Chapter 1

Hello everyone!!

I've just finished my first week here at the CCM de Guatemala! Its been a lot of fun but also a lot of work and stress. After flying all night to get here, we were put straight to work with checking in, verifying immunizations, unpacking, and then we had an hour to nap before our first classes started. It was crazy and everyone was exhausted but whatever, we have time to sleep when we go home in two years. The MTC here is really small (just over 100 missionaries total) and we are the biggest group of missionaries ever to enter the MTC at once. My district (The 'intermediate' district) is the smallest here though, just 10 of us who have taken Spanish classes but aren't quite fluent, especially in Gospel vocabulary.

Our second day (Thursday) we went to the Guatemala temple and it is so pretty! It provided a much-needed familiar and spiritual experience and really put a lot of the elders here at ease, especially because we did everything in English. My companion, Elder Kirkby is pretty awesome and I wasn't surprised at all when he was made the Zone Leader. he's a great guy.

Friday was super stressful and difficult, but the presence of the Spirit makes the work light.

Saturday we had a gnarly experience. While teaching our 'investigator' Victor, we had the opportunity to share the First Vision. When we read it in Spanish, it was difficult to understand. However, the intense feeling of the Spirit confirming the truth of the Vision was not so difficult. It is amazing how even in a practice lesson, the Spirit will testify of the truth of all things.

Sunday is just as busy as the rest of the week, except all the lessons are in English so that's pretty gnarly.

Monday is when we started feeling comfortable and really began to get used to all the work and everything in our schedules.

Tuesday was the same, I guess. At the beginning, time seemed to pass so slowly but now it feels like this last week has flown by.

Well, that's pretty much it for this week! We've been learning a lot of Spanish and its been a bit rough but I couldn't be more grateful for the four years of it I took in high school. The food is awesome, I can smell the hamburgers they're grilling for the 4th of July as I type. Love you all, the church is true!!