Guatemala Week 3 - a day early

Alexis' email came a day early and it was great to hear from her!

Hi everyone- Life here at the CCM is pretty good. Sorry that I could not tell you my pday changed just for this week. They gave us the schedule for this week after pday last week, but it is all good.  I can mail stuff to Chelsea - the man that is in charge of that kind of stuff just mailed it and said it was less than a dollar. I gave him a dollar and he gave me some Guatemalan money back. So that worked out well.  So, I burned my tan skirt with an iron last week. Sister Steimle was able to repair it enough so it will be fine to wear. My companion asked her to shorten some of the sleeves on a couple of shirts the day before, so I knew she had a sewing machine. The burn was just two marks close to the side seam, so I had her take it in a little and she got rid of one of the burns. It looks fine now. I am sure I will be able to get some more native skirts in Nicaragua anyway. But Sister Steimle was very helpful.  So, my exercise here has been fun. The last couple of days I do 18 minutes on the bike and got in 4 miles, which was good. Sometimes I pretend I am riding in the neighborhood. Afterwards we have been playing speed which has been fun. Next week, everyone except the 12 of us in the district will leave for the field and we will be alone for a day or two until the next group comes in. It is a small group and there will only be 37 of us for 3 weeks here. There are 9 elders and 1 sister coming from Provo and the 6 Latin sisters and the rest are Latin elders. It will be great. The temple was great last week and I am excited to go again today. It will be fun. I saw the Hubers yesterday, so that was good. I am not sure how long they have been here for. Next to the CCM is a hotel like building that people use to stay in when they do temple trips. I think the Hubers stay there in an apartment with other missionaries. I am excited because tomorrow we get to go out and to a plaza and do some proselyting with our native companions. It should be great and fun to experience what it will be like to be a missionary in the field. We also will go see some sights on Tuesday when we are all alone here. My pday will be Wednesday next week. I think it was just a one time deal since Easter week is a big thing here. On Sunday we watched that video about Zions Camp and had a discussion afterwards about how this mission is our Zions Camp. The Lord is preparing us for something in the future. We do not know what exactly right now, but this is a time we are preparing and becoming the people He wants us to be. That was a cool correlation to think about. My spanish is coming along. I just need to practice all the time especially when we are with the Latinos. Yesterday we taught 2/3 of the Plan of Salvation in spanish twice. The second time went quite well I thought. I am excited to keep on learning and being able to speak more fluently and understand more when someone speaks to me. On Saturday, I got to play the piano in two meetings where there was a young mens group and primary group getting excited about missions and the CCM. It was fun to see the members of the church here and how great they are. We had our Sunday meetings in a chapel behind the temple. I liked seeing the building and I played the piano there too. The only thing in between the CCM and the temple is a little building and a Shell station. Gas is like 35 quetz and I am not sure if that is for a liter or not. Anyway.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Elena if my letter does not get there before Monday.  LOVE YOU TONS! Thanks for being so awesome. Love, Alexis