Hello again! So, as it turns out, I may have spoken a bit too soon regarding my health. It’s not anything alarming – just some swollen lymph nodes underneath my jaw, and still a killer headache. But, it seems that every time I find myself afflicted with a new sickness, it is less severe than what I had before, so I’m praising God for that.

Sorry for not posting the last two days, but Saturday night was pretty weird (the woman who lives in the other half of my home had her house broken into and robbed, so we have had to relocate for a few days), and Sundays are difficult because of the “multiple service” thing they have going on for the Vanguard students (I’ll get into that in one of my next posts).

But it’s Monday, which means that I’ll be evangelising in downtown Tepic (Centro) with a handful of my classmates. I went for the first time last week, y fue muy chido (for you English speakers back home, that’s Español for “and it was really awesome”). While some of my classmates went around the main square to share the Gospel with the civilians, they asked me to sing – in English, of course, since my decision to go was last minute, and I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare a song in Spanish.

So I ended up singing How He Loves per their request – I sang it one time in front a small group of people during one of our study hours, and I guess they enjoyed it enough to make them want me to sing it.

Funny story: I was about a third of the way through “How He Loves” when I felt a tug on my hair, and I looked at Andrea (my roommate), and she gave me an odd look of awkward discomfort – she hadn’t touched me, but she knew who did, but she was singing with me, so she couldn’t tell me what happened without interrupting the song. So I looked to the guy who was playing guitar, Israel, and he directed my attention to what was behind me: there was an older man looking at me desperately, repeating a phrase I couldn’t quite understand. He held in his hand a coin worth two pesos and repeated that phrase as he laid it in my hand. At this point, I had stopped singing in an effort to tell him I didn’t understand him, so I had to awkwardly start the song from where we left of before a stranger touched my hair. I learned later that night that he was saying “me recuerdas,” which translates into “remember me.”

Alrighty, then. I’ll be framing those two pesos to make sure I do just that.

In addition to that slightly odd flattering encounter, after I sang my English song, the group came together to sing in Spanish, which was really nice. This all led up to a message given by one of the students to the crowd that had gathered to enjoy a group of youngin’s singing and preaching about in public. I witnessed a willingness to hear the Gospel I had never really noticed in America – when they were asked if they wanted to give their lives to Christ, 14 people were willing to accept prayer for salvation. On Wednesday, one of the families that were there came to La Fuente and apparently plan on going permanently. Pretty good for a 10-minute presentation of who God is and why Christ is essential for our lives. I was impressed. Back home, I was never able to even mention anything that suggested any religious undertones without receiving resistance and arguments against my beliefs – but here I was, helping my team lead a good portion of a random crowd to Christ. It was phenomenal.

Here’s a picture of my friend Enrique sharing the Gospel to the aforementioned crowd of people – it was pretty amazing.

So needless to say, I’ll be going as often as I can.

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Again, I’ll be posting *hopefully* every day (barring certain circumstances, such as the one mentioned above) until you guys are caught up. I still would like to encourage you all to ask me questions about my experience here in México.

I was asked if the food here in Mexico tastes the same as the food in Mexican restaurants in America – Yes, if you are asking about the restaurants that claim to be “authentic.” Though I would say these restaurants usually lack the (nearly excessive) use of limes that the people here seem to be so fond of. I haven’t tasted all of the food here, yet, but so far, this has been my experience. Of course, it depends on where you eat in America. There are some real deal Mexican eateries that assure us Americans that Mexican cuisine is not a myth, or just limited to Taco Bell, and then there’s Taco Bell.

Hello! Before I say anything else, I would like to first say sorry for my inability to keep you all updated. I am still in Mexico and I am still alive. As you may be able to imagine, things have been hectic for me – I’ve been having a difficult time adjusting not only physically (for those who don’t know, I’ve been sick on and off for almost a month, and the last two weeks especially have been the worst, but I’m much better now *hopefully*), but emotionally, too. I wish I could say that I’ve been doing just fine, and in many ways I have been – I’ve been making friends, all of whom say I’m learning their language “very fast,” despite my conviction of the contrary. I’m understanding and grasping most, if not all, of the concepts we are learning in Vanguard, and my schedule here is pretty similar to what I had back home. During my time here, I’ve had to deal with a lot of issues, falling into these categories: I totally knew I would have to take care of that right away; I knew I would have to address this, but I didn’t think it would be this soon; and seriously, why?! All (or at least, most) of which you will all hear about soon.

But enough of this talk – I just wanted everyone to know that I am still in Mexico, I’m still alive, and I haven’t forgotten about all of you wonderful people back at home. It’s just that between school, church, and illness, I haven’t been able to find time to sit down and write anything coherent and pleasant enough to share. That, and I haven’t had Wi-Fi access and with my new status as a college student/missionary, time isn’t a thing I have in abundance. But that (hopefully) is no longer a problem. Last week, I was promised Internet connection. That obviously didn’t happen, and hilariously, the reason I was given every time I asked was – it’s Mexico (and I was enlightened with the knowledge of the Spanish equivalent of “yeah, I’ll get to it.” Ahorita, which actually means something similar to “now,” but can used in situations such as responding to the question of when a few college girls will be getting Wi-Fi in their house).

Speaking of college girls, I’m sure you’re all curious as to who my roommates are.

After Lex left, I was all alone for practically the entire day. I had nothing to do except write out my last blog post, which, yes, was an embarrassingly long time ago. I was told that my new roommates would be home by five or six pm, so I resolved to make it back there from the café I was writing at by 4:30. When I made it home, I did my best to make the house look nice so they would have one less reason to hate the new American (sounds ridiculous, especially now that I have gotten to know them). I hear some noise outside the house and excitedly rush to the window… only to see a group of three college-aged girls jump in the car parked outside the house and drive away. Oh. Okay then. They’ll be back soon – they probably had no idea I was home.

I waited another four hours.

Around eight o’clock, I hear people outside again. Turns out, those girls I saw earlier had just parked their car in front of the house so they could get some sushi from next-door. The first girl I met was Andrea, who happened to be the one out of the three others who knew the most English, and we talked for a good portion of the night – our quick testimonies, why we came to Tepic and how God made it all work out – it was nice. I wouldn’t be meeting the other two until the next day, so at around 10 P.M, I went to bed (it turns out, the bed I had been sleeping in for the past four days wasn’t even mine), and tried to prepare myself mentally for the next day.

The next day, I met Paola (the girl whose bed I had been sleeping in), and Rosario (or Chayito/Chayo/Chayis – I don’t fully understand Mexico’s nicknaming methods), whom I will be bunking with until June. She speaks English well enough for me to have a nice conversation with her, but also struggles with it in a way that challenges me to speak more Spanish than I am currently comfortable with (definitely a good thing. Also, she was sick with Dengue Fever and is in the process of recuperation – prayers for her would be greatly appreciated!). Pao (Paola) speaks very little English, but is really good at speaking clearly and slowly and using hand gestures to help me understand what she is saying. It didn’t take me very long to come to the conclusion that I was blessed with friendly roommates. They have been incredibly patient with this awkward American, and they are always encouraging and supportive. Not to mention – they have promised to teach me how to cook authentic Mexican food.

So while I do, at times, feel sad and lonely, I know it’ll be completely worth it.

*I’m going to try to post something every day (by the grace of God) until you guys are caught up, so if anyone is curious about anything, write it in the comments and I’ll address it as soon as possible. Thank you for bearing with me and for your continued prayers and support. ¡Yo los quiero y Dios los bendiga!

Hi. Lex again. It’s only been two weeks since Miko landed in Mexico, but it seems like so much longer.

We had a great weekend. You can read details on the Redefined blog, if you’re interested. I’m just here to share a little video I finally had time to sit down and put together.

I don’t know how Miko is feeling about Mexico these days, but I wonder if she’s had a spare moment to register what she’s feeling anyway. She’s got a pretty busy schedule of lectures, classes, and ministry service laid out for the year. Plus homework and learning Spanish.

I’m not going to comment much on the weekend here, but I will say this: We sat down and had an official meeting with the couple who runs the school she’s attending (Vanguard. In the video, it’s the scene in an office with one younger lady—Gloria—translating.), and by the time the 30 minutes was over I at least was completely sold. (I’m pretty sure Miko was freshly excited too.) I kind of want to send all of our graduating seniors there now.

Anyway, enjoy the video. I’m going to throw all the unused video in a raw, scraps reel to share sometime soon, ’cause there was some stuff I really wanted to share that just didn’t fit in the video. 🙂 Stay tuned.