April 26, 2011

Another week in Guatemala - 3 weeks to go!

Alexis emailed us a day early again this week.  It sounds like she is doing well!

Hola everyone- 
So, today we got to go on our field trip. It was fun. Look up the relief map and the mirafloras museum and marcado central if you want to see where I was. By the way you would love the public buses here- they are either red or have super cool paint jobs. Real sweet. Saw another Chuck E Cheese today or maybe it was the one I saw before, but cooliosis. The city is pretty cool.  The relief map that was cool and showed all the mountains and layout of Guatemala. Elder Rogers also told us how it goes along with Book of Mormon history and makes a lot of sense. Then we went to the market.  I bought something for mom that I will try to mail this week. Then we went to the mall and museum there. We got to eat at McDonalds which was mighty tasty. I got a bigmac and fries and a diet coke and I tried the summer mcflurry of orange sauce and chocolate chips. It was good.  So, my birthday was good. I got sung to in spanish and english.  Not really too different than any other day here, but 1 b-day down 1 to go. Sister Ayala my twin teacher drew a birthday cake on the board and one for Elena and labeled them 1 and 2 like her and her sister go by here. Anyway, I am sad she is leaving for vacation and tomorrow is the last day we will see her. But I just found out that I am moving up to the Latino district and will get a new latina companion tomorrow. We had a spanish exam yesterday and I was not sure I did that well, but I am guessing Sister Ayala put in a good word for me. She knows that I understand more than most of the class. Four of the sisters are moving up. I am excited and know it will be great for my spanish, but hopefully the latina won't get too frustrated with me. We get the new group tomorrow and it is small. There will only be 4 districts here. The most has been 10 and we had about 7 before. It will be nice.  Easter was nice. I taught Relief Society with Sister Sutherland on the last chapter of "Preach My Gospel". And we had a special sacrament meeting where we sang like 8 hymns and they had short talks and read "The Living Christ".   I played all the hymns. Sister Smith, the other piano player, played while the sisters sang "He Sent His Son" in spanish at the end. On Sunday President Steimle taught us about the Atonement. He related Heavenly Father sending Jesus Christ to a plane ticket to get back home, and how our earthly fathers would pay any price for the ticket home from our missions if the church did not provide one. I thought about how that is true and that Dad would pay anything for my plane ticket home in 17 months. That made it more real to think about the Atonement. I love you Dad! Also President Steimle said that we did not have the usual Easter baskets and treats to wake up to, but thanks to mom I did.  I was the only one with an Easter treat from home. Thanks mom! In our devotional last week, Elder Martino pointed out D & C 100:1 and how as we serve, our families will be taken care of. I know this is true. So the temple last week was great. It was an english session, but I had to do the last part in Spanish because there are not enough english workers. It was interesting and I did my best and I understood some of it. We go again tomorrow, so that will be nice. On Wednesday we got to get out and proselyte. Even before we talked to anyone, I had this great feeling about how awesome this work is and how this is going to be the best experience ever. We have the greatest message in the world to share that can heal anyone. We got 12 contacts and gave away 3 Books of Mormon and lots of pamphlets. I was with Sister Crandell and Sister Pastran. It was great. And we got to see a McDonalds and Wendys, too. By the way there are tons of Shell stations here. Today we went by the American Embassy, which was cool. It was like the one in London - boring building, but I enjoyed seeing the American flag, but unlike in London there was a big line of people next to it trying to get visas. I am so blessed to call America home. I will enjoy being here but will be happy to come back to the good old USA. Oh, I got dearelders from Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom and the Thorntons. I don't really have letter writing time this week so I am not sure when I will be able to write back. My letters from last week just got mailed yesterday because of the holiday last week.  Love you tons!! Thanks for being the most super cool people on planet earth.  Hope you had a good birthday Lenny! and a good Easter.  
Love, Alexis 

 

No comments: