Veracruz

"And my soul did long to be there"

Alma 36:22

The temple. We got to go to baptisms at the temple there in Veracruz. It was an absolutely amazing experience. The baptismal room was packed! A local stake of YM and YW were there to do baptisms, with the goal of 1000 names! Anyway, they were short on time and had to go, so us 4 girls picked up the slack while Garrett and Moroni did confirmations. We got to do 35 baptisms. I was sitting their waiting, and I caught our reflection in the glass, a room full of people waiting to be baptised. I thought about the people up in the spirit world, how they were waiting just like us, and what a blessing it is to have the opportunity to do the work for these people. I love the peace and serenity that I feel in the temple.

I got hit on. Makeupless after being on a bus all night with no sleep, followed by crashing on a park bench on the beach for 5 hours. No, Moroni was definitely not kidding about sleeping on the beach. It was a beautiful man, blue eyes and black hair. The best part? He spoke English. The worst part? It's been so long since I've gotten my flirt on I'm a bit rusty. And by a bit, possibly a lot. Veracruz is sweet though, if I was going to fall asleep on a park bench again I'd definitely do it there. People were asleep random places everywhere, it radiated legitness and safety.

Our last night we tried to rescue a baby cat from the sewer. In the process 3 hummers of the heavily armed members of the Mexican flippin swat team show up and question us. In our broken Spanish we told them about the kitten, and they asked if it was ours. We said yes. On account of what kind of a crazy tries to rescue a kitten that is probably foaming at the mouth and laden with rabies. We do. He was soo cute! But he never came out. Very sad story, even with Garret's cat whispering skills and trying to lour it out with bbq sauce. Poor sewer cat.

On the bright side, Nicki got to sleep with a crab. They caught it at the beach, and before we went to bed Hannah was all... "So he can get out of this pot, I've seen him do it." But, no one really had a solution. So no one really said anything and we all went to bed on our comfy tile floor. Steph got up to pee in the night, and the little guy had climbed out and snuck some cuddle time with the Nickster! Awww.

One night while we were there we had the opportunity to be in a taxi that smelled horrifically like gasoline when the driver got lost. He started yelling out the window asking for directions and yelled "your mom!" to someone. Then he lit up. A cigarette. I was sure the car was going to explode. Gasoline+Smoking= Death.It's a gamble hoppin into a taxi with Iron Rod anyway cause you never know if he is going to say something sketch that is going to get us all shived, on top of this insano driver. Anyways I was chill. Mexico has mellowed me out.

So much that today, when we were driving home from institute we almost got killed by a giant city bus and I didn't handle it properly at all. Seriosly though. So we were inches away from death and I have this super delayed reaction and only scream because Steph screamed, and Garret yelled, "HOLY COW!" After that we laughed till we cried because who says holy cow for their last words. He says next time he will definitely have something more sweet sauce to say like, "FRODO BAGGINS"... Anyways.... I love my teacher buddies.

So much that all us girls interlocked fingers and held hands in the car to prove it. And then Garret joined in, and I was all ," SICK remember when our institute teacher tried to interlock fingers with us!" Ha ha ha Brother Bedford..


Anyways whilst in Veracruz we received.. Elephantitis. That is a theory. We have these bug bites that made just our feet and ankles swell up, and we are kind of freaking out. I was pretty sure that you contract the elephantitis disease from mosquitos, so we were googling it and it said that you get it from worms. We were so relieved! Until the next sentence that read.. These worms are spread through mosquitos. Sweet though right, giant elephant feet?

P.S
I am homeless but ferreals. My family is moving on the 26th. The same day I embark on my Mexico road trip with Steph and Hannah Bee and the Tehuacan girls. So I will come home from college on my 7 week break, to a different house. I don't know how I feel about that.