Hobbitenango

¡Buenaaaas!

We are so busy here it´s actually amazing. We´ve been traveling a ton (always in the back of random trucks and stuff and almost falling out multiple times.) Saw a volcano erupting at night and shooting lava everywhere, and it was one of the coolest things I´ve ever seen. Rode in the back of a truck of mandarinas (literally exactly the same as clementine oranges, or cuties, except the peel is green. They´re suuuper good and actually grow here) and the driver gave us a ton of them. Happens with piñas all the time too, and it´s super great how nice the people are. 

This week for pday we visited Hobbitenango. And it´s not a coincidence that the word "Hobbit" is in there. This place is on top of a mountain, and it´s made to look almost exactly like the Shire from Lord of the Rings. It was soooo cool. Surrounded by mountains, volcanoes, green farmland, and little Hobbit houses. We also visited Antigua, which is basically tourist Guatemala. It´s really really cool. All the streets are cobbled. and there are ruins of old catholic cathedrals everywhere. But there are also tons of really fancy shops all over the place, so it was awesome. I didn´t buy anything because most of it is the same price as it would be in the states, so like twice as expensive. But it was super awesome.

An interesting difference between Guate and the US is the water. The water here is 100% not safe to drink. So instead you buy drinking water in the tienda (there are tons and tons of little shops that sell tons of really good snacks and also random other things you might need, and you can find these shops everywhere on every single street). But here, the word agua doesn´t really mean water. If you ask for agua, they´ll ask you what flavor, because it means "soda" or "juice" here. You really want "agua pura." And usually we buy water in little bags to drink. It´s like a sealed bag with a couple cups worth of water, and you bite off the corner and then drink the water. I actually really like them. 

So a weird thing about my companion is that he talks in his sleep. A LOT. He´s from Utah, but he always sleep talks in Spanish. He says really weird stuff, and sometimes he teaches entire lessons in a perfectly clear, loud voice...but he´s literally asleep and doesn´t remember any of it. One night he almost kissed me in his sleep, and woke up with his face literally inches from mine. Goodness gracious haha

We are teaching tons of people, and we had a ton of nonmembers come to church this week. We usually have like 30-50 people, but this time we had over 70, and there was hardly even space in the chapel. This week was the primary program, so all the kids sang songs and taught us about Jesus and how he loves them. It was really touching, and I liked it a lot. So we have this mini bus that we take to pick up a bunch of people and bring them to church. But this week the bus was SO full, my companion and I were hanging out the side the whole time. It was fun, but I hope we figure out a way to keep up with the growth in this area. I love it. 

The people here are preparing for Christmas with tons of fireworks and processionals and things. I hope you are all preparing for Christmas with your families and with Christ, because that´s really what Christmas is all about. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

We finally bought a mirror for the house. About time...

My comp is making the sign for "pisto" (money) because that´s what he does every time he sees my camera. He loves photography, and I feel like someday he may murder me and steal it. He´s super great though and I love him a lot. 

They calls me big mama

¡Hola amados!

This week was crazy. We traveled almost every single day of the week to go to some meeting, training, practice, or other. It was frustrating not being able to visit all of the members and investigators, but we learned a ton. I´m learning a ton about planning and organization, because we literally have the potential to forget to visit people who are hoping to be able to live with their families forever and ever, and that´s really scary for me. I´m doing all I can to help them and I love them a lot, so I´m glad to learn how to have time for all of them. 

Something interesting about Guate is the animals. The streets are filled with chuchos (dogs) and pollos (chickens). Almost everyone has at least one dog, and I´m not sure if they own the chickens or just let them walk in their yard. But I´ve seen chickens do some really funny things, especially when they´re mad. The dogs can be a little more dangerous, but if you put your Book of Mormon in between you and the dog, It never bites you or the book. I guess the words of God is powerful for animals as well as people. There´s this one house with a huge field of weeds and tooons of chuchos that just hide there and then run in and surround you when you´re in the middle. I´m not sure why this family has an army of chuchos that hate people, but that´s always fun to get out alive when we go to visit this family. Don´t worry, it´s all good. 

Every year on December 7th they have this tradition where they "Queman los diablos," or burn devils. They get these devil piñatas and just burn them in the streets. Some of them have explosives and fireworks attached, so they´re actually super loud and kinda dangerous. That evening was really funny, because we couldn´t really teach anyone when we were surrounded by smoke, fires, and crazy people. Felt like we were actually in the underworld or something. Interesting tradition there...

The word "calidad" literally means "quality." But the people here use it to mean "cool." And it´s actually hilarious how much they say it. It´s becoming a part of my vocabulary now. 

We haven´t been able to teach much this week because of all the traveling, but we had some great families come to church for the first time this Sunday. This Sunday was special because we had a testimony meeting, which means that for an hour, the members who want to get up and share what they believe and how their lives have been affected by the church. It was fantastic this Sunday. There were only around fifty people including kids, but so many people wanted to share their testimonies, and they honestly made me cry. These people are so humble, and understand so well how much God is loving and blessing their families. The meeting went for almost two hours just because there were so many people who wanted to share what they believe. I love these people.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Walkin´ through the streets of Cheecaigo

¡Hola amigos!

This week has been really exciting, but also kinda sad. My companion and I have been working really hard and meeting a lot of new people. But last night, we got the news that he has to leave. We had emergency transfers, which usually happens when one elder finishes his mission and has to go home, meaning that a bunch of the other companionships are changed up. So my companion is going to be the zone leader in a more cold, mountainous area of the mission, and I´m staying here with a new companion. His name is Elder Eborn and he´s really cool. He´s actually from Utah, so he speaks English. But he´s been out in the field for over 15 months, so he´s got solid Spanish also. It´s exciting to change, but it´s really sad to see my other comp go, because he was honestly one of the best missionaries I´ve ever met. I feel like there´s a lot that I learned from him, but also a lot that I didn´t have time to learn from him yet. But this is the mission, and I´m excited to have someone new. :)

The email title for last week was kinda joking, kinda serious. While this country is really beautiful and the people are great, the reality is that it´s a third world country, and a lot of the people really just want to make enough money that they can try to make it to the US. Including my teachers in the CCM. So Hermano Godinez, one of my teachers, would search for moments when someone accidentally bumped him, or called him a name, and he would say "Hey, that´s a hate crime! Gimme my visa!" It was really funny, but also kinda weird to think that a lot of the people here are actually like that. The people are fantastic though, and sooo willing to just stop and have a conversation. It´s super awesome.

Guatemalan Spanish is super cool. There are a ton of words that have unique meanings here. Chucho = dog. Pisto = money. Patojo = child. Ishkamik = dead. Saber (usually pronounced "saaaaber") means "I have no idea," which is funny because the word in regular Spanish means "to know." Also sometimes they start saying this one word that I don´t know, until I realize they´re trying to say my name...and they really, really can´t. It´s so funny. A bunch of them have started calling me "Clung" for some reason, and so that´s what I answer to a lot of the time. I´ve also heard them call me "Cloro," which means bleach. Also sometimes they just call me "Canche," which means "white guy." I get a lot of stares, interested looks, and sometimes worse, because some of these people literally haven´t ever seen a white person before. They all think my eyes are interesting too, and it´s kinda funny all the looks I get. Not to mention I´m taller than almost all of them, which still feels weird. If only I could fully speak their language. Working on that one.

This guy is so awesome. I´m gonna miss him a ton, but he´s gonna do great in his new area. This picture was taken outside of our house when we got haircuts.

We weren´t able to baptize Mirna and Lucero Ismatul on Sunday, because Mirna couldn´t get off of work. She works in a chocolate shop, so there´s a lot to do in this season. But it´s all good, and she hopes to be able to get off soon, because she really wants to be baptized. We are teaching a lot of other people too that are really excited to hear the message. It´s great to be able to tell them that I really know that this message is true, that God loves them a lot and wants them to be able to live with their families forever. These people are really changing their lives, and it´s so exciting to see how much happiness they´re finding from learning to come closer to Christ. I know that this is what God wants me to do, and I´m excited to continue the work.

Picture of my comp while we were riding in a jalón.

This is a pretty typical Guatemalan landscape. In the background theres a huge blue sky, clouds, a mountain, and a volcano. In the forefront on the left theres a piñale (pineapple field), and on the right there´s a field of milpa (corn plant)...and more pineapples. It´s great :)

Hey that´s a hate crime! Gimme my visa!

¡Hola todos!

A little less time today, and a lot more to say, so I´ll do my best.

My area in Jocotillo is all about two things: Milpa and Piña. Basically corn and pineapple plants that grow literally everywhere. And everyone basically works with either one or the other. The piña here is something else though. They call it pineapple in the US, but it´s really not. THIS stuff is pineapple. It´s really, really good, and I wish I could send some too all of you right now. They put it in juice, other food, or just eat it straight. It´s so incredibly rico. They all make corn tortillas, and this week I learned how. It´s actually really fun. Every day for lunch we go to the house of a member to eat lunch, and it´s some of the best food I´ve ever had. I honestly had no idea that the food was gonna be so good here. It´s incredible.

Culture interesting facts of the week: Here you don´t say "Hi" when you pass someone in the street. You say "audios," because you´re leaving. You can also say "va pue," which kinda means the same. Or you can say "buenas!," which basically means the same as "good day." The people are really nice and love to talk. The women like to carry baskets of corn or vegetables on their heads, and I have no idea how the can balance them so well. It´s honestly kinda incredible. 

We have a family committed to be baptized! The family Ismatul has been listening to our message, and accepting to be baptized this Sunday the second. Super exciting, and I am so happy that they´re willing to change their lives to make this step in the right direction. I can see the happiness in their eyes. The mom and her 8 yr old daughter will be baptized, and all the other children will come, but they´re too young. It´s so great though.

I honestly forgot that Thanksgiving existed, cause it doesn´t here. I hope you all had a great one though. I´m pretty sure it happened already.

Elder Culohworard

¡Hola todos!

I am finally in the field. And I´m not even just barely in the field. Life went from 30 to 200 in one day, and it was awesome. My area is called Jocotillo, and it´s in the east part of my mission, which is kind of southern central guatemala. Life here is inCREDIBLE. There are mountains on every horizon (some of them are volcanoes), and everything is surrounded by thick jungle. Some of the The people have all kinds of different houses. The people live really simply. Lots of tiny shops where you can buy all kinds of nice little things or foods. The houses vary a lot. Some people have cement walls and dirty tile floors, others have dirt floors, walls made out of lamina (sheet metal), and a cloth hanging to cover the doorway. There aren´t addresses or street names here, so the way to tell someone where you live is kinda like "on the street with the gas station and take a right down the first alley." And then you have to go and check all the houses and ask people to see which one it is. It´s kinda interesting, but it makes sense because there are very few actual streets, and lots of callejones, or little alleys. 

So there's a rule in almost every mission that says that missionaries aren´t allowed to hitchhike, because it´s dangerous and unnecessary. But we are the exception :). My mission has almost no buses, and lots of things are too far away from each other to walk. So we travel por jalón (hitchhiking), anytime we need to get somewhere a little further away. It´s soo fun, like we basically just find someone driving by who´s willing to stop and pick us up, and then we jump on the back of whatever truck it  is and hold on tight while they drive us the the mountains and the jungle. Today we had a district meeting, and we took two jalónes and a makeshift bus to get there. The ride was on the side of a mountain, and there was this insane view of the landscape with jungle, mountains, volcanoes, incredible clouds, and a rainbow overtop all of it. The whole thing with an incredibly fresh Guatemalan breeze through our hair. I told my comp that it was probably the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen in my life. I would´ve taken a picture, but I was kinda holding on for dear life on the back of a really broken down truck going actually kinda fast. Así es en Guate.

My companion is awesome. His name is Elder Rivera, and he´s from Guatemala kinda near Quetzaltenango. He´s pretty short,along with everyone else here, so I always feel like I have to stoop when I´m around him. He´s awesome though. The only English he speaks is a bunch of names for everyday objects that he learned from his previous companions pointing to random things on the street and saying "what´s that?" But he´s so great. He has a ton of faith, and he´s really good at talking to people. There´s a lot of slang that people use here that isn´t used anywhere else, an some of it isn´t even Spanish. Oh yeah also, nobody at alll can say my name here, and it´s hilarious. The best attempt I´ve heard came from this boy who´s probably 9 years old, and every time I see him he starts bragging to his family and my companion that he can say my name really well. Lol

Yesterday we were waiting for a jalón to take us to our house for the first time, and there was just nobody coming. We waited for about an hour, and had no luck. So Elder Rivera said "we´re going to say a prayer." So I said okay, and he began to pray. He told God that  we really needed to get to the house, because There wasn´t much time and we had a lot to do to get set up there. He asked God to please give us a ride before 3:15. I looked at my watch and it was literally 3:00. I couldn´t believe what he was asking for. I really was okay with waiting longer, because I couldn't see how that was gonna happen. I asked him how he could ask for a ride within the next 15 minutes if we hadn´t gotten one in an entire hour of waiting. He smiled and said "Elder, just wait and see." And not 15 minutes, but literally TWO minutes later, a truck came by and let us hop on. He then spent the ride, wind blowing through our hair, explaining how when our will is God´s will, he makes it work out. God can do anything, and if we´re doing His work, he will send a truck to carry us forward. I have a lot to learn, but this short Guatemalan boy has so much to teach me, and I´m really glad to be with someone who has so much faith, because that´s how I want to be. 

Thanks for still being alive, even though it doesn´t feel like the states exist anymore.

Así es en Guatemala. 

PS - From Isaac's dad - don't forget you can email Isaac directly at icloward@myldsmail.net.  He would love to hear from you!

When you offend the Latino, you offend him for good

Hola todos!

Life here has been great. It's going by a lot faster now, and I honestly can't wait to get out in the mission field. I've been at the CCM for the past five weeks or so (we all say it's been three years), and so we've been training and learning as much as we can about how to teach and how to speak Spanish. But now it's starting to feel like we've learned most of what we can here and we need to just get out there and start learning from experience. I just want to help the people in this country, and I have less than a week before I get to! Next Tuesday morning we're all going out into the field. I'm definitely not ready, but I'm super excited and I think that I'm as ready as I'll ever be from the CCM. 

So someone ran into our classroom one day and told us all that Stan Lee is dead, and then ran out...is this TRUE? We all got pretty shocked. We don't really hear stuff down here, but that sounded kinda legit. I didn't know that man really could die...shucks.

The quote from the description came from a really funny moment in class this week. Every day...like literally every single day, our evening teacher Hermano Godinez tries to scare the Hermanas, or the girl missionaries in our district. He has all these elaborate plans that usually involve turning off the lights and hiding. And he has this infinite motivation and belief that it's going to work every single time. And without fail, every single time it fails. Something goes wrong, and it just never works out. It's so funny how excited he gets though. So this one day, we decided to scare HIM. We had Elder Grover hide behind the curtains for the window, and when Godinez came in he started freaking out that Elder Grover was gone, especially since he hadn't noticed for about fifteen minutes, and you're never supposed to let your companion out of your sight and sound. So he went over to the window, and Elder Grover just burst out laughing. Hermano Godinez pretended to be extremely offended and mad, and told us all that Latinos never forgive you for playing jokes on them. But we were all just laughing the whole time. He's such a cool teacher.

Elder Kirkman made this huge ball out of literally just dozens of sheets of paper compacted really really tightly together. It's bigger than a softball, and honestly about as compact as one. He named it "Heftyboi," and we use it to play games to learn Spanish. We also made this little toy by putting a paper cup on top of a little orange from one of the trees outside. When you  push the cup, the orange rolls underneath and makes it look really weird, cause all you can see is the cup sliding across the entire room. I also bought a little Jacob's ladder at the market, and that's pretty fun to play with. Being in a place like this without so many things makes you really understand how humble the people are, being able to find joy in the most simple and mundane things. But by far, the most entertaining thing I have here is the scriptures. I'm almost done with the New Testament, and there's so much I've learned. The gospels are completely packed with the earthly ministry of Jesus, and it's really incredible to read about all of the things that Christ did when He was on the earth. He really was perfect, and there's so much that I can learn from Him. Definitely still working on that.

We are all working really hard here, and life is great.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

You're not going to H-E-double hackeystacks

Hola todos!

It's been a really short week, which is weird because I've done and learned a crazy amount of stuff that would make the old me wonder how I'm still alive after it all. God really helps his missionaries. 

I realized today that I never really explained the subject titles to my emails. Each week so far I've been naming my emails with really funny things that my Spanish maestros have said in English. They all understand and speak English okay, but most of them sound really funny when they do. They're hilarious when they make fun of the way Americans speak in English. Western accents, white girl impressions, etc. I love those guys. So the first one with the strawberry was when Hermano Micolax was describing girls, and it was so funny that we probably still quote it everyday. The next one was with Hermano Godinez the time he randomly went into the yard of our casa and dug a hole with a curtain rod. He then suck half of a bell pepper in the ground and poured a bunch of muddy water on it. We tried to tell him that that's not how it works, but he just said "this is Guatemala boys. Anything grows." So funny. He told us this story of a time he left an onion on the ground and when he came back a few days later there was an onion plant there. The more you know.

So this week we got to go street contacting for the first time. That was one of the best things we've done so far. Basically the idea is that you go into the street and just meet people and talk about God and the gospel. You'd think it would be hard to go out into a foreign country and talk to people in a foreign language about God, hoping they'll be interested in hearing your message, but it was actually really natural and fun. The people here are so incredibly nice and cool. They're all so humble, and I can actually understand most of them really well, which is exciting. Almost all of them believe that there's a God who loves them. And when we told them that they have the opportunity to live with their family forever, even after they die, their eyes would light up with excitement. I love sharing the happy message of the gospel, and hope I can learn all I can to be able to do it the way God wants me to.

I've been reading a lot here. We don't even have that much time, but I've already read multiple books, articles, and lessons. I finished the Book of Mormon over a week ago, about 20 days after I started. Now I'm pretty far in to the New Testament in the bible. That's not even impressive compared to some of the people here. Elder Hinckley, who was probably the craziest most goofy missionary I've ever met, ready the Book of Mormon in a week, and the entire Old Testament in three, just while being here. Crazy. It's not about reading fast as much as it's about learning as much as you possibly can, and I wish there was more time in the day to learn more stuff. It's so great. 

Last Sunday, Elder Soares came to visit us. Elder Soares is one of the 12 apostles in the world, which is a really big deal. Our church believes that Jesus still calls apostles and prophets, just like He did back when He was on the earth. Elder Soares spoke in Spanish, and it was one of the most incredibly spiritual experiences I've ever had. The things he said were so perfect for me, and it was really amazing to know that I've been called of God in the same way that he had, even though he's one of the twelve and I'm just a simple missionary. It's also really awesome to be able to understand the Spanish devotionals without translation now. They always give us headphones so we can listen to it in English, but most of the people in my district and I don't need them anymore. It's crazy how what once was literally gibberish is now almost perfectly clear and makes perfect sense. I still have trouble understanding anyone from Honduras and Bolivia, but Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador especially are really easy to understand now. Once again, God helps his missionaries. 

I love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

This is Guatemala, boys. Anything will grow.

Hola todos!

I don't have too much time to write today, because we've been doing a ton of really awesome things. We went to the temple this morning, which was great. After that we went to the Zoo and saw a ton of awesome animals and had a really awesome time. After the Zoo, we went to the market. Buying things in a place like this is very different from the US. At artisan shops, nothing has a set price. They'll give you one, but there really isn't one. So if you know that, you barter. If they say it's 100 qetz, you say 40. They say 80, you say 45. Eventually you have it for like 60 or 70% of the original price. I've learned a lot about bartering here. I got a really nice warm woven Gutaemalan jacket today for like a hundred qetz, which is like a bit over 10 US dollars. Good stuff. After that we went to Wendy's, which is a tradition here. We all got tons of stuff, cause it's honestly better here than it is in the US. Soda uses real cane sugar, and the food was higher quality. Pretty solid.

The reason we went and did so much today is because we're halfway done at the CCM. And that means that all the Latinos and older Elders left. It was pretty sad actually. I really made some great friends with the Latinos, and it was really sad to see these friends go. I got some emails and stuff, but even still...it's crazy how well you can get to know someone in three weeks, especially if they only speak Spanish. They're gonna do great though.

Anyway, I've got to go. I love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Como un estrawberry

Hola amigos!

It's been so great here. There's so much that happens everyday and all the time, it's hard to think about what to write about. Literally everything is different from life in the states, but it's super fun, I learn a ton, and my companion can predict the weather.

So one thing that isn't widely known about the CCM is the sports. Every day we get to play sports or do stuff in the gym, and it's soo fun. You can't truly understand life here if you've never seen missionary volleyball. It's literally the most energetic thing ever, and we play everyday. Lots of crazy spikes, blocks, and wondering why there are only two people in wheelchairs. But it's so fun. There's also basketball. But never, under ANY circumstances, are you allowed to kick the ball. It's actually this huge joke here now, like I guess there were too many injuries from soccer, so now you aren't allowed to kick the ball, and we always catch people doing it out of instinct and roast them for it. It's kind of like when a band kid sets his soda down, if anyone knows what I mean. But yeah, the sports are so great here. 

I've met so many awesome people here. There's a group of gringos that's been here for about four weeks already, and they're hilarious. There's this really funny tradition they have that they're trying to keep under the radar, so don't tell anyone. We get to eat cereal every morning, in addition to whatever awesome breakfast they're serving. And the milk comes in little juice box size carton thingies with straws stuck to the sides. But these guys don't use the straws. Instead, we all give them to this one guy named Elder Hinkley, and he adds them to this massive stash he has in his room. There are literally hundreds of straws, all rubber banded together in his room. He got the stash from someone before him, and when he leaves he'll give it to us. They're writing this history of the straws, and it's really funny. 

There's also this Elder who does all kinds of really interesting things. If you need something fixed or sown, he's your guy. If you need to get beat in basketball, he's your guy. If you need to steal someone's missionary name tag off of their shirt without them noticing, he's your guy. If you need an actual full chiropractic adjustment without any equipment, he's literally your guy. It's crazy. He's also really nice and good at teaching lessons. Elder Roskelly is something else...

I have a ton of Latino friends too now. Most of them don't speak English, but some of them know a little bit. I spend a lot of my evenings just talking to them, and I learn so many things. One of them used to be a boxer before the mission, and he's really short but super strong. Another tried to sneak into the US but got caught by border patrol. Another one says he worked in a funeral home preserving dead bodies, but I'm pretty sure he was just making stuff up. I think. They're all super nice and funny though, and a lot of them have some really amazing stories about how they were converted to the gospel. They have a lot of faith. 

Every Tuesday and Wednesday this couple comes and brings their little shop. It's really awesome, like they have tons of things that missionaries might need, and a lot of them are custom made in Guatemala. Today I bought a new scripture case for my Spanish scriptures that's made of really nice leather and has some really great pictures of my favorite scripture stories embedded into it. They have to make it custom for me, so it'll be done in a couple weeks. It was gonna cost just under 300 Quetzales, which evens out to 35 US dollars. But I kinda bartered with them and got it, plus a nice tie for just $30. Fun stuff.

Guatemala has Spanish, but there's a huge population of people here who speak one of 20 something ancient Mayan Languages. Here at the CCM they teach the most common one, called Qekchi. We share a little casa with the Qekchi elders, and sometimes we ask them to share scriptures or lessons in their language. It sounds soooo cool. Lots of tongue clicks and crazy weird noises. It's nothing like Spanish, but it's really awesome. 

This place is so spiritual. I have learned and grown so much here, and my Spanish is getting so much better. Despite all the jokes, it's really amazing how close you are to God when you spend time serving and doing His work. I really love it, and I still have so much to learn. The gospel is so real, and it's changing my life. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Month Three

Hola todos!

Hooooly cow. Life is incredible here. I don't even know where to start with this email, but I'll do my best to explain all the amazing things that are going on in the 20 minutes that I have.

The CCM is located in Guatemala City, probably southeast of the mission where I'll be serving once I finish training here in about a month. It's pretty darn small. Like there are probable only 200 or so missionaries here, maybe less. Most of them are Latino from places like Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, etc. Those guys are amazing. It's super fun to sit with them at meals and talk to them about all kinds of stuff. Almost none of them speak english, which makes it hilarious when they try. We give them all kinds of tongue twisters and see if they can say all these dumb english words that don't make any sense (My companion and I spent like 15 minutes trying to find the words to explain what a peck of pickled peppers is haha.). And they do the same to us, with all their tres tristes tigres and stuff, and I learn so much spanish talking to them when they literally don't understand English. 

There are probably like 20 gringos that came on my flight from LA (there were so many of us) and we are divided into two "districts." A district is a group of about 10 missionaries who do everything together. My district is amazing. There are six guys, or Elders, including me who are in my room, and we are super close already. They are some of the funniest people I have ever met, and I haven't laughed so hard so often in a really long time. We all have different and unique personalities, and we fit together so well. There are also three girls, or Hermanas, in our district. They are super funny and great also. 

So when I said last week that it was a long day...it was literally the longest day of my life. Without question and by far bar none nothing else even close. And so was the next day, and the next. Not because it's boring or sad, but because we do sooooo much everyday. In band we used to rehearse for like 9 hours a day with some free time here and there. This isn't like that. It's a different lifestyle. Every single hour of the day is planned with learning spanish, learning teaching, planning, teaching, eating, going to meetings, doing sports, and like everything ever. It's mind boggling how much stuff we get done everyday. Any free time I have, I spend it reading the Book of Mormon or sometimes talking with my district. It's life, and I love it a lot. So we always joke like "yeah it's crazy that we've been here for three months and haven't even left the CCM yet." It literally feels like time is warped here; we all swear we've been here six times as long as we have. It was pretty great trying to get our Guatemalan teacher to say the word "warped" by the way.

I've already learned soooo much more spanish. A lot of the day is spent with people who don't speak any english, and I'm getting a lot better at having conversations with them. Our teachers are pretty much all from Guatemala, and they have varying levels of English ability, ranging from pretty good to almost none. It's soooo funny when they do speak in English though. Like they'll be funny by inserting english words into their sentences, and it's like the funniest thing ever. They teach pretty much all in spanish, and I am learning an incredible amount. My district's classroom is in this little casa right next to the CCM, and we love it a lot.

This country is so cool. It rains pretty much every day after lunch, and the jungle is so green and beautiful. The air feels incredibly fresh, and it never gets about like 85 degrees. I love it. 

So I have some really great pictures, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to send them while I'm here. I'll see what I can do, but there probably won't be a way to send pictures until I'm out of the CCM in about a month. 

So I've got to go, but I'll say more next week. I'm loving life, learning a ton, and becoming much, much closer to God. I know that the church is true, and if you pray to ask God if he's real and loves you, I know that you will feel him there. 

I love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Ya no tengo pelo

Hi! 

There is like almost zero time to write this because we're doing a ton of stuff and it's really amazing. Guatemala is beauuuutiful. It's seriously one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. The jungle is so lush and green, and the houses fit perfectly into the landscape. I took some pictures but honestly I was too amazed to remember to pull out my camera with some of the things I saw. I really love this country already. I think it's Wednesday, but it feels like Tuesday still because my flight was at one in the morning and I've pretty much been awake since then. I met some really awesome people on the flight, some in English and some in Spanish. The food here is really really good. There are some super exotic fruits that I really like. Just ate what I thought was dinner, until I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 1 pm. Crazy...

Anyway, a lot has happened and hopefully I'll be able to say more some other time. Lotta really funny stories that I'll have to tell, like how las personas en el CCM cortaron toda el pelo de todos los elderes. Muy chistoso.  We kinda took over the plane here with like 20 elders and sisters on the one flight, and we were all friends. I didn't know the meaning of the word goofy until I met some of these people. They're some of the funniest people I've ever met. Anyway, talk to ya later!

-Elder Cloward

A Method to the Madness

Hi everyone! I am writing this about two hours before I leave for the airport, so I don't have too much time before I have to finish last minute packing and stuff. I will write emails every week, but it's easier for me to have this blog that the emails are uploaded to so that I can just send them to some family members and have them upload what I write so that everyone can see. Hopefully my dad can update it consistently, but know that I'm still alive if the blog isn't edited perfectly weekly.

I decided to name the blog "Make Their Eyes Shine," after a quote I heard in high school. This simple phrase means the world to me. I really believe that the eyes are the window to the soul, and you can see true happiness in the countenances of others. Making people light up with joy and excitement is more important to me than almost anything else in life. The idea that I can go to another country and work my hardest to bring happiness to the people there is so exciting to me, and I want to always remember that this is what it's about; bringing eternal happiness to as many people and families as I can.

Over the course of my mission I'll send pictures, stories, and updates about the things I'm doing. I'm not sure how much time I'll get to write every week, but I'll definitely have enough time to say some interesting things about the people I'm teaching, or how I'm failing at Spanish, or maybe how I get mugged by criminals. Whatever the case, I hope you enjoy keeping up with the things that are going on in the next two years of my life. Feel free to email me if there are things you're wondering about with the church or my mission, and I'll do the best that I can to get back to you. You can reach me at icloward@myldsmail.net. Thank you!

-Isaac