Week #9: Murphy's Law, S'mores and Philippians 4:13

Let me start off by answering your questions:
1. How do you wash your clothes?
Answer: We pay a sister in the ward to do our laundry, if we need something done quick, we use the sink/bathtub/bucket combo that I sent you a picture of to do it.
2. What kind of animals do you see in your daily adventures? Dad wants to know specifically if you have seen any monkeys but he always asks everyone that.  
Answer: No no monkeys, there are an abundance of stray dogs, and chicken/turkey/roosters everywhere.  I will include a picture of some peculiar birds I see up a tree near our house.
3. What about creepy, crawly insect life? 
Answer: More to mention here, maybe I will dedicate a week to just insect tales and pictures.
4. Where is your companion from?
Answer: Junction City, Oregon

This week has been a jam packed week in the service our the lord in Retalhuleu. I honestly don't even know where to begin. There is so much that goes on here and my head is spinning trying to keep up with it all.  I feel so much love for the people of Guatemala and am so happy to be here serving them.

As of this week I can finally talk, and I think most people understand, at least the expression on their face looks a little less confused and just in time as I was asked to give a talk this last sunday. I dont know if anyone understood me but I gave them my best shot at a talk in spanish.

There have been a lot of ups and downs this week.  We were doing baptismal interviews for the majority of the week. My companion, Elder Goodman, as district leader, is in charge of doing the interviews for the Hermanas in our district as well as for the zone leaders. These interviews took up a large portion of the week and more often than not when we crossed the city to an appointment that we did have schedule it had fallen through. Kinda funny just how often this happened and we simply learned to laugh it all off.

The electricity been off in our area for a large portion of the week (hence the request for more solar lights) making things interesting.   Some days when we hit a rough spot, we make s'mores using candles.  Nothing lifts one spirits better than a prayer seeking strength (Alma 37:36-37), and breaking out the s'mores in the middle of Guatemala.

There was a lot to bring us down this week.  Friday morning the son of hermano Hugo passed away.  He was only 4 months old.  It was hard waking up friday morning and my comp telling me that he had passed. We had a meeting that morning in the Concepcion area - after we went back home, and as we got ready to leave to go and tell the ward about the funeral service,  a storm started and it was the worst storm I have seen yet.  We needed to tell the members so we grabbed our rain gear and boots and headed out.  We told all those in the general area and then started to head up the road to the other members. After about the first kilometer the downpour of rain had soaked my pants and through my pants it soaked into my boots. I started to squish all the way down the road.  Eventually we were able to hitch a ride up to the next city. After we had told everyone we went to the service it was sad to see all of these people crying. Death is kinda  weird thing to experience as a member of the church, and with the faith and knowledge that we have. Through the gospel we know that we will be able to see and live with our families again and it gives us the comfort we need to push on in moments like those.

At the end of the night Hugo asked my companion if he would dedicate the grave the following morning and so we did. There is a tradition here in Guatemala that when someone dies, the family and friends of the person all walk with the casket through the city to the cemetery. I can only imagine how it looked to see Elder Goodman and I, a couple of fairly tall white guys walking with a group of Guatemalans through the streets.  When we got to the cemetery Elder Goodman and I carried the casket to the grave and after all of the prayers were said we put him into the ground.  It was a sad day to witness and I hope that I won't have anymore of these on the mission.

Later this same day we had three baptisms; Jeremy, Hilder and Cynthia.  This is when Murphy's Law or the power of the adversary took effect, in making things much more difficult than they should have been. We had had a full schedule all week long and didn't have time to give the members too big of a notice about the baptism.  As we ran around to let the members of the ward know (sure is a lot easier when you can call, text and put a notice on the ward facebook page - which of course we can't, we use our feet and our mouths), we were chastised by some for the short notice. When it came time to load up the pickup truck, the member who normally does it was out working. We scrambled to find another person for transport, and ended up turning to one of our investigators who thankfully could do it.  Once he was ready we made our rounds picking up everyone and started to head over to the Las Palmas building for the baptism. Eli was running out of gas so we had to go and fill up.  We were waiting at the gas station behind a truck who had brought multiple 55 gallon barrels to fill up and we had to wait quite a while for him to finish.   As we got to the building to set everything up, we come to find that the font doors were locked and no one had the keys. At this point we loaded everyone up again and headed over to the Concepcion building, where the  zone leaders were doing a baptism - so everything was open and they had the baptismal clothes that we needed. But wait there is still more.  We start the program and when it comes time to go down into the font for the baptisms, the door somehow got locked.  Nobody had the keys here either so Elder Goodman ends up jumping over the glass into the font from the front side in front of members investigators and the President of the Branch, slicing his toe open in the process.  (He is not hurt bad, just a sliced toe in case any of those missionary mom's are reading this, we don't tell you the real scary things...).

Jeremy's baptism with me went fine. I headed out and got changed. When I came back out there was chaos as apparently Cynthia was scared of the water and started crying.   After using Hilder as an example we finally got her to calm down and she was baptized.

I guess there are many things to be learned from this week... anything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong, isn't that Murphy's Law?  Maybe it was a lesson about "not to sweat the small stuff" or maybe it is that old Indian saying, "Everything will be all right in the end...if it's not all right then it's not the end!"   In the end the baptisms were completed and all was well.  But I believe, or better said, I know that it is really that "with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26) and "I [we] can do all things in Christ which strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

Peculiar avian wildlife that inhabits near-by trees.

If only California had some of this thing which we call rain...this is a daily occurrence.

Week #8 Sardines, Bucket Showers and Blessings

Let me start off by getting some of your questions out of the way. [Editor's Note: In our letters we include a numbered list of questions we would like him to answer. This week we included 6 questions, we got answers to two: Letters and Living Space]

Yes, I have received a few letters (family, Grandma, Lovells) and I did receive the package. It looks like it is taking 3-4 weeks for letters to arrive, and the package actually took just over 2 weeks. It probably helps being so close to the mission home. Remember anything that was sent to the MTC that I didn't get before I left, probably won't be forwarded on. I have sent out some letters in return through the post office so if my calculations are correct from the time you send me a letter to the time one gets returned you are looking at 6-8 weeks. I guess that means you should send me my birthday present now!

Buenos dias tardes y o noches personas quien leyendo me Cartas. The area in which I currently serve is called La Verde and I am in the District of Las Palmas. Elder Goodman and I are the only elders in my district. A fact that you might find interesting is that districts with only one companionship of elders are referred to as SoSo districts. Soso is a short way of saying relief society.

This area, I am told, is fairly large compared to other areas. I don't have anything to compare it to since it is my first. It covers everything from the Trinidad (where I am currently am writing from a netcafe and have just eaten at McDonalds) almost to the ocean. The Trinidad is the more modern part of Retalhuleu. Its were the bank grocery store and other amenities are located.

Transportation is a little different here then in the States. Everytime we travel we play a little game called sardines. We enter into a normal car and/or pickup and see just how many people can fit in before the door won't close. All 6' 4" of me isnt really good at this game. If my knees weren't going to be calised from praying - they will be from digging into seats, people and everything else that simply wasn't made for the tall person that I am. Pickups here are modified with handrails and guardrails so that people don't fall out - then people are stuffed in the bed and they pack-in what and who they can. Every Sunday one of the Hermanos in the ward goes around and picks up as many members as he can in his truck and drops them off at church. There are usually around 50 or 60 members in attendance each Sunday and about 40 or so of them are picked up by that pickup. Now that is service and getting to know and love your neighbor at one time!

Church services are pretty normal as compared to church back in Socal and The 'Fee. It is amazing just how uniform the church is in all parts of the world.

You were asking more about where we live. We live in a cinderblock house that "usually" has running water and "usually" has electricity. Sometimes the power does go out and sometimes the water doesn't work, sometimes it's both and sometimes it's for a few days. Like right now, we haven't had running water for the past couple days. I believe I have mastered the art of the bucket shower. I only have to use one bucket full.

We sadly do not have a "Mamita" at least not in the way dad describes it when he was in Chile. Hermana Alejandra is our landlady however, and she is one of the sweetest ladies ever and cooks for us all of the time, which is kinda cool. We do go over to the members houses for lunches.

My Spanish is coming along, I am at the point of when someone speaks I can understand most, if not all of it, which is nice. However the speaking part is much harder. It is interesting how I have come to recognize the Spirits hand in my understanding. We do a lot of "contacting" here and when we contact we usually end up teaching someone a lesson. I have noticed that when the spirit is present and things are going good I can understand everything that is said. But when and if the lesson or the conversations starts to head south my understanding flies out of the whole in the wall (I would say window but there aren't any). Once we hit that point I tap my comp and we know its time to end and leave.

This week we have 3 baptisms lined up and I have truly come to love each and everyone of these people. I am sure I have said before it is amazing to see the way the gospel changes the lives of these people. It is amazing to see the way they smile, when we come by and when they feel the Spirit.

Right now it is the rainy season in Guate and with that comes alot of temperature changes causing a lot of sickness to be going around. Since I have entered the mission field I have given or been apart of 15 blessings and every time I can see the effect of it on these people. I know I cant speak well and my companion, though very supportive, knows that I am the master of broken gringo spanish, but I still have the opportunity and when I give a blessing the words flow from my mouth straight from my heart. In those moments I am lucky to know even a fraction of the words that are coming from my mouth. I do know that when we open our mouths the lord will fill us with the words that will touch their hearts and give them the strength they need.

Yesterday we were going around picking up the people for stake conference - we headed down the road to pick up a sweet sweet little elderly sister. We were headed up the road back to the truck when we heard a *smack* we look back and see her lying there on the ground. She was doing all she could to keep breathing but was totally unresponsive as we tried to get her attention. At that moment, in the middle of a dirt road we gave her blessing - immediately after the blessing she regained herself slightly, then more and more within every moment. She was finally able to sit up and then when someone had suggested that she had better return home and rest. But she said, "No I'm going to church."

Every moment we are here we have the opportunity to teach, to testify, to heal the sick, to serve the children of our Heavenly Father and to change lives. There is no Place on earth I would rather be then in the service of my Lord.

Week #7 Las Palmas - Las Verdes Area

So im going to start off by saying that I am sorry for not writing last week but there was no way that I could so I will do my best to go over what has happened in the last 2 weeks.

The last day in the CCM for all intents and purposes is an all encompassing review day. Throughout the day we had a series of workshops going over and showing ways in which we can apply the fundamentals that we had been going over for the last six weeks in the CCM. I won't go into to much detail concerning these however at some point in that day we were told that we would be leaving for our missions at 7am in the morning however we would need to have our bags down in the bus by 5:45.  These workshops were relatively "tedious" as most review sessions tend to be, but they had their golden moments of spiritual insight like all things in the Church tend to have, when one is where they should be doing what they should be doing.

It all just kinda set in, this was our last moments with our new family, in a few short moments we would be leaving the CCM and each other and moving into a whole new world one that is vastly different then the one we were raised in or even the sheltered world  of the CCM.  As this day came to a close we had our final district meeting, a district meeting that will never be forgotten as each of us in district mateo shared parts of the deepest foundations of our testimonies, specs of our true love for this gospel. The testimonies shared here kept tears running throughout the hour and a half meeting and even sometime after.

Saying goodbye to each other and other people in the CCM seemed to be harder than saying goodbye to our families at home. I know this sounds a little bad, because I do love all my family and friends back home, but there is some logic behind this. We know for sure that we will see our families and friends again, we will see them when we come back home and they will all be waiting for us.  But our CCM family, this just simply is not the same. We are spread out, some of us in different countries and we don't know for sure if we will ever be able to see each other again. It's a hard thing to think about losing someone that you have become
so close to.

We ended that final district meeting and left to fulfill a CCM tradition of all departing missionaries. The biggest and most infamous of such goes as follows. We gather as many elders as we can into the room with the best view of the temple (we fit around 100 missionaries into that room that day), we then in spanish, sing 3 hymns; hymnos #161 Somos hoy llamados, #88 Placentero nos es trabajar y #89 Para siempre Dios este con vos.  ( I dont know if I can will all honesty call what we do there singing. in reality it is a bunch of Elders and Hermanas screaming as loud as they can these 3 hymns. I myself lost my voice after) this is followed by a closing prayer then we leave and head off to bed for our last night in the CCM.

We left the CCM this morning but of course not without our final goodbyes and our long desired cameras. The bus ride to Reu is around 4 hours and as we began our journey we were all filled with joy to finally be leaving the spiritual prison that is the CCM. It was a weird experience to leave. The sun seemed brighter the world seemed different.   As we drove through the city and into the country of Guatemala we watched as the buildings slowing turned to trees and the people into animals. It is humbling to see the the way people (and now I) live here.  The small little cinder block or scrapmetal houses, the dirt floors, the animals everywhere and stray dogs galore. Most of these houses barely have running water or electricity. The further we moved
from the city the more rural the world seemed to become.  We when reached the mission office,  President Ruiz was there along with all of the APs and other office working missionaries.  We scrambled to look presentable before getting out of the van. after unloading the shuttle bus we had a series of presentations about the mission. They fed us lunch and then sent us to work.  We were paired off with missionaries serving in the area and began working.

I was paired with Elder Goodman he is a 5'7" blonde haired fella who was a wrestler and has been in the area, Las Palmas - La Verde in Retalhuleu about 10 min from the Mission office, for 10 months. We tried our luck at contacting and found around 5 people one of them being an older gentleman who we talked with. He was very hesitate about anything that we taught him.  After the lesson Elder goodman told me that this area is something we call an area of faith, where people who don't know about the church aren't really to willing to listen.   After the lesson with the old man we headed back to the Mission office and over to Presidents Ruiz's home to have dinner then we went to a hotel for the night.

The next morning is change day. There is a lot of stuff that happens there, but I'll save that for another day for now I will only announce that I will be serving in the Las Palmas Zone in the area of La Verde. I will be Serving and being trained under Elder Goodman!  It seems to be a recurring theme on my mission to be serving with the people I have some kind of pre-existing connection with (remember Elder Virgin and I had gotten together on the flight down to Guatemala before being assigned as companions).

Elder Goodman and I have been getting along great!  He is patient with my spanish and has been taking me around and introducing me to all of the members as well as the investigators throughout this week. After seeing him teach my respect for him has grown.  He is very good at what he does and for a gringo his spanish is amazing and when he is next to me he looks like a native as he speaks. I don't know maybe thats good though because they get the baby (nursery) or primary form of the lessons through me and then they get the better and more clarified version through my companion. Whatever we are doing through seems to be working pretty well. We had a baptism on Saturday and I was the one to do the ordinance.  I don't think there is anything better then being able to do this kind of work or even to do these kind of things they joy you feel when you see them come out of the waters of baptism is amazing and I want to be able to feel their joy on many more occasions as I go throughout my mission.  At this moment it looks as though we will we have another 4 baptisms lined up this month. The joy in these peoples faces is amazing when we teach we can literally see the spirit come upon them and change their whole demeanor. I dont know if I will ever want to go home. I can't even understand half of what these people are saying most of the time but I know that this will come in time. After this week I figure I can pick up on around 40% of what they are saying if not more.

Well its pretty much time to go and I love all of you and hope that you will keep the people of La Verde in your prayers.

Elder Goodman and I trying to prove that you can have your cake and eat it too!

Deluxe Accommodations: Large garden view bay windows

Deluxe Accomodations: Notice the walk in extra large shower, and the triple sink/bathtub.

Week 6: Therefore, o ye that embark in the service of God...

Editor's Note:  There was no letter or email from Elder Wilcox this week.  We expected this as he was supposed to leave the MTC early Tuesday morning to go to the mission home in Retalhuleu, where on Tuesday/Wednesday he would receive some training, orientation, interview with the Mission President and be assigned his new area and companion. 

We know that Elder Wilcox is jumping for joy to get to work...

and he is somewhere in this vicinity...

Guatemala Retalhuleu Mission Boundaries in blue

Anxiously awaiting to hear from him next week.

Week 5: Making a Break for It!

It's the final week in the CCM and things are going great.  I am not sure when or if I will be able to email next week with leaving the CCM and all.  Know that all is well, and will email/write when I can.  I got a couple letters from DearElder this week, I appreciate that.  Make sure you are sending things to the Mission Home now.  I'll share a few experiences that come to mind from this past week.

It was Wednesday morning and the CCM was in harmony until the "Gringos attacked" (for all of you who don't know that was an  Avatar the Last Airbender reference).   They arrived right before breakfast and our district was as excited as little kidos at Christmas time.  When they arrive in their buses with their luggage blocking all view of them we all couldn't help but be a little excited about the possibility of some new Pday volleyball competition.  When they stepped out of the bus they all had that sweet little flabbergasted deer in the head lights kind of look that made us all wonder if we looked the same way when we arrived here five week ago.

This new batch of missionaries brought with them new room mates for Elder Virgin and I.  We are in a room with 2 trios one norte trio (Elders Ward, Winward and Ramos) and another latino trio (Elders Avlais, Cayax and Schoepfeld).  They are all pretty cool guys are excited to serve and have a whole new set of stories to hear before we leave the CCM next week.  We will break them in quick and with care.

There have been a few interesting things that have happened this week. One time this week I woke up like normal and started getting ready for the day.   Elder Virgin woke up a few minutes latter and handed me my flashlight.  We were both a little confused as to how he could have possibly have gotten his hands on my flashlight through the night. You see we sleep in bunk beds and I'm on the bottom and he is on the top.  My flashlight is always on the ground in between the wall and the bunk bed.  The only possible way he could have gotten his hands on my flashlight would be to ninja crawl over me and grab it while we were sleeping....we the missionaries of room 204 are slightly worried about the possible sleep walking ninja in the room!

Later this same day the districts;  Mateo, Lucas and Job were outside playing volleyball.  I hit a hard serve  to Elder Whitehead and the ball flew out of his arms - a good 30 feet over the fence.  President Cox (the CCM Mission President) was in the area, saw what happened and told me to go jump over the fence and just go grab the ball. I guess a lot of the others in the area didn't see President Cox tell me this and so when I started to climb the fence and jump over Elder Call and a few others started to yell, "He's making a break for it!!" in excitement as they thought I was breaking out of the CCM.   I ended up just grabbing the ball and throwing it over but the scene reminded me of one of the parts in the move Matilda when they all cheer as Ms Trunchbul leaves the school. I hopped on back over and we start playing again...but the fun didnt stop there.  We started to play some more and right as Hermana Beatty hit the ball, a cannon fire went off. Everyone immediately hit the ground...but I wanted to know what was going on, and since I had just had some fence climbing experience,  I ran over to the fence and started to climb. When I was above the fence I looked over yonder and saw the Catholic Monastery across the street doing some kind of celebration.   Right as I looked over another cannon fire went off along with a load of firecrackers...scared the bagpipers out of me so I jumped back down. We went on playing, but the random cannon fire added a little twist to the game.

The next morning I woke up pretty early in the morning and was freaked out a little.   As I awoke I looked up and saw my room back home,  the way to the door was the only thing visible and everything else was pitch dark,  so I guess that my brain filled in the rest with what I was most familiar from my memory.  It was a creepy experience and left me just a tad homesick.    As I sat there thinking about it and trying to figure out what had happened someone in the room was snoring the exact same way Chase used to, and he kept me up just like Chase used to.   Normally, I would have to say that I don't really feel to homesick. There are small little burst like this were I am reminded of home but the only other time I really feel homesick is when I we go to the temple on Pdays like today.  Every time I go I remember my first time and all of the things and people that were in my life, or the things going on in my life at that time.  It's sad but it is kinda therapeutic in a way.   Elder Hala gave a lesson on Alma 5 one of the days this week and he talked about a scene from Saving Private Ryan where is says something like,  "what is left for me at home? Dead brothers and a mother with a Broken Heart" he gave this quote and then talked about how he isn't really that homesick because there is no other place he would rather be then here and he knows that when he gets back his family will be there for him. I thought about this a little bit and realized I was kinda in the same boat as him. I don't really feel homesick or really miss all of these people who are back at home and are waiting with love for me to return. Then I thought about my new family here. The teachers we have had, the people in my district, President Cox and  Sister Cox and all the others that have come and gone here. They are my family, but there is no guarantee that I will see any of my Mateo brothers after this last week in the CCM. We have grown closer then any other district in the CCM and we truly are brothers.

I'm running out of time but I'll share one more experience from this week. We were in district meeting on Sunday and Elders Bastian and Call and Elders Owen and Whitehead taught lessons to us in Spanish.  There was a lady in the class who normally wasn't there.   At the end of the class she bore her testimony on the effects of what we broken Spanish speaking little gringos can do.  She was converted nearly 20 years ago by two elders from the U.S who had the hardest time speaking Spanish but that didn't matter.   When they spoke and tried with all of their ability to share the gospel with their hearts,  she could feel their spirit, she could feel the things that they said would change her life and would bring her happiness.   For me it was a major testament of what we can do here. Until next week if that (maybe later as I will be headed to la Mision Retalhuleu)...Elder Wilcox

Week #4: Missionitis and fireworks

Mission #Selfie with Elder Photobombers

Things at the CCM [Editor's Note: CCM is MTC in Spanish it stands for Centro de Capacitacion Misional] are really starting to change.  There are points now where I can hear the Latinos talking in Spanish and understand them perfectly (so long as they are talking about the Gospel alone because that is about all that I understand).

A few days ago one of the elders in our district (Elder Keck) had a birthday and so we as a district decided to make MTC History and throw the first ever (at least in the last 4 weeks) MTC Birthday party.  We went back down to the cemaco and bought just about everything that we could find and afford for the birthday party.  All and all it was a pretty good little get together of a few of the districts complete with party hats and Pringles.

Every 2 weeks the flow of the MTC seems to change.  It has its own little high school effect. For the first 2 weeks we get here we are kinda like freshman or sophomores, but then when the next 2 weeks come around we have moved up a grade level and become the juniors of the MTC everyone thinks we have all of the answers and we never give them a chance to think otherwise.  Now we have all been here for 4 weeks and have moved on to the beautiful life of a senior and I think the "missionitis" here might be worse than the senioritis of high school.  At this point we are all dying to leave the CCM. We all know that we are woefully inadequate for the field but it feels as though we are at a plateau here - like we need to move onto real Spanish instead of only the gospel Spanish that we have only partially mastered.

I'm pretty excited to hear about Carsten's mission call - I might just have to leave a hidden care package here at the CCM for him to find throughout the course of his stay here.

One of the most ironic things here at the CCM right next door,  is a pretty big night club and they have parties every Friday and Saturday night.  Last Saturday everyone was fast asleep when we were awakened to the sounds of explosions and saw bright flashes of light coming from outside our windows.  Everyone in the CCM ran to their windows in shock, which in retrospect might not have been the best idea, trying to find the cause of the noise.   A few seconds passed and there was nothing, we were all breathing heavy thinking that it had been some kinda explosion or drive-by but then as we were about to jump back into bed it happens again and to our total enjoyment we had the pleasure of seeing a full on Guatemala firework show some 300 feet from the window.  We weren't sure if this was a delayed 4th of July celebration or helping to celebrate Elder Keck's birthday, but it was great!

Here are some answers to your email questions:

What does your daily schedule consist of?

We get up at 6:30am get ready shower etc then go into personal study then language study.  After that we have breakfast and come back to do more language study.  Next is grammar then teach an investigator, more language grammar, comp study with lunch mixed in.  After lunch it is more grammar another investigator and then dinner finished off with more language study, planning for next day and learning lessons through PMG.

What are the meals like?

Meals right now are actually mostly american food with little bits of Guatemala favorites in the mix - many of the new nortes that arrived 2 weeks ago were feeling homesick and wouldn't eat any of the native food so they switched it to mostly american...

Quite a few people mentioned this week that they noticed from your district picture that there are no hermanas in your district?

In my district there are no hermanas there were about 20 or so in the MTC last week but they have all left now and it is only the two hermanas that came with us and the two that came with the last group of nortes. There are supposed to be around 56 new nortes coming in tomorrow and there are only supposed to be 3 new Heremanas in that group. There are also 40 more Latinos that will be coming as well - its getting kinda packed here

Do you need anything?

How about a hammock and some extension cords...don't ask, I am working on a project.  Also photos in the mail, I would specifically like one of all of the youth and youth leaders and bishop.

Anyways things here are great, apart from the "missinitis" and the total itch everyone has to leave the CCM and go into the field. I love you all and miss you much  - I haven't received a letter yet but that is probably because of the Guatemalian mail service. [Editor's note: Earliest letters were sent on July 6th through Dearelder.org pouch mail, and on July 7th through regular USPS, give's one the idea of time frame]

Over and out Elder Wilcox.

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Editor's Note and update 07/23/2014: Technology and social media media is wonderful as we received these additional pictures this morning from an unexpected source...I imagine a conversation something like 'hey let me take your pictures, and give me your parents email and I will send it to them I am sure they would love to see you'.

A couple pictures taken outside the Guatemala Temple

Week #3: Field Trip

My CCM companion - Elder Virgin and I.

The weeks and the days are starting to go by faster here and it seems as though no matter what we do, learn or experience it pushes time to the limit, making it go faster and faster each day.  There is no chance for idle-hands and we are excited for all that we are learning about the language, the culture, the people, The Gospel and most importantly about ourselves.

Last week on Pday we took a field trip to the oldest district in Guatemala City.  As we were on the way there we all noticed a lot about the way the world is here. Things are so radically different, than what most of us are used to both in culture and environment, in what we see, smell and hear.  I guess this is what traveller's call "culture shock" when experiencing new places and new things.  While I don't feel the "shock" part, it does make me think and ponder at the many differences in the world.  For example at one point we were stopped at a light and we looked out the window and saw an old lady popping a squat on the sidewalk and doing her business (not sure if there is a better literary term to explain this).  Moments later the "police" walked by her and they did nothing about the scene.  As we all looked around the city people began to let their amazement show through. Everyone began to realize just how great they have it back in the states. We would look at the walls all over the city and there weren't many without some sort of tag or vandalism on them. We would look at these apartments and see bars over every door and ever window and we saw the fear these people had as we looked into their eyes. It was a very humbling experience for us all and for those in my district we thought as to what our areas in the mission field has in store for us if this is one of the nicer areas in Guatemala.  Not that we are worried, we know that we are doing The Lord's work, and feel safe, and in time we will be more accustomed to the surroundings, but right then and right there being this one of the first experiences to see the city - it was a very interesting experience.

When we finally arrived in zona 1 we looked in awe at the historic architecture of the old buildings that surrounded us. We were all a little taken aback at the beauty.  After a few moments of stumbling over the buildings we went under the streets into the market area. The first section was like a giant farmers market complete with slabs of meat and fish hanging from hooks and all other sorts of fruits and nuts galore. As we went deeper into the market we found the parts that we were all anxious to see and when we came upon it our eyes grew frenzied at the amazing colors and variety of things that were in each of the small little shops. At first we all had to just looked around at all of the beauty that surrounded us, soaked it in for a time before the "work" began. I learned that day that I can haggle like there is no tomorrow. I brought the prices of jerseys down from 145 quetz to 80 in the matter of seconds. It got to the point that when those around me wanted to buy something they would have me do all of the haggling for them.  Pretty awesome experience if I say so myself and I ended up going home with a couple shirts, ties, a hacky sacks, and a couple of other sweet little nick nacks, all for a very conservative amount of quetz.

After we left the market, though we were all reluctant to do so, we went over to the Guatemalan Relief Map. It was kinda like a giant sandbox with mountains and rivers... a little 4 year olds dream.   We were told that the map was made in 1909 after 16 years of careful surveillance of the land. It is said to be 99% accurate which is pretty cool for that day and time, though I think that if they had just gone the extra mile they could have gotten to 100% accuracy.  But hey some people just love to take shortcuts. (I hope the sarcasm carried though in that).

Relief Map of  Guatemala

After the trip we headed back to the CCM for a volleyball tournament. It didn't turn out to be much of a tournament.  District Mateo (our district) ended up crushing all of the other districts.  The nearest competitor being the all-star team of the other districts combined. They managed to score 7 points in a game to 15. It was all very fun and it didn't really become too competitive.

District Mateo - Guatemala CCM

There is a lot that goes on through the days here.   Everyday we learn something and most of the time we learn something we thought that we already knew. When I get back the world will simply not be the same.

I will finish off for the week with a little funny for Chase.  Although little brother you are older and taller, I still think of you as a deacon, so here is some deacon humor.  Yesterday we were all in one of the CRE rooms here having a district meeting and as I have mentioned before we have a lot of beans and other forms of musical fruit making us all pretty musical after meals. We had been in this room for a while and had been playing the toons of the magical frijoles for quite some time when all of a sudden 2 of the hermanas walk into the room and asked if they can practice a musical number for us. We said yes of course and then one of the sisters made a remark that made the room explode in laughter.  She said and I quote "wow it smells good in here" we all died and couldn't gain control for a good 5 mins. Afterwards though they did sing and we were all totally amazed by their voices.

We are almost a complete 21 days into the mission and WE who are in the CCM cannot wait to venture out into the field.

My room at the CCM (see Mom, I CAN keep my room clean)