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!
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