Feb. 7, 2011, first letter from Mexico

Dear family,

I saw all of the people you mentioned in the MTC [4 boys from our Stake].

I got into Merida at about 6 o´clock on Monday.  President Salinas and his wife and a few missionaries met us at the airport.  We went to a house that 3 missionaries that are serving in Merida live.  His wife made us sandwhiches, we got hammacks, and we went to sleep there.  The next day we went to the mission home.  It is very nice.  We ate a really good breakfast, and then went to the stake center next to the temple and got some instruction.  We got our companions, ate pizza, and then Elder Vickery and I bought tickets, got on a bus and went first to Campeche, bought more tickets, and went to Champoton. 

We are the only missionaries in town.  It used to be 2 areas but now its only one.  The weather is really nice, except we  got a lot of rain on Friday and we got really muddy.  I can say almost everything I want to say in Spanish.  As far as understanding goes, some people I understand just fine, and others I don´t have any idea what they are saying.  There is a recent convert in the ward.  She’s the only one I know that speaks Mayan, but she speaks Spanish too.  A lot of people are short.  This week has been kind of slow, but it was better than the one that my companion had last week.  A lot of people think that believeing in Jesus is all that they have to do, so it´s a little difficult to help them understand.  I don´t know how long missionaries have been here, but its a pretty good branch.  The chapel is really nice too.  It’s way better than what we visited at Costa Rica.  There is a baptism next week for a boy about 16 years old.  He´s been taught before my companion came, and then my companion taught him for about 2 weeks.  Other than that we don´t have anybody that´s golden, but we´ll keep trying.  We tract a lot, and don´t get very many referrals.  There are 6 families that are assigned to make us lunch every week.  So every Tuesday we go to the branch president, every Wednesday we go to the Gamboa family, and so on.  We eat bananas and whatever else we want to make for breakfast, and usually don´t have dinner, but sometimes get invited for dinner too.  I got to have a wonderful dinner of Pig Skin with the  Gamboa family.   I put it in a tortilla with rice and swallowed it as quickly as I could.  I ate octopus with a different family on Saturday.  It didn´t taste bad at all, it was just different.   Every meal I´ve been to so far has consisted of tortillas and stuff to put in them.  The branch president’s wife made some really good meat with tortillas for my first lunch here.  We have bikes, but my companion´s bike broke on saturday, so we walk for now.  Elder Vickery is from Emmett, Idaho.  He has been out for 13 months.  We are the same height.  A little kid in the street called us twins.  I´ll send pictures soon. 

Love,

Elder Gubler