We recently received an email from a freshman homeschooler who is interviewing missionaries. We get these types of emails probably two or three times a year, and we are always happy to respond. Here are the questions she asked us and the answers we gave. Hopefully, they’ll help you understand more about us and the ministry here in Mexico, too.
- What do you like about serving in Mexico? Mostly, the interaction we have with students at the seminary is what we like the most about working here. It’s also cool when we get to see other parts of the country and get to know people from all over Mexico.
- How long did it take to get into Mexico (passports, visas)? We already had our passports from a trip we took to Costa Rica with our youth group from Florida, but I think it takes a few months to get them usually. Our visas took a little while longer to get. I think it was a few more months, after we got all of the papers we needed to get. Renewing them every year usually takes us about a month and a half.
- About how long did it take you to learn Spanish? We’re still learning Spanish! We studied in a language school for 5 months, where we took class from 9 am until 2 pm and also lived with a Mexican family. This helped us learn a lot of Spanish, but we are always learning more and more everyday.
- What is one of the hardest things you have had to deal with? Living in Mexico City, one of the hardest things to deal with is how long it takes to get things done. Mexican people are not as time-oriented as people from the United States, and the size of the population causes a lot of waiting (in traffic, etc). For us, that’s one of the most difficult things to deal with.
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Have you seen the new Tickle Me Elmo? It’s the tenth year anniversary edition, and it’s really pretty cool. Here’s a video of it if you want to see what it does. They say that in the US, there are none in the stores. We saw them in Walmart yesterday here, but they cost $75. I’m not sure that a doll is worth that much money. Their going for $80 on eBay.
The crazy thing is that you can’t even see the product in the box. It’s a sort of “top-secret” looking box that doesn’t let you see in. If I’m going to spend that much for a toy (which I’m not), I at least want to see what I’m buying first.
The fact that the $40 store bought ones are nowhere to be found is another frustration. Why couldn’t they have produced enough to meet demand? Then the toy company would have made more money off the product. People who want to jack up the price and sell them on eBay wouldn’t have been able to do it. I guess, then, there wouldn’t be any buzz around the product. Oh well…maybe we’ll find a first edition, 10 year old tickle me Elmo.
You may have noticed that at the end of every post, there is a google ad. Well, they are part of an experiment I am doing. Please feel free to click away on those things everytime you visit the site. I’m trying to see how much revenue I can generate by the end of the month. It only works if you click them, so please do. I’m not sure I like how they make the site look, so I don’t know if they’ll be around forever. If the money makes up for the look, they’ll stay. So click!
Earlier today I stumbled on this really cool service called Moo. You can take your flickr pictures and turn them into business card style prints on fairly heavy stock paper.
It’s sort of a business card-type thing for your flickr pictures, except they are about half the size of a business card. You can personalize the message on the back, order them by the 100’s (all the pictures can be different), and it’s only $19.99 for 100. Right now, the shipping is free and they are allowing pro users of flickr to get 10 free. I ordered 10 today. If it works out well, I’m going to get some the next time we’re home and use them as prayer card-type things.
I can think of how you could use these things for all sorts of things in ministry. They could be business cards, promo pieces for special or ongoing events, thinking of you kind of things, memory verse reminders, or just about anything else. The price, customization, and easiness make them perfect.
