Went Hiking

Just a quick note about the pictures from last week.  That is how we wash our laundry. My compañera was washing a rag so that we could mop our floor. The picture that looks like a hall is our house. That's the main area where we study and eat, etc.

Our area is really pretty and hilly. And the roads are really curvy so we walk kind of far to reach an area. This week went pretty good. We were able to find some new investigators. We also lost all of our baptisms dates except for one. But our one is really excited for her baptism and she's going to make it all the way.

Today we had a different p-day. We decided to visit the hills above our area and we ended up hiking all over the place. My shoes were not good for this terrain but it turned out pretty fun. I have some pretty good picture. We're already looking to the next change because we know that we're going to be separated. They always switch the companionships so that you aren't with your trainer after the 3 months. And Elder Bronson goes home on the 8th of March :( We're really sad to lose him! But we know it's time for him to go home. He's really baggie. Baggie here means that you're always thinking about home and are distracted with the things from home. This week went by really fast and we had a lot of lessons and found some new people. It was really good.

Hope everything's going good at home! Love you!!!

Sunsets, the sky, and the stars.

Things are going good here. I think we got the residency all fixed. They only took a picture and I signed two papers and that was it. And we haven't heard anything so I think it's just a normal thing that we have to do.

Sadly we didn't have a baptism this week. We weren't able to meet with him again and so we pushed back the baptism date. And then he didn't attend church this week and we don't know why. So I think we're going to hopefully meet with him and find out what happened and how we can help him. The language is getting better and I'm understanding a lot more. Now I'm starting to find a little bit of another problem with the language. Now that I can speak a bit more and I understand more I don't know what to talk about with the people because I'm so used to just not talking haha. It's all good though. It will come.

I think my favorite thing about Guatemala is the sunsets, the sky, and the stars. It's all really really pretty and I really love it. And what I don't like is being really really tired haha! Sometimes at night it's all we can do to plan and flop in bed. And I've found a problem that I have that I have no control over. I try to teach the lessons in Spanish at night. I'm sleep talking. Luckily it's not too bad and I'm able to stop myself a lot of times but I'm tired and I'd rather sleep at night haha!! It's the stress haha! Apparently there's a lot of missionaries that have problems like this on the mission, and I know this because my compañera likes to share this with others and we have a laugh. Oh well! What can you do?

 The people here are really giving and loving. There's a lot of members that are amazing. The kids are all really cute too! One of the mini stores in Los Olivos has some little kids that when they aren't at school run around and they wear the native clothing and they are the cutest little things and they give the best little hugs.

Love you!!!!!

Pictures

My district - Elders Bronson and Moran, me and my companera Hermana Ramos

My zone

The sunset and volcanos!

Me and my companion - Hermana Ramos

And finally, Los Olivos - my area

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was a lousy p-day. Yesterday night they called and said that we needed to go to the offices because there was a problem with my residency here. So we got up before 6am, left the house at 6:15, was at the zone leader's house at 6:45, left for the offices and sat around all day because there were lots of people that had to come in and have the same thing done. I did get to see a couple of people that I knew from the CCM. One was from my district which was awesome to talk to him.

Anyway this week was pretty good. It was the 24th month mark for my district leader so we had a party for him on Friday. We made lasagna and a potato salad for him. The only problem was that we were up until 11pm the night before to make the food for him because it was a surprise and he didn't just want pizza when his companion asked him what they were going to eat. It went really good though and we had a good time. We're really tired this week.

Oh yeah something weird and crazy that I ate this week. We were with a member and she gave us a cup with tomatoes, and onion, and cilantro, and something else. I had no idea what it was but Elder Moràn was acting kind of weird so I knew it had to be something different. So I just ate it and on our way back to the house I asked what it was. It was testiculos de toro or testicles of a bull. I'm just glad I didn't know what it was before I ate it. Haha It's all good though.

This is an example of a normal day here.

6:30am wake up, pray, exercise, wash dishes

7am breakfast and shower

8am personal study

9am companionship study until 11

11am language study

12pm lunch

1 start to work

8 return to the house and if you aren't too tired maybe eat some food

-we usually eat cookies, or fruit that the people give us in our visits so it's not like we starve until morning

Plan for the next day, crash in the beds as soon as possible and sleep

This is a typical day but it actually doesn't happen that often because we have district meeting, meeting with the ward mission leader, ward counsel once a month, p-day, etc. It's usually only 2-3 days a week that are like this.

Love you!!! Hope everything's going good!!!!

I keep forgetting Valentine's Day is this week! Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!!!! Love you!!!! And a happy birthday to Emilee!!!!!!!

1 Month in the Field - 3 Months in the Mission

Things are going good here!!! I passed my month mark in the field and my three month mark in the mission!! Woohoo! It was good. My district leader Elder Bronson is passing his 24 month mark in four days!! But he extended for 30 more days so he's not done yet. Haha! His companion has 10 months in the mission today so it's pretty exciting.  They are really cool and take good care of me and my companion.  Hermana Ramos and I are going to try and make something or buy something for district meeting on Wednesday for the elders. They're great.  That’s my district in the whole.  Only four people.  It’s crazy because in the MTC I had 8 people all in the district and in the CCM I had 10 people in all. I really like the elders that are in the district and zone though. 

I'm doing great. This week was little weird because most of our appointments fell through and we're also working on an activity to find new investigators and help our investigators right now to learn more about the church. We're going to have a pioneer day. We're going to play pioneer games like a three legged race, a washing clothes race (one person washes the clothes, one person wrings it out, and then another runs the clothes over and hangs them up), a tug of war, apples in a basin that you try to grab in your mouth, the Joseph Smith one with the feet together and the stick and you try to pull the other person off the ground, and more. Then we're going to have some easy-to-make pioneer food and end with a short Restoration movie. We’re pretty excited. This week we went around talking to all the leaders of the groups asking for help and talking to the bishop to get the activity going. We're going to have it on the 25 of February.  It’s so weird to think that it’s February right now because it feels more like April or May.  The weather has been kind of weird this week – a little cold and rainy.  One of the days was really muggy and my hair was crazy!! Ha ha!!  At the end of this week we finally had some sun!! I was really happy.

Two of our baptism dates fell through :( it was really sad. But they won't come to church and they won't keep commitments so yeah.... But we did gain a new person that we have a date with for baptism, so we still have 4 people hopefully!  We had Fast Sunday this week but we didn't have testimony meeting because we had a general authority. I don't know his name though because I didn't recognize the name. He was really good about greeting our investigators that we had at the church which was awesome for them!

I have been eating my vegetables when I have vegetables to eat. Hahaha (evil laugh). No, this week we have some good things planned out to eat with lots of fruits and vegetables so I'm really excited.

The people are all treating me really good. I still spend a lot of time just sitting and listening to Hermana Ramos and the people talk but I'm really starting to understand a lot more and starting to participate a little more in the small talk. My companion and I get along really well too so things are really good.

I hope you are doing good!!