First email from Mexico

So Mexico is close to what I thought it would be haha. Really kinda run down and old. But the people are super nice here, which is good. The food here is really good too, not as spicy as I was thinking though.

My first week was rough really got homesick, and just really wanted to go home. I talked to my companion and he really did not care for my thoughts, so as you can image that really helped. (not). But I just talked to my mission President and he changed my companions, to a American that I already went on splits with and he is really cool. Glad for that. 

We do a ton of walking here, and do a ton of inactive member work here. The ward here is great super supportive and helpful. We teach like anywhere from 3 to 6 people a day which I do not know if that is being busy or not.

The Spanish is not the same spanish in the MTC. There it was slow and clear, here its all fast, munbbled, and not clear at all. So I have to ask ¿como? a lot. Which is a nice way of saying What?

So the mail, if you want to send me a letter I would just email it Ill get it faster. For Packages send it to this address 

Julio Velazquez/Elder Dayley

P.O. Box 1486 

Presidio, Texas 79845

It goes to a guy in texas that brings it down here to the mission home. It is faster and safer that way

Everything is going good now, thank you for the prays and support love you all, miss yall

Love, Elder Dayley

First week in Mexico

Here is an email chain that we had this morning.

It's killing me not hearing from you for so long.  I want to know details. 

Tate and Gages games went ok this weekend.  Tate's team won pretty easily.  I messed up and caused the other team to get a TD based on my play call.  Man that was a mistake.  Tate had 3 TD passes.  Gage's team played a really big team. Almost everyone was over 100 lbs. and 10 or 11.  We aren't anywhere that big.  Gage got hurt and had to sit out a series on offense.  The ended up losing 26-7.  First lost in 3 seasons, so pretty good overall.  The line is what killed us. 

I sent an email with lots of questions to hopefully help you send us info.  Steph Efnor got her mission call to SLC East mission, leaves in Jan.  Justin had his interview yesterday morning and is now waiting on his.

Other than this nothing exciting is happening.  O Wait, I did get release from YM President finally.  Someone asked if it was bitter sweet to be released.  I told him no, just bitter.  I was called to be the Ward Financial Clerk.  So exciting huh. (Sarcasm)

Ok, I hope you are working hard and doing what is right.  Can you understand your companion?  Give me details.

Love you,

Papa

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I talked to my Mission president and he changed me to a new trainer which I already did a split with and we really got along well. He’s American from Utah, but he’s really nice. His name is Elder Hanks from around Salt Lake.  I just changed companions probably 40 minutes ago, right before I emailed you. But I went on splits with him on Saturday and he’s really cool. I learned more that day than I had all week.

We walk around the city and just talk with inactive members and try to reactivate them. Then we get referrals from them and members.

The members here help a lot.

We wake up at 6:30 and get ready, then do personal study at 8:00 personal, 9:00 is companion study till 11:00. 11:00 till 12:00 is language study. After that work until 2:00 when we eat. Then work until 9:00 and go home and eat dinner. 

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Wow, so different than mine.  We had to be out of the apartment by 10 am and get all that done except language of course.  I hope this week works better than last.  

Do you do daily planning?  

Do you tract or are you to busy?  They are really focusing on inactive here as well.  

Are you typing up another email or is our chat back and forth it?  

How are you getting internet?

What are your plans on P-Day?

Is there anything cool to see there?

Can you send the correct spelling of the town?

Does your companion know Spanish and how long has he been out?

Love you

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I’m sending another email.

We do our daily planning at night

No tracting here but a lot of walking

We go to an internet cafe but right now I’m in the mission office because i just talked to the President

Nothing really that cool to see, they sell a lot of cowboy boots and hats here though

It’s Cuauhtemoc 

And he knows a lot of Spanish been out for 4 months

Love you 

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Do you like the food there? Is it mainly Mexican or can you get other stuff?

Have you eaten anything strange or anything you don't know what it was?

Am I taking up all your time?

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The hats here are probably like $600 in pesos which is like $45 dollars in the USA. The Dollar is worth like 12 or 13 pesos 

Yeah it’s like an hour west of Chihuahua.

The food is good a lot of chicken and rice and beans but it is good

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So, how do you get your monthly money? 

Does the mission give you a check, deposit in an account?

Lucky, on the chicken, do the member feed you or have you had to learn to cook? heeheehee

Have you had to do laundry or anything?  Clothes working ok?

Whats the weather like?  

Is this way to many questions?

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No good questions

We have a Debit card

Members have feed us every day so far

Haven’t done laundry yet so I don’t know haha 

Weather is cold in morning and night but hot in the day

Everything is working good

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OK, so the Mission gives you a debit card, what did you do with yours?

Have you gotten a coat yet or do you just wear one of those Mexican rug coats?  heee heehee

I sent your email to Sedina with the new address for packages. That sure is nice of the guy to do that.

So this may be a dumb question, but a lot of Mexicans?  Any whites?

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I kept my card and bought a coat. The other elders said it was a good price and good quality. 

A ton of Mexicans no white people, except there is clan of Germans that are here and they like started their own church based off the Book of Mormon but that’s it for white people 

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Germans wow, what are they called?  Not Mennonites?

Looks like you’re about done with your time.  Love you and we are praying for you every night.  It's pretty neat that the boys are praying for you.

3-6 lessons are a ton a day.  Our missionaries don't really teach at all.

I love you and am proud of you, cannot wait to hear from you after a week with a normal companion.

Love papa

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Love, you yeah they’re called Mennonites. Why? Have you heard of them?

We get a ton of help from the ward here it is really cool.

Love you, tell the boys I love them too, and miss you all

Love, Elder Dayley

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I looked it up on Wikipedia:

The Cuauhtémoc area is the home of around 50,000 Mennonite people divided into various colonies that surround the city.

The Mennonites settled in the San Antonio Valley, as far as 120 km (75 mi.) to the north of the town. There was a General Conference Mennonite Church in the town composed almost entirely of Mennonite refugees who came to Mexico after World War I. The growth of the Mennonite population due to natural increase and to additional immigration from Canada stimulated its economic activities. A small cereal factory was established by non-Mennonites, while a large cheese factory, slaughterhouse, and ice plant were erected by Mennonites (the Redekops) in the town. In 1947 the Mennonite Central Committee established a service unit in Cuauhtémoc to provide health services, recreational direction, and assistance in educational activities of German-speaking children

Although the city, formerly called San Antonio de los Arenales, developed only after the arrival of the Old Colony Mennonites in 1922, it has practically no Mennonites living in it. However, the streets and the numerous banks teem with them, especially on Monday mornings. Cuauhtémoc is the most important commercial center for Old Colony Mennonites in Chihuahua.

In the early 1930s the recent Mennonite immigrants from the Soviet Union (Rußländer) formed a Mennonite congregation in the town, but by 1987, it had disintegrated completely. The few Mennonite families and General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Central Committee workers living in the city in 1986 (5 families and 5 singles) worshipped mostly at the General Conference congregation at Kilometro 11. Cuauhtémoc was the first city to erect a senior citizens home under public or government jurisdiction. Its first matron was a Mennonite, Maria Giesbrecht, from the Santa Rita Colony (Nord Colony).

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Hmmm cool, I don’t know the city well enough to know where any of that stuff is at but that’s some cool info. 

I forgot in the big letter that on November 16 Dallin H Oaks is coming to speak to the missionaries in Chihuahua. That’s really cool!

So i just got in Chihuahua and met my new companion he's native, no english which is good. We are in Catuamuc? I don't know how to spell it, but doing good, everything is fine and no problems so far. Just got to send a quick email today, it was nice talking to everyone. Love ya, miss ya.

Love, Elder Dayley

Last Email from MTC

Jacob leaves Monday morning super early to Mexico.  We will get a phone call from him at some point while he is waiting in an airport for a flight.  We are so excited to hear his voice!  (Justin he asked for your cell number, so you better have your sound on and the phone near you Monday morning - early if you want to talk to your brother!)

This is his last email from the MTC.  You can still email him at jdayley@myldsmail.net

Here is the address to the mission home:

Elder Jacob Dayley

Mexico Chihuahua Mission

Oninaga #2210 A, Antes Morelos

Cuauhtemoc

31020 Chihuahua, Chihuahua

Mexico

It has been the slowest but fastest month in my life. The flow of time here is slow days but fast weeks, I'm excited to see how that translates to the real world. But today is probably the last time I'll be going to the temple for a really long time, that's weird to think about because here you can go ever single week. Which we did, and is really cool.

It's been really nice to get all of your letters through out the week, they really do help a ton. You won't think so but they do! Thank you for all the support and love. I've been writing Devon (Ridd one of his best friends who is serving in the Madrid, Spain Mission) and Cody (Jacobsen his cousin serving is the Salt Lake City West mission) every week, which is really cool to hear from them!

I got the Bethels package this morning and when I opened the paper covering it, there was a box inside that said 5cc syringes w/o needles. At first I didn't know who it was from so I was freaking out a little bit. Like who would send me syringes from AJ(Apache Junction). But then I showed it to my companion and I said, "Hey look now I can start taking my steroids again!" They thought that was pretty funny. There is a pic showing what the box looks like.  (The Bethel's are good friends of our family and she works at her husbands, fathers' doctors office.  Thus the reason for the box!  Really funny actually!) 

So on west campus on P-days you can walk down the road to a place called Brigham Landing and get stuff over there which is really cool!  They have a burger place and Jamba Juice.  I like hearing about Tate and Gage's football games.  I like bragging about them to my companions!  Haha

So General Conference! How was that for you guys?? But favorite talk was in the priesthood session by President Ufdorf when he was talking about Failure. And what I got out of it was Failure is natural, let it work for you, don't work for it. But this is the most I've ever paid attention to Conference in my life and I actually got a lot from it so that was really cool.

So I'm out of time now love you all, miss you all.

One Month in the MTC

So here is the email we got from Jacob yesterday.  He leaves to Mexico a week from Monday on 10/14.  So any letters or packages you would like to send him at the MTC do it quickly.  Probably no later than Tuesday.  You can always email him at: jdayley@myldsmail.net

Here is the address for the mission home in Chihuahua as well:

Elder Jacob Dayley

Mexico Chihuahua Mission

Calle Oninaga #2210 A, Antes

Morelos

Colonia Cuauhtemoc

31020 Chihuahua, Chihuahua

Mexico

  

Today marks the month day of being in the MTC, it went by fast but at the same time really slow, but then I look ahead and there's only two weeks left. It's weird how time flows here. 

Glad to here that everyone is doing good, and everyone is going good in football. Colton was asking for advice for his dance. So I would say don't wear your suit jacket into the dance leave it in the car. You can't move as well in it and it gets really hot while you wear it, and those things stink. Another thing is eat light at the dinner before hand, don't try and impress her with the amount of food you can eat or be in a competition with your friends to see how much you can eat. A lot of food moving around in your stomach is not a good feeling. 

So this week we have become the oldest district in the zone, and elder Wright and Elder McKay are zone leaders, and I was asked to be the District leader for my district. Which is cool because now I don't have to worry about myself but I now have some responsibility to keep me occupied. Oh and also I broke through the 150lb barrier mark!! I gained 8 or 9 pounds so far. I'm fat now, just kidding, I actually have an eight pack coming through haha. Tell Tate to step it up. 

Mama asked about my Sundays, well this Sunday we studied for hours until 1:30 then went to priesthood and sacrament meeting. This Sunday and Saturday though we are going to Main Campus to watch them all. Hopefully I can stay awake through all of them. haha I'm going to miss our traditional breakfast afterwards.  I also get to go to temple every p-day.

This last week we had a lot of rain come in and it snowed on the mountains around us it was really cool looking. But it was kinda cold, I was fine though, it wasn't to bad since we are inside most of the day.

Grandma asked me to take pics of the snow on the mountains so I did that for her they are really cool, but I like The Superstition Mountains better they're cooler looking.    

Last night we had a speaker from Scotland and he had an accent and everything. He taught about how ridiculous is the thinking of those who don't believe us to be Christians. He was really bold in everything he said it was really cool to listen to. 

That's all for this week.  Love you all, miss you all.

Love, Elder Dayley