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.