offices and got in a combi and went over to Mexico. Immigration is in a part of Mexico city thats extremely nice and urbanized. There’s a ton of skyscrapers, fancy cars, and extremely nice malls, museums, theaters, apartments, and hotels. When we got to immigration, we had to wait in an extremely long line. I believe we waited almost 2 hours. It was fine though cause we were just talking amongst ourselves. We got to the front of the line. This line was literally just to be able to get an appointment, not even to enter and get the new green card. It was about 10am and the appointment we got was for 1:30 in the afternoon. We were with one of the Senior Missionaries who works in the office, sister Perez. She’s super cool and seeing we had a few hours to spare she asked us if we wanted to go to a museum. We said yes and she started taking us for a walk in the city. We felt weird cause we were literally just touristing. She took us through all the malls and stuff. It was a super different feeling just walking around just to sight see and without a purpose to do missionary work (I thoroughly enjoyed it though, don’t get me wrong) The museum we went to was also a really cool design. I don’t really know how to describe the shape, but it was cool. It was an art collection of the richest guy in Mexico. It was the first time any of us had been 'touristing' or into a museum in over a year so it was cool. I guess we’re not cultured enough for art cause we were bored by the 3rd floor, but it was still really interesting. Then we went to eat and we walked around a little more. We returned to immigration at 1:30 and we waited another hour or two to get it. We got in and they had us sit on chairs, every time someone got up we had to rotate and Im pretty sure they had sit in every chair in the building. I got to the front desk and they had a look at green card, passport, and visa and I had to sign a few things. It was mostly just me standing there as the guy just typed away at his computer. He let me go finally but the machine or system that prints the new green cards was busted so we have to go back this week to get them. Plus two elders had their name spelled wrong on their papers so they have to go back and go through the entire process again. After all that, sister Perez took us to Krsipy Kreme and we went back home. It was a pretty good day though.

Saturday we were able to go teach JC (the once drunk guy who’s now not drunk) we had a really good lesson with him and then he let us take a picture with his antique car. Later that day we were able to go do service and help paint and decorate a taco shop. The place is called Tacos:Chucky and its based on the evil doll Chucky so we we helped paint, and hang decorations. The guy asked me to help him dress and hang some evil looking dolls. It was not task I thought id ever do as a missionary, but it was fun. The people there aren’t members but they’re really nice and gave us tacos afterwards.

Sunday is always a bit slower, at church one of the new people we found got up to give their testimony. That was cool to see. After church we went to eat and visited some people and yeah. But anyways that was the week

Bye

Pics

1. Me, Elder Sanchez, and Moroni