Week Seven!

Hola!

Okay so lots o lots o lots o questions to answer! Jeepers you guys know how to ask em. So let's get em answered!

Neighborhood here is cool. We're kind of by just a lot of businesses but also we're on the Riverwalk so if we want to go there and play volleyball or basketball or whatnot then it's right there. This last week we had bikes....DEATH. My bike's all tiny and stuff, but it's all good. I'm getting used to it. We've biked SO much this week. We biked like 25 miles on one of the days about. Because some days we have to go to south Bradenton, then into Palmetto (across the bridge of death, which ALWAYS no matter what way we go the wind is against us), and then back to Bradenton, and then back to Palmetto. We try to plan better but some people bail on us then some people can only do it certain times. I lost 10 POUNDS this last week. Gonna be Swarzanegger by the time I leave even Bradenton! Lots of exercise during bike week.
 
Language is getting better each day...almost each day. Whenever we're talking about gospel stuff, so like the entire morning, Elder Casey basically talks to me in only Spanish. And when we go to church everybody only talks in Spanish because...they're all Hispanic. So I'm getting better and better at understanding what they're saying. But my ability to speak is very not good right now. But I'm trying more and more. Sometimes I just feel inadequate when they speak in perfect Spanish to me and then I feel like I shouldn't even try to speak back. But that's something I have to get over and get out of that comfort zone. It's not too bad during lessons, because honestly more than half are in english. Because like I said most of them are with teenagers or kids our age so they prefer English. We're teaching a few older couples where we only speak Spanish though. It'll be cool though because instead of a person that goes somewhere where they speak strictly one language the entire mission and then they come home and have to get straight back into english and lose the language they learned, I'm able to learn how to teach and everything in both so I'm able to be comfortable and used to speaking in both. But sometimes that makes it that much harder to feel comfortable and learn fast. But it's coming little by little. Except I'm gonna come home speaking english with a swagger accent and Spanish with a Mexican/Cuban/Dominican accent.

Baptisms are alright right now. We're for sure having 3 on April 6 with a woman and her two daughters. Then we can possibly have two kids this Sunday, if their mom gives them permission. She's very very Catholic and has been the only thing holding them back and they've been taking the lessons for like over a year. So we know it's happening with us so we need to talk to her about all of her concerns and try to resolve them. We can also have another on the 31 of March, she just needs to come to Church twice in a row, which she already missed yesterday so we had to move her date back a week. We could have another kid and his mom on the 31. He wants to but he has to get Sundays off of work and come twice. And his mom needs to receive a confirmation that this is true which we hope is happening/happened. But yeah that's all for now I think with those!
 
I'm calling my two month mark this Wednesday so yeah. Pretty cray. Going by.....decently speedy...kind of...ha ha. OH before I forget! Next Monday we're having a mission wide conference with Elder Anderson! Apostle! So that's something I'm looking forward to.

We have a few days that are set with families for dinner each week. The Sedillo's, the Calvillo's, the Sanchez' basically take a night each week. We've had amazing food. Everything is so good when it's made by actual Hispanic people! We've had basically everything they sell at Taco Bell...but homemade by a Hispanic man and woman. SO GOOD. I always feel fat when we leave those because they give us so much and then I usually have like two plates. It's a rough life. Lots of rice and meat. But there's like a billion different ways to eat rice and meat. Oh at a dinner on Saturday the Hermanas and Elder Casey and even the family made me eat a serano chile. Didn't think it would be that bad. Yeah I DIED. I couldn't even swallow it because I couldn't stop gagging it was so hot. I couldn't feel my mouth for about ten minutes and a felt like I was gonna barf everywhere. And it was before the meal so I felt like I couldn't even down anything else without puking my guts out. I couldn't stop the tears from coming. It's the life. That was actually the second time I had to do that with that same pepper, just different families. The things we do to be iniciated into the Hispanic world.
 
The weather here has been no humidity and pretty cold, but today it's pretty darn humid and it's only gonna get worse according to Casey. As Summer gets closer, so does deathville. That just happened.

So that's basically all for here! Good luck on all races, life adventures, and all other activities in your totally not as cool as mine lives! Ha ha keep up the good work!

Live Hard,
Love Hard,
Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies