Our First Week In Mexico

Hello!!! We made it safely and we've been having a lot of fun.  We arrived Monday the 1st into the Guadalajara airport and 30 minutes later we are staying with my family in Ajijic next to Lake Chapala.  Thursday we left to the English convention in Queretaro.  It was amazing to see all the brothers who have came to live in Mexico to serve where the need is great and there's a lot of Mexican brothers who have switched over to the English.  The largest attendance was a little less than 2,500.  On the way to the convention we stopped by Guanajuato, which is very European looking and Saturday we went to San Miguel de Allende.  I think San Miguel was Blanca's favorite. We spent a few hours at the hot springs there, then went back to Queretaro and met up with the Brothers there. Blanca had a nice experience witnessing to a young lady who came to the convention at the urging of her English teacher, at a Catholic School. She had alot of questions, stayed for the whole convention and was able to see the release of the new video.    Wednesday was our first day out in the ministry and the brothers did not go easy on us.  We drove a little more than an hour to our territory into Ocotlan and got home at 5.  I found two English speaking people and my spanish is sounding better. I realized that if you know spanish, you speak it faster than those who are learning, so my new goal isn't to speak spanish better, just faster. There are over a million Bible studies in Mexico and the biggest needs are in Mexico City and Guadalajara for English. The Guad ( which is what they call Guadalajara down here) has over 8 Million people and only 4 congregations, so there is alot of area for growth.  There is so much potential because of all the foreigners that move here.  We're hoping to experience field service in other territories like in Leon.  So we'll see...   Blanca found 7 english speaking people yesterday, and now has the task of finding exactly where they live. That can be tricky at times, because all you find out is that they live on Juarez St. and their name is Juan. All are locals, and bilingual.   The congregation here is very friendly, and has alot of retired folks from Canada and the Pacific Northwest. They have nearly 20 pioneers and great support for service. Things are relatively inexpensive here. Blanca and I went out for Breakfast with 4 other people and all ate a nice meal with juice and it was less than $15. The other night we had steaks, pasta, and a nice salad for about $25. It's differnent here because many things are not processed and shipped here, they are fresh and made daily. I ordered a salad with bleu cheese the other day and they literally made the dressing right in front of me. Very good. Hope all is well. We look forward to seeing you all soon. You can view our pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeandblanca/5170027638/in/photostream/