Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Week 1 Guatemala MTC

So yeah today was our first P day and I can’t tell you how pumped I (and everyone) was to write home. Thank you guys so much for all the letters! We are pretty limited on time so I don’t know if I will be able to reply to them all, but know that I read them and loved them and it helps so much hearing from home.

This week was really long. We got to Guatemala around 6 am, and sat on the side of the airport for like an hour waiting for a bus to pick up us 32 missionaries that all flew down together. They carted us to the MTC in 2 school buses and then gave us 2 hours to rest and then we went directly to classes. All of that jet lag and lack of sleep (I couldn’t sleep on the flight much) led to the first 3 days being SUPER LONG, but it is getting better. Days are starting to go by a little faster and all is good.

My District is awesome!! There are 3 elder companions, 1 trio, and one hermana companionship. We go to class together and just have such a hard time focusing because someone is always cracking a joke or telling a story. We are always laughing and that has helped a lot. It gets so much easier when you can just forget about missing home for a few minutes and just laugh.

My companion is straight up the most annoying kid in the world. Ok that was mean and I am trying not to be as mean on my mission, but he really is. Evidently God knows I need to learn patience, so he is forcing me to. He thinks he is a pro at Spanish, but he really isn’t!  Like every 5 minutes he is asking me if he can teach me something because he knows so much more than everyone!!! It drives me crazy! He makes me wake up 20 minutes early in the mornings so he can go get ready, so I get ready in like 10 minutes and then sit up for a half hour waiting for him!! He is from Smithsfield Utah, and he tries hard and follows all the rules which is good, but also annoying. Like I am trying really hard not to be an anti rules person here, but when my companion insists on following me into the bathroom I have to draw a line... Ok, sorry I am done venting.

Oh yeah the bathrooms, surprisingly pretty dang nice here in the CCM (MTC)

I (most the time) really like the food! I don’t know if it is because I am starving, or if it is pretty good. Most of it is kinda like Mexican food, but like not at the same time... I don’t really know how to explain it. We had Spaghetti on Sunday though, and it was awesome to eat something I was really familiar with and it made me think about Sunday spaghetti dinners at grandpas and grandmas.

Oh yea before I forget- dad and Brandon, can you send me some world cup updates when you give me those awesome weekly dodger updates? It is all the latinos talk about, and it will give me some conversational topics for meals (we Nortes (North Americans) are supposed to sit by Latinos to practice our Spanish) Gracias

My favorite day this week was Sunday, because all of the classes are in English!! You don’t know how comforting it is to just hear people talk in English and actually completely understand what is going on for once! Except sacrament meeting, that is in Spanish. Now we all know I had trouble staying awake when sacrament meeting was in English, Spanish was so much harder!! I was passed out before they even said the blessings on the bread and water! oops, but I mean I am studying church stuff like all day every day so I doubt God would be to mad at me.

Our Mission presidents name is President Cox, he is from California and is just AWESOME. He motivates us and is always there to just talk with or joke with at meals or whenever. This MTC is a ton smaller than like Provo, I think.  I am sure I have talked to everyone here at least once already. I really like that though, because it makes the president so accesible. Like a guy in my district was just super homesick and wasn’t getting the language at all, so he went and just talked to the president for like an hour and now he is doing great!

In my room we have me and my companion, 1 norte companionship and 1 latino companionship... they are both awesome! The older guys helped us get settled pretty well, and the latinos talk to us for like 20 minutes each night to give us a chance to practice our Spanish.

Umm what else...

Oh I am pretty sure I have lost 5 to 10 pounds... we have an hour to work out in the morning and I have been using that time like crazy. When the first few days were hard something familiar like an eliptical and weights were really nice, so I have been working out really hard. I think all of my fat is almost gone again so I will be able to start getting back into shape pretty quick. Today I took a break from training to play soccer with some Latinos, They kicked my butt in exchange, so then I showed them basketball and slayed them (they are really short). It was fun!

The Latinos are so humble!! holy crap, the ones in my room have one white shirt each that they iron every night. I thought about offering them a couple of mine, but they aren’t near my size. They make their beds perfectly each morning and are just super awesome and come from super humble circumstances.

Overall all is well.  I am starting to acclimate a little and trying to just stay focused.

Love you all,
Elder Davis

P.S.  I don’t want to sound to much like a missionary already, but you should read Alma 36:3. It is awesome and an elder in my district shared a story on how one night he randomly read it and prayed and it just saved his life. He went from wanting nothing to do with the church to taking steps to go on a mission, and here is, one of the most spiritual guys I know.

(Harrison is not in this picture.... so not sure which group this is- maybe he is the photographer... Haha)

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