Garth's First week in Mexico

I’M IN MEXICO!!!! It’s so awesome.. and really hard! But that’s what a mission is supposed to be, awesome and hard. So first off before I forget; let grandma know I got her letter and loved it and let LaRea and Brityn know I got theirs too. I love hearing from everyone and yes Brityn I can get pictures from you through my email.

Before I do things chronologically let me tell you where I live. I live in a really poor city called Comitan De Dominguez. It’s kind of in the mountains and it’s actually pretty chilly sometimes! I’m getting a sweater today!

So Sunday was the day when we said goodbye to the other missionaries in our MTC district. It was sad but we all wanted to be in the field already. We took a bus to the airport and I called home. I flew first class to Georgia which was pretty cool (they didn’t have enough seats in coach so I and 3 other missionaries got to fly first class. I slept a total of 4 hours during the many hours of flying and layovers and it was all on that flight to Atlanta thanks to first class seats. When we got to Tuxtla the humidity was like a slap in the face when we stepped off the plane. It was awesome.

We went and took pictures at the temple after an hour drive with the mission president, then we went to the mission office to drop off our bags. From there we went to the president’s house and ate chilly dogs! they were really good. That night I slept without covers because it was so hot and there were like 24 missionaries in the office building. In the morning, after breakfast, we had orientation at the church and we met our comps... I HAVE AN AMERICAN!!! Elder Shelley from Utah! He’s really cool and works hard. He has taught me so much! After orientation and pizza, my comp and I took a 3 hour bus ride to Comitan. The ride was beautiful. Everything is so green! We went straight from the bus stop to a baptism! Can you believe it! The members are so nice and love that I can’t understand a thing that they say. After the baptism there was a ward activity since it was their Independence Day. They had me, my comp, and 2 other white missionaries sing the American nation anthem and then the ward sung theirs.

This week has been crazy and really hard. It’s hard to talk to people when they can’t understand you and you can’t understand them! But the lessons have been pretty good. We’ve committed 7 people to baptism already, and all of them said yes! It’s so cool to see the change that comes to people as they recognize the truthfulness of the gospel.

It’s rained every day and so I’m pretty much always wet! The food hasn’t been the greatest... at all. They put this stuff called mole’ on everything. Basically it’s a really crappy bbq sauce, but I also had iguana this week and that was really good! There are no dinner appointments here because everyone eats lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner at 9 or 10. And no siestas. :(

It’s been a tough week but I love Mexico. We’re teaching quite a few people. One of them is named Marco. He wants to get baptized and loves the Book of Mormon. He won’t be able to be baptized for a while though because he’s going on vacation. Were also teaching a family of 4. We asked the mom to say a prayer after we introduced the Book of Mormon to them and she cried. There’s so many people that need the gospel here. The hardest thing to do right now is open my mouth since I can’t speak the language very well.

I love you all so much. You have no idea how much I miss our family. Keep praying for me! I need all the help I can get. Ha ha. Thanks again for the letters. I’ll try to be more descriptive in my next letter, there was just so much that happened this week.

Love you

Elder Hunt

Garth at the temple in Tuxtla with  his Mission President and Tuxtla missionaries