Ooh, I love the rain!

Ooh, I love the rain! It has rained a bit the last few days too. The raindrops (gotas) here are grandisimo! Today it rained for like five minutes and then stopped, but there were seriously PONDS everywhere. I love it because it is not as hot and also it usually smells awesome. I say usually because sometimes, it smells a little bit like a wet dog kennel because of how many dogs there are here. Anyway, I really need some rain boots soon. Usually it is hot and sunny though. Everybody here says that the sun "le quema" (burns you) here in Tehuacan, but I still have not gotten really sunburned. Just a little bit each day, and now my neck and feet look Mexicana. Little by little I will acclimate until I leave here 99.9% Mexicana...hopefully. Speaking of skin, my arms are also getting really dark. This means that the blonde hairs on my arms stand out a lot and everybody thinks that is really funny for some reason...

I have been doing a lot better this week. Ill admit that I was having a little bit of hard time, but I have learned a lot of really important lessons this week. I think I was getting too self-absorbed, and this caused me to have a difficult time with life. I have been studying a lot about charity and service and I am excited to put into action the things that I have learned. in Preach My Gospel it says, "when you are filled with charity, you obey Gods commandments and do all you can to serve others.." and that "you will develop charity as you look for opportunities to serve others and give of yourself" I was thinking about this and it is like a two way thing. If you feel you don’t have charity, then all you need to do is serve others and you will get that charity. If you feel like you have charity, but aren’t serving, you need think again. Really, if you think about it, the life of the Savior was filled with these two things. He never forced anyone to change according to his teachings, but he did all that he could to serve them. In this way, the people changed to meet his standards because they knew that the counsel he was giving them was because he genuinely loved them. If we want somebody to change, we first need to love and serve them. Then, we will know how to help them because we will know their personal needs and they will accept the counsel we give them because they know it was given from the heart. We cannot change the behavior of others, but we can be cautious in the ways we act. So, that is what I have been studying this week. We shall see how my putting it into action will go. 

Everyone is super friendly here- A lot more friendly than the people in the states. Here we say, "buenos dias", "buenas tardes", and "buenas noches" to practically everyone. Just not to the tipos that work construction. sorry dad, but they are almost always the stereotype of construction workers. They always whistle and yell english things at me when I pass. Did I tell you about our new neighbors? haha...The house thing next to ours has been vacant almost the whole time that weve been here until last week. We noticed that someone was moving in one night, so we went over to introduce ourselves. After telling them who we are and why we are here, one of them said "oh yeah, Ive seen you walking by walmart a lot." (That is where we catch a lot of the combis). We asked him if he worked at walmart and then he responded "no, Im working on the building that is under construction right next door." When he said that, I about lost it laughing because we realized that our new neighbors are those tipos that Hna Poot is always telling me to stay away from. Needless to say, we havent really talked to them much since then. 

I still love Mexico and ‘Im so grateful to be here.

con amor, Hermana Jones