Monday, December 1, 2014

Deciembre de Guatemala!!! - Week 10 & 11

Hola familia y amigos! Que esta pasando con sus vidas?! Lo siento, yo no he les escrito en 2 semanas pero, yo he sido muchos viajes! Primera... Yo visité Ciudad de Guatemala acerca de mi Visa. Yo fui con 4 otros misioneros a Guate y yo estaba en la oficina con las asistencias y otras personas una noche y en el próximo día fuimos temprano en un bus (3 en la mañana). Estábamos en Guate solo por 3 horas escribir mi nombre y tomar un foto en una oficina y después salimos para nuestras áreas en la tarde. Este fue en Lunes y Martes entonces este es por qué yo no he escribo para 2 semanas. Pero, yo estaba en un bus por casi 12 horas! Este tiempo en un bus es muy aburrido y no muchas cosas hacer también. Viajar a Guate fue divertido en el mismo tiempo tambien...

English Translation (I think?  J – Chandler doesn't provide the translation, so I (his mom) use a Spanish to English translator which doesn't quite come out right and then Todd (his Dad) translates what doesn’t come out correctly after that, since he speaks Spanish!):  Hello family and friends! What's happening with your lives?! Sorry, I have not written in two weeks but I have been on a lot of tripsFirst ... I visited Guatemala City about my Visa. I went with 4 other missionaries to Guatemala City and I was in the office with the assistants and other persons one night and the next day we left early on a bus (3 in the morning). We were in Guatemala City for only three hours to write my name and take my photo in an office and afterwards we left for our areas in the afternoon. This was on Monday and Tuesday so this is why I did not write for two weeks.But I was on a bus for almost 12 hours! This time on the bus it was very boring and there weren't too many things to do. Traveling to Guatemala City was entertaining at the same time also.

Anyways, so sorry I didn't get to write a letter for 2 weeks because after this adventure I just never had the time to write as well and I was pretty bummed about that but it’s all good! A lot of things have happened though and I hope I can remember it all because my mind is racing! First off, WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! 2 Saturdays ago we had a baptism of a sweet little girl named Rubí, she is 9 years old and really loves to learn about the gospel and loves going to church. My companion baptized her and I was one of the witnesses for it. It was a cool experience and we actually have 2 more baptisms lined up for this month with a couple who are planning to get baptized before they get married, and my companion said that I will get the opportunity to baptize them both but we will see how that goes! 

So there have been 3 days here (not in a row) where we have not had any electricity which kinda sucked but thank goodness we had running water still! Whenever there is a strike or something here with workers something happens with the electricity just about every time I swear! People these days...

Here for about a week though we were running out of progressing investigators and knew that we needed to contact to find new people to teach, so we prayed as a companionship to seek guidance from Heavenly Father to see what we should do. We did a little bit of tracting and asking people but there were 2 days when sometimes without asking we received 19 references from less active members and other investigators and all whom we plan to go visit and most have accepted a second visit which makes them new investigators now so we have a lot on our plate to teach! This kinda showed me how when you are almost running out of what to do, when you turn to God and seek for guidance then try to seek it, He will put a miracle and a blessing into your life. This reminds me of a scripture that says something like, I won't show you a miracle until after a trial of your faith. So that was pretty nice to experience! 

Unfortunately there is no Thanksgiving down here in Guatemala... but there were a lot of times when I told people Happy Thanksgiving and they would chuckle and just smile and probably think, psh! Gringo.... Speaking of Gringo... I get called that a lot down here and sometimes it’s funny and other times I just want to punch them in the face. However, I smile anyways and joke around and say, No! Soy de Guatemala! El mismo como usted! (NoI'm from GuatemalaThe same as you!).Then they would laugh and I would feel a little better. But seriously though! Everyone is Gringo! Hey Gringo! Yes, congratulations people you know what an American looks like, lets shout it out to the world! I’m getting used to it though. Haha. Also, Hayden Etter was right, if anyone here knows even a word in English they will say it to you and only try to speak English. I told myself and my companion, El próximo persona que trate hablar Ingles conmigo, yo hablará solo Ingles con ellos y tener un conversación ver su reacción. (The next person who tries to speak English with me, I speak only English with them and have a conversation to see his reaction.)  Next time this is what I will do! 

Now for a few gross things. So, one morning I put on the tie that Kristeena gave me and I was wearing it for personal study, companionship study, and when we left our house to go see someone I was walking down the street and went to go fix my tie knot. I touched my tie and felt something crunchy in my tie, I thought well this is weird and at first I thought that it was just some plastic but I took off my tie and handed it to my comp. and we were trying to see what it was and I unfolded part of it and it was a cockroach! Ya I found a cockroach in my tie that I was wearing for almost 3 hours! Gross right!? I was a bit grossed out and we went back to the house and I got a new tie and we left again. Never thought that would happen! I am still yet to have an operation on my tie... I will keep you posted on how successful the operation will go... Then a few days ago I was reading the scriptures and the other Elders were moving some boxes with pamphlets and I heard a scream and my companion telling me to come here. So I got up and we were staring at a spider on the outside of a box about the size of my hand........................ I went motionless. We all stared at each other, then back at the spider. The spider may have looked at us and thought, ah crap. THIS MEANS WAR. It was motionless too. There was a quiet whisper in all of our ears. BURN IT! We scrambled for a candle, bug spray, and matches. Lit the candle and slowly lowered it to the spider. With one spray of the bug spray in the flame the spider caught fire like a wildfire! The thing wailed like a roaring banshee (I like to assume so). It leaped up and attacked the face of Elder Rivera and he was squirming alive while the spider was crawling up his nose..... Ok that last part was a lie... Here is how it went. The spider caught fire (probably did roar) then it was running like Usain Bolt! It headed for our table and the flame was gone. We carefully searched for it and dousted it with some more fire and bug spray.  The spider was burning again and slowing its pace! Ha its defenses are down! Time to go in for the attack! We burned the living soul out of the thing and left it motionless on the ground. VICTORY WAS OURS! Hahaha. Ya that thing never had a chance. Hope you enjoyed my story! The thing was so huge though! I have no idea how long it has been living in our house and I don't want to know and I hope there are no more! I forgot my cord to send a picture today so I will send a picture next week of the beast! Oh man so gross!

A little more about the food here, life, Spanish, and teaching. Just for lunches throughout the week we eat at members houses, and we eat about 40 to 50 tortillas a week because no matter what we have for lunch there is a nice lovely stack of tortillas smiling at us waiting to be consumed and I’m glad there are tortillas because the tortillas here are so good! We have them with everything though, pasta, rice, beans, soup, eggs. You name it and it comes with tortillas. A lot of the big chunks of chicken still have the skin and I just think alright cool, just peel that piece back and don't touch it and I’m good. I eat cereal for breakfast about every morning. I love cereal....

My Spanish is coming along and I’m trying to learn every day.  I always say poco a poco Elder Kahl, poco a poco.  I’m trying to talk a lot more and others say my accent is pretty good and I am speaking a little faster and picking up on things but I still have a lot of work to do. Our investigators are slowly progressing but we hope that our new ones will be progressing faster than who we have been working with. I am teaching more during lessons and expressing my thoughts and feelings as well. I’m blessed to have a native Guatemalan as my companion because it’s nice only speaking Spanish to him and we joke around and talk a lot and get along really, really, really well. I always think that I got put with the best comp ever!

Well I hope this was enough for you guys this week! There are more things that happened and a lot that I can’t remember at this time but if I remember more I will tell you all next week!

Love you all and keep you all in my prayers and my thoughts! Stay sweet!

Love,
Elder Kahl

Rubi quien bautizamos! Rubi got baptized!
 
The spider that was as big as my hand!

No comments:

Post a Comment