Week 2 in Mexico

Note from Ann: Randall sent this email as a reply to the one I sent him. No one else sent him one because we are writing through the pouch. We want him to have time to send an email, not use the whole time just reading emails. In his first email he said he couldn't print off the emails. We really aren't ignoring him!

Dear Mom,

I didn't get any emails from you, but I know you still love me haha. I haven't gotten any mail and I have no clue when I will get mail, but ya, haha.  I love you all so much.  I miss you a ton but I am doing so great.  Mexico is amazing, although their computers don't do exclamation points, haha.  I don't know why, haha, but anyways is amazing here.  I feel like I have been here a year but it has only been a week.  My companion is great and he is a very hard worker which is great because some missionaries in the mission aren't.  He is awesome.  We have been doing tons of work to get this area up and going again.  The members are so great and always make sure we have food and just are amazing.  It is so crazy here though, haha, just people everywhere and cars everywhere and houses on top of houses on top of houses.  It is pouring rain right now like it does every afternoon at about this time, haha.  The day can be so hot and then boom it still rains, haha.  I don't mind it though although it rains every day.  I haven't used my rain jacket, haha.  It kinda feels good to get wet after being hot all day.  We finally got gas for our apartment on Thursday, haha.  I was glad to not take a cold shower any more.  Although Wed. we used an iron to warm up a bucket of water and used that to shower so that was not cold.  I liked that, but the gas is a lot easier, haha.  I am just loving it here.  The work is hard but great.  The language is hard, but I love it and as long as I do my best the Lord helps me.  I have grown so much in this week in both my testimony and in the language.  I am getting a lot better at understanding the people.  My ears are getting used to hearing all the words so fast, haha.  We played soccer today as a zone.  It was a blast.  I loved it, although I got a little sunburned because it was the first time I wore a short sleeved shirt here.  It doesn't hurt and it will be a tan tomorrow and then I will look a little less white, haha.  We have 6 progressives(investigators) now which is great because we started the area with none.  One of them, Daniel, has a baptism date for Viernes, Friday.  It's awesome.  We only taught him two lessons and then we asked him and he said yes.  His friend, that is a member that was in the lesson here, dropped her jaw when we asked him to be baptized so soon.  Then he said yes and she went from shocked to amazed and happy.  It was great and funny.  I love the people here.  They are so poor, but so humble and sweet.  I love this work and I love this gospel.  I am seeing the happiness it can give people and it makes me happy to be an instrument in my Heavenly Father's hand to bring his children closer to him.  I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that this church is true.  I love this work and I love the people I am serving.  We have a family and then Rosario, the mother of a member, that are both very close to getting baptized and maybe it will even happen this week.  It's great.  Well, I love you all and look forward to hearing from you.  You can write me short emails or long ones but if they are long I will just print them and get back to you on them the next week.  I love you all.  Thanks for everything.  I have such an amazing family, thank you.  I hope you had a great Father's Day, Dad.  I love you.  I am about to go give a blessing to a member with my companion.  I'm sure he will give the blessing but it will still be my first in Spanish.  I am guessing I will anoint which may be very hard in Spanish, but the Lord will help me.  It will be great.  Well I love you all, thanks for everything.

Love your missionary,

Elder Despain

1st Week in Mexico

So ya, I have an hour to email.  I don't really know if I can print stuff.  We just go to little like road side places but I think I can print things out.  But then it would be a week before I could answer back to the things I print out.

So my companion is Elder Higuera.  He is a native and he speaks no English, haha, so sometimes it can be a little interesting, haha.  Everything is going way good.  We opened an area that has been closed for a little while.  The area is called Consituyentes.  I live in the Col. Federal Burocratica.  I was going to send you some pictures but I haven't taken very many and this computer is like ancient and is going really slow, so it would take forever.  This city is so big, it is crazy.  I have never seen so many people in my life.  There are cars and people everywhere.  So because we opened this area, we had nothing to go by and no investigators.  It has been a little slow getting started, but it has been good.  The first day we were here, Saturday, we went and we taught a girl that was working at the tienda, the store, next to our house.  We taught her the first lesson, well mostly my companion.  I taught a little but it's hard because everyone talks so fast here.  It is super hard to know what they are saying but anyways, this is nothing like the MTC, haha.  I was used to the MTC teaching in like a quiet room, haha.  When we taught this girl in the store, her name is Monse, it was way loud and there was a tv on and like people coming in and buying things.  One man came in a bought beer like right in the middle of our lesson, haha.  It's way different teaching here, haha, but it is good and I love it.  There are houses everywhere, haha.  So then after teaching Monse, we were walking to go visit a person who we thought was a member.  We found their name in the area book which, by the way, is horrible.  The missionaries last in the area didn't write down anything, haha, so that makes it tough.  But anyways, we were walking to this member's house and you walk in the streets.  There really isn't like sidewalks so you just walk in the street.  We were walking and then a van was coming up behind us.  It's like a van, like VW busses, and they are like taxis here.  That is what everyone rides everywere so there are tons of them everywhere.  Anyways, so one is coming up behind us and we are to the side so he could drive by, then he starts honking.  I look back and there is a little dog in the road, so this bus-van-taxi is honking at it.  The dog was just walking slow and then the driver just got sick of waiting, just guns it and runs over the dog, like right next to us.  So that was like one of my first experiences in the street, like only two hours into the day, haha.  The saddest part about the whole thing is no one even cared, not even a little, haha.  I mean there are tons of dogs everywhere here but still, it was a little weird for me seeing that happen and no one caring.  Oh, another thing about those vans, they are like taxis so we take them lots of places but almost all of them have like oldies American music playing, haha, like super loud.  It is really funny cuz they just rock out to like 60's, 70's, 80's music, haha, and it's all in English so I don't think they even know what it is saying, haha.  It's funny but the streets are so crazy.  There are millions of cars and I honestly don't think traffic laws exist.  They just make their own lanes and go wherever they want, haha.  They just cut each other off every two seconds.  It's funny, haha, but ya speaking of American music, I am sitting here emailing and the guy working here just turned on Blink 182, haha.  Mom you probably don't know what that is, but I used to listen to them at home and he just turned it on and he has no idea what its saying but he is listening to it, haha funny haha.  It's so crazy how poor the people here are.  They have hardly anything but they are willing to give us anything and everything.  They are so humble and amazing.  After going to church on Sunday, we went with a member to their house and ate.  The food was great.  I love all the food here.  After we eat, the member whose house we went to, went with us for the rest of the day to visit members.  We did tons of walking, but it was awesome.  Here it is like hill after hill, no mountain after mountain.  There is no flat ground.  Our house is on a hill and so is everything so you walk down a hill and then go up a hill haha its funny, but I love it.  Our apartment was so trashed when we got there on Friday night haha.  There was graffiti all over the walls and stuff everywhere.  The bathroom is so gross but its all good haha.  We cleaned it Friday night some, but just the main part of the apartment, and then today I attempted to clean the bathroom, probably the grossest thing I have ever done haha.  I got it a little more clean haha. There is no gas at our house because it has been so long since missionaries lived there so Saturday, Sunday and today we had ice cold showers, haha.  It keeps our showers quick, haha, but we are going to go buy gas today so hopefully then we can light our water heater haha, if not, it's all good.  We live on the second floor above someone and the water heater like hangs out the window over the other persons living room haha.  So, I hope it never breaks haha or they would get a lot of water in their house haha.  But ya, it's great.  I love it here.  I haven't gotten sick like people said I would haha, so that's good.  I just love the food and I guess it loves me haha, so no problems there.  Everything is just great.  My Spanish is getting better every day.  My companion always says "poco un poco," little by little, haha so that's how it is.  I am learning a little more every day.  I feel like by the end of yesterday, my ears were starting to adjust to the speed of talk and ya its just all coming along.  I love this work it's great.  I love you all so much.  Thanks for everything.  Thanks for the emails.  The girls can write me short emails for next week and I will try and print them and get back to them.  The church is true even in Mexico, it's great.  Church was great.  I passed the sacrament and my companion blessed, haha.  So it was good and then we taught a class too, haha.  I love it.  I love you all and I will write more next week.  I wish I had time for more because I could talk all day about it but I don't have time.  I love you and miss you.  Stay safe and know I am doing great and the Lord is blessing me a ton.

Love,

Elder Despain
(Haha, no one can say my name here, haha.  Everyone asks me how to say it, haha. It's funny.)

Note From Ann: He wrote Kylee that he has to say he is from Utah. Arizona is a bad word there.

Suprise Phone Call May 17

Monday morning, May 17th I got a surprise phone call from the MTC medical center. I was relieved to hear that Randall's Dr. visit was just because of a sty in his eye. The Doctor wanted to send Randall to an ophthalmologist as a precaution to make sure that was all it was. They needed some insurance information, otherwise, I don't think they would have called. I'm grateful he was still at the MTC and not trying to deal with this as he traveled to Mexico. Thank you all for your prayers in Randall's behalf. It is comforting to know that he is in the Lord's care. We are so grateful Randall has chosen to serve the Lord! The Church is true.
Ann

Mom & Dad's Letter April 23

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry the email was short.   It is really hard to type a lot in 30 min.  I never get to say what all I want to.  That is awesome that you had such a great turn out at the ward party.  I think that is so great and such a great opportunity to serve and to get people involved.

I can't get over how great the spirit was at the Temple today.  The Temple is really just so amazing we are so lucky to have so many so close.  There is no place we can feel the Spirit so strong.  I just love it!  I miss you all so much, the whole family, but it's really great here. I can't believe its been 5 1/2 weeks and when you get this, like 6 weeks. It's crazy. It goes by really slow but super fast at the same time.  Elder Grow leaves to the Peru MTC in like 3 days so that's kinda sad and Elder Adams who I have become good friends with got his flight plans and leaves a week from Sunday. So that is sad and my teacher leaving was sad but everything else here is great!  I am growing a ton.  The Spanish is coming a lot better and we teach in all Spanish for the second time on Monday.  Last Monday went really good.  It's just awesome here.  If you work hard you really see the results and you see how much the Lord blesses you for working hard.  I know if I forget myself and become a disciple of Jesus Christ that I will be able to do anything that the Lord would like me to.  This church is amazing.  I love it!  The Gospel is great and there is nothing that can bring greater happiness!  I love you so much and I miss you!  I'm glad you got the pictures.  I hope you like them haha.  Oh ya weird, it snowed yesterday morning.  Utah has like bi-polar weather!  It's so weird!  Well sorry I can't write more.  Tell the girls sorry that I didn't write them.  I will try to soon, but there was no time, so sorry!  Thanks for the prayers.  Oh ya, and your cousin that is here right now, I saw her and talked with her (Aunt Donna's daughter Cheri and her husband).  They are going to be serving their mission in Mesa.  They are probably there now.  Anyways, she said she tried to call you and you didn't answer.  But anyways, I took a picture with her.  She said she would go by and see you at home.  I love you.  Thanks for everything!  I hope the kids got their postcards.
Love,
Elder Despain

Note from Ann:  I did get to talk to Cheri before she left the MTC.   It was so amazing to talk to someone who had just talked to Randall.  Cheri said she had seen him several times, but the last night they were there, they were in the cafeteria and Randall came and found them and talked to them.  Wow, has he grown!  I couldn't get him to talk to anyone at our extended family parties in the past!  Even Cheri was amazed at the change she saw in him over the 2 weeks she was there.  Cheri also got to see Brian Roberts, her nephew and Julie Brinton's brother, multiple times.  She said it was really exciting to get to see them.  David Whipple, (Aunt Virginia's son) said his daughter Lana is in Randall's district at the MTC.  Apparently it took them 5 weeks to realize they were related.  I haven't heard about it from Randall yet, but David said Lana emailed them about it. Aren't families great!  Thanks for reading the Blog and sharing in Randall's missionary experience. Don't forget, you can comment after any posts and I will send the comments to Randall by email. We would love to hear from you all!  Thanks for your prayers and support.
Love, Ann