Earthquakes and Gunshots???

Elder Layton and his companion, Elder Steed

¡Hola familia! I hope everything is going ok up in Oregon. Everything here is pretty much the same. All the people here when we got here though left and we got a ton of new people. For two days there were only 18 of us in the entire CCM.

So that´s why we got to go to the market. It was so much fun! We got to barter and everything and there was sooo much stuff there. I got a bunch of stuff that will help tracting for super cheap. 

Oh yeah also I guess I should tell you last week on Saturday night I got called to be the AP here for the whole CCM haha. I´m the only one for now but soon probably today or tomorrow he will call a Latino one as well. It´s been fun this week. 

I have to wake up early and open up the building just by turning on all the lights and unlocking all the doors. Then at night I turn them all off and lock all the doors. Oh yeah and re do the daily schedule board. I do other stuff too but so far those are the main things. It´s weird to think that as of Tuesday I only have two more weeks here. The time has gone crazy fast. But then again looking back on it, it seems like I've been gone for a really long time. 

I guess I should be missing you guys by now...hmmmm well I might get there eventually. There is one thing I miss! Politics!! I´m deprived aqui cause we still can´t talk about it. Oh well at least Romney did awesome in all the debates. 

Hmmmm what else happened this week... I taught a bunch more lessons that went really good. I don´t have a Spanish accent or anything psh I haven't been gone that long. But at this rate of learning I´m hoping to be able to speak most Spanish by Christmas when I call you. It´s crazy how fast I´m learning. It´s really fun to talk to all the Latinos every night when I´m here to close down the building. I'm starting to be able to understand them better and it´s fun cause they always ask me how to say things in English. 

I think on Monday through Wednesday I´m going to have a English fast. Basically where I can´t speak any English the whole day for three days. We will see if I do it. I´ve done it before and it helps a ton but it´s sooooo frustrating. I just can't wait to get out in the field though. 

Apparently I'm in the hottest mission and it gets to like 120 in some places. Great. If I´m in the city though the temperature is perfect. 

Oh here is my address for my mission home. They say it takes about 12 days to get letters here so it´s about time to start sending them to the mission home. And seriously I haven't got one handwritten letter since I've been here, come on everyone! Nah just kidding I don't care.[A.P. 340-A Guatemala C.A. Guatemala] I guess that´s the whole thing...That´s all it says here but double check it. 

I love the Dear Elders every week from Dad and Grandma. I wish I had time to answer more of their questions but well, I don´t. Oh yeah and the letters are in my room so I don't remember the questions, sorry. Well I hope everyone is doing OK. 

I'm sorry to hear about Brother Medeiros. That´s really sad. At least he had time to say goodbye and it wasn't immediate but still that´s sad.

I hope your work is going good, sounds like it is. Briana's work too. Glad you're teaching a lot of people. I can't wait to be a "real" missionary haha and have real investigators. Well no more time so I got to go. 

Oh yeah one last thing. I was in my first earthquake. And then my second. Apparently they are really common here but the sad thing was I didn't feel either even though somehow they were big. Also the gas station next to us got robbed and we heard gunshots :D Don't freak out though it was cool. OK bye.

A Home With No Chairs, No Walls and No Roof

MTC district

OK where do I start. I'm not really sure cause there´s a lot to talk about. I got to get it out of the way though. I'm so happy the debates are going well! That´s annoying about Biden. I never liked him but hey as a missionary I guess I have to say he´s an OK guy. Oh gosh I can't do it...I take that back. Also I'm glad to hear Romney is winning in the polls. I just got my ballot and voted for...yeah you guessed it Romney! I'll send it in on Monday.

I can't believe there was that Marijuana thing on it! Oregon is dumb sometimes but whatever it better not pass.

Alright as for my week it was awesome. As I told you guys on Tuesday we went proselyting. I went on splits with my Latino roommate Elder Olguin. He is the funniest guy ever and speaks pretty good English. We tracted in a big area and had like four hours.

The whole day I didn´t talk much but I could basically understand everything that could be said. If I didn´t know something I would just ask him. My Spanish has been coming along soooo much faster here than in Provo. We even had an English fast the next day and couldn´t talk any English at all the entire day! It was crazy hard but at the same time great.

Alright back to Tuesday. The highlight by far was a man we met holding a bunch of fruit and a machete. I can't remember his name because it was something super Guatemalan. We met him in this little alley thing and started talking. We would have been happy to just give a few pamphlets and maybe a Book of Mormon but he insisted that we come to his house. At the end of the alley there was a piece of plywood that he pushed aside into his house.

There were no walls or a roof. It was just outside. The floor was dirt and about five feet back there was just a drop off into the jungle. He didn't even have chairs for us to sit on so he turned over some buckets for us and put a rag on them so our pants wouldn't get dirty. Elder Olguin taught him an amazing lesson about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He really seemed to feel the Spirit and definitely wanted to learn more. We gave him a Book of Mormon even though it was kinda hard for him to read. He said he would definitely read it and we are going to have the "real" missionaries come by and talk to him.

As far as his house goes, I knew I was going to see poverty like that but it doesn't really sink in until you're in a house. It definitely was a humbling experience. Well that was definitely the highlight of my week but for the most part the week was just awesome. I'm not exactly sure where it went though because it seems like I was writing you guys two days ago.

The food here is good. I doubt it is anything like I´ll have in the field though. There´s a huge variety of stuff so it's hard to give you an idea of what I eat. Sometimes we eat Mexican type food and sometimes it's more American. It´s weird though because Every meal I have been here they but some type of sauce over it whether it´s eggs, steak, or burritos.There is a lot of meat every day which I'm happy with. More than I´ll probably eat when I'm out.

Oh and yeah I know Elder Campbell! He's cool. He lives pretty close to my and I already found out he´s from Bend. For some reason people here like Bend a lot because people keep asking what it´s like and stuff. OK well I'm glad Curtis is liking school. He must be going crazy to actually like High School but hey whatever. It's definitely a good idea to take health online. They're just a waste of time in school. Although health two was my favorite class. It was super easy and my three best friends were in it so we just kinda messed around. Hey I still got an A because it's pretty much impossible to not get one. And Briana I'm happy you're doing well! Good luck with the Spanish!

I can't wait till I can actually just teach. Well I'm out of time. This next Tuesday we get to go on a big tour of the City. After they take us to the Market which is three stories tall and is going to be awesome. Everything is super cheap here. The most I've spent is 100q...10 dollars and got a ton of stuff.

OK well I miss you guys and have fun watching the last debate without me. Just know my vote is on the way to tip the balance of the vote in Romney's favor.

Our Modern Day J Golden Kimball

A lifted picture from another mishy blog of the Guatemalan MTC

So here´s the the thing. Our Pdays are today so I´m usually going to write Saturdays. I guess they just let us email on Monday last week cause we didn´t have a pday thanks to General Conference. So yeah thanks for writing me! Nah just kidding, esta bien.

This past week was crazy fast. I´ve almost been here for two weeks. Crazy right?! This next Tuesday they let us out of the MTC to go out into the city. I will go on splits with a Latino and we have to place Book of Mormons! It is going to be awesome. We get to go tracting and stuff too for like four hours I think. Definitely couldn´t do that in Provo. It´s going to be hard but at least I´ll have a Latino with me to help out. Without one I think I would die. Next time we go it will just be me and Elder Steed though. That should be interesting. 

Well what happened this week?...Hmmm oh yeah I accidentally cussed in a lesson yesterday! It was a really good lesson and I tried to say something but I left off the first two letters and apparently in Guatemala it´s a really bad word. Ha oops guess I won´t make that mistake again. You should´ve seen my teachers face. I was sooo confused why she looked so surprised but afterwards she told us haha. Other then that nothing special happened since Monday. At least nothing I can remember. 

Desayuno Chapin

We taught a bunch of lessons and ate a bunch of weird food and that´s about it. Oh yeah one thing I do have to say. Good thing I´m here cause  Mom you might be tempted to come find, and kill me. I can´t send pictures from here. I have no idea why. They took all of our cameras and we´re not even allowed to have them except the day before we leave. Yeah kinda weird but I guess it´s for safety so they don´t get stolen by the people that work here. At least that´s what they said. So sorry Mom but I´ll definitely send some as soon as I get out...in 4 and a half weeks. 

I hope everything is going ok at home. Yesterday I got both of dads letters cause even Dear Elders take awhile to get here. So thanks for that they were awesome. I can´t believe you took Curtis to a Oregon game though!!!!!!! Not only that you skipped General Conference to do it! I am disappointed in you. (We ended up staying home, watching conference and we still got to watch the game that night. Eric can stop being disappointed.) Mostly because I wasn´t there to go...but for the conference thing too. I hope it was a good game cause Conference was awesome. I guess you saw it anyways though. A lot of people in my zone now have sisters who are going to go on a mission.

It´s so cool! Some people in my zone by the time they leave will have three people out from their family at the same time! Crazy Utah people and all their kids I guess. Oh yeah there was another thing I wanted to say before I ran out of time. I haven´t had time to write them back but Grandma and Grandpa wrote me awesome letter and just wanted to thank them. I re read them yesterday and I have the most awesome grandparents ever haha. Ok well without a letter to respond to I don´t really know anything else to say. 

But here is this places address in case you didn´t find it already. [Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71] [Vista Hermosa 1, Zona 15] [01015 Guatemala City] [Guatemala, C.A.] They say letters take about twelve days to get here so yeah....Ok out of time.

Hope you are all doing well and the house hasn´t fallen apart without me. Good luck Briana and I hope you are enjoying it there. Look for an Elder Brooks and Hermana Longoria. They were in my Provo zone and they left a couple weeks ago for your mission. Ok Got to go bye!

Los Nortes in the Guatemalan MTC

Ok well first off down here in Guatemala is crazy. The whole CCM is only Spanish so I don't understand a thing. Even the keyboards here are different so it´s hard to type. 

This week has been awesome. I feel like I'm learning a lot faster now and think I will be much better off than if I stayed in Provo. This week we actually get to go out street contacting on our own! It should be interesting. 

Yeah Mom the CCM is right in the city and it´s actually in my mission! Today we saw Elders walking past the gates that are in my mission. This city is huge. I can't wait to actually go out into it and place Book of Mormons. 

My favorite part of every day is the soccer here. It´s tons of fun playing with the Latinos. I actually score all the time haha. Everyone calls us Nortes it´s funny. The food is really good but definitely takes some getting used to. There is some mexican type stuff and then also some American food. With some of the things I have to force it down but I guess I better get used to it. Overall the food is really good. 

The schedule here is way more relaxed than Provo too! We have a lot more study time and in a couple weeks they are going to take us to a huge three story market and then to Wendys! I can´t wait haha. 

Hmm I can´t figure out how to start a new paragraph so I´ll just keep typing I guess (we edited his letter and added paragraphs before posting). Conference was crazy good! I got to watch it in English because over half the people here are Nortes. It´s soooo crazy about the age thing now. I never thought that would happen. I bet by the end of my mission there are a lot more than 2 Hermanas in my zone. 

I really liked all the talks. We watched every single one so it was really good. I also liked Elder Holland´s but I would have to say that one of the seventies was my favorite. 

I can´t remember his name. I'm so happy to hear about Romney! That´s hilarious!  Obama's best thing last time were the debates and looks like Romney has a good shot maybe. We don't really talk politics in the CCM and so I'm a little deprived and definitely like the updates so thanks. 

The weather here is awesome. Every day it´s a perfect temperature and it really hasn't rained that much. Yesterday we got our first big rain but even that only lasted about fifteen minutes. I kinda wished it lasted longer cause I didn't get to go in it. 

The one thing that is kinda lame here are the rooms. There are six people per room and only two closets. There aren't any desks and every person just gets one small drawer. So I pretty much just live out of my suitcase. We have a shower in our room but it´s tiny and we always have to hurry cause it´s only one shower per six people. We can´t drink tap water so it´s a pain to brush my teeth cause we have to go get other water. Hmmm oh yeah and we can never touch the floor with our bare feet or we'll get a weird fungus thing! It´s fun! Don't get me wrong I still really like it here and in three weeks we might be able to move to better rooms.

When we got here they completely reassigned companions and I got...the same one. Whatever though he´s cool and we'll have a fun last five weeks. Yeah only five more weeks here! Well that´s kinda a lot but it´s going by fast. I can't wait to get out and actually have my own apartment and start teaching real people. Well just about out of time.

Hope my email made sense even though I can barely type. I'll see you guys in two years! Well hey actually less.

Ya Se Va a Guatemala

Activity at the "Fuego" volcano just outside Guatemala City is increasing.

Ok so this week was pretty good. A lot happened and again it's hard to remember cause every day kinda seems the same. We had to teach a bunch of lessons all in Spanish of course. It's crazy hard but I'm kinda getting the hang of it I guess. Oh and I found out that Briana was in my zone before and all my teachers were hers. Brother Ridge went crazy when he realized we are related haha. All of our classes are really good but kinda long.

I love it here and everything but I'm definitely ready for a change of scenery. I leave tomorrow at 4:30. We get to LA around 9 so I'm not sure if I'll have time to call you from Salt Lake but I might. So if I don't call around 5:30 don't freak out. We have to fly all night too Mom! It's going to be rough in classes the next day but we'll get over it.

Yesterday we went to a departure devotional that was awesome. He said everyone going to Guatemala stand up and there was only like eight of us. It should be fun going to the CCM down there The devotional was all about what type of missionary we want to be and it was given by the MTC president, President Brown. We also had a fireside right after that was crazy good. It was on how people are converted to the Gospel and what they need to feel. It was by some guy whose name I don't remember so sorry...

Well I'm glad Curtis got a phone! That's pretty cool. Don't spend too much time on it little bro! It will rot your brain! Talking about phones that's kinda cool Brother xxxx got some of my talk on camera (check the video of his Sacrament Meeting talk, now located on the sidebar). That talk seems like it was forever ago! It seriously seems like you dropped me off at the airport like a year ago. But hey still only two years to go...

I can't believe Michael got called to Ecuador! That's awesome. I know a kid here going there and he's super excited. who knows maybe they will be companions. I also know a kid going to the Eugene Oregon mission so if our ward ever gets Elders again he might be in it. But who knows if he'll actually be in Bend. The Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission though I must say is the second best in the world, right after the Mexico City South Mission. (OK, I edited that part.) It's crazy I'm going to be there tomorrow late at night! This last week has flown by and tomorrow I'll be flown out of here.

Yeah Mom I got the package so thank you! I hope you actually didn't want me to save that candy for the plane cause, well I didn't. Oops. It will be too late to eat candy anyways so I ate it after the Hasta Ver (farewell) last night. It was pretty much a party, if you can imagine a bunch of Elders partying on Sunday. So it was really just eating food. Well I have to go but I hope you guys are all doing well. Later today I will send pictures but I can't on these computers so don't worry you should get some today. Not one by the map but I'll get that before I leave here. I miss you guys and hope Bend is alright without me. Buh Bye.