Things have started to settle down a little bit here. My feet are feeling better and I am getting used to all of the walking. People always say that you love your mission because of the people. that is very true. I met some interesting people this week.

We were walking down the street and we passed this lady who was bent over like she was looking for something on the ground. We kept walking a little bit and watched her and we saw that there was a pigeon a few feet away from her and she was trying to catch it. I don't know why. My companion and I looked at each other and thought we might talk to her. We went over and asked her if she needed help with anything and she said yes, that she wanted us to help her catch this pigeon. She took off her sweater and gave it to me to use as some sort of net or something to catch it. well, a few minutes later, I had caught this pigeon and gave it to her. She then walked to a police officer and gave it to him and walked away. I still don't know what the point of all of that was. We tried to share a message with her, but as soon as she gave the pigeon to the police officer, she ran away. Super weird but funny.

We were also having lunch with one of our investigators named Laura. She is nice and not too crazy. We had lunch, and shared our message and we were getting ready to leave when she starting talking about marijuana. She said that her son really likes it and she taught us how he uses it. She then said she wants to start a marijuana farm for him so he can have a lot more of it. As she said this she got all excited and went to her cupboard and brought us a bottle of marijuana seeds that she is going to plant for her farm. We had another appointment to get to, so we decided to have that conversation another day.

The people here are so great, I love them. This week we had exchanges with the zone leaders. It was a pretty good time. I went to their area and my companion stayed in ours. We visited a couple different people and two of them had the same quote from president Nelson (I think) on their wall that really stuck out to me. It said: "Every day is a day of decision, and the decisiones we make determine our destiny". I was thinking about how true this is. every day we have the opportunity to make tons of decisions. We have many opportunities to decide if we are going to keep the commandments or not. In my favorite scripture in Mosiah 2:41 it says "consider the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God..." I know that being obedient in all of our decisions brings us so many blessings and happiness. We have been so blessed to have been given commandments. It is easy to think of the commandments as restrictions, and that they hold us back from doing things that we enjoy. In reality though, we have the commandments as a guideline to help us achieve true, Godly happiness that can't be attained any other way. I know obedience brings blessings, and especially happiness.

 I miss you all, have a great week

--
Elder May

Best tacos I have ever eaten

A fountain at Coyoacàn

Playing music with a guy on the street at Coyoacàn 

Elder Mayo!!

More graffiti

Man, I don´t really know where to begin. First off, I apologize if there are spelling errors in this letter. The keyboards are different and the keys keep sticking. Secondly, if you ever come to Mexico city, never buy 4 churros from a little boy on the street, even if it is a good deal for 10 pesos. I learned that one the hard way.

Anyways, a lot has happened this week. I flew by myself to Mexico city and when I arrived, nobody was there to meet me. I waited by myself on some stairs for about 45 minutes until President Mecham and his wife showed up. They are so awesome, I love them. My companions name is Elder Cruz. He is about a foot shorter than I am.

Life in Mexico City is crazy. We have to ride the train a lot and that is always fun. There are TONS of people just waiting for the train to come. When it comes, and those doors open, it is a free for all to get in. People literally push and shove each other out of the way to get on. It is an adrenaline rush every time. I love it.

My area is called Esbartaco. It is the rich area of the mission, which was kind of shocking. It has been kind of a culture shock to come from a nice apartment in Atlanta, to my cement house in Mexico. We don´t have a washing machine, but he have a cement sink thing that we wash our clothes in. We also don´t have a refrigerator or a dishwasher, but that is okay because we don´t have dishes either. we have one cup and one spoon for each of us. You´d be surprised how much you can do with those two things.

It has been hard to adjust to this new way of missionary life. We walk probably 6 miles a day. I have some gnarly blisters on my feet. A few days ago I was getting a little discouraged because of all of this. My feet hurt, I hadn´t eaten all day, it was hot, and I was feeling sick from those churros that I bought from the little kid. I was getting down on myself and then we walked by a guy that was sitting on the ground all by himself. I noticed that he only had one leg. I have seen one-legged people before, but this time it felt like someone just slapped me in the face. I realized I had no reason to be complaining and feeling sorry for myself. I have so much to be grateful for. Sure, my feet hurt, but at least I have two working legs that get me around. I have food in our house. I have clean clothes. Most of all I have the savior. There are so many people that don´t know what hope feels like because they haven't had the opportunity to get to know the Savior and his gospel. I am so happy I can share that message of hope with all of these people in Mexico. I hope to have more stories for all of you next week!

--
Elder May

Me and my companion Elder Cruz

My house

Alfredo who was baptized on Saturday

My sink where I wash my clothes

Mexico City from the airplane

Well, it is too bad that the Falcons lost the super bowl. The people here are pretty bummed about it. Our mission President said that we weren't allowed to go tracting while the super bowl was going on. He said it would leave a bad impression on the church. He was probably right.

This week has been pretty normal. We haven't had any more harmonica lessons, but we did meet with Luis this week and apparently he can play the accordion. He played some mariachi songs for us and it was pretty impressive. I hope I can somehow learn how to play it when I get to Mexico.

We had an appointment with an investigator but he wasn't home. We decided we might as well start knocking around trying to find people. We were doing so and then we came across some highschool kids playing soccer on a street ball court. It basically looked like a tennis court but had soccer lines painted on the ground, and had goals. We asked them if we could play and at first they were a little skeptical, but they allowed us to. We ended up playing for about 20 minutes and it was so much fun. I think they underestimated us. We invited them to church but none of them came. They said they wanted a rematch on saturday. I don't think we will go, but I guess we will see.

I am pretty sad to leave the people here in our little branch. Almost all of them are converts and they have the strongest testimonies. Our testimony meetings are always really spiritual. Yesterday, as soon as the branch president invited the congregation to come up and bear their testimonies, 9 people immediately went up. There was a line of about 7 or 8 people for the rest of the meeting. It was a very spiritual to see a small branch of about 40 active members have that kind of a testimony meeting. There were no long awkward silences while people waited for somebody to go up. They all just simply love the gospel and love to share their testimonies. I am going to miss all of them. Never be afraid to bear your testimony. Everybody has had their own personal experiences that makes their testimony special.

Well, the next time you hear from me I will be in Mexico, so hasta luego.

Elder May

My district