Beauty

There is so much beauty in this world. When I see a beautiful landscape, I always try and capture it with my camera. It never really does come out the way I see it. I don't think pictures can do the beauty of God's creation justice. It doesn't mean that I won't try and show people a fraction of the beauty that I saw in person.

I love rays of light and I love seeing them shine through. Everytime I see a beautiful landscape, it reminds me of God and his creations. It's hard to not believe in God when you see something so beautiful. How can something like this be by chance or random luck. I think I can stare at his wonders forever.

More Ramblings

Everything you eat here in Mexico has to have some sort of salsa on it. Even if it is a hamburger or a hot dog.

Tuna salad on crackers with some salsa is amazingly good.

For some reason the only thing I am craving from home is Tito's Tacos.

Teaching guitar is hard when you don't have the fundamentals down yourself.

Teaching guitar is even harder when you can't fully express yourself in a foreign language.

Here's to the cuñado's of the world! Your plight is the same no matter where you are in the world; especially when your wife has a younger brother.

Here's to my cuñado, without whom I think my life would be very different.

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We had another Youth Night yesterday. It was fun. Jerry and I came up with some fun games and used some games we've played in the past. A lot of youth that didn't come to the movie night came tonight. Check out the pics on my flickr here.

On Monday we went to Zacatecas with Mical and her friends for her birthday. We watched Spider Man 3. The theater in Zacatecas is really nice. I actually very much enjoyed the movie. Definitely more so than I thought I would considering the feedback I have gotten from the movie.

I have started teaching guitar classes this week. I have 2 students. I also have a new computer student. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are now going to be packed with classes.

Check out this video of us passing out food here.

I feel like I have a lot more to say, but I just haven't processed what it is I want to say yet.

Photography

On Friday we had an awesome Youth Night. We watched another movie. This time we watch a Jackie Chan movie called Little Thief. Afterwards we played 3 games as well. We had a good turnout and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Youth Nights are going to be awesome and I can't wait for the future ones.

For pics of the Youth Night, click here.

Yesterday I also went to my first quinceñera. It was a friend of Gabriel's. It was really fun. It's pretty much a wedding without a groom. I will upload pics from the quinceñera soon. I was thinking to make some money for the mission, I could photograph quinceñeras here.

I definitely have enjoyed eating the food here in Jerez. This is a pic of Jerry's favorite quesadilla stand. They had great tacos too. Today we also went to the seafood restaurant that I've been waiting to go to forever. It was amazing. I had a fish and shrimp combo that was fried and garlic flavored. I have to make sure I know where everything is so when people come and visit I can take them to the best spots.

Not much to say lately. I think I've settled in alright and feel fairly comfortable here. The Spanish is improving. I think it's still a bit too early to tell how things are going on my journey. It's been up and down sometimes. But I just have to be patient and see what God has in store for me.

Sing

Nothing much to report lately.

We've opened up the Boba shop the past 2 days. We still think this is the only Boba shop in Mexico or at least one of the very few. Business has been slow since the store has been closed for so long, so people don't know we are open again. The purpose of the store is to gain income for the mission.

Jerry and I sang for Mother's day at the Ermita church. It was a Spanish song called Espérame. It's actually a lot harder to sing in Spanish than in English. It's not so much the pronounication that is difficult, but the intonations and how the words flow. I learned the song pretty much a couple of hours before the service so I was a bit nervous. It's also a lot more tiring to sing here in Jerez. I run out of breath really quickly because of the thin air. I think if i were to lead worship here, I'd only be able to sing about 3 songs.

Madre

Yesterday was Mother's day here in Mexico. We went to Mical's ranch to eat dinner and watch the fiesta. Jerry marinated some chicken and some steak. The chicken was amazing! Everything was bbq'ed with real wood and charcoal. I think they cut down the wood from the backyard. You can totally taste the difference.

Mical's mom also requested boba milk tea from Jerry so he made 5 gallons of milk tea. Everyone loves Jerry's boba milk tea here. I think we were the only family in Mexico drinking boba milk tea on the Dia de Las Madres. it was all gone real quick too.

The fiesta was awesome. There were a lot of performances from the children of the Cargadero ranch. Sunni and Rodrigo (Mical's siblings performed some dancing. It was a fun day. I really love spending time at the ranch. It is so relaxing and so homely. You cannot beat that feeling.

Yesterday, I saw one of the most odd things I have ever seen. I went outside of the office to catch some light and to stretch and all of a sudden I saw many goats, sheep, dogs, and cows just strolling along down the street. I ran and grabbed my camera and got a couple of shots.

Tonight we are celebrating Mother's Day at the Ermita church. I also made some business cards today for the office.

Ermita

I got a sim card and some minutes set up so I can use my cell phone down here. It is mostly for receiving calls and not for calling out since it's not that cheap. Text messaging is the way to go.

I originally wanted to buy a bike so I could get around town more efficiently. The ministry office actually had a bike already, but it didn't have any brakes and it was stuck in a high gear which made me have to pedal a lot more than I would like to. We took it to a bike shop and they fixed everything for only 10 bucks. Now it's like a brand new bike! It's a lot easier than driving since I don't have to park and you can only really go about 10 MPH anyways since there are speed bumps everywhere in Jerez. On bike, It only takes me about 10 minutes to get to Centro from mi casa. It's also fun and good exercise and I get to experience the city more. I'm definitely getting more and more comfortable getting around town now. At first, it's quite daunting since there are pretty much no street names and a lot of small one way streets.

We had a wonderful youth service on Saturday Night at the church in the Ermite. I played guitar during worship. Jerry was on the keyboards and Lucerlaba sang. It was a very powerful service. Juan gave a message that was specifically targeted towards the youth. Afterwards, he invited people to come forward so we could pray for them. Many people came forward. Lots of people were crying. It always makes me very emotional to experience moments like these. You can really feel God's presence.

Jerry plays in a basketball league here and I will be joining his team. The team had a game yesterday so I went to go play with them. It was a very close game that we lost in overtime by 1. I heaved a halfcourt shot with 0.8 seconds left in overtime that was way short. It was fun to play competitive basketball again. The last time I played competitive basketball was when I played in a community league in high school. The air is thin here since we are in a mountainous region and I am way out of shape since I really haven't exercised much since I hurt my achilles tendon. That means I could only play for about 5 minutes before I got really really tired. I'm still a bit scared to do anything physical for fear of hurting my leg again. It's totally psychological but hard to get over. I've played more basketball in the past 3 days than I have in a year.

Tomorrow I will be teaching my first computer class. I feel good. I'm getting exercise and I am eating much better than I did back home thanks to the fresh juice I have been drinking everyday since I got here.

Real

It's Cinco de Mayo. I thought it would be a big deal here. But apparently it's only a big deal in certain places in Mexico. I think it's a bigger deal back home in LA. Oh, well. Regardless, we are going to have an awesome youth service tonight. We went around visiting families and inviting them to the service, so hopefully we will get a big turnout. Juan will be speaking and Jerry and I are going to lead worship with Luceralba.

We also had some amazing shaved ice yesterday. About twice a week we go to Mical's (Jerry's wife) parents ranch for dinner. I love the vibe there. It is totally a small town ranch feel. Very homely. Right down the street they have a shaved ice stand. It is REAL shaved ice. There is a guy with a block of ice shaving it. No machine! The flavors were awesome. I had rompope (which is a leche kind of flavor) and vanilla. It was only about 35 cents. They put a block of the shaved ice in a cup and pour the syrup right on. Simple yet delicious.

There are a lot of stray dogs in Jerez. It always makes me sad to see stray dogs. I'm especially afraid they are going to get hit by a car. Which makes me start thinking about how the dogs in America are treated way better than humans in other parts of the world. They get food, shelter, and even massages in some cases. I've seen a lot of nice dogs that would be very expensive in the US. I saw a German Shepard, a Chow Chow, many Chihuahuas, and a black Lab. There are also a lot of mutts. I see a lot of Daschund looking dogs (really short legs and long body, always makes me laugh - not in a mean way) that do not remotely look like a Daschund. I guess the Daschunds here get a lot of action. They are all really cute and I want to go up and pet them but usually do not for fear of diseases.

Please help us pray for the families we've been visiting. We visited Flor and Perlita's house and are going to see if we can get them a better place or help them remodel. We also visited a lady that is almost completeley blind. We are going to see if we can get her some medical care. It's been really tough to see all these people in need. You want to do your best to help them out.

Learns

Ferretaria is not a place that sells ferrets. For a moment I thought, wow, that is a lot of places that sell ferrets. Ferretaria is actually a hardware store.

People in Mexico are really nice. We've been going to a great fresh juice place and we want it iced. So the owner goes and buys ice for us everytime we go. Today I had a mango, strawberry, carrot, and a hint of honey concoction.

I hope I can learn Spanish. In the 2 weeks I've been in Mexico, I think I've made ok progress. We will see where I am at in 2 months. Learning Spanish is helping me remember English grammar again. I just know how to say and write things in English. I totally have forgotten why things work the way they work.

Amazed

Wow, what a day. I don't even know where to begin. Today I set up the Mac Lab so we now have 5 macs all connected to the internet. I will start teaching computer classes next week. Juan will be translating for me until I get good enough to teach computers in Spanish on my own. I am excited and I really hope the kids enjoy the classes. We will be offering classes covering everything from video editing to word processing. Thanks to all who made the Mac Lab happen. We are always looking for more donations too. Wink, wink.

Today we also passed out food. Every 2 weeks we pass out food to about 10 familes. The food bags consist of tomatoes, potatoes, beans, meats, and other essentials. We also help support some familes with rent as well. Some of these familes really needed help. The family pictured didn't even have enough money for gas so they couldn't cook. We covered their gas bill as well.

It is amazing what 20 dollars can do for some of these familes. Rent for one family was 23 dollars a month. That is a meal for me back home. One meal is rent for a month! It makes you think doesn't it? 20 dollars can also buy lots of food for these familes. If you want to help support some of these familes, please visit the Mission in Mexico website and contact us.

We are having a movie night tonight for the youth at the office!
My lunch today cost me $1.30. Amazing.

Miracle

I guess one of the cool things about doing mission work is just talking and meeting as many people as you can. This guy is the owner of a restaurant in Camargo we ate at (great steaks) and he was really friendly and nice to us. We spoke to him for a while. It turns out his parents live in Zacatecas.

Juan tried to minister to him and his testimony usually involves how he got shot and survived. It didn't work as well this time since the man had gotten shot 18 times and survived. He showed us his scars and said that he will be in the Guinness Book of World Records next year for most gun shots survived. What a miracle. Thank God or else I wouldn't have been able to eat that awesome food. I love how restaurant owners always tell us if we don't like the food, its free. So far everytime they say that, the food is awesome.

The girls that worked in the restaurant also wanted to take pics with me and Jerry. Ths is going to be a common occurrence Jerry says in Jerez since we're Asian. This is true since the last couple of times I went to Jerez, a lot of girls wanted to take pics with Bert and Fred. Hopefully we'll meet up with the restaurant owner again someday. He is a living miracle and even said to us that if we ever don't have any money, his restaurant is our home too! We've met some amazing people on this journey.

Update

We have finally arrived in Jerez. We got into town at around 8 am today and I am filled with relief. Of course we met a couple more obstacles before we got here. I will blog more about our last day of adventure soon.

Thanks everyone for all your prayers and support.