Elder Kaden Powell -- Mexico Tijuana Mission: Written August 18, 2014

Mom, yeah, some of my shirts are all weird though. I will just slowly start replacing them from thrift stores and the people that sell on the streets maybe.

That paint-on granite sounds like it could ruin something really easily.

Dad, it was my other mexican companion that said that thing about my legs, not my gigantic companion. I just think that dog is someone´s pet that is territorial because the other time we went by there it tried to bite my companion too. According to wikipedia (please let me be forgiven) the hand sanitizer I used isn`t even effective on rabies. I was kind of angry at first and then just depressed that you told the pres about my bite and then I started thinking about how sometimes I am passively suicidal (but don`t worry mom, 1/4 missionaires use bike helmets and that`s me). But the mission president`s wife already called me, so I am probably going to have to go to the doctor now. How soon do you have to have injections?

I don`t really understand gratitude or patience I think, but more on that in a minute.

Lindsay, is the book of family members with my picture for Kenzie? or do you mean something else?

Josh, did that modern pioneer story begin with your mission? because I am living it.

This week:

Is the mission really preparing me for marriage? Because you just kind of learn to ignore things (because they are going to end in 6 to 12 weeks anyways) but i don`t know if ignoring things or talking about things is the right way. Maybe a balance. Which has to do with the patience thing I was saying. I don`t know if this is patience, but maybe patience is saying what`s bugging you in a calm way and not getting angry or upset if it doesn`t change but I just do the opposite and call it patience, which is don`t say anything and then just get angry inside.

I am not really sure though because there are some things that maybe i should just ignore and forget and maybe others that I should address, but I am a horrible conflict avoider. Someone please teach me to not be so unhealthy in my communication or something. I can already see the seeds of divorce in my future.

Also, as far as the gratitude thing, it seems fine if you have already tried to change something and can`t that you be grateful for what you do have, but I am afraid that if I am grateful, I will be complacent with that my companion stinks at cleaning and is messy and never is ready on time, which not that being uptight and angry and impatient (but not saying anything) really serves for anything except interior objection to a situation with the which I am not in agreement). Sigh

Hey, if you guys don`t have anyone to share the gospel with, you can get interested in the missionaries` investigatores (ask them about them or call or introduce yourselves to them at church) just because I think that is an easier thing to do and it would help a lot and you guys might even feel better at church.

We had a baptism,. which was cool. It was lame though because almost no one from our ward came and they left us alone with a lot of people that came from other wards and made us look really bad. Also, the font is broke and no one was there to help us (because really we just needed a key) and so we just fished the crickets and spiders out and poured some bleach in and baptized him in half old water, but no one knows.

Can someone explain how to get rid of my accent (for dummies)? I am just tired of people finding out that my companion and I have the same time in the mission and then me waiting for them to say that it`s weird because he knows more Spanish. People here are so rude (or maybe it is just direct) but a bunch of people have said it, so that means it is true (to their observation).

I felt good at the end of the week. But today I am feeling stressed out and discouraged and depressed because I am going to have to waste a lot of time with fixing my bike (because the guys don`t open on monday, lazy drunks) and folding my laundry and being tired and high strung (because my companion wanted to go bowling today and we wasted a lot of time and I didn't have time to mend my clothes or rest or relax) and having to go to the doctor and feel stupid for trying to not worry about my dog bite (I knew that basically no one survives from rabies). Anyways, I just feel stupid and tired and because of that, discouraged today. Probably mostly I am tired.

I bought tuna, which is cactus fruit, not fish, and I don`t know how to eat it, but I am just going to try raw and if not then I will fry or boil it and if not that then with sugar on it. You can probably buy it in that mexican supermarket if you guys want, since it is in season.

Love you guys and only two more weeks in august and this transfer, so who knows where i will go. But I love you and I will try to start to remember that it gets better and better and eternal family and love for josh and love you and the atonement and eternal family and love and also T hugs,

Kaden

I feel like this picture doesn`t need explanation or rather is funnier without it, but it is an abandoned graffiti-ed house with a graffiti-ed play house in front.

The fruit store on the corner. As you can see on the left, if you zoom in, a mexican cornucopia of the ideal healthy diet, fruits, vegetables and, what´s that in between the peppers? Of course, Coke, one of the most common foods.