6-17-13

 

Hi Mom.

First of all, Gaffganistan this is hilarious. I love that guy ha-ha. I just remember one of his skits he starts talking about he always dresses like a Mormon. That guy might have mental issues to be honest.

As for the mangos, honestly I had never actually eaten a mango before I got here to Guatemala. I had never actually eaten one until my last area too. But in my last area I am not sure what it was, but I ate one almost every day. They have some here that are about the size of a football. Other than that though, we really don’t eat that much fruit. I usually buy oranges in the super market because I feel like I might be getting scurvy or something. There are fruits here, but not really. Since my mission doesn’t have any coast there is not much natural fresh fruit here. Literally the only things I eat are eggs, beans, corn, potatoes, rice and chicken. On a rare occasion they will also give us fried platanos with cream. It’s this giant banana that is really, really good. The ants were not something normal. That was the first time I had ever seen anyone eat them but I had heard that they do eat them sometimes. They come from this town an hour north of where I am now, and they are crazy, crazy expensive honestly. It was a super nice gesture from this lady to give them to us.

I don’t exactly know what to think about Alex selling my wisdom teeth on E-bay. Honestly what kind of freak would buy teeth? Speaking of the rest of my teeth. All of the dental work I had done before my mission, it’s safe to say that Guatemala has undone all of that. Almost all of the fillings that I had done have fallen out. Maybe it’s a tender mercy from the Lord that they don’t hurt. But even if they start hurting I am not going back to a dentist in this country. The last time I went was definitely the first and only time I will get dental work done here. So I’ll just put up with it till I get home.

This week was good.  My comp, who I am zonie training, is super legit. He could be my favorite comp that I have had. He is super smart and loves to work. We are working really hard.  It’s a little frustrating when there are no fruits from the efforts, but at least it’s not that bad. I could be serving in Europe somewhere still hoping for my first baptism.

The rain went away this week. I don’t know what happened but the sun settled in and this week was sooooo hot. We went to the Zaculeu ruins this week. It was pretty cool I had never been before. It’s a little cheap because the ruins aren’t 100% real.  They have reconstructed a lot of it but still it’s interesting. Also gave me a chuckle that there is a sacrificial alter there that they still do sacrifices on. Also there is this huge court that they used to play some kind of game in, but the thing is, the winning team, the best player, at the end of the game would always be the person sacrificed. How does that work? The motivation should be play well in order to not die, not play well in order to have your heart ripped out by some freaky priest. No thanks.

Either way, that’s all that’s new here, hope you all have a good week.

Love you all,

Adam

6-10-13

Hey Mom,

Yeah we are still in trio and it’s going great. Our third wheel is actually a really good kid. He is a convert and was inactive pretty much instantly after he was baptized, reactivated the year before his mission and then left. So foundationally speaking he is pretty rough. My comp and I are basically teaching him the lessons and the doctrines even though he has about six months.  He is kind of here just to learn the ropes, either way I really like both of my comps and we all get along really well.

As for packages, still no word. Like I said, it takes a long time for us to get anything up here, so it could be that my package didn't get lost and it’s just in the office waiting for me and I haven't been able to get it yet. At the end of the month President always has meetings here so he should be able to come up and bring some stuff. I am dying for the conference issue of the ensign too; I still haven't been able to study the talks or anything. The members all have them here but I haven't been able to find anyone yet who will lend me one.

I don't know anything yet about the new mission, they haven't told us anything. I haven't heard of any missionaries with mission call changes yet either so not sure. I am in the zone probably the farthest away from the new mission so I am probably not going to be shipped over there, but of course you never know. Supposedly only one of the zones from our mission is going to make part of the new mission, but like I said that's probably four or five hours from where I am from.

I am feeling a lot better this week. I think the stress and everything from changes has worn off and I have been sleeping better. I haven't been stomach sick for a while too, which is always a blessing.

This week our baptism got postponed. It was soooo frustrating. He passed the baptismal interview and everything. He told me he wanted me to baptize him and he was super excited. Then that night he talked to his mom who lives in San Marcos and she apparently flipped out on him for wanting to get baptized so he feels like he has to work everything out with her first. Hopefully in a week or two.

I ate the new weirdest thing in my life this week. Yesterday we went to visit some members to contact a referral they had for us, and while we were there, they cooked us ants. Yeah, like not even kidding, this lady went to her fridge and pulled out a ton of the biggest ants I have ever seen. Puts some butter in a pan and then fries them up and gives us a plate. Legs, pinchers, everything. Surprisingly enough though, they tasted like bacon bits. It was strange, but tasted a lot better than the raw cow stomach.

The other thing that happened this week was that I saw someone die. It was really really sad actually. It was pouring rain and we were on the way out of this member’s house, and they live above this bridge. But right when I walk out of this house I see this red truck fly across this bridge and do a hit and run. We made our way down there to see what had happened, and this little old man was lying there. The ambulance arrived quickly but by the time they got there he had passed away. Apparently the car that did the hit and run though, had been stolen and then he hit this guy, five minutes later he hit another lady and broke her leg, and then got a flat tire and the police caught him. It was still really sad though. Supposedly the old man was one of our neighbors too.

That’s about all that's going on here. Hope everything is good there, tell everyone hi for me.

I love you all.

Adam

6-3-13

Hey Mom,

How are you? Sounds like a lot has been happening lately. Things are good here. I have two new comps actually. One is Elder G, he is from Mexico City, he is my new zone leader trainee. And then we are in trio with another Elder from Mexico named Elder S. They are both really new. They have about 6 months. Elder Garcia is really really awesome. He was just starting when I was leaving Xela so I had met him before. He is a convert and loves to work really hard.

Things are good in the area. We have a baptism coming up this Sunday so hopefully that will go though.

This week I am pretty sure that the rain season is now in full swing. It was raining really, really hard pretty much every day. And from the sound of it, it is raining really hard right now.

I am getting hit by a cold right now also, but I think I am coming out of it. Last week was really stressful.  With the changes and needing to find new houses for the areas that we’re opening, it left me pretty tired actually.

Things are good now though, just trying to get my comps familiar with the area and find some more people who want to be baptized. I haven’t gotten grandmas package yet either, I am starting to get worried it got lost in the mail, I feel like she told me a long time ago that she had sent it.  We went down to Xela this week for some meetings and it still hadn’t come. That would be a huge bummer.

Either way, what are the plans for summer and everything? Trek isn’t this year is it? Sorry, there is not a whole lot to fill you in on this week and I am running a little short on time.

I love you guys and hope all is well. 

Adam