Guanajuato is amazing! This past weekend we went to visit Guanajuato, and I've never been in a more romantic/ cool looking city. I love cities that are built on hilltops, so that you can see all the houses and different neighborhoods spread across the valleys and hills. Below the city is an intricate tunnel system of roads and free parking for University students. Above the ground, around the hills and between the markets and museums lies a network of callejones, or little pathways paved with cobblestones. Of all the streets and callejones in the city, nearly half of them have a specific story and a special history.
Our first night there we were taken around on a guided tour of the most romantic parts of the city (including El Callejón del Beso) by a callejoneada, or Mariachi Band. They sang cultural songs, told stories and jokes and provided great entertainment. At the beginning of the tour the all had us promise to ourselves that we would leave behind any worries and have a good time, and that we did. That is to say, we did until we got home that night and ate the pizza that we had bought on the street. We were up all night... I'll leave it at that.
The next day we went to see the mummies of Guanajuato, and they had one mummy there that had only passed away in 2001. There is a unique phenomenon in the soil there that causes the bodies to mummify quicker than anywhere else in the world. Before and after the mummies we just went exploring/window shopping. I got a painting of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and a sweet fadora, which I am pretty excited about. I also found a luchador mask that was Captain America themed!
In our group meeting this week Tanner and Yvette were able to get some really great ideas to get their
projects moving, but I still felt that my project was rather stagnant. However, after talking with Tanner and Jonny on
different bus rides I felt first, by Tanner, inspired to re-think my project,
and second, by Jonny, to further the idea that I had of a collection of
conversion stories. I might even be able
to hold a fireside at the end of July and present some of my information to the
stake and have a bunch of these pamphlets full of conversion stories that I
will pass out for free.
Thinking about
these pamphlets made me realize that I wanted it to be the collection of
conversion stories, and thinking about the conversion stories, and with some
help from Jonny, I was able to not only find new purpose in my project but to
find new methods to collect my data. I
may not even need to have a whole lot of interviews if I can find other ways to
have the members share their conversion stories with me. I want to re-write the encuesta that I pass
out each week to a different ward, and I want to encourage the members to even
type of their stories and email them to me – anything that I can do to increase
the amount of stories that I can share.
In the front of the pamphlet I also would like to share my testimony and
what I hope that my pamphlet will do. I
want to aim for 30 stories.
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