Emails received on August 12th
The time shown is California time, Mexico City is 3 hours later

Weekly Letter from Elder Hamilton 8:33am
  I´m going to start with a scripture that I found that accurately describes my sleeping situation here in the Mexico City CCM. Isaiah 28:20. Go ahead and look that up.

     This week has been crazy, each companionship has two different "investigators" that we´re teaching in spanish. I have learned a ridiculous amount of spanish in just this short time, and I can basically say whatever I want to now, and I think in 75% spanish without trying.  It´s amazing. Also, we committed our first "investigator" to baptism, so that was awesome.  The other "investigator" is our teacher, and he gives us immediate feedback after we tech him, and he said we´re doing really well. He said that we do a good job of relating the gospel to his individual needs, and that we´re not just shoving doctrine down his throat. I think that´s pretty good for teaching a stranger in a completely  different language.

     Another crazy thing that happened this week was a massive outbreak of some virus in the CCM. I´ve been periodically taking OnGuard shots, so I´ve been fine, but the majority of the population got hit pretty hard. In my district, Elder Madsen got it first, and today was the first day he´s been feeling better. It started on Saturday before lunch, and by the end of the day on Saturday there were something like 55 missionaries in bed. The sickness is the runs, a fever, and nausea, so it´s not fun at all.  Elder Cluff got it next, and he and Elder Madsen stayed in the apartment all day. They said they just alternated trips to the bathroom every 5-15 minutes. ALL DAY. FOR TWO DAYS. Later that day, Hermana Harvey wasn´t feeling well either, and her and Hermana Snyder were on their way to the clinic when they thought to ask us for a blessing, We went into our classroom and all 10 of us priesthood holders participated in the blessing. When it was over, she was very grateful, and when they were walking back to their casa, Hermana Harvey said that all of the sudden she felt well again, so that´s awesome.  Then, last night, Elder Madsen and Elder Cluff asked their companions to give them blessings, and now they´re both walking around and feeling fine.

     Mexico City is crazy. Every night we hear sirens, car chases, stary dog/cat fights, fireworks, and sometimes even gunshots. And there´s this obnoxious chicken that no one can find that always makes a ruckus right around 5:15 every morning, I´ve even seen a few armed guards in the CCM occasionally. It rains so much here. And when it rains, it RAINS. It comes down in sheets for like five hours at a time. I actually get to use the umbrella I brought. The comedor (caferteria) has been decent, and when its nasty, they always have beans, rice, salad, etc. So it´s not too bad.

     We got a companionship of Latinos in our apartment, and we taught them "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" and then taught me "Pablito clavo un clavito en la calva de un calvito." Which basically means " Pablito hammered a nail into the bald head of a little bald man." And we taught the Latinos to say "Whazzzap?" whenever they see us, and it´s really funny.

     Let me tell you about our apartment for a little while.  First of all, none of the buildings are air conditioned, but that doesn´t matter, because Mexico City doesn´t get hot like ever.  Our shower door doesn´t have a seal on the bottom, so when anyone takes a shower, water goes under the shower door, under the bathroom door, and into the hall and just pools there, waiting for an unsuspecting, uncoordinated victim to try to cross into his room.  Luckily, due to my cat-like reflexes and balance of a ninja, I haven´t slipped yet, and I´m not planning on it. Another thing about our apartment, is that even though we have looked at every access point to the outside, and found them all sealed, somehow mosquitoes get in every day without fail.  And they aren´t your average obnoxious california mosquitoes. These Mexican mosquitoes are relentless and massive. We have a flyswatter in each room, and every time we enter the house, we hold a not-so-little massacre of all winged animals in the area. It´s kind of fun. Elder Lloyd and Cluff´s front door doesn´t shut, so they have a colony of mosquitoes in their front room at all times. I always go over there with our flyswatter and we get about 300 per day. It´s crazy.

     The elders in our district have become really close, and we don´t have any problems hiding in each others closets for upwards of half an hour to scare them when they´re least expecting it.  Elder Cluff puts his sheet over him and hides in the closet right by the bathroom, and jumps out when someone gets out of the bathroom. We´ve scared Elder Marshall and Elder Jones pretty bad, and it´s pretty awesome that we´re all such good friends.

     This big block of text is probably intimidating, so I´ll end here, and reply to individual emails now.

          

          Elder Hamilton

Elder Hamilton and Elder Madsen walking to the Thomas S. Monson Building this morning, right after it stopped raining.

Dear Dad 8:46am

I told some pretty crazy stories in the big email, and ill send some pictures in a few minutes.  That´s crazy that Jessica´s driving.  Yeah, I haven´t had to use my card, but I might when I leave, beacause they gave me like 15 pounds of books that I need to take with me, and that will definitely make my luggage overweight. So yeah, we can figure that out in the coming weeks. 

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Dear Mom 9:0am

Elder Jones is from Lehi, Utah, and he was a ballroom dancer. He´s not tall, but not short, and he and easton have SCARILY similar personalities. It´s crazy. I´ll talk to you in a few minutes, I´ve got to respond to some more eamils. Oh and can you give me ALex´s email address? Also, Hannah Luke sent me a letter before I left and i forgot to take it with me, and I don´t have her address, so can you find it and give me the address so I can write her back?

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Baby sister 9:12am

Dear Lauren,

     That´s awesome about your sweet new zapatos. (That´s how you say shoes in Spanish. but the z makes more of an s sound) What color are they?

     Dang, a lot of people are getting sick here too.  Luckily I´ve been drinking OnGuard, so I haven´t been sick. Do you feel better now?

     Hmmm... the coolest word I´ve learned in Spanish. That´s a hard one.  Trabajabamos means "we used to work," and that sounds pretty cool.  But theres also cool words like mandamientos, arrepentimiento, and this tongue twister that some Mexican elders taught me. It goes "tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal." It means "three sad tigers eat wheat in a wheatfield."

     Did you have fun at Kousins Kamp? And whos beating up Easton without me there? haha

     For exercise, I play volleyball every day! It´s so much fun, and I´m getting pretty good. Probably almost as good as you! I´m reading all over the scriptures,but the last thing I read about was in the old testament, I think its in Acts chapter 20. Maybe like verses 7-10 or something like that.  It´s really funny. This guy falls asleep in church and then slumps down in his seat, but he´s on the third floor balcony. SO he falls all the way down to the ground, and everyones freaking out, and then he gets brought back to life by I think Paul.

     Tell me more about school and stuff once it starts.  Are you going to have Miss B?!?!?!?!

Love,

     Elder Hamilton

Dear Mom 9:16am

No, the Elder Cluff in my district is a different Elder Cluff, but I talk to Caiden Cluff all the time, and I saw him on the firstday for the first time, and it was awesome. We totally recognized eachother at the same time, and it was pretty cool.

Are you talking about the tongue twister? yeah, its pretty fun to say.

Love,

     Elder Hamilton 

From Elder Hamilton 1:16pm
This is Fernando, he´s the maintenance guy for our apartment, and since our apartment leaks water, mosquitoes, and basically everything else, he stops by a lot.  He´s really funny, and he speaks only a little bit of English.  And, as you can tell, he is pretty dang short.

Dear Jess 1:47pm advice on boys

That´s awesome, and really creepy.  When´s the date? I´m just sitting here laughing, and I don´t even know what to tell you, other than hopefully you´ll be busy the next time he asks you on a date. Unless you like that kind of thing, but, uh, yeah... 

MY companion is not what you would call "hot" but he reminds me a lot of Easton because they have the same personality.  But I have some studly apartment mates that live with us and are in our district.  Elder Madsen and I are basically the same person in different bodies. We were showing eachother pictures from our cameras, and we both went on backpacking trips before we came here, and we took like the exact same pictures. Its crazy. Ill send some more pictures right now.

Love, 

Elder Hamilton

From Elder Hamilton 1:55pm
This is what was for lunch today, I dont really know what the mian dish was, but it wasn´t very edible.  We think it was pork, and it was really tough and hard to chew. But we still don´t know what that mystery meat was... That yellow fruit is the one I was talking about, it´s called a guyava, and it smells sooooo good and tastes pretty good. Oh and those are little tiny baby bananas, and they´re really good. 

Then there´s Elder Marshall and Elder Kerr.  They both had luscious, flowing hair that they could flip around in the wind.  Then they had to get their hair cut, and, as you can tell, they are not happy in the least bit.  

                                      

From Mom 2:10pm

That's such a cute picture.  You should see the kids and I right now.  We're all hovered around the computer looking at and anticipating everything you send us.  Thank you for giving us so many updates, we love everything you send us.  

From Elder Hamilton 2:12pm

Haha that´s awesome.  My bag is so perfect, and I´m not having problems with anything. Yeah, I had a whole bunch of emails today.  And I basically have from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm (Mexico City time) for my P day, so we basically do what we want, and we´re usually here twice or thrice throughout the day, do you have any more questions?

From Elder Hamilton 2:22pm
I got emails from you, grandma and grandpa, dad, easton, jessica, jessica, claire, alex, lauren, shauna, carter, and a few other people. Yeah, I´m having lots of fun playing volleyball.  It´s gorgeous here, I think it´s because it rains all the time, which makes everything so green. Could you  send me screenshots of the blog you made? I want to see what you´re putting up just out of curiosity. 

From Elder Hamilton 2:28
thats pretty awesome (He liked the screen shots I sent him of the blog)