A Ginger Takes on Mexico: Stayin Alive, Stayin Alive, ah ah ah ah and REPEAT

HOLA

Monday - We have a couple in our ward who are basically like our grandparents. They are the sweetest little couple, the hermana calls me muñecita - basically means doll - and her husband is ADDICTED to coca. I swear, coca cola will be the downfall of Mexico. So he is taking all these pills because he was in a really bad car accident a bunch of years ago, and cant sleep, and just has a bunch of other problems. We talked to him about how bad his beloved CocaCola is, and challenged him to stop, little by little, but stop ultimately. He was sitting pondering this, and his wife brought out all of his pills that he needed to take. He literally had like a huge box of pills. An interesting sight. As he is sitting there, he says "Me voy a matar", basically he is gonna kill himself with the cocacola and all his pills hahahahaha we were dying laughing. I LOVE THEM!!!!

Morning Tuesday - We got a bottle thrown at us by this cranky old lady who said she did not want to listen "Es porque, no me gusta." Her reason for not wanting to listen was because she did not like it, all I did was tell her we were missionaries from the CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I guess it just was not her day to hear the Gospel.

Well this week has definitely been on of the CRAZIEST of my entire life. I do not know what kind of news from Mexico gets to the US, if any, but if you have heard anything, I am ok! I know that missionaries are blessed and protected and we have angels surrounding us and protecting us. If you do not know what is going on....I will try my best to give a summary from what I have gathered from what the Mexicans are saying here. But then again, no one really says anything because everyone is scared that they will get in trouble with the bad guys or that they will give something away and be a target. So, my simplified, probably not entirely accurate, and more G rated version of what has been happening Tuesday night to nowish:

So there was this mass gathering of drug lords in Papantla, from all over Mexico. The police knew about it, and were gonna try to catch them when they were all in their meeting. The drug lords found out about it though, and everyone started to scatter. Then people just started shooting, meaning the police. Now, basically the police don’t need a reason to shoot, if they have reason to believe someone is hiding one of the bad guys, they just machine gun down the house. The investigator of one of the missionaries in our ward, his dad is in the police and took pictures. The Elder said the house looked like swiss cheese after everything was done. So we were walking to an appointment Tuesday night, and I got a call from one of the sisters in the ward, she was freaking out and told us we had to get back to our apartment. In the background I heard this sound, that i thought were these annoying firecrackers that everyone in mexico loves, nope they were the machine guns. Then the drug people were going up and down the caratera, the highway, and just shooting, the police just shooting, everyones just shooting. I think 16 people died in all. Now though it is a power war, whatever drug lord is more powerful, so they are showing their power. I think one of the drug people, or a dealer or something, is our next door neighbor, because the police keep showing up and the guy who owns the apartments that we live in was saying “I don’t care if you have 6 months on your contract, I want you out.” He had these special police with him too, but the guy wasn’t there. Crazy crazy. And my comp is always freaking the flip out. I feel ok, calm and everything but my comp is talking with all the members, basically everyone is just saying what they heard from what their neighbor heard from this massive chain of mouth. I never know what is actually real or not. SO that was a huge part of my week, it disrupted a lot of teaching, and we did not get to see our investigators a lot, so that was disappointing :(. We were not allowed to work Wednesday, so we got picked up by a member and driven to the house of an AMAZING lady in another ward. We all slept there that night, the hermanas, and she fed us and kept us all calm. She is such a special woman, she calls us her angels, but in reality she is ours!!!!!

Thursday - We were only allowed to visit members today, and had to be in our houses at 7:30. I LOVE the members in the ward though!!! Since I have been here for so long, it was like hanging out with my friends all day. Hna D and I brought our pictures to share with people our lives, and it is a great way to share messages about families! They loved seeing our pictures! Also a CRAZY lightning storm. It was like day outside with all the lightning. We needed the rain for the situation to cool off....haha? Sorry if that isn’t that funny.

Friday - Today was Elder D birthday, and it was a fantastic event. The 2nd counselor in our stake owns a sweet shop, and so they did this amazing fiesta for him! There was a chocolate fountain with strawberries, PIZZA, piñata, lots of laughing and LOTS of sweets. I think the fiesta was very much needed for everyone there, the week had been a little stressful. And we ate Chinese food for lunch, the Hermanas in the ward all wanted to do something special for his birthday! Lots of eating hahahaha

Saturday - We finally contacted Juliocesar! We met him at this church event a couple of weeks ago, and we finally found his house! We got to talk to him and his wife, and they both seem pretty excited!!!! TODAY I GOT TO SKYPE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD DAY!!!!! My family is so important to me, I love them more than ANYTHING!!!! I am so grateful for the example they set for me, and EVERYTHING they do for me. LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Sunday - One of the strangest Sundays ever. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and Felipe just walks in! We did not visit him all week, well, because we thought he was drunk at the event last Sunday. Turns out he was not drunk, he just had not bathed in a REALLYYYY long time. And he just is a little socially awkward. Long story short, he had his baptism interview and is going to get baptized this coming Sunday if everything goes well and he goes to church and everything. WHATTTTT. Can you say miracles. Miracles every day this week, I am SOSOSSO blessed. This week has been so up and down, but the miracles and blessings and love are undeniable. This church is true!!!!!

My mission is great, I am so grateful to be here!!! I love the members, I love my ward, I love the people of Mexico! Please keep Mexico in your prayers, it could use some help right now. I love you all! Thank you for your support and love!

Love, Hermana Westergard