we will become silhouettes

it has been such an incredible week it's a little overwhelming to even attempt recording it here. but here's a rundown...

saturday: two car groups drove to teacapan to blitz the english communities with the keep on the watch brochure. it was amazing to talk to genuine english speaking people, mostly canadians. actually, mostly british columbians. we spent the whole day there, having interesting discussions with different people and each other. we wandered down the beach, witnessing to all the ones who had their camps set up there. the neighbor's called it 'little canada' which made me really happy. we met the circuit overseer who was serving with the spanish congregation there, and all eleven of us ended up being invited to a sister's house for lunch with the co and his wife. everyone was wonderfully nice, despite the language barrier. even though we couldn't talk, we could still smile and hug and take pictures and eat. an older couple that is down here from calgary had the best time with those brothers and sisters. they told us that they had been to mexico about two hundred times, and that was their best day. it was very heartwarming. we barely made it to the meeting that day. actually, we missed the first 45 minutes. but it was worth it.

kandis' wedding. a big fat congratulations to the new couple. sorry i couldn't be there in person to dance the night away with the langners, but i did my best from here. i got all dressed up and dragged everyone out to hotel playa. i danced on the beach in the moonlight, ate jelly belly's, and drank gin. i'll post pictures later.

sunday: i was exhausted that morning, and barely got out of bed (i just re-read this part and i have to clarify that this is unrelated to the gin... i only had one. i was paying attention at the watchtower. it was just a late night. ;) ). but britta dragged me to the beach, even though it was cloudy and kind of raining. i really tried to get out of it, but she always makes me feel really guilty cause we don't get to the beach very often. we ended up having lots of fun. just the usual beach stuff, but it was great. lots of giggling and exploring and swimming. not a whole lot of surfing, unfortunately. the waves were huge, so i didn't last too long. by the time we meandered down to chandlers for a congregation get together for the lyons, the sun was shining and it was really hot. so it all worked out. that was a lot of fun. i'm really sad the lyons are gone. i'll post pictures of them too. that night we watched 'the village'. it had potential, but there were too many people and everybody was restless, so i couldn't get into it. my favorite part was that this new guy, jesse, wouldn't look at the scary parts, not because he was scared, of course, but because he was 'scared of getting scared'. riiiiiiiiiiight. i don't understand the difference, but he insists there is one.

wednesday: aw we went to the orchestra, mexican style. we got all gussied up, real purty-like, and had us some tequila, and tried to act all growed up. the music was beautiful. there's a brother from culican who plays the cello, which is how we heard of it. his name is fred, and he's neat. he used to play electric guitar and was in a band until he got sick of that life and found the truth. now he plays more appropriate music (pay attention steve) with a better behaved band.

thursday: beach day. it's been up around thirty again lately. and it was really sunny yesterday too. we stayed at the beach all day. we took doug and leah pope's huge raft thing out. we'd drag it way out and then pile everybody on it, and try to catch waves in. usually we ended up getting smashed around by the waves, which was still great. and painful when we got up to nine people on there. russel caught an iguana at the restaurant, more pictures i have to post. he named it pedro and took it home. he's really cool. he changes colour quickly, but he's mostly bright green. we're all quite fascinated. it's a struggle to see who gets to hold him. we all try to hog him. some of us stuck around at the beach until dark so we could have a bonfire. we went swimming in the dark, which was indescribably fun. for some reason we all got really hyper around eight. then we lit a fire and sat around and stared at the stars until almost eleven. the fun part was then figuring out how to get home. russel was supposed to come back after his bookstudy, but he never did. so me, britta, ashley, laura, jeremiah and alex all walked down the beach for an hour and a half, then managed to grab a taxi the rest of the way. which was good, cause we were still at least a two hour walk from home.

all in all, a pretty fantastic week. mostly just laughing all week long. and marvelling at the privilege i have to be here and experience this. today was a long day of service, then the bookstudy. we have a new conductor, tom anderson, at least temporarily. i adore the andersons already. they are friendly and generous and enthusiastic. there's tom and wendy, and they have two kids, tyler (13), and savannah (9, i believe). and to hear how hard they worked to be able to move down here is very humbling. i am so encouraged by the families that are able to do that. people like myself have the perfect circumstances to be doing this, to go anywhere. but families that are established, with kids and jobs and whatnot, make real sacrifices in order to be here. i have a lot to learn from such ones.

a week in pictures

feet like puzzle pieces launch our adventure

when we went shopping for stuff for the napoleon dynamite party, me and britta found the biggest sleepers we had ever seen. they weren't quite tall enough, or i would have bought one. instead i just danced around walmart in it.

we spent all wednesday at the beach, surfing. unfortunately, we've discovered two things about our beach (the bruja): the restaurant has happy hour at five, and the bus stops running out there by six. this is me and britta (with alex and jeremiah, unseen) crammed in a taxi with the surfboard sticking out the windows. our driver thought this was pretty funny.

this was the napoleon dynamite party. you can kind of see that ashley and laura had 'deb hair'. that was the extent of the dressing up. but it was still great.

last night after a full afternoon of shopping, me and britta went back to our cafe in el centro for scrumptious bbq chicken pizza, espresso, and live piano. this was our piano player. his hopeful little face made us very happy.

walter and milton took me and britta in service this morning. neither of my studies worked out, but breakfast was great. i actually ordered corn flakes with banana. you know you're in mexico when you get toast with salsa at breakfast.

this was the view from my table. no window. service is pretty rough here, i know.

we had a dinner after the bookstudy tonight because our overseer and his wife are moving back to australia... adios mates!

me and britta danced like children of the night on my roof until the neighbor lady yelled at us to get down

isn't it nice how God made our feet so that they fit together like puzzle pieces?

last night we had our napoleon dynamite party. it was pretty great. we managed to cram twenty-one people into russel's tiny apartment. i have pictures, but i can't post them because that program still isn't working. i don't know what's wrong. the party wasn't quite what i imagined it would be. we didn't get to dress up because we don't have any clothes for that and mexico doesn't believe in the thrift store. and we didn't get to have napoleon dynamite themed food because mexico also doesn't believe in the tater tot. so i wore a western shirt and britta brought the sexiest cookies we've seen.

and for everyone who believes that mexico is a dangerous country, full of thieves and rapists, here's a little something to reinforce it. last night, the two girls who live downstairs from russel, ashley and laura, had some stuff stolen. they're not sure how or when it could have happened. but ashely's camera and wallet were taken from their kitchen table. they were very upset. we helped them look, in the apartment, all over the building, even out on the street in case they'd ditched the wallet somewhere. but nothing. it's really sad because it seems like everything has gone wrong for these girls since they got here. hopefully it gets better soon. we'll try to cheer them up and take care of them.

and to make sure that i end this on a good note, cause really, mexico is all about good things... i started a couple more studies this week (three i think) and i get to go back on two of them tomorrow morning. one's with a guy, and the other is with a couple. o, i don't know if i mentioned this before, but we're having our campaign right now. we have approximately 600 territories to cover. think we can do it?

mixing metaphors

i'm in the middle of a service day. we had to come home for a break. it's 25 degrees, 70% humidity. don't worry, i'm not complaining. i'm thriving. but the humidity does get to you. today would be a great beach day, but i'm responsibly out trying to hunt down my bible studies. so far it's not going so well. i don't know how mexicans got the reputation of being lazy bums. they are the hardest working people i have personally seen. maybe when i make it to japan i will change my mind, but so far, they are amazingly busy people. most of the young people are in school half of the day, then work the other half, and some take language classes and take care of their family or their family's business or other such things. and they spend long days in school and work. and have loads of homework. i really respect these people a lot more having spent time here.

i'm trying to get more pictures up, especially of people, but i'm having problems with the program i use to post them. so be patient. i'm doing what i can. alright, i'm probably edging close to the lazy, procrastinating side, but i'll get around to it, hopefully sooner than later.

your hair reminds me of danish pastries

it's amazing how different people create different views of places. with britta here i have had great fun touring the cultural and moreso artistic side of mazatlan. i've wanted to get down there for a while, but i haven't really had someone to share it with. we did some shopping at plaza mechado, and i finally got myself some jewellery. about time, i say. how dare i be in mexico for two months and not buy a scrap of jewellery. who cares about groceries? not me. ok, yes i do, but jewellery first.

we've also done some more bus hopping. we've wandered all over, gotten ourselves lost a few times, and managed to make it home alive every time. i'm impressed by us. and we found a splendid coffee shop that makes a great espresso mocha. it's super. there's crazy, live piano whenever we go and a really nice, clean bathroom. which is a huge plus in mexico.

i must say that i have fallen in love with the downtown of mazatlan. there are some neat areas that i have yet to explore. beautiful, tall, old buildings, with wonderful windows and tilework; narrow cobblestone roads lined with trees and hedges; a theatre, art gallery, art school, english library... if you get away from the touristy parts of town, there are some really interesting things to see. i need to spend more time down there.

walking with angie and britta in the streets of old mazatlan

warning: an espresso mocha gets you pretty wired, and makes you take pictures of everything.

this is our cafe. i was sneaking pictures from upstairs by the bathroom. look up to the guitar and there's where our piano player sat. playing piano, of course.

i'm 82 years old and i've never owned a backpack or a waterbottle

well, this time i at least have a reason for not posting for over a week. my internet has been down, and i'm playing catch up with all my emails. it's a wee bit overwhelming. now my picture host thing isn't working, so i can't post any pictures. darn it. sorry guys, but no pictures of me. but i can give you my personal guarantee that i have not been bitten by a shark, and that i am not smaller. definitely not.

my britta arrived here yesterday. she makes me super happy. we plan on having many adventures together in the next month. today we wandered all over town trying to hunt down my study, an unsuccessful, yet fun, trip. and we did some bus hopping tonight until we found ice cream. which made us very happy. all topped off by shopping at wal-mart. most of my days are topped off by shopping at wal-mart. at least i know that when i get back to pg and i miss mexico, i can visit wal-mart and feel right at home.