Out in the Real World

Hey,
I´m in area called Boca Chica. We cover the city part of it, but we don´t actually go and teach there because it´s a big tourist place. We drove by it and i caught a glimpse of the beach and it looked like one of those perfect pictures out of a magazine..nice clean beach, nice sand, pretty clear blue water...awww, it was soo nice. Anyway, the area that we actually cover I heard is actually pretty campo....country. There´s quite a few people, but the houses are made out of tin, or crumbling concrete....most aren´t finished. some have dirt floors..but some houses are pretty nice, well, to their standards. The people are all really nice. We are some of the people around here with bikes, and when we pass by they all say Hansen....and the nuevo. It´s pretty funny. Everyone knows my companion (except you guys), and they all want to know what happened to Robison. Well, my companion is Elder Hansen, he´s from all over, his dad was in the airforce, but he claims Colorado. He´s really cool, nice, helpful...etc. It´s good. The first day he and a few other trainers were outside, and they tried to trick us by switching their name tags and then seeing how we´d react when we met our ¨companion¨ and then tell us who they really were, but it didn´t really work. One reason was because everyone told us at transfers alot about our companions, and also because a sister was telling us that they were lying. But anyway, it was cool at transfers because everyone was asking who had Elder Hansen, so that made me feel good that he was that well liked. He´s the District Leader here in Boca Chica A and is also known as spiderman. He´s been out for 16 months exactly today. In our house there´s also Elder Chamberlain and Vasquez, we only see each other in the morning and night, but they´re pretty cool too. Our apartment is on the second floor. I was a little overwhelmed when I walked in...it was (and is) filthy (I heard our apartment is one of the worst in the mission). Elder Chamberlain (he´s new to the house) plans on cleaning alot today...which will be great. Most of the time the power is off, which means no water and it being extremely hot. So showers are either when you´re lucky, and it´s a water house sticking out of the wall and it´s freezing cold, or you´re not and you use a bucket...the luck is mainly just because the power is on and you can actually see. We use candles Alot. There are mosquitos everywhere too. The Friday I woke up with a huge bite, and Saturday I was extremely sick. I had all the signs of denghue? (I don´t know how you spell it). Anyway, pretty much anyone that has it gets sent to the office until they get over it, then they work in the office for forever....that´s what happened to my companion. But today I feel good. really good. Anyway, we supposed to moving pretty soon, mainly because across the road there´s a bar that blares music all night and...yeah...music isn´t really problem... Anyway, we don´t really have a mission home...they´re building one. So when we left from the CCM, we were taken to a chapel, had a meeting, then left to meet our trainers and teach. It was pretty crazy. Our president seems pretty cool, he told me that I look like his nephew. We had a trainer/new people meeting, and the president and his wife both had pink eye, so they wore sunglasses the whole meeting...it was pretty funny. His spanish is waaay fast. I actually understand alot of the spanish, but not when they talk to each other. Some people speak very clear, and others cut everything. And slang is hard becuase I´ve never heard it before. But I´ll get it. So mail is sent through pouch still, just without the ccm part...(santo domingo east mission). or you can send it to the office. And packages are sent to a miami address, but I don´t know it, plus it cost me money. Well, some experiences (not all mine), but not in detail.....packing into buses, watching a tire fly off a bus and smack kid (Elder Holyoak-he´s in my group...i mean he came out at the same time as me) riding on the motor(cyle) taxi´s, teaching by light of cell phone(everyone has one) and candle, eating alot of random fresh fruit, no storms yet, uhhhh, crossing the pista alot(the freeway...it´s not hard, but it kind or scared me when a litte girl, maybe 5/6 with a little boy 3/4) and there´s no median. only a gap of concrete like 2 feet long, so everyong runs to it, and plus people on bikes, and motors (motorcycles). That´s the hard part, not really crossing the traffic, but trying to beat other people to the hole/fitting together in there. Other than that, there aren´t really any paved roads. Well, I think I should go, there´s so much to write, but no time to do it. and by the way, if I didn´t tell you or you didn´t figure it out, p-days are on monday.