Elder Ty Koontz: Mexico Xalapa Mission : 1st Baptisms!

Hi Mom,

Sorry, it’s gonna take me a little while to type because my fingers are numb. It’s raining and there’s one heck of a wind chill. It’s nowhere near as cold as Utah but I’ve been living in this hot, humid environment for the past little while my body has adjusted to the heat. Hence my fingers being numb with not very cold temperatures. (Note from MOM: I checked the weather in Misantla today and when he was typing this email it was in the low 60’s. The low was in the low 50’s. I can't wait until he gets back to the single digit temps we're having right now in Utah)

So, I need you to take all the information I tell you and put it into the blog. I’m not writing a long email because of my fingers moving so slow. So I’ll talk to you about all my experiences of this past week, but you will have to "abridge it" ;) into the blog. Haha get it? Abridge! Like Mormon! (Note from MOM: Like he said…the following paragraphs are actually bits from about 8 different emails that he and I wrote back and forth. I’ve “abridged” them into one email for your reading pleasure.)

I had my first baptism on Saturday! Miguel, Ivonne, and Jaime were baptized! I don’t know what the river was called, I baptized Miguel (Pan), and Jaime, THE WATER WAS FREEZING but it was so AWESOME!

This is my first baptism!!! In order from L to R is Miguel, my comp, me, Ivonne and Jaime!

I have some other news.... The other day when we were with some of the members and a Hermana was helping me by taking pictures with my camera. She accidentally deleted all the photos off my memory. She felt really, really bad and I told her it was ok. They’re only pictures. I explained to her that every week I send the pictures home to you guys. Except for last week... We didn’t have much time so I never got the opportunity. The pictures that were all deleted were from last week and the week before. They were pictures from Christmas Eve, New Years, various pictures with members and investigators, and my first baptisms...... Luckily Elder Herrera also takes pictures ;) He is sending me all the pictures that he has with the baptism and other things with me. So don’t worry momma I gotcha covered. I explained to her that the only person she would need to apologize to would be my mom ;)

I haven’t gotten my Christmas package yet. I’ll keep waiting. If I haven’t gotten it by the end of January then I’ll let you know. Oh and guess what? I'll have a new companion either tonight or tomorrow!!!!!! :D :´( Elder Herrera has been promoted to be a zone leader in Martinez which is awesome, and I am staying in Misantla. My new companion is Elder Durán. I meet him tomorrow or late tonight. :)

Oh, I got SUPER sick on Saturday. I have no idea why but I just did. I felt completely week. I had no strength at all, my head hurt so much that even light made it hurt more, and my stomach felt like it was eating itself. It was absolutely terrible. My companion gave me a blessing, I took some medicine and continued through the day.

There was a monster spider in our apartment!!!!!! It was as big as my HAND!! I had a picture but it was lost.My companion went to iron his shirt when he turned the iron on. He heard a hissss and it crawled out from somewhere. It could fit in the iron!!! My companion screamed and got me. He showed me, I screamed, and then we came up with a solution. We killed it with a homemade flame thrower. I took axe cologne and a lighter and we cornered it. We cooked it and the thing was HUGE. You could literally see the lights reflect off its eyes.

Ok! Love you all! I’ll have more pictures with my new companion next week. I’ll still be in Misantla but hopefully the pictures will be with new Investigators ;) Love you all! Talk to you in a week!

Love,

Elder Koontz