My Mother's Lucky Machete

Alright, this week was easily my best week in the CCM. Why? Because Guat City is awesome. We started our city tour with a trip to Wendy's. Wendy's here is super amazing. Imagine that Pat&Oscars bought Wendy's. That's what it's like. I don't think I've ever tasted anything so amazing as my Wendy's. I had a burger that I could have sworn was personally grilled by Uncle Sam. And I got an extra large Coke. Can't stop me from being American. 

We went to see this awesome relief map of Guatemala. It was really cool to see all of the mountains and lakes and areas that I'll be in. After that, we started our bus ride into the city. I saw a man peeing in the street, and a lady no-shame breastfeeding on a bench. Welcome to Guatemala, Elder Konold. 

The market was so cool!! There were two levels. The bottom one was a food market. They had massive cuts of meat hanging from the ceiling, 8 foot tall mountains of fruit, and flies EVERYWHERE. It was still pretty neat to see. The second level was where all of the Guats were selling their stuff. What was the first thing I bought? If your guess was "Not a machete," you'd be very, very wrong. Elder F and I both got one. They came in a really cool leather sheath. I walked around and got some goodies for all of you. I was happy that I was able to communicate with these people. I went in with the thought that I'd do some bartering and get some sweet deals on everything, but I quickly realized that these people need that money far more than I do. The presidential palace here is made of green stone because the president's wife loved guacamole. I can definitely see where she's coming from. 

Every week, we teach "investigators." This week, we actually taught real investigators. Elder J and I taught a woman who was supposed to be less-active, but turns out, she goes to church every week and the temple often. So that was a bit of a waste. Oh well. I got to practice my spanish!

{Fin's CCM District - Elders Dawson, Jarvie, Konold, Aubrey, Gurksnis, Flygare, Duncan, and Chabries}

Conference was pretty cool this weekend. My first time watching ALL. TEN. HOURS. So long. I thought the talks were good. My two favorites were Lynn G. Robbins,

and David A. Bednar's.

Bednar's talk was easily the best conference talk that I have ever heard. Can you print that out and send it to me? 

We got the package you sent on Monday. Everyone was really happy to get mail. That's honestly my favorite thing in the world now. Mail is the best. 

I guess that's it for this week. My next P Day will probably be my first Monday in the field. I'm so excited to go out, and I'm ready to be a real missionary. 

Abrazos y Besos!

-Elder Konold

P.S. The coke tasted a bit sweeter. But it was from a fountain, so I didn't notice a huge difference. I had a 2 minute chat with one lady at the market! I just told her that we were all missionaries and today was our day to do some exploring. I think we understood each other pretty well. I don't know if the churches here have wifi. I'll find out soon. I don't think that I get to email next week - we leave the CCM early next Tuesday morning. I go through phases of soft and liquid, but no solid dumps. Still haven't crapped in my Gs!