7-9-12

Hey mom,
Well...Like 20 minutes after I emailed you guys on Thursday I got a phone call from the Zonies. I got changed again ha-ha. There are a bunch of guys going home early this change so they have to close more areas and move some more people around. My comp got changed to another area in Quiche called Jehóva, but I am now in Olintepeque, which is in one of the Xela zones but its up on the mountains above Xela. Yeah, it has been super hectic lately, I feel bad for President ha-ha. That would be so frustrating to figure out all these changes and stuff. But, some good news, I finally got put with a gringo ha-ha. I will be honest I never thought that it would actually happen. It’s really kind of weird actually. It just feels like I have been on divisions, not like he is actually my comp. His name is Elder McGrath and he is from San Diego.

It is a little strange too because I am finishing training him. His trainer got changed to be a zone leader in Huehue so now I am here doing that. I forgot how amazing English is. Kind of random though, his first name is Adam also, and his dad served in Buenos Aires, Argentina also. When I found that out I was just kind of like, huh what are the odds ha-ha.

It’s been super fun; we kind of just walk around lost in our area though. It’s way up in the mountains and it’s where the people are all just corn farmers. With it being rainy season and all, the corn stalks are all like 8 feet high so we can never see anything. There are some roads and city parts but for the most part we are just trying to get house-to-house walking the trails that weave in and out of the corn mazes.

It’s super different being with a gringo though. Since both of us can play the guitar we were getting ready for a baptism for some other elders yesterday and we were just like, hey, we should play and sing a song with the guitar for the baptism. We got it on video, I will try and get it uploaded sometime and send it to you guys.

Also we had to kick a drunk guy out of church yesterday ha-ha. The church building in our area is two stories and the upstairs is just the chapel, so we were sitting in sac mtg and my comp just turns around and is like, crap, not this guy again. I turn around and there is this guy that you can just tell is hammered drunk. He has like weeds and dirt and plants sticking out of his hair and vomit all over his clothes. I was just like, great, so we walk over to the guy and he basically just starts yelling at me. So I just kind of grab his arm and start dragging him down the stairs. He was swearing so bad ha-ha. My comp afterwards was kind of like, uhhh what was he saying? I was just thinking to myself, you might not want to write those words down elder. But we kind of had to drag him out to the street. He could barely walk and he was just asking me where I was from and stuff. So I told him I was American. He didn’t like that very much. He kept saying that he was pure Guatemalan so he is better than me. Then he said some very unfriendly words about you. Here if you tell someone ¨your mom¨ and then stick out your hand like if you were going to give them a handshake, it’s like the equivalent of saying the f word and flipping you off. After that you could say I kind of lost my patience ha-ha. My comp was pretty oblivious to what was going on and he kept saying to me in English, lets just go sit him down in one of the classrooms in the church so he calms down. I was just like uhhh no. Not a chance I am going to let this drunk idiot throw up and urinate all over the church after he just insulted my sweet mother. So we eventually just kicked him out and he stumbled off. Hate drunk people.

I loved the DR quote ha-ha, that’s exactly how I feel sometimes. Its not hell, but very very close sometimes. I can’t believe Preston is home. That is sooo crazy. I remember when he left, that was soooo fast. I haven’t heard anything about these fires and stuff, all my emails this week people are talking about them, maybe you guys have forgotten but uhhh, I am in Guatemala remember? I don’t get news about the US...

Anyways, I love you guys, talk to you next week.
Adam

7-5-12

Hey Moms,

Sorry I didn’t send any photos last week, I hadn’t taken any ha-ha. I am emailing right now because we postponed our p-day this week so we could go to the market in Chichicastenango today. Thursday is market day here, and that is the biggest market in the whole country. It was just nuts, literally people were just swarming around us trying to speak to us in English and sell their crap. There were a ton of gringos too. It was crazy. They all looked so surprised to see us. They would all come up to us and ask us where we were from and things like that. So strange to see white people again. I got you some stuff to finish up your bday package, don’t worry I didn’t forget your bday, just hadn’t found anything cool enough to send you, so keep an eye out for that.

There are some ruins here in my area that are pretty famous too, they are called Gumarrkah or something like that, we are allowed to go if we go with the zone, well probably go eventually I am sure. Yeah I don’t really know if I will ever get a gringo comp. The mission is mostly latinos, and there is only one or two non gringo lat companionships in the whole mission.  If I ever train I am sure it will probably be a latin.

I can’t believe that the 4th of July passed. I hate holidays in the mission because I can always remember exactly what I was doing that day the year before. Crazy though, we didn’t really do anything to celebrate because my comp wasn’t too stoked about an only American holiday ha-ha. We did go buy some ice cream though so that was nice. It has been suuper hot here lately too, the rain has kind of hit a break, and it’s supposed to start again in a few weeks or so.

Things are just kind of going here though. Sorry I don’t really have any kind of stories or anything to share. We have just been contacting a lot lately because we don’t really have that many good people to teach right now. Anyway, I will write more Monday, its almost 9 o clock, probably should start heading home.

Adam

6-25-12

Moms,

Yeah, so I am in an area now called Santa Cruz in Quiche. It’s very movie-esque, like remember the scene in Inception where he is running through the market in Central America? That is what my area reminds me of. It’s really touristy so that is kind of different than what I have been used to. Mostly because it’s clean, that is the biggest change, there isn’t garbage everywhere. It’s really big though, I don’t know why but all of my areas so far have been huuuge. My area is the actual town of Quiche, which is 80 thousand people, and then about 20 aldeas (little groups of houses) of about 200 people. There are a million of the took-took things also, the little red taxis, that is how everyone gets around because they are suuuper cheap. Most of the women wear "corte", the traditional clothes, and almost everyone speaks Quiche. They all speak Spanish too but my comp and I want to learn at least the basics in Quiche if we can.

My comp is Elder Villalazy, and he is a cool guy. He has 14 months in the mission so I am still just going strong as junior comp, but that’s fine with me ha-ha. He is from Panama, but not from anywhere normal. He grew up on some tiny island and spoke only the language that the 200 people on the island spoke. So he came and had to learn Spanish too. Which is kind of funny for me because he speaks pretty well, but not perfect.  He gets a lot of the tenses mixed up, and always prays in the wrong tense. It always just kind of makes me smile a little bit to see a pure Latino, from Central America and all, and he doesn’t even speak perfect Spanish. He can speak quite a bit of English too, which is cool. He is a smart kid really, considering where he grew up and all. But I am stoked, he is a super good comp. In one of his older areas he learned how to speak fluently one of the other dialects here, Mam. So he always tries to speak to people here in Mam to see if they know it, but its basically pure Quiche here.

One of the best parts of my area though is that there is a cream soda factory here, and it’s amazing. Makes me sooo homesick, but I cant resist it.  It rains a lot here too. A lot more than what I have ever seen before, it’s crazy. The roads at night are usually just rivers from the rain all day. I had to break out the shoe dryers for the first time actually. I am glad to say that was a good investment of yours.

As for the church in my area though... it’s not so great. There are three sets of missionaries in my area, and there is no division, and we basically are just in charge of reactivating and hoping that we get some baptisms in the meanwhile. There are 650 members on record in this town, at church yesterday, there were 60 people. There are less than 100 active members out of the almost 700 members here. In elder’s quorum there where more missionaries than other people in the whole class. That’s not good ha-ha. There is some crazy apostasy here too. Apparently there is a branch that is like an hour from here where they just found out that they had women blessing and passing the sacrament because there were not any active men attending the branch. (I am assuming the branch president is inactive also) One of the area authorities was trying to get that all worked out, and he went to the church the next week and women were still passing the sacrament, the guy was like uhh hey guys you can’t be doing this, and the women told him, oh don’t worry, since you said we couldn’t last week we had the branch president give us the priesthood so we can bless the sacrament now. Holy crap ha-ha. When I heard that I was just hoping that it wasn’t true ha-ha. That is sooo bad.  

With my old comp though, yeah I am not really sure, he didn’t really have much to go home too. He told me he was going to come back here and live in Xela, but like right-now-right-now I am pretty sure he is with his uncle in Honduras.

Anyway, that’s about all for the week. Jared wrote me back, he sounds like he is doing awesome. He is such a good kid. Crazy Taft is almost done too. That will be a weird day when that comes. I had a few really good friends here in the mission just go home, that was kind of sad. I know I am starting to get to the point where I have been out for a little bit, but I still feel like I can’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s all right though, its going fast. Also, a member told us the heat won the NBA finals. That’s a bummer. Good thing I missed out on that.

Love you, 

Adam

6-18-12

Hey Moms,

So, things are changing... My comp had interviews with President every day this week, and I guess that the area authorities decided that he has to go home. So he is leaving 4 months early or so, but it’s probably better that way. It’s been super rough lately. We didn’t even really leave the house this week because he was just so sick. I feel bad for the guy, but dang, I want to actually be able to do something every now and then. We literally had nothing going. But since he was going home and we just opened the area I figured I probably wasn’t going to get changes, but I did. I don’t know where or with whom yet, just that they are re-closing my area and that I have to be at the bus terminal at 9am tomorrow morning. Kind of a bummer didn’t really get that much time here or anything, plus I have to repack. That is seriously the worst part of changes is trying to get all of your crap back in your suitcases again. I am hoping I get sent to Momos, that’s the area in the mountains where none of the houses have light or running water and they all bathe in the rivers and stuff. I think that would be a really cool change right now. The city is cool and all, but there is not much here. They baptize a lot more out in the areas like that, plus the people are super humble and friendly and stuff. We’ll see though, I don’t really know what’s going on for sure because there are 26 elders going home right now, and only like 12 coming in. So for that they have to close a lot of areas. I probably will just get changed to another area here in Xela, that’s what I feel like is most likely.

I cant believe yesterday was fathers day. That’s so weird. I didn’t really know, nobody had said anything about it being father’s day. The Guatemalans just celebrated it in the usual way that they do things here, with a ridiculous amount of fireworks. Yesterday I was just lying in my bed and at about 5 in the morning it all started. They are so nuts about that stuff here. It just sounds like bombs going off, and they always have to do them before the sun goes up for some reason. Other than that we didn’t do anything to celebrate.

For my six month mark we didn’t do anything either. My comp had been throwing up all day, and then at like 5 or 6 o’clock our district leader called and said we had to be in the house because there was a hurricane that was pounding Mexico all day and was coming straight for Xela, but nothing happened. It rained like usual but nothing like hurricane-esque. I convinced my comp to go to this bread shop at about 7 so I could buy a slice of cake to celebrate. Other than that, yeah, didn’t do anything, wasn’t super fun but hey, six months down.

I have been getting everyone’s emails and stuff, don’t worry. We only have about an hour to respond and usually most of my time is used emailing you sooo...

Anyways, I am going to shoot an email out to Jared and Landon, I will talk to you next week and fill you in on the new area and all. Love you guys,

Adam

6-11-12

Hey Moms,
It was another really good week here. We dont really have anyone to teach right now so that has been kind of tough. Just trying to fill time it feels like sometimes. The weather was amazing this week. It's been cool, like 70s ish, but it hasnt rained as much as it has been lately, only late at night, which keeps it cool during the day, but were not soaked all day every day which was a bonus. 


My comp is still sick as crap though which has been tough. We have gone and had every test humanly possible to try and figure out what is the problem and we still have no idea, super frustrating for my comp. I honestly think it is just stress, that will do some freaky things to your body, and I am almost sure that is what it is because they cant find literally anything wrong with him. He just throws up everything that he eats. He can only eat corn flakes and pan (little rolls) thats it. He will throw everything else up. Poor guy.

Sorry, yeah I got the package like two weeks ago, kept forgetting to write about it, also I got three of dads pouch letters and two from Wendy and Bree. Holy crap, Wendy´s letter litterally had me dying, she was like asking me if  I have a girlfriend and stuff, I was just like, yeah...sorry, don't have a girlfriend wendy haha.

I am trying to think and just nothing really exciting happened this week. Just another week in Xela, concrete jungle, what dreams are made of. We did find a dog skull one day just in the middle of the road haha. The mission has changes this next week but I dont think that I or my comp will change. We will probably be together for at least one more change. 

I did break into the zone leaders house this week. They share the area with us, and we always go to lunch appointments together and stuff like that. One of them accidentally forgot his keys, and it's just like tradition here in the mission, for literally everything, we have some kind of dibs system to see who does what.  Like who will play goalie, who prays, sometimes we will just do nose goes, like the last person to touch their nose has to do the thing. Another favorite is someone will just lay down on their back, the last person to be laying on their back has to do it.That one is my favorite, I am sure people always get a little confused when they see a group of people in white shirts just hit the deck in the middle of a dirt road but eh, whatever haha. But yeah, so I lost for this one, and had to jimmy up the side of the zonies house, avoid the barbed wire, avoid the power lines, and then jump down like a ten foot wall. Survived though haha, I will send a picture. 

Anyways one of the senior missionaries did a fireside last night, it was really cool, it was about all the stars and galaxies and everything, just how small and insignificant we really all compared to it all, but how we are still so importand to Heavenly Father and all, I really really liked it, it reminded me of that Uchtdorf talk from last November, super cool stuff really. But he said something that really caught my attention, he said, ¨We are not human beings having spiritual experiences, we are spiritual beings having human experiences.¨ Thats cool right? I loved that, makes you think really. Anyways, short on time, love you mom, have a good week.
Adam

6-4-12

Moms.

How could you forget about your son like that? Unacceptable. I sit around all week just wondering what my dear mother will have written me; get to my email, aaaand nothing. I was crushed.

But yeah I feel really bad for my comp. Sometimes I want to kill him and all, but he is a good guy and actually has it pretty rough right now. His mom died when he was 15, and his dad died three months ago. He was talking on the phone this morning with another elder that he wants to come back here to Guate and live with, he was just like “yeah, I have nothing to go home, no family, no home, just nothing.” So he is planning on just coming back and living here in Xela when he goes home. Poor guy. I don’t know how much more time I will be with him though, I have been hearing from some people that I might be training this coming change but I don’t really know, I could be here another change or two with him. But it is true, when you see what the world is like outside of the United States your just kind of like, whoa, people live like this their whole lives, holy crap. We have it pretty good.

As with the weather, yeah its rains like crazy here, every single day, and sometimes multiple days in a row. My shoes are doing all right I guess. In my normal shoes one of the soles is starting to crack. But other than that they are holding up. I would suggest people just getting two pairs of the normal shoes and a pair of boots, the walking shoes suck, I really really don’t like them. The raincoat works really good too. I only use it when it’s really really pouring. But I also use an umbrella; the one you bought me, because I can just throw that in my backpack and always have it with me and it’s not a big deal. But yeah I wish I had brought another pair of normal shoes. I might need you to send me some for my b-day or Christmas or something. But well see how my shoes are in six months or so.

So yeah, I will just go ahead and tell Alex your welcome now for getting his career started, maybe an email or two would be a good way to tell me thanks, what a bum. That’s cool though, I always loved that family, I wonder what Kim has been up to, last time I had heard she was still just in Farmtown.

Speaking of flat Adam though, I am kind of starting to hate flat Adam. He gets to do all the cool stuff I wish I was doing at home. Keep him, and when I get home I am going to burn him. Jessie, remember my friend from the y, she is getting married in a few months and she asked me if she could borrow flat Adam so I could attend the wedding ha-ha. I told her I would ask you and maybe the next time you guys go back up to Utah you could drop him off with them. Strange ha-ha.

This week was pretty slow though here, my comp ate a really sketchy torta, like these weird sandwich things, and he got some kind of a stomach infection, so pretty much the whole week we were in the house. He was just throwing up all the time. Everything he ate or drank he would throw up. So I called the mission nurse and she was just like, well tell your comp to take pepto bismal. I was just kind of like uhhhh lady, like my comp has been throwing up nonstop for like 5 days now, he’s beyond the help of pepto. So we went and got all these blood tests and things like that done and found out he has an intestinal infection. Like yeah, that’s not good, pepto won’t clear that up. We did go make boleadas last night with a family. It’s food from Honduras that’s really really good. It’s a flour tortilla with beans, eggs and chicken. Dang, I was in heaven. It almost felt like eating Mexican food, almost.

 Anyways, that’s about all for this week, Love you guys, talk to you next week.

Adam

5-28-12

Hey moms,
So uhhh, no email from you this week. Where you at? First of all Hunt is killing me haha. In the emails from all our friends and stuff he was talking about how he got transfered out to the boonies, then like his next sentence is about how they go to a gym and work out every morning. Like, uhhh thats the burbs not the boonies haha. Also, in his email from Heather he was talking about how he drives. Like they have a car? I literally have not been in a car in months, not to mention driving around in one to get to all your appointments. What a scrub haha. Anyways, had a really really good week here. I think my comp kind of settled in a little better, and he wasnt baggy at all. We worked really hard and we're hoping to set two baptismal dates this week. 


Rainy season has finally got here. I havent seen the sun in like a month. Its just cloudy all day every day and at like 2 or 3 every afternoon it just starts pouring rain until about 8 or 9 and night. I just walk around with my rain coat and umbrella at all times. I actually really like it though, it's a lot better than having it 110 degrees outside.

Got two good stories for you this week, so apparently there was an earthquake on Tuesday night here. It was at like 10 o'clock at night or something but I was out cold and didn't feel a thing. So the house was shaking pretty bad and it scared my comp. So he wakes up and (he told me this the next morning, i had no idea this even happened) is basically yelling at me and he told me he said ¨Morrow! Wake up! The house is shaking, it's an earthquake!¨(but in spanish) Then he told me I just picked my head up from my pillow and said to him ¨¿De veras? no me importa.¨ And put my head back down and fell asleep haha. He told me there was an earthquake, and unconsiously I responded to him with, ¨Really? Don't care.¨ Nothing broke or anything though so, eh, no harm done.

The second one happened last night. The zonies had a baptism so we went and were helping out. During elders quorum at church earlier, the bishop literally assigned every single adult some kind of thing to do during the baptism, like a talk, prayer, witness for the baptism, in charge of putting up chairs, putting down chairs, everything, just so that people would go to the baptism. So when it was time for the baptism the whole ward was there. So we had all the talks and everything in the chapel and then had to walk into the area where the font is so everyone could see him get baptised. After the guy got baptised they had assigned a guy to bear his testimony He is like this 70 year old guy that is just out of his mind. And he gets up there and starts giving his testimony. He was saying just the usual like this is the right thing your doing right now, this is what Jesus taught us to do, stuff like that, and then he starts going on about how he knows all these things because he talks face to face with Jesus. Everyone was kind of just looking around like, uhhh, did he really just say that? And he keeps going too and starts talking about how Jesus told him when the end of the world is and stuff like that. Just pure, beautiful, rediculous, apostasy. Haha, I could not believe what was going on. After like 5 minutes or so the bishop stands up and just cuts him off. We were dying. 

Anyways, love you guys, Talk to you next week.


Adam