Hey Mom and Dad,

The weather here has been nice and sunny! Friday was day of the virgin (Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe) here and the whole city was one huge party, everyone was drinking and praying to the Virgin Mary, so it made Friday a little difficult for us to work but it was quite an experience. Things are going well here in the mission, I’m enjoying the experiences and time seems to be flying by, I’ll be talking to you guys really soon by telephone, I still don’t know the details on how or were but I’m sure they will tell us.

I saw the pics dad sent me and the video, from the pictures and the video it looks like the party was HUGE! It looks like it was really fun though. I’m super excited for Nate and Jen. It looks like Nathans party went really, really well. That’s awesome that Jen said yes. I watched the video and everything, Jen looks like she was in total shock! I was thinking of Nathan Friday night, I told my companion that Nate was going to propose and he asked me "to Erica?" I thought that was pretty funny.

Today for our p-day we are heading out to buy a xmas tree for the house, they are super cheap about 200 pesos(20$) so we are all putting in 50 pesos. We had our zone conference with president, his ward back home sent us (missionaries) a bunch of donated ties, so president gave us a little booklet with pictures of every missionary in the mission and a tie, it was pretty nice. We all ate pizza in the conference.

Its funny you mention the holidays, reality hasn’t even hit me yet that I have been away from home 9 months and I won’t be home for Christmas, Lol. As for the Christmas call, I will definitely have more info about where and when next week so you will be informed. Well, I gotta run, we are heading out to buy our xmas tree! whooooo!!!!

Love benj


I have to run but I will now answer your questions...

1. Benj, Do you miss riding your dirt bike? Brrrp BBrrp (Chris Holmes)
--------Great question Chris, I do!! I sometimes find my self walking faster than my companion and cutting in front of him while making the sound Brrppp!! and he just laughs.

2. What do you miss most about being away from home, besides Sasha? (Clint Hicken)
--------Besides Sasha, I would say a Washer and a Dryer. I was explaining to my companion that a Clothes dryer is a miracle. You put your clothes in wet and wrinkled and they come out dry, wrinkless and they smell great. Washing and drying clothes here has been a real headace here, we have to do almost all our cleaning by hand. There are some places here where you can pay to have them wash and dry your clothes but it’s real expensive and of course we cant take our garments there.

3. Are there any tourist attractions in your new city? What kind of amusement and entertainment is there? (Ricky Salazar)
--------I still don’t know too much about downtown SLP, but I know they have a live Theatre where they act out Mexican history. There is a casino here, and some museums. SLP is actually really big, it’s comparable to Leon in size. Today we are heading downtown so I will try to snap some photos and find out what’s cool down here.

4. What's your favorite authentic Mexican dish/food so far? (Ricky Salazar)
--------My favorite thing to eat here I would say would be the good ol` carnitas tacos. I also really like some of the fish they make here, called Mojarra and they fry it but its different from what I remember in CA. Also they have a style of Quesadillas here called "Gringas" it is a quesadilla but with fruits, chillis and meat inside, they are really, really good.

5. Do your American companions and President Cox speak the language well?
--------As for American comps, some do and some don’t. I would say there are more Americans that speak bad Spanish than good. As for Pres. he speaks really well, he served his mission in Peru and he really has the language down. I have also heard the area 70`s speak Spanish (both of them are American) and they sound like they have been speaking Spanish their whole lives, they speak really well.

Thanks for the questions!

Editors Note: Please take the time to wish Benjamin a Merry Christmas on the comments page.