Guatamala Week One

HOLA EVERYONE!!

I made it very safely to Guatemala a week ago. I dont know how to fit all my enthusiasm into one sentance but...I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The people are AMAZING. The saints here are a different kind of strong. Where do i start?

I got out of the guatemala airport (which wasa little scary because there wasa really bad rainstorm going on when i flew in) and i saw a sign that said "LDS SISTER MTC GUATEMALA" and these cute littleguatemalan men waving me down! then we got here and i was put with my companion. Guess who it is...hermana holladay again! yay!!! we are just a duo now, so i amlovin it. We also have 2 latina companions. Their namesare Hermana Trochez (who is my native companion) and Hermana Legal (who is hna holladays) They are so stinking cool! Hermana trochez is really sweet aaaaaaaaand she understands zero english. A cool thing about this CCM though is that the Norte´´s teach the latina´s spanish. This keyboard is in spanish and i dont know where the apostraphe is. just fyi. also, the space board is broken. awesome possum. The CCM (mtc) is SO NICE though! Like i like it way more than Provo. it is just one building with 3stories and a huge basketball/futbal court in the back. The food is DELICIOS. SO so sosos ososososo much better thn mexican food there. it is so flavorful and delightful. I havent been sick, but 2 of the older Nortes are just getting over E.Coli. awesome. eeeeeewwwwwww.

The teachers are all returned missionaries from the area who served in america, so they speakenglish. I think i was born to be a latina. I love everyonehere. They are so nice and lovingand strong sure, they are super touchy feely, but they are always so willingto help you with anything and everything.

Spanish is comingalong. Everyone keeps asking me how many years of spanish i took before,or the presidents wife´- hermana stimele just asked me where i learned to speak spanish. I said....ummm...here? and she was like-seriously! wow you are great! :) imsure she says that to everyone but i really enjoyedit.

Last night Hermana Trochez said the sweetest thing to me. Every night we sit together and write in our journals and sing and talk together, and so last night we did so, and she was helping me write a little note in spanish to Hermana Silva (another latina sister) and then we said goodnight and went to our seperate rooms...and then a few minutes later she came back and knockedon the door and she just said "you are a very special person" in her broken adorable english. it soundedmore like "ju rr a vedy spishal prrson" but oh my gosh it was the sweetest thing! I totally cried!

Today i had the amazing oportunity, like i will every wednesday, to go to the Guatemala Temple!! Oh my gosh it was so good. it is just super small and like everythingelse here they dont start on time (to get people to a devotional on time at7, they tell everyone it is at 6) but !! it was so great to be back in the temple. Today i really feltmom close when i was in the Celestial Room. I was just thinking about you guys and how we are sealed for eternity. What an amazing blessing. There is a sister from Nicaragua who just got endowed today because they dont have a temple in Nicaragua. it is a 24 hour drive to the closest temple from Nicaragua. I hope you will take every opportunity to go to the temple. It is everything. Get there. Do whatever you need to in your life to live worthy of those blessings.

Anyways.......the address here is
23 avenida 23-71

vista hermosa 1 zona 15

Guatemala- Guatemala C.A

You know, just incase you want to send anything...or whateva...

what else would you like to know? lets talk about the weather. haha Im serious. It is lovely here! It rainsalot, but i still dont think i really know what humidity is yet! It seriously is beautiful.. Okay, a little hotter than im used to, but the building totally has air conditioning, or else i would be dying. The thing that makes me a little worried isthat all of the missionaries from Nicaragua are freezing here. AKA it is super DUPER hot there. Awesome. Seriously, i have no complaints though. OH!! guess what. Everyone here gets to teach a fake investigator...but since hermana holladay and i speak better spanish than our class... we get to teach a real investigator!! Hername is Seleni and weget to teach her again on Saturday. I amso excited! We may have a baptism to talk about before i get to the field! Anyways, I sure Love you guys and i pray for you all the time. Smile! Love, Hermana Barrett