In North Carolina

Hello everyone! Well, we decided to go to North Carolina on my family's vacation on the beach for a week. So we are here getting tan. We are a little bit sad it's almost over now...we don't really want to go back to work....but that's life. When we get back we will be living with my grandparents again. My grandpa is having knee surgery and needs help with things around the house so we are more then willing to help them. I'm going to come home and beat you all with this wonderful tan I've got! I've been white all summer and it's nice to have some color again. Hope you all are still enjoying summer cause it's almost over! Stay safe!

We are home!

Hello everyone! We are home and safe and sound. We ended up having about a 3 hour delay in Houston Tx, not very happy about that. Just wanted to let you know. I will write more later. Love ya all!

In Guatemala City

It was a long night last night with only an hour of sleep before our 4 hour journey in a full car. There was 18 people in a mini bus or a "microbus" as they call it. The night was a pretty big blur. But we are here and we are safe. We can't believe it's over, it was just the other day that we were here. We don't know now if we will go to Antiqua or not. I want to, but scott is still pretty interested in Guatemala city. There are plenty of things to do here...I'll let you know. We know of a few places know that have internet so we will check it again tomorrow. We leave at 12:30 on Thur morning. Well, gotta run, it's a little bit spendy for this internet here...just wanted to let you know we are here and safe. adios

Last Day in Xela!

Hello everone. We are pretty busy today since we are leaving tonight at 1 in the morning with the church to the temple. We had a little scare on Sat night. The family went shopping and also tried to get some gas. There they found out that there wasn´t any gas. They came home and told us what was going on, as they looked at the new paper. The gasoline trucks were on strike! The law here says that truck drivers and people transporting goods can only drive after 8:30 pm. So they are on strike because it´s dangerous and they keep getting robbed that late at night. So they weren´t leaving the capital and because of that we didn´t have any gas here. They stopped late last night so we have gas again here and we are going to be leaving tonight. We were a little bit worried cause you never know how long these things last. Thank goodness it´s over and things will go as planed.

There´s not a whole lot else going on other then just packing and saying goodbye to everyone. We haven´t been sick, which has been a blessing. I don´t know when the next time will be that I get on so if you don´t hear from me then that is why. Love you all and I will see you soon!

Xocomil and Xetulul

Hello everyone! We had a great time in our amusment park except as usual we wanted to stay longer. We didn´t actually leave until 10:15 which we were able to get in free around 10:30 and so basically we didn´t get into the park until about 12:00. There was a water place, which was a lot of fun, and then there was another place that was just rides and things. Which everything closed around 6:30ish so we only have about 2.5 hours in the water place and then 3.5 total since we had to eat something. There were tons more we could have done...but we ran out of time. Scott´s still a little bit upset about it since we were supposed to leave around 9 to get there in time. Oh well. It was actually pretty humid and hot there which made the water tons more fun. It´s Saturday already which means we only have 5 more days left and only 2.5 with the Ixcots.

Yes that is Icream in our hands....after Lunch all we wanted was ice cream since it was so humid. There ended up being 5 of us. Enoc took his new girl friend of about 2 weeks so Benji was the fith wheel. I felt bad for the guy. Scott and him had fun though. I guess it was ok that she came cause she was the free ticket into the non-water park part. That part of the park was Q200 to get in! So crazy, I couldn´t believe it. It wasn´t even that great either. that was just the entrance fee, that didn´t include tickets for rides. Crazy.

Well, I´sorry everyone, these computers are not letting me get onto my hotmail so if you wrote to me and haven´t heard...that´s why. I have no idea why I can´t get on but it´s really bothering me since I´m trying to coordinate things with people. Sorry and I will talk to you later. Adios

Doing Pretty Good.

Well, we are both doing good. We arent sick so we are enjoying our last few days here. Tomorrow we are going to an amusement park with Enoc and Benji (the two eldest sons). Sat dont really know what we are doing, but we only have about 4 days left with the Ixcots. Scott said he is probably going to cry. I might I dunno. Scott is out looking for a suit right now. They are pretty cheep here. for a whole suit its like 100.00...we ended up buying another suitcase for 13.00 since we have bought a few things and dont want to go over on the weight. Well, I got to get going. We have a lot of things we are doing to make sure we get it all in. I hope all is still going well. I will try to get on on Sat and put some pictures up of the amusment park so this isnt so boring to read. haha Oh, and for those of you who are interested. Scotts sister Brenda has her Baby on Tue the 7th. He{s a beautiful baby boy. Both are doing great and we wish them the best. Have a good day

Sick but beter again.

Man we are both VERY tired of being sick all the time. We are ready to be home just so that we wont be sick anymore. I don´t know if you were able to translate Scott´s last entry but all of Sat Scott was fine and was preparing for his lesson. That night he had Patches (I refuse to eat them cause I got sick from them earlier in the trip) and then about 2 hours latter scott felt pretty sick. He said he felt like he was in Hell. haha He was up all night cause he couldn´t sleep and his stomach pains were really bad. He threw up a few times. So, we didn´t go to church cause he kept me up also. Then monday just as he was feeling better I felt realy bad. So we are just going back and forth with things. I was in bed almost all day yesterday. I´m better today, thank goodness. Sometimes these sicknesses last a few days.

Well, we didn´t do the hike, because they wanted 20 USD for the hike per person. Which that doesn´t seem like a lot in US but here it is. The quality of service here is so cheep that when they charge a lot it´s not worth it. In the US you get what you pay for...here it´s all the same just different prices. So we didn´t do the hike but we are still going to go to Xocomil with the family. It´s just a day trip, but it should be lot´s of fun. We leave Xela in 1 week from today! (we still have 9 days left) Crazy. I am a little bit ready for it...just because of the sicknesses and what not...but I will miss it. Scott says he´s probably going to cry. haha That´s about it on an update. Thanks and have a good day!

La Venganza de Sunami

Jessie y yo gastamos el sabado descansando. No comí muy bien ese dia. Pero esa noche en diez comencé a sentirme muy enfermo. Yo tenía un dolor de estómago realmente malo. Me fuì a la cama, pero comencé a despertarme cada hora o dos horas. Entonces mi cuerpo se hizo muy deshidratado y tieso. Mi cabeza y espalda se sintió muy dolorosa. Vomité aproximadamente dos veces. Parecí yo vivía en el infierno. La mañana no estaba bien tampoco. No comí nada durante más de 24 horas. No preocupe a la mama, mi nivel de azucar de sangre estaba bien. Jessie tiene cuidado de mí muy bien. Tomé un poco de agua alguna vez una vez en mientras, pero nunca permanecio en mi sistema durante mucho tiempo. Comencé a sentirme mejor por la tarde despues de tomar un poco de medicina para mi estomago y medicina para mi cabeza. Soy probablemente lo peor he sentido en un muy mucho tiempo. Pienso que esto podria haber sido el Pachas que como cada una vez en mientras.

Lago Atitlan

Hello Everyone! Well, Lake Atitilan was very beautiful but it was a pretty quick trip. We left at 8 in the morning and got home around 7pm and it takes about 1.5-2 hours to get there. We went on the boat, did a little shopping and ate. Took about 100 pictures. So...these are just a few. We had a great time and both Thelma and Carlos came so it was just us four. They are a lot of fun and we learn a lot from them.

We are pretty freaked out by the fact that we are coming home in 13 days. So weird! We still have a hike on Monday that we are excited about. We aren´t quite sure what day we are going to Xocomil (choco y milk, haha) that´s the name of the ¨6 flags¨place here. We will keep you updated. Well, I need to get going since this computer is REALLY slow. Adios!

Fuentes Gorginas

Last night Carlos, the dad, took us to a place that´s about an hour away to this hot spring place. We ended up spending the night. It was a little bit spendy but worth it. On the way there it´s all forest and very beautiful. Carlos said when his kids were little he told them that this was the place that King Kong lived. haha It really does look like the movie and I can see why he said that. The room was quite interesting. 2 full size beds, but because the people here are so small he blankets don´t really go down the whole way so most of the night our feet were hanging out or we had to be crunched up. There was a fire place, but we couldn´t get it started...scott tried for about 45 mins. They also had this big area for a bath..but the water didn´t work. haha

The pool was actaully filled with natural Sulfer water. I heard some people talking and before it was an actual river that you could go in. Now it´s more of a pool that they have channeled the water into. It was still hot and natural. Along the sides of the rocks they had the HOT water driping down. We took LOT´S of pictures.

Well, tomorrow we are headed off to Lake Atitlan, we are not wuite sure how long yet...we would like a 2 day thing but I don´t know if there is enough to do there. People are saying that you have to have an activity to do like biking or boat rides cause it get´s boring after a while. We will also take lot´s more pictures and show you a few on Monday. I got to get going. Adios!

Vida en Xela para mi

Esto ha sido mucho tiempo ya que he escrito en el blog. Estoy agradecido que he tenido la oportunidad de decir y aprender más español. Este después dos semanas Jessie y yo vamos a viajar un poco y divertirse. Viajamos a unos volcanes de algunos, primaveras calientes, ríos, y lagos que son famosos. El Lago Atitlan está uno de los sitios más famosos aquí. Leo aproximadamente cuatro libros diferentes en el español. Yo leì muchas escrituras. Ellos no son fáciles pero ellos seguro me ayudan con mi pronunciación. Jessie y yo realmente disfrutamos de la familia con la cual vivimos. Su hijo que vino a casa de su misión se mezcla en realmente bien. La única cosa mala sobre la vida aquí en Guatemala es que estoy ganando libras. Quise ejercer y entonar mi cuerpo un poco. Pero he fallado en esto. Comenzamos a saber la ciudad mucho mejor. Tengo que dar una lección en Principales de Evangelio para la iglesia la próxima semana. Enseño la expiación. He salido con los misioneros mucho. Asisto con Elderle Fullmer y Elderle Cueto quién es de Panamá. Tuve que dar la ley de castidad a uno de sus investigadores. Era interesante. Amo dar mi testimonio es el español y hablar a la gente en las calles. Es todavía difícil para mí entender el español cuando ellos hablan muy rápido. Es maravilloso ver que el evangelio es verdadero cada donde. La fe aquí es muy fuerte y muy activa. Gracias cada uno para conservarse en contacto con nosotros. Amamos todos y perdemos todos. Tener cuidado

Party Time!

Hello everyone. Last night Thelma, our mom here, told us about a little theater play that Orson, the youngest son, was going to be in the next day. So we decided to go. It started at 3:00. So, it was seriously like going to a middle school theater play thing. It was really bad...and VERY loud I think the people here are deaf. I have my ears covered the whole time. It was a good experience though. After that we were supposed to go over to Carlos´(the dad) fathers house to hear him talk about some of his books. The light was out so we scheduled it for today. I´m not really looking forward to it, that man can talk all day long! Anyways, since we couldn´t sit in the light at his house we decided to head home. it was about 7ish by this time and getting dark and scott noticed a beautiful Cathidral all lite up so the Ixcot´s took us there and we took a few picures. It was really a fun night.

So Carlos (the one in the middle of the picture) wants to take us to this hot spring pool that´s about an hour away tonight. So we are leaving tonight and he says it´s worth it to stay the night so we will see it there is any rooms available. Next week the family is also talking about a lot of different trips they want to take us to, so we will have to see what happens. We are excited for it and sad that we only have 1 more full week left.

We were also talking to Carlos and Thelma and we found a really cheep way to get to Guate on the 14th. The ward is having a Temple trip so they said we can hitch a ride. The only bad part is that they are leaving at 1 in the morning...so with all the traveling we will be doing that week it´s not the best start. So we don´t leave until the 16th so the 15th we will go to Antigua. It´s only 30-45 mins from Guate City. Quick trip and worth probably some good pictures. It is really getting close to leaving! I feel like a missionary that doens´t want to come home. haha It will be good for us tho.

Scott is doing a lot better. We are both not sick and ready to do somethings here. We are going to be going to Lake Atitlan this weekend. Fri and Sat. So...I will write on Mon and let you know how things went. I hope you are all still enjoying the summer! Adios

Holly COW!

Ok so yesterday was quite interesting for me. I still haven´t really mastered praying in spanish and I´ve been working on it. Last Sunday they asked Scott to say the opening prayer in sacrament and I have had a feeling they would ask me soon too. So his past week, I´ve been kinda learning and trying to get some words down. So yesterday we sit down and a few mins later they start. So I´m thinking ok, they didn´t ask me this week maybe next week. We have the sacrament and then the bishop get´s up and tells everyone who´s going to speak and such and then he says ¨our bennidiction will be givin by Jessie Dolan¨ he looks at me and so does everyone else!...then he says ¨please.¨ I think the shocked look on my face made him say please. So...I then started preparing a prayer the rest of the metting. I was so nervous! Of course everyone said I did a good job. People are saying that I have a good accent...I just need to get more words down. haha So, I got over that and we went to class. We are going to gospel priciples because it´s a smaller class and she talks slower so it´s easier to understand. We get in there and the teacher asked scott if he would teach the lesson next week with my help! They are starting to get a little too friendly here. I guess it´s good for us. Helps us learn a little bit faster.

Well, we were hoping to go with the Ixcots (ishcaughts sounds like scott with a ish in front) to pick up there son but the father was feeling a lot better and he decided to go so there wasn´t enough room in the car for us. The car ended up having problems on the way there so I guess it was a good thing. They showed us pictures of his before he left and he has changed a lot! He was 35 lb heavier then he is now. Thelma, the mom, says she liked him bigger. ¨no me gusta, no me gusta delgado¨she says. She´s very cute. She likes the chubby cheeks.

We are looking to go to Lake Atitlan this weekend. We have been looking into shuttles or bus ride and we started talking about it to the ixcots and they said it was very expensive, so they are willing to take us down there if we pay for gas. haha They are such an awesome family. So we haven´t decided but we will either leave Thur or Fri and be home Sat night probably, since scott has to teach the lesson on Sun. We are a los looking ino some hikes around here...there are quite a few. See if we can´t loose a few pounds. haha All the pastels....I tell ya. No, I don´t think I´ve gained a lot if any. Scott´s starting to get some love handles, which I don´t mind. haha We will take lot´s of pictures of our adventurs to show you when we get home.

Well, that´s about it this past weekend. Oh scott it still a little bit sick. It´s just a stuffy nose and head pressure which makes you very tired all the time. Pretty much what I had a week ago. He´s getting better though. Well, I will write more later! Adios

Much Better

Well, at lot of things have improved the last few days. A lot of our ichy spots have gone away and I´m feeling a lot better. Scott´s getting a sore throat now and not feeling the best so i guess I gave it to him. Opps. Today we both have splits with the missionaries, that we are looking forward to. Tomorrow we head to Guatemala city to pick up the son from his mission. The family is getting everything ready, painting, cleaning and every dinner and lunch they are talking about. It´s so much fun.

Last night was so much fun! We were invited to dinner from this family in our ward along with there aunt (who is teaching us spanish) and her husband. It was such a wonderful spirit there and they were so happy to have us. After we ate dinne the husband got his guitar out and started singing. It was so awesome! He had such a strong deep voice and it was all in spanish! So awesome. We reorded some so I could remember it. I have a soft spot for deep voices and a guitar. He had a very funny personality too. He was always teasing and he showed us some magic tricks. haha Definitally a good night to remember! Well, till tomorrow!

Chiggers not Jiggers

Well, we looked on the internet to see what exactly these chiggers were...yeah really gross. I'm pretty discusted about the whole thing, but the Elder that told us about the whole Chigger thing, said they burrow in your skin, the i-net said that is just a disbelieve. They actually just bite you and some saliva is injected which is why it iches so much. So...we have been washing everything and taking showers a lot. Scott found some pills that actually help your body get rid of everything faster so he's getting better. I am as well, without the pills. So hoepfully we will get ride of it here soon. We got a little bit scared cause the internet said that it can last up to 50 days! No thank you! (here is a picture of our bedroom)

I'm still dealing with my nose and ear problem. Not getting a whole lot of sleep because of it, but I'm not bed ridden and it's sunny so I'm enjoying the sun!

Scott finally got a call from the elders here and he's going to go on splits with them. We have had a really hard time getting them to work with us. They always say they will call and they never do so it was pretty exciting to finally get a responce from them.

Well, we are still optomistic about this trip that there will still be more great experiences to come. We are still looking into go to a few other places here...no finaly decisions yet. Have a good day!

Still a little bit sick but WAY better!

Hello everyone! Well, Scott hasn´t gotten sick yet and I´m feeling better. Yesterday I felt really good and got a good nights rest sat night. Then right before bed on sun night my nose started running and I got all congested again and didn´t sleep hardly at all....so I went back a little bit but it´s way better then fevers and chills. I feel like I´m getting better though.

This week has some pretty exciting things happening. On Sunday we were invited to a lady´s house for dinner on Wed. Also the sister missionaries are finnaly read to go on ¨splints¨ (they just had transfers so they have a few greenies) and so I set up times for Thurs and Sun evening to go with them. The Fri after noon we will go with the Ixcot family to pick up there son from the mission in Guatemala city, spend the night there with there family and come home later Sat. So...very excited. The whole family is SO excited to see there brother and son. Reminds me of when Drew came home from his mission.

We are starting to look into some other trips and things. We still really want to go to Lake Atitlan and Antigua. The family is going to take us to the coast to this amusment park, they say similar to six flags....but I doubt it here. We´ll have to see. So...we only have 3 more sunday´s here and we want to go a few more places. So, we will let you know when we do.

As far as weather it´s been pretty rainy. It was nice and sunny thing morning and then it started raining. Reminds me a lot of Oregon actually. Not really knowing what the weather will be like. During the day it doesn´t rain very long, but at night it sure does. Just about every morning though it´s sunny and bright till later in the day. So it´s still nice weather, just not hot. I doubt I will get a tan while I´m here. Oh well.

We both just found out that right after this trip we will be going to Virginia as well. We leave Aug 19th and come home the 25th. So we get to go on another vacation. Maybe I´ll get a tan there...! Last night with the family was really fun. We played this game in spanish. We lost cause you have to know vocabulary...it helped us learn some but it doesn´t help at the moment..haha. We got the whole family playing and joking. Fun memories! Well, not a whole lot else going on...I will try to write more tomorrow. Adios!

Sick again...

Hello everyone. Well, I´m sorry I didn´t write yesterday I was pretty sick. The father got a fever and then next day my ears and throat hurt. Along with a fever later on that day. So I was in bed almost all day. Pretty weak too. I´m feeling a little bit better today, not completely myself though. Oh and we talked to some people about what our little red spots that ich a lot would be. They think that we got what they call ¨Jiggers¨. It´s a little bug that crawls in your skin and dies. So it was probably Tikal trip. We thought that we were just allergic so something in the water or poison ivy, but it´s not going away with any alergy medicine. So....now how you make it heal faster is we are rubbing alcohol on the red spots to kill the bug faster and then putting anti-ich cream all over. Scott it worse then I am. He´s got it all over his back, legs, and arms. I just have a little on my elbows and ankles. So...A few unexciting experiences but then again it´s an experience!

Well, not a whole lot else going on other then being sick and sleeping a lot. I hope scott doesn´t get it. He´s a really bad sick person. He complains a lot. haha Well, that´s the update and I will let you know on Monday what´s happening. Adios!

Another day here...

Hello everybody. Well yesterday we went and saw Harry Potter, the new one. Except it was in spanish so I don´t know how much of it I actually got. Here to go to the theater it´s Q25.00 which is around $3.20 but last night it was a two for one. So it was even cheeper and why not go see it. I can say I´ve seen it...I´m just not sure what exactly it was about... :) Oh and also we went to Hiper Piez which is like a mall here. I have put a picture of what they call monopoly. haha I thought it was pretty funny. Oh and here is a picture of how much pasturized cheese is here. Everyone eats the homemade kind in a corn husk. I like the cheese here actually! So the exchange rate it $1.00 is Q7.66. So for Q50.00 1 lb of cheese is $6.52. That´s a lot for just one pound. Nuts is even more. It´s like Q70.00 per one little can.

Scott and I decided to get a few little kid games and things to help us learn more spanish. For me, my mind has finaly excepted spanish and I´m understanding it a lot better and as of right now can speak it better. I´m not perfect...but better then I was. Scott feels like the opposite. He went with Enoc (the son off his mission) to work today and try and speak more spanish to people. He wanted to know more then he does now. We tried looking into some volenteer work and we haven´t really found anything yet. I will keep looking though. I haven´t been very sucessful in finding a cooking class to go to. They don´t really have them here because you are just supposed to learn if from your mom...and our mom we live with already has 3 daughters she´s trying to teach. So...I´ve gotten some pretty good ideas on food though. As far as salsa classes go....we haven´t gone yet. They are all in bars and we haven´t worked up to courage to go.

Oh and yesterday we got out leather covers in leather with church pictures carved on them! So cool. I can´t wait to use them. We both got one for our BOM and one for the bible. So that´s exciting.

Well, I don´t know what we have planned for today but what ever it is...we will let you know tomorrow!

Worst trip EVER!

Well, I wish I could saw it was an awesome trip. I´ve had a few bad traveling trips before but this one was the worst. It was bad organization, a bad bus, and people who lied to us. Everything they told us that was going to happen never did. We were supposed to have the police with us the whole trip because it´s dangerous to travel at night, people get robbed and killed all the time. Yeah, no police. Um...we were late leaving everytime so it made everything else worse and made it so that we got to sleep two nights in a row in a bus, wet, tired and hot. We are both very glad it´s over! We did take some awesome pictures though. We are done with the school and how badly organized it is. We will have to tell you the story when we get home. It´s WAY to long and you don´t want to hear bad stuff.

On a different note we think scott got poison ivy or some type of allergic reaction to something. So we are trying to figure out what´s going on with him. We did go through a lot of jungles and go into some water that we weren´t able to take a shower for about 20+ hours after, so it could be a few things. It´s just red and ichy so nothing too serious.

Well we are more the RELIEVED to be home and with the ixcots. They really make this trip fun. We are just going to get back into the normal swing of things again. I´m not sure if we will be going with the Ixcot´s to pick up there son from his mission. It´s in a couple of weeks. WE only have a month left. CRAZY! WEll, I need to get going. Enjoy your summer!

We Are Leaving To Tonight!

Hello everyone! Well weare packing up and getting ready to leave. We leave at 9 o´clock tonight and travel all night long to Coban area. The next day we will be rafting on this AWESOME river that has the underwater caves. I wil try to write while we are there...but honestly we will be traveling a lot! We are only going rafting for like 3 hours then we are back in the bus for 5 hours to Flores. Spend the nigh then go to Tikal so 3-4 hours then back in the bus for 7 hours down to Antiqua. Stay there for 4 hours then take a 4.5 hour trip back to Xela. We get in around 10. So it´s a lot of traveling but it´s cheep and atleast we get to see the places then not. Later on we will be going to Lake Atitlan for a weekend, not quite sure when that will be...we´ll let you know.

Our mother here is really giving scott a hard time about eating sugar. It´s so funny. Scott has told them that he´s a nutritionist (half true) and so they are always asking questions about health and excercise. When ever scott eats a cookie or candy she´s always saying ¨no more scott¨Last night they were wondering about excercising, so scott brought out his jump-rope and I got some really cool movies and pictures. We really have a lot of fun with this family. We even got the mom and dad to jump-rope. Don´t worry, I got a video! They aren´t very coordinated here.

Well, I forgot to put some pictures on to m camera to download so I´m sorry I don´t have any picures up, I will put some up when we get back. Well, We will take lot´s of pictures and show you a few, haha. I hope everyone is still doing good. Adios!

The Day Before We Leave

Well, we are still enjoying life. It´s a little bit weird since we are not going to school. We are not quite sure what to do. We are taking classes from a lady in the ward but she has a lot of health problems so she can only teach us from 3-5. So we have the mornings to do what ever we want.

Oh, I have to tell you. So there is this bakery that only opens on Tue and Fri. They make really good donuts (they are our weakness right now) and they make these mapel donuts put most of the time when we go they are already gone. So Scott wanted to get up early and go. So we did. When we got there there was only 1 left and we were like 4 in line. Scott was having some anxiety that someone was going to take it. I wish you could have been there. All he could think about was the donut and some one was going to take it before him. hahaha And people wonder why we don´t have children yet...I already have one!

It´s really crazy here how early this family get´s up. We are talking 4:30 in the morning. seminary starts at 5 and our mother teaches the class. There is a construction guy that comes at 5:30 in the morning and starts pounding on the ceiling. We don´t get very much sleep once 5:30 hits. I will start taking more pictures of the family since they are so much fun. The 11 boy is very cute and he talks really fast. Oh the other really funny thing about the family. They don´t want TV except at 9:00 at night. They will stop everything to watch Dragon BallZ. It´s is absoutally hillarious. The boy put Harry Potter 4 on they all of the sudden his watch alarm went off and he went to the other TV to watch the TV show. I don´t get it, but hey, every family has there little things they like. Oh, and half way through Harry Potter, the kid asked us if we wanted nachos. We said sure. So he left to the store bought some chips, like flavored (doritos, ect.) and put it all in a bowl and then squized fresh lime juice all over it. Then we were supposed to eat it...so that´s there nachos.

The food at this house is SO much better. We had stuffed Zuchini for lunch. Way good. Lunch is the main meal here and we dont eat dinner until norally 8:30-9 at night then they go straight to bed...not the best, but hey it´s how they do it here.

Well I´ve been on the internet long enough. I hope this is still interesting. I added some pictures if you hadn´t noticed. I added some even into June. I hope you like em! Adios

We´ve moved and it´s WONDEFUL.

Well, we have moved and it´s absolutelly wonderful. Everything is so much better. We moved in on Sat around 11:00 and from them started right in with things. The family had a birthday in the family so we went to the party, plaed with a bunch of little kids, ate really good food, and talked to every one in spanish. I´m starting to get it more. This family have 6 kids total 5 are still living at home, the youngest is 11, but he´s as small as Zephriam at 9. He´s got a lot of personality to him too. He hangs around scott and I a lot. The 6th kid is on his mission right now and will be coming home in about 2 weeks. So that will be really fun to see. The food with this family is also TONS better then the other house. And it´s less then half the price with the same things. So we are quite settled in and happy with the change that we have done.

This Thursday we are heading to Tikal and a bunch of other places. We are pretty excited. The weather here has pretty much been the same, over cast put hot about every other day. Which is nice. Just don´t expect a tan girl when I get back. I try...but it´s hard here.

Well, that´s about it. There is a lot going on now and I´m learning 5 times faster since the family is actually talking to us. They have 3 girls around my age so they like to talk to me, it´s really fast, but atleast someone other then scott is talking to me in spanish. Well, I hope everyone is still doing good. I will write more tomorrow

1 more day..

Well, We only have one more day at the school and 1 more night at the house we live at so we shall live. haha We don´t know when we will be moving on Sat but it will be a nice change.

Last night for the 4th of July we went to this resturant, $4.00 for this HUGE chicken burito. It was really good! I couldn´t finish mine...but of course scott had to show me up so he ate all of his and mine. I took pictures..don´t worry. I will put them up when I can. This resturant is really nice. It takes a little while to get the food cause they don´t premake it but it´s worth the wait. They normally have Futbol playing. Scott likes that.

Not a whole lot else going on. More changes will happen this weekend. My spanish is improving surprising as it is with my teacher this week...but it is coming together a little bit better.

Well, I hope all is well with everyone. Have a good day.

Two weeks here!

WOW I can´t believe it´s been two weeks. School for me is pretty hard this week. I really don´t like my teacher. I don´t feel like she is teaching me anything. She has me write a lot of verb conjugation while she sits there and brushes her hair and goes to the bathroom. But oh well. The days are very long with her. Last week didn´t seem this long cause I was talking and learning the whole time. It sure sounds like I´m complaining a lot and I´m sorry. Let´s just say the change will be good next week. :)

Other then that though on Mon we went with the missionaries to Central Park. They know some people that give good discounts to them so we got a few shirts and things. Then we headed with them to the mission office. Here they have these covers for your scriptures in leather that this guy puts church pictures on the fron and back for only 15 dollars. So we looked at some of the pictures and we are going to get some real leather scripture covers. I´m excited I really like ém. We will have to show you.

Oh, this sat we have set up a time to meet with this physical therapist in our ward here that works with little kids and we are going to get see if we can´t help them on sat morning. I´m not quite sure what will we do...if it´s just talking to them or actually massaging them. Either way it should be fun.

Well, We will write more either tomorrow or the next day. We are still having fun even though there are a few things we don´t like. I hope you are also enjoying yourselves in the beautiful summer weather.

We are moving on Sat.

Hola everybody. We are starting another week of school. It´s almost been 2 weeks. It´s so crazy. It doesn´t seem like that long. We have done so much that time isn´t going very fast.

Well we have good news. On sunday we talked to the Ixcot family and they said that since they have 3 girls they will put them in one room and we will be able to have our own bathroom and room with them. We are very excited. We are getting quite tired of where we are. Oh and they are able-will to have us for the whole time that we are here. They said they are even willing to teach us and take us to work with them and just get us to start talking more. We are both very excited.

We have mixed feeling about the family we live with. We feel that our family is very cheep towards us. The family never eats with us, 8and when they do they watch TV) and we have the same meals over and over. For lunch and dinner is the exact same thing, not the best when the food wasn´t good the first time around. I understand not having money or making something big and then just eating it for a while, but even the other people in the family will sit down later and eat something different. I dunno. It´s not terrible, just not the best situation.

The picture is of our bathroom that we got to share with 7 people. Fun huh. Enough complaning. It will change soon. Well, I need to get going. adios

In McDonalds

Hello everyone. We are walking around central park and we decided to stop inside the mcdonals here and see what is was like. So, I'm sitting here on the internet in McDonalds with all the rich guatemalan families. lol. McDonalds is like fast food in America, here it's a pretty expensive place for them. Just funny how opposite it is. Health wise scott and I keep switching back and forth with minor illnesses. The last few days I was all clogged up and sneezing with runny nose, this morning it was a LOT better, but now scott is sneezing and all congested. haha.

Well last night we talked to a family with the sister missionaries to see about moving in with them. They said they had to have a family council and would let us know by Sunday. But if they can't then his dad is the patriarch of the stake and was wanting student members to live with him. So we are hoping to be moving either mon/tue or the end of the week. We don't know for sure.

Well, it's timed so I got to run. Adios.

Update

Hello every one! Sorry I didn´t write yesterday. It was hot and we wanted to have fun outside. I have been a little bit sick lately, It always seems to be my ears. My nose and sinuses get all clogged up and then it affects the ears, very tipical for me, it´s just not the most fun. Other then that we went to instatute last night. The same family that we went to FHE with was teaching the class. They are such a great family. Scott and I have decided that we are going to look into moving in with a member here. We both notice a big different with the spirit and learning spanish. The family that we live with now is very catholic and she doesnt include us in a lot of the activites that could really help us learn more spanish. She doesn´t every take us to the market with her, or let us help her cook, or talk to us very much. They watch TV a lot. This other family is very good teachers and we are hoping that we can figure out a different way to help us learn spanish. Besides it may give us a good vacation spot when needed in the years to come. haha

Tonight we have a ward missionary dinner night thing at the church that we are excited to go to. We decided not to go on this weekend trip to the beach because it´s all day sat and sunday. We will take pictures of the building here. It´s pretty funny cause all the building are run down and then there is this beautiful marbel chapel on a main street. Everyone we talk to, knows where it is because it stands out. The inside is even better. I haven´t got a YES from scot but I think we will end up staying here the whole time. Along with learning spanish, we really wanted to get to know the people here. We have found some very strong members and a great ward that is very understanding and ready to help us with anything. So we will go on the tikal trip and then probably stay here and just enjoy the people. There is a sister missionary here that we were talking to last night. She started crying because she leaves in less then a week. She as so cute. Speaking of sisters, I´m going on ¨divisions¨or ¨splits¨with them on Sun . That should be pretty fun.

Oh, if any of you are looking on the map to where we are. Xela is just a nick name for Quetzatango. It´s west of Guatemala city. A little bit above Lake Atitlan.

Weather wise, yesterday is rained most of the day. Most days it seems to be nice and sunny during the day and then rain at night. Perfect huh. Some days it rains during the day, but most are sunny. It does get pretty cold at night here though. Last night was probably the coldest it´s been.

Oh. Scott broke down for american food yesterday and we went to wendy´s. haha It´s actually REALLY big. I was surprised. I was about ready to break down for american food to, scott just made it happen. lol The spice they use here is very different. My stomach doesn´t like it. some of the food I start eating and I just loose my appitite. So, maybe I will loose a few pounds. haha That and we walk everywhere here. Our family has a car but they wont ever take us anywhere.

Oh, our faimly, I haven´t told you about them other then that they are catholic. There is a grandma, Maria, her husband died 11 years ago from a heart attack. Her daughter lives with here and here son. No dad that I´ve seen. The daughter, fifi, works all the time pumping gas, and the son is about 12 years old and a lot like Jacob. Scott will play soccor with him but most of the time he just hangs on scott, beggin for attention. The house is quite small. There are 4 rooms, with one bathroom a little living room and a kitchen. They have a dog and a small backyard. That´s about it. it´s all cement, and painted very badly. It´s like Zephriam painted the whole house, it´s weird. Oh well.

well, this is a very long entry, sorry. Scott is doing homework so I have nothing to do. haha well, I will write more on monday since the school isn´t open on the weekends. Adios

Feeling much better

Hola! Well you will have to bare with me because my mind is starting to shut off english now. I can´t form basic sentances anymore. I had problem before but now its even worse. Well, we ended up taking the meds and we are doing SO MUCH better. It´s wonderful to actually enjoy our time here again without wanting to sleep or liedown all the time.

Yesterday we went to the market, no wonder we got sick. all the food is just barely above the ground and the meat is just hanging there all day long. It´s crazy here, I´m definetally glad we have a market place that can afford to keep things fresh.

We have signed up for a few trips these next few weeks. This weekend we will be going to west coast to see sea turtles and other activities. It´s this Sat and Sunday. Then July 12 we will be going to Tikal. This one is a 4 day trip and we see about 4 different cities. I´m really excited about this one. In this one place they have these underwater caves and there is wrafting on this clear blue river. We also go to Coban which most people say go there to learn spanish as well. So will tell you more about is when we know more ourselves. haha

Let´s see....school went well for me today. Although my brain decided to shut off (too much spanish) on the 2nd half of the day. I couldn´t remember the basic things I knew before I came here. Oh well. Sleeping helps me digest spanish in my head. haha I have found that I´m quite tired since I came here. I´m not quite sure why... I´ve always been able to take a nap during the day but now I need a nap it feels like. It´s part of the vacatoin right....

Well, till tomorrow. We are still enjoying our time here and it seems like we have been here for a really long time since we are doing so much. I hope you are all doing good! Adios

Another day here.

Well, we have both got the wonderful sickness that everyone dreads. It´s a good thing we brought some antibiotics. Other then that though we are enjoying our stay. We were able to go to a members house for FHE last night. They were very patient with us and it´s so wonderful to have the gospel throughout the world. It was a family with 6 kids, which by the way is VERY rare because of how poor everyone is here. Most people have 1 or 2 kids tops because they can´t afford anything. Most people don´t have cars, and most are living with relatives. We could definetally see the blessings they had from following the gospel.

School is still going great. Scott is speaking pretty good, even though he isn´t satified with it, he can carry on a pretty good conversation with the people here. Me on the other had, am still learning a lot of the basics. I´m getting it but scott speaks all the time so I hardly have time to talk, so we are working on that with him. He´s just a little to excited about learning the language. The 1-1 teaching is really helping me. She is a patient and good teacher for me. She took me to the bakery today and helped me with the different words while going there and also in the bakery. I just need to learn more words and then I will be able to speak it better.

I´m still pretty amazed by how small they are here. There really isn´t any difference between male and female. They are all about the same size. haha and then they breed smaller kids. lol The old men and women are so cute in the guatemalan outfits. I just love it.

Thank you all for your commnets, we are getting them by the way. I´m sorry there aren´t any pictures up, we only have access to the internet by the school´s computers and they are quite slow and old so I don´t have any way to get the pictures onto these computers to down load them on here. So sorry. When we can we will. Till tomorrow.

first day of class

I thought that i was good at spanish until i took the advanced lessons that they were giving me. They said that seven more weeks would be good enough to have it down pretty well. I am hoping that the schooling will help me learn much faster. They asked me to give a closing prayer and bear my testimony in priesthood yesterday. That was a little scary. It has been a wonderful adventure already.

Estamos Aqui En Xela

Llegamos en Guatemala en la tarde y conocimos nuestras neuvas de familias. Nos ayudan con muchas palabras en espanol. I want to just write really fast in spanish but I am not there yet. I still need about another week or two to have it down. Jessie and I are having lots of fun in a different country. They sure do things differently here. But I love it all. I am grateful for this experience, especially with my wife.

We are going to Xela (sheyla)

Hola! Well we have decided to go to Quetzaltenango (Xela is the nick name) We have found a cheep place and a nice school to go to for about 2 weeks. They also have a bus trip to Tikal in July that we will be going on. It's a 4 day journey, and yes it's on a bus but we get to see about 5 different cities and places along the way. As of right now, we will then go to Antiqua to learn more spanish. We may change it again so don't count on that. So I do not have a phone number or an address to give to you right now since we will be all over the place. Today we have really good internet access. I don't know what tomorrow will be like. So if it's a couple of days since I write, that's why. Well, I'm tired and today has been adventurous but tiring. We went to the Guatemala Templo and went through a session. I got pretty stressed out since I don't know the language to well. I can understand most of what they say...but I can't tell them if I need anything. lol Scott is normally my translator right now. lol We got lost in the city, that was fun too so we walked all over the place. haha fun times. Well, I will hopefully write more tomorrow. We have a 4 hour bus ride the Xela tomorrow, so we got to get to bed early. Have a good day and I will talk to you later! Adios

We are here

Hola! So we left rather early Wed morning so that we could have a 7 hour layover in Houston TX. As tired as we were it was really benificial because we got to talking to a native Guatemalan who lived in NJ. Scott got to brush up on his spanish, while I tried to understand. I still can't speak it very much, only a few words. I'm surpised how well I understood what they were talking about though. Of course we took pictures of them. She was the sweatest lady. After our flight, she totally took over and helped us with everything. She helped us get our luggage and when we went out onto the street she started yelling at anyone who tried to take our luggage until we found the hotel people who were supposed to pick us up. It was great to have a little madre on the airplane with us. So far the people seem very willing and ready to help, as well as poor.

I will have to say though our plane madre did scare us a bit. We were all talking and then another american who now lives in Guatemala chimmed in and started talking to us. Some how the conversation went to how dangerous it is. They were saying stuff like, 2 weeks ago 10 people were killed from a robbery on a bus, and how people are so desprate that they will take out people organs and sell them. Scott's eyes are gettin bigger and bigger. Haha. Many people have told us that it can be very dangerous here but it's no different then in some places in america. Once they saw that scott was getting scared they changed the subject and told us that as long as we are smart and dont go out late at night, then we will be just fine.

Things are doing great. We finally got to bed around midnight last night. We are in Guatemala City in a places called Casa de Familia. It's a very nice and cosy place. This morning we got black beans (crushed up), tortias, eggs and fresh orange juice. Very yummy.

Well I need to get going. We are headed to the temple this morning and then possibly some museums. We will write more a little bit later tonight. We are so excited!

LAST DAY IN AMERICA

This is finally our last day in America. Say good by to easy tap water, dishwashers, washer & dryers, and knowing where we are. Our cell phones will be turned off, our cars will be in storage, and know one will tell when to wake up in the morning. We have been looking forward to this moment for months. But it still does not seem real to us. I want to dream in spanish and talk in spanish like it was my first language. Say good-bye to it all and anew to what comes.

I AM ALL DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!

I finally finished school for the term. I am hoping that I got all A's in my classes. Finishing school didn't give an excuse to play though. Our clients want to get in for as many massages as they can before we leave, so there is not a lot of available time away from work. We are also starting to pack up a lot of things. It is still easy compared to going to school full time ontop of it all.

8 days till we leave

Hello everybody. We are getting SO very close to leaving and we are getting VERY excited. Along with the excitement though, comes a lot of stress since we are moving and packing. I found a home for our kitty in Vancouver so I'm very relieved to have found some one to watch him.

I'm still work a lot at Doug's and all my clients want to get in right before I leave so it makes it a little bit hard sometimes to get all the little errands and things that I need to get done, done, but things will get done either way. My little miss perfectionist Maddie, will come over after we have moved a lot of stuff out and help me clean the apartment so that we can have some kind of a deposit back. They didn't know that we had a cat so I hope that doesn't mess things up too badly...we plan on moving all of our big stuff on Sat evening.

A lot of people have been asking me what we will be doing once we get down there. We get there around 9pm on the 20th. So we will stay the night in Guatemala City, since it is too dangerous to travel to Antigua at night. The 21st we will stay in Guatemala City and go to the temple as well as do some site seeing. Spend the night again in Guatemala city. The next morning, the 22nd, we will then travel to Antigua. It's about 45 mins away. We will get settled in to our house/room and then probably have some one show us where the main places are located. The market, the stores, the schools, the bus stops, ect. Also we will stop at all the different schools and find one that we like so that we can start on Monday. If we haven't found one that day then we will look around the next day. From there we will just have to see what happens...

With the school there they don't have season with school. They are year around there and they start every Monday. Every school is different with different programs and advantages. For example, one school includes a cooking class that is "free" with classes. Other's have tours every week that you can go on. Some school's have volunteer programs. Also, every school has different prices. There's around 60 school's in Antigua. We have looked on the Internet, found a few we like, but until we see it we don't want to make a decision. They stay pretty open, and it's really not hard to get in.

That's the gist of what we are thinking about doing there. Things might change I dunno. Again I wanted to remind everyone that our phones will be turned off. We will turn them back on when we get back with the same number. So dont get rid of our number, just don't call us while we are gone. haha I will send any and all contact informaiton to both my parent's and Scott's parents so if there is an emergency then we will be able to get a hold of. Well, I will write more right before we go. Thank you all for reading this. I will talk to you later.

Going to move AGAIN!

Hey, we have decided to get rid of the appartment and live with Tutu and Lodi again. We are trying to save up some money towards a duplex or town house so we can start earning some equity. So, we don't really know how long we will be there. My parents are thinking of going to Costa Rica for 4-6 months in January so they want us to watch the house so we will move there in Jan. and get to save up even more. So that's the plan right now! We still need to find our wonderful ragdoll cat a home for 2 months if any of you want to watch him...he's a very attention hungry animal! Let me know if you know anyone that would like him. That would help me out A LOT! So that's the update so far!

First time with the blog.

Hey everybody. We have started a blog...I don't know how well we will keep this up but I will atleast try. I have never used a blog...so you will have to be patient with me. I will try to make this a cool place to go. I am wanting to make this our main sorce of communication while we are gone, since our phones will be turned off. I can check e-mail and such but have a limited time to be on and wont be able to write to every one. So if you want to know how we are doing, just check here.