Excerpts from 2/23/15

Response to Dad's email:

Let everyone know that I'm doing well. Eating tortas and preaching the gospel. Or... wait... stop... reverse that. Anyway, yeah things are going well. My first baptism was this week. I only really taught her one lesson, but it still counts. 

Also, the milk I drink has that one kid on it... chavo, champolin? With the CH heart shirt. He's like a bug suited superhero or something yeah?

Response to Mom's email:

It's going well! This week I felt I was especially getting in the rhythm of things. A few quick answers:

1) I'm sleeping alright. No better or worse than at home. And while it's hard sometimes, 6:30 isn't too hard compared to 5:20 or whatever it was. I was too still-sleeping to note what time I used to get up.

2) My shoes are holding up well. I should give them a polish. I'll get around to that eventually.

3) Actually yeah! I'm in the same zone as Elder Gibson, so I see him sometimes. He subbed the hill with us last week. It's always good to see him. Elder Turnbull is in another zone, so I haven't seen him yet.

4) It's coming okay. They ache between apointments, especially when going all the way from the bottom of the hill to the top, but I actually kept up with Elder Lee all the way to the church this morning. (this is Mom- I had asked about his calf development)

The baptism was good. The Spirit was there. And we also got to see a video about a crocodile eating a gnu or wildebeest or something during it. You can ask Christian for more details. It is trippy! Our investigators are doing well, but they both need parents permission and that looks like it may or may not happen. I can tell they both want to be baptized. But we'll just pray and fast and have faith and hope for the best.

Excerpts from 2/16/15

The mish is good. We did have some... interesting happenings haha. The weather is really great. Really cold in the mornings though. Like, really cold. And yeah, I'm starting to get to know some people, even though I have no clue where I'm going most of the time. I just follow Elder Lee haha. And he's good. He's really understanding. We just drop our laundry off with a sister in our stake with other companionships and take turns paying her every month. The foods good. I got 8 tacos for 28 pesos on a 2 for 1 Friday the other night. Good stuff.  Tal vez mi cuerpo esta acostumbrando

To be honest, things got quite a bit harder for me this week. But my companion was very good about being understanding so I'm greatful for that.

Things are going well! We had Stake conference this week so that was cool. The stake center is on the same property as the church building. One of the 70s came to talk, and while I didn't understand most of it, everyone said it was really fantastic. I could tell it really affected one of our investigators there who is getting baptized next month, so that's good. Our mission president also talked, and his was good. For whatever reason I could understand most of what he said. They had a deaf hermano give the prayer. He did it in sign language and there was an interpreter who said what he signed. That was cool as I'd never seen a deaf person pray before.

Our apartment building is supposedly owned by a narco. I've never seen him before, but every now and then one of the people here calls him up. So that's cool.

My comp is good. He seems like he knows his stuff and is always willing to help me when I need it. He walks really fast though haha. So I always get tired trying to keep him.

Starting this next Saturday we're going for what I call a "Triple Combination". Three baptisms three weeks in a row. 

I haven't really cooked yet. Lunch is the big meal here like dinner is in the US. We have lunch citas every day so we get feed pretty well at them. The members are always super willing to fill us to the brim if we want. Sometimes we even teach a lesson without planning to eat there and the food finishes when we do so we essential eat 2 lunches. Breakfast is usually cereal or fruit or ramen or whatever. Lunch is at about 2. Sometimes we just eat snacks or by little things throughout the rest of the day. The members often will give us little things throughout the afternoon whether it be bread, fruit, cookies or whatever. So sometimes when we get back to the apartment for the night we'll have dinner with whatever food we have at the apartment, but it's usually not big or prep-intensive.

2/9/15 Xalpa 1

2/2/2015

We just got told by one of the APs we're having tacos de pastor night. Que chiiiiiiidoooo. The room was quiet but now everyone's talking.

We left the CCM at 10 this morning. Packing was actually pretty easy without the weight limit to worry about. I took my own sweet time with it (per usual me haha), but it was easy. Not as much strategizing to be done haha. We're here at the mission office now (which is actually in the Este mission. I made my first Spanish pun today 'Este is este' and the latino AP gave me a laugh that was *just* a tad more than a pity laugh. The Elders are bunking here tonight. Tomorrow we meet in Minnesota to find out our new companions and areas. Sister Stutznegger says about half the mission will be at the transfer meeting. She's really friendly, us American Elders talked with her during lunch, which was sandwiches.

Elder Gibson had 2 bottles of Martinellis left from a package from a while ago. We broke them open at breakfast and poured some to the Latinos going to Sureste who were sitting at another table. At first they were kind of hesitant, then we explained that it was Martinellis and was bueno. No sirvesa..

I'm super excited to get out and do work. In a lot of ways, the part of the city I've been through so far remind me of LA just with a slighlty different... "flavor" I guess. We're just about to start doing more things right now, so I have to go. 

Pdays will be Mondays.

Adios!

*** For those not familiar with the LDS missionary lingo, this might help:

AP= Assistants to the President

Minnesota=Part of the area where will Jonathan will serve is called Nezahualcoyotl-Neza for short. Ota is an augmentative when added on to the end of a word. Mi in Spanish means my. So Mi-nez-ota=Minnesota to an English speaker.

P-day= preparation day=day off to do laundry, clean house, shop, write to your Mom, sightsee.

Sister Stutznegger=The wife of the President Stutznegger, the President of the Mexico City Southeast mission. They are in charge of the well-being and management of about 200 missionaries. 

(added by Mom)

Ways to communicate with Jonathan for the next 2 years

Email:

jonathan.ybanez@myldsmail.net

Snail mail Option #1:

Elder Jonathan Michael Ybanez

Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission

Av. del Taller No. 540, Col. Jardin Balbuena

Delegacion Venustiano Carranza

C.P. 15900 Mexico City, Distrito Federal

MEXICO

Snail Mail Option #2:

Pouch mail system instructions- Only send postcards or one-page correspondence (no envelopes) written on one side of the page may be sent through the pouch. No notebook or very light weight paper.

Lay the letter blank side down. Fold the bottom of the letter about one-third of the way up the page and crease. Fold the top of the letter to the bottom on the first fold and crease. Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch from each end, but do not seal the ends. Write your name and complete return address in the top left corner. Affix first class postage in the top right corner. In the middle, write the missionary address as follow:

Elder Jonathan Michael Ybanez

Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission

POD 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

These are some services we have found online that make deliveries to the Mexico City Southeast Mission where Jonathan is serving. We used one of the services to send him a birthday cake. 

http://mydearmissionary.com/

http://www.missionarypackagemx.com/

1/29/2015 Alguien me dijo, que tienes un novio

From Jonathan 1/22/15

Here is Jonathan's latest letter! The pictures all came landscape so I turned them all so you don't have to. I was tempted to just type up the text but the handwritten letter seemed so uniquely Jonathan. There are is no #182 or 184 so don't think you are missing any pages.  

Enjoy!

Dawn Ybanez (Jon's Mom)

From Jonathan:

 jonathan.ybanez@myldsmail.net

I apologize for the grammar mistakes and the landscapedness.

Also, we don't have groups called Panems here. That was a joke.

Random Pictures from Jonathan 1/15/15

Jonathan's first email from the Mexico City Missionary Training Center 12/24/14

Merry Christmas everyone! ¡Muy buenos dias!,

My week has been awesome! I'm at the CCM (in English it'd be the Missionary Training Center. It's sort of like a place I'm at for 6 weeks to learn Spanish, the Gospel of Jesus, and how to teach it)The it's so easy to feel the Spirit here. Even though there is always something going on (whether a class to go to or a chore to do at the bedroom), I feel peaceful here knowing that I'm doing the right thing by doing what the Lord wants me to do, and I know he'll help me because of it.

First things first, I know what the first question I'd ask me would be, so I'll just say it: The food here is great. Carne, flautas, pescado frito, Costco pizza (for some reason everyone's favorite), flan, etc. So good. No pozole yet though. I hgot such a kick out of one breakfast though. Me and my District (class of 9 other missionaries) sat down and all of them were like "What's this? How do we eat this?". And I was like "Don't worry elders. They're tamales. You unwrapped the outside part. Yes you can eat that part. It's called maza it's a corn thing". Most of them are from Utah, but one's from Texas and my companion is from a mystical land called Toronto, Canada (I see you smiling, Michael Garside). His name is Elder Turnbull and he's a hard worker. I can tell he wants to work to be the best missionary he can be, and I'm glad for that because it helps me work well too. Also, the beans here are super good. Like so good. And they're at almost every meal so that's awesome. I don't think I've had too much. My companion hasn't complained yet.

On that note the urinals are cool here. By you're right foot there's a pedal you press to flush it. I think those are way cooler than I probably should. I'm all about that hands free life.

My district is funny. One is from Texas as is obsessed with What-a-Burger because he works there. He gets mad that only a few people here have heard of it. he's also really obsessed with shaving the part in my hair. I'm going to let him cut my hair today, so we'll see how that goes.

Most of the day is spent either in classes or studying. We have classes about the Gospel, how to teach it by really caring for and loving the person you're talking to, and Spanish. We also got to teach an investigator (someone learning about the Church) three times this last week! In Spanish! It was a bit hard, but I've either realized I've had or gained enough Spanish to be able to hold on conversation. My companion and I taught him about how important prayer is, faith, the Book of Mormon, the Restoration and God can answer his questions and help him with his problems thourgh prayer. We also study a lot from the scriptures outside of class. 

I'd say more, but we can only spend so long emailing. I hope you're all having a great Christmas time! Remember the first gift of Christmas was the Savior and his Atonement and resurrection that make it possible for us to live with our Heavenly Father and our families forever after this life! You can share that gift by serving and loving others as Christ would!

Until next week!

- Elder Ybanez