Family,

I don't have a ton of time to write, because I spent a lot of time sending un buen de fotos. You should have received something like 18 this week.

I am in Mexicali now and will probably be here for a good part of the summer if not all of it. My companion is named Elder Ocadiz from near the capital again. I will miss the ward I started in and my other companion (one sister said she wanted to see me cry because she thought I was hard (but mostly in a kidding way), but I only started to a little bit in the chapel and then felt a lot better and really 7 happy with all the pictures and then I cried a little bit in the last prayer I said with my companion (I'll see them all when I am dead though) , but I think this companion is good. I'll tell you in a week.

To reply to you guys:

Josh, I think my knee will be better now that I am in the flattest place in the mission. But I might try those stretches if I can remember them once I leave the cafe from my really crappy drawings. I think I also probably talk slow in English, oh well. Don't worry, work-a-holics aren't fun anyways. Plus, we are descended from Gandolf. You deserve better. Good to know spider fight club is alive and well. 

Mom, I think you're probably right that I don't care about being popular. Please send me the cooler suit. I think my waist is fine because I don't eat that much. Maybe it is a lot of muscle weight from climbing so many hills. Carreta vieja is overrated, go to federal and discover which Mexican restaurant is authentic (and never order with ground beef, because that is always greasy).

Dad, I am trying to trick myself into being positive. My other companion helped me a lot and told me that I need to laugh at everything and that is the only way to get through having weird companions. I don't care about the letters from the high council, unless they're letters-letters, because I don't have time to email them or read their emails. i think that you are right about us having a really weird culture from even the US sometimes, but oh well. I am going to steal the things I like from other cultures, but I think it will probably continue to be hard for me in that sense. I realized partly the inflection is because I have to think so much about what to say, like I said a joke at the bishops house but I made an error and then I just told everyone about that problem with joking that I have and then we all laughed and it was fine. It will come better with fluidity. I am going to try to use the kadenpowell18 account, but I am not sure that I remember the password. 

Last week in Hidalgo/First Day in Villas del Rey, Mexicali:

I tried a good salsa which is from toasted chile de arbol (in a saucepan), boiled or grilled tomatillos and one raw garlic clove all blended together.

I got bit by a pit bull this week, but it was fine because it was just a puppy and it just nipped me, but it did draw blood, so now it has a taste for it. 

I heard gun shots in the night this week.

My old companion gave me a lot of good advice, like that he used to be afraid to talk to girls until he realized that they are weird too (because everyone is) and we can't expect anyone to be perfect (and it is true with missionary work too. I don't know how many times people have started preaching to us their even weirder religion). That I need to laugh at all the annoying stuff that my companions do and all my difficulties and that I need to talk more. I am really going to miss that companion. He helped me un buen. 

A just returned missionary in my old ward showed me an anti-mormon book with 100 questions to ask a mormon and my favorite was "Did you know that according to Joseph Smith, without the book of Mormon, their religion has nothing?" Because yes, that is what we teach as missionaires. 

The people here are so racist that if someone has down syndrome, they call them chinese. Also, allegedly the chinese food here in mexicali is really good and there are chinese people that have lived here forever and still speak spanish like it is chinese, my old companion did an impression. 

One sister was telling us about this other elder and she said " its like he feels American" and neither I or my companion knew what she was implying, but she didn't even seem to realize it. 

For Kid's day in my old ward, they are going to have a chocolate fountain and also a chamoy fountain, which is like chili sauce that they put on tons of desserts and potato chips and junk food. We are in Mexico!

I was on exchanges with a zone leader and we were talking to someone and he told us he normally sees one Mexican and one american and the other missionary said we were about to go collect our native companions, which made me laugh a ton, since my companion is from San Diego (and the zone leader was companions with him). Also, my companion laughed a lot.

My companion also said he plays gringo (I was born there) or Mexican (I have Mexican blood) with whichever his companion isn't just to keep the balance. It is actually pretty funny, because we are insistent that he is the same as whatever we are because he'll jokingly badmouth gringos and me "you're also a gringo; you were born in San Diego" or say something about Mexicans with his others "you are also Mexican; look at your skin:"

My  companion taught me to copy fotos from one camera to another that has sd cards, without a computer using its internal memory, but it didn't work for him only me, so I had to send him the rest. It is a miracle!

I love you guys a lot and I think that I am going to call on the Saturday. I don't know at what time, but it makes more sense with church meetings and the time change. I don't have any idea specifically. And I think that I will use the kadenpowell18 account, but I have to see if I remember the password. 

I was running out of time, but my companion added half an hour to both. Which is against the rules, but I am going to use it I suppose. My companion said I was the only missionary he has ever seen that tried to follow that rule, same with the entering woman's homes rule. I am going to keep trying at least with the internet. Maybe I will use it, but probably on lds.org so that I don't feel bad, or to actually read the missionary emails. 

Mexicali isn't that hot yet, but supposedly is really bad in July and August. It reminds me a lot of St. George There are mountains, but the entire city is in the flat part and they are kind of far away. The drive was really pretty in a desert mountain way. I tried really hard not to watch the movie, but between looking out the window and rehearsing the lessons, I watched the entire thing. 

I missed my bus because of a misunderstanding, but I was able to use my same ticket on the bus to san luis which passed through mexicali. 

The people here are too direct. Like the bishop asked me if I had as many zits when I first came and I said I wasn't sure but I think I now had more, maybe because of the sun screen .

I love you guys and will see you Saturday on Skype. By Monday, I will tell you my plans for Saturday. Love you guys a lot and eternal family and don't give me diarrhea and I'm going to laugh at everything and be happy and probably get sunburned, but don't worry.

Kaden