Week 9 - Colmena - Holy Molé - July 28, 2025

Hola Todos!

At a restaurant while on exchanges with the Zone Leaders.

Wednesday we got temporarily banned from What's App, which made it really hard to do anything, but me and Elder Stoddard did make cards with all our information on it to hand out during street contacts.

Unfortunately, even if they would be useful they aren't now. Why? Because before we started handing them out we started getting spam called. Constantly. I'm not joking. Elder Stoddard's phone buzzes 24/7 now. We've stopped answering our phone. It's the worst.

Thursday was exchanges. I went out to the zone leaders' area. I was with Elder Hales.

Me and Elder Hales on our exchange.

It was super cool to get to see what it's like somewhere else and with a different companion. At the end of the night Elder Hales leads us down a hill and over to another hill that we had to go up. It didn't look too bad from what I could see. Well, we got to what I thought was the top of the hill originally and found out there was this giant staircase. Mexican staircases are steep.

The giant staircase with another giant staircase at the top.

Well, we get to what I thought was the top of the staircase and realize the wall I thought was the top was just another staircase going in another direction! We get done climbing the stairs and what do I see? Another hill just as steep and as long as the staircase. I was so done!

A view from the area we did exchanges in.

Friday 

Everyone canceled on us. No one answered their door. It was the worst. But then we went to the church for a multi ward sports activity. It was actually super fun. We played soccer with the Elders from the other ward and a ton of people from both wards. I haven't really played soccer since elementary school so the Latinos were all destroying us. I still had fun though and I did get a sick goal in!

A street in my area.

Saturday

We went over to visit a dude we had set a baptismal date for. His whole family just got baptized right before we got here. He didn't get baptized because he couldn't stop drinking coffee. Well ,we got him to stop, so we were super excited for his baptism. During the lesson we were teaching he asked us if he needs to marry his wife before he can get sealed to her. Our jaws dropped. We thought they were married because his wife had just been baptized which wasn't supposed to happen if they weren't married. So yeah, holding off on that baptism until that gets figured out.

We also had English class again. Six random people showed up which was exciting. It was really fun!

Sunday

We went to church and like no one was there. Apparently everyone was on vacation. After church we went to a lesson. It went super well. I was scared half to death by their cat in the middle of the lesson though. I'm sitting there teaching and suddenly just feel something grab my calf. I look down and just see this little cat holding on to my leg. After the lesson we went back to the church because Elder Stoddard had to do a class for missionaries who are going home soon. I sat alone in another room in the church for an hour. It was super boring.

Another park we go to, to make calls and plans.

Today we went to a street market. It was absolutely insane. The whole street was just covered underneath red tarps and there was so much going on. Elder Stoddard but some souvenirs. I didn't buy anything, but I'm on the lookout for a poncho. After that we went over to the church and played some board games.

Food

This week I had chilaquiles or as we called them in the CCM, soggy chips.

They are so much better out here! I actually love them now. 10/10 food! We also had some street corn! It was good.

I've decided I'm now going on a quest for the best street corn.

Okay so this is the food from the title. Molé. I DONT LIKE MOLE. What is molé?

Well you take some cookies and slap them in the blender with chocolate... and peppers... and water... and the family secret ingredient. Then you put it on top of whatever delicious food that you have decided to make not so delicious by adding the molé. I've decided any food I didn't like before isn't actually that bad because my scale for judging food didn't include molé before.

Also fun thing. Our house has been a bit of a disaster. Everything is broken or barely works. Well part of that is that we don't have hot water. We realized this week we can warm water up in a pan and just take a warm bucket shower. So we were bucket showering this week. Not because we don't have a shower but because we wanted hot water. Except when we came home one day and didn't have ANY running water! Then the bucket shower was a necessity. Luckily, the water was back by the next night.

Okay well that's it!

Love,

Elder Robinson!