Tuesday, March 27, 2012

3-26-12

Moms,
Can’t believe it is already spring break. That’s so weird, just feels like summer here. Well,… sometimes,… during the day it is blazing hot, I am getting soooo dark. I have a great farmers tan going. But at night it gets really really cold, plus we are getting a little closer to the rainy season so it’s started to get a little nasty in the afternoon, and when it rains it is freeeezing. It even hailed a little bit on Saturday, everyone was kind of freaking out and saying it was snowing, but no, just straight giant balls of ice. Yeah we got totally soaked on Saturday, we were probably about half an hour from anywhere and it just started pouring. Seriously raining like I have never seen before, we just ran for cover and waited for like half an hour, didn’t stop at all so we just went for it. I keep a plastic bag from the grocery store in my backpack now for the rain, and for instances like the cow stomach, its my all purpose emergency bag. But yeah, just put my scriptures in that and trekked home. So that was fun. But apparently the rainy season is ten times worse, I heard there are times when your just walking in water to your knees for days... should be fun.

Oh and we had changes this week. So I am done being trained I guess ha-ha. Yeah Conte has a herniated disc in his spine, they don’t know if he has to go home or not so they sent him to Xela and he is in a trio just waiting to hear what the mission doctor decides to do with him. So now I am with Elder Celis, he is 22, from Guate City, and has about 18 months in the mish. It is a little weird because  I am the junior comp, but I know the area, people, investigators, and he was only baptized a year before he went on his mission so he kind of knows things about the church, but not a ton, so I basically am the senior comp. I make all the plans, talk to all the people, I’m in charge of our Sunday school class, and teach pretty much all of the lessons. It’s been a crazy week. My Spanish has really come a long way,  for almost having two months in the field, everyone tells me I speak waaay better than most of the missionaries with a few changes, so that is always really nice. I wouldn’t say I am totally fluent whatsoever, but I know enough that I can do everything by myself. I dream in Spanish now too. So so weird.

Celis doesn’t speak a word of English either, it has been really nice. Two comps of just perfect Spanish, that helps a ton. We had a meeting and interviews at the mission home this Tuesday; I definitely can tell a difference in the Spanish of elders who have had English speaking comps.

That is brutal with Alex, he would absolutely die here. We eat soooo much bread. Probably eat a full loaf of bread on the daily. Especially because the semana santa (crazy catholic holiday here) is next week, so apparently to celebrate Christ people just eat bread for a month. Also we are not allowed to leave the house next Friday because people walk around town carrying crosses and stuff. This is a national holiday, everything closes down so people can walk around and carry crosses. I heard some people are really intense about it too and actually nail themselves to the crosses. Whaaat....? 

I don’t get the holidays in this country; they celebrate in the weirdest ways possible. Like for cumpliaños the whole family wakes up before the sun comes up to light off fireworks. That sounds like a terrible way to me to celebrate my birthday, I want sleep, not to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, no thanks, sleep is a good enough present. So on almost a daily basis we get woken up by someone lighting off a thousand black cats at about 4:30-5 ish in the morning. They do it for even infant babies too. Like yeah, your 1 year old baby really really wants to wake up and light off fireworks. 

I was definitely sent here to learn patience ha-ha. I am still working on it... About the dentist though, it was probably the scariest half an hour of my life. It was in Xela, and when I talked to the mission nurse she told me they had just fired the mission dentist. So they were looking for a new one and I was the guinea pig. Soooo reassuring ha-ha. Not kidding she actually used the words guinea pig in our phone call. I almost cried. So we sit down in the little house in the middle of Xela and I can just hear a drill going nuts in the backroom, like the squeally high pitch drill from movies or something, not going to lie, I was sweating. When I got called back I was feeling a little weak in the knees and juuust a little nauseous. I sit down and the dentist starts talking. He is super friendly and really nice, and just kind of poking around in my mouth, then just jabs a needle into my mouth ha-ha, didn’t say a word, just went for it. It was some crazy numbing stuff too because I couldn’t talk for hours after that ha-ha. But at least I didn’t feel a thing. He just drilled a little bit more of my tooth (yeah I was worried) and then filled it. He did a really good job ha-ha, its smooth, hasn’t given me any problems, not sensitive at all. I was a little awestruck that a Guate dentist was that good.

The best part too was when we were done, he told me he was a bishop in Xela, and that he was giving me the ¨member discount¨, I paid 125 Quetz, that’s about...16 dollars ha-ha. I paid 16 dollars to get a tooth filled in Guatemala. I laughed pretty hard about that. Love this place. Anyways, good luck with all the stuff for Alex, sounds cool, send pictures. I don’t know if you have sent that care package or not yet, but if you haven’t, please send some more CD´s too. Like soundtracks of movies and stuff that don’t have words. Maybe like Titanic or something (you can leave Celine’s my heart will go on, that song speaks to my soul), but yeah I have the soundtrack for Pearl Harbor, things like that, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, I love stufff like that. Also more nutella, apparently the grocery store in Xela is the only place with it. Oh my I loved that last bottle you sent. Nothing like eating something where the first ingredient is sugar, and the second is butter ha-ha. Anyways, les quiero, talk to you all next week.
Adam




3-19-12


Hey Moms,
Sorry I am a day late. We have been stuck in Xela for a while. We didn’t get a p-day this week, bummer. :(  Conte has a herniated disc in his spine so we have been here figuring stuff out for that. We still don’t really know what is going to happen. We were at the doctors for literally the entire day yesterday. We left Chiantla at about 5:30 in the morning and were in doctor’s appointments from about 8 in the morning till about 9 at night. It was so awful ha-ha. We did sneak away though and get some McDonalds though. A big mac has never tasted better. Two big macs actually.… doubled down. Figured it would probably be a long time until I got that again. Wrong. Last night the assistants brought us dinner to our hotel, yep. Big macs. Straight ate three big macs yesterday. Needless to say, by body is not feeling super great today. I don’t know how to even explain it. My stomach feels dirty, and I am pretty sure I am pumping unhealthy amounts of cholesterol through my veins right now.

But yeah, we’re just going to sit here until 1 today because we have interviews at the presidents, and then I have a dentist appointment (uhhh) at 4:30. Because….that tooth that was giving me problems after Dr. Rich ¨fixed¨ it, fell out, so yeah, like half of my molar is gone. Awesome, so stoked to go to a Guate dentist.  Sorry mom, I will probably come home with a metal grill...but since my appointment is not till late in the afternoon, we will have to stay here again tonight in the hotel. Awesome. Also since it is something that I had done to my teeth before my mission, I have to pay for it, so yeah... I am going to need you to refill my debit card for me because I am for sure going to get taken to the cleaners by some dentist here looking at the golden teeth of a gringo.

Other than that I am doing great, I flipping love the mission. Some days are really really tough, super baggy, but other days its like I never want to leave this place. I am going to buy a guitar this week I decided and learn how to play while I am here. Tons of elders do it because they only cost like 500 quetz or like...64 dollars. I bought a calculator watch so I can do the money conversions ha-ha.

So don’t be fooled by the photos books of Guate, this place is straight ugly ha-ha. The landscape is beautiful and all, but architecture doesn’t exist It is just cinder blocks and mud houses, and there is so much garbage everywhere that it makes Shiprock look like paradise. Sorry pops, this place is kind of a dump ha-ha. But I love it, its home now.

I heard we will be able to watch conference live, so that will be sick, holy crap I cant believe it is time to have conference again, that six months was soooooo fast. I remember for October conference I was with Kendra, you met her, and we walked around for like 3 hours trying to find a church building that was broadcasting it because we didn’t want to watch it in our apts. Dang, 6 months, so fast, only four of those and I will be home.

We email in a internet cafe in huehue, its 4 quetz an hour, so like.... 51.2 cents, I sent that jacket of mine home, mostly because I wanted to see how much it costs to send stuff home, if it will get there, and also because I don’t need that jacket, and I look so fresh in it.  It is way too nice to give away to someone here. So  just put that with the rest of my stuff for when I get home. If Alex steals it, I am going to be mad ha-ha. Anyways, I have been prepping a package with stuff for ya'll, so maybe in a week or two I’ll get that off. I bought some touristy stuff and I will send all the different kinds of money and stuff. I found a 5 centavo, it’s like .05 of one quet, like a nickel is to the dollar, so a centavo is worth about...64% of a penny, yeah, nothing ha-ha.

This week was a really good week. We had divisions for a few days because Hales needed a little vacation. So that was really fun. I really like him; we have cambios this week so hopefully he doesn’t get changed out. And then when Conte came back Thursday we went to eat lunch with a member. Oh my gosh moms. Almost died. The lady we went to visit, we were supposed to eat with her a few Saturdays back, and when we went and visited, her mom (the entire family lives together here, like 5 generations in one house) told us that she had left and went to the temple so we didn’t have lunch, so we left. Turns out she had actually been there and the grandma was wrong. So the next day in church she straight machetes us about how she had been cooking all day and it was our fault that we didn’t go inside and check to see if she was there. Like yeah, of course, why would we not do that? Anyways so this week, (like two weeks later) she gets her revenge. So we walk in and sit down and she says ¨Oh Elders, I have a surprise for you! ¨ and she puts this giant bowl in front of me. I am just staring at this 6 inch long, 3 inch wide, cow tongue. Freak, it was the hairiest looking piece of meat you have ever seen ha-ha. Conte gets his plate too and his is just this tiny little piece, like maybe 3 inches long. Suerte. So I am just choking this thing down, so so so hard to eat. Just chewy chewy chewy. People do not use knifes here either, your supposed to eat meat with your hands. All I have is a spoon, and I am trying to cut it into pieces so small that I don’t have to chew, just swallow, because every bite I think I am going to throw up. I get about 3/4 of it down and I am done, just green. On the verge of spewing, but I know I cant leave the food. We always have to clean our plates, and this lady already hates us,  I can’t make her more mad. So I just hit the panic button, absolutely freaking out ha-ha. I start trying to do anything to get this lady out of the room. I asked for a napkin also to try and swipe it with the napkin and slide it into my pocket. She stands up, looks me straight in the eyes, says ¨we don’t have any napkins¨, and is looking at me really weird. So I just say oh thanks, don’t worry about it, and she just up and walks out of the room. I make a break for my backpack on the other side of the room, dead sprint, and tear through my backpack for my...emergency toilet paper, and back to the table. The second I get the meat in my pocket she walks back in with a full on beach towel for me to use ha-ha. Barely made it ha-ha. The dog kept coming up to me and smelling my pocket too. So bad mom, so bad, Conte just about kills himself trying not to die laughing. Then we stand up and are thanking her and stuff but say we have an appointment and we have to go. I am feeling really really green at this point, and she just looks at me, straight in the eyes and says, ¨you know what that was, right¨, and I just kind of like ¨uhh no, but it was really good thank you. ¨ And with just like the dirtiest grin I have ever seen in my life she says, ¨pansa de vaca¨. Freeeeeaaak moms. I thought I was on the verge of throwing up before I knew, now I had about 30 seconds till spew time, it was time to go. Pansa is like... stomach lining. Yeah, ate stomach lining of a cow. Awesome ha-ha. Can’t believe that lady did that, such a dirty move, so low moms, so low. She did it the whole time with just the meanest grin on her face, straight witch. Totally took revenge on me, like no offense lady, if we missed your lunch appointment a month ago, its not my fault. I barely speak Spanish now; I couldn’t speak it then, give me a break ha-ha.

We laugh about it daily though. It was so funny, but in the moment I was sooooo mad. Anyways, in other news, good to hear all is well; the pictures you sent were awesome. Liv looks really old, I like the glasses too. I don’t know why I just have really liked wearing mine here. Maybe its because I have like 10 snakes in Chiantla who whenever they see me they always go ¨¡sht sht canchito con lentes! ¨. Makes me laugh every time. Hopefully the glasses I have will last. I have been trying to use my contacts but it is really dusty here so more than a day or two and my eyes are all scratched. For a care package, just send candy, maybe a tie or two, and creamy jiffy peanut butter. The nutella is heaven, but we can buy that here so you don’t have to send that. And yeah, just some more bug anti itch cream, the bugs aren’t as bad but every now and then I get a few new bites. Dad asked how my shoes are holding up, there doing alright I think. I only wear the dress ones because the boot/shoes things are really really heavy and they make walking around all day not very fun, but if I get sent to Momos in the future I will definitaly need them, but for now I think I am doing alright. Thanks for the March Madness updates, and everything else, send more pics, I love those. Anyways, time to go, love you guys, talk to you next week.
Adam

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

3-12-12











Moms! Hi!
So had a good week, but before I start, story time. You would not believe what happened last night. So we baptized three kids this week, and we went and were going to teach them the restoration (after baptisms they receive all the lessons again) and we have a movie and were about to start and everything, and all the sudden a huge fight breaks out, and the kids and the mom just start fighting with each other really bad. I am not exactly sure what the problem was, something about food, but Elder Conte and I were just kind of trying to diffuse the bomb. (there was a lot of yelling and tears). We’re trying to teach forgiveness and families, we need to love each other, things like that, and we thought we had kind of diffused the bomb, so we step out of the room for a minute to try and figure out what to do.

We had already been there for like an hour so we were going to leave, it’s like 8:30ish. So we go back in and the mom who is 42 says she wants a blessing because she is not feeling well. So we start with the blessing and about half way through she kind of starts slumping over in her chair. Then she starts shaking really badly. So Conte just cuts off the blessing, says amen, and the lady is kind of freaking out. People are kind of crazy and dramatic here so really I didn’t think all that of it, but she totally starts freaking out. So we move her to the bed and she just starts convulsing and moaning, just so weird. Then she starts grabbing her chest and saying, ¨my heart hurts, my heart hurts¨. Literally had an investigator have a heart attack during a lesson, scariest thing of my life.

They live right by the bishop so we had her son run and grab him, got his car, carried her to the car and drove her to a doctor. She ended up being all right (as far as I know now), but holy freak ha-ha. I thought she was going to die. Definitely one of the freakiest moments of my life. We didn’t get home until 11ish, our district leader was freaking out a little bit. But seriously ha-ha, she had a heart attack in the middle of a blessing. Just another day in Guatemala ha-ha.

But yeah, we had an awesome week, on Saturday we had a baptism of three, I got to do two of them so that was really really cool. I was so nervous but didn’t have any problems with the prayers or the names. We had 11 investigators attend the service too, so yeah, way cool. I am so glad I am not in a tough part of the world. We don’t have a ton of success, I heard the mission average is 10 baptisms, so I would say I am starting off pretty good. But a mission like Alex’s, that would be rough. I remember when he said they had tracted something like 1000 straight doors without getting in, I can’t even imagine. We don’t tract, we only work off referrals, mission rule, but when we don’t have anything to do (like 3 hours my whole time here) we tract. So far I have knocked on 3 doors my entire time in the field. Out of the three, we got into all the homes, taught two lessons, and one of them is progressing and we are hoping to set a date for baptism soon ha-ha. Yeah. Sorry Al.

But I was relieved to hear Alex is all right, well...doesn’t have cancer. I was pretty worried, but yeah, I feel a lot better, I am sure he is quite relieved too. How is Bones? Feeling better, have a good birthday? How is March Madness, like who is doing good and who is projected to win? I’m sure BYU will be out first or second round. No Jimmer magic this year:(

 I finally got some mail, I got a letter from Scott Snow, my old roommate, and two from Gabby, if you could tell everyone who sends mail to send me email addresses too, so I can write them back. I don’t think there actually exists a place here where we can send letters, only email. Also, I got moms first package (heavenly) and two dear elders from dad from at Christmas time ha-ha. I had never got them before though so that was still kind of cool. Like getting mail from a time machine. Keep me updated on March madness!
I love you guys, talk to you next week. Les quiero.
Adam

Monday, March 5, 2012

3-5-12









Holy crap. What happened this week ha-ha. Everything was calm and going good last week and now Jonah, Alex, Mitch and Jordan are all dying. That sucks, tell them all I am so sorry ha-h. Who would have thought the person living in a third world country would be the healthiest of us all. Mom your witch doctor magic really worked this time. The brewers yeast is holding true. I have not even been the least bit sick the whole time I have been here, not even a rumble in the stomach. So I don’t know if I am just really being blessed, but I am just going to attribute it to the fact my mom is a witch doctor. 

That is really scary with all the stuff with Al, let him know I am praying and fasting for him, he will be all right I'm sure. With Bonsey too, tell him happy birthday for me, I know I am a little bit early but it will have come and gone before the next p-day. Man I love those guys ha-ha. I have been a little baggy this week and I was just thinking a lot about when Bones lived with us in NM, lots of good times. Almost killed him a few times, but, sill a lot of good times. 

That’s good to hear Liv is doing so well too, she is pretty awesome, but she did have the best example in the world to learn from, so, lets be honest, is it really that surprising? Yeah send some more brewers yeast when you can, I am taking 3 a day and like I said, no problems yet, so if its not broken why fix it? With itch cream, just send something that will stop the itch, I think I finally found out how to kill them, Elder Davies, one of the DLs here told me all the stuff I need to go and buy to get that taken care of, don’t worry about it. 

Speaking of Elder Davies, he is from Kaysville, going to BYU after his mission, he is like one of my favorite people I have met out here, he is so cool. Next week we are going to have our 3 month parties ha-ha. I have three months down, he has three months left :( either way, should be fun. 

About the weather, it is so freaking hot here during the day, apparently Xela is way colder than here, it feels like 90-95 degrees during the day, and then it gets cold a night, we usually just have to break out a sweater, but yeah its way hotter than 70 like the reports say. But they say this is about the hottest it gets and its manageable. It gets hotter in NM than here for sure. It still has yet to rain too which kind of surprised me. But the rain season is coming in a month or two I think. 

Chiantla just has one branch, so we are the only Elders in our area. We have about 100 members attend church weekly, so not too bad. The building in Chiantla is actually under construction so we go to an area called Calvario every Sunday for church, its not too bad, just a little bus ride. Our actual area is really big, one of the biggest, but some of the areas are too dangerous for us to go so we probably cover a five-mile radius or so, we walk a lot. And by a lot, I mean a ton. But I really like it, makes me feel like a missionary ha-ha. I totally feel like a giant though, my comp is probably 5¨10 and we are always the tallest people around. 

Conte is awesome though, yeah he is a convert, I think he was baptized when he was 18 and he was in school in stuff, he graduated in business something and worked for colleges in the states and in Panama. We get along really well though, so it’s been really nice, I have heard some horror stories of trainers, so I consider myself lucky. 

Cant believe Hunt hit his 6 month mark, also remember Otto? He is serving in Alb, he started after Hunt and he is already training ha-ha. That’s crazy. Not a ton really happened this week here. We have a baptism on Saturday for three so that should be cool. I will send a bunch of pics next week. Also did some face book messages come from Chema? He told me he looked you guys up ha-ha. I love that kid, he is going to be such a good missionary. He leaves for the CCM this week :( sad day. Also I will send a pic of our p-day activity today, broom hockey, pretty sweet. Other than that, not much else is new, I love you guys, tell everyone hi for me. Talk to you next week.
Adam

2-27-12

Moms!
That’s so crazy you guys are in Denver, I totally remember being there just last year, this last year went by crazy fast. I remember that was when the US played Canada in hockey and Dad and I tried forever to get that on his computer so we could watch it, but we never could get it. Here's a few photo's from this week.















I’m jealous you guys went and saw Brian Reagan ha-ha, I bet he was pretty hilarious, he always reminded me of Kevin Eddy for some reason. Make sure you tell Alex congrats for me, that’s crazy how everything is just kind of falling into place for him nicely, hopefully that keeps working out well for him.

As for us it was another crazy week here ha-ha. Every day just gets crazier and crazier, but it has been really fun this week. For Tuesday it was Carnival, which apparently is a Brazilian holiday where everyone walks around naked and throws glitter filled eggs and flower at each other, or at least that is what I could understand it as. Needless to say, we were not allowed to leave the house all day. Suuuper boring. Days fly when you have things to do, but when you can’t work, holy crap. I never thought that day was going to end. I watched every single preach my gospel DVD, like 3 hours, watched 17 Miracles (which I highly recommend you buy), and read like 50 chapters in D&C ha-ha.

But after that day the week flew buy. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal, but Friday was awesome, we had divisions with our district leader, Elder Hales, he is from Ogden area and has about 6 months on his mission. It was probably one of the most fun days here for me. It was nice being in charge of all the appointments and stuff and it was really nice to speak a little bit in English, but we had a really good day, and then that night, we went to a members house pretty late, the Relief Society pres called us and invited us over to eat enchiladas (same as tostadas in the states) and they were unbelievably good. I was seriously in heaven. They were kind of freaky and had some questionable foods on them but I ate like ten. They had like mayo and carrots and beets and stuff on them, but seriously one of the top ten best meals of my life.

Then on Saturday we studied all morning and then met up with my comp and Hales´ comp at one of our members two-year-old birthday party ha-ha. Yeah, the Elders all took a turn on the piñata, yeah I rocked it. I am not even joking. I was just thinking to myself, I am in Guatemala, at a two year olds birthday party, swinging at a piñata. Not many Americans can say that they have done that before. ha-ha.

And now it’s p-day again. I love p-days. We have some really cool zone leaders who hate playing soccer, which is perfect because I hate playing soccer, but they had a member who is a carpenter make them a baseball bat. And the zone rode on some bus way out to the middle of nowhere to a baseball field and we played baseball with tennis balls all morning. It was awesome. Then we always go to a member’s restaurant as a zone and eat, I got a hamburger. My oh my, I do love America. Anyways, other than getting eaten alive by fleas every night, (btw in your next care package send more bug bite cream) everything has been really good. I am in a really fun, calm area with good members. Not a lot to complain about. The food this week has been a lot more...normal. No more stories about that, anyways. I love you guys. Tell everyone to send emails, because I still haven’t gotten any mail ha-ha. Probably never will. That’s all right,

Talk to you guys next week!
Adios.
Adam