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

10-22-12

Hey Moms,

Holy sweet long email. Things are good here though, staying pretty busy, well at least trying to. Yeah today is the start of my second and hopefully last change here with my kid. It's not that I don't want to be with my kid I just want a new area. I am so tired of this place. It's so small even the people who aren't members of the church know who I am by name now. If we knock doors I always get the ¨you again?¨ thing. 

But yeah we have some really good investigators it's just they all have one problem that is keeping them from being baptized. We have one guy that is just soooo ready but he isn't married to his wife and the divorce process here is a nightmare. It was crazy because the house, well room, they were living in before, the owners went in and robbed all their stuff and then kicked them out. They called the bishop at 11 one night and he took him to a hotel and called us and said we basically had that next day to find them a place to live. So we went house shopping all day and they ended up finding a really good place in the area. It was just sad though because they were basically crying because the house they had found came with a bed. They had just been sleeping on a blanket on the ground in this cockroach infested room for like a month. Just such a hard situation, we went to teach them one night and they were all basically falling asleep because they were so tired from not having eaten in a day or two. We got them food from the bishops storehouse, but the owners of the room they were renting had stolen everything, including their little electric stove, so even if they had like beens or rice they couldn't cook any of it. 

But we got them all moved into this room, and yesterday we went and had a lesson with them, they were just so happy and seemed so calm and everything. The guy is just dying to get baptized, just hoping for the divorce to go through. That's basically what we have been doing all week though. 

On Thursday we had this really big ward barbeque and soccer tournament. I got dragged into playing on the elders quorum team, but I was just in my missionary clothes. I ripped the biggest whole in my pants haha. I guess I have to start looking for a sister here that knows how to sew. 

My comp has been teaching me how to cook some Peruano food. I can make garlic rice that you would not believe, so good. My comp eats an insane amount of rice though. He bought a five pound bag of rice last week and he finished it off yesterday. I don't know how he is alive with the diet he has. For breakfast he always eats a huge bowl of white rice and fries an egg and puts that on top. And then we eat lunch with members, and then for dinner he eats a huge bowl of white rice and a cucumber. Sometimes he mixes it up a little bit and eats an avacado, but tha'ts it. You'd think he would be a little bit nutrient deprived. But he said that's what he has done his whole life. Strange...Anyways, the countdown is on, this is my last change before the year mark, almost time to listen to christmas music, and almost my birthday. The last day of this change is my birthday. Anyways, love you guys, have a good week.
Adam

10-15-12

Hey Mom, 

So you have celiacs also? That's strange, is that something you have had your whole life and its not been a problem or is it something that gets developed? I just had to laugh though when you told me that there could be damage without symptoms for years. I'll just say I'm having plenty of damage and plenty of symptoms right now. I would say celiacs is one of my lower priorities of stomach problems for the moment haha. I have been sick for a while, nothing major, like I don't have parasites or ameobas or anything, just lots of boo. 

I think it's because were always visiting this family that is really poor in our area and they always give us something to eat. But since they don't have running water or light in their house it's kind of dangerous to say the least. But eh, I only have like six more weeks in this area or so, so I think I can manage it. I am hoping it slims me down a little bit because I am getting fat. They feed us way too much in this area and I have morning sickness (boo), and it's way too hard to do excercise. I am just way way too tired to get up and do any p90x. I'll just wait till I have six months left and then hit the p90x hard. 

Things are really good here though. We are finally getting some investigators to progress. We have like 4 families that we are teaching. Plus we had interviews this week, they seemed to go really well. It's cool now that I have some time with President. He gave me some really good ideas and things I want to start trying differently. It's weird that I am in the double digits of months now. I have just a few more weeks till my year mark too, did almost a year really just go by? Strange. 

A couple interesting things happened this week though, first of all I finally felt my first earthquake. It was a 5.something and happened at like 4:30 in the morning. I just woke up and my bed was rocking back and forth really hard. I thought I was just dreaming, and then it stopped. Only lasted like 10 seconds, and nothing was damaged. But at least I can say that I have been in an earthquake now. 

Also, another person got killed in my area this week. Twice in one change. That might be a new record. Like I have seen dead bodies and stuff before, but it's rare to actually see or here the doing of the deed. This time we were with that family that is really poor and we heard a few gunshots. In the moment we just thought they were blackcats going off, because they are always blowing up black cats here, but no. Some people called me a little afterwards and were like, someone just got shot, be careful. I was just like of like uhhhhh. Again? Clean up your act Xela, so ghetto. 

The last thing was that a sister missionary got home from her mission this week from the DR. We were talking to here and I asked her if she had met an Elder Behrmann, she was just like, is he huge? So I laughed and told her yes and she said she remembered him when he hit the field haha. Just thought that was kind of a strange coincidence. 

My comp tortillia´d for the first time last night too. It was really funny because most of the non-guat latins are super racist against the guatemalans. They always talk about how the people here are chickens because they eat too much corn, and how its against the word of wisdom to eat corn. And then the crazy old corte ladies will make them cook their own corn tortillas everynow and then. My comp being the worst, he is kind of a superioristic, like who knew that Peru was the greatest country in the world, like I had only heard of it for machu pichu and llamas before, other than that nothing. Always makes me smile. 

Anyways, I need something from you guys, I would really like it if you guys could send me one of the priesthood lineage sheets that dad has, that would be something cool to have. Anyways, that's about all for the update this week. I love you guys, have a good week. 
Adam

10-8-12

Hey Mom,
So yeah, General Conference week is really the best week in the mission. Work for a few days and then you have the weekend to just relax and gain some spiritual knowledge. The announcement of the missionaries was really awesome I thought. I think that is the best way that it could be really. 21 is too old for the women, by the time they get home from the field they are a little....old. But if they can leave at 19, be home by 20, and have all the experience and knowledge of an rm, think how much better prepared they are for life. Its not too late to start school, get married, and they dont have to just be in a limbo for 3 or 4 years waiting to turn 21. As for the guys, almost half of the elders here left when they turned 18. Here in Central America and in Mexico the rule has been that they could leave at 18 so that didn't really change much. All of the members and everything are still pretty excited though. It doesnt really make much of a difference for the guys, an 18 year old guy is just as immature and ignorant as a 19 year old. I was thinking about how big of a change it will have in the make up of byu and byui though. Super interesting, like who will be the people who live in the dorms and stuff? Rms never ever live in the dorms...It will be weird when I get home too, because a ton of all the girls my age and around my age will still be on their missions when I get home. Ghost town? As for the reduction of time in the mtc...I didn't catch that part. What's the deal with that? 

I missed a few things because, I watched it in spanish this time around (how weird is it that both of your sons didn't watch conference in their native language?) and so I missed a few bits and pieces. Although I was super happy about how well I did understand it. In conference the language is a lot more...educated than the language I am listening to. They use all vosotros in the scriptures and everything and that is only used in Spain so that was a little weird. But really it was cool listening in another language. It's different but the same. I don't like it because you don't get the character of the voice from the person, you miss a lot of the personality. It wasn't the same listening to Uchtdorf or Eyring, and especially for President Monson, the voices don't have any of their personality. But it was a lot better because I was a lot more focused on getting the big picture of all of their messages, and not getting caught up on bits and pieces. I think my favorite was Anderson's talk in the morning Saturday, talking about the refiners fire and faith. I think that was perfect for me. I am excited to download it in english again also, it will be like watching an entirely new conference haha.
 
As for Romney, I knew that he wiped the floor with Obama. Kind of funny actually because it's actually kind of a big deal here. All the people want to illegally and legally immigrate to the states so they follow a lot of the news and everything in the states. Like five different members told me after the debate that Romney made him look like a joke. That's good, I am not sure what I will be doing with the voting situation, will I be able to vote? I have never registered before or anything, can I still absentee vote? 

As for the mission president in california, that guy has an "I'm a Mormon" video, it's really cool. I can imagine that he would be a legendary mission president. I like that quote you sent too, I have one in my journal that is similar, I love it is says, ´´Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. –Sydney J. Harris´´. Its true. Its really amazing what an attitude can do for a person. I have seen that a lot here in the mission, there are people who are just dying to get out of an area, away from a companion, or to get home, and they just let time pass them by and don't really get anything out of it. It would be so much easier and better to just go home if your going to waste time. 

I don't know if you guys have thought about a Christmas package just yet(i am prepping mine, just got Landon's and Hunt's presents today), hopefully the next package won't be a Christmas one, but in the next one please send a ton of Christmas music. Whatever you can find, especially if the cd is from MoTab, or an artist from the church. Also for whenever you start the Christmas package, really all I need is new shirts and socks. My shoes are still holding up good and I bought another good pair from Megapaca, so I dont need those. I just need more of the VanHueson 16.5 shirts and some good socks, preferrably missionary mall, but they dont have to be from there. I am pretty short on shirts right now, the people who wash the clothes in some of the areas either loose or steal a ton of my clothes. I am down to like 4 pairs of shirts now. They are getting pretty yellow and worn too. I can hold out till Christmas though, don't worry. I just wear two a week, while the other two are in the wash, it's not bad. Grandma sent me a new shirt a few months ago in her package (i did get her last package too), and that same week I used it, sent it to the wash, and never saw it again haha. Sorry Grams. Anyways, keep me updated on what's going on with college football, top 25 and byu and all. Love you guys, Have a good week.



Adam

10-1-12

Hey Mom,
Holy crap. The store looks awesome. That was the first email that I oppened and I am seriously impressed. It might have something to do with the fact that I am only used to seeing buildings made of cinder block or mud, and full of little brown people, but it looks really really good. It will be good for you guys I am sure. 

Everything is going well here, my comp is kind of getting in the groove a little better, he doesnt cry at night anymore when he takes off his shoes. We had a good week, nothing phenomenal but were teaching a few new families now that actually are kind of positive, so hopefully we will be having some baptisms in the near future. My ward might have broken a mission record this last week, we had 240 people in sacrament meeting. I am not sure how many attend in wards in the states, but that is HUGE here. When I was in Garibaldi, that was my second biggest ward and we never had more than 150 people there. It looked like stake conference haha. 

One of my really good friends in the mission turned 21 this week so we ordered some chinese food and I bought him a tres leches cake (yours tasted better), but it was fun. When we went to their house though I was just laughing, you can tell missionaries have lived in this house for years, but like, years. There is not an inch of wallspace that is not filled with a photo from the church or Jesus or a temple, and in the kitchen haha, there is a stack of cereal boxes that lines all the walls and goes all the way up to the roof. Just stacked on each other. Easily 100 cereal boxes. From floor to roof the rows are all the same box, but like every two or three rows the type of cereal changes. And then on the back wall is just pure boxes of dominos pizza stacked on top of eachother. You can look at the order tags and they are from like 2002 and 2003. So gross. 

My friend that just turned 21 is exactly 1 year older than me in the mission also, and he goes home next change. Almost getting there... I am fighting myself right now too. Such a mental battle, I am trying to hold out for as long as I can without listening to christmas music, buuut, today is October so its fair game now right, right? I know it will make me super trunky though so I am fighting. Two more months though and I will be able to sing ¨Ill be home for Christmas¨ and it will be real, not only in my dreams like this time. 

I am not that trunky though. Its all super routiney now. I am a little worried about changes in a few weeks though. My zonie was on divisions with one of the APs this week and after they finished we saw them at the church and he was kinding of hinting I am going as zonie this change. I sure hope not. I hate district leader. I am so sick of it haha. I just want to be a normal missionary in a normal area, and not have the sister missionaries call me every five seconds asking permission to do the dumbests things ever. Also zonies are usually in their areas for 6-7 months, uhhh. But I am thinking it is mostly likely I will be shipping out of here December 3, that's when the next changes are. I have already had too many areas/comps, just keep me here for a little bit longer. 

Anyways, thats too sad about Joe. Its always tought to hear about things like that. You never wish that for anyone, especially a family that is as amazing as they are. I love you guys. I am starting to look for Christmas gifts so if there is anything you might know of its existance and would like for me to send it, I am taking all requests now, and if not, machetes for everyone. Have a good week.

Adam

P.S. the photo of the bananas just reminded me of Blades of Glory when the hot dog vender has a bun with two hot dogs in it and says ¨Does this look normal to you?¨ haha.