I first want to apologize for not sending anything for a while! It's been super busy and I now finally have more time to actually send a full email haha. So this is going to be pretty long, but definitely worth the read! I have some good spiritual stories to share along with lessons learned.
Quick side note ***I'm not going to really do much self editing on my emails since that takes up too much time haha. So sorry if something is spelled wrong or is messed up or just doesn't make sense!
Alright! There is a lot to catch up on! So first, I would like to give more detail about my mission and area. My area is one of the largest in the mission (second or third I think) and so we have to travel on bikes when we don't use any other public transportation. So far I've used about pretty much any kind of transportation by vehicle. It takes anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour to get to some other villages or towns on bikes in our area to either contact or teach lessons. We don't have enough money to always use buses so we have bikes haha. By the way, most of the buses here are just vans with all the seats turned inwards. There are also speed bumps EVERYWHERE. That gets pretty annoying. Our church building is about 30 to 35 minutes of travel time including walking if we take a *van* and over an hour on bikes. But we rarely travel on bikes to the church. My area is in kind of the north west part of the mission and so it takes anywhere from two to three hours with public transportation to get to the temple which is south in our mission. My area is called Tecamac. There are all kinds of living in my area. Sometimes we spend time in the larger parts of towns with better houses, teaching and contacting on the streets. But for the most part, there is a lot of country to cover out in the middle of no where. Those places aren't as good. The houses are basically just concrete forts with dirt floors and blankets to cover the doorways. But these people are so kind and thoughtful! The food is great and literally everything has some sort of spice level to it haha. So far the weirdest things I've eaten are grasshoppers and locusts (which I really like a lot!) and maggots... yep, maggots! They actually aren't that bad but I still have mixed feelings about them just because of what they are. They actually harvest them here! They have what are actually maggot farms! And the grasshoppers and locusts are everywhere so they aren't hard to find. We practically live with them since they're always in our house haha. There are also a lot of rainstorms sometimes. Like HEAVY rain storms with thunder and lightning. Which leads me into a spiritual story that hasn't ended yet!
About three weeks ago, after traveling about 40 minutes to an area to contact, my trainer (Elder Gonzales) and I were getting ready to find people to teach. He then wanted me to say a quick prayer for inspiration on where to go and who to find. So I did and almost immediately, I received the impression to find a blue door with bars on the side. So I told my companion and we began to search. Not even 10 min later, we found it! I knocked and the father of this family of 3 answered. He and his wife have just one daughter. But we found out that his wife is a member but he isn't. He then proceeded to tell us how he is not at all interested in the church. Although, he is a very nice man. I felt prompted to share my testimony with him and give him a Book of Mormon. So just before leaving, I did. And he accepted the Book of Mormon! Shortly after departing, I then received the impression to return in two weeks. So my companion and I set a time to do so, but they didn't know that. That day of going back was probably one of the roughest days though! It began with going to the temple to get a tour of the visitors center in the morning (in which I got to reunite with my buddies from the CCM which was awesome!) and then after the journey back from the temple, we had to quickly go teach a lesson first. The rough part was, there was a rain/thunderstorm going on. Nevertheless, we pushed through and continued. As we were leaving the area we live in, the nastiest experience of my life occurred! A quick explanation of what happens sometimes when it rains a lot, the sewage in the middle of the streets burst out of the ground through the caps! I didn't know this before. So we were biking really slowly through the streets so we didn't kick any gross water up even though we were already soaked. And the water reached about half way up the wheels of our bikes in some parts. As we were biking through, I noticed a lot of small pieces of trash floating through the small river that we were biking through. Things like toilet paper and wrappers. I thought it was very unusual but I didn't think much of it. I mean, it's Mexico, a lot of weird things happen. Then all of the sudden, this awful smell nearly explodes my nose! I then hear my companion call out, in his best English possible, "This is poop!" I look up and see one of the caps bursting with sewage! It looked exactly like a fountain of some sort. Going about 2 to 3 feet high. I think the amount of rain changes pressure somehow so the sewage just empties into the streets. The only option was to bike through it since we couldn't go around. It was tricky because we couldn't see the bottom so there was no way to tell if we would hit a pothole or something and accidentally kick sewage up. But that idea was basically shattered when all of the sudden, a car comes zooming right past us and splashes sewage all over us!!! So we go the rest of the day with human waste, and whatever else people flush down the toilets here, all over us. There was no time to go all the way back and change. Either way, we continued with faith and hope for the rest of the day. We had a good lesson regardless of how I looked and smelled. Then finally, the time came to return to the family I had received revelation for. So it's another half hour biking in the rain but I was able to leave my bike outside to get washed in the rain during our previous lesson. So it no longer had mud and poop on it. But we get to that area and we spend about a half hour looking for the house and trying to remember the street. It was getting dark and we soon had to get to a dinner appointment with a member. But I was prepared to stay and look long past dinner. Luckily we found it early enough and we said a quick prayer before knocking. Then we knocked. And the wife answered this time. We asked her about her family and got to know them a bit more. Though, we found out that she is a less active member. But she was interested in our message for her and her family. We also found out that her husband works from early in the morning to late at night! And he is only at home during lunch in the day for about an hour. So the Lord had timed our arrival the first time perfectly! After sharing some things with her, she accepted a return appointment! Which was yesterday! And that lesson was very special. The father was at work of course so we sat outside with the mother and daughter teaching them. We also found out that the daughter is 8 years old! We will be working with them to get the father and daughter baptized! But the mother does struggle with her faith and trust in the Lord. She has been sick for quick some time and she has felt abandoned. But Elder Gonzales and I are doing the best we can to show her that Heavenly Father has sent help for her! The mother has not been to church in a long time. She doesn't know much about the gospel. But she accepted another appointment for later! I cannot wait to see the blessings unfold in their lives. So after the lesson, Elder Gonzales and I gave her a blessing of health. We are now trying to figure out how to get the father involved with the lessons. Regardless of what happens, the Lord has remembered them and has not forgotten them. They are deeply loved and it's time for them to come unto Christ. I just wish I knew more Spanish to express my love for them better and explain more things! I can't wait to share with all of you the following experiences of what happens in the future! I will try to share more next week!!! I miss you all and I appreciate all of your prayers and support!
And now a special shout out to my best friend who is now on his mission! He is preparing in the Provo MTC right now and getting ready to speak the Korean language to serve in Seoul South Korea! He's always been a great friend and a great brother to me! He has always been a good example and I appreciate his support through these years! Love ya Elder Beatty!!!
I will try to get pictures sent if I can!
-Elder Markham
