Lost in Pronunciation

How's it going this week?! I had an awesome week, But I don't have a whole lot of time to talk about it. I was INCREDIBLY grateful to receive your packages. 

I have Christmas morning sitting under my desk. Very excited. I got to see almost all of my friends from the CCM at a conference we had last week for new missionaries and their trainers, so that was really good to see how everybody else is doing. President Crapo told us a story about the importance of language study. When he was a missionary, They'd use a chair to illustrate the Apostasy. They'd say "Esta silla es la iglesia de Jesucristo. Las patas (legs) son Un Profeta, Los Apostoles, Revelacion y Autoridad." He was training a new elder who was teaching that, and the new elder said "Esta silla es la Iglesia de Jesucristo. Tiene 4 putas (Definitely NOT legs)..." That was an awesome story to hear. It was even funnier because our President said it.

 {Elders Aubrey, Konold, Chabries, and Gurksnis reunited!}

So Thanksgiving is this week.... I'm going to try to buy a pie to celebrate. Maybe we'll feast on McDonald's (You can have it delivered here). We'll. see. Well, I'm onto my size 31 suit pants. All this walking is doing me some good. If only I could swim, I'd be looking awesome right now.

Something I found out this week- Guatemalans don't use syrup for pancakes, they use honey. I thought my comp was just being dumb and didn't know that we had syrup in the house, but we had breakfast at a member's house this morning and they gave us honey for pancakes. Guatemala.

Well, I love you all and can't wait to talk to you next week!

-Fin

P.S. Glad to see Brennan didn't disappoint. And I'm glad to see Brennan is stepping into my loading responsibilities... But the dude needs to play some Tetris or something, that truck is lookin' loose! I can send packages through pouch. I'm going to do that. I obviously haven't been buying anything on my iTunes account. My guess is that I'm somehow still logged in on a device at home. I'll talk to the nurse this week. And yes, I got my package this week.

I sent him a list of questions for this week, too:

1. What has been your best day so far? Last friday. It was a pouch Christmas for me

2. Do your feet hurt at the end of the day? Are your shoes holding up? My feet used to hurt while I was still breaking in my shoes. They're fine now.

3. With transfers tomorrow, are you going to be able to go see some of your CCM friends? No, we only go to the change conferences if we or our companion is transferring

4. Are you getting enough food to eat? A veces. I'm not starving.

5. What has been the most interesting thing you have eaten? Fiambre

6. What was the market like? Have you been able to explore a little? The market was cool. Much better this time because there were less people and I could speak much better.

7. Is the City beginning to decorate for Christmas? YES. A bit. And I hear Christmas music sometimes

Legal in the Guat

"I think I forgot to tell you that we were going to the temple and our P-day was Tuesday this week.  Whoops...."

Good week this week. Fun stuff. Happy time.

{I'm lucky to have the temple close by!}

I´ll start by saying that I finally finished the Book Of Mormon this week. That was pretty cool. I guess it only took about 10 years to get past "I Nephi..."

So on Wednesday, I had to go to the Immigration office to sign my visa to let me hang out in the Guat for a couple years. I was super stoked to see my buddies from the CCM, but my whole district went on TUESDAY. I was bummed. I guess I´ll have to wait another 6 weeks to see them, unless I see some of them at Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, for the first time in my life.... I´m 100% okay with hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I bet my mom will jump for joy when she hears that. Maybe it´s because Thanksgiving doesn´t even exist here. Maybe it´s because it´s just english music. Who knows?
We has a whole bunch of less active members and investigators at church this week. That was super cool. We´re teaching one family who´s kids get super excited when we come over and ask for all of our folletos.

Last P-Day, the nurses came by and gave us all Influenza shots. Super fun times.

{Do you sense any fear of needles behind that smile?}

Well, that´s all for this week. Hope you´re all having a good time.

Much love,
Fin

P.S.  I had no idea you guys were going to Hawaii haha. Or I guess I forgot. Sad to see dad´s beard is gone, but I bet you´re stoked. I got your package today! I´m going to open it tonight. I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday, so that was cool. Hope you guys are having fun!

Love, Fin

Guatemala Goodwill

This week's letter was very short.  They were on their way to the central market with other missionaries today!
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I´m sorry to report that this week wasn´t nearly as exciting as my last. After emailing last week, we went to a mall and went to what is basically the Guatemalan equivalent of Goodwill. If you've ever wondered where all of the DI&Salvation Army stuff goes, I found it. I was looking through all of their t/shirts and was cracking up because they had lots of ones from Utah. I actually found a UofU ¨Beat BYU¨shirt, so I´m planning on having lots of fun with that ;) 

 {My street}

{My house}

On Thursday, we helped a family move into their new home. We moved a 4 foot wide, 300 lb. dresser up 3 stories. We did that on a spiral staircase that was about 3 feet wide. That was not an easy experience. Very interesting, and very tiring. I think those people have half of the furniture in Guatemala. 

We found lots of new investigators this week. One family is kind of interesting... The guy is 30, and his ¨wife¨ is (Drumroll please) FIFTEEN! With a 2 year old son! There was fury in my eyes when I found that out. 

Hey! I saw a cockfight in the street yesterday! There were feathers everywhere. Both of them survived. I promise! My comp and I are getting along great! He cooks me food, and I translate love letters into English for an American girl he likes. Good stuff. 

That´s all for this week! We may or may not have a baptism this weekend. We´ll see.

-Elder Konold

Fiambre, Baptism, and No Halloween

Alright. Busy week. So on Thursday, we had our first zone conference. It was super awesome. I learned a lot, and President and Hermana Crapo are some of the nicest people on the planet. Our assistants are awesome too. It was all in Spanish, and I understood about 98% of it! My Spanish is improving a lot. I work hard every day, and I can really see it paying off. 

I went on splits with a zone leader this week. Elder Brindle- He's from Kentucky and has about 3 weeks left in the mission. He still works super hard, which is awesome. I learned a lot from him. We placed a BOM and a ton of folletos, so that was awesome. We went tracting in the Favela! The houses that we saw were actually pretty nice inside. Wood floors and TVs. 

So it finally happened. A lady started breastfeeding during a lesson. I totally saw it coming, and I was like, "Oh no. Oh no please don't grab your baby. Oh keep them in your shirt. Oh that's a boob."  And the night before, I saw a guy pooping on the sidewalk! We walked back that way later, and I think that a gorilla actually swung by and added to his pile. It was ungodly large. 

Okay, so the 1st of Noviembre is pretty much labor day. I think we were only able to teach 3 lessons. Nobody was home. But there's a traditional dish here called "Fiambre." I was told it was a meat and cheese salad. I was expecting carne asada and pollo frito, with some awesome guatemalan goat cheeses or something, but it was just a bunch of sliced lunch meat. Not awful, but I definitely prefer my street tacos. We had boiled squash for dessert. Boiled squash is not dessert. 

So we had a baptism yesterday!! His name is Gonzalo, and he's a really awesome guy. He's super humble. We invited him to be baptized on my first night here, and he was baptized yesterday right after church! It was really cool to see our hard work, as well as the work of the Spirit, pay off. Elder Funes did the baptizing, because it was his first baptism as well. We have 4 more fechas lined up, so I hope they all go through!

I'm in Alma 43 right now. I'll probably finish the Book of Mormon in another week and a half. Alma 26 is probably the most amazing chapter in the whole book. It helped me a lot. 

Love you all!

Oh yeah, nobody here celebrates halloween. Or Dia De Los Muertos.