GUATEMALA IS BEAUTIFUL

August 17, 2011

Hello Family!

It was great to get your emails mom.  I love reading everything that you write.  Some important notes:

        They told me that we do not receive pouch mail.  We send mail by pouch, but we can´t receive any.  So, I don´t know if I will get your letters or not, Mom.  I hope I do.  I am hungry for news from home.  We get mail on Thursday, so I will let you know if they come or not.    There is a website for the CCM it´s guatemalaccm.com  Also, we receive Dear Elders about a week or a bit more after you write them.  Mom woiuld you mind copying the emails I receive from my missionary friends onto dear elder and sending them.  I really am hoping that I can receive your letters because Dear Elder works with Pouch, but they told me that it doesn´t work so send your letters through the normal mail with a 98 cent stamp por favor.  If I don´t get any mail tomorrow it will be okay. 

So...I am in the process of writing you a letter, and I will try not to duplicate too much.  But here´s how it´s going. 

        Guatemala is beautiful.  So beautiful. and the weather is perfect. It feels so good outside.  We have our window open a lot.  I feel like I am getting spoiled here.  We have so many nice things and so many advantages.  The CCM is like the MTC but with a different style of hair or clothes.   The classes are a lot the same.  The rules are the same, except stricter.  We can´t take pictures in our room and we can only take pictures on Pday.  Also, the hermanas and Elders cannot sit by each other at lunch.  But whatever.  I´ll just have to get all my flirting in during class.  That was a joke.  

     So, I have two companions.  I go to class with hra. Wilkinson and I eat with Hra. Sanchez.  Hra. Sanchez is pretty quiet, especially with me since it´s so hard for me to understand her.  Hra. Wilkinson´s companion is Hra. Sierra.  The four of us usually eat our meals together.   Also, there is this magical thing down here called refacción.  aka snack time.   So, at 7:45 we gather in the comedor and eat popcorn, or a Latin version of a twinkie, or some milk, or the most delicious orange juice you´ve ever tasted in your life and chat.  It´s pretty fun.  We all talk about getting fat.  Hra. Sierra keeps on saying no dulces, no pan. She is funny.  The food here is way better than in Provo.  We have had platanos and beans, and rice, but almost everything that we eat is Americanish.  Hamburgers and steak nad chicken and potatoes and broccoli and peas...  So it's really good.  We were specifically instructed to eat everything off of our plates.  So,  we do.  Hra. Wilkinson and Hra. Sanchez are both really quiet during meal times, so I feel like I always have to come upwith conversation topics.  But it's fun.  We have half an hour every day to teach our companions English, so we are teaching each other.  Hra. Sierrra tells me that I speak really well.  But I don´t know how to say much.  I had to talk again on Sunday hahaha.  They do the same thing here as in Provo.  They tell you in Sacrament meeting who is going to speak.  So four weeks as a missionary and two discursos.  Que bueno!  It´s pretty fun. 

    Last night we had a video devotional from Elder Holland.  In other words, we watched a devotional that he gave last year at the MTC.  Afterwards, we had a district meeting and everyone shared something.  It was a good meeting and it was a good devotional.  My district is good here . There are only eight of us.  5 elders are going to Guatemala South and 1 to Guatemala Central. Hra. W to Panama and me to Nicaragua.   The Latinos going to my mission will come to he CCM in two weeks.  That will be fun to be able to meet them.  

    Well, I miss you all.  But Guatemala is fine and I still get to hang out with my old companions some which is way awesome.  I love Hra. Murray and Neighbor so much!    I´m perfectly safe, good, fine.    Last night after the devotional our teacher Hra. Mendez told us not to worry about the language.  that it will come.  He said:  I wish you could see yourselves in six months, like you were looking in a mirror.  You wouldn´t worry about the language at all.  It will come.  It is a miracle.   So, I hope it will come.  When I teach it is a lot easier to speak and understand because I have a pretty good idea of the context.  But in our cuarto or in the comedor, it´s a lot harder.  But I am amazed at how much I can teach in Spanish.  We have a version of TRC here called CRE.  We go to a different building and teach a progressing investigator that is not our teacher, but is a teacher at the CCM.  We do well at asking questions, and getting to know the investigators needs and just who they are.  That is helpful to do in the first lesson because it prepares you for everything else that you have to teach.   We practiced introducing the BoM and inviting people to read it.  That is also fun.  We learned to make invitations and follow up on commitments too.  It´s great.  I am a little discouraged, but I am trying not to be.    We get to go to the temple this afternoon, and I am relly excited for that.  Okay three more minutes.   Okay ya´ll write me letters.  Don´t forget about me just because I´m in guatemala!  Thanks for your prayers and love.  I love you all!  The letter from me will get sent out tomorrow.  Okay Bye!  

Love, Marybeth