Week 1 in the Guatemala MTC

1. Did you meet any other elders on the flight from lax to Guatemala?

We met about 10 in salt lake and 15 more at lax

2. How is the food at the CCM is the fruit good and do you have beans for every meal? The food is good but it gives you bad gas and a lot of diarrhea. We have had a lot of beans but they are good, my favorite is a bean soup with hot sauce. We have had a lot of fish and pasta. We even had pancakes. There is a lot of good juices. One of my favorite ones is the jugo de mandrine it is amazing juice I also tried the jicama flower I think. The food for the most part is good. They serve us and we have to eat it all. I made a goal to clean my plate every meal at the CCM  *Look up what CCM means.  capatacion de centro de missionary something like that. Ok ohh and I look forward to lunch every day because we get ice cream. And at 9 we usually have refracion and get a snack, last night was donuts. We get a homemade pastry every meal and they are amazing. They can make puff pastry down here.

3. What is you companions name and where is he from and what mission is he going to after Guatemala and what is he like?  My companions name is elder H is from California. We get along good now but the first few days were rough because he used a lot of slang and abbreviations just like Californians do.  He is serving in the Honduras Comayaguela mission.

How many elders are in your class?  8 elders and 2 hermana’s

We have very good teachers and they are fun. There is usually one male and one female teacher per district.  The names of mine are Hermano M. and Hermana Q.  One of our teachers is ocd so if you are slouching in your chair after a 16-hour day you get in trouble.

So how do the Hermanas do with the gas? Good we stole one of those auto-spraying scent things out of a bathroom and put it in the classroom.

President is nice we have only gotten in trouble a few times, like last night he was in a bad mood because of the one elder punching the other, so he came around and most of us got a chewing because it was 10.35 and we weren’t asleep. He woke us all up early to and chewed us again.

I cant type because the keyboards are completely different, its near impossible to find the @ button you have to press alt and type 64.  There are a lot of sirens and a lot of security guards. We have motion detectors surrounding the building and a tone of guards.

4. Do you have native Spanish speakers in your room?  How is the language going?

No Latinos in my room but maybe next Wednesday. We get a new batch of missionaries. They make us sit and talk with them at lunch and in the halls.

5. What was your most spiritual experience this past week?

 Do you need anything?  Jana has already sent 2 care packages to Korbin because they send them direct from somewhere in Mexico City.

Probably a testimony meeting it is amazing after being here for so little time we know how to pray and bear our testimonies and talk a lot more. Remember simple testimonies can be much better than long ones.

7. Have you washed any of your clothes today how did it go? Yes I have washed two loads, colors and whites, the washing machines are sweet they auto dispense detergents you just press the button whites or colors.  Not dirty. I have only worn 2 shirts and 2 pants and some garments. Next time I wash my clothes, I am going to try what the older elders do to clean the neck better. There is a magic green bar that is supposed to help.  Shirts or shoes I change the shoes out two to 3 times a day. Shirts I’ve only stained one and I don’t know how, it was a green line that looked like it was from a marker.

8. How is the weather it looks hot and humid

It is perfect; it doesn’t feel hot or humid to me. We have deportes *sports* for an hour everyday and it begins to pour every time. We get to take showers twice a day, and another outside.  Did it rained 3 inches? Probably 3 inches it rains like I have never seen every day sometimes twice a day.

9. Have you left the CCM property or did you go to the temple?

Yes today I left the CCM and went to the temple, wow what an experience. We went to an English session but it was good, and the spirit was strong.  The Temple was very small and everything was connected.  The windows from the baptistery looked right at the exit to the Celestial room, the Telestial and veil room were the same room and they only have 2 of them, which hold probably 25 people.  The screen is literally projected to a 43” image

Can you upload pictures?  I can’t send pictures they take away our cameras so we cant use them.  No, it’s their rule and they stick to it. If you are three feet away from your companion they die because you’re not with them and then they say in the rules you just have to be able to see them or hear them. We also decided smell them counts.

10. Anything we missed that you want to tell us.

Yes the power has gone out and flickered a lot. It is always when we are doing things and someone for example, the mission president, starts to say something bad the lights go out, very weird.

We had one elder get sent home because he punched another one. ‘Don’t do that” Yeah the elder that got sent home was from Nevada or California I don’t know. My companion is trying to work on the slang but I’m just getting more used to it.

Also I am the only elder at the CCM going to my mission. So I will be the only white guy on the flight with the Latino’s.   There are 4 hemanas  going to Honduras.

The volcanoes as we were landing were cool. I spend some cash at the centro de distribucion to buy me some nice Spanish scriptures.

Tell everyone I love them and that I am fine and also having good spiritual experiences.