4-16-12

Moms,

That is sweet on Landon's mission call! I am soooo stoked for him. Yeah August is forever long to wait though, that would have killed me ha-ha. But he should love it.

We have had fun with the weather too lately, rain season has almost set in I think. We had some after effects from a hurricane this week too everyone was telling us. On Saturday we were up on the mountain and walking home from some visits and we got caught in some rain. I don’t know, rain might not be the word to describe it. Torrential downpour is a little more like it. The road was completely flooded, probably a good 6 inches of just water. No raincoat or umbrella so made for an interesting afternoon.

I can’t believe the wedding is here though, that’s so weird to think that my brother will be married when I get home. Just cant really wrap my mind around that.

This week the entire mission had the goal to contact 40 new people, and make return appointments with them. Which meant we basically had to contact all day every day. People will always talk to us here, but to get them to let us comeback is always a little tricky, especially since the whole world is ¨catholic¨. But, it was kind of fun actually to knock doors for the first time in my mission, made me think, what do missionaries in the states do all day everyday?

 Here missionaries are kind of like ward doctors, any kind of problem, call the missionaries. Bishop is fighting with his counselors, call the elders, the relief society president insulted the primary president because her tostadas just didn’t quite make it up the par on the taste scale, call the elders. So yeah, we just prevent the entire ward from going inactive, and then teach the references that the members give us. In the states there is no way the wards are like that, so what do the missionaries do all day? I don’t know? Contact I guess. So I felt almost like I normal missionary this week.

We did just about die though this Thursday. We were in this really kind of jungly area trying to find some houses to visit and stuff, and walked up to this one that was kind of up on a hill, we could see a man out on his patio and a few dogs laying there, so when we yelled up a buenas tardes to this guy, he didn’t even look around. So my comp yelled again and that very second like 10 huge dogs just came bolting out of the house. The guy didn’t even move, and these dogs were soooo mad. We are kind of running off, my comp was swinging his backpack and everything at one of them, and out of nowhere this 90 year old lady just runs out of some trees, swearing up a storm at these dogs (I definitely learned some new words ha-ha) and just starts beating these dogs with her walking stick. I have never heard so many swear words in such a small time. She absolutely was going to town on these dogs too, grandma was not happy. But we talked to her for a little bit, she didn’t want us to come back, I couldn’t really understand her, she only had 3 teeth. I feel like the story would have been a lot cooler if we ended up baptizing her, but nope ha-ha. She is catholic.

 

Anyways, that’s about all that I can remember that is newsworthy for the week. Les quiero, talk to you soon.

Adam

PS the one picture of me standing by the giant puddle, that’s the road.

4-9-12

Moms,

Well, this week was really kind of a waste. Pulled zeros in almost every single category, except baptisms and confirmations, but I will cover that in a bit. On Tuesday I was still on divisions with another Norte who is about to die, he has like 23 months I think, so he just wanted to go sight seeing in my area.

Fun little fact, I have the largest area in the mission. My area covers all of the Cuchamatons, this whole mountain range, and its giant, so I can basically go anywhere we want to on these mountains and it’s in my area, so naturally we decided to go to the top. We went to this little town called Mirador, and just kind of walked around. We road up in a micro bus, kind of like a van, and it took about 2 hours just to drive up this mountain, but it was really cool. We could see this really cool old style house and we wanted to go check that out so we hiked over to it. It was super sweet, there were these little kids that were playing in it and they told us that it used to be an American doctor that lived there. Super cool views though, I will send some pics.

 

After that, because its Semana Santa, the biggest holiday of the year here, we literally just went to house after house, appointment after appointment of nobody being home. Not a single person, no members, no investigators, nothing. So rough. Everyone leaves on vacation and stuff, none of the stores are open, and everyone else is just outside plastered drunk. Its awful ha-ha. We would just get yelled at by drunks everywhere we went.

I had to go down to Xela on Thursday for a Spanish examine (new missionary test, super easy) and we had to pay a "took-took" (little taxi things) like 100 quetzales to get us to Huehue because there wasn’t even busses from Chiantla to Huehue. Even the bus drivers go on vacation.

People are just straight delusional here too, we saw our neighbors one day and they were soooo excited to talk to us, they were just asking us if we were going to go see Jesus, we were just kind of like, what the heck are you talking about? And she literally tells me ¨Jesus is the in the Catholic church right now, you guys should talk to him, you guys believe in Jesus right?¨  I was just thinking to myself, 1) I walk around all day with a name tag that literally says in bold letters, Jesus Christ, yes I believe in Jesus...2) Of course when Jesus comes again, he is going to come to Chiantla Guatemala and just chill in a Catholic church all day. But these people literally believed that Jesus and his apostles were here.

Also, on Friday, the day of processions, they crucify him. Not even kidding, we weren’t allowed to leave the house because they crucify Jesus in Central Park. What? Where am I right now ha-ha? They all carry crosses around town all day, and then at night, they tie some guy to a cross in central park. I am pretty sure if the resurrected Christ came with the second coming and all, he is not going to willingly crucify himself again, right? I am not alone with that logic, right? So glad its over. But they don’t even celebrate Easter, Sunday is not even a holiday, they don’t even understand why Jesus got crucified, they just celebrate the crucifixion and not even the Resurrection, that’s the whole point and they don’t even celebrate it ha-ha, like if he died and wasn’t resurrected, what was the point of him dying?

This place needs a little bit more common sense. But Easter was great, since I went to Xela on Thursday, I got both of the Easter packages I had, one from you one from Heather, before Easter. Amazing, also kind of unheard of, actually got mail on time. And Grandma sending the peanut butter eggs? They were gone before I had even finished unpacking the rest of the stuff ha-ha. Soooo good, just tell her to have a platter of those ready for me when I get home, I would love to eat about a hundred of those straight off the airplane. But the package was awesome, thanks for all of that, great thinking with the tie, the Uno, and the candy. Wow, you’re the best.

We also had a little bit of an Easter miracle, we went and brought the lady and her family who was supposed to get baptized yesterday to church with us, and when we were waiting for the bus to come, her 18 year old daughter who had told us she wanted nothing to do with the church, even though she sat through every lesson and attended church every week for like two months, just walked up to me and said, ¨Elder Morrow, I have a question, can I get baptized today? Also can you do it? ¨ I might have heard a choir of angels start singing Halleluiah in the background, I am pretty sure a rainbow appeared behind her right after she said that too. I was just kind of dumbstruck, didn’t really know how to respond ha-ha. Just kind of told her uhhh, let me see what I can do, and I had the district leader come to our church building to do an interview during church, had the zonies bring us clothes, and yeah, baptized her ha-ha. Couldn’t believe it. Made for a really cool Easter though, always nice to be in the font.

Plus Conte came because the Mom wanted him to baptize her, so that was super awesome. It was sooo good to see him. He doesn’t really know what’s going on with his back and all just yet, so if he does go home early, it would be nice to end your mission on a baptism like that. Anyways, I have to go, les quiero, talk to you next week.

Adam

4-2-12

We are eating Cojolles, it’s like this fruit in cinnamon and sugar that you suck on for about half an hour. You don’t eat it. It’s a fruit that is too hard to eat so you just suck on it. Kind of was gross too, I just thought it was funny because the member that gave it to us literally told us it was illegal contraband from Mexico, like they are illegal here or something ha-ha, thought that was great

Hey Moms,

Conference was sick, definitely the best weekend of the mission. We all referred to it as the NBA finals, not gen conf ha-ha. We just went on divisions the whole time so the nortes could watch it in English. So I was on divisions with our new dl the whole time, and we just slept at the zls and stuff, it was awesome. 

We stole all the couches from the stake center and put them in the kitchen of the church. Soooo nice. I have forgotten what it was like just to sit on a couch for a few hours, or just to sit on a couch ha-ha. They don’t really exist here. We just sit on pool chairs and little plastic stools usually all day everyday. The talks were all pretty good, kind of thought it was a little strange that there was not a single missionary talk, bummer, waited 19 years to be a missionary and for the first time ever there was not a single talk given on missionary work ha-ha. Even Jeffrey and David let me down; they usually rock the missionary world, but not this time. I made a list of my conference gems for you guys though;

1) Perry Webb getting released, that made my ears perk up a little, getting a little hometown shout out.

2) Come Thou Fount is now a Hymn again, also I will do anything humanly possible to get the Sunday morning mo-tab singing that on my iPod.

3) David F. Evans commanding the Church to send more handwritten letters, not just emails, to people far away from you, cough cough.

4) Jeffery R. Holland ending his talk with ¨Repent. It’s getting late. Amen. ¨

5) The MTC choir Saturday afternoon, with the cameras focused in on an Elder Archuleta, first row, front and center. Guess the rumors are true, Darchie is serving his mission; wonder if he is really going to Chile or what.

Other than that it was good, I learned that I really need to save my family, and the fathers of the church are really struggling. They absolutely got blasted talk after talk. Sorry Dad ha-ha, hopefully you paid attention. No, all of gen conf I was just sitting there thinking man, I am so glad my dad is not a loser, is not one of the people the prophet and apostles have been blasting for the last hour. Your the best pops, keep on keeping on.

Thanks for the trip to baggy town pops ha-ha, homo. I would kill to just have some St. Geezy time. I loved going to that condo, definitely doing that when I get home. Might as well just make a reservation right now please. I am super baggy pops, probably because I have been on divisions for like a week. My DLs comp´s grandma died so he went to the funeral so the DL wants to do divisions with another gringo, so yeah, not working for like a week plus G conf has been fun. But I need to hit the streets ha-ha, I hate being with old missionaries because they just talk about how much time they have and how little time I have, its super fun. Our DL is actually really cool, I just hate being the zone baby, I am the only one under a year, and most have like 20 months, so in a few changes this whole zone is going to be cleaned out.

Other than that, I am just trucking along; I bought a guitar so that has been cool, learning some new songs and stuff. I don't know what it has been this last week, I have just been really bugged like the whole time.  I basically bullied a 50-year-old woman into a baptismal commitment. I have been feeling super bold lately, maybe it’s because I can kind of actually speak Spanish now. But it was this lady we have been teaching since before I have came to this area, and I challenged her to baptism and she was like hmmmm on my birthday I want to. So I said, ok great, when is that? So she said May 28. I just lost all patience ha-ha. I pulled some dirty moves on he. I just said no to her. Told her that we had to do it earlier. She was kind of hesitant so I just said, look if you want me to be here for your baptism, we have to do it soon, because I will have changes before then (probs not) and also my old comp, Conte, if she wanted him to come she had to do it before he goes home from his mission ha-ha. And she just goes hmmm idk. So I just said all right, so next Saturday works then, right? And she sits there for a minute and just goes.... ok, sure. Why not? Boom, bullied her to baptism, felt pretty bad about it, I repented ha-ha.

The only other thing really worth mentioning is we got absolutely soaked after Saturday afternoon conference, just waiting for p-hood. We decided to go get some taco mansion to eat. Yeah, I am terrified of restaurants here, but I was starving so I obliged. It was actually really really good, after I pulled all the long black hairs out of my gringas (kind of like tacos...don’t really know how to describe it), but yeah really good. Then the second we go to leave it just starts pouring pouring rain, like I think the rainy season might be coming a little bit early. I have gotten soaked every day for a week straight. But we were about half an hour away from the church and we had to go back. And conference was starting in like 40 minutes, so we just went for it. So yeah, absolutely soaked from head to toe for all of p-hood session. Even still, it was pretty sweet. It is so crazy the rain here, I don’t get why it is so brown and there are no plants around here ha-ha, like the streets just look like brown rivers, absolutely pours rain. Its cooold too. The water is freezing, everyone just tells me its not even that bad too, it only gets worse as the months go on, so that is something to look forward too ha-ha.

It’s either super hot or, its pouring rain, so pick your poison.

Oh also I got Heather and Jims package; tell them thank you sooo much. Nothing like having a giant bag of peanut butter m&ms and mini Reeses for conference. Perfect timing Heather, thanks for the letter too.

Anyways, I got some mail off to some people today, hopefully it gets there, I found out a way finally to send some letters, so let me know how that goes. I am prepping a pretty sweet b-day package for Alex and Wendy too. Figure if I get it off this week or the next they should hopefully get it before the end of May ha-ha.

Thanks for the emails and photos. My two favorite quotes for you are:

¨You can often gauge the ambition of a man by whether he hates his alarm clock or considers it his best friend. ¨ Thomas Edison

¨Things that we persist in doing become easier not because the thing is easy, but because we increase in doing. ¨ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also, how is your BoM challenge coming? I just finished again, like two weeks ago. I felt like a ton of conf was focused on the bible so I started with the New Test this morning. My goal is to have it done by the end of this change, so five more weeks and I will let you know. I really want to be a scriptorian before my mission is over.

 Anyways, I got to go, les quiero.

Adam

3-26-12

Moms,

Can’t believe it is already spring break. That’s so weird, just feels like summer here. Well,… sometimes,… during the day it is blazing hot, I am getting soooo dark. I have a great farmers tan going. But at night it gets really really cold, plus we are getting a little closer to the rainy season so it’s started to get a little nasty in the afternoon, and when it rains it is freeeezing. It even hailed a little bit on Saturday, everyone was kind of freaking out and saying it was snowing, but no, just straight giant balls of ice. Yeah we got totally soaked on Saturday, we were probably about half an hour from anywhere and it just started pouring. Seriously raining like I have never seen before, we just ran for cover and waited for like half an hour, didn’t stop at all so we just went for it. I keep a plastic bag from the grocery store in my backpack now for the rain, and for instances like the cow stomach, its my all purpose emergency bag. But yeah, just put my scriptures in that and trekked home. So that was fun. But apparently the rainy season is ten times worse, I heard there are times when your just walking in water to your knees for days... should be fun.

Oh and we had changes this week. So I am done being trained I guess ha-ha. Yeah Conte has a herniated disc in his spine, they don’t know if he has to go home or not so they sent him to Xela and he is in a trio just waiting to hear what the mission doctor decides to do with him. So now I am with Elder Celis, he is 22, from Guate City, and has about 18 months in the mish. It is a little weird because  I am the junior comp, but I know the area, people, investigators, and he was only baptized a year before he went on his mission so he kind of knows things about the church, but not a ton, so I basically am the senior comp. I make all the plans, talk to all the people, I’m in charge of our Sunday school class, and teach pretty much all of the lessons. It’s been a crazy week. My Spanish has really come a long way,  for almost having two months in the field, everyone tells me I speak waaay better than most of the missionaries with a few changes, so that is always really nice. I wouldn’t say I am totally fluent whatsoever, but I know enough that I can do everything by myself. I dream in Spanish now too. So so weird.

Celis doesn’t speak a word of English either, it has been really nice. Two comps of just perfect Spanish, that helps a ton. We had a meeting and interviews at the mission home this Tuesday; I definitely can tell a difference in the Spanish of elders who have had English speaking comps.

That is brutal with Alex, he would absolutely die here. We eat soooo much bread. Probably eat a full loaf of bread on the daily. Especially because the semana santa (crazy catholic holiday here) is next week, so apparently to celebrate Christ people just eat bread for a month. Also we are not allowed to leave the house next Friday because people walk around town carrying crosses and stuff. This is a national holiday, everything closes down so people can walk around and carry crosses. I heard some people are really intense about it too and actually nail themselves to the crosses. Whaaat....? 

I don’t get the holidays in this country; they celebrate in the weirdest ways possible. Like for cumpliaños the whole family wakes up before the sun comes up to light off fireworks. That sounds like a terrible way to me to celebrate my birthday, I want sleep, not to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, no thanks, sleep is a good enough present. So on almost a daily basis we get woken up by someone lighting off a thousand black cats at about 4:30-5 ish in the morning. They do it for even infant babies too. Like yeah, your 1 year old baby really really wants to wake up and light off fireworks. 

I was definitely sent here to learn patience ha-ha. I am still working on it... About the dentist though, it was probably the scariest half an hour of my life. It was in Xela, and when I talked to the mission nurse she told me they had just fired the mission dentist. So they were looking for a new one and I was the guinea pig. Soooo reassuring ha-ha. Not kidding she actually used the words guinea pig in our phone call. I almost cried. So we sit down in the little house in the middle of Xela and I can just hear a drill going nuts in the backroom, like the squeally high pitch drill from movies or something, not going to lie, I was sweating. When I got called back I was feeling a little weak in the knees and juuust a little nauseous. I sit down and the dentist starts talking. He is super friendly and really nice, and just kind of poking around in my mouth, then just jabs a needle into my mouth ha-ha, didn’t say a word, just went for it. It was some crazy numbing stuff too because I couldn’t talk for hours after that ha-ha. But at least I didn’t feel a thing. He just drilled a little bit more of my tooth (yeah I was worried) and then filled it. He did a really good job ha-ha, its smooth, hasn’t given me any problems, not sensitive at all. I was a little awestruck that a Guate dentist was that good.

The best part too was when we were done, he told me he was a bishop in Xela, and that he was giving me the ¨member discount¨, I paid 125 Quetz, that’s about...16 dollars ha-ha. I paid 16 dollars to get a tooth filled in Guatemala. I laughed pretty hard about that. Love this place. Anyways, good luck with all the stuff for Alex, sounds cool, send pictures. I don’t know if you have sent that care package or not yet, but if you haven’t, please send some more CD´s too. Like soundtracks of movies and stuff that don’t have words. Maybe like Titanic or something (you can leave Celine’s my heart will go on, that song speaks to my soul), but yeah I have the soundtrack for Pearl Harbor, things like that, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, I love stufff like that. Also more nutella, apparently the grocery store in Xela is the only place with it. Oh my I loved that last bottle you sent. Nothing like eating something where the first ingredient is sugar, and the second is butter ha-ha. Anyways, les quiero, talk to you all next week.

Adam

3-19-12

Hey Moms,

Sorry I am a day late. We have been stuck in Xela for a while. We didn’t get a p-day this week, bummer. :(  Conte has a herniated disc in his spine so we have been here figuring stuff out for that. We still don’t really know what is going to happen. We were at the doctors for literally the entire day yesterday. We left Chiantla at about 5:30 in the morning and were in doctor’s appointments from about 8 in the morning till about 9 at night. It was so awful ha-ha. We did sneak away though and get some McDonalds though. A big mac has never tasted better. Two big macs actually.… doubled down. Figured it would probably be a long time until I got that again. Wrong. Last night the assistants brought us dinner to our hotel, yep. Big macs. Straight ate three big macs yesterday. Needless to say, by body is not feeling super great today. I don’t know how to even explain it. My stomach feels dirty, and I am pretty sure I am pumping unhealthy amounts of cholesterol through my veins right now.

But yeah, we’re just going to sit here until 1 today because we have interviews at the presidents, and then I have a dentist appointment (uhhh) at 4:30. Because….that tooth that was giving me problems after Dr. Rich ¨fixed¨ it, fell out, so yeah, like half of my molar is gone. Awesome, so stoked to go to a Guate dentist.  Sorry mom, I will probably come home with a metal grill...but since my appointment is not till late in the afternoon, we will have to stay here again tonight in the hotel. Awesome. Also since it is something that I had done to my teeth before my mission, I have to pay for it, so yeah... I am going to need you to refill my debit card for me because I am for sure going to get taken to the cleaners by some dentist here looking at the golden teeth of a gringo.

Other than that I am doing great, I flipping love the mission. Some days are really really tough, super baggy, but other days its like I never want to leave this place. I am going to buy a guitar this week I decided and learn how to play while I am here. Tons of elders do it because they only cost like 500 quetz or like...64 dollars. I bought a calculator watch so I can do the money conversions ha-ha.

So don’t be fooled by the photos books of Guate, this place is straight ugly ha-ha. The landscape is beautiful and all, but architecture doesn’t exist It is just cinder blocks and mud houses, and there is so much garbage everywhere that it makes Shiprock look like paradise. Sorry pops, this place is kind of a dump ha-ha. But I love it, its home now.

I heard we will be able to watch conference live, so that will be sick, holy crap I cant believe it is time to have conference again, that six months was soooooo fast. I remember for October conference I was with Kendra, you met her, and we walked around for like 3 hours trying to find a church building that was broadcasting it because we didn’t want to watch it in our apts. Dang, 6 months, so fast, only four of those and I will be home.

We email in a internet cafe in huehue, its 4 quetz an hour, so like.... 51.2 cents, I sent that jacket of mine home, mostly because I wanted to see how much it costs to send stuff home, if it will get there, and also because I don’t need that jacket, and I look so fresh in it.  It is way too nice to give away to someone here. So  just put that with the rest of my stuff for when I get home. If Alex steals it, I am going to be mad ha-ha. Anyways, I have been prepping a package with stuff for ya'll, so maybe in a week or two I’ll get that off. I bought some touristy stuff and I will send all the different kinds of money and stuff. I found a 5 centavo, it’s like .05 of one quet, like a nickel is to the dollar, so a centavo is worth about...64% of a penny, yeah, nothing ha-ha.

This week was a really good week. We had divisions for a few days because Hales needed a little vacation. So that was really fun. I really like him; we have cambios this week so hopefully he doesn’t get changed out. And then when Conte came back Thursday we went to eat lunch with a member. Oh my gosh moms. Almost died. The lady we went to visit, we were supposed to eat with her a few Saturdays back, and when we went and visited, her mom (the entire family lives together here, like 5 generations in one house) told us that she had left and went to the temple so we didn’t have lunch, so we left. Turns out she had actually been there and the grandma was wrong. So the next day in church she straight machetes us about how she had been cooking all day and it was our fault that we didn’t go inside and check to see if she was there. Like yeah, of course, why would we not do that? Anyways so this week, (like two weeks later) she gets her revenge. So we walk in and sit down and she says ¨Oh Elders, I have a surprise for you! ¨ and she puts this giant bowl in front of me. I am just staring at this 6 inch long, 3 inch wide, cow tongue. Freak, it was the hairiest looking piece of meat you have ever seen ha-ha. Conte gets his plate too and his is just this tiny little piece, like maybe 3 inches long. Suerte. So I am just choking this thing down, so so so hard to eat. Just chewy chewy chewy. People do not use knifes here either, your supposed to eat meat with your hands. All I have is a spoon, and I am trying to cut it into pieces so small that I don’t have to chew, just swallow, because every bite I think I am going to throw up. I get about 3/4 of it down and I am done, just green. On the verge of spewing, but I know I cant leave the food. We always have to clean our plates, and this lady already hates us,  I can’t make her more mad. So I just hit the panic button, absolutely freaking out ha-ha. I start trying to do anything to get this lady out of the room. I asked for a napkin also to try and swipe it with the napkin and slide it into my pocket. She stands up, looks me straight in the eyes, says ¨we don’t have any napkins¨, and is looking at me really weird. So I just say oh thanks, don’t worry about it, and she just up and walks out of the room. I make a break for my backpack on the other side of the room, dead sprint, and tear through my backpack for my...emergency toilet paper, and back to the table. The second I get the meat in my pocket she walks back in with a full on beach towel for me to use ha-ha. Barely made it ha-ha. The dog kept coming up to me and smelling my pocket too. So bad mom, so bad, Conte just about kills himself trying not to die laughing. Then we stand up and are thanking her and stuff but say we have an appointment and we have to go. I am feeling really really green at this point, and she just looks at me, straight in the eyes and says, ¨you know what that was, right¨, and I just kind of like ¨uhh no, but it was really good thank you. ¨ And with just like the dirtiest grin I have ever seen in my life she says, ¨pansa de vaca¨. Freeeeeaaak moms. I thought I was on the verge of throwing up before I knew, now I had about 30 seconds till spew time, it was time to go. Pansa is like... stomach lining. Yeah, ate stomach lining of a cow. Awesome ha-ha. Can’t believe that lady did that, such a dirty move, so low moms, so low. She did it the whole time with just the meanest grin on her face, straight witch. Totally took revenge on me, like no offense lady, if we missed your lunch appointment a month ago, its not my fault. I barely speak Spanish now; I couldn’t speak it then, give me a break ha-ha.

We laugh about it daily though. It was so funny, but in the moment I was sooooo mad. Anyways, in other news, good to hear all is well; the pictures you sent were awesome. Liv looks really old, I like the glasses too. I don’t know why I just have really liked wearing mine here. Maybe its because I have like 10 snakes in Chiantla who whenever they see me they always go ¨¡sht sht canchito con lentes! ¨. Makes me laugh every time. Hopefully the glasses I have will last. I have been trying to use my contacts but it is really dusty here so more than a day or two and my eyes are all scratched. For a care package, just send candy, maybe a tie or two, and creamy jiffy peanut butter. The nutella is heaven, but we can buy that here so you don’t have to send that. And yeah, just some more bug anti itch cream, the bugs aren’t as bad but every now and then I get a few new bites. Dad asked how my shoes are holding up, there doing alright I think. I only wear the dress ones because the boot/shoes things are really really heavy and they make walking around all day not very fun, but if I get sent to Momos in the future I will definitaly need them, but for now I think I am doing alright. Thanks for the March Madness updates, and everything else, send more pics, I love those. Anyways, time to go, love you guys, talk to you next week.

Adam

3-12-12

Moms! Hi!

So had a good week, but before I start, story time. You would not believe what happened last night. So we baptized three kids this week, and we went and were going to teach them the restoration (after baptisms they receive all the lessons again) and we have a movie and were about to start and everything, and all the sudden a huge fight breaks out, and the kids and the mom just start fighting with each other really bad. I am not exactly sure what the problem was, something about food, but Elder Conte and I were just kind of trying to diffuse the bomb. (there was a lot of yelling and tears). We’re trying to teach forgiveness and families, we need to love each other, things like that, and we thought we had kind of diffused the bomb, so we step out of the room for a minute to try and figure out what to do.

We had already been there for like an hour so we were going to leave, it’s like 8:30ish. So we go back in and the mom who is 42 says she wants a blessing because she is not feeling well. So we start with the blessing and about half way through she kind of starts slumping over in her chair. Then she starts shaking really badly. So Conte just cuts off the blessing, says amen, and the lady is kind of freaking out. People are kind of crazy and dramatic here so really I didn’t think all that of it, but she totally starts freaking out. So we move her to the bed and she just starts convulsing and moaning, just so weird. Then she starts grabbing her chest and saying, ¨my heart hurts, my heart hurts¨. Literally had an investigator have a heart attack during a lesson, scariest thing of my life.

They live right by the bishop so we had her son run and grab him, got his car, carried her to the car and drove her to a doctor. She ended up being all right (as far as I know now), but holy freak ha-ha. I thought she was going to die. Definitely one of the freakiest moments of my life. We didn’t get home until 11ish, our district leader was freaking out a little bit. But seriously ha-ha, she had a heart attack in the middle of a blessing. Just another day in Guatemala ha-ha.

But yeah, we had an awesome week, on Saturday we had a baptism of three, I got to do two of them so that was really really cool. I was so nervous but didn’t have any problems with the prayers or the names. We had 11 investigators attend the service too, so yeah, way cool. I am so glad I am not in a tough part of the world. We don’t have a ton of success, I heard the mission average is 10 baptisms, so I would say I am starting off pretty good. But a mission like Alex’s, that would be rough. I remember when he said they had tracted something like 1000 straight doors without getting in, I can’t even imagine. We don’t tract, we only work off referrals, mission rule, but when we don’t have anything to do (like 3 hours my whole time here) we tract. So far I have knocked on 3 doors my entire time in the field. Out of the three, we got into all the homes, taught two lessons, and one of them is progressing and we are hoping to set a date for baptism soon ha-ha. Yeah. Sorry Al.

But I was relieved to hear Alex is all right, well...doesn’t have cancer. I was pretty worried, but yeah, I feel a lot better, I am sure he is quite relieved too. How is Bones? Feeling better, have a good birthday? How is March Madness, like who is doing good and who is projected to win? I’m sure BYU will be out first or second round. No Jimmer magic this year:(

 I finally got some mail, I got a letter from Scott Snow, my old roommate, and two from Gabby, if you could tell everyone who sends mail to send me email addresses too, so I can write them back. I don’t think there actually exists a place here where we can send letters, only email. Also, I got moms first package (heavenly) and two dear elders from dad from at Christmas time ha-ha. I had never got them before though so that was still kind of cool. Like getting mail from a time machine. Keep me updated on March madness!

I love you guys, talk to you next week. Les quiero.

Adam

3-5-12

Holy crap. What happened this week ha-ha. Everything was calm and going good last week and now Jonah, Alex, Mitch and Jordan are all dying. That sucks, tell them all I am so sorry ha-h. Who would have thought the person living in a third world country would be the healthiest of us all. Mom your witch doctor magic really worked this time. The brewers yeast is holding true. I have not even been the least bit sick the whole time I have been here, not even a rumble in the stomach. So I don’t know if I am just really being blessed, but I am just going to attribute it to the fact my mom is a witch doctor. 

That is really scary with all the stuff with Al, let him know I am praying and fasting for him, he will be all right I'm sure. With Bonsey too, tell him happy birthday for me, I know I am a little bit early but it will have come and gone before the next p-day. Man I love those guys ha-ha. I have been a little baggy this week and I was just thinking a lot about when Bones lived with us in NM, lots of good times. Almost killed him a few times, but, sill a lot of good times. 

That’s good to hear Liv is doing so well too, she is pretty awesome, but she did have the best example in the world to learn from, so, lets be honest, is it really that surprising? Yeah send some more brewers yeast when you can, I am taking 3 a day and like I said, no problems yet, so if its not broken why fix it? With itch cream, just send something that will stop the itch, I think I finally found out how to kill them, Elder Davies, one of the DLs here told me all the stuff I need to go and buy to get that taken care of, don’t worry about it. 

Speaking of Elder Davies, he is from Kaysville, going to BYU after his mission, he is like one of my favorite people I have met out here, he is so cool. Next week we are going to have our 3 month parties ha-ha. I have three months down, he has three months left :( either way, should be fun. 

About the weather, it is so freaking hot here during the day, apparently Xela is way colder than here, it feels like 90-95 degrees during the day, and then it gets cold a night, we usually just have to break out a sweater, but yeah its way hotter than 70 like the reports say. But they say this is about the hottest it gets and its manageable. It gets hotter in NM than here for sure. It still has yet to rain too which kind of surprised me. But the rain season is coming in a month or two I think. 

Chiantla just has one branch, so we are the only Elders in our area. We have about 100 members attend church weekly, so not too bad. The building in Chiantla is actually under construction so we go to an area called Calvario every Sunday for church, its not too bad, just a little bus ride. Our actual area is really big, one of the biggest, but some of the areas are too dangerous for us to go so we probably cover a five-mile radius or so, we walk a lot. And by a lot, I mean a ton. But I really like it, makes me feel like a missionary ha-ha. I totally feel like a giant though, my comp is probably 5¨10 and we are always the tallest people around. 

Conte is awesome though, yeah he is a convert, I think he was baptized when he was 18 and he was in school in stuff, he graduated in business something and worked for colleges in the states and in Panama. We get along really well though, so it’s been really nice, I have heard some horror stories of trainers, so I consider myself lucky. 

Cant believe Hunt hit his 6 month mark, also remember Otto? He is serving in Alb, he started after Hunt and he is already training ha-ha. That’s crazy. Not a ton really happened this week here. We have a baptism on Saturday for three so that should be cool. I will send a bunch of pics next week. Also did some face book messages come from Chema? He told me he looked you guys up ha-ha. I love that kid, he is going to be such a good missionary. He leaves for the CCM this week :( sad day. Also I will send a pic of our p-day activity today, broom hockey, pretty sweet. Other than that, not much else is new, I love you guys, tell everyone hi for me. Talk to you next week.

Adam