Written July 14, 2014

Family,

Love you!

Dad, I agree (you can call me my name, please). I miss you, too.

 The two daughters of my investigators stopped now and we won´t go back, because the dad made the mom choose between him and us and then the parents told a bunch of weird stuff to the daughters and they got scared, which is too bad, because their parents are not great examples. In Jesus the Christ it says that it is ridiculous to think that Mary Magdalene was an adulterer, but still what you said is true, that more forgiveness is more love, probably. 

Being doctor at youth conference sounds like being the mission doctor, except more powerful medicine is easily available and stomach infections are more common than scraped knees. I don´t know to what point rusting affects the usability of the car, but I am a cheap skate and would just think of functionability, but I suppose it depends how much longer you think it is going to run. Would the rust spots significantly affect its appearance much longer before it died?

Mom, I can´t think of anything special right now. When it gets nearer to a year, I might ask you to send me new shoes (I thought your glue stuff was going to work, but I guess the joint of the shoe is just pretty bent sometimes, because it took like 4 days for me to feel like all of the coats and stuff were good and it lasted like 1 day) or new clothes or something. I will tell you what I want specifically when it approaches. 

I was surprised that you didn´t tell me that I had reached the 1/3 ponit, haha. It doesn´t snow here, but I think in the mountains it does. I also heard that it snows in Tecate, but there are only sister missionaries there, so I don´t think I will ever find out. It seems funny to me that Josh just gave up on American girls. And, yes, Mom, they do think that they are hipsters.

I did hear that Brazil lost to Germany and I was shocked because I heard it was like 8 to 0 and then that the entire country vandalized the entire country.

Josh, don´t ever skip church again, like your roommates, or work on Sunday. That is how every single inactive person went inactive. I´m glad you count every accomplishment because i also have to do that here. I don´t know if it counts as home teaching, because it sounds like she was trying to home teach you (served...). I am jealous of your shirt. 

Ben, I also had that worry when I was reading, since it wasn´t the Savior. Is Robert Allen the one from night at the musuem (the one on the horse) and who dresses up like an old lady to see his kids? (I don´t think I know who robert allen is). I got ticked off at this point in the letter because the backspace key got stuck and tried to delete everything, but only deleted a little bit. Be nice to that kid and everyone else because it is really hard to go to church and someone like you can do a lot of good. I thought this quote was a really funny reflection and review of youth conference "I felt mad when we started performing because, even though the show was dumb and we were sort of mistreated, I felt the spirit, but I guess I'm glad that I went." Hahah, love you, Ben

My week:

My companion says that Mom and Lindsay are pretty, just so you guys know. He also noticed that i dont have a picture of matt. You could send me a family picture of them in a package.

Living with someone else is hard: disagreements over if putting trash in the freezer prevents roaches and that the air conditioner makes you could at night (of course it does, that is the point, so that you can use all of your blankets and pretend it is winter for just a little bit). How am I going to be married?

Everyone was put off because I didn´t shake their hands because I was sick. Don´t they understand I was tyring to help them?

Our new mission president said he is more like our grandpa and our other was like our dad. Then he told us that thing about having grandkids first and also that after the fall, when adam and eve were walking, eve said "if he were our Grandpa, he wouldn´t have punished us". So there you go, Mom and Dad.

Guess what? The mission president doesn´t even have the authority to send a missionary home. He has to fill out a bunch of paper work and submit a request to general authorities. 

One thing that i miss about a family is the ability to be validated and pacified quickly by someone that understands me really well (like you guys). But here if something makes me angry, I have to wait a week to tell you and a week for a response and by then, my feelings have already passed.

For example: My companion told me that my parents, if they knew what i was eating everyday, wouldn´t be happy and he guaranteed it (which is a comment i would make to someone that ate cookies and soda only, not because they ate carrots and a whole wheat tortilla and a fruit everyday). Anyways, we didn´t fight, because he left because he knew that he hurt my feelings, because although I felt calm, I told him that I just didn´t want him to say stuff in a way that made me feel stupid. But reflecting maybe I was wrong to be offended when he was just trying to help me, because he said it would do damage to my body. And maybe that is why we can´t receive forgiveness if we don´t forgive, because we can´t recognize our own sins to stop doing them. 

Anyways, the next day he told me to not be so sensitive, because he was just trying to help me and people will TRY to hurt me in the future and i can´t let them. Also, that I shouldn´t tell you guys all the bad stuff because you worry and one day I will have to distance myself from you (to a certain degree) and deal with my problems on my own and with my wife, but also it seems somewhat disfunctional and unhealthy to only tell my wife or family the good things and not confide in them insecurities and irritations of the day. Also, what´s the point of an eternal family if I´m just going to treat you like everyone else? When we ask each other how we are, we just lie and say "good" all the time and don´t tell any of our problems (with the good things too, of course). Or maybe he just means that I need to seek my own validation and solution and if I can´t find it or I need advice, then I should turn to my wife/family. i don´t know. I don´t want to be any less close when i get married, but I don´t know what it will be like.

I wrote a bunch of basic insecurities that I feel or that I feel like people are implying when I get offended, to work on being too sensitive and then wrote a response I could say to that insecurity or when I feel like that, but it´s really hard to change who we are. I´m probably going to take my entire life to improve significantly.

I´ve seen those tiny burrowing (I think they´re the ones) owls a couple of times. I think they are endangered. Cool, huh?

Also, we started teachin a referal that said she met the member of the church (the elder´s quorum president incidentally) three days after she prayed to find a way to get closer to God and go to church again. I will probably get changed, but it is still cool. 

Other miracle: A week or two ago, I found a lost sock.

Do I just have a sad face? Why are people always telling me to cheer up and be happy when I already am? 

Did you guys know that Willy Wonk makes an appearance in the Movie Joseph Smith:Prophet of the Restoration? (The first suitor that Emma Smith sees before she sees Joseph for the first time). Watch it and confirm my joke.

I love you guys a lot.And I hope that I don´t worry you and sorry if telling you everything sometimes is bad. (My companion is trying to help me a lot, but sometimes the truth hurts). I love you and eternal family and don´t worry and see you in a little bit more than a year and I will tell you where i get transferred and eternal family the atonement don´t give me diarrhea, love you, telepathic hugs and telepathic hanging out siblings, and love you 

Kaden

Written July 7, 2014

Family,

Ben, you're so hipster, that I don't even know what 'basic' means. Is that the new mainstream? You shouldn't be happy that boy was shut up, but rather that he is being prepared for a mission a little bit better. 29 is pretty good for your ACT, with some practice and filling in all of the bubbles, maybe you can raise it to even higher. 

I am glad that you enjoyed the activities at High Adventure Camp. Did you apologize to Dad and tell him that you were glad he came and that you enjoyed his company and you love him? It is often that way about dying, that you aren't so sure anymore when it actually happens. I am glad that you just laughed, because that is a better motto. Also, now we know that those boys have no self-respect, especially if they had to split the 5 dollars.

Ben, you're letter was really funny and it made me think how much easier it is to journal when you are writing to someone else. I think that we should have monthly family letters at the least, even when no one is on the mission. 

Dad, thanks for the pictures. I wish that I could bathe in the sink, it seems a lot more convenient (toilet and bath in one, not to mention close enough to all the food that you could also wash some raspberries or grapes). I would also like to live close to you guys, but who knows if my wife will want to live in Provo near her all blonde family...just kidding, I don't even like blondes...But really, I have concerns about wildfires, although I do want to live in the same type of place where we live. 

You buying cars is like me buying ice cream, which, in the same way, I still haven't done. On the bright side, we did exchanges with the zone leaders this week and they had ice cream that another missionary had left and they didn't even eat, so I ate like 5 helpings (dinner, breakfast, snacks) so I am satiated for a little while. 

Speaking of Keith, I look at peoples trials a lot on the mission and try to think about the trials of people I know and have an eternal perspective, but I am really scared for when I am an adult, because who knows what things like that will be part of my life. But knowledge of the Gospel does help a lot. 

Is Ben good friends with Ezra now? Because I think that is something really great.

I will use your rental place in Mexico maybe...haha, if you ever get one. Puffed rice balls stay really fresh in those bags, although sometimes other flavors leak in. I still play the piano sometimes, but not enough; sigh, the things I will need to learn and relearn in the eternities. 

Josh, whichever is more convenient for you. The nice thing about an email is that when I get home, I can print it out or something, whereas I might lose a letter. (For example, I have to read ben's letters faster, but I can enjoy them again in the future, but only during my internet time) I don't think they have sucks here, but if they do, I will buy Ades Sucks. 

This week:

A sister who is friends with Josh on facebook was facebook stalking me and says that Grandma Powell is really pretty.

Is it wrong to use public transportation to go to church or to make visits on a Sunday?

Can Presidents of organizations sit on the stand? Our elder's quorum president does every week and we thought it was weird but someone said they could, apparently. (Why would they want to? Even the stake president's don't always want to preside here).

Speaking of bearing real testimonies, a crazy person I've never seen before bore his testimony in testimony meeting and then again in elder's quorum and was inviting everyone to his birthday in the stake center and testifying and reminding people about the World Cup again in four years (although he did invite us to General Conference along with his birthday). And he was sad because the Granado's daughter decided to get married and went and lived in the U.S. But maybe he had a spiritual witness of those things. 

Also, that investigator that I thought might get baptized committed adultery again (on her common law spouse, not with him) and her common law spouse said she had to choose between us and him and she chose him, even though they don't love each other, which is sad, because she wanted to progress, she just has a lot of problems and really needed the Gospel, but we are still going to work with her daughters.

I can't really think of anything else that happened this week, except that I am sick and being sick in the heat isn't fun. Also, my throat is kind of swollen and my companion said that I snore a lot, and it is true, and I think worse for the sickness (because it wakes me up) and I feel like I am suffocating. 

Also, Brother Chaney wrote me (in spanish), now I am going to use some time I guess to decipher his letter.

Love you guys and sorry for a short letter and I love you and the Atonement and eternal families and telepathic hugs and stuff like that

Kaden (lots of other missionaries sign their letters with Elder, to their families, which is weird). 

Written June 30, 2014

Family,

Lindsay, the thing the missionary did was hypocrisy because he did it in a talk in sacrament meeting, not a class, and he was talking about it the same day that he had given a talk about the importance of 'reverence in the sacrament meeting' and saying how 'no one ever pays attention' at the same time. I think it is a true and good object lesson, but not in sacrament meeting. Ben, don´t say that you´re smarter than everyone else; Everyone else, be nice to Ben. That is a funny story about Mackenzie (pushing away the annoying kid at church with her foot in their face), but I think that Matt is right, that you shouldn´t let her do it, because then she's going to turn into a brat (maybe, I don't really know anything about parenting).

Mom, the heat isn't that bad, so don't worry. Also, sounds like you have worse diarrhea than I have ever had in the mission, haha. Also, good job getting rid of stuff. Stuff is a plague. I also don't care about excelling, but sometimes I feel really bad about breaking whatever rule (more to come about this later) or that I need to be perfect, is that excelling or enduring? Changing brakes is such a pain, poor dad. Lindsay could put a bunch of easter eggs just for us in Mormon.org, or I don't know what else. Mom, you also don't need a real calling to do stuff. You can ask the missionaries if they need help, or greet everyone or help with the kids of a young couple if they seem overwhelmed. Don't feel like you are useless(!...I put the exclamation mark in parenthesis, because it isn't really my personality, but a period seemed too dry). I hope that will help Aaron, but yeah, goals are really hard, that's why I still have a bunch of the same imperfections, like for the rest of my life.

Ben, I am proud of you for being mature and trying to help. I know that things like that can sometimes be stressful. Your comment about mutual dislike made me laugh. Just try to be nice and realize that being more helpful is much better. 

Dad, those things are all really important, good thing that you went with Ben to adventure camp. It sounds like you guys are a lot braver than me to do all of those things. Pretty much only the hike sounds like something that I would like to do. I don't really ever have time to learn anything special on the piano. Sometimes I play in sacrament meeting, but I found out that the bishops wife plays, she just sometimes gets there late, so I stopped playing and she usually plays (and she plays well) which is better for self-sufficiency of the ward anyway. I don't like sitting in front that much either, but not as much as you, I guess, because I have never given it that much thought to develop a strategy, haha. 

This week,

I received my suit! Thanks, Mom! Thanks a ton for all of the other stuff too! I already ate all of the puffed rice balls. Also, Ben´s book was cool, even though it left me with a lot of questions about what the Spanish assignment was. Also, the warheads you sent me reminded me of a childhood fear that I have had of them ever since I wanted them in Costco once and Josh or Mom or someone told me that they were really really sour and I haven't eaten them since (i think). I have just always avoided them (but I did finally eat one).

The new mission president arrived this week. My companion talked to him on the phone and said that he seems more gruff than our other, but we will see. I think so, because they say one relaxed and then one strict and (despite what a lot of others thought) I think the old one was relaxed. 

We watched someone kill a pig by shooting it between the eyes and then stabbing it in the chest while it was rolling around for 15 seconds. We thought they should have killed it in the side of the head, but we asked someone who slaughters cows and they said that if you do that, the meat stains purple or something. He also showed us a video of his job where they killed the cows and after they are barely dead (and still hanging) they cut them and the blood sprayed out just like in 'Another'. Like a sprinkler of black, or something.  

My companion told me that i shouldn't floss everyday because it was going to make my gums swell and that brushing for so long was going to remove the enamel from my teeth (he also mentioned how it would effect my gums in making them recede, and i think that he is right about that, so I didn't mention it). But I don't believe him.

Is it bad to break the rule of getting home at 9 to eat hamburgers? I really want to be perfectly obedient, but a lot of times I succumb to human weakness and we enter houses and cars with females alone. With my other companion, we hardly ever did that, but with this companion, we just try to avoid it and sometimes we enter if there are a lot of different women or if we ride in back of the car and things like that, or if we need to eat. 

When I get home, I am also going to make you guys hielitos de oreo and pistachio and also barbacoa with beef and birria with chicken. And homemade tortillas.

Why does everything made in California say ¨This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer?¨ Is it because they don't want to sell anything or because that joke that I always say (whenver someone says that microwaves, milk, etc. give you cancer) that everything gives you cancer is true?

 I´d rather live in ignorance than know that joke is true. Or at least just use my best judgement to know that some cleaners cause cancer, but not that the hand sanitizer for kids that I bought does. haha (I don't really like to put haha, but I am afraid sometimes you won't know that I am joking).

We went to a members house with four missionaries to eat yesterday. And one of the kids was behaving kind of bad (not that bad, but it seems worse in a small house) just rough-housing with a missionary and throwing balls and pillows at him. But, we found out that he had just recently been baptized and one of the missionaries said ¨What kind of Spirit did they give him?¨ referring to his confirmation, which is really bad, but also really funny. (also in really bad taste in the members home). But the parents were trying to control their kid, but it was completely the missionary's fault, because at first the boy was calm and then he riled him up and then when he calmed down, he did it again. But the parents couldn't say much to a missionary. It is annoying when some of the people around you are either little kids, or think they know more than you  (not that many people are like that, most of the people here are alright)

Also, I think that glue is going to work for my shoes, but we will see. I had my doubts at first, but it is looking more hopeful, especially when I found out you can use it to repair conveyor belts. 

I read in Jesus the Christ that the calling of apostle is so sacred, that we shouldn't use the word apostle very much, when referring to the quorum and things like that, but I don't know if I believe that, because it is like putting apostle to a higher state than using the Lords name in vain, but I have a lot more serious sins to deal with first anyways. 

Also, we found a lady (really we thought she was a girl at first because she is so short and is the same amount older than my companion than he is from me, haha) and her three daughters that are really great when we helped them carry their cooler, but her common law husband is going to return and we are going to lose the progress maybe that we made (that the mom and the daughters are starting to believe in not drinking and the law of chastity now and stuff) which is really sad. But hopefully everything works out.  

Love you guys a lot and don't give me diarrhea and I hope you are happy and eternal family an I can't wait until next week and the atonement and thanks for the telepathic delivery, mom, and the same to you guys and love you a lot!

Kaden

Written June 23, 2014

Family,

Lindsay, love you too!

Kiley, ironic that you have met my niece, and I haven't. Im glad that my letters help you when you are feeling that you have panic attacks or are depressed, (my family members have expressed similar sentiments, although I am unsure, since in my letters, I only describe experiences like that.) Tattoos look fine, but once you get old, it won't look good on your aged skin (but no sense crying over spilled ink, permanently into your skin with a needle). I would avoid talking about poop and stuff like that on my blog (my mom would like to censor that sort of thing, but I told her she wasn't allowed to) but then it wouldn't be an authentic experience. Would it? I also would like to annotate people's letters, but printing is harder in mexico. I don't know what my favorite Bible verse is, because I take all the scriptures we have collectively, and they are in the Book of Mormon, but I will tell you if I find one.

Dad, never send big pictures again, because it was like this: matt's face, lindsays face, bens face, bens belly, mackenzie...? But thanks for the pictures Dad. I think that they were all full-sized, but I was just looking at previews and that made me pararnoid. (the spanish verb parar maybe plus paranoid). Also, in the mtc, I tried to send more than 2 photos at once and they didn't send and it was a hassle, so I have never tried again.  Be careful that that couch you found for Aaron doesn't have bed bugs. 

Mom, I want to see baby deer and poppies. The suit still hasn't arrived, but I think it will arrive Wednesday. I will tell you when, but because i am in mexicali, things don't arrive except once every 6 weeks. The kid that I baptized we met through some members that reactivated with him, but this past sunday none of them came, which made me feel really bad. We need to visit him, but sometimes we don't have time and retention is allegedly mainly the ward's responsibility. We are supposed to teach him the missionary lessons again, but then they also say that nonmembers are the priority. I feel like he probably is going to go inactive and it's going to be on my head, which I just mostly feel bad for him, not for the sin I am going to have. I am not where the Colorado river is, so i can't tell you if any water comes through. But if they change me to San Luis Rio Colorado, I will tell you. Also, if you can't update my blog, make Ben or Dad or someone do it, but thanks for all of your help with that! Love you a lot!

Ben, i feel the same way, that is, someone ticks me off and then I try to be nice and better to them and things are fine, and then they tick me off again. Ben, if you are the next prophet, then Thomas Monson is going to be the prophet for a long time. It was probably just a sympathy bloody nose (kuvad) with me in the dry heat of Mexicali (vaseline will help you a lot, put it in your nose every morning and night). I wish that i could be like you, Ben, and say stuff like that about the budget and time and all of that (but here I am writing when I should be proselyting, because no one listens to me when I tell them we don't have time for this or that). Try not to say hell and stuff, but i also said hell once in the past week. You could say no manches or caray, those are things that I always say, but no manches isn't allowed anymore for missionaries...sigh.... I don't want to do your ordering thing, but just know that throughout your mission, you will probably need encouragement for every single one of those reasons. I also don't like it when people scream the F word, but Joseph told me he said a lot of bad words when he broke his arm, and he usually doesn't swear, so maybe it is really hard to control. When you tell me that you and dad are fighting, I feel really bad, so you need to at least insert some kind of joke or something. Thanks for postponing your suicide at least until I return. 

Josh, we went to the mall during the mexico game today, and everyone was screaming, but really they aren't that bad. I think that maybe everyone will be drunk afterwrds, but not any more than usual. 

This week:

Will the spirit ever indicate that I should break a mission rule or a commandment? (everyone is always trying to justify with Nephi).

Which rules take priority (because even I admit that sometimes we are in a situation or we create a situation where we have to break some rule and you have to choose which): our safety (spiritual or physical) even when we don't think there's a problem or the POTENTIAL salvation of other people? I got in a fight with my companion about this, because I have never really believed in the ends justify the means, but even I admit that for weakness, I break a lot of little rules.

Sometimes my companion ticks me off, but sometimes i like him. As examples: he corrected me for calling the stake presidency counselor ¨President¨ because he doesn't preside, even though he is president and we asked another missionary and my companion said he should even call President Eyring, Elder Eyring. Or for example we were reflecting on the week and I said i didn't contact anyone (because it is a huge weakness of mine) and he asked why I thought I didn't, and I said that maybe I was waiting for the perfect situation which wasn't going to happen and then he started lecturing me about how I can't wait for a sandwich to fall from the sky from God and a bunch of stuff. And I was thinking: 'I know, I literally just told you that was my problem'.

Or we had to wait for computers in the internet cafe and I said we could go to another, one street away because I don't like waiting (because it was already 5:20 and we should be proselyting by 6) and then he just said, oh, you're impatient).....

Another missionary told me he heard he could be kind of a jerk sometimes ( and that is a pretty good description). That same missionary also gave a talk on reverence and then we were talking about it and he was saying how he would talk every week and then told us about a talk he gave with rice krispy treats and how everyone was laughing when he paid his tithing of rice krispy treats to the bishop, but then took a bite out of it, because he didn't have enough left and how that was the way to get people to pay attention (anyone see the hypocrisy of this?)

But whatever, like Ben told me 'the Atonement', my companion is smart and not that bad. It just makes me realize that i have to marry someone who thinks they are better than everyone else (like me) but doesn't think they are better than me. But really, I try to remember that maybe i have corrected people insistently when I was wrong and stuff sometimes comes out wrong, and that we probably aren't really that different in an eternal scale, for God. 

Now, I am going to talk about poop more. The worst punishment in the world is being in a house with one bathroom and having to poop really bad and your companion is taking up the bathroom, and we aren't at home, so I can't even run into the forest as an option. But it was the first time that I have had skid marks...so like I was telling you, every experience is for our exaltation and our own good, so somehow, this helped me. 

I am reading Jesus the Christ, which my companion lent me, and it is really interesting and really good. Did you know Joseph and Mary were first cousins? Me neither. But really it is very good. 

The elders quorum president read that scripture about that women should learn in silence in the sacrament meeting over the pulpit. Idiot.

Love you guys a lot and don't give me diarrhea (because sometimes my companion is showering and I have to wait) and the Atonement and eternal family and sorry if I am a jerk sometimes and love you

Written June 16, 2014

Family,

Dad, does that mean they aren't good enough quality to erase the ones from my camera? How can I prevent email from shrinking them? Also Happy Father's Day

Also Happy Father's Day, Grandpa 

And also Matt

And hopefully not anyone else

Mom, I don't think I would like that. When I went with Josh and his friend in Golden, I felt like a noob and like I was going to drown. But I am really jealous of your vacation that you all had. 

Josh, I'm pretty sure it was an old woman that friended you, but I was asking if you secretly know Spanish. But your quote confirmed that you only kind of secretly know Spanish. I don't care if you talk with her, but if they start censoring my email, then I will start sending messages through her. 

Lindsay, in response to your photo, see my photos (a photo is worth a thousand words) but she's a cute one

Dad, again, I am really jealous of the parts of the vacation you guys told me about. I don't know if you had more fun than usual or if it just seems more fun, but oh well. I haven't gotten anything from Brother Cheney yet, but I did get an email from Pres. Fowler. Secretly, I want that you are my high council pen pal, but Brother Bickmore would have been cool. Maybe brother cheney will teach me some cool spanish (but I doubt it because chaqueta (jacket) also means jacket here, unless you're talking to a middle schooler and then it is something vulgar and things like that. (Spanish is different here is all I am saying). Or like in Argentina "cajeta" is also something vulgar, but here it is just a caramel flavored thing.

Ben, don't be a party pooper just smile really big when you make a mistake and try something new. It is something that I try to do, but usually I just feel like crying, but there is no point in going if you are just going to choose to be unhappy about every aspect, so at least choose to have a little fun. I kind of want to feel an earthquake, but they are allegedly worse here, so not that much. That thing about froot loops is true, don't you remember the story about Lindsay's green poop on St. Patrick's Day (It also happened to me). Maybe you should enter the science fair with an idea like that (why didn't we have these good ideas back then). Also, in the last 2 minutes always fill in a bunch of bubbles, but I suppose you already know that. I thought of you this week when my companion asked me why I said I couldn't think positively and I wanted to say it was an illness, but I knew he wouldn't understand. 

This week: 

A leader ticked me off and I was going to give you all the details, but it is better that I just forget....sigh

My new companion told me in English "Sometimes I think the church isn't true in Mexico" which is true, but also sometimes equally true in the US, because people are crazy.

Where is your ostrigonum? Because sometimes my calf hurts while I am jump-roping.

I feel like the world is going to fall apart on Monday's. The tube got clogged in sink where the washer drains and I figured out that the water spraying everywhere is why the washer is unbalanced because the earth is all eroded away and we couldn't unclog it, so we had to channel it to the yard, hopefully the soap really is biodegradable and doesn't kill everything.

Also, we didn't have a chance to clean (why?! Maldito P-day) because we went to do other stuff, like drop off my companion's suit at the cleaner. Also, I crossed the street to eat in another zone, so that is a sin, or at least disobedience. I am going to keep trying. They also charge a ton for a quesadilla or anything in some restaurants, that's why I don't like to eat in big streets or in malls, but oh well, eating less is probably healthier. (The curse of crossing into the other zone). On the bright side, I finally got a bus ticket that has numbers that add up to 21, which my other companion said you can exchange for one kiss. 

Worst of all, I killed three baby cockroaches in one day, so I don't know how much hope there is to stay cockroach free....but like I said last week, all the experiences we have are to prepare us for exaltation, so I guess I need this for some reason. 

I read a scripture by accident in d and C 103:9-12 and you guys can read it. But it just means that nothing is going to be easier and we have to work harder to share the gospel and reactivate people and stuff. Like Elder Ballard (?) said in conference, to share the Gospel once a trimester (but I think that means actually inviting someone to listen to the missionaries). I am going to keep trying hard too.

My companion is from Mexico City again and the first few days I really liked him (but not as much as some other companions). He is 24 but I kind of butt heads with him (or more like I just want to, and don't because arguing doesn't help, especially when you're wrong), because he is smarter than me and usually always right and so I just feel dumb (maybe because i'm not that used to it), but also the type of person, like a teacher that is really strict and kind of hard to like, but does it for your good. So hopefully I improve a lot with him, even though he is kind of hard and pretty formal (he still jokes though a lot. I think it is all about perspective).

Now I am going to google the difference between ox and cow and bull and how to prevent cockroaches.

I love you guys and eternal family and don't worry about me and the atonement and don't give me diarrhea and I love you

Written June 9, 2014

Family,

Mom and Dad, those pictures of Bountiful and a poppy and the baby make me want to be home, but oh well.

Dad, everyone jokes about the Colorado River because it is completely dry here (maybe they let a little water through) but in San Luis Rio Colorado, there isn't any. So that explains why it is so wet at home. I am jealous that the year that I am not there, it is so wet. I can't even find asparagus in the grocery store here, so I don't know if they actually grow it. As far as the mission, they just changed the dress standards before I left, and they are barely different. We aren't going to have polo shirts until my great grand kids. 

Mom, the boys and dad is Aaron and Ben and Dad or Josh? The suit hasn't come yet, but I think it will this month. Don't send me anything else for a while because it will be hard to bring it all home at once. My companion did get transferred, and my new companion is from Mexico City again. His name is Elder Flores. Allegedly, he is disobedient, but I have only known him for a couple hours and he seems alright. We'll see how things go. Also, to be fair about being in Mexico, I flew into San Diego.

This week:

Josh, do you really speak Spanish? Because I told that sister that you would be able to talk to her and she said you said that everything is fine and that you send saludos. 

I don't feel like writing much because our washer broke and their aren't any laundromats nearby, so it is going to be a huge pain in the neck to try and repair it. My companions first day in Mexicali and a ton of stuff already is difficult. I feel stressed out though, but it helps to know that every single one of these experiences is going to prepare me for exaltation. 

Allegedly this week it is going to be 50 degrees celsius sometime, but I don't know. It seems hot to me, but I still don't feel like complaining about it. I stained my sheets with sweat and so they look like they're always wet now, but we started using the air conditioner in the night, so i won't keep staining them. 

I did pee in the sink, like Josh always suggested when we lived together and then cleaned with the sponge and a lot of soap, but good thing that pee is sterile. The only thing is that sometimes you just want to go to bed and your companion is showering, so you gotta pee in the sink. Like they always say here, no pasa nada.

I think that there is going to be a baptism in the ward of someone we are teaching (I say it like that, because I try really hard to remember and baptize for the right reasons, but it is hard sometimes for pride and the natural man), but I just hope that he continues faithful. I don't even want to be a missionary if all of the converts I have are just going to go inactive. 

Sometimes I feel kind of angry or don't know what I am doing wrong that I feel like I try to be obedient and the leaders don't have very much confidence in me and lots of other missionaries are already training or leaders, but I don't care. I just want to be happy and do good, but sometimes I feel discouraged. This week, not so much, because my companion was discouraged, so I had to not be discouraged. 

Congratulations to Vanessa and Ryan and also again to Mikey and Drew!

I love you guys a lot and am going to keep trying. I will tell you more about my companion next week. Eternal family and all that.

Kaden

Written June 2, 2014

Family,

Mom, yeah, scientists are so dumb. Hopefully Josh marries that girl so that I can learn to speak Spanish and she can support him when he decides to be an actor/sidewalk artist.

Dad, as for the trash in Mexico, my companion always litters. But his family moved to California and I told him that he is going to get stoned if he does that in California. We can't ride bikes in the summer allegedly because we might faint and die. Speaking of which, a missionary allegedly fainted and lost his memory here in Mexicali, but who knows if its really as bad as everyone says. The uniforms are basically the same as the Japanese ones, just that there are more people that have fake died blonde hair. All you guys do is eat pizza, but that's okay. I don't blame you.There's only Chinese restaurants and the food isn't even as good as Chinese food in the US. Also, that mole is the Mexican curry, but I haven't eaten it that much, because b and v are basically the same letter and they misspell stuff all the time.

Ben, that's true, but I am still sorry for spitting in your mouth, but if I remember correctly, it wasn't unprovoked. You spat on me and then you were screaming because I pinned you down and it was just bad luck. That also seems really messed up to me about the vest with weights on it, especially because they were just making her stronger, so that when she removed the vest she had superhuman strength and would be even more difficult to control (like in Samurai Jack). A family here could have used a vest like that to help their son to not jump and run, due to the risk of dislodging the bead in his nose that might have killed him. I think that he is fine now. Yeah, they can't think of new pokemon, so they just remake all of them. 

Josh, good to know that you are concentrating everything in a really funny letter. I already read the stuff you and Ben wrote and just laugh a ton in the internet cafe, which doesn't help that everyone already hates me for being American. I also miss hanging out with you. 

Jessica, Ask Josh about his glowing chest thing. Love you!

This week: 

I bought a ton of fruit and almost died trying to carry it home. It is a lot harder to eat good without a car. I think I wrecked my watermelon...

I read a quote in a Liahona from Brigham Young about how every single experience we have is a requirement for exaltation which is like what my other companion taught me that we shouldn't do stuff if it doesn't make sense or have a reason and that makes me feel a lot better because it reminds me that not only is my suffering useful and have a point, but there is no other way and it is necessary and specific. 

Still, I feel depressed sometimes, even though I know God has a plan for me. And that plan is really good because it is perfect, to the point that it accounts for all of my imperfections. 

I wrote some depressed stuff in my list when I was depressed earlier this week, but it doesn't even make sense now, like what Mom always says about the glasses (half full or half empty). Maybe it is unhealthy, but writing it down is interesting in retrospect. 

Mom and Dad, I was thinking about it and I really admire you guys for not going inactive when they said Aaron couldn't go to church anymore and you still stayed faithful and everything (but remained true to who you were by quitting all of your calliings, haha). How can I be more like you guys?

Could you do me a favor and put several gallons of ice cream and milk in a cooler (and Ben, if he'll fit) and drop it in the Colorado River so that it floats here?

Speaking of ice cream, they have a thing until the end of June at the grocery store, where if you spend 200 pesos, you get a ticket and if it is a winner, you get 2 minutes and a stipend of 5000 pesos to buy whatever you want. Anyways, the entire thing gives me a lot of anxiety and I couldn't sleep trying to think about what I was going to buy and I finally decided a bunch of ice cream and then milk then cereal, cookies then sun screen....but after all my planning and scoping out the store, I didn't win.

There is so much apostasy in other countires. Even in the US, the members say dumb stuff, but still, here, I was talking with my companion and no one respects the garment. Also, he told me once in the principles of the gospel class that a member started telling all the investigators the stuff that we are under covenant not to discuss and he had to stop her and then they had a bunch of questions.

Also, in this ward some member and leaders were saying that an exorcism isn't a normal blessing and that you learn how to do it in the temple (that part where Satan has to leave because they use the priesthood) and it says how to do it in the bishops handbook; but I just told my companion we shouldn't do anything that isn't in our manual. But like that was the stuff we were supposed to learn in the temple...

So in Christmas, the presidency of the area made/sent a letter to the missionaires as part of the plan of the area and it has some requirements as follows:

100% of missionaries doing the following (because the results we are having "are not acceptable":

-baptizing every week (possible, but only for good missionaries, for me no, especially since I am afraid of baptizing, because it is so stressful, but it is not like I am avoiding it intentionally)

-40-60 lessons per week (in this area, between walking and canceled lessons and meetings we have like 20 to 25 a week)

-a new person or name (less active or non-member) to teach from every lesson

-one person we find everyday on our own

But it is completely impossible and barely anyone will admit it because even if we saw those names 2 times a week only and then dropped them, we'd have to have betwen 80 and 120 lessons every week, not including those that carried over from the previous weeks. Some people say goals like this encourage us or we are preparing the next missionaries to reach these goals, but they just tick me off sometimes, that is when I am not just ignoring them.

Anways, this week, I am happy again. Sometimes I lose my patience with my companion, but he is a good companion as far as companions go (even if he is always talking, even when we're toileting or doing personal study sometimes; but it's okay, because I don't talk). I only have this week left with him and then the transfer is over. Hopefully I don't go, because I went out of control and bought a ton of milk and fruit that I won't be able to carry with me.

My english companion wants to know what stake lindsay is in? Also, I know Lindsay wants me to say it and I haven't enough, so 'your baby is a cute one'.

I love you guys and I hope everything is good there. And I love you and don't give me diarrhea and eternal family and I am going to keep trying and you guys too and love you and the atonement.

Kaden

Written May 26, 2014

Family,

Love you!

Josh, does the waffle iron cook the chicken thoroughly and does it taste good? Is it hard to clean the waffle iron? I can't remember the last time I had a migraine, but I think it was less than 6 months ago. I wouldn't want to do that though, because they are going to induce a migraine and I wouldn't pay that much to get rid of one, but I wouldn't accept anything to have once induced.

Mom, I read on wikipedia that there aren't conclusive studies about msg, but I still try to eat fresh, the only thing is soup and refried beans. Can you cook beans as fast as rice? If you can, then there isn't even a point in buying the envelopes with them. Kenzie only has 5 months left to be speaking in complete sentences (like you guys said we did at a year) so good thing she is making progress. It struck me as weird that you said "her mom" but oh well. Also, all this about your printers and lasers that make a 3d topographical scan of things is making me feel like you guys are in the future over there (they use that exact thing in Incredibles) We have a microwave now that was extra that belonged to some missionaries that are in a furnished apartment now, so we stole it.

Grandma, I am sorry that you re-doing your carpet is so dumb. Why does it seem like everytime anyone decides to do anything like that, it never works out as planned? Also, I am sorry that my dad conned you, but next time, just try all of the foods (share) and then demand the better thing. Tell Grandpa and everyone in Utah that I love them!

Dad, the bikes were bought by the ward, I guess. I paid like 10 dollars to fix mine and buy a new tire. But we can't use them during the real heat, so I probably wont spend very much energy tryng to fix them. My companion will wear his helmet strapped now, but doesn't tighten his strap very much, so I don't know, I already told him I would feel personally responsible if he died. I would never do that with a dead animal, because I read a story once about a girl that got sick from touching a dead squirrel. Our apartment is too small to move the bed or beds into the other room, but so far it isn't a problem. I think more of a problem is going to be exorbitant electric bills that the mission won't reimburse. They use it the same here (I already knew what it meant from Gintama)

This week:

We are trying to be more obedient because I think it is important (what is the principle, besides charity, that gets the most people into heaven) and last monday we decided not to break the rules to go eat and the entire rest of the zone did and my companion was telling me that he had better see the blessings, to which I said that I had seen blessings: like I broke 100 in bowling. Anyways, the blessings were immediate, because we were on the bus and the zone leaders called us to grill my companion that his entire district broke the rules and went to the mall without the mission presiden't permission, but he can't give permission anymore, so joke's on them.

Also, sometimes we turn down rides from women alone and, like saturday, another person offered us a ride immediately, like a minute later.

We went to chinese restaurant and a girl from China that barely speaks Spanish was amazed by our eyes. I guess colored eyes exist a lot less in the gene pool in China than in Mexico, now that I think about it.

The schools here remind me a lot of those in the anime in Japan in style and everything. It also helps that there are a bunch of people with the same color hair and eyes in the same uniforms (just like the japanese shows)

I had my first stomach infection this week (but everyone was surprised that I didn't have diarrhea; (I trust that you aren't fighting), which I thought at first was a migraine, but it wasn't. But don't worry, I got medicine and am feeling a lot better (medicine is so cheap here; the doctor (if he had charged me) and the medicine would have cost me like 10 dollars). 

But I asked the mission doctor how we should know when we should rest for illness and she told me when we felt fine with the Lord about it. Which is an answer too ambiguous for me and that crazy people use to rest too much and not enough. But they ask how many baptisms you have had, to give you permission, which ticked me off at first, until I realized it was just so they can tell your companion to go work without you. But jokes on them once again, because we were in exchanges and the other missionary didn't know the area.

Speaking of which, I feel like I might never baptize in my mission again. I am trying hard to be obedient and I feel like I am pretty organized, but I don't have a lot of success, so maybe I just need to feel more love or concern for the people, but I am going to keep trying to improve. It just stinks, because, supposedly, we are among the children of Lehi and the area presidency told us that we should be baptizing every week and things like that. I don't feel depressed though, but sometimes I wonder if I am being effective or just wasting my time or if I am a bad missionary. Also, if my sacrifices are worthwhile and if the Lord appreciates them and sees them, like that I don't play the piano as well and to a degree sacrifice my health and also risked my scholarship if I don't return with honor and things like that. 

Also, my companion and I were talking about ways to improve and he said he thinks we need to leave things in the lord's hands more and not rely on our own knowledge, but I feel like doing everything we can is relying that the lord is going to do his half if we do ours. Also, why do people act like if we have a lot of faith we are going to baptize a ton? I don't know if I agree or not, because I feel like I have faith, that is why I try to keep the commandments, but I also know that we are going to have a lot of trials and that God can't violate agency.

Also, I read something in an old ensign about a guy who thought his genealogy was done and then found like 50 more names, cool, huh?

Things I am going to make you guys when I get home: sopes with salsa verde, mole, agua de pepino, conchas maybe, pan estilo sinaloa, posole, refried beans, chiles rellenos, apple fritters and scones again maybe.

Things you are going to make me when I gt home: ice cream, soup, ice cream with fruit, puffed rice balls

Happy birthday this week, mom. I don't know when father's day is, so maybe Happy Father's Day this Sunday, Dad. Sometimes other missionaries have really nice clothes and stuff or we visit people that don't have kids and they have a really nice house and cars, but I realized that is the sacrifice of having kids, maybe, so thanks, mom and dad. love you guys

I love you guys and thanks for not giving me diarrhea and eternal families and the atonement and keep trying to improve. and see you soon and I miss you.

Kaden