My companion Elder Castillo and I and the the streets around our house as we walk to the internet place to write.  It doesn't look hot but it is extremely hot right now

Comaista? what is that haha? Things are good the lesson with the doughnut vendors never happened which was dissapointing but I know it will eventually work out because they are ready. Because they sell doughnuts for a living their lives are unpredicable because when they get home depends on how much success they have. Its hard because they want to listen but they need to sell doughnuts to survive. They get up at 4 on weekdays and 3 on weekends to make the doughnuts then they travel around the área on their cool Little nacho libre style bikes haha. sometimes they get home at 3 in the afternoon sometimes its not til 9 or 10 at night. Weve talked to the wife twice in the Street and twice at her house sense last week and kind of taught her in the doorway but both times here husband was still out selling. They are so great though they are such good people and I don´t know why but I feel like I already know the husband. A lot of people here seem so familiar and remind me of people at home its crazy. Last night we stopped by their house on our way home and they weren{t home but the wifes sister in law was with her daughter and we talked to them a Little bit. (Im sorry its a Little confusing Im not sure if Im supposed to use their names) The sister in law is great to and we have an appointment with them on thursday, her Schedule is more normal because she is a maid in a couple houses so she said shes always home by 3ish. She believes everything we believe pretty much but she kept saying she is a part of AA and kind of talks about that like a church. I didnt know but I guess they talk about God and stuff so she says she only wants to learn more about God and faith but doesnt want to go to church or anything because she already has AA. I was sort of confused but we´ll work with her. (so in Mexico a lot of extended families live together or in a house that has different appartments for each of them. In this house there is the husband and wife that sell doughnuts their daughter and her 2 kids, the wife{s nephew and then a different brother of the wife and his wife and daughter who are the other people we talked to, that was probably extremely confusing but hopefully you understand) Then after that we contacted an old investigator and talked to her for a Little bit shes been investigating for a long time but she feels like shes done things that cant be forgiven (we´re not sure what) so she has never been baptised. Today during study I felt like we should invite her to fast with us so well invite her during the next lesson on wednesday. Then the lady with grandkids and family in the hospital and also her sister in law who was visiting accepted a baptismal date for may 30th and was supposed to attend church with us but something came up with her husband who isnt around very much so she couldnt. But it was great that she texted us the night before to let us know. Our other investigator that wants to learn english and is a JW is scared to change but he loves our visits and he keeps all the Reading commitments and he is progressing in his faith so that is good. We invited him to go to the temple visitor center with us this week and he is super excited and we are going to set an exact date when he knows his Schedule. I really feel like this will help him. Then we recived a referal of a family, a mom dad and 3 kids, they are excited too and the mom said they have investigated a lot of churches in the past and this one feels right to her. We gave them a book of mormon and the 2 daughters at home have already started Reading and the mom said she will. they are super busy and weve never met the dad because he is a pólice officer and is never home so hopefully we´ll be able to teach them all togther soon. Then we have three part member families we are teaching all including grandmas and a couple kids that are members but also the grandkids and spouses of the kids that are not. Good old grandmas haha. I love to talk to the kids when Elder Castillo is talking to the parents because they dont care about how bad my spanish is or whatever else they just want to be my friend and learn more about the pictures that I show them in the scriptures and in the pamphlets. 

Ok hopefully you understood all that...if not its ok Im used to not being understood. Its so frustrating because if people know that Im new they either don´t talk to me because they think I dont understand, try too hard to be simple that we get nowhere or the very worst= try to talk to me in english which is super frustrating and most of the time harder to understand than the spanish and it just makes me look stupid. But if we can get into a lesson or converstation before Elder castillo tells them I don´t know spanish or does something else crazy normally things go really well. I can normally understand what theyre saying or at least the main point enough to respond and then we can tell them Im new and they can try and help me but they understand that I can understand just that sometimes it is a Little hard. 

I studied a lot this week about patience and humility because it is really easy to be angry at my companion and I have learned that the problems are not only my companions but mine too. If Im constantly angry at him for not helping me or not wanting to work or be exactly obedient theres no way I can have the spirit to be led to the people who are ready. I have definetly seen that sense I have been trying harder things have been better and we have had more success and I have found in my studies ways to help him. 

I love to hear about everything you write that is going on at home. Things like that are great or experiences you liked or thought were funny like the one about Pres Kunz at the baptism are great. Its good to hear that everyone is doing good and about your missionary experiences and how you are having similar experiences like not have your people go to church and stuff. Your letters definetly are not boring. You will have to tell the Lawes good luck and Im excited for them from me. Sister Lawes is so great. 

Im not sure what the plan is for mothers day but I will be skyping. We need to find a member who has a computer that we can use to skype. What time Works for you guys? We will talk and I will let you know for sure next monday. make sure Dad or someone has a skype account and that you send me the address. 

 Our ward is normal sized but it didn´t have very good attendance this sunday part of it is probably because it starts at 8 in the morning!!!! We get a ride to church from this great widow across the street and her son because the church is probably 25 min away walking mas o menos but they weren´t ready until 8 exactly. I was frustrated we were going to be late- what a great example the missionaries are setting. Of couse Elder Castillo wasn´t worried at all haha. But we showed up and there was hardley anyone there. Church started at like 8:20 and people kept showing up until 9 haha. Mormon standard time is way worse here haha Pres Rose would be ashamed! Church starting 20 minutes later than it is supposed to haha.

You´ll have to tell sister Rawlins I´m sorry I never went out with them. I didn´t realize how important and how big of a help it is. I thought of it mostly as practice for me and not as much as help to them. I shouldn´t have been too  busy. We have 3 youth preparing for missions in the ward that are going to go out with us. Its cool because they are all pretty much my age. The ward has 4 missionaries 3 sisters and one elder all serving in Mexico except the one elder is in New York. The ward loves missionaries. It is so great the ward is amazing but they do not have ward missionaries or a ward mission leader. Im not sure why. A lot of things are confusing for me. We teach a lot of less actives and try to reactivate them and a lot of the are part member families but never really understand why they dont come to church haha. Im glad to here the stake has more missionaries. Every ward here has a set or two haha. Our ward is pretty big comparatively so it is surprising we only have one. A lot of walking. 

Good to hear about the stuff that goes on at home and in the stake and thank bro driscoll for the stake email also. 

Its funny I feel like my mission is just like yours but in Mexico. Ecatepec is their version of Arlington. Everyone works in the city but Ecatepec is also huge. It has some pretty nice parts and some parts that members tell you not to go. It sounds pretty similiar to your stories but more members so probably smaller wards. And in Mexico people spend so much more time in the street so its easy to contact people while walking.  Its true absence makes the heart grow fonder because I miss them too. Its fun going to members homes with kids because it reminds me of home. There are so many kids in this ward that are Josies age its crazy! there are going to  be 5, 8 year old baptisms just in october! The relief society president has a 7 year old that really likes me and likes to hang all over me and talk to me about dinosaurs and super heros its fun. I dont understand a lot of what he says so I mostly just say si or wow but its great. 

 the wards great and we probably have it easier because lots of moms stay home here and our área is mostly families or students or apartments but we can{t get into the apartments without someone letting us in anyways. The commute here is sooo long. We were talking to the elders quórum president yesterday and he commutes 1.5 hrs on the metro and theres another guy we know that sometimes has 3 hrs in the evening by car....car is not the way to go here. We rode the metro today to visit some of Elder Castillos friends from old áreas and I{m glad the metro is super nice here and sense we are in the suburbsish its above ground so theres as fresh of air as you can get in Mexico City. It costs like 30 cents I cant remember what it was in new york but its pretty nice. It costs like 50c to ride the bus and taxis are more expensive because it is by the distance

I also have a recepy (I can´t remember how to spell in English I´ve focused on spanish so much) for this candy cookie thing we eat all the time its called Mazapan de Cacahuate I dont know if you´ve had it but its super good if you have the chance to try it you should...

Ingredientes:                                                            

1 kilo de cacahuate por mitades                                 1 kilo peanuts

1 kilo de Azucar glass                                                 1 kilo powdered sugar

Aros de 2 tamaños de pvc                                           a kilo = 2.2 ponds, so just use equal portions

bolsitas de celofan                                                       grind peanuts in food processor, until pasta type

engrapadora o liston curly                                            dough then start adding sugar. mix good, pack 

1 procesador de alimentos o un molino                        into small balls, no cooking

I honestly don´t undestand much of that but its pretty good if you want to try it. We also had this soup called crema de elote.  Its delicious. Also the tortas are great.

You can{t understand me? Haha its crazy how when I{m so focused on spanish it takes a minute to get back into English mode because they speak in a different order and use different words that if I translated directly wouldn{t make sense in English. Theres this girl in the Ward that is a Ward missionary that whenever she goes to lessons with us we practice her English to prepare for a job interview she has to save up for her misión. I actually have to think a Little bit about how to pronounce something or what order to speak in. I am bad at both languages haha. I know only speak Spanglish. 

The cookie things are really good but they will be crumbly youll have to let me know how it Works out. Its so great to hear about your missionary work and also what is going on at home. Its good to hear that the kids are doing well also. I{ve showed some of the member families we eat with one of the pictures and they loved it. One even thought that Anna was my mom and you were my sister hahahaha. One way we contact people hear is by teaching english because everyone here wants to know english to get better Jobs and be paid more and I was thinking maybe that would be helpful in Blackfoot. There are probably a ton of immigrants that want to know English and you can bring them unto the góspel while doing it! Im glad alyssia helped you haha shes probably a great person to have help you learn about computers. Its also great to hear about grandma! I have sent her 2 letters so she{ll be getting them both in the next month. I got her letter last week. We have two appointments tonight that Im super excited about. One is a family (the guy his mom sister and his sisters son) that we contacted when the guy was out cleaning his car it through us off at first because he called us Elders right off, turns out his mom and sister took the discussions in the past and his sister got baptised but is inactive they all want to here. The other is super cool. One night this week I was hungry and we needed change for the bus the next day so I was going to buy a snack at a small store we were passing but I felt like I should wait. A few minutes later we passed a couple people selling donuts (I cant remember how to spell it in english) in the Street. There are vendors everywhere so we just passed but I felt like we should go back so we did and bought some doughnuts? And one of the guys got way excited that I was from the US I guess he lived in florida for a few years and he still has family there and really misses it. Then we started talking about why we were hear and he tried to remember some English. He kept saying {whats up man? what happened?{ haha it was way funny. But there are at least 4 adults and we know at least one of them has kids. We{ve seen them a couple times after and they are super excited. They are great people and I hope it all goes well. 

Love you a bunch. Its frustrating because I forget all the things I want to tell you. I need to keep a list haha. 

Tell everyone hi for me

Mucho amor hasta próximo semana

Elder Inskeep

The market in our Street every thursday from our window.

more traffic

Avenida Central the huge highway that runs through our area with the metro and greenbelt in the center

Este semana fue mejor. This week was better. Its still frustrating because we don´t have that many investigators but we´ve been trying to contact investigators from the past and we´ve also contacted a bunch on the street and we´ve taught a lot of less actives. Its discouraging because the goal of the mission is to have a baptism every week but we haven´t had any and we probably won´t have any for a few weeks because we don´t have anyone that is ready. We have 3 investigadors and una familia that we are focusing on the first one is a grandma who actually contacted us the first week we were here. She is ready and wants to learn more but after our first lesson a member of her family was put in the hospital across the city for something so now she is always gone and we haven´t seen much of her. We have talked to her on the phone and she still wants it but shes just too busy right now. Hopefully this week will be better. She also has her grandkids with her alot so we hope that when they listen also they will want to be baptised and their parents will let them. The second is an old man who I think mostly wants to learn English. His English is actually really good and he taught himself. He wants me to help him learn so we gave him the pamphlets and stuff in English and Spanish so he could compare. We came back the second time and he seemed more interested but also told us he had been going to the Jehovas Witness church with some friends and feels like it would be rude to leave so quickly. I promised him if he sincerly prayed and asked which direction he should go he would recieve an answer. We´ll see how that went next time we meet with him. Its cool because We teach in spanish and he responds in English if he can, I get to carry the lesson more unlike the other lessons because understand and my companion does not haha. The third is a guy that was taking the lessons in the past before the missionaries left the area, I think his girlfriend is a member. The family is more or less a part member family. The family consists of a grandma, a bunch of random aunts and uncles off and on and then a mom dad and 5 kids. The Grandma and youngest aunt that is 16 are members but no one else is. They are pretty open to the gospel but the same people aren´t there every time its always different so that makes it kind of hard. Then we have a bunch of less active families we are trying to reactivate. 

The ward is fantastic. I love every family we have met. Everyone wants to feed us and help us and give us whatever we need. We are always recieving the addresses of active members because they want us to eat with them and come visit. Most are converts so thats probably part of the reason they love missionaries so much and also because they are converts- the active ones I think

 have very strong testimonies and they want to share. There are a couple that have been members their whole life and then a bunch that have been for 40-20 years and a bunch of recients. The bishop has been a member for 12 years but his wife her whole life. Her mom is also in the ward...shes crazy haha just kidding I don´t know I just can´t understand her very well because she talks weird haha shes kind of like a really cranky but friendly old lady if that makes sense. We eat with the bishop every saturday and this saturday I showed the bishops wife my pedigree chart because she is really into family history and she was very interested in it. She thought it was crazy how young you and dad are because she is the same age but she has only a 7 year old and a 10 year old haha. The culture with marriage is different here and a lot of people at church actually encourage people to get married after they finish college which is the opposite in the states. Its also cool in Mexico everyone has 2 last names, the name of their dad and the name of their mom. It really helps distinguish families sense there are a lot of the same names here or a lot of families that are related. We would be la familia Inskeep Rollins. I think thats cool. Also people have way long names its hard to give blessings #1 because its in spanish and its frustrating when I don´t know a word or I have to say something exactly and #2 because people have names like Guadalupe Salma Maria Guiermena Lopez Martinez its crazy. And they also call everyone by their first name here like Obispo David, Hermano Carlos, or Hermana Maria. Almost all of the sisters in the ward are named either Guadalupe, Marisol, or Maria haha.

We´ve had a lot of great food. A lot of soup which is weird because it is really hot outside. The main meal here is lunch so we have lunch appointments over dinner appointments. Yesterday we had ham potatoes and green beans. I told them that was a normal sunday meal in the Estados Unidos also and they thought that was weird haha. Everyone thinks all we eat is Hamburgers Hot dogs pizza and spagetti haha. 

For the most part I´m doing much better. Thank you soooo much for the package I loved it especially the pictures. The president brought it from the office when he came to our chapel for zone interviews on thursday. The candy was great. I shared the eggs with the zone while we were all waiting for interviews. All the Americans and Canadians said they missed reeses because they don´t have that here and all the Latinos had never had anything like it so they thought it was pretty great. They don´t really do the whole easter candy thing here its more religious which is cool. They actually had another week of vacation for Easter this week too! I also loved the card and the...I dont know what you call them in English...Tarjetas with articulos de fe and Jose Smith. Mexicans don´t know how to pronounce the S without an E infront so everyone says Jose Esmit here haha.
Your not bad luck people are never home when they say they are supposed to be. Its good to here about la obra del Señor at home and I´ll be excited to see pictures of the house. 

Love you! Hasta proximo semana. Adios

Elder Inskeep

Estoy en mi nueva área en el campo ahora! I am in my new área in the field now! I am in a ward called Muzquis in the stake Anuahac I think is how you spell them both. Its great my companion and I are both new to the área and there hasn[t been missionaries here for a while so its been a little crazy. My companion is a little guy named Elder Castillo from the Dominican Republic. Hes very nice but doesn't know very much english and I don't know very much spanish so we're a crazy pair. 

The last week in the CCM was a little sad. I loved it there . I miss my teachers and friends there and the field is definitely harder haha. 

On monday we were picked up bright and early by the AP's and they took us to the Presidentes house which is not in our misión. It was about 2.5 hours away with the traffic but they said it doesn't take that long when there's not traffic. It was in the rich part of town and it was very very nice. We had a typical Mexican breakfast that consisted of refried beans, scrabbled eggs with salsa, cantelope, some type of breakfast nachos and this really good warm milk stuff...I don't know if thats typical but we sure have it a lot. Then we had some training and interviews and pictures. You got the pictures right. Then we drove back to the misión office next to the temple in the misión and recieved temporary companions. Mine was Elder Walker from Idaho Falls he is awesome and we had a great night with lots of lessons. He is my zone leader now. 

Then on tuesday we went back to the office on a bus and recieved our new companions. They gave us money to take a taxi to the edge of the state and then the metro in the city, the taxis in the state and in the district are different so we couldnt just take one taxi and sense we were both moving we had a ton of stuff and did not want to try and handle that on the metro so we put in some of our own money to take 2 taxis. It was dumb because it wasnt that far but it was better than having luggage on the metro. the first taxis was pretty small and I sat in the back with luggage on top of me so Elder Castillo could navigate. I was so squished but then the next taxi was even smaller so I was forced to sit in the front and Elder Castillo laid on top of the luggage squished to the ceiling haha. It was muy loco. all the missionaries say our house is super nice and they are jealous but I liked Elder Walkers better. Our house is pretty big though. It is above a small grocery store, like a gas station but without gas, it has stuff like milk, soda, eggs, and Candy. then we are on the second floor and there is a karate place on the third floor hahaha. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a decent living room and a small kitchen'dining room place and no laundry. This morning we couldnt figure out the wáter but we figured out that we have to plug in the wáter pump down stairs while we use wáter. We spent a lot of time yesterday looking for the bishops house and meeting the Ward. We had 3 contacts and 2 lessons though which I didnt think was bad sense it was our first day in an área that hadnt had missionaries but it still wasnt up to standards haha. The people here are very kind and its similar to the united states in the way people live but very different. I love the people even though I can barely understand them. I like to talk to old people because they talk slower hahaha. We also ate at Little césars which was good. it is funny because all mexicans put kétchup on there pizza for some reason and I always thought it was super weird when I saw it at the CCM but Elder Castillo made me try it and it was actually pretty good. He kept asking me if I wanted to eat at "Leader Sisters" I was so confused until I realized he meant Little cesesars Its way bigger here to and more like a sit down place. I told Elder Castillo that in Estados Unidos people just pick up their pizza and leave and he thought that was weird.  

Today is pday but normally it will be monday. the only reason it is today is because we had changes. We cleaned a Little and then rode the metro to the biggest mall I have ever seen, it was so huge and had probably every store you could think of, Anna would be in heaven if she knew español especially sense everything is sooo cheap. The mall even had, Walmart, Home depot, sams club, Sears, and a few other huge stores like that Ive never Heard of. We went to this place like deleta to play games and stuff because Elder Castillo is silly haha. We played airhockey and skee ball.... I think. It was pretty fun though and we ate at this place called 60s Burger that Elder Castillo likes. The metro is super nice too and it only costs like 5 pesos and its way more simple than in New York. 

Ill try and write a letter to tell you more...

Yes I know Jose Smith was a prophet of God because the spirit told me. I can feel it every time I teach it and I'm so glad I get to help others know about him and the restored góspel. 

Im not really sure what is going on up in Idaho...Even people here think Iowa or Ohio when I say Idaho or they just ask me if Im from Utah haha. 

he is here and he is happy

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saint Days 

Mexico East Mission, Mexico City

March  2015

Dear Brother and Sister Inskeep

               We want to express our deepest feelings of gratitude to you and at the same time notify that your son, Elder Inskeep       has arrived in the mission field with good health and a sweet spirit of love and service.

                     We are on your service and we know that the Lord fill you of blessings for all the work that your son is doing in this great work.  

             We recommend you for the strenght and health to him,  write him by e-mail every week , so it will help him to be in contact with you  and your words uncourage him to follow every day working faithfully , we hope these words can be full of  optimistical and faith 

            If in some ocassion you desire to say him some familiar matter, don´t feel you can´t do it, but call to the mission office or mission house but not directly or if he has our permission  

President and sister  Anaya 

Mexico East Mission. Mexico City  

another saying bye to the older district.(top) Tuia Otuafi Lightheart Te Clark Herron Turner me Wasden Haggard Richins Willis (bottom) hermanas Brightman clower fish and Schreiner

bottom is Hermano Silva he is one of the coolest teachers he is soo funny I hope I can see him again after I leave

Us saying goodbye to the district older than us last week. (right to left) me, Elder willis, Te, Richins, Turner and Haggard...Elder ´Otuafi is the one being held