Hey everyone! Week 2 of Oaxaca already down and it feels a bit crazy. I’ll try to give a little more detail this week but our p-days are pretty short on time here, so I’ll do what I can. And sorry for anyone who didn’t get my email last week, some strange things happened that will hopefully be fixed now.
To start, some general mission stuff. My area is Valle de Etla (Vaya de Etla) and it is just northwest of Oaxaca City. My companion and trainer is Elder Sifuentes, a native Mexican from Northern Mexico. He doesn’t speak English at all and neither does my mission president, President Martinez. So I am learning the language quickly! But it has only been two weeks, so I still don’t understand almost everything being said. But I’ll get it eventually. This week we had our first zone conference, which was a lot of fun getting to meet other missionaries and have some good lessons.
And now, the bad. Last Monday we got an email from the Church saying that because Oaxaca hit Orange/Yellow levels of covid, missionaries are no longer allowed to go to houses to teach or have meals in members’ homes either. We are still allowed to leave our apartment and pretty much go anywhere we please, but there really isn’t any point of leaving when you are just contacting and teaching over the phone the entire day. And Oaxaca is a mission that doesn’t use facebook except for some special circumstances, so phone contacting is really all we have got. We do go to members’ houses to pick up food though, so that gets us out usually which is nice. But covid is apparently pretty rampant down here (even though it doesn’t seem like it) because of the lack of vaccines and pretty much the only preventative measure I have seen is masks. This week 8 of the Oaxaca missionaries had covid. It is a little crazy.
Next, bikes. Like I said last week, my area, Valle de Etla (Vaya de Etla) is the only area in Oaxaca with bikes because everything is super spread out. And they are pretty nice to have, but this week they finally went out and have been unrideable for about 5 days now. This means that we have to walk over 30 minutes to get food or take a taxi, which the costs add up quickly, so it has been a little rough. We are planning on fixing them soon, but with the covid restrictions we are still not going to be using them very much, unfortunately.
Rain! I was surprised it barely rained the first week here, but the second, it poured! We had about 3 days straight where the rain just kept coming. And when we had to get food, we put on our raincoats, pulled out the umbrella, and still got soaked anyway. It was kinda fun the first time, but I don’t think it will be as fun the one hundredth time, haha. Parts of the street were flooding and we had to keep avoiding getting splashed by cars driving by, so it was a little insane. But the rain also means cooler weather. I was actually cold waking up in the morning, which is a bit strange.
And, the work. Like I said, all we can pretty much do right now is call people and teach over the phone, which is actually more effective than I thought. But it makes it harder for me because trying to understand Spanish is hard, but trying to understand Spanish over the phone is impossible. I usually share a scripture or a quick thought, but right now Elder Sifuentes is the one doing most of the teaching, and sometimes we get another member on the call help as well. And some people are progressing and others aren’t, which is to be expected. I just have to do everything I can despite the circumstances.
Spiritual Thought Because we have been at home a lot this week, I have been reading the Book of Mormon almost non-stop, and one thing I noticed as I finished the books of Alma and Helaman is that the goodness or badness of the people usually relied on the goodness or badness of their leader, and whether the people followed that leader. I realized how crucial it is to have a good leader, one who is righteous and we can follow and always trust in. And for this church and ourselves, that leader is Jesus Christ. In the book, “True to the Faith”, under the Church Administration Section, it states ‘Jesus Christ stands at the head of the Church’. This is super important to know because it means we always have a good leader to turn to and follow. He is the perfect example and we have all the right to follow him and his commandments.
Pictures! (Finally) 1. District Etla 2. Elder Sifuentes and me when our bikes worked 3. Elder Sifuentes and me Pictures are still a bit limited this week, our phone camera is still broken and I haven’t figured out how to get pictures from my personal camera yet. Next week there will be more for sure! Thanks everyone!
-Elder Ord
