Earthquake!!!

This week has been a very exciting week!!  I experienced my first earthquake and it was pretty awesome...  We were in our class when it happened and it was a 5.9 where I am, although Jonny said it was a 6.2, Im not quite sure exactly what it was but it was pretty interesting.  But anyway we were sitting in class and all of a sudden all the desks started to move.  Nothing was destroyed which made the experience pretty fun.  It was a side to side earthquake which I have come to find out isnt as dangerous as an up and down earthquake.  Then after the earthquake they made us all go outside and get a little lecture on what to do in case of an earthquake.  And this was at night, so they gave each companionship a flashlight in case there was an aftershock.  But there was no aftershock.  So I can now check that off my bucket list of surviving an earthquake.

 

For my p-day last week we got to go to wal-mart which was extremely fun.  We dont get to leave the CCM very often so it was awesome to be able to go and experience some of the things of Guatemala.  Wal-mart here looks just like the U.S. ones but most of the prices are a lot lower here.  I fould 2 Gatorade bottles for 10 quetz which is about 1.5 dollars.  So I have this feeling that I will be living of Gatorade because it was cheaper than any other drink.  Also for p-day we got to go to a wendys, and this was the first American food that I had had for four weeks and it was amazing.  But it was funny because we had to order in spanish, because we´re in Guatemala, and the lady taking our order talked super fast.  So most of the elders would say what they wanted and then the lady would ask them a bunch of questions like what they wanted with their food and we would all just nod and say ¨si¨  so a lot of the elders didnt get what they wanted because they couldnt understand her.  So that was quite the experience.  Also we went to a church that had a field and everything, so we played soccer there.  I have come to love soccer, and Im not going to lie Im pretty dang good...  ok not really but it is fun to play.

 

The Latinos here are some of the funniest people I have met.  They are always so upbeat and ready to talk to us Nortes, they like to make fun of us because we cant understand them a lot of the time.  And also they always want us to teach them english.  Although they dont want to learn good english all they want to learn is slang... so it is kind of fun.  The Latino in my room now always says, ¨what is going down up in here¨ because Elder Hansen taught him that.  So it is pretty fun to hang around with the Latinos.  But they are also some of the most spiritual people I know.  This week there was a Latino that went home, because he didnt feel worthy to be on a mission, but it was an awesome experience to watch the love that all the Latinos showed for him.  The night before he went home, all the Latinos were in his room just talking to him.  They werent mad at him, or telling him that he was doing something terrible, they had a testimony meeting, and talked to him to help him feel better.  This went on for about two or three hours.  So the Nortes that were in his room had to come stay in our room for a little bit, because they wanted only latinos in there.  They stayed up until about midnight talking to him.  Then in the morning the elder left at four in the morning.  And about thirty of the elders woke up at four with him and said good bye to him.  It was awesome to see the love that the Latinos have for others.

 

My scripture for the week is D and C 4:3.  If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.  I have always loved that scripture and it has helped me to know that if I have a desire to serve, God will help me in all that I do.

 

Love, Elder Jeffrey Stuart

Kek´chi

Not much has happened this week.  Life gets kind of repetitive in the CCM but it is awesome because of how much we are learning.  I have learned so much spanish that I can now basically carry on a conversation with my latino roomates.  So that is awesome, and also I can understand spanish almost fluently.  So I cant wait for when I get been one of my dreams.  Also it has been confirmed that I will be learning the dialect in Coban and basically only speak it.  It is called Kek´chi.  So when I return hopefully I will be tri-langual.  Me and Elder Pyper have met some of the Latinos that are in the CCM that are from Coban and we have tried to talk to them so that we can learn a little bit of Kek´chi but it is hard to learn from them, because we dont speak enough spanish to ask them how to say things in Kek´chi because we are trying to translate from english to spanish to ask them, then the tell us the Kek´chi word, which we have to translate into spanish then into english to understand... So if that even made any sense, it is hard to learn it from them, but we are trying.

Tomorrow for P-day we get to go to Wal-Mart which is the thing that basically all the missionaries look forward to here.  So that is going to be a party, because they dont really have a lot of American stores here.  But we get to also go to Wendys that day too, so that is what I am really looking forward too because I have been craving some sort of American food.  So tomorrow is going to be a good day.

Also I was talking to one of the Elders that got to the CCM at the same time that I did, and his name is Elder Mckay Kearsley.  We were talking and then he said something about golf and I said that I played golf.  Then he said ¨Thats where I know you from!¨  So I asked him how he knew me and he said that he played in a golf tournament with me one time.  But I was a little confused because I didnt remember him.  He said it was the Brigham City invitational, and that he plays for Morgan High, which is 3A, and they were invited to the same tournament as Woods Cross. I told him that it probably wasnt me he knew because I didnt play in that tournament, but then I remembered that Ryan did! He says he played in the first spot for Morgan and that he played with a Woods Cross guy but he cant remember if it was Ryan or if Ryan was in the second spot, but he remembers Ryan.  Ryan do you remember a Mckay Kearsley?  But yeah I thought that was cool and I finally found my first connection in guatemala.

Anyway thanks for all of the support and letters that you guys have written.  I really appreciate it.  My scripture is 1st Nephi 3:7.  I know that this scripture is well known, but it has popped up in my teachings like four of the last five times, so I figured it is important to share with you guys.  ¨And it came to pass that I Nephi said unto my father, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the things which he commandeth them.¨ I really like that scripture, and how it shows that the Lord is on our side and that he wants us to keep his commandments so that we can return to live with him.

Love Elder Jeffrey Stuart