Week 2

Monday, July 08, 2013

Ok, maybe it’s just because we get to email home on Monday today, but it seems like this last week has flown past.  This Wednesday a new group of missionaries will enter the CCM and they’ll think we are pros and know what we´re doing. Ha-ha.

So, the highlight of this week was definitely my birthday. There wasn’t much fanfare at the CCM, but I did have the great chance to talk to the Parks family for 10 minutes. Apparently they were able to sweet talk the guards and bring me a cake. It was so much fun to see some familiar faces so far from home. The rest of my district and even the entire CCM was pretty jealous though. I still can´t believe that timing worked out so perfectly. Even the timing of when they showed up was perfect almost to the minute. We had just finished teaching a lesson and didn’t have anything scheduled for 20 minutes when I walked out of the room and saw them.

The fourth of July was also fun. Since we weren´t able to watch fireworks or go to 4th of July ward breakfasts, all of the "norteamericanos" had to compensate by wearing red, white and blue ties, singing patriotic songs throughout the day, and saying "´Murica!" [Editor’s note: slang for America] whenever we say one another. Still, I missed actually being in the USA

I’ve enjoyed the chance our district has had to begin teaching even more often. Our last visit with our investigator Albino was one of the most spiritual moments vie had thus far at the CCM. We helped him work through some of his last concerns. He knows he needs to be baptized but just wants more knowledge before he commits. We´ve also spent time teaching our maestros who are pretending to be investigators and just practiced door approaches for the first time. Hopefully I’ll just get so many referrals that I won’t have to do any tracing in the field. I definitely prefer teaching.

I´m sure my friends at BYU aren´t surprised to hear this, but I am loving always being able to wear dress clothes. I mean, everyday all I have to do is iron a shirt and pick out a suitable tie. It´ll be hard to go back in two years. The mission field is also one of the few places where I can always keep a planner, small book of new Spanish words, a pen, and a mechanical pencil in my breast pocket every day and not have that raise eyebrows. In fact, it´s very fashionable.

The weather has been great here. It truly is the land of eternal spring. Every day, all day, its 70 degrees. It rains at 3:30 every day (when we have deportes and can best enjoy it) and at 8.30. Honestly, I could set my watch off the rain here. I might be a little less enthusiastic about the heavy rain when I’m out tracting in it for hours, but for now it’s always a highlight of my day.

The food this past week has been good, but it has been far less Guatemalan than I would have thought. Still, there have been several days when we´ve had amazing tacos with their delicious corn tortillas. Those are always the best and I would be more than content to eat those every day. Last night I tried Jamaica juice and was pleasantly surprised (I really was surprised since I thought it was grape juice). Apparently it´s made from some sort of flower (this is a time when I really miss Wikipedia) and tastes like a very cinnimony cider. They also occasionally have watermelon juice, but I haven´t tried that because it´s known as the "jugo de muerte" [Editor’s note: death juice] because of what it does to you digestive system.

In all, I love the CCM. The spirit is so strong here. We´re working hard and learning a lot, but still have a long way to go before we´re ready to leave. I wish I could send you guys pictures. The hills are lush and green and the rainclouds are quite impressive, but sadly they confiscate our cameras for the duration of our stay so they don´t get stolen. Tomorrow, on my P day, we´re going to a mall to practice speaking Spanish and so we can get things we need at Wal-Mart. I think we´re allowed to have our cameras then, so hopefully I will be able to take some pictures then.

A special shout out to Aunt Becca, Aunt Caroline, and Brother Minor. Thanks so much for your letters!  I love hearing from you guys! Speaking of which, I realized that in my mailing instructions I should have mentioned that for the next few weeks you should put my mission as "Guatemala MTC" instead of "Guatemala city central" in Dear elder. Otherwise they send it to the actual mission home and I don’t get them.

Oh, and a big thank you to my parents, who edit this email before you guys see it hopefully). I´m trying to type quickly on a Spanish keyboard and frankly, they didn´t do a great job at making it ergonomical. That combined with a lack of spell check makes these emails a bit of a mess when I send them.

Well, I guess that´s it for this week. I´m sure I will think of everything else I wanted to say the moment I walk back to the CCM (the computer lab is in a different building), but there´s not much I can do about that.

¡Adios!