A day in the life of Kera in Mexico! :)

The last couple days have been really super busy, but every minute here is totally worth it. School is going well and service is still amazing as ever. Yesterday the madre asked us if we could plan a little carnival or something similar for the boys for the last day we are with the boys. We are starting to brainstorm some ideas. The other day I gave the madre that is always so nice to me (the one that I posted a picture of before) copies of the pictures I took of me and her. She was so excited and asked me to write a note for her on the back and sign my name to. Then she asked if I wanted this treat they always give the boys. The boys call them churros, but they are nothing like them. They look like one huge wafer with salsa on them. The salsa is more just hot sauce, but every type of sauce here is called salsa. I said sure and she asked if I wanted the salsa on it. I said just a little cause the sauce is really hot. When she came out with it she had literally put one drop of sauce in the middle of the wafer. I tried hard not to laugh, because she took me wanting a little literally! It was pretty funny. Monday night was family home evening. I love family home evening because the single mexican boys come too and it gives us an opportunity to use our Spanish more. We just played some games and then afterwards rehearsed for our talent show which is next week. We got done late so Manuel, one of the single mexican guys, offered to take Me, Nani, Kaela, and Becky home since we all live near him. We all crammed into his little red bug. Its so much fun cruising around in his little red bug. He is so nice and always offers to take us places. The one picture of the three of us, is when we were crammed int he back of Manuel's bug. Its a little squishy in the back but we didn't mind. Tuesday we got to go do baptisms for the dead in the Guadalajara temple. It was such a neat experience. The guys in our group are returned missionaries so they got to preform the ordinances and that was really neat and I think brought us closer together as a group on a spiritual level. As we were coming out the sun was setting and looked so pretty against the temple so I took a couple pictures. It was beautiful. Afterwards a big group of us went and got ice cream. We have been doing that lately after activity because the ice cream is soooooooooooooo good here!! We are all addicted and will probably gain 10 pounds alone from ice cream!! Yesterday morning was quite an interesting morning. On our way to school there is this little black dog that we named "Todo" because he looks just like Dorthy's dog off Wizard of Oz. Anyways, we were walking past him and all of the sudden I hear Nani gasp and she starts crying. I look at her and she rips here hand out of the dogs mouth. He had put his head through the fence and grabbed onto her hand. He punctured pretty far in and she was bleeding all over. There was a lady out there with the dog and she just looked at us and said "el no esta enfermo" (he isn't sick) and then she put the dog inside. We both stood there, Nani crying with her punctured bleeding hand and the lady didn't do anything. So we went back home and told our mom. She got so mad that the lady didn't do anything and she was scared because rabies is a little bit more of a worry here then it is in the states. So they scrubbed Nani's hand out and then called the doctor and then the police. So our dad, being the nice and caring man he is, ran us to the doctor. The doctors was a little bit of a run down place and I was a little scared but they took care of Nani and scrubbed her wound out with iodine looking stuff. Then he gave her a prescription for medication to make sure she isn't in pain and doesn't get an infection. Then we had to go to the animal shelter place and file a report to have the dog picked up so they can be observed for 10 days to make sure he doesn't have rabies. Then we went and picked up Nani's meds and we also had to pick up a tetnis shot and the needle. Here you have to go buy the needle and the medicine first and then take it to a doctor or a lot of people just have anyone give it to them. A little scary! Nani ended up having one of the girls in our group give it to her. I thought she was crazy but it worked out and now she is still in a little pain but doing well. Well that was yesterday morning. Kind of crazy. Then last night we went with a big group of people to "Indiana Jones 4" it was ok, but not as good as the first three. I sat by one of the friends I have made here. He is from Korea here in Mexico learning Spanish at the same University I am. Me and Mark and some other kids in our group were in line for something one day and we started to talking to him cause Mark served his mission in Korea and come to find out this guy is LDS but went inactive for a while cause he was baptized 5 years ago but when he moved back to Korea he couldn't find a church to go to and ended up just not going. We invited him to church and now he comes to church with us every week and goes to a lot of our church activites. He is such an awesome guy. During the movie he leaned over and was like "quieres esto" (i want that) as he pointed at my popcorn. So we ended up sharing my popcorn and having a good ol time. It was really fun. Today was kind of a long day, but it was interesting as well. Today we got to see the boys at our service perform one of the Catholic services celebrating the Virgin Mary. We went in with them to there chapel where they hold mass. We kneeled with them as they said their prayers and sung some songs. It was really interesting to me. They had a statue of the Virgin Mary in the middle and through out the service they gave different gifts to the Virgin. I started to get a little emotional because I was excited that these boys are at least being brought up in a religion where they are taught to love God and there is someone who loves them, but I was also really sad because I felt like the madres taught them a lot about God but there were some things missing and at times it felt really empty. I wanted to get up and say I have some things that could really change the boys lives, but I just kept my thoughts to myself. But anyways, it was really interesting and got me curious about what everything symbolizes cause there was a lot of symbology. But afterwards we played with the boys and they have found out that I can draw so they are always bringing their notebooks to me and asking me to draw things in them for them!! Its really fun cause I haven't drawn for a while! But anyways.. thats me so far. Still living it up in Mexico. Hasta Luego!!

This weekend was soooooooooooo amazing. We went to Guanajato this weekend. Because it was an overnight field trip and Guanajato is about 4 hours away from Guadalajara we didn't have school on Friday! YIPEE!! We left Guadalajara about 8 in the morning Friday and drove all Friday morning to get there. The view coming into the city was amazing. They houses are stacked high and they are everywhere in any bright color thought possible. The hills are covered in houses and they go on for miles and miles. This is a very antique and historic town and everything is so beautiful. I was in awe the whole time we were there. Because the streets are so narrow our charter bus couldn't drop us off at our hotel which is in the middle of the city. So we hiked in, but it was so worth it. We got to see the whole city and all the architectural buildings that were just so amazing! Our hotel was soooooo nice. We all were a little worried we might get the typical type of Mexico hotel that you see on the movies, that are dirty with stains on the sheets and bugs, but this was nothing any of us expected. Out hotel looked like a Villa. To get to our rooms we walked through outside courtyards with beautiful flowers and vines hanging from the walls. Our rooms had big antique doors and a balcony over looking the city. The view was to die for!! The rooms were so nice all of us were in total shock! Well anyways. That afternoon we went on a 5 hour tour around the city. First we went to this little antique caramel shop where we saw hand made mummies out of caramel. The guys that ran the shop were quite the flirts it was kind of funny. I decided to buy a little caramel replica and when I went up to the counter to buy it the owner was right there. He told me I was so beautiful and asked what my name was. I told him and then he took my hand, turned me towards the register and put my hand into an 18 or 19 year old boys hand. I was taken a back a little. He introduced the boy as his son and asked if I thought he was cute. Not wanting to be rude I said yes and he told me that his son was interested in dating me. I drew the line there and told him I was from the United States and was not looking for a love interest at the moment but thanks for the offer. Then I turned around to walk out of the store and another older gentleman grabbed my hand and twirled me around. I was thinking "what is up with these people"? He also told me that I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen ( a little bit of a reach, especially for an older guy) and he asked me to go dancing with him. In 5 minutes I had to turn down to different guys. It was quite the experience. Well after that little happening we got to go to this silver mine. I put a picture of me and Kaela going down into the mine. It was quite scary and really musty. We got to see some mummies of miners that had died there and learn some history about it. It was interesting. Then we went to a museum with all sorts of ancient forms of torture and it was kind of creepy. I can't believe some of the things people would do to other people!! To think the priests of the church the ones who taught out of the bible that says "love you enemies" and then behind the scenes they are torturing anyone who doesn't convert to their religion. It was kind of hard to take in. Well after that the sun was starting to go down a little and we got to go on top of this really high mountain viewpoint overlooking the whole city. It was the most prettiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. I just sat there in amazement at the view and couldn't take my eyes off it!! It was the perfect way to end the tour as the sunset over the mountains that the lights of the city started to turn on! It was the most breathtaking view! That night when we got back there was a big party in the center of town so we went out exploring. I tried some corn with chilly on it. It was way hot but really good. We danced a little and just went around listening to the bands and stuff. It was fun. Well later that night we had about ten girls from our group raid our room around 11 and we had a total girl hang out where we talked about the typical girl things boys, boys, and boys. Well a little bit later we heard a knock on the door I went to answer it and it was Mark (one of the boys on the trip)! hehe.. Wrong time to come. The girls invited him into our little girl talk. He was way uncomfortable but after a while we cracked him and got him to talk about girls and give us advice. It was pretty amazing that he opened up to us. We were pretty impressed, so impressed that we took a picture to document this monumental occasion when I guy actually opened up to a room full of girls! It was a really fun night and a think it helped us bond a little more as a group. In the morning we didn't have breakfast till 10:00, nice time huh! I love having late breakfasts. I woke up around 7:00 to look out the open french doors to the most amazing sunrise over the mountains. I took a picture of it, but you can't capture that kind of beauty in a picture. Well we had an amazing breakfast at an outside restaurant then we got to go to an art museum of Juan Diego Rameriez. I was so amazing. That was my favorite part of the whole day. Then we got to explore the city a little more and shop. It was such an amazing field trip and I so want to go back to Guanajato again sometime. Well sorry this has been long enough!! Hope all is well! Lov you all!

Just another amazing day in Mexico!

Well everything is still going well. Tomorrow I am so excited cause our group is going on an overnight field trip to Guanajato. Its a little town about 4 hours outside of Guadalajara. Quite a long bus trip but we are all pretty good about keeping ourselves entertained. Last night a big group of us (BYU students and the Mexican boys from our ward) went to see the movie Chronicles of Nararnia. It was really good. A lot of English made movies here are still in English but subtitiled in Spanish. So its fun to here the english and see how its translated in Spanish. I like it a lot. When the movie got home we all ran and got some ice cream and talked for a while so me and Nani didn't start walking home will 11:30pm. Its a little scary walking that late but we are only 5 minutes from the mall (where the movies are) so it wasn't to bad. There was one part where we ended up having to jump down a wall that I thought was only a small wall. Nani jumped off it (she is like 5' 10" so it was easier for her) and then I was like "oh this is cheese". I jumped off and it was a lot farther down then I thought. I feel right on my buttox!! heheh... We couldn't stop laughing. It was pretty funny!! heheheh..... I put some pictures above. The first one is of the bus we took the other day. They are all decorated so randomly inside and there is no bus that looks the same. This one cracked me up because it had fuzzy tissue boxes hanging from the ceiling so if you needed a tissue they were right there. Muy chistoso! (very funny)! The other ones are of service today. The madres (nuns) are so nice to us. The one is always bringing me water or sneaking me little candies here in there. She sees me taking pictures with the boys every day and letting the use my camera a little bit. Today she came up so excited and asked if she could get her picture taken with me. I said of course so. In the picture she is wearing the baseball cap she got for me. Everyday I am out in the heat with the boys playing "futbal" (soccer) and she is always so worried that my face is going to get sunburned because I have no hat. So today she came out with this bright red cap for me. It was so nice of her. She says she is going to put my name on it in white letters! heheh... Its going to be funny to see how she spells it cause she can barely pronounce my name! But she is so nice to me and so good with the boys. The others are of the boys that I have really becomes attatched to. There is a guy that everyonce in a while brings his dog cause they boys just love it. So today the madre wanted me to get in a picture with the boys and the dog. I think she likes my camera.. hehee.. The solo picture of me and a boy is me with David. He is so precious and so smart. I always look forward to working with him. Well I am off! I think I am going dancing tonight so I need to get ready. Lov ya! Write more soon!

BIEN BIEN BIEN

Ok last post for today sorry! I am just trying to get caught up for the last week or so. Everyday we walk so much and I am usually wearing sandals or flip flops so my feet get so dirty because we are on the go all the time and the city is so dirty in many aspects. Church was awesome Sunday. I understood so much more. Every week makes me so much stronger and the members are so nice. On the bus on the way to church we met a boy who just got off his mission. We were talking on the bus and he said that he has to take the bus for an hour to get to church. What dedication that is. It takes us about 20 minutes to get to church and it feels so long. Its amazing the sacrifices people will make for the church. Especially the member here because there are not many. Our mother asks us a lot about the church and about our temples especially. She wanted to know what goes on in them and the basics of our church. I wish the communication barrier wasn't so big because there is so much we want to tell her about our church that we can't communicate in spanish, but we do the best we can. It makes me excited that she is asking. Her family is all Catholic and they are pretty strong in their religion and I think that is totally awesome! Hopefully we are representing our religion and belief to our fullest. She noticed that we never wear tank tops or anything thats low cut or shows our shoulders. She told us we were crazy in this heat. But we explained to her that in our church we believe in respecting your body and not exposing it all. She thought it was really awesome and she totally respects us. And probably thinks we are a little crazy. hehe.. She is always asking us why we don't drink. She even gave us a lecture about how tequila can be medicinal. We just laughed. She is always like even a little drink won't hurt and we just smile and explain again that in our church we don't believe in drinking. She doesn't give up easily. Everyonce in a while we will have a wine glass at our spot but we just turn it over and the family laughs. I find it very hilarious!! Well anyways. Last night we had family home evening with our group and then we also invite the single adults in our ward to come. (its always the boys that show up cause most of our group is girls.. heheeh) We played fotbal (soccer) for like 2 hours. The mexican boys at first were making fun of me because I am so little they thought I would just get ran over. But I showed them. I got in there and played and they were impressed. Afterwards they told me I was totally dynamite and they totally wanted me on there team again next time we play. They called me a little power house. I told them good things come in small packages! heheheh... Today though I am so sore, I got some good kicks to the legs and shines and am a little bruised up but not to bad. Service was amazing today. The boys just jump up and get so excited when we get there. Today I brought the frisbee I promised them I would bring. (Thanks to whoever donated it). It was amazing to me how much happiness they got out of something so simple as a frisbee. I am just becoming so much more thankful for everything I have when I work with these boys. The little 5 year olds cried today when I went to leave. I think the boys get worried we won't come back. I had about 4 or 5 boys today ask me to take them home with me. It broke my heart so bad. I so would if I could, but there is just no way! They all melt my heart so much and it such a privilege to be working and being taught by them. I couldn't thing of a better way to give of my time. Oh last thing and then I am done I promise. I attatched a picture of the buses we ride. They are so ghetto and decked out inside with bright colors and lights and stickers and all sorts of crazy stuff. Its quite an adventure each day to see what kind of bus you will get to hop into. Its all so great! I love you all! I want to hear from you all and know what your up to so email me if you get a chance!!

Chapayla Field Trip

On Saturday we took a field trip to Chapayla, a city about a half an hour or so out of Guadalajara. We took a huge charter bus with plushy seats and tvs. It was really nice. The city of Chapayla is right next to a lake and we got to go out on the Pierre of the lake which is so beautiful. We also went and explored the little shops and got to talk to some of the natives which was fun. Afterwards we went farther into the city and explored more. We got ice cream and went around to more shops. I found a really amazing purse at one of the little shops on the beach. I was pretty excited to buy it. Things here are so cheap. I can't believe all the hand made things that go for so little here. Its crazy!! After touring the city for a while, we went to a really ritzy country club and got served dinner by fancy servers and then got to swim in the pool that overlooks the lake. Its literally on the shore of the lake. We were at the pool for like 5 hours. Most of our group got sunburned really bad and the next day at church we looked like a pretty burned group. Mom you will be proud of me. I applied sunscreen like every 2 hours so I didn't get burned at all! Way to be right!! heheh.. Jk! Well that was our trip. It was really fun! :)

I am still alive in Mexico!

Hola Todos!! Lo siento por no escrito! (Translation: Hello Everyone. Sorry for not writing) Our leader keeps us pretty busy so its hard to update my blog everyday, but I just found out my family has wireless internet so it will be a little bit easier to update now that I don't have to make the 20 minute trek across campus after to school to get to the computers! Well things have been really good. My brain constantly is hurting because I am always trying to translate what people are saying. But I am amazed at how much my Spanish is improving just being put in a country were English isn't the main language anymore. Its amazing. Well I included a few pictures. The first one is from me and Nani's first trek to the laundry mat. Its about a 15-20 minute walk from our house. So we loaded all of our laundry in our suitcases and rolled them down the street. We got some very weird looks!! hehe.. But after we finished doing it, to our luck it was down pouring with the first real rain of the season. Of all nights to rain it had to be that night. By the time we got home we were soaking wet and so were our clothes. It was really funny! The next few are from our friend Manuel's (he is from our church ward) "feliz cumpleanos fiesta" (birthday party). We all went out to eat for his birthday. Me and Kaela decided to get a dish and split it so afterwards we had a heck of a time trying to figure out what we each owed in pesos. We finally had to get a napkin out and do the math. Thats what that picture is of. That night as a group we went to downtown Guadalajara and went to a really fancy theater and saw an orchestra play. The theater was just like out of the movies. So fancy with everyone sitting in the balconies. The murals on the ceilings were beautiful and the antiquity of the whole theater was so amazing!! The concert was amazing to. Some of the songs were like 25 minutes long, but the talent was amazing. Since it got over at like 11:30 we had to take a taxi. We squished five of us in one of the little taxis and it was a very long ride, but we all survived none the less. Well this only lets me download five pictures to a post so I am going to write another post showing and telling you about our field trip we took on Saturday!

¿Que Paso?

Hola!! Well it has been 5 days now in Mexico and I am doing great!!! Hopefully everyone at home is doing great as well. Well where do I start. I started my service on Monday. I am at a place where there is a ton or little boys and girls ranging in age from about 5 to about 15. They live at this convent type place where I serve during the week with the nuns and then most of them go home to visit there families on the weekend. A lot of them come from abusive or divorced families or families that are not very well off. It is so amazing to me to see little kids who have nothing at all be so happy and active and alive. The girls and boys are seperated so I was assigned to work with the boys. They are quite a handful but they are in need of attention and love and just want someone to sit down and help them with their homework or play ball with them. One boy in particular has latched on to me a little bit. His name is Jordan and he is 11 years old. Everyday when I arrived we are suppose to help the boys with their homework and after they finish their homework we are allowed to play with them. Jordan always jumps up with a smile and runs over and asks me to help him with his homework. The first day it was math. I can not even do math in english let alone spanish. But with only a few confusing moments we got through him math. It is amazing how much just working with the little kids how much my spanish has already gotten better. I have already been called gringo more times then I can count. But they are all so interested in what goes on in the US. Most of the time after or during homework the boys stop and just ask me all sorts of questions. They are so funny cause a lot of times the way I pronounce things are not the correct way so the boys all laugh and then teach me how to say it right. Yesterday Jordan asked if I liked basketball. I told him I did so we went out and played for like an hour. He was so happy and thanked me afterwards saying that nobody really takes the time to just play one on one with him. It made me so sad for him. Upabove are some pictures of the boys. I feel like this service is not even a sacrifice. I am so honored to do it and look forward to it everyday. Well mom if you are reading this or grandma you might want to stop... hehehehe.. We have made some friends with some of the single mexican boys in our ward. They drive us around a lot of places and just hang out with us. Well they invited some of us to go to the "lugar de liberdad" tuesday night. What it is is free fighting. Basically it was like Nacho Libre. Men come out in masks and wrestle in the ring. It was an experience thats for sure. Basically there was a ton of guys and it was in the ghetto broken down part of the city. Luckily I rode with Carlos and I kept really close to him just to be safe. Inside there was basically a lot of guys and they cat called at us so bad. But the event itself was really interesting. I do not think I would go again, but it was an experience. It also gave me the opportunity to talk with Carlos in Spanish. It is so much fun using what little Spanish I have and talking with a native. Carlos is 25, just finishing up medical school, and will be moving to the states in a few months to do his residency. We were all talking to him that first day and he was asking our names. Nobody here can say my name so I get called all sorts of things. But when I told Carlos my name I got my first real mexican comment. He told me my name was a very "sexy" american name. Everyone in the group laughed and now everyone makes fun of me. But anyways the other guys name is Manuel and he drives a little red bug. I included a picture above. Well so far so good. I had my first exam today and it went well. Everything is so amazing here. The food is fantastic and very interesting. I have tried juice from a tamerack tree and a flower. Grandma, I even tried beets again, but I still do not like them... lol.. Well thats about it! Hasta Luego!