Blake Madsen in Villahermosa Mexico

Buenas, Hola todos, cómo estamos? Another exciting week. On Tuesday we worked hard, knocked doors and found some people, some chill people. Then the day Ive been waiting for, finally I went to Mexico City. The reason why I've been waiting awhile is because I've been illegal here for a good bit but dont worry Im good now got my beige card, basically 1 year residency.  The trip was awesome but terrible at the same time. Loved getting to go to a cold climate, like 70 degrees, honestly was freezing in the morning, like 55 or so, but in the afternoon perfect weather. First day was wednesday we had to go to Villahermosa airport and got to Mexico City late. Got to the temple at like 10 and a huge blessing awaited. They had heated showers, I haven't had a hot shower in over 3 months and it was pretty nice. Thursday was just waiting forever, but still fun to talk to the other missionaries getting their beige card and got back to the airport then back to Villahermosa, went to Mcdonal...

Buenas, Que tal, como estamos? So if you read my last email I was talking about cambios(transfers) and some of you may already know that I'm a dad now!!! Don't worry that just means I'm a trainer. Super exciting but at the same time realizing how much more I can improve as a missionary when I have to lead and so pretty much everything the next month or two until he gets his feet on the ground. His name is Elder Petty, super chill guy from Las Vegas. Honestly super fun week, trying to teach him the ropes really quick, working hard and having fun finding and helping people. Then we had conference on Saturday and Sunday. Did my best to understand all in Spanish and Id say when I payed attention I understood but lets just say that's not the easiest for two hours straight in a different language. It was crazy Sunday morning we went pretty far to get this one girl then went and got another who grabbed 2 of her cousins, but of course they took forever so we ended up being 20 ...

 Buenas, Yeah cambios, or transfers is in two days, still don't know anything until Tuesday night. Basically I've been with my dad or my trainer for two transfers so its likely he will leave and Ill stay in Cañales for another transfer. I really want to stay as well, the people are amazing here and we have so many cool friends, new members. One story:  I went on divis or exchanges with one of the zone leaders in his area. We knocked a lot, talked to a ton of people. All the people that said they were interested lived outside of that area and that was a good amount, until around 7:30 we were walking around and we were supposed to have two appointments later but Elder Ramirez my ZL felt that we should knock this one street, so we went and knocked about 4 or 5 houses then knocked on this one house where we could see in like 100 feet kinda like a garage type for you to imagine and there were people way far away but weren't answering so we kept on knocking. Then a guy without a ...

  Vavavava, Buenas buenas todos. Cómo estamos? Doing well out here. Vavavava, basically means like go go go, or like agreeing to something, my old district leader always used to say it now I've picked it up a bit.  This last week was kind of a chill week, I mean its never chill when its 100 or 105 degrees everyday. Supposedly its gonna start getting colder to around 95 during the day soon. And apparently winter is like 85-95 during the day so not too bad. Went to the temple last tuesday was awesome, but when I asked for slippers they only had up to size 9, but they told me I should try and I was like okay I can try and I used them but it was crazy uncomfortable, but besides that I felt the spirit super strong and love the temple. Villahermosa temple is really small but awesome, and we got to go to Costco after, I got pizza, ice cream, hot dog, amazing, I mean Ive only not been able to go to Costco for not even 4 months but having Costco was amazing. This week we really didn't ...

Hola Todos, Cómo estamos? Doing good out here, definently seeing the change in my spanish. One challenge I had this last week was exchanges with a brand new missionary, only like 2 weeks here. Super fun, he knew a little spanish, but for the most part I had to do the talking and that was awesome as I also saw some success we found a couple new people who have some interest which is awesome. It was just one day but I gained a lot of confidence that day and I really know I am ready for anything, well sometimes still have to guess what some people are saying, but thats okay. Another fact about him, hes 6"4, 350 lb, sooo yeah we stood out a bit, practiced some street contacting as everyone stared at us. And finally got this kid to church who is 10 years old but his family is inactive and they are super chill about him getting baptized. Funny thing is he lives 10 seconds walk from our house and maybe a minute walk to the church, but we had to knock on his door to wake him up, good thin...

  Hola Todos, Hope yall are doing well. Im doing well out here, honestly like a pretty chill week. Some highlights: We had our first day where we didnt have lunch with a member so I made some spaghetti and some mystery hamburger meat, I mean its alright and really cheap so we live. First time Ive had pasta and man I love it, rice is good but I miss some pasta and red sauce.  Also the day before that last friday we got to play volleyball with our friends and almost our whole district, fue chido. And we brought a new member and a friend so that made it even more exciting. Then saturday night we played soccer at our night of sports, and some random little kids came in and wanted to play so I played volleyball with them, was super fun. And today on P-day, we went to a chinese buffet, for Mexico was reasonable priced like $15 in Us dollars so not crazy, apparently its risky, might get food poisoning but it was worth it. Had some ice cream and sushi there too, they had a lot of opti...