Buenas tardes,

Well sounds like you guys are busy as always which is good. Thats exciting you have tickets for conference! Im soooo excited for conference! Especially because this time I can understand it! Also the rededication/cultural celebration this week will be awesome. The only hard thing is that we have to tell our investigators that they cant go. We wont have church services on sunday just the 3 sessions of the temple rededication. The first 2 sessions we´ll be in the stake center but the last our stake is invited to go to the stake center next to the temple so thats cool. We´re focusing on making sure all the recient converts can go to the rededication sense investigators cant. The open house didnt have as much success as they were hoping because the area presidency did a lot of weird stuff so thats disappointing.

This ward is super great. Our ward mission leader is a returned missionary that came back a little less than a year ago so he knows what hes doing. We have coorelation and ward council every week. We actually have ward missionaries too which is rare in the mission. I dont know why but they divide the wards really fast here so all the wards are super small and dont have enough faithful members for all the callings which is stupid and a lot of wards dont function very well for lack of members. Lucky for us it isnt the case with Mixihuca we dont have a bishop but everything still works pretty well and the members help a ton. We take our progress records to ward council and the ward council members all choose an investigator that they want to know and go with us to a lesson. And that is why we have success. This is a really hard area, we dont have a lot of investigators but all of them progress because the members help us find them and fellowship them. The youth and YSA are really great too with fellowshipping. They are all great friends and do stuff together outside of church probably because its a safer environment and they feel more comfortable. Our recient convert Yulieth from colombia who doesnt have a lot of friends here and feels lonely because she is at home every day with her son now has a ton of friends and they all support her in the church. Rodolfo has also been fellowshipped really well (hes 20) the only thing is is he felt nervous and not ready this week and he started school so we didnt have as much time to talk to him. So we didnt push his baptism, he´ll get baptised this week... he wont be able to go to the temple dedication but at least he wont feel pushed. We started teaching the sister of some recient converts that are twins that are super awesome. They are so great to be around and the sister, Guadalupe, will be baptised soon. The twins, Veronica and Monica, have been baptised for 2 months and are already sharing books of mormon with their friends in the hospital where they work together, Monica is secretary in the relief society and Veronica is 2nd councilor in the young womens. They´re cool and Veronica is going to cut my hair today haha. Another investigator named Erika is progressing really we´ll she´ll be baptised soon because she really wants to. Shes super nice but also super serious...shes a grandma but shes only 35! We also found another couple Andrea and Eduardo that have been traveling to Ecatepec every Saturday and staying the night at Andreas moms so they could go to church (her mom is also a recient convert) then the ward told them that there is a church closer to where they live so they came and found us, they´re cool too and they have a 3 year old daughter that is adorable named Luna which means Moon haha. Darinka is also progressing shes just always busy on sundays...

I look forward to seeing the pictures...still...years...later... Haha its nice to know that things havent changed much haha. 

Today we went to Zocalo again which is the plaza where all the government buildings are including the National Palace (office of the president) and the Cathedral of Mexico. It was cool because sept 16th is independence day so everything is all decorated in green, red and white and looks super cool. Im excited because we live so close we will be able to see all the fireworks and all the cool independence day stuff in the capital of Mexico. Its like being in DC on the 4th of July...(Was that cool). We saw a cool building called Bellas Artes which is a really fancy theater for like Broadway plays and a ton of street shopping. Its cool because its like an outdoor mall but with all the old Mexican Buildings. Its had all the stores Anna loves so she would have been in heaven. We also saw a lot of American, British and French tourists. Lots of them pointed at us probably like ´look the Mormons´ haha

Yeah the food here is way different than Mexican food in the US. The reason that its so greasy is because they use so much oil. A LOT OF OIL. Also Im pretty sure the food department does nothing here. They hardly use cheese but the cheese they use is the healthier weird white kind like the Mexican cheese we had a whole bunch of in the freezer for a while or another kind called Oaxaca that is kind of like string cheese but more real and with a stronger taste. Yep Dad we do need to come back some day so you can try the food and learn what spicy really is, so I can visit all the other cool touristic places outside of the mission and so you can meet all my friends. 

Thats sad Neal and Colette arent going to the fair. Have fun though and send me some pictures so I can show my comp. 

Dont be too scared of the dogs mom haha dont you have pepper spray? There shouldnt be dogs on the green belt right?

Well things are great. Hopefully Ill find something to connect my memory to the computer to send all my pictures. 

Love you lots and have a great Labor Day! 

Adios

Elder Jo-Ann Inskeep