3-4-13

Hey Mom,

As for the hitch hiking thing, wasn’t the first time I’ve done it, wont be the last...ha-ha. Especially when your options are walk ten miles or hitch hike. Here it’s not a big deal either.  There aren’t really that many busses and literally everywhere you go you see people doing it. Usually the people just charge you like 5 quetz or something. They call them fletes and they are like poor people taxis. They even have little signs like the taxis on the top of the pickups that say fletes so everyone knows.

Things are good here in Guate. It’s still really hot in the day, but at least the rain hasn’t started yet. It has actually been really really cold at night. All the houses here are just made of cinder block and there is no such thing as heating or cooling in the house. So when it’s cold outside it’s cold in the houses, and when it’s hot outside, it’s hot in the house. There is really no winning here. But the last week the mornings have been really really cold and windy. Good thing I have Big Agnes here to keep me warm though. That was probably one of Dad’s better ideas he’s had for me. Really saved me actually.

We have been looking for new people pretty much this whole week. Lots of walking and only somewhat finding. We were with this one family on Saturday and we asked them if we could do some service for them or anything.  So they take us in on this patio place, and it’s where they have all their corn laying out so the sun dries it. They dry it all out, then take the kernels off, and then they boil it, mash it, and make tortillas. So we walk over to where this corn is and they ask us to help them take all the kernels off of the cobs. It’s pretty common I have actually done it a lot in the mish. Just this time they had some really freaky corn. I don’t know why but it was soooo spikey. Literally like no corn I have ever seen before, it looked monster-ish. But it destroyed my comps and my hands. You just take the corn in your hands and try and rub the kernels off pretty much. We were there for like two hours, and by the time we finished both of our hands looked like raw meat. My comp actually cut his finger pretty bad too. Who could have thought that corn could be dangerous like that?

In my city they are getting ready for Holy Week again. I am in a really catholic area and they go nuts about this all here. But one day we got to our house at night and they had made this giant carpet thing on the road. They do it to represent Jesus coming into Jerusalem and stuff, but its really just a whole new level of crazy.

 Another thing that was funny this week is we went to go visit a reference from a member. The reference family’s daughters’ name was Dulce Belen. Her name was Sweet Bethlehem ha-ha. My comp and I have just been dying about that this week. We keep saying it and I don’t know why but it’s a name that just kills me. And this morning my comp wakes up and was a little groggy getting out of bed, he just stands up while I'm still praying and he says super loud ¨Sweet Bethlehem its so freaking cold in this house!¨ It just killed me ha-ha. Middle of my prayer just started dying laughing, whoops. Repentance.

As for the 138 days thing, is Hunt really that close to being done? I get his emails but I usually just scan through them. I am starting to feel old though too, even though I still have a ton of time left. I was filling out my agenda for this change that’s coming up last night. My comp and I are going to complete 16 months this change. Also we will have our second to last general conference, and once the rainy season starts in a month or two, that’s the last season well have in the mission. It will just rain and rain until we get home and it’s just cold and snow. Such a really strange thought though. I try not to think about it but when you guys send me emails telling me Hunt only has 138 days left...it’s hard.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful week here, not much to share. I love you guys and I’ll talk to you next week.

Adam