(from the Mom, I was able to chat with him over email a few times this morning and he very happy and adjusting well. He loves it!)
I learned three things about Guatemala really fast:
1. Do not be surprised if you see security guards with
AK-47`s in front of your local gas station, this is perfectly normal.
2. There has to be sauce...on every piece of food you eat.
3. If anyone points to your name tag and says "¿El
Propheta?" always answer with "¡Si! Es mi Abuelo!" and watch
their reaction. Usually the Hispanos go all wide-eyed and their mouths hit the
floor faster than you can tell them that you´re just kidding.
But if I`m perfectly honest with myself, this past week at
the CCM has been pretty fantastic. Abiet the longest week of my entire life to
date, but fantastic nonetheless. It all sort of started last Wednesday when I
arrived in the country with a half-completed immigration form in one hand (at
least, I think that´s what it was, I´m still not entirely sure) and the other
hand clenched onto the arm rest with white knuckles: the plane´s touchdown was
a little more violent than I was expecting. I hadn´t gotten any sleep on either
plane the night before, I was too busy telling my fellow passengers about my
religion!
So the ensuing Wednesday was....difficult for me, a
sleep-deprived missionary.
When we arrived at the CCM I met my companion Elder Long,
he´s from Tennessee and about an inch taller than I am, he was just made
district leader on Saturday! So that´s always fun.....
The CCM itself is actually pretty great, it´s very small and
there´s only about 150 missionaries here, 2/3rds of the Elders and Hermanas are
Hispanic or "Hispanos" and the rest of us are nortemericanos, or
"gringos." They encourage a lot of conversation between us, entirely
in español...so it´s a sink or swim, do or die kind of deal.
We do most of the talking over meals, and the food here is,
admittedly...meh.
For the most part, the stuff we eat is all the kind of stuff
we would eat out in the field, meaning there`s salsa and guacamole on pretty
much everything...needless to say, I have had to shake my "picky eater¨
mentality really fast...There´s a lot of beans and eggs...but the best thing in
the world is arroz con leche! It´s like cinnamon oatmeal but with rice!
It´s pretty much my calling in life to eat that stuff every
meal.
My Spanish skills are pretty terrible....and after a week
I´m still hearkening back to the stuff I learned while watching Dora the
Explorer when I was 6...which makes teaching discussions really hard.
Speaking of! My district is teaching a man named Jose, he
works here at the CCM but is an actual investigator (Take that missionaries in
the Provo MTC!)...at first I was skeptical too but it´s crazy how awesome
teaching him has been. We got him to church on Sunday and he´s reading the Book
of Mormon!
That´s about it for this week! Don´t worry about me down
here in the land of eternal springtime! There´s no allergies and the humidity
feels awesome!
...mostly
-Elder Monson
I asked him why no pictures and he said they take everyone's camera away until after the CCM, no idea why, so we will have to wait until we get to see him. I'll share a portion of our e-mail conversation because he makes me giggle so much. He has a fun sense of humor and I couldn't help be visualize him during these situations... enjoy!
I´m great! I love it here! And honestly, I thought I would
be missing home....and really, things are just great!
....although church in Spanish was hard....and they selected
missionaries at random to give talks....it was like Russian roulette but for Mormons.....
....I´ve gotta go! my hour for emailing is up, but I love
you guys a lot! don´t worry about me and all the weird food, I´ll survive...
(side note: when he was little we did just about everything to get him to eat so when he finally ate the "bean" we posted a sign saying "Tyler ate the bean" thus this next portion, so funny!)
And you can put up a big sign saying ¨TYLER ATE THE BEANS
AND THE PEPPERS AND THE TOMATOES AND THE FISH AND THE SALSA AND THE GUACAMOLE
AND THE SALAD AND THE....etc etc" I´ve really surprised myself with all
the suff I´ve eaten.
Also, please go through and proofread everything I write
before you post it to the blog! These Spanish computers just say I spelled
everything wrong
