Culture Shock and Machetes

Hey family,
This has probably been the most crazy week of my life. i don't even know where to start. first of all, im in La Cienaga (i spelled it wrong the other time). also, the address for packages is:

Elder Mark Johnson
8013
11010 N. W. 30th street STE 104
Miami, FL 33172-5032

and my address for letters is (you can send letters and pictures in envelopes with this one):

Elder Mark Johnson
8013
PO Box 025725
Miami, FL 33102-5725

Anyways, i experienced a lot of firsts this week. last week during my very first lesson in the field, the lady we were teaching started breast feeding her 3 year old in the middle of it without covering up. i guess thats not that uncommon of a thing here. i guess i just have to get used to that. Also, this week was the first time i woke up to roosters which is not as exciting as it seems. we have electricity in our house about once every 2 or 3 days so most of the time we are studying and cooking by candle or my lantern. also, we have water sometimes and sometime we don't, but it is all cold so for showers we fill up a bucket with the water when we have it and then use a cup to scoop it out and pour it on us every morning. it is definitely a little different living standards than in the states. for food, we make breakfast and dinner and then we pay a lady in the ward to make us lunches. most of the time it is cereal and peanut butter and jelly but the milk here isn't really milk so the cereal tastes a little funny. the people in our area are really poor. most of them live in a little 2 or 3 room house made of cement or 2x4's with a tin roof. they are so kind here though and humble. they make the best of what they have and move on. one of the lessons we taught this week was under a little covering made of palm tree leaves and trees. there were chickens and dogs running around our feet and a mule and goat behind us making noises. during that lesson i wondered how in the world did i get here... The spanish is still really hard to understand here since they only say just the first half of the words pretty much but i do understand when they call me a white giant (which happens a lot). Yesterday was a big day in my life. it was the day that i bought by first machete! they sell them everywhere here and they are only like 4 US dollars. we only had about 17 lessons this first week because our area is so big and we only walk so if we go to someones house and they aren't there its about a 10-20 minute walk to our next appointments house. the two people we are baptizing this week are 2 girls (12 and 13 years old) they family used to be inactive and then they all became active again so i am excited for that. i don't know what more to tell you, just a whole bunch of walking and teaching. oh and by the way, my old email account that you sent me emails to won't allow me to delete the emails (i am not that stupid Ang) so just keep sending them to this one.
i also really like my trainer. at first i wasn't to sure about him but he's a good worker and knows how to relate to the people and teach them. i don't think i am going to write individaul emails this week because i don't have time but i will try to do that next week. i think i am ok for now with food and stuff so you don't really have to send me anything. I hope you have finally stopped crying in public since i have left but if you haven't then i don't know what to tell you. just a short 22 months until i am home again. love all of you and hope you are doing well.

Love, Elder Johnson