Monday, August 13, 2012

8-13-12

Hey Moms,
Yeah time does really seem to start going faster and faster. I was soooo stoked to hear about the Olympics. Its good to be from the best country in the world. Sorry China. Even more stoked that I will be home for the next winter Olympics, the one that really matters. 


As for me, I don't really like being dl because that just means that I have to stay up really late with dats and phone calls and stuff, things that are not more important than sleeping. I am not really interested in leadership positions in the mission but eh, if pres wants me to do something its not like I can say no ha ha. There is one other gringo in my district, but he is in his last change and is just kind of dead, not as bad as some of the other missionaries I have known who have gone home, but still, pretty fried. 


My comp has one more month than I do. He is from Mexico and is like the 4th or 5th missionary from his family. He has been a member all his life. He has a twin brother in Honduras right now. I thought that was pretty cool. It's kind of strange for Mexicans to come to central America actually. They usually just stay in Mexico or go to Argentina or Chile. We play a lot of guitar together which is pretty sweet, good way to pass the time at night waiting for phone calls. 

Don't know if you noticed or not but I had kind of a big purchase last week on my card. I bought a new guitar and sold my old one. I bought a really sweet Fender, I plan on keeping it for a really long time.

This week was kind of rough, there was a hurricane or something, that is just what everyone was saying, not sure if they were just saying that or what, but it rained literally all day every day. Today has been the first time I have seen the sun and it is hotter than Africa right now. This Sunday was really sweet though, when we were in priesthood meeting, the bishop got up and starting talking. He was telling everyone how this kid in our ward who leaves on his mission this week, his name is Hector, and how he was short some money to buy all the things he needed. I love this kid, he has such a sad story, he is a convert to the church, and he is also an orphan. He lives with a friend who is less active but introduced him to the church. He literally pays for everything, he was studying and working and barely getting by so he could save for his mission. He got his call and everything but after trying to buy all his stuff he found out he was short of money to buy clothes and a suit and stuff. The bishop asked the ward to help 
him out, he needed about 600 more quetz in order to buy the things he needs. Literally right after he said that members of the ward just stood up, walked over to him, and started handing him money. We were sitting right next to him so I could see what the people were giving him. Almost everyone was giving him 100 or 200 quetz, yeah for the states that is not much, but here people can eat for a week on less than that. It was super humbling to see people so poor be so generous with there money to help some kid who really really needed it. I was basically holding back tears. He easily got 2000 quetz from the ward. We as missionaries get 1400 quetz a month, and we live waaay better than most of the people here. 

And then at like 3 we went and visited some recent converts. When we walked up to their house we could see them outside working in their cornfield. When we got closer we could tell something wasn't right, and we walked up and could see that someone had come through and knocked over the larger part of their little corn field. They had been working since they had gotten out of church because if it gets knocked over and you put it up soon enough the corn wont die, it will just start growing again, but if you leave it long enough its all gone. My first thought was what kind of an idiot would come and just knock down someones cornfield, like why would that even cross your mind. But my comp and I just said we would cancel all our other appointments started to help. We worked until about 730 last night just putting these corn stalks back in the ground, and then mounding up enough dirt so that they wouldn't fall over again. It sucked ha ha, I would never want to be a farmer. But the whole time I was just kind of thinking to myself, this will be these peoples food, their source of money, all the time and effort they had put into it, and someone would just come and destroy it like that, for no apparent reason either. After we had finished we went into their house, it was dark, and this family is suuuuper poor. Their house is just one room that is full of beds, they have no water or light. We were just sitting there kind of talking with the family and they just had one candle in the middle of the room. I still was just thinking about what kind of jerk would come over and do this to a family like this and the Mom started talking. She was talking about how when they got home from church and found out what happened her first instinct was she just wanted to cry, after that she said she was really really angry and wanted to find out who did it, and then she said she sat down and really started to think about it, and how before she knew the church she would have just never let that go and always been mad about it, but then she said that because she had learned about Christ and the Church, that she had learned there was a better way to handle everything. She said because of the church her husband who was a drunk, now has a job, started to love and treat his kids better. That is what the church taught her too. She was just saying how it doesn't even matter who or why they would do that, she just had to love them anyways. I was just kind of like, woah. This is this ladies food. This is this ladies food for her children. I was mad at the person who had done it and I would literally not be affected by it at all, and to this lady, she could just let it go and move on just like that. Really put me in my place ha ha, to see things from a perspective like that. Its days like that that make all the hell worth it. Super cool. Anyways, love you guys, I took some photos a few days ago with the family of this lady so I will attach them. Have a good week. 

Adam


PS, I am glad you watched the pig video, that's my life mom...
and the pic of me and my comp, that is our bread turtle we bought, so good.










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