The Polar Express

How are you all doing this week? I swear I just barely sent you one of these emails, but at the same time so much has happened in the past week. I am still not totally sure how time works here. I hope everyone is doing well! BYU sounds like is killing it this season so hopefully that continues, other than that I hope football this week didn’t make you too sad.

Speaking of football, lots of people here are obsessed with the NFL, which has been a great conversation starter, and even a nice way to get some score updates, but I think they only know about 3 teams down here. I have not met a person that likes a team other than the Chiefs, 49ers, or Raiders. After talking to a few members about it this past week, there were probably 5 members that showed up to church yesterday wearing NFL sweaters or jackets which made me laugh.

As always, the food this week has been awesome but also adventurous as usual. The highlight was definitely the countless al pastor tacos we got this week, and all of them were soooooo good. My dad will be thrilled to hear tho, that the takeout ones that we got and let sit out for a couple hours, which were then microwaved, weren’t as good as some of the tacos from home. But, the best tacos here are a whole different food entirely from the tacos at home. We also had homemade chilaquiles a few days this week, which is like chips doused in salsa with meat, cream, and tons of melted cheese and it is amazing. That about wraps up the best food we had this week. We were walking along and I saw this absurdly massive white dog (if elder west is reading this, i think the dog we dogsat named moose moved to mexico) and he was absolutely munching on this basketball-sized boulder (I’m still curious as to where he got it from) and I was like “holy cow dog is going to town” then he lrgit looked up at me, and his giant rock slowly rolled over to me which was covered in slobber and stopped right in front of me. He had no teeth and was just kinda like slobbering all over this rock. Although it seemed like fate, and as tempted as I was, I did not give it a try, although who knows maybe if I had it would make it into the highlights. Dog certainly enjoyed it.

As for the more exciting side of the food, this week left me confused about how Mexican’s feel about spicy food. All week long people have decided to get me to try their spicy salsas and stuff. As far as I am aware, there are three things they can say about a salsa: 1. This one is spicy. 2. This one hurts. 3. This one will kill you. Of course, theres things like “this one is really spicy” or “this one hurts so bad” or “this one might ruin your tastebuds for a couple days” but you get the gist. Anyways, I have been trying all kinds of spicy stuff, but for the most part its been pretty lax. I also think the scaling is all wrong. Sometimes they will say the salsa is going to kill me and I won’t feel a thing, other times they’ll say “oh its just a little spicy” and my face will get hot and I’ll start sweating because its so spicy. So far I’ve steered clear of “salsa macha” which essentially just means “a really manly salsa”, because apparently it’ll take down the most seasoned of Mexican tastebuds and leave people sobbing. I saw it at a store we passed by the other day and it is straight black, with a thin layer of red oil on the top and small floating red flakes. It allegedly is as spicy as it looks so we might steer clear of salsa macha for a while.

Last bit on food for the week. It’s gotten pretty doggone cold here at night this week, and on top of that my companion got sick (more to come on that soon fear not) so we have had lots of hot chocolate. This week I realized that I’m actually not a fan of Mexican hot chocolate. To start off with the store bought kind, you take this massive chunk of chocolate out of a package and just let it melt into a pot of milk. Seems like it would be solid, but none of the ingredients actually mix so you end up drinking scalding milk with little chocolate flecks that feels kind of like of like drinky undissolved sandy water. Pretty mid. No flavor other than milk, and you kinda just strain out the chocolate and lick your teeth if you want the chocolate flavor. Even as not-hot-chocolaty as that was, we had worse. One night we swung by the church to do some phone calls with some Facebook references that we got, and got offered hot chocolate. Actually, I got offered “chocolate o elote?”, elote is like is corn and cream and stuff, apparently in drink form. Sounded nasty, so I went for chocolate. I hot handed a steaming cup of sludge, visibly comparable to the hot sock-water juice that the train ghost gives the kid in my least favorite horror movie, The Polar Express. It was the dark dark brown stuff with little floating green and yellow things. Of course, I gulped it right up, hoping to get it over with pronto. I don’t know what it was, definitely not hot chocolate, because it was so spicy that it left my lips numb and my tongue on absolute fire. I felt like I couldn’t even talk for like 15 minutes WOW it was sooo dang spicy. Not a fan! Definitley winning the “this one will kill you” award so far. Bebida macha.

Anyways, that wraps it up for food. Later in the week, my companion got pretty doggone sick with like a fever, headache, bad cough, sore throat and all that jazz. My immune system is a tank so all I had was a little sore throat for a morning and I’ve been fine sincr then, no problems. He is still a little sick, but apparently the way he was raised is to “skip the medicine, and buckle up for a couple days to let your body kick it itself” which sounds less than ideal. He claimed he could work through it, and less than 5 hours later he was curled up on his bed calling the mission doctor, who reccommeded a specific type of medicine for him. We went to get that from the pharmacy at the Walmart right by us, and that was when I realized you can buy almost any medicine in Mexico. There was a shelf full of syringes, they’re just sort of handing them out, and if you have a heart beat and a valid form of government ID, you can buy vials of antibiotic which is concerning. I was talking to a member at lunch about that and he was like “oh yeah we all usually vaccinate ourselves here, everyone knows how to use a needle” and then he was like hey if you ever need like a booster or something or antibiotic just let me know and I got you!! And I was like hahaha NOOO thank you! That’s a pretty crazy thing that happened!

We also helped a ton of people in wheelchairs this week. I think I pushed a wheelchair for at least like 5 miles one day and it was actually pretty cool. The only dumb thing is that you almost always have to wheel it backwards because the sidewalks are terrible. We helped a member get into his apartment by carrying him in his wheelchair up there, which was way cool and he was very grateful. We also had an awesome service project on Saturday! Even though my comp felt like buns, we went anyways (he was insistent) and it was sooo fun! We were out by the old train tracks that I’ve mentioned before, at this community center called Pilares. Elder Budge and I (my favorite missionary I’ve met, meaning Elder Budge, not me) picked up rocks and garbage that had been thrown through the fence from the train track houses things. Then, with one hammer, and Elder Budge’s home depot woodworking certification, we dismantled a super stinky couch that had been heaved over the fence. Let’s just say you’ve never seen a couch taken apart so effectively and efficiently. You couldn’t even recognize the thing by the time we were through, it was just a pile of fabric, bugs, wood, nails, and a massive cloud of dust. Every blow of the rubber mallet sent out a cockroach (or two or five) running around our feet which might have been the scariest thing that has happened yet here, but that couch got absolutely owned by us two white guys. We also found two dead mice in there which might have been the culprit for the smell. Sweept those bad boys straight into the trash. Elder Budge is so funny and that service project was so much fun and they were all so grateful! Got the place lookin spick and span and I loved it.

Now if my email hasn’t made you bored enough already, I’m about to update you on the current public transit situation in Mexico City, colonia Guerrero. Yipee!! In all reality though, something is going on with public transit the past week and its leaving citizens near the brink of riot. I overheard some dude pin the blame on the new president while waiting for the metrobus, using all sorts of nonsensical and colorful spanish curses, then get full wind-back slapped across the face by his wife (assumedly, although it would be funnier if it was some random lady), and while I have no idea about anything relating to Mexican politics I like the idea of pinning the blame on someone just because i am angry and impatient. But I guess I’ll have to keep that to myself so I don’t get slapped by an angry Mexican Mamasita. Basically, the issue with the bus and subway is that there have just been crazy delays for all the lines, the metrobus has been closing a ton of lines at random and rerouting them to take like hours to different stations, and the metro (subway) only shows up like every 20 minutes and stays parked there doors open for another 20 to cram as many people in as possible, and it is a very hot and sweaty mess, which makes the already angry people even angrier. Its usually like every 5 minutes, and the doors stay open for like .2 seconds so like BOOM OPEN and you gotta sprint for it, but lately its been agonizingly slow (blame the pres). Anyways, the two highlights of public transit have been the following: at the front of all the metros and metrobuses, there is a section with all pink seats where only women and childen under 12 are allowed to sit to keep them protected from the creeps I’m assuming. Anyways, earlier this week I watch an old homeless guy get on the metrobus (it was early in the morning and it was pretty empty) pass by the empty seats in the back, pass by my companion and i, walk up to the section for women and children, and just lay down in the aisle in between the pink seats to take a nap. Epic. The second was that yesterday, we got onto the PACKED metro and this little old lady tried to get on with a cardboard package roughly the size of an industrial oven. She couldn’t seem to make it fit, so she balanced it above her on two peoples heads, including the man standing right next to me. Needless to say, people were not thrilled and she got kind of roasted, so she decided to leave the metro but was a little heated so on her way out the door swung the box with her might at one of the offenders, accidentally clubbing the back of my head along with him. Fun story anyways!

I also felt like my spanish has gotten a lot better this week! That was only briefly interupted by getting roasted on the subway about my spanish by a drunk who was trying to talk to me about 90s rock but thats okay. I have been able to get a lot closer with the members, bond more with the new people we meet, and get laughed at by the little kids some more. My best friend in all of Mexico right now is a 4 year old named Mosiah. Given that he’s 4 we know about the same amount of spanish which is foods, “look!” and how to look confused. We had lunch at their house a couple times, and he spent the whole time showing me his marble collection (and telling me all the colors), and showing me his massive collection of toy plastic foods, handing it to me, and saying “eat it” then laughing when I would hide it in my shirt pocket. We are homies now and he’s pretty cool. Last pday, we went to a members house that lives further north, and I got to help the 11 year old with her homework, and passed the rest of the time coloring in an entire boogie board because I was so bored, but of course the highlight was when she walked in from the other room and said “Hola Elder Sheldon”. She couldn’t stop laughing about that, and pulled up Young Sheldon on Netflix and showed her mom, who was amazed and who wouldn’t believe me when I promised her that no, I am not and was not the actor for Young Sheldon. As dismayed as I am that the nickname carried over to Mexico, I’m sure my family is thrilled that other people see the resemblance too hah!

The absolute easiest highlight of this week though was Sebastian’s baptism on Sunday. He has worked so hard and was so ready and excited. He already has such a powerful testimony and is so excited about the gospel. I am so so excited for him and the love and support the members gave him was so powerful!! Lots of people were crying, and so many showed up to support him. The messages were awesome and it was just such a good moment. He will do amazing things and it was such a great Sunday.

On that note, here comes my spiritual thought for the week! Even if I might be a little more long-winded (some might say too long-winded) than my email rival (although it has to be a competition to be a rivalry, right?) Elder West, hopefully this is one that you enjoy because it was really powerful for me this week. Just because I got called out by someone (not naming names) this one might be extra long but is guaranteed to be extra good.

First, let me start with something I read early this week in Omni, in the Book of Mormon, that I loved.

I think it’s pretty simple. If we give our whole souls, or all our efforts to the Lord, that means we will be following in His ways, and if we do that throughout life, we will be saved. Pretty clear, pretty straightforward. Follow Christ’s example, do the things He has asked, and be saved through Him. He promises (and He can not lie, nor would He if He could) that if we do these things, He will save us.

Now, this week I have been struggling a little bit, I am just really tired and frustrated emotionally by my companion. Oh well, that’s how life goes, and I know I will have difficulties with probably every companion and that’s just life. Despite what my current or future companion does, may do, or has done, that I don’t like or that drives me simply crazy, I know that I don’t have to do what they may do, I can be my own self, and I can work as hard as I can to become the best self I can be. A couple days ago I read this C.S. Lewis quote that hit me hard and that I love:

I LOVE that quote. Sometimes, God has a plan for us that is way different than we ever imagined or intended for ourselves, and sometimes trusting in His plan can “hurt abominably” (I think that sounds kinda funny haha) but its true! Sometimes it hurts bad. Maybe my frustrations with my companion are to help me grow into the best missionary I can become and teach me what my priorities are. Maybe it’s to help me appreciate my future companions, or learn to work even when not running at my prime. Maybe it’s a coincidence (although I don’t believe in those) or a just all for fun. Only God knows as far as I am aware. And it hurts, sometimes abominably. But He wants to make me (and all of us!!) into something so much greater than we ever could have intended or imagined for ourselves. He sees our potential like we can’t, no matter how hard we try. He will make us into palaces. Often, it is going to make about no sense, try our faith and leave us maybe just a little grumpy. But that is all worth it, because the final product will be greater than words can describe. Anyways, I think about the fear I have for the next 2ish years, and all that will change, all the things I will miss, all the frustrations I will have. Is it terrifying? Absolutely. But it will also turn out way better than I, or we, could ever expect if we trust God. Almost certainly, the road to get there will be different than planned or how we imagined, and the road will unquestionably be bumpy, lonely, steep, maybe endless and sometimes it’ll feel like we are going in circles. There will be days when we just want to quit and lay down in the ditch, but God will strengthen us as we press on down the road. What matters is that we trust Him enough, so that we can turn to Him to pull us along. He’ll pull us out the ditch and carry us as we trust that He knows what He is doing. I promise, He does.

Last little thing. Yesterday morning I was so frustrated. It was my Dad’s birthday so I got to text him and my mom, and something my mom said to me I think is so clear and simple yet so powerful:

After that, as I was writing this email, I put in my headphones and clicked play, and a song came on that I had been listening to this morning during my scripture study. I don’t know if I have ever heard it before, but the Tabernacle Choir just sang it in conference and it is easily a new top 5 favorite hymn. I still get chills every time I listen. It’s called God’s Gracious Love, and the music is absolutely beautiful, but I think that also comes because of the words:

Maybe I am crazy, but I think that was directly from God. Especially that last verse. Wow. I have nothing to add, maybe because I reached my character limit and had to write this in two notes (new record length email achieved!), but also because that song ecompasses all that I could say. Nothing more to add, I echo all of those words. Answers to prayer are real.

Well, my invitation to you this week, is to pray sincerly. If you are struggling with something in particular, pray, and I promise God will answer your prayer in the best timing and manner possible. Sometimes, maybe most times, we won’t understand the things we are going through or when answers come differently than we want or expect. But I promise God will make you into something so much better than you could ever imagine.He loves us so much, His only goal is to bring us home. Turn your whole efforts to Him, trust in His process over yours, and in the end, maybe after some pain and loneliness, frustration, and sadness, you will look back, together with the Savior, and thank Him for turning you into a palace instead of a cottage. God’s blueprints for us are so much greater than we could imagine. So, pray, seek His help, and trust that answers and guidance WILL come, but as He will, not as we will.

I hope you are all so impressed with the length of this email, I impressed myself. Who knew there was a character limit for Google Notes! Someone go request an app update with a bigger character limit. Or don’t, because you don’t like such a long email ending up in your inbox every week. Anyways, I am certain there is zero chance any of you read that all the way through, and I am okay with that because I learned stuff myself just while writing it.

I love you all so much. I pray for you and love hearing from you so much. I miss you all like crazy, but I know it is God’s plan for me to be here even if sometimes I feel like I am alone. I know that I am never alone! I know that God worries over each one of His children’s well-being and will carry us home after we bring Him all of our efforts. Day by day, His gracious love surrounds us. (You gotta go give that song a listen right now. God’s Gracious Love, Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. So good.)

Anyways, sorry for dragging on so dang long, hopefully I didn’t crash your app, or better yet your whole phone. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of you! This one should hold you over till next week, so talk then!

Love you!

-Elder Sheldon 😉

No way this email is short enough to have the space for pictures, but we will try anyways: