I am a missionary in Mexico.

¡Hola desde Mexico!

(I apologize for any incoherence. My brain is tired.)

So, I've been in Mexico for almost a week now and I have to say that it is quite an experience. A great one at that! The first few days, the team was living in the Hotel Stanza in the middle of the city and it felt like I was on vacation. It was a very weird feeling because we were learning and talking in English the whole time. So when our host families came to pick us up on Saturday, it felt as though I was packing up to head back home to the states. Since I had that mentality (sort of), there was a bit of a culture shock when our Papa, Pastor José Luis Hernández, picked us up in his truck and we drove to the mountains where we are staying (pictures to come...hopefully). This was the moment where it hit me and I thought to myself, "Oh man, I am in Mexico and everyone speaks Spanish." It seems pretty silly, but if you have ever had to work with the people in a country for the first time and you have no idea how to communicate in the language, then you probably know what I am talking about...either way, I suppose you could call it culture shock. Fortunately, I learned a pretty nifty song and some coping mechanisms for this dunk into the culture tank. The truth about it all is that there truly is no amount of training that could prepare me for what I have been experiencing.

The thing that I cling on to and gives me hope is the fact that Christ is the one that has brought us all together and that God has created language, both body and verbal. Remembering that I can go to him through the Holy Spirit with full confidence that He hears and answers.

My goodness. There are so many more things to say. Unfortunately, I tried writing a post earlier, but I accidentatly exited out of the window instead of making it smaller...something got lost in translation. Which means, for you guys, you get the shortened version that my mind can handle.

Quick schedule update though.

We are starting our Spanish classes tomorrow, Tuesday, and it takes 1.5-2 hours to travel to where we are having classes. I am now living with the family, on the North side of D.F. with a lovely fellow named Daniel Coots. We are working with a Baptist Church in a part of town that has a big influence of Mormons on the right and Jehovah´s Witness on the left and also a huge prison as well. We will be working with the youth here by playing sports with them and having a camp for them as well.

blahhhh. I´ll try and share more soon. The cool thing is that I am starting to think in Spanish...it's kind of weird because I never understood what that meant until now. To be honest too, there are times where my brain just shuts down because it is so tired of all the learning...which makes me think of how amazing baby brains are to learn so much. I guess I understand why they cry and eat so much now...food for thought...
¡Adíos!

In Him,
Patrick Hing