February 28, 2011

Family! Man am I using the oldest computer, made by the great company
Alaska, whoever they are. It took me half an hour to make it this far,
wish me luck that this email actually works. Lousy Alaska. So yes, I
am still very much in Mexico and every week is always so different. I
really never know what to expect everyday, thats one of the coolest
things about the mission, so different every single day. Especially
when it comes to hitch hiking, which is something we have to do quite
often in the middle of nowhere. The other day, your not going to
believe this, a 10 year old picked us up in HIS car! Thats like Miles
picking up two Elders. He was actually probably a better driver than
Kevin and we arrived to our destination safely. Heavenly Father really
does protect his servants. I realized miracles and everywhere, and you
just need to look for them. We´ve had plenty of little miracules
happen to us everyday, like for example there is this family we´ve
been working really hard with to progress, but we´ve never been able
to find the father of the family. Then one day, we´re looking for a
ride back to Mapimi and a giant semi truck pulls over to help us out,
and who is driving that semi truck? The Dad! Little things like that
happen all the time, and I am sure they happen in all of your lives as
well, you just got to look for them. Really, if you just take a second
to look around at everything, you just can´t deny that we have a
Heavenly Father and the church is true. Just think about it.

So this week has been a pretty good week. Yes, we officially have the
first baptism in Mapimi in over 5 months! Apparently Mapimi is kinda
of a notoriously tough area in the mission, and I think we broke the
curse with our first baptism last Sunday. I´m sending a picture of it,
hopefully you guys get it. It really was amazing, his name is Jesus
Tranquillo. His brother is the Branch President in a nearby Branch and
his brother got the opportunity to baptize him. Afterwards when he was
saying a few words, he just fell apart. You could tell how much it
meant to him to finally have his brother baptized after over 30 years
of trying, while he was speaking he just realized he couldn´t talk
anymore because of all the crying and just gave his brother a hug. Not
a dry eye in the room. So like I said, miracles everyday. I also got
the chance to confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost. Which by the
way, is the second time I did that in one day! We had a cool litle
girl get baptized as well, and she got confirmed naturally. Safe to
say, Sunday was a pretty awesome day. But the day before that I ate
the single hottest thing on the planet. It was like this Hot Tomale
soup, my tongue hasn´t felt the same sence. But don´t worry Mom, I ate
the whole thing! It was so painful, but I knew I had to. That´s
another thing about the mission, you just learn to eat like a monster.
I´m pretty sure I´ve come to the point where I can choose not to taste
things, and just put it in my mouth. And this one is for you Jacky and
Jacob, guess what your Uncle Ty Ty ate this week? Cow Tail!

Mapimi still isn´t the easiest of areas in the world, but I love it.
We did have quite an interesting experience the other day with a
family we have a good feeling about. We visit them at 8 at night
pretty much everyday, and teach n´ pray with them. Except when we
visited them last Saturday, Manwell the Dad, had a bit too much to
drink that night. It was pretty rough. We had to stay there for a
while to make sure he wasn´t going to do anything he was going to
regret, and Concha the Mom really wanted us to stick around with her
and their 5 little kids. Drinking is the absolute stupidest thing in
the world. But anways the people here are great, and that is actually
what makes it so hard. None of them know how to say No and always say
Yes to things there actually never going to do. On paper, we should
have like 200 people at church every week, but instead we have 12. And
only 4 of those (including us) are priesthood holders. I have become
very comfortable with public speaking, considering I speak almost
every week. I´m like a boring high councilman. Just kidding, Dad.

So enough about that, lets talk about you. How is everyone doing! I
really can´t wait to get mail, but the truth is I get mail out here at
the absolute best, once a month. So if anyone of you ever feel the
urge to email me, feel free, because right now those are a lot easier
to get than mail. I love hearing about everyone´s lives, and I have
the feeling we´re going to get mail next Monday, so I´m pumped for
that. From what I have heard, life is good ol´life back in the States.
I heard that the King´s Speech won for Best Picture, which also sounds
like a movie solely about a high councilmen speaking. Why does the
academy love the most boring movies? Inception is in my top ten of all
time, and totally deserved it. But I heard Inception won a few awards,
so I feel a little better. As for the Lakes, whats new? I could have
sworn I read on a random Mexican TV we walked by that Mike Bibby went
to the Heat. If that´s true, the Heat are so lame. Why can they just
keep signing guys who are totally good? They are so desperate for a
ring, which means they´re worried big time that this whole Lebron
thing isn´t going to work out. There going to go to crazy extremes to
win a ring, so they will sign whoever they have to. Too bad they´re
going to lose, by a half court Lamar left handed hook shot. Calling
it.

Kev, what are you up to these days? Have you finally finished your
50th year of school? Marvelous, I made my top ten bands of all time
the other day. I want your top ten´s of Bands and Video Games, fool.
Bert, how are your ol´neighbors doing that watch your kids? How is
Jacob´s basketball team, they could probably have a better record than
the Nets had last year. Gerg, how´s life? Do you ever stump for wood
it still? Randall, are you the president of Sunbelt yet, or Watts?
Mike, I´m pretty sure it´s fly season, are your zip lock bags full of
water up yet?

And Mom and Dad. You guys rock. Thanks for all the support from
everyone, you really don´t know how much it means to me. I realized
the other day how much prayers are probably behind me everyday from
all of you, and I really appreciate that. You´re all a big part of why
I love my life, and the success I´ve been able to find in my mission.
I miss all of you, but relax, I plan on having 70 years of glory with
all of you after my mission. I found the key to the mission is
perspective, I read the other day in a talk by Elder Nelson how
important an Eternal Perspective is. So that´s what I´ve been doing,
keeping everything in that kind of perspective, and suddenly the
mission doesn´t seem so long and it makes everything better.

Well, I think that´s all I´ve got for all of you. Just so you know, my
district is awesome, so that´s good times. Oh! Another quick story.
This week we came up with the idea to have Family Night for the branch
every Thursday at the church, we is more of a giant box, but that´s
okay. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, and there were way to many
kids there. Half way through, I took them outside to run around
because they were being just awful. Apparently the investigators we
had there got something out of it, especially in the end with out the
ninos. So like I said, everyday is an adventure.

I love all of you so much, and appreciate everything you´ve done for
me. I´ve looked up to all of you my entire life, and have learned so
much from you, I wouldn´t be half the person I am today without all of
you. I know the church is true, and the fact we have prophets and
apostles in the world today is the coolest thing. I love reading their
talks, they are guaranteed to make you happier and live better lives.
For sure.

Love,
Elder Abbott