Mexico City Trip

Hey there everybody, just a quick update from me here. So y'all probably know that Mom, Dad and I went to Mexico City this last week. It was a ton of fun, just ask Mom and Dad! I especially had a ton of fun driving on the streets of Mexico City in rush hour traffic "racing" the craziest drivers in the world. As one guy put it, to successfully navigate through Mexico City, it requires aggressive/defensive driving or you won't get anywhere. I had to just butt my way around, skillfully weave through traffic and avoid accidents when being cut off left and right. I think Mom had her eyes closed most of the time and Dad kept saying, "I'm sure glad you're the one driving!"

Anyway, basically we spent a few days touring through my old areas and visiting some of the pretty cool sites that there are in Mexico City. It was a blast, here are a few pictures.

This is a view from the airplane as we came into Mexico City. I was lucky to be on the left side of the airplane to get a perfect view of where I spent the last 6 months of my mission. You can see the mountains in the background and kind of in the middle-right in front of the mountains there is a hill. That hill is the famous Chiquihuite and my last area was just to the left of it.

This is us on top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, the famous ruins about 40 minutes outside of Mexico City. My theory is that this was Zarahemla because a lot of the dates that the archeologists came up with correlate to Book of Mormon dates to Zarahemla and apparently it was a huge religious and government center. But that is my very unprofessional opinion. The pyramid behind us is the Pyramid of the Moon. Could it be an ancient temple? Who knows?

This is the Tapia Family from my first area. We had a great talk with them and caught up. They are a great family and especially helped me a lot when I was there. I was sick a few times and they're the ones that helped me get back up on my feet so I could keep working hard.

This is us with the Lopez family in Lerma, which was my second area and is about 40 minutes over the mountains from Mexico City. They were some converts that Elder Palomino and I baptized. They fed us an amazing meal and we had a great time talking with them.

This is us with the Chavarria family, who I became very close to in my last area. We visited them about 3 times while we were in Mexico because they kept insisting that we come back so they could feed us more! She is a great cook and she makes some of the best cakes I have ever had. She made the one that you see in the picture because she promised me one for my birthday but never made it, now they made it for me when I came back. By the way, Julie, she said to brace yourself for the twins! She has a pair of twins, the two boys, and they are a handful! Haha, she was so worried about you!

There are more photos in my album on Picasa, just click here to see them all!

Pictures

Hey there everybody. I'm not sure if anybody checks this these days, but I just thought I'd let ya'll know that I have put all of my pictures up online so that everybody can see them. I've got pictures from my mission and also pictures from the things I have been doing lately since I got home. So go check them out and you can get a taste of what my mission was like.

Here is the address: http://picasaweb.google.com/elpackito

Go check 'em out!
-David

Back in the real world...

Hey there family,

Well, I suppose this is the first time I am emailing since I arrived home a week ago. So, things are going pretty well and the transition hasn't been too rough...yet. I'm not sure what to expect, but I hear it may get a little harder soon. But anyway, it sure was great to see everybody this weekend and it was really great to be with you and talk with you and enjoy your company again. That was probably what I really missed most and now that that need has been filled I can move on to the other things in my life.

So I started this morning bright and early by heading over to Ralston Valley where I worked as a translator for two Chileans who are investigating the American public education system with hopes of improving their own. It was a really great experience and I loved translating. Not only did I get to practice my Spanish, but I really learned a lot about schools and especially the blessings and opportunities that we in the United States enjoy. DON'T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED! Things are pretty rough over in Chile and that is why Eduardo and Eric came here. Both are members of the church and are the equivalent of Principal and Assistant Principal at a "semi-private" K-12 school in Chile, and they are looking for solutions to improve the public education in Chile. Two years ago they had what was called the "Revolution of the Penguins", or a revolution of students against the public schools where they revolted against the teachers and police and closed the schools for about two months in protest of the poor public education. They were called penguins because of the uniform that all the students wear of a blue jacket and white shirt. So there seems to be a lot of problems and it was really interesting to hear their questions and the solutions that they were finding. It seems like a pretty hopeless situation from my point of view, but they are really devoted to finding the solution to make the education better in Chile. They hope that in about 20 years these problems will have been solved and Chileans will have greater opportunities, improving the economic situation and improving their standard of living, which in turn really helps us all out. Education really is the solution to poverty.

I have to thank you all for all of the support and love that you gave me throughout my mission. You really helped me push along and keep my spirits up and I know your prayers were answered. So thanks a ton!

So that's all this week! I hope everybody is doing well and I love you all! Talk to you later!

Love,

David