¨I change your face¨ - Elder Carrasco trying to speak english

Hola amigos y familia!

Okay so I decided I should change the way I do emails. I´m going to write my big long email about my week first, then write to my family, then write to everyone else. So if I don´t get to your email this week don´t be sad and I will get to it next week (:

Also, my email last week was a blurr so I'm sorry if I say something I´ve already said.

Fun Facts about Mexico:

* People here cannot sing. We are in the choir for church and wow we sound terrible hahaha. We have to sing in Stake Conference on Sunday and I´m going to be so embarrassed.

* Driving here is craaazy. There is no such thing as right of way and people cut each other off like crazy and there are almost no stoplights and nobody uses stop signs.

* Nothing starts or ends on time

* Fashion here is like the early 2000s in the US and it´s really funny to see people's "styles."

* There are dogs everywhere (and on almost every rooftop) and there is dog poop all over the streets.

* Everyone greets each other and says goodbye with kisses on the cheek and I still haven't gotten used to it.

* People always try to speak english with me.  A lot of people try to have me translate things for them and tell them how to say things. I don't even know enough spanish to do most of it so I just look like an idiot and like I don't know my own language haha.

* Everyone thinks WA is Washington DC. Whenever I tell people where I'm from they always ask, "oh where the president lives?"

* People here like to call me ¨princesa¨ or ¨rapunzel¨ because of my long blonde hair.

* NOBODY can say my last name. It takes them like 10 tries and they can never get it.

* 80% of guys ages like 14-30 creep me out here because they all either whistle at me, honk at me, stick their heads out of their car windows and yell things to me, yell "I love you" to me (in english), make weird noises when they walk past me, point me out to their friends, or just straight up stare at me as I walk past. There was a day this week, I don't even know what was going on but for a good 10 minutes every single man or guy that I walked past did one of the things I listed above and I wanted to run away and cry oh my gosh.

* People eat tortillas and spicy picante with EVERY meal.  All meals consist of 99% carbs and people don't eat breakfast food.

* They have really weird drinks here. One day this week they gave me this weird horchata water thing (oh, and every drink is *something* agua) and it literally tasted like a peppermint pine christmas candle.

* People LOVE playing with my hair (and I mean I don´t mind(; ) and everyone asks if I die it.

* A favorite desert here is called Pan Dulces.There are tons of different types of it. Basically they are pastries of all different kinds and oh I love it so much.

* We have to take combis EVERYWHERE (I don´t know if I sent a picture of one in my last email so I will try to in this email, if not, look it up!) and it is the same price every time no matter how far you go.

* I realized the other day I forgot how an iPhone works and it's like a foreign concept to me now.

* My acne has never been so bad. A mixture of the super greasy food, the gross water, and the fact that we buy chocolate like every day is killing my face

Things I miss:

- MY FAMILY. I love showing everyone my pictures with them.

- All my friends from home, BYU, and the MTC.

- This past summer.

- Being able to just chill and watch movies and have lazy days.

- Driving and normal roads

- Having the internet at my fingertips 24/7.

- Houses in America. (Here they are not very nice and made of concrete.)

- ENGLISH. Being able to express myself and be myself and actually understand what's going on.

- Sleep/my bed

- Showers that work

- Hugs

- My music

- Being able to be barefoot or just have socks on. (I have not done either once since I've been here.)

-Regular food from America.

-Being able to wear a sweatshirt and yoga pants.

Some Highlights of this week:

* Well it was much better than last week for sure!

* Part of me is asking myself how I'm already emailing again and the other part is asking myself how I've only been here for 2 weeks.

* Some days my spanish is great and I understand everything and some days I can't speak to save my life and have no idea what people say to me.

* Good news! We're moving into a new apartment in a week and a half! Our Bishop owns a company that builds houses and he is letting us rent one that they´re almost done with.

* We have a super awesome golden investigator who is going to be baptized on the 11th of October!

* We had a Noche Mexicana activity on Friday and we ate good food and listened to fun Mexican music. Me and the other missionaries in my district had to do their weird flag march salute thing and we totally butchered it and it was so embarassing and everyone was laughing hahaha.

* Some days we had tons of appointments, others nobody was home and all our appointments fell through.

* I´m still super afraid of talking to people on the streets.

* We're super close with the Bishop´s family.  They are awesome and always make us super good food because they know I don't like spicy stuff and have a sensitive stomach. I'm getting closer with most of the members in our ward!

* This man called us at like 12am the other night and he was saying all these weird things and saying he needed to talk to us and we think he was drunk.  We called back the next day and nobody ever answered. Super weird.

* I felt sad again Saturday night and Sunday but then last night I got to call Hermana Sellers and I was so happy!! We're aloud to call other missionaries in our mission if we have their number so we've definitely done that some nights haha.

* I get calls sometimes from our Sister Training Leader and Sister Christensen (Mission President's wife) and they talk to me in english and it's nice.

* On wednesday we have a big multi-zone conference and President and Sister Christensen are going to be there and we are super excited!

* Today I heard sooo much American music and it was awesome. While we were doing our laundry at a member's house they had music playing and like every other 2 songs would be one from America. Also in the combis and walking past the stores a lot of them were playing American music.

* Today (15 of September) is Mexican Independence day so everyone is out and about in Apizaco. Tonight all the missionaries have to be in our houses by 7:30 because it's not going to be safe tonight since everyone has been blowing things up and everyone will be drunk and crazy tonight.

Sorry if I worried you guys last week with my depressingness, but I'm doing a lot better this week! Thank you so much for all your support and love, I really really appreciate it! I hope you enjoy this super long email to make up for last week (:

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO

Con amor,

Hermana Eyring

Noche Mexicana

Beautiful view from part of our area

Making tamales!