Viva Mexico!

This week was pretty awesome!  The Mexicans have their independence day on September 16, so we got to have a special cultural presentation!  Which was awesome.  And then we got to stay up till 11:30pm and watch the President of Mexico perform the gritó, which is symbolically ringing a bell to call Mexicans to fight for freedom.  I love how excited native Mexicans are for their country and how much patriotism they have!  We sat next to some natives during the cultural presentation and they went nuts!!  Also the whole night of the 15th was nothing but firecrackers and gunfire everywhere.  Mexico City is huge and incredibly dense, and I´m pretty sure everyone in the city fired off their pistols, because the noise was nonstop the entire night!

We listened to another amazing devotional from Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Twelve again.  He spoke about the importance of missions, but also added a story on the end.  He spoke about when Peter and the other apostles go back to fishing after Christ is resurrected and leaves.  Jesus appears to them again and asks Peter three times if he loves him.  Peter is a little sensitive about threes, and so he gets a little upset, and replies that he love Christ more than anything else.  The Christ replies, "Feed my sheep."  That's the abbreviated version, but Elder Holland delivers it so powerfully, I highly recommend you all look it up here.

Both of my companions fell asleep during one of the devotionals here, so I had a little fun with them.  I managed to switch Elder Henrie's nametag with mine without him waking up, and one of the Hermanas switched Elder Fisher's nametag with another Elder in my district. Elder Henrie didn't notice for the rest of the day until we were eating dinner, and he sees that Elder Fisher's nametag says "Elder Hinck."  Elder Henrie is a little uptight about the rules, so he gets all indignant and asks Fisher, "Hey! Why are you wearing Elder Hinck's nametag?!"  So Elder Fisher says back, "You tell me, Elder Crotzer!"  We just about died laughing.  I guess you had to be there.

My companions, with our name tags back where they belong.

Speaking of rules, the CCM mission president caught wind of the tie exchanges.  I guess some Elders were trading ties after 10:30pm, which is strictly lights out.  So no more tie exchanges, except within a district.  :( But I still got my fill of sweet ties!  Attached is a picture of me rocking 26 ties around my neck.  Also attached is one of the Elders I met here, his name is Elder Gressier.  He might be the funniest person I've ever met, apart from Andy.  (Shout out)

26 rockin' ties, woo-hoo

Elder Gressier

These last three weeks have been some of the best days of my entire life.  I feel the influence of the Spirit more and more strongly with every day here.  I know that Christ died for us, and I know that through the Atonement we can be made clean of our sins. I'm so excited to get out there and teach the people of Chile the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope each of you will ponder and consider the words that I've said.

In el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.
-Elder Thomas Crotzer