Well everyone I hope everything is going alright back home. I am now officially a viejo which is a veteran. I only have 17 days and then I'm en el campo (the field). It's nervewrack! I keep feeling that I need to be fluent by the time I get out but I'm nowhere near that. I still love it here. President Nicholaysen is the sweetest, nicest man eve. On the other hand his wife can be quite scary. But when you are sick she
babies you all day. We get medicine and Gatorade and get to nap. Sometimes being sick isn't that bad until you puke again.
Not a whole lot has gone on except that we got newbies. The newbs are cool but the new latinos, for some reason, are really angry at us gringos. They refuse to talk to most of us and they don't like us talking with them. Our roomies are getting good though. They like to talk and have fun but one is really creepy. Last night, at around 12, I woke up to him staring at me and then he came up, poked me in the cheek and walked off. I'm pretty sure that if it happens again I'll tackle him. It was absolutely terrifying. I only have 17 days left - AHHHHHHH!!!!
I remembered that Ky went into the MTC. I hope he has as much of a positive experience as I have had. My comp is so sick! In the good way. We both have the same interests so we talk a lot about longboarding and stuff. Oh I met an Elder Mckenna and he is pretty cool! He says we are going to live together after our missions. I wouldn't mind it. He's hilarious. He is supposed to be on medicine for his hyperactivity but he never takes it and its hilarious!
Good luck to everyone with school!
So I figure I'll talk about the food. Generally it is amazing but sometimes you get stuff that is so gross. Like one time we had mole (mole-lay). That's what made me sick. I still get queasy thinking about it! Wakala! I'm really careful with meat here because they cook it like a restaurant here and with 130 kids sometimes things aren't cooked through all the way - like my steak last night. We get ice cream a lot and juice.
Oh ya I wanna talk about the Market. We got to go last week and I got a poncho and some things to send home. I bartered for it all and got everything for like 20 bucks. It was sweet. Then I had Wendys!!! Oh man I was in heaven. It was amazing!!!! Never been so happy in my life to see a crappy burger with some weak excuses for bacon on it! I got some bags for the girls and some little bracelets. I also got a mask sort of deal. I'll send it home with one of my suits once I hit the field. I'm only gonna need one. We never wear them, only at church. So the market, I thought, would have been a street market. No it's way more cool. It was underground, in a huge complex, in 3 levels. The top floor had a lot of manufactured goods. I got a watch there that looks good for 20 quetz which is less than 3 dollars!!! It runs well, so far. The second floor was my favorite. It was the produce floor. Everyone was yelling and the atmosphere was super cool! There were lots of different fruits. I'll send you pictures when I can. I had some little furry strawberry thing. It's called a licha. Look it up. It's really tasty. I enjoyed it a lot. The third floor was all handmade stuff - kind of crafty but not too cool. t I got my poncho down there for 70 quetz and it was the most expensive thing I bought. I talked the dude down from 170 WOOT! Anyways the country is awesome. I can't wait to go to Reu. I've heard it is beautiful and I can't wait.
Well I love everyone. I can't wait to hear from you guys. Bye love you!!!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
The Dreaded Stomach Bug
Well its time to write again and I only have 17 minutes left AHHH!!! My stomach has gotten worse. First off, my companion and I were up
all night puking and other bodily functions. We have been told to
stay in bed tonight. It's terrible. Any food makes me queasy unless its bland and they don't make anything bland.
I had to buy new shoes today but they were pretty cheap - 30 dollars for a sick pair of Nikes. The other shoes I brought were destroyed in soccer.
So I'm ready to get into the mission field. These six weeks in the MTC stink and I still have 3 to go. My companion's name is Elder Hansen. He's from SLC and he speaks English because he's another Gringo like me. But my roomies are Elder Quiroz and Elder Rodriguez and they are all the bomb! I love those guys. They are absolutely hilarious. We laugh and laugh and laugh at night.
So something cool happened last night. While our teacher Hermano Orellana was showing us pictures of his mission I asked him to go back in a picture because I thought I recognized a picture and guess who its was! RILEY JEPPESON!!! He was Orellanas favorite companion. We had a lot of fun talking about it. It kinda stinks here because I am "babysat" so much.I feel like I can't choose anything to do. We are told what to study and it's really annoying but oh well its for a reason. I like both of my teachers they are pretty nice but Orellana is the best. We play games and just have fun plus he is super spiritual but he hardly speaks English so you have to work really hard to understand him which is good for us. The language is mejor y mejor cada dia which is better and better every day.
I have made a ton of friends here. There is one kid here, Elder Ashcroft, who has huge hops. He hit his head off the rim of the basket ball hoop!!!! That's insane! He's super fun to hang out with.
So about tracting on Monday, talk about insane and a huge downer on the language. We had a Latino comp. with us and he spoke most of the time but holy cow they are so fast! And words are so slurred especially from older men, but on the bright side I have never been in a place so friendly. Every door we knocked on let us talk to them and we found the golden investigator! I said hi to this older fellow and we started to talk with him and he asked who we were and if we believed in Jesus. We obviously said yes! He asked us so many questions about the church and I asked if we wanted a Book of Mormon. He said no because he already had one but it wasn't from a missionary he had found it! He said he believes it all and he wants to
be baptized but he didn't know what church it was. In fact, he has the Libro de Momo, la Doctrina y Convenios, y la Perla de Gran Precio! It was so awesome!!!! So we took down his info and hopefully we will have a new member in the Church. The zone we went to was zone 5 and it seems poor. It was really dirty not too poor but not well off. The people were so friendly though. In the U.S. they wouldn't have listened to us.
Well I hope everyone is getting my emails like Vick and Trav, Tom and Cris, and Gma and Gpa E and Gma and Gpa G. Please tell me if you are. I love you all and I hope everything goes well for you. I'm bummed I missed the Olympics. I'll see them when I get home! Good luck with all your sports!
stay in bed tonight. It's terrible. Any food makes me queasy unless its bland and they don't make anything bland.
I had to buy new shoes today but they were pretty cheap - 30 dollars for a sick pair of Nikes. The other shoes I brought were destroyed in soccer.
So I'm ready to get into the mission field. These six weeks in the MTC stink and I still have 3 to go. My companion's name is Elder Hansen. He's from SLC and he speaks English because he's another Gringo like me. But my roomies are Elder Quiroz and Elder Rodriguez and they are all the bomb! I love those guys. They are absolutely hilarious. We laugh and laugh and laugh at night.
So something cool happened last night. While our teacher Hermano Orellana was showing us pictures of his mission I asked him to go back in a picture because I thought I recognized a picture and guess who its was! RILEY JEPPESON!!! He was Orellanas favorite companion. We had a lot of fun talking about it. It kinda stinks here because I am "babysat" so much.I feel like I can't choose anything to do. We are told what to study and it's really annoying but oh well its for a reason. I like both of my teachers they are pretty nice but Orellana is the best. We play games and just have fun plus he is super spiritual but he hardly speaks English so you have to work really hard to understand him which is good for us. The language is mejor y mejor cada dia which is better and better every day.
I have made a ton of friends here. There is one kid here, Elder Ashcroft, who has huge hops. He hit his head off the rim of the basket ball hoop!!!! That's insane! He's super fun to hang out with.
So about tracting on Monday, talk about insane and a huge downer on the language. We had a Latino comp. with us and he spoke most of the time but holy cow they are so fast! And words are so slurred especially from older men, but on the bright side I have never been in a place so friendly. Every door we knocked on let us talk to them and we found the golden investigator! I said hi to this older fellow and we started to talk with him and he asked who we were and if we believed in Jesus. We obviously said yes! He asked us so many questions about the church and I asked if we wanted a Book of Mormon. He said no because he already had one but it wasn't from a missionary he had found it! He said he believes it all and he wants to
be baptized but he didn't know what church it was. In fact, he has the Libro de Momo, la Doctrina y Convenios, y la Perla de Gran Precio! It was so awesome!!!! So we took down his info and hopefully we will have a new member in the Church. The zone we went to was zone 5 and it seems poor. It was really dirty not too poor but not well off. The people were so friendly though. In the U.S. they wouldn't have listened to us.
Well I hope everyone is getting my emails like Vick and Trav, Tom and Cris, and Gma and Gpa E and Gma and Gpa G. Please tell me if you are. I love you all and I hope everything goes well for you. I'm bummed I missed the Olympics. I'll see them when I get home! Good luck with all your sports!
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Settling In
To my most favorite family ever!!!!!!
Alright I hope I got everyone in this email. Well since the enter button doesn't do the same thing here in Guatemala there will be no paragraphs. Well for starters its so freaking hot here!!!!!! O well I like it. I haven't got much culture because I'm stuck in a little building and only get out to go to the temple but in like 13 dias I get to go to the market place. I'm way excited and this Monday I get to go tracting with Elder Escobar! He looks like a teddy bear. All you want to do is pick him up and hug him but the kid is a straight up baller. So I will get some culture there which will be awesome.
The food here is delicious but a stomach flu thing has been going around which is terrible. I had it yesterday and I was sick all day and the night before but now I'm fine. I play soccer everyday here which is super nice. And when we do it is super fun, but I sweat so much more than normal because of the humidity. Soccer is way fun. Sometimes I go lift instead with all the kids who wrestled. Today I got 210 for 3 sets of 10. I was super pumped. If only it was kilos then I would be beasting it up.
We all get along here pretty well. My companion is super cool. We have a friend, Elder Bingham, who chills with us all the time. Today the little market came to the CCM and so I bought a Manchester jersey and a man bag! Woot! It's super sick! I do like it here except you are babysat constantly and it gets a little annoying. Teaching in Spanish can be difficult at times because sometimes words sound the same. Like pecado which is sin and pescado which is dead fish. During one of my first lessons in Provo I said that through Christ we can be forgiven of our pescados or dead fish. He looked at me like I was crazy. It was hilarious.
The Latinos are hilarious. I always chill with them at night and we just laugh and laugh because we can't understand each other. Holy cow people speak fast here! It's insane. Oh guess how cheap garments are here. 5.50 quetzales which is less than a dollar! So I might load up before I leave which I think would be a good plan!
Well its almost time for service. I love you all. I would write letters to everyone if I had stamps but alas I have no stamps yet. So Quincy I'll try to write you as soon as I can. Tell Ky good luck and I'm super proud of him for going, same with Kaden! Bye and love you all!!!!
Alright I hope I got everyone in this email. Well since the enter button doesn't do the same thing here in Guatemala there will be no paragraphs. Well for starters its so freaking hot here!!!!!! O well I like it. I haven't got much culture because I'm stuck in a little building and only get out to go to the temple but in like 13 dias I get to go to the market place. I'm way excited and this Monday I get to go tracting with Elder Escobar! He looks like a teddy bear. All you want to do is pick him up and hug him but the kid is a straight up baller. So I will get some culture there which will be awesome.
The food here is delicious but a stomach flu thing has been going around which is terrible. I had it yesterday and I was sick all day and the night before but now I'm fine. I play soccer everyday here which is super nice. And when we do it is super fun, but I sweat so much more than normal because of the humidity. Soccer is way fun. Sometimes I go lift instead with all the kids who wrestled. Today I got 210 for 3 sets of 10. I was super pumped. If only it was kilos then I would be beasting it up.
We all get along here pretty well. My companion is super cool. We have a friend, Elder Bingham, who chills with us all the time. Today the little market came to the CCM and so I bought a Manchester jersey and a man bag! Woot! It's super sick! I do like it here except you are babysat constantly and it gets a little annoying. Teaching in Spanish can be difficult at times because sometimes words sound the same. Like pecado which is sin and pescado which is dead fish. During one of my first lessons in Provo I said that through Christ we can be forgiven of our pescados or dead fish. He looked at me like I was crazy. It was hilarious.
The Latinos are hilarious. I always chill with them at night and we just laugh and laugh because we can't understand each other. Holy cow people speak fast here! It's insane. Oh guess how cheap garments are here. 5.50 quetzales which is less than a dollar! So I might load up before I leave which I think would be a good plan!
Well its almost time for service. I love you all. I would write letters to everyone if I had stamps but alas I have no stamps yet. So Quincy I'll try to write you as soon as I can. Tell Ky good luck and I'm super proud of him for going, same with Kaden! Bye and love you all!!!!
Saturday, August 4, 2012
It's So Green
Dear Family,
Well, I'm now in the incredibly green and humid country of Guatemala. First this place is beautiful.It has rained everyday since I got here and will probably keep raining. This ciudad (city) is so modern and
busy! The CCM is on a main road and there are always cars and I swear there are no traffic rules. There are a few buildings across the street that I really want to go to. The one I want to go to the most has got
to be Taco freakin' Bell! Gosh dang it I want to go so bad and the president built it and has forbade us from going. Oh well I guess its for the best.
So like I said it is really humid here but the Guatemaltecos say that it is super dry here and said that Reu is super humid and super hot ahhhhhhh!!!! I'm gonna die! But no really this place is beautiful. The temple is so pretty. We got to walk around it yesterday and in 2 and a half weeks we get to go to the market! I'm so pumped for that! A market came in yesterday but my classroom has no windows so we missed it. Hopefully I can find some laundry soap somewhere. That made me mad. My new companion is so cool. We get along great. SO the food is the best here. I love platanos fritas which is fried bananas. It's the best breakfast ever. Everything is so good. We are supposed to eat everything because wasting food is a big no-no. One elder is super picky and hardly eats anything its really disrespectful and kinda sad. Hopefully the field will kick him into shape.
I will send pictures sometime when I can but unfortunately they took our cameras while we stay here. Pictures on computers are not allowed. We aren't even allowed on LDS.org. I don't understand it. The Latinos are so awesome, super nice and we are communicating more and more which is really nice but holy crap they speak fast!
It stunk leaving our new district. Two of the guys cried when I left. Oertel and Bonkemeyer are some really cool guys. Mom you should add Kyle Oertel and Dustin Bonkemeyer on Facebook for me. That would be
pretty cool. Well everyone I love you bye! Keep me informed on what's going on!
Love,
Collin
Well, I'm now in the incredibly green and humid country of Guatemala. First this place is beautiful.It has rained everyday since I got here and will probably keep raining. This ciudad (city) is so modern and
busy! The CCM is on a main road and there are always cars and I swear there are no traffic rules. There are a few buildings across the street that I really want to go to. The one I want to go to the most has got
to be Taco freakin' Bell! Gosh dang it I want to go so bad and the president built it and has forbade us from going. Oh well I guess its for the best.
So like I said it is really humid here but the Guatemaltecos say that it is super dry here and said that Reu is super humid and super hot ahhhhhhh!!!! I'm gonna die! But no really this place is beautiful. The temple is so pretty. We got to walk around it yesterday and in 2 and a half weeks we get to go to the market! I'm so pumped for that! A market came in yesterday but my classroom has no windows so we missed it. Hopefully I can find some laundry soap somewhere. That made me mad. My new companion is so cool. We get along great. SO the food is the best here. I love platanos fritas which is fried bananas. It's the best breakfast ever. Everything is so good. We are supposed to eat everything because wasting food is a big no-no. One elder is super picky and hardly eats anything its really disrespectful and kinda sad. Hopefully the field will kick him into shape.
I will send pictures sometime when I can but unfortunately they took our cameras while we stay here. Pictures on computers are not allowed. We aren't even allowed on LDS.org. I don't understand it. The Latinos are so awesome, super nice and we are communicating more and more which is really nice but holy crap they speak fast!
It stunk leaving our new district. Two of the guys cried when I left. Oertel and Bonkemeyer are some really cool guys. Mom you should add Kyle Oertel and Dustin Bonkemeyer on Facebook for me. That would be
pretty cool. Well everyone I love you bye! Keep me informed on what's going on!
Love,
Collin
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
I Made It!!!
We were all able to talk to Collin at the airport yesterday before he flew out. He sounded happy and excited. We figured that he didn't arrive in Guatemala on schedule when we didn't receive an email last night. So, we anxiously awaited an email today. I must have checked the computer 10 times. Then, finally:
Hey, I'm just going to email you two today. I only have ten minutes so share this with everyone please and sorry for my lack of apostrophes but I can't, for the life of me, figure out everything on this Spanish keyboard! Oh well. I got a new comp. He is pretty cool but before that I need to tell you my story of how I got here to the CCM. SO we were supposed to leave at 11:45 am on the 31st but our flight got delayed. It ended up that we were at the SLC airport until about 9:05 for our flight to LAX. Oh ya and did I mention we were there at 9 in the morning!! So I was in a stupid airport for 12 horas!!!!! It's all good. Then we got on a flight to Guatemala there that went from 12:00 til 5:30 in the morning when we landed! And now I'm in the full swing of things here with being awake more than 24 hours and I have had no sleep yet!!! I would have slept but the man sitting next to me had tons of questions about the church. I showed him the Book of Mormon and he seemed really interested. SO I showed him mormon.org so he can get a copy and other things and he really likes our church. He is amazed at missionary work.
Guatemala is beautiful!! The city has so much. Driving from the airport was an adventure. All over the city there are these super decked out school buses with lift kits and stuff. It is getting cooler and cooler here. It isn't too hot. In fact it's only about 72 degrees. I had breakfast this morning. It was a corn tortilla bread thing with lots of fruit and fried bananas!!! They are delicious. Actually they are plantains but they were amazing. Everything here is so green. We didn't know how green it was because it was dark when we flew in but it's a beautiful city that is covered in trees.
Well, I'm in good hands and I miss you. Love you. Time is out. Bye!!
Love,
Elder Grant
Hey, I'm just going to email you two today. I only have ten minutes so share this with everyone please and sorry for my lack of apostrophes but I can't, for the life of me, figure out everything on this Spanish keyboard! Oh well. I got a new comp. He is pretty cool but before that I need to tell you my story of how I got here to the CCM. SO we were supposed to leave at 11:45 am on the 31st but our flight got delayed. It ended up that we were at the SLC airport until about 9:05 for our flight to LAX. Oh ya and did I mention we were there at 9 in the morning!! So I was in a stupid airport for 12 horas!!!!! It's all good. Then we got on a flight to Guatemala there that went from 12:00 til 5:30 in the morning when we landed! And now I'm in the full swing of things here with being awake more than 24 hours and I have had no sleep yet!!! I would have slept but the man sitting next to me had tons of questions about the church. I showed him the Book of Mormon and he seemed really interested. SO I showed him mormon.org so he can get a copy and other things and he really likes our church. He is amazed at missionary work.
Guatemala is beautiful!! The city has so much. Driving from the airport was an adventure. All over the city there are these super decked out school buses with lift kits and stuff. It is getting cooler and cooler here. It isn't too hot. In fact it's only about 72 degrees. I had breakfast this morning. It was a corn tortilla bread thing with lots of fruit and fried bananas!!! They are delicious. Actually they are plantains but they were amazing. Everything here is so green. We didn't know how green it was because it was dark when we flew in but it's a beautiful city that is covered in trees.
Well, I'm in good hands and I miss you. Love you. Time is out. Bye!!
Love,
Elder Grant
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