time flies but airplanes crash

i don't really have anything new and interesting to say, i just heard this song title on the radio today and i wanted to use it as a blog title. that's it.

in sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came

because britta changed the template of her blog, i was intrigued and curious. for the fun of it, i flipped through the other templates just now. while i have to admit i was tempted to copy britta and switch to a template named "split pea," as soon as i realized that the template i had already chosen was named "son of moto," i was satisfied. really, what does that even mean? it's so ridiculous, i love it even more.

so i'm home. i've been home for almost two weeks. and it's strange because it's almost as though i was never gone at all. i was miserable on the plane. i was dismayed that an entire life could be over in a matter of a half a day. mexico quickly dissipated into vague, dreamlike memories. and the drive felt like watching a movie in reverse; staying at the same places, visiting the same people, neatly tying up the ends of the trip. once i got home, nothing had really changed. and right away i got a really bad cold that kept me curled up in the fetal position with a hot water bottle for over a week. that only fed my misery and self-pity. but now i'm out of it. being out in service is great. and i had my special assembly day on sunday, so that made me pretty happy.

this also makes me pretty happy:

As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was very pleasurable - until I realized it wasn't a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN HEAD!!
(a deep thought by jack handey)

today is a sad day. and we haven't even stepped on any dead cats yet.

it is my last day in mexico. i don't believe it. but i suppose it's not going to 'hit me.' it generally doesn't. this morning i will be lying beside the ocean, this evening i will sleep in vancouver. which is still by the ocean. so it can't be too far. it makes me really sad that soon this period of my life will seem like a dream. this has honestly been four of the best months of my life. i can't wait to come back. i've met people that i hope i will always be friends with, people i wish i could carry home in my pocket. but i know that once i get home i will be surrounded with more people i love and adore. it's a good thing we have forever to see eachother again, otherwise goodbye's would be a lot more difficult.

necesito orinar como un caballo rapido ruso

i'm into my final week here in mazatlan. and as excited as i am to see my family and friends back home, i have to be perfectly honest with you all. i don't want to leave. i would give almost anything to be able to stay, even just one more month. but i know that's not possible, or reasonable. and the sooner i get home and to work, the sooner i can get back down here.

it's raining right now. and it really rains here. it sounds wonderful on the cement house.

we had yet another going away thing tonight. this one was for mikaela (the blonde girl that was in pg this summer). she's gone to squamish tomorrow. she's not too pleased about that. but hopefully she'll be back down in the summer for the district convention. i can't wait for that.

i've been thinking lately about how fruitless it is to try to explain mexico to someone. i don't really think you can understand any place until you've seen it. i've been taking pictures of things around town that i love, but i just don't belive that it translates on to film. and i must say, that that is the second time today that i have used the word fruitless, and i can't remember ever using that word before today. it's kind of silly.

our statial shape is the rhombus

my parents are here!! i'm muy happy to have them. but muy sad that it means that i'm leaving soon. it feels like everyone's leaving. jeremiah left yesterday, britta's leaving today, mikaela and angie are next week, and i'm the week after. then most other people are gone by the end of march. but we're planning a mexican reunion in june. in calgary, of all places. works for me.

i must go now, as we are going for a welcome parents slash goodbye britta breakfast. and we're going to have beer. for breakfast. but it's ok cause we're in mexico.

bethel - doing it for Jehovah, all day long

so i'm back. i went to mexico city and lived to tell about it. though to be perfectly honest, i didn't go into the city too much. mostly drove around there, and stayed outside the city, in bethel, and a nearby city called texcoco.

bethel is amazing. i love it. i want to live there. me and brittany were threatening to barricade ourselves in our room and never come out. except for meals. we saw so much. because we were staying there we were considered temporary bethelites, so we got lots of extra tours. the normal tour lasts about five hours. ours was spread out over three days, and added up to at least ten.

we met wonderful people, that i genuinely hope i get to see again. soon would be nice. the generosity and hospitality of the brothers and sisters we met was humbling. they did everything they could to make us happy, and wouldn't accept anything in return. i hope they understood how grateful we were despite the language barrier.

other than bethel, we spent a day at the pyramids and a day at six flags. it was too much fun. i didn't want to leave. but we did, and now i am here in mazatlan. which is a pretty great place to have to come back to.

here's a little something to tide you over until i get back.... that's me dancing on the beach in the moonlight for kandis.

a kerouak adventure

i'm leaving for mexico city at this very moment. so i can't write anything. but i'm super excited and i will post as soon as i get back.

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?