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.

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!