Feliz Navidad!

This letter might be a little shorter because I sent a few other letters.  The house looks freaking amazing! And the tile is beautiful.  Those little ornate things are cool too.  It looks amazing. And the walls too, my goodness. (Now that's the kind of enthusiasm we're looking for!)
 

Yesterday we had a Christmas devotional.  It was really neat.  There was 4 zones, so I got to see a few people that I know.  Two people from my MTC district were there,  Elder Girksnes and Elder Aubrey. And a few people that were in the zone I'm in now that had been changed the transfer. (This is how you know his Spanish is getting better, because his English is worse. So cute!)  They fed us some food and we watched the Disney movie "Iron Will" in Spanish.  I think that would be my first time watching a movie in a different language, and without subtitles or anything.  Luckily,  I have just enough time that I understood a decent amount. (Translated in English he means he's been in Guatemala enough time to understand the Spanish)  It was a really good movie too.  It helps that I'm kind of deprived from movies.  Watching anything on an electronic screen is automatically super neat.

 

On the bus drive back one of the Latino elders that can speak some English started to sing the song "Friday" only with "P-day" in place of "Friday."  I just thought that was funny and you guys would like to know.

 

We pretty much had 2 P-days because of the devotional, it ended about the same time as P-day does.

I'm really exited to talk to you guys.

 

This morning I was reading the Liahona in English and there was a guy whose last name was Amado (which is a word in Spanish)  (It means "beloved") and I was just zoned out enough that I had to stop and look up to double check what language I was reading in.

 

The Spanish is coming along really good.  It helps that I speak it all the time.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just uncomfortable talking two languages now.

 

I haven't gotten your box yet, but nobody in the zone has gotten mail for the last week or two, so we are thinking something's up.  Maybe they're saving it in the office until Christmas.  I feel like it would be a lot of work delivering all the mail Christmas day though.  Maybe they got their hands on Santa Clause technology.

 

One of these days you need to send me Rick's letters too, or is it Elder Pedersen?  Anyway I would love to read them. (I actually mailed them this morning finally!)

 

From what I've heard and seen the Christmas traditions in Guatemala are: throw firecrackers and eat tamales.  They really love fireworks here.  A little while ago we were talking to a lady walking down the street and a guy came out of his house and yelled "yeahh CREAMA!!" really loud (creama is the Spanish word for cream).  And after screaming for a while he threw a big rope of  firecrackers.  It was kind of weird.  Sometimes I love this place.  It's a tad less weird knowing that it's the soccer finals here in Guatemala.  But it was still funny.  These people are crazy.

 

Anyway,  I'm pretty much out of time.  Thanks for all the e-mails and "Feliz Navidad" (Merry Christmas tambien  (means "you also" )  I'll talk to you guys in a few days!

-Elder Jarvie