Taste of Guatemala Continued...

Day 9...On the 9th day of Christmas our Chaddy sent to us...Horchata!! I think they have this in the states, but I love it so much! The real stuff is so much better but this is also really good. In Zacapa this is all we would drink but super cold!!! Directions: add to 1 liter cold milk (or water).

Day 10...On the 10th day of Christmas our Chaddy sent to us...Money!!! This was Brooke’s favorite of course…money. The Note is kind of hard to read…so this is what it says…So like 2 months ago they came out with new bills of Quetzals! So they were circulating…here is a hefty collection of some. They are interesting how they make them, before they were paper but now they are slowly changing all the bills to plastic…I sent a lot home so you guys can keep them or give them out as you wish, at work, or in your class or however you wish.

Day 11...On the 11th day of Christmas our Chaddy sent to us: The note reads…Here is another weird thing (at least for me) but I bet Dad will love them. It is like a creamy chocolate cream with different flavors. I hadn’t tried them until like a week before I made the package. I didn’t like it, it tastes good but I don’t know…it’s weird…try it! Love you guys

I love the 25 days to Christmas!!! Jan

It's Feeling A Lot Like Christmas!!!

Wow…Hi family I swear the weeks are getting faster and faster. So here is the low down…Monday we went bowling! Last time I beat everyone but this time I did horrible! But oh well it was fun. Tuesday we did divisions with San Jose Pinula. I went there with Elder C from Peru. He has 13 months and is a great missionary. We had a great day. Worked super hard, harder than I worked in a long time and I love it! I miss it! We also had a super spiritual lesson, it was about the restoration of the church and it was my turn to tell about the first vision. While I was telling about the first vision the spirit came so strong we both felt it and they felt it also and we asked them too if they could feel the spirit. Then we explained a little more about the spirit. It was an awesome experience/lesson. In Pinula they have chocolate covered bananas and they are so good! The first layer is yogurt or cream I’m not sure, that’s frozen then they put chocolate on it dip it in peanuts and then coconut! It’s so good!!! Later on in the week we helped a member decorate her house for Christmas! I love this area! Cause in what other area in Guatemala would you do that?! You wouldn't! We did divisions Friday with the zone leaders, I went with Elder McNabb. He is such a stud and we've grown to be great friends. So we taught an interesting lesson. He is from the States and inactive. He moved here a year ago cause his wife left him with his kids. So somehow he ended up here teaching English at a very private school. He has had a lot of bad things happen to him and has a lot of anger bottled up inside against God. We got permission to use our iPods so we didn’t have to carry our English scriptures around, well with him we watched a little of a CES fireside of Elder Holland called “Lessons from Liberty Jail.” It talks about 3 points…1. God has not forgotten about us 2. The Savior has been where we have been (we only talked about those 2 points). If you have time watch it cause it is amazing. We watched from 12-34 minutes then we talked a little and basically he said “wow I now know what I have to do.” The spirit was super strong and really touched his heart. Plus I loved teaching in English, but after he said “you guys aren’t used to teaching people in English are you.” Bahaha!!! It’s just the little things that we screw up in English. We also brought him Egg Nog that was 4.5 Q’s, like 50 cents for a liter…it was amazing! So Friday December 7th, I don’t know if I told you about this day last year but it is a crazy tradition called “burning of the devil.” Basically they make devil piñatas and then burn them! Some people go all out and make huge ones. But they fill them up with fireworks and firecrackers. All of Guatemala goes crazy this day. So welp we did too! Bahaha…we burned the devil just only without fireworks (cause we are good little boys :) ). So Elder McNabb’s comp is a super great missionary, just an all around great guy from Nicaragua. But they are super poor. There were times when they went without food. His Dad left them awhile back and he has never received a letter so when I found that out I promised him I would send one, but while on divisions I still hadn’t sent him the letter so I started to do it…then well it started with a candy bar and a letter and you know how I am once I start it somehow goes like 8 steps farther…so long story short I wanted to get him a little package for Christmas cause he’s not going to be getting anything. So I took some of my Christmas money and bought him a couple of things. I also got McNabb in on it. So after we put them in a box and gave them to the neighbor (who is a member) to doorbell ditch them and leave the box. I am so stoked!!! They are going to do that Christmas eve, but tomorrow (today Monday) they are going to leave some soccer shoes (cause today we are going to play soccer as a zone). So it’s going to be a huge surprise and I’m stoked! We didn’t leave our names…Bahaha…so I will let you know how that goes. We were definitely feeling the Christmas spirit!!! I love it!!! Here in this zone it actually feels like Christmas. Everyone is always out buying and it just feels different in the air! Well just to wrap up we are going to have a baptism this Saturday! Woot Woot!!! I love baptisms except that they are super stressful. Also, I got your package and I accidently opened it. I love it!!! The calendar is so cool mom. I love it! I truly love it and that article is awesome mom! Your such a stud. I love you and am so proud to have you as my mom and you dad as my dad. I love you guys so much. There are changes coming up and I am probably out of here. They are the 19th. Tuesday the 11th we have our Christmas activity. These weeks are flying by! It is crazy how fast it is going by. Before we know it I’ll be home! Crazy! Anyways just know how much I love you guys! And how much I love this gospel! It brings so many blessings into our lives. I love it! It is so true!!! Elder Call

25 Days of Christmas...Guatemalan Style!?!

Well I have to say that the boy scored a homerun!!! On Saturday December 1st we received a package from Guatemala...

anxiously we opened the large box weighing almost 9 lbs!!! Upon opening we see many small envelopes and wrapped packages and a letter on top???

It says...TASTE OF GUATEMALA...Welcome to the package entitled "Taste of Guatemala." The purpose of this package is sto give you a small taste of Guatemala through food, culture and other things. There is a designated envelope for every day leading up to Christmas. The rule is you can only open the envelope on the desginated day...o sea no puede abrir todes en las misma noche (you can't or shouldn't open all of them all at once!) ONE A DAY!!!! No cheating, also other rule is that both parents need to be present. It is for you two so hence you both need to be present...I hope you enjoy it!!! P.S. Some of the things require time. So you will both need to find a common time when you will have a moment to do the task or thing assigned. Also I included some food you can invite others to sample!!! Enjoy!!! Day 1,2,3,4,5, Um Hi Family...Well this didn't work out quite as I planned, BUT it still will work. So for your first day go and check snapfish.com and I am going to try my very hardest to have uploaded my photos on December 3rd..but if for whatever reason I don't you guys can start opening envelops the 6th of December!!! And from then on there is something for everyday leading up to Christmas! Love you!!!

Day 6

Hi...Well with this one I don't know if I should tell you before or after you try them what they really are...they are delicious. At least I like them!!! HaHa...try them!!!...They are goat milk suckers. I'm sure you've tried them or something similar before...everyone eats them here! It's crazy!!! Day 7

So what would be a taste of Guatemala without the music from here?! Here the classic Guatemalan music is the Marimba...that is the classic cultural thing here. I have grown to like it. It takes a little getting used to but it is very relaxing and Guatemalan! Lemme know if you like it! Provecho! Day 8

TorTrix...what would Guatemala be without TorTrix. These are like hot dog to America or baseball to America! They are classic Guatemala!!! They have a ton of different flavors, like 10 and they are all great! Nothing like a TorTrix and a glass bottle of Coke...Bien Fria! Well all you blog readers you will just have to wait until next week when I post the next exciting things we received with our count down of 25 days to Christmas!!! Til then...Jan

Another Week Flew By As Usual!!!

Sorry I wrote out my emails again.... it’s just that I have like no time!!! Maybe dad could be a scribe for you again....bahaha me and elder see are sitting right next to each other and both our moms shared emails from us...bahaha…ok Hi family…this week flew by but literally this week from Monday to Thursday was just one giant blur…well first off what’s fresh on my mind is the Christmas Devotional last night. It was so good! And first time this year actually made me miss home! But don’t worry it was only for like 5 minutes! And now I am back to normal! I hope you guys got to see it because it was pretty good…just a couple notes of what I liked was “we need to learn how to receive with graciousness and gratitude” from President Uchtdorf. President Eyring, I really liked hearing from him. He is so genuine and sincere, he taught that creating joy around the Christmas time requires others and President Monson is always amazing, he talked about service. He said true love is a reflection of Christ’s love. Also true happiness comes by making others happy and not by giving gifts but by service and love, “he who gives of himself gives all.” This world is getting more and more focused on giving and the technology aspect of things, but they gently reminded us to refocus ourselves on Christ and the true reason of Christmas. Try to focus more on true meaning of Christmas and not get too caught up in the temporal meaning, give more service! Especially to the older generation! They have done so much for us!!! So I love this area…we got to choose to go to the stake center to watch the devotional or watch it in our area on a brand new Large 3D flat screen TV. It was huge! And so cool. Have you guys ever tried one of these? They are pretty cool! Alright…well this week did more divisions and went with Elder Hollingsworth who is in an area called Los Lomas in Zone 16 of the Capital. They went really well. Did 3 more interviews…everyone is baptizing now which is amazing!!! It was fun, as always in divisions, learned a lot, and hopefully taught a little, but I think it is me that is doing all the learning here!!! He goes home 6 weeks after me…speaking of which this Saturday I hit 18 months!!! Say what!!! How crazy is that??? I can’t believe that, doesn’t really feel like that, in a sense that I feel new still! But I do feel like I have been away from home on an adventure living a dream for like a year, but not 18 months?! Crazy, we get to call also!!! Let me apologize in advance if I just speak Spanish the whole time, or better yet if I just listen to you guys speak! Alright…Wednesday I went back to an area called Fraijanes to do another interview and then back to my area…I have not had the best luck this week. My towel got stolen! We always put them out to dry out front (which is something you shouldn’t ever do in Guatemala) but I figured we are in a residential so it’s OK and I’ve been doing it for 6 months! But we come back and my towel is gone! But my comp was still there…they only stole mine! I think because his smelt too bad Bahaha!!! I was teasing him the whole time about that. So we are going to go to a thrift store to find a replacement. Friday we got to go to the baptism of the really wealthy but humble guy. It was such a great baptism, the spirit was so strong there, and just to see how happy and seeing him feel the spirit was so humbling it is those moments for which we live for as missionaries. We had an investigator there also; she is going to get baptized the 15th of December. She is soaking it all up and stoked!!! So my new favorite lesson to teach is the plan of salvation! I love it! I love it so much. I’m making some figures out of foam to teach it. I’m so stoked. It’s gonna take forever but it will be worth it! I don’t know why but I love it, I love having the answers to where we are going, why we are here, like what is our purpose here, and where are we and our loved ones going after this life?! It brings peace and joy to know about the plan, and I am stoked to share this knowledge with others. So I don’t know if they announced in church Sunday, but the first presidency is challenging us to read the Book of Mormon before next conference in April. I also challenge you guys to accept that challenge!!! It’s only 4 pages if you start now! President Stay has the inside so he challenged us on the 13th of November and I accepted it and I’m going to DO IT! DO IT ALSO!!! But he challenged us to look for 3 things: 1. any reference of Jesus Christ 2. Any words of Christ, 3. Promised blessings/covenants of the Lord. I am looking for those things and there are a ton. It is really strengthening my testimony that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ because it only talks about him! I am only in 2 Nephi, but I love it! So will you guys accept that challenge? It’s not from me; it’s from the Prophet of God! I sure hope so because I know you guys will be strengthened spiritually. It’s a Prophetic Promise!!! Alright, well I love you all so much! I’m listening to “The Forgotten Carols” cause today Mom is going to Vegas to see them. Enjoy them!!! I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week where ever you are! Remember the true meaning of this Christmas Season and try to help someone out!!! I love you! Elder Call