11-26-12

Hey Mom,


Funny about the flat and thick Adam joke... I got it, I'll start p90x, my diet starts tomorrow. This week was crazy. As you can imagine someone as ocd as I am couldn't let Thanksgiving pass and not celebrate it. Elder B, the zone leader that is my really good friend and I paid one of the sisters in our ward to cook for us. Her husband was a mission president in El Salvador and so they had always done dinners with the missionaries that were in the office when they were in the mission. So it wasn't their first time. We paid so much money for it though. We paid about a third of our months expenses just for this one dinner,... so worth it, even though I dont have money to buy groceries this week. Looks like ill be eating the left over spaghetti I have saved up in the house for breakfast this week haha, I think I have some syrup in the house too, I am going on the Buddy the Elf diet. 

We did turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie, the whole thing. I even got to carve the turkey. I converted my comp into a believer this week too. He was all angry the whole day and just kept saying ¨it is not appropriate that we celebrate holidays in a country that the holiday doesn't even exist.¨  I just told him to quit being a robot and smile and enjoy something every now and then. We had even invited investigators and stuff to go too, so it was completely legal. The best was afterwards though because we got to the house and he was just like ¨Thanksgiving might be the best day of the year.¨ And he thought that the sparkling cider (thanks WalMart) had alcohol in it because afterwards he kept telling me he was drunk and that his face felt really hot. I just kept laughing and telling him he shouldn't have eaten half of the whole turkey and he wouldnt have entered into a food coma. 

This could be my last week here in this area. What's kind of weird is that I have been here for a really long time, but it felt like it went by so fast. I am not even sure that I have changes, they are supposed to call on Sunday and let us know. 

I can't really believe either that Sunday is my birthday. 19 went by really really fast. I dont know what I am going to do, probably nothing. It's fast Sunday so no breakfast in bed, and the Christmas devo for the first presidency is that night so it will probably be just another day. I didn't get your package today so that means I wont get your package untill next week, which means no presents on my birthday, but its not a big deal, I didn't really get or do anything for my birthday last year either. I just remember Alex sent me a text at like 6 in the morning telling me happy birthday waking me up, and I remember thinking that it was going to be K D again and that I was going to loose it haha. 

Anyways, about BYU, at least they are going bowling this year, sorry Utah. Notre Dame is undefeated though, is  Hagerty playing there now? Yall should google his name and see if he shows up on the roster. 

Anyways, I love yall, have a good week.
Adam

PS, Liv and Wendy look really really old, and Bree looks like she has gotten younger. Alex also needs to shave,... bum. Also, can you send me the recipe for no bake cookies? 

11-19-12

Hey Mom,

This week was really hectic actually. We had p-day on Tuesday because of setting up all the stuff on Monday. And then Friday I had to go back and translate for the dentist thing we had set up for on Monday. It was actaully really really cool. They had probably about 25 dentists, 5 doctors, and a few oral surgeons there and something like 1100 kids showed up from the Xela and Rheu missions to get all there medical stuff done for their mission papers. It was just crazy hectic because about 5 of them could speak Spanish. So we were just running all day. I was there from ten in the morning until ten at night. Because my comp doesn't speak any English he just stayed with the zonies the whole day. 

Poor guy too, he literally had the worst day you could ever have as a missionary. In the morning they were doing some service and he cut his thumb on some sheet metal. He had to go to the hospital and get stiches and everything.  And then at night, I was supposed to go and do a baptismal interview but the zonies went and did it since I was stuck translating. So they go to this area late at night and on the way back, they got assaulted and robbed. Two guys took the three of their backpacks, wallets, phones, cameras. Everything. Even their scriptures. They called me from a members house and I asked them where they were.  They were kind of by my area, but in a super super dangerous area, at night, walking on this road that doesn't have any street lights. I was just like, what the flip were they doing in that area at night? It's seriously notoriously dangerous, and both of the zonies have been here longer than I have. Nothing would have happened if they had taken another street. I was just like, uh, what were y'all thinking? But yeah he was pretty freaked out. He dropped the tough 26 year old facade pretty quickly. 

But he is still on his ocd kick, he bought brand new really expensive scriptures and he called his mom and is going to buy some crazy nice camera and everything. I was just kind of like uh, you just got all your nice stuff that you shouldn't have been carriying with you anyways stolen, and your just going to buy it all again like that, like what if it gets stolen again...? Like you haven't even hit three months yet, relax. Other than that though, not much is going on here. 

I can't believe BYU is that disappointing this year, but, better that they stink now while I am gone now and when I get back they can get it together. That's awesome Seano got his call, I bet DC would be such a cool place to serve, really cold, but still, I love DC. What about D? Has he gotten his call yet? We have no plans for Thanksgiving this week, I am going to start searching for some members that will cook me something american, I can't imagine a year with no turkey day. 
Anwyays, I love yall, have a good week.


Adam

11-12-12

Hey Moms,

So yeah, I survived my first earthquake. It was honestly the craziest 52 seconds of my life. Because we are in training there is this program that all the trainers do where we have two hours of comp study, so we were just sitting in our house and reading and all of a sudden it just started to rumble a little bit. My comp was kind of like oh, tremble (a temblor or tremble is anything below 6 on the Rector scale, anything above a 6 is an earthquake, from what I've heard) and then it just started to rumble harder and harder and just kind of a sickening sound came from the house like it was going to fall. So we ran out into the street. We just stood out in the street for another 30 seconds or so and then it stopped. 

It was actually kind of a surreal feeling, like I didn’t really realize what was going on until after the whole thing. The ground was moving kind of like wavy, strange. But honestly nothing happened to our house or anyone in our area. Actually an old shoe did fall down off of one of our cupboards. Where I live all the houses are really strong and so there would need to be an earthquake in the 8s or so to do damage. 

And then yesterday, the last earthquake, we were outside with that family of converts we are always with. And it wasn’t as strong but it was a little bit longer than the one that happened Wednesday. The ground didn’t rumble. It just felt like everything was a little bit tipsy. It really didn’t affect many people in my mission, a few houses made of adobe fell but very few people were killed. All of the damage happened in this place called San Marcos, which is in the Rheu mission. But the majority of the fatalities, and houses that were destroyed were there. Y'all really don’t have to worry about us here. They always say it's way safer here in Xela compared to all the other missions here in Guate, it's a lot more progressed and the buildings are better. Plus it's a lot more inland so were completely safe from tsunamis and things like that too. 

Another thing that happened this week, the story of my comps ocd continues. He had been complaining for a few weeks now about our refrigerator was dirty. So one day he decided to clean it and he took it outside and started chipping away at the giant ice block of the freezer part of our mini fridge. I don’t know how, but he broke the tube part that circulates the carbon monoxide that keeps it cold. So he broke our fridge, this was  Tuesday, so we have been going all week without a fridge. I have been dying since I have been holding firm to my Chocó crisps cereal diet since I got here. But it's pretty hard to eat cold cereal without milk. We're still waiting for the office elders to bring us our new one too. I have been calling them every night and they are like, sorry, maybe tomorrow. They’ll probably just bring a new one in a few months or so, not a big deal.

Today was kind of interesting, the ZLs called me last night and told me that pres had assigned my district and another district to go and do some service today. So we're actually going to have p-day tomorrow we're just writing today. But we went and helped them set up a dental clinic in one of the church buildings here. All the kids that are from this mission getting ready to go on a mission, they are going to bring them all here and get all their dental work out of the way so they can send their papers. Just from Xela they are planning on 70 kids. That’s a lot of wisdom teeth to take out. But the interesting thing is the dentist that was there in charge of it all was talking to me, and he told me that he lives right by the MTC, so I told him that’s where your parents live and they were like oh, yeah we know the Maglebys. They are in the same ward as grandpa and grams. Kind of funny right? They were super excited and took some pictures of me and stuff. Small world. 

Anyways, don’t worry about me, everything is good here, I knew you guys might have been freaking out so I asked Lari to do me that little favor. She is actually an English teacher, so I would guess she probably has pretty good English. She only speaks to me in Spanish though. As for the packages, I got Heathers, and one from grandma Mag and also grandma Morrow, so yeah I am pretty packaged out right now. As for Christmas though (don’t know if your planning on sending a b-day and Christmas one?) but if you are sending a Christmas one I do have a request, remember that swatch watch I bought, the purple one? I broke it, it was kind of a freak accident really, but I would love another one of those, that was like my favorite watch ever. Just one of the really plain ones, but send a cool color too. I remember my old roommate had a dark red one that was the same kind, I really liked that, maybe if you can still order those? That would be greatly appreciated on my part. You can buy watches here but they all are really cheap and break in like a few weeks or the battery dies, just not very good quality. 

Anyways, you guys have a good week, bummer about Romney too right, but did y'all see the First Presidencies statement on that? Our church is so cool.

Adam

11-5-12

Hey Moms,

This week was good; Halloween doesn’t exist here so I actually didn’t really realize it had passed. One of the members made some pumpkin pie for me and that was pretty cool, but just not really the same. The holiday here is called Day of the Saints (of course, apostates) and it’s just kind of like Day of the Dead but its November 1. The tradition is they go and leave this plate of food called “fiambre” (I’ll get to that later) and alcohol on the tombstones of their dead ancestors. But everyone was saying all the drunks just go there in the night and have the real party, kind of like joking. I just kept thinking uhhhh, that’s super low to have to go get drunk in the cemetery.

“Fiambre” is literally the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life. I couldn’t believe they eat it. It’s just like a ton of rotten vegetables and beans, covered in vinegar, and then covered in cheese and ham and boiled eggs. I was thinking before we ate, oh cheese and ham, shouldn’t be too bad, but seriously, the foulest thing I have ever stomached in my life, even worse then the raw cow stomach. I was just glad the sister who fed us wasn’t in the same room as my comp and I when we were eating because I basically just had to pinch my nose and send it down.

Other than that this week was good though, it was a mission wide contacting week so we just contacted all week, and yes, we knocked every single door in this area. Every single one, and then we got kind of bored so we started contacting in another companionships area because we just ran out of people to talk to really. It was just super cool though to see how people are just kind of waiting or prepared for us. We had so many lessons where people were golden. I’m dying for a baptism, we’re hoping for one to go through in two weeks or so, keep your fingers crossed for me.

I can’t believe Kathy and Lauren just had kids, that’s kind of crazy, the pictures of the store look really good too. I know they are just pictures but from what I saw it looked cooler than the old store I would say, especially the outside. Y'all did a good job with that.

I literally heard nothing about the hurricane, but a week without power, bummer. We basically loose power or water or the both pretty much every other day though, you just kind of get used to it. When I was in my first change here we went like 4 days without water or light. My comp and I were smelling pretty strange by the time they got everything fixed. No earthquakes this week. Everyone says that it’s safer though the more frequent there are small trembles, because if they are small they prevent the really big ones that are just building up for a really long time. I think we’re pretty safe from hurricanes though, up in the mountains and away from the coast.

Also I had to break into an investigators house this week. It’s like this 60-year-old lady who lives alone and lost her keys and so she couldn’t get into her house. The only thing is I had to get up on the third floor and break in from the door on the roof, otherwise we would have had to break some windows, but I did some Bruce Lee maneuvers and get up there. I did it and I am still alive. Hopeful she will just get baptized now...

Ha-ha, mom, those black disc that were cooking over the fire, those are tortillas. I couldn’t tell you how many millions of those things I have had to eat. Looks delicious right? They eat those with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yep. They are sometimes yellow, sometimes white, sometimes a dark blue. Just depends on what kind of corn they use to make the dough.

My comp did get over his cold, but he did do something pretty funny this week. We went to buy groceries and he didn’t bring his ID with him, so when the lady asked him for ID, he used his temple recommend ha-ha. She accepted it too! I was just like whoa, that doesn’t only work in Utah ha-ha. I was just dying the whole day though, could not believe he would try something like that, even crazier that she accepted it.

Anyways, love y'all. Have a good week.

Adam

10-29-12

Hey Moms,

We had another earthquake again this week. It wasn’t as big as the last one, but still an earthquake nonetheless. We were just sitting in our house and studying on Friday and it just started rocking. I feel like the Mayans are just getting a few test runs in before the real thing happens on December 21st. Either way, nothing too major. 

Nothing crazy happened this week here either. Pretty quite. Just trying to get some people to progress, and divorce a few others, and hopefully I can get one more baptism before they ship me out of this area. 

The rain seems to have finally stopped so that has been really nice; it’s pretty hot during the day and mild in the night and morning. I have really only had to break a sweater out every now and then, but I am usually just in my short sleeve shirt. As for my comp it’s a different story. I think he thinks he is dying. He says he has a cold but he seems to be pretty free of all cold symptoms. He just walks around every day with a long sleeve sweater, and a scarf. Even when it’s like 90 degrees. I feel like he is going to die of dehydration before the cold gets him. I asked him if he wanted to go out and go running in the morning a few days ago for exercise, since he never does exercise, and he just looked at me and was like ¨Elder, it makes me sad how little my physical health matters to you.¨ I was just like oh... sorry. I guess some physical exercise would be really bad for your chubby 26-year-old body. 

Also, idk if it’s big in the states, but there is a song here that is just blowing up right now, you cannot escape it. I have no idea what its called or what any of the words say, but everyone tells me it’s in Korean, so maybe Alex would know of it. Was there any really popular Korean techno song that came out like 6 months ago? All I know is I hear it like 10 times daily. Kind of catchy though. 

Other then that, nothing really new here. That’s awesome about T´s call. We're pretty much one-year apart then. He will love Christmas in the MTC too, that was so much fun for me. It's a given that at least one of the 12 comes, plus its better to get one of your two Christmas’s out of the way sooner rather then later. Washington would be a nice place to serve too. I’m way stoked for him. 

That’s good byu won again. I got your package last week too, so I have been wearing my game day shirt with pride every night. P-day is pretty much the same here every week. We start out with playing soccer, and then we go eat at McDonalds’ because it’s the only restaurant in the zone and then we come and write emails. This week we went up to the mission home real quick too because my comp had lost his temple recommend and needed to get another one. But other than that, that’s pretty much what we do. It’s kind of repetitious but, still p-day, still enjoyable. 

About Alex’s email. What...the.... I don’t want to have anything to do with...any of that. Sure you didn’t drop him on his head or anything mom? Although Chipper J would be pretty legendary.  That’s not okay... Anyways, love you guys, have a good week.

Adam