La Primera Semana

Buenas Tardes!
Greetings from Tepoztlan, Mexico! Im just sitting in a little Internet shack writing my first Mexican Email! Que Chido!! What a beautiful place to start the mission! Our travels last week went very well. It was a tiring set of events so it is nice to finally be settled in an area and doing the Lord's work. My companion is Elder Oswald, from Idaho Falls, Idaho who has been out just a few months longer than I have. We were given the assignment to open the area of Tepoztlan after it had been closed the last few months. Elder Oswald is a great missionary and a great example. We are already good friends and getting to work. We share similar interests in music and sports so we are getting to know eachother pretty well. Tepoztlan is so beautiful! We are in the mountains so it is a bit cooler and its the rainy season here so we get rain every night. The city is very tranquil and quiet and the people are as nice as can be. I already love the culture! The food is nice and spicy but I am already learning to love it! Elder Oswald and I had a lot of work to do this past week with reopening this area. We didn't know anyone and in my case, I didn't know any spanish. But we made due with what we had and we met a lot of the members and developed good friendships with them already. Our area just has a really small branch and the area is very big. We meet in a little room in a "Casa de Oracion" for sacrament meeting. The leaders here are great and ready to help us share the Gospel with the people that the Lord has prepared here. We found some of the older investigators and also some new ones in our first few days. We are teaching an older man, Lalo, that has been coming to church for the past year and loves everything about it. Lalo just needs to overcome his addiction with smoking so we are helping and working with him in that regard. We have also begun teaching a 15 year old girl who has friends in the branch and also an older lady who has neighbors in the branch. The best way to do misionary work is through the members!!! We can all help and partake in the Lord's work by simply inviting friends to activities, church, or to listen to the missionaries. I have had a couple crazy things happen this week, not crazy for a mission but crazy for someone who just arrived in the mission field. One night Elder Oswald and I were visiting families pretty far away from our apartment and it started to rain very hard. We ran home in the rain and we were completely drenched. I'm sure I will have plenty more of those experiences to come. A few days ago we were walking down the street next to some construction and the cement machine sprayed cement all over me and my white shirt. It gave my companion a good laugh. Things are great here though, I already love the mission field. We are in store for a great week this week now that we actually know some people and more or less know how to get around. Spanish is an obstacle I am trying to overcome right now with understanding the accent, speed, and trying to express my feelings and ideas but it will come with time and prayer. Luckily as missions we are blessed with the Spirit to help us when we are struggling with the languge. I know that the work we are doing here is our Heavenly Father's work and that the people here in Tepoztlan are ready to hear it. I will continue to share stories every week and provide a brief update of our investigators. I found out that I will get letters and DearElders about once every 3 months so sorry if I take awhile to respond. Hope everyone is doing well, love you all!
-Elder Stutz