Elder Kaden Powell -- Mexico Tijuana Mission: Written August 11, 2014

Family,

Dad, I like whatever you want to send me pictures of. It is kind of weird, because I have never even met Mackenzie, but that´s okay. She looks a lot like Matt, also Breanne. I will tell you how someone could gain weight here and it is because everyone buys the missionaries soda and lets us eat as much as we want of their best food and everything here is fried or made with a ton of oil. My companion is from Utah.

Yeah, I don´t know if I have gained fat either. I have kind of muffin top, but I tought that was just a natural consquence of not being anorexic and having skin there and elastic underwear. Who knows though?

One of my other companions also said I have gigantic muscular legs and a tiny upper body from jumping rope, but I don`t feel like my boady has changed that much. I just told him I have always been like that and it must be genetic (to which he said that thing that it wasn`t true and that my arms weren`t proporionate.) I don´t know though. Mostly I just want my resurrected body.

Ben, you can´t use that thing about my belly button as a senior quote because your senior quote is already going to be "Life is like a scab: when you pick at it, it will bleed."

Mom, since I went to the MTC they have had reduced MTC times like that, that´s why I was only there for 6 weeks. You can always check a book out at the real library if you want to finish it. Everyone here says that the temperature got to 56 degrees the week you guys told me it was 48, but I only believe you. Just everyone is dumb and believes that gossip.

We are teaching a really cool family that are really ready for the Gospel, but I might get transferred before they get baptized, we will see. The dad just went to church, but they prayed and got an answer right away and are really cool. I´m not sick anymore, but sometimes I just feel dizzy for a couple of seconds and then it passes, but I am 90% sure that is not from being dehydrated, so maybe it is just for always being in high temperatures, I am fine though, so don`t worry.

This week:

Mom, I felt so bad after writing about the package because I started to eat everything you had sent me and realized that I just should ask for more portion control, because I ate all the oreos in 2 or 3 days and then eat a ton of starbursts and caramels and hi-chews everyday, so maybe you could just send a small ziploc bag of oreos with like 10 and only small packages of candy or a sandwich ziplock bag with mixed candy or something. Or maybe i just need to learn self control myself.

But then I remembered the dried fruits and the seeds and the peach rings and that the jerky was peppered and I felt really bad, because I could see how much thought you had put into it. Just help me to be a little bit healthier, because the only thing that keeps me from being a pig in my life is being a cheap skate and the packages you send kind of removed that inhibition. I also really liked those freeze dried peas you sent me, but I don`t know if they were expensive, maybe from thrive they wouldn`t be. Love you a lot, mom!

I had a dental lab family in my ward make me a new mouthguard, but they made it out of a gummy chewy material, so I don´t know if it will work as my retainer. I will wear it one night and then my other guard one night and hopefully that way they will both last a little longer and still protect and retain my teeth.

I understand being irritated by your spouse´s friends now because I had to hang out with a missionary I didn`t like that much the other P-day because of it. For more information, see whatever sitcom about married people, probably.

I know that I am not perfect, but I know that living the commandments will make me happier I think and so I try.

Unexpected things this week:peach and bleach

Actually, nectarine. I bought some last week and they were actually really good.

I also used bleach to try and unstain my white clothes, but I let them soak in really strong solution for too long and in a metal container and they got completely stained with rust stuff that i couldn´t get out. Who knew that bleach could ruin white clothes? Anyways, I asked some ladies and they took one of my shirts to see what they could do, but told me to use lime and salt, and it actually worked to the point where they are usable again, which is great, even if I wore the fabric a little bit with the scrubbing. Thanks for the advice, wise ones (maybe from a movie, karate kid or kung fu panda or something?)

Speaking of bleach, my companion thinks that we´ll all be resurrected Caucasian, which i don´t even believe because people are beautiful and children of God how they are, I think, and then it wouldn´t really be a restoration. But he used big noses also as an example and I have thought about that a lot and I think maybe it will just be refined, somehow, or we will just appreciate it more or something. Apart from that, I don´t believe we will all just have white hair, because I don´t even want that. I think it is all about countenance and human perspective. We can´t really comprehend a resurrected being completely and it gives off light (maybe more spiritual than physical) like the sun, so mayb7e we just say that it is white.

i got bit by a dog when I was riding my bike, which is a shame, because I thought that it was all bark and no bite, but I found out that doesn´t apply to every dog. I wish that I had heeled it in the face. It only broke the skin a little bit and was covered by my pants and sock, so I just poured hand sanitizer on it a couple of times and it seems fine. I don´t think it was rabid anyways.

I had some other stuff I was going to complain about, but there is not point in that anyways.

Hey Ben, could you go on facebook and look at my friends and send Caroline a message and tell her that I am sorry I never emailed her, because I lost her email and not because I am a jerk or a bad chemistry friend and give her my email.

I´m getting better at taking selfies, eh?

Love you guys and I can`t wait to be an eternal family and t hugs and it gets better and better and the atonement and shut up and don´t give me diarrhea and love you eternal family