Hey Mom,
Well, looks like nobody got the memo that I
would be writing on Saturday from now on ha-ha. I just had an email from you
and from dad in my inbox. Things are good here in the office. I do have a comp,
he is the old Retention Secretary, but his replacement came this week, so he is
just kind of hanging out with me with nothing to do. He goes home this next week;
he hit his two-year mark today actually. He is a really good kid though; he is
a pretty good friend of mine actually. His name is Elder L, and is from
Honduras. Super smart though, he speaks perfect English. My new comp that is
coming in on the changes is going to be a gringo too. I like him a lot also. I
am in the middle of Xela. My area is called Los Arcos, it’s where the APs where
for years, but they just switched to another ward and so now I am here. This is
actually my fourth area in Xela. My first area in Xela was Garibaldi, which is
the neighbor area of where I am at right now. I really, really like my area
though. It’s the oldest ward in Guate that is outside of the capital. Xela is
the second biggest city here in Guate and its cool because I am right in the
middle of downtown. The office and mission home are all in my area.
This link is actually really cool, this lady
is in my ward, and all the shots from the video are from my area. So this will
give you a good idea of what my life is like here. It's definitely one of the
nicest parts of my mission. The one thing that is kind of lame here though, is
our house. It was seriously made for hobbits. They had some other Elders look
for it, and apparently they weren’t having much luck, so the first one they
could find that was actually in our price range, they chose. It’s so small! I can’t
even walk around standing up straight. I have to hunch to walk around in the
house. And the showerhead is even worse; it honestly shoots out water below my
shoulders. I was thinking about buying a little plastic stool and throwing that
in the shower and sitting down while I was showering. I had to take out a few
of the light bulbs in the roof because I don’t want to break them on accident
with my head. Also, the house only has one window, and outside that window, is
our neighbor’s geese pen. This honestly is not an exaggeration or anything;
there are at least 20 geese that live outside that window. They start doing
their weird geese yell at like five in the morning every day too. It’s comical actually
every day when we go home, like I can’t believe how crappy of a house it is. We
had some members find us a new one though and we have already got it approved
and all, just we don’t move in until next month. We live right next to the APs
too so that is a bonus; they have a washer and dryer in their house so I was
able to do my own laundry today for the first time since the MTC. Hopefully
this will stop me loosing all my clothes before I get home. When you have to
pay someone else to wash your clothes they always loose socks and shirts.
As for life in the office, it's all right I
guess. Obviously it's a little boring and tedious, but I never had realized all
the background work the people in the office do for the benefit of all the
other missionaries. I am also not the only new one. They called a new Retention
Secretary too, Elder P (we always call him Piña, which is pineapple) and he
is comps with Elder M, a really cool kid from Northern Utah who is the
General Secretary. I am the oldest one here in the office though (after my comp
goes home next week). The senior companions are really fun too, it's like I get
to hang out with Grandpa Frank all day every day. It's sweet. He bought me a
huge tray of cookies yesterday from the Mennonite Bake Shop
people here. Oh my sweet heaven. The only thing is his wife who is here with
him, isn’t doing so hot. They have like four weeks left in their mission, but
she is having some bad knee problems where she had had an operation, and they
might be going home sooner than planned.
I am in charge of all the finances for
everyone. I have to deal with all the credit cards of all the missionaries and
all the payments that the mission makes. Also I have to go to the bank (car
privileges!) and do all the deposits and checks and stuff. Plus all the
finances for the APs and President. There are times when there is a lot of work
to do, and other times when I finish it and then I have like three hours where
I just sit here chewing on my pen. We are here from 9 till 6 every day with one
hour for lunch. The Secretaries before just bought lunch everyday, but I don’t really
want to do that. On Sunday I am going to see if I can work out a lunch schedule
with the members so that we can eat with them. There is only Wendy’s and
McDonalds here in Xela, and I am already sick of them both after a week, so
hopefully I can get something worked out.
P-days here are a little more free
too. We don’t really have anything planned. I just need to finish washing my
clothes and my comp wanted to go get Arabic food for lunch (not sure how I feel
about that). But this morning we went to this cool place. It's a little Corte
person doll factory. My comp got some from his old areas. They are little dolls
of all the different Cortes in the country. Like all the towns have their
specific styles and colors of Cortes, and this store had them all. I will be
sure and buy some too when I am a little closer to coming home. Either way, the
pictures are cool. I am sure I will be getting packages a little bit
faster now since I am in the office, but I didn’t get anything this week from
Grandma. Maybe next week.
That’s about it though; I am going to get home
like a fat bum.
I love you guys and hope you have a great week.
Adam
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