Week 7

I'm sorry I didn't write a group email last week.  I was only allowed to write one email to my parents. but the field has been crazy.  We had an orientation the first day and met our companions, then we went through the Quezaltenango Temple.  This is my new fave temple, it is so beautiful inside and out, it looks little but the inside is amazing. We then had to go around town for my companion to get meds, and after that took a bus to Huehue. It was a 4 hour ride and the bus gets packed and people get on top, it's really crazy.  

The first nights here really sucked and I really questioned why I was here, but it got way better. I love the people even though I can't communicate well yet. I live in a shack, that is going to take some getting used to!  We have to walk down a big dirt hill to get to it, but I'm getting used to it, haha.

I've seen probably 500 different dogs here and most of them are strays.  We already have a dog friend that follows us wherever we go.  I drink water and juice out of plastic bags and we have good water, a big tub thing. My companion is Elder Cornel and he doesn't speak any English and he is from Guatemala.  But we get along very well, and he is always messing around with me haha.  

The Spanish is coming slowly, but I understand a lot.  Anyway, the first real day, I was able to invite someone to be baptized and he accepted.  We are going to baptize him August 25th!  We have many other investigators, it's crazy, we walk everywhere and probably walk like 6 to 8 miles everyday, maybe more.  We walk on streets and the cars almost hit us, but I'm used to it already and I'm not scared.  The food down here is amazing and I love it. It's mostly just corn tortillas and chicken and other stuff, but my first meal in the field was street food cause my companion loves it. That's what they said not to eat, because it is bad but I didn't get sick and feel fine, it was pretty good. 

I'm in Huehuetenango pronounced (way way tenango), anyways the people here are really poor and it's really sad. We help as much as we can, but it totally changes the perspective on my life a lot. We have so much and these guys have so little, but they do whatever they can to devote themselves to the church. We had stake conference this past Sunday, and it's huge down here. They had flowers around the pulpit and they had the mission president speak and a member of the seventy came and spoke. It was really cool to hear, even though I can't understand everything. But there were so many people in the stake center, they had class rooms with TV's broadcasting it. Crazy!  Today we had to do splits, cause my companion went to the hospital to get a nail cut off. I went with this North American from Idaho and we played soccer this morning on a dirt field with other missionaries and members. It was so fun, then we went up to this mountain that is called Cuchoo and I took some really cool pics and we rode a van up there and it was packed with people so we just sat on top haha. But  we travel with buses and vans everywhere, it's so crazy. I wish you guys could really see what im doing haha. Be greatful for what you have, and love everybody. I love it down here, its going to be so fun, and today hearing stories from these other missionaries that have been down here a long time, im going to love it. it rained one day last week and when it rains, it pours!! the streets were like big rivers and we got soaked walking in it haha. it was fun though. i hope all you guys are doing good, and love and miss you all