2 Weeks Down

Hey. There hasn't been lots that has happened this week, but I did tons and tons of studying. ha ha! Please send me my patriarchal blessing, and soccer cleats once I get to McAllen. I've played a lot of kickball and soccer. It feels good to play soccer in Mexico City. The weather is always pretty great here. Also, send me more p day clothes. We wear them a lot more than I thought. I am getting your letters and I really appreciate them. Letters are kind of like a golden prize here. I get so happy when I get them. AN IMPORTANT DATE TO REMEMBER: 10 am Eastern time is when I get to call you guys on Christmas day, so keep that time written down somewhere. It will be 9 o'clock here. Also, the pictures made it here safely! So, please send more of those too! My companions want to see the ones of me crowd surfing. But anyways, it's still really hard here. Its a different kind of hard compared to the first week. I still miss home a lot and I'm not sure if that's ever going to go away, but my Spanish is getting really good. My teachers say I'm the best one in my class, so they assigned me to teach the 2 new districts we get today Spanish. So, that's cool. We also had the opportunity to go the the visitors center at the temple today. It's really cool there. I can't wait to actually start teaching in McAllen. The days will go by a lot faster when I get there. I love my district. They're great. It would be a lot harder if I had different people. And, to answer your question, Ashley has been keeping up with me. She sends me a letter just about every day, more or less, but  I definitely look forward to letters so much. Emailing never seems like we have enough time. During one of our lessons this week, my teacher made us have a race 2 quick loops here and I ended up winning, which was pretty funny. Everyone else ended up dying because of the altitude here, but it's alright. I can teach full lessons in Spanish and really get to know the investigator. Some teachers here only speak Spanish. So, they tell me to translate to the rest of my district. It's funny. I'll be fluent, hopefully, at the 6 month mark. Maybe later. Maybe sooner. On a different note, it actually feels weird to wear normal clothes now. I'm so used to wearing a suit. It actually feels comfortable wearing one now. I can't wait to get out of the MTC. I don't really like it here that much. We are basically in a huge box with a huge fence, so we don't get to see the outside world and interact with anyone. On the bright side, only 3 and a half weeks left until I'm out of here. Mis maestros son buenos. (teachers) all of them speak Spanish and are slowly trying to speak English ha ha. I understand almost everything they say, though. Even our sacrament meetings are all in Spanish. I gave a talk last Sunday in Spanish, so that was cool. The first talk I've ever given in all Spanish. And, even the hymns we sing here are in Spanish so I'm starting to learn all of the words to those, so I even forget how to sing them in English. There are a lot of words I know how to say in Spanish but not English. The temple was great! I spoke to everyone in Spanish because no one spoke very much English. I hope my mission is as cool as it is in Mexico. Fun Fact: the people in Mexico City aren't mean at all. Everyone thinks of Mexico and thinks of crime and everything, but its nothing like that here. Yeah, there are a lot of poor people here, but they're all really nice and more unified as a country then the United States. I miss you guys a lot and I know it's not a successful mission unless I'm struggling, which I am, so I guess it's going alright. Love you guys. I have to end this a little sooner to send pictures. Also, one more thing, if you could get some people to send letters to an Elder Steven Stanley serving in McAllen too. He hasn't got any family or anyone emailing him or sending him letters so it would make him happy if you did so. My companion and I are both sending this to our families and haven't told Elder Stanley about it. But, thank you so much! KEEP THE LETTERS UP! Miss you guys. I'm about to send some pictures.

-ELDER BRADY-