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