dia del brujas

I was going to send pictures . I brought my camera and everything but seeing as I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to figure out how to download them from my camera and aren't any closer, I'm thinking I'll do it another time.  It's a pain trying to do everything in Spanish.

 

That's really exciting to hear about Remington and Meredith (they are engaged and will be married December 30th in the Nauvoo Temple.)  It's great to hear about the whole family and the house.  I love hearing how the house is going.  To answer your questions, the tortillas are usually flour and the members feed us almost every night.  To answer another of your questions, they do have Halloween here but I think most people call it "Dia Del Brujas" or something like that.  It's day of the brujas. I have no idea what a bruja is though. (It means "Day of Witches" - thanks to the Spanish to English translator online.)

You asked where my companion was from.  He's from Guatemala.  I think the city is called Quetzaltenango.  I mentioned to him that my friend (my friend being Jared) got his mission call to Guatemala South. He told me that that part is really hot.  Also for Jared, my advice is learn the conjugations because they are a pain.  Other than that,  I really don't know what else.  Having more garments and socks than they say to bring would be convenient.

All the front doors on the homes have this little window, so when you're knocking on doors looking for people we always talk to them through that little window.  The houses are pretty third world.  Some of them though are pretty decent.  The third world part is nothing compared to constantly speaking Spanish. That's coming pretty well though.  I just wish it would come instantly.  On the topic of "third worldness," there is a lot of dogs on the street.  You mentioned a picture of a sink that Elder Konold had posted. I think you are talking about the big cement kind. Everybody has those. We have a regular kitchen sink too.  Well, it would be be normal if water more than dripped out of it.

Our church building is pretty cool.  Half of it is outside.  I should have taken pictures of that.

Anyway, it was great to hear what's happening.  I love you all.  Have a great week.  I'm going to try to send pictures again.

 

-Elder Jarvie

P.S. I finally got some pictures to download.  There is two of the city.  I'm in Guatemala City right now.  It limits my email size to like nothing so i can't send much as far as pictures. (I learned when I sent him pictures it worked best to just send one picture per e-mail.)

poco poco

I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time to write, mostly because I had 7 e-mails to read. Thank you everybody for those! And thank you madre, I got three of the biggest, bestest e-mails I've ever gotten in my life. It's amazing to hear that Jared is going to Guatemala! My mind was pretty much blown when you said that. About as much as when you said he was going to temple square. I was really confused by that. (Jared's mom was mad (but not the real kind of mad) that Jared made them wait until Emerson got off work to open his call, so she created a “fake call” where he was called to serve at temple square with the tabernacle choir through the language of music. He totally believed it for the first half of the letter, then figured out they had tricked him. It was pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself.) Tell him to study Spanish. Mostly so he doesn't have to suffer in the MTC. They force feed you Spanish all day in that place. Speaking of that, is he going to the MTC in Guatemala? I've heard that they close it some times of the year when there isn't a lot of people going out because it's so tiny. There are some perks to going to the Mexico MTC, like keeping your camera and having more free time than just P-day. But that wouldn't be as cool. 

It's different being here in Guatemala. It's third world for sure. I'll try to send some pictures next week. The area I'm in now, my first one, they just cleaned out. They had disobedient missionaries or something. So my trainer and I got put here starting from pretty much nothing. Also my trainer doesn't speak English, so that's a lot of fun. My Spanish is doing really good though. For less than two months, it's pretty freaking amazing. And it's improved a lot hearing it 24/7 with the whole comprehending what people are saying.

A lot of the houses are kind of like a house with no roof that has a house with a roof inside. There are a lot of little shops in the doors of what would be a house. It's kind of hard to explain. I'll have to send you some pictures of that too. A lot of them sell tortillas. Homemade tortillas are really common here.

One of my proudest moments so far was that I talked with a member about his avocado tree. I understood pretty much all of what he said except for the Spanish word for avocado. I had my Spanish dictionary with me so I pulled it out so we could look up what the word was. He pointed to a word. I read it. The word in English was “patient.” I was confused for a little while wondering what he meant by “patient tree.” We figured out it was wrong pretty quick, but just thought that was kind of funny. I know the word for tree because when I tell people I'm from Oregon and they have no idea what or where that is, I just tell them it's a lot like here but all the trees are pine or “pino” not to be confused with “pina” that's a pineapple.

As far as the whole missionary work thing is going, I'd say pretty good all things considered (and there is a lot to consider.) I'm pretty lost a lot of the time. It would probably help if I spoke better Spanish. I just follow my companion, smile real big and teach what I can. The Spanish will come I'm sure. The members always say “poco poco” which translates directly to “little little.” But judging by the context I'm pretty sure it means “little by little.” They also tell me Spanish is easy... like a lot. It's a lot easier when you've spoke it since birth. But honestly, it's coming just fine. It'll just take a little time. Poco poco. I love the times of the week when we're with the district and I can speak English. The weird thing is there are words I miss having. Like I wish there was a direct translation for the word “get,” or more then one way to say “yes.” In Spanish all I got is “si.” In English we have “yes, yeah, yep,” etc.

Also I should mention we have some investigators now. Some of them even committed to a baptism date. They're really cool people, even if I can't talk very well with them. I'd tell you more about that but I'm out of time. I miss and love you all. Talk to you next week. 

Elder Jarvie 

Limonada

Things are going alright.  I'm getting kind of sick of always being in the same place.  General Conference a few days ago was amazing.  The good thing about being in the MTC is that you get to watch it in English.  It would have been cool to listen to the Spanish talks in Spanish though.  Which by the way was super legit that they did that.  Just a week or two ago my district was talking about if there will ever be conference talks in other languages.  That question was answered pretty quick.  There was some really good talks.  I really enjoyed President Eyring's talk Sunday morning about revelation.

Last P-day they changed the e-mail time because we got to go on a tour of the city.  It was really cool. It doesn't really feel like Guatemala in the MTC, so it was a fun experience to be out there.  We went to a relief map of Guatemala.  You should try to Google pictures of it, it's really cool.  I doubt there are too many giant relief maps of Guatemala so it shouldn't be too hard to find.  It's crazy how steep some of the mountains are.  They said the map is almost perfectly accurate, which is crazy considering it was made by a bunch of guys riding around on horses.  The map was made a long time ago and the story about it is pretty cool.

The other thing we did that day that was really neat was we went to a market.  It was underground.

There was two parts to it.  The first one was a meat and fruit market.  The meat shop was pretty much like you see in pictures, just big hunks of meat hanging from hooks.  There was mountains of fruit. Some of it was different looking fruit too.  Anyway, it was pretty cool.

I leave for the real world on Tuesday.  It is pretty exciting.  The days here are the same most of the time.  I can't wait to just be able to walk more.  I've heard that our mission president is a cool guy.  All but one person in my district is going to my mission.  Somebody here, I'm not sure who, has a friend who is in the Guatemala City East mission right now.  The best news I've heard is that mission president doesn't have strict music rules, so I'm hoping that's true.

It's really pretty here in a lot of places.  It was really neat to be able to see things when I was out on the tour, because really all I've seen of Guatemala is what I could on the drive from the airport to the CCM.  It's really green. Like really green.  Even parts of the city look like a jungle.  There were some amazing buildings when we went downtown. There is a big green palace and a cathedral-ish thing, some sort of Catholic building.  It's too bad they're in the Central Mission so I won't get to go inside or anything.  I did hear that the map was in my mission though.

The culture here seems really cool.  There are some really neat and different places and people here.  There is amazing artwork and architecture and some really poor places too.  The last part of the tour we drove past a community that was pretty much a steep valley coated in shacks.  I can't remember what they call the places in general but I think that one in specific was called the Limonada (or something lemonade in English).

I can't wait to be able to speak enough Spanish to be able to talk to people.  Or even just to talk to people with the Spanish I do know.  I can teach the lessons alright, and can usually understand words I know.  I just don't know a whole ton.  That should be fixed in a few months though.  And if they go as fast as this one has, that should be in no time.  The first few days here felt like the longest ever, and I'm sure the first few in the field will too.  But the weeks are never long.  And as little as it feels like I accomplish, some days at the end of the week I'm a lot better than I was.  My Spanish is coming along a lot better. I'd even say it's going good.  

Things here are alright. Sometimes the supervisors are idiots (I mean this in the kindest way).  A lot of the teachers are really good though.  We've been really lucky with teachers.  The first two we had were amazing.  They changed our afternoon teacher last week, so we don't have Hermano Ruiz any more, so that's too bad.  Our new teacher's alright too, and we only have one more week.

Before I forget, I got your letter last week that you mailed me.  I just forgot to tell you.  And I got a Dear Elder letter from Michaela.  On the topic of letters, thank Sister Dabel for her letter.

I don't have much time left to write, so last thought is I love and miss todo de ustedes.  I'm sending a letter home today hopefully.  I'll talk to you next week.  It might just be a small letter next week because we are leaving and I don't know how much writing time we will have.  Goodbye.

Elder Jarvie

Going On A Tour

Today actually isn't p-day. We are just going on a tour around the city, so we won't have any time to write on p-day. It sounds really cool. There is a relief map of Guatemala here. It will be sweet to actually be in Guatemala instead of in the CCM. It just looks so cool out there.

A normal day here involves waking up around 6:30a, getting ready and going to breakfast around 7:30a. The food is usually not too bad and when it is weird it's usually because they are trying to make something American. After that we have personal study for an hour, where we study scriptures and whatever gospel topics we want. The hour after that is language study. Sometimes we have pre-work that we do (if we do, it is the most confusing hour of my life.) If we don't, I try my best to remember words. I don't have the best memory, so that's hard a lot of times too, but its going a lot better than I thought it would. I'm still behind most people but I can speak Spanish some. 

The reason understanding someone can be easier than talking sometimes is that they can say a word you don't know and you can just go off the rest of them, but when you're talking, if there is a word you need and you don't know it, there isn't much you can do. Also, sometimes there are words that you know but you just can't think of them. 

 After we've done language study for about an hour, our morning teacher comes in and we start grammar class. What we seem to work on recently is the endings to verbs. Every verb in Spanish ends in “ar, er, or ir” and then you change it to something else depending on when and who is doing it. For example, the verb “to pray” is “orar.” If I'm praying you take off the “ar” and add “o.” The “I pray” is “oro.” There are tons of endings.  For example, “will you pray” is “orará.” After grammar study we either have crey or companion study/teaching. Crey is where you practice the lessons. We practice with both white districts or Latinos, depending on the day. If we don't have crey, half the class does companionship study and the other half practices with the morning teacher. They had us doing teaching practices like the 2nd day. It was the most rediculous thing ever. 

Most of the times we have TALL before lunch. TALL is Technology Assisted Language Learning, so pretty much just more language study like what we do all day. (Which is good because I need it.) Then we have lunch and whatever happens next depends on the day. We always study something. A lot of times after lunch we get to study something gospel for a little bit, which is a nice break. (Not as nice of a break as lunch itself though.) After some more class we get to do sports at 3:30p. Sports is the biggest break of the day. We get a few 15 minute breaks (2 or 3) but meals and sports are pretty much our break time.

After sports we have our afternoon teacher, he's a really cool guy. He speaks like perfect English and is probably the only teacher in the CCM that relaxes every once and a while. We do class and study. The half of the class that didn't teach the morning teacher, teach him.  Some days we have a devotional instead of an afternoon teaching. Devotionals are the best. We usually watch videos from the Provo MTC. We watched a Christmas one once. One time we watched the same one twice (the first time it was a few years old, the second time it was live from Provo.) Then we finally get to sleep, after we write in our journals and everything else.

And that's pretty much a day, except for Sundays. Sundays we get to have priesthood in English. Usually we would get to have district class in English but they changed it to Spanish half way through. So this Sunday it was Spanish. We joined with another district. Usually, we switch back and forth and the companionships who didn't teach the last week teach that week for about 10-15 minute. But because they put us with another district, they called on the 2 companionships that didn't have a lesson and they had to teach in Spanish without a lesson plan. Sacrament is always in Spanish. Everyone plans a 5 minute talk and they randomly call on a group of people to give them. So, you write your talk and really hope they don't call your name. Last week it was the class before sacrament meeting and the guy who announces who is talking asked how to pronounce my name. I knew from that point that I was pretty much screwed. Sure enough, I gave a 5 minute talk in Spanish and read most of it.

The last couple of days I've been really tired. I'm not used to sitting and doing nothing but studying for so long. I didn't try to, but this week I fell asleep in sacrament meeting. I'm really exited for General Conference. Sometimes there are loud noises around here. We are pretty sure we heard a gun shot last night, and there are sirens all the time. All in all though things are going pretty well. I'm starting to get the Spanish. I'm still not good at all, but it is going well.

I love you guys. I'm out of time. Goodbye

Elder Jarvie

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Thanks for the letter. It was great to hear what's going on. Things here are going great. I'm learning Spanish better. I can actually say things.  The days here are like a year long but it's not too bad.  The afternoon teacher we have, Hermano Ruiz, is the coolest guy ever. We're pretty sure his family is part of the Guatemalan Mafia. He speaks perfect English too. You don't find that in many people who aren't white down here.

I think the scripture I wanted (for his missionary plaque) was 2 Nephi 22:2  I just know it was strait twos. I really like that one. It says something about God being my strength and song or something like that.

Things here happen the same most days. The CCM is a little different than the MTC for devotionals. People don't come, we just watch old Christmas devotionals from Provo. They aren't always Christmas devotionals, just one was, and it was really good. I just thought it was funny. Also, one time we watched a devotional that was a few years old and a week or two later we watch a live one from Provo and it was the same exact talk, almost word for word.

I sent a few pictures that the CCM people sent to me (group photos). My companion is the one with the blue coat. I think he is just a few people to the left of me in one of the pictures.

How is the house coming? If you do anything really cool you should send me some pictures or something. Or you could just keep it a surprise for two years. Either way.

The service project sounds really cool. I wish I was there to see it. Tell Grandma Anderson thanks for praying for me, and tell everyone else thank you too.

I feel like I've been here forever but I still have nothing to write about. I'm getting used to things here. Constantly doing something isn't as bad and I don't feel like as much of an idiot, because I actually know some Spanish now. It's kind of tough not having any knowledge of Spanish to begin with when almost everyone else has taken like two or three years. Things are going great though. One weird thing is being friends with people you don't speak the same language as. There was a Latino elder in my room who left last week named Elder Huasupoma. He was the funniest guy even though I understood very little of what he said. Most of his English was silly phrases and Toy Story quotes. Everybody here is great, especially in my district. We are learning a ton. We can actually give lessons in Spanish, even though I do get really lost sometimes. I'm excited to go out into Guatemala. It's like, “Let's get this show on the road!” Sometimes I feel like I don't accomplish anything here, but I am learning a lot. And I guess the more I learn the better I'll do in three weeks.

I'm out of time and I really can't think of much else to say so I guess that's alright. It was wonderful to hear from you and to hear what's going on. Keep me posted and keep up the praying. It helps a lot. Hopefully after I leave the CCM I'll have more time to say things and more things to say.

I love and miss you all, have fun.

Talk to you next week, bye.

Elder Jarvie

TREES EVERYWHERE

Things are going great. I've mostly gotten over the feeling that I'll never learn Spanish. Now I'm starting to go crazy doing the same thing every day. They moved p-day to today because we got to go outside of the CCM and go down to a little mall-like place. I have coat hangers now, so I'm a lot happier.  

The other four people in my room left this morning. More missionaries should be coming tomorrow. They were cool guys even if I could hardly say much to half of them. One of them was the Latino elder who always called me Elder Woody or Sheriff.   I would have a lot more to write about but things from day to day are similar. 

The craziest thing is that on the 2nd day I was here they had us teach a lesson in Spanish. It wasn't the best lesson I've ever given but that's what happens when you teach in a language you don't know at all. Even if I don't speak good Spanish it has improved a lot. When I got here I didn't know the Spanish word for good, so if you consider that I'm doing pretty great. 

They have some really good fruit here, and it's really pretty. There are flowering vines that grow on a lot of things around the CCM, they are even in some of the trees. The people in my district are pretty cool. I get along with them well. It really is a neat looking place here. I'm in the big city but there are still trees everywhere. It's like a forest with big buildings poking out of the trees.  

If you could check and see if they make Spanish scriptures in the size that my English ones are in that would be great. If you do anything new on the house you should send me some pictures. I don't have a ton of time and my p-day changes from Wednesday to Tuesday, so e-mails are going to be a little weird while I'm in the CCM.  Also they told me when I get out that I can e-mail for a longer time.  

I'm exited to go out into Guatemala but at the same time I'm worried. I'm sure by the end of the six weeks that I'll be so ready to be done spending everyday studying that I'll be perfectly happy to go, no matter how nervous I am.  Heck, I'll probably be at that point in about three days. Today is a little weird because everybody left this morning. More are coming tomorrow.  Because the Latinos only stay for two weeks everybody here is white now. Last night was like a going away tradition, everybody packed into one room and sang a couple hymns in Spanish. It just happened to be my room, so it was hot in there for like 20 minutes afterwards. They made a cake on the 15th for Guatemala's Independence Day, and then I spilled my tray in my lap. 

 The food here is great most of the time. Sometimes we will have something a little weird. One day for breakfast we had a grilled cheese french toast ham sandwich. The fruit here is amazing! As long as you don't eat too much of it.  Luckily, I haven't had any problems. 

The teachers are usually pretty cool, especially our afternoon teacher, Hermano Ruiz. I hope we get to keep him. Every two weeks they change teachers in some of the classes. They say it's like a 50/50 thing. We are all hoping he stays. Sundays are great. We speak English most of the time. It's nice to have a break. P-days are really good too. I'm getting used to stuff so everything is staring to be good, it's just not quite there yet. The way people put it here is that the days are long and the weeks are short. It's true though, everything drags on and flies by at the same time. Things here are going a lot better. I'd even say they're going good. I love and miss you all. Make sure and pray for my Spanish. 

 

Love,

Elder Jarvie

WEEK ONE

The first day here must have been the longest day of my life, but it's
getting a lot better.  A lot of people say that they don't know any
Spanish, but two years in high school is a lot more then none. To a point,
I'm just kidding.  Most people here do know a little more than me but my
companion, Elder Konold, is nice and puts up with me. His Spanish is a
whole lot better than mine and he helps me when I sit there like an
idiot. The SYL isn't incredibly bad, they translate a lot of the things
they say and I'm picking up some of the words now. It was really
stressful starting out but I'm feeling a lot better now.  We've had some devotionals and most of Sunday was in English. Those were amazing. I
legitimately cried a couple times, and I didn't even cry getting on the
plane. Not that I don't love you guy, I do a lot.  

The days don't take as long as they used to.  Fun fact: here they call the MTC the CCM. It's MTC in Spanish.  There are six people in my room. Me, my companion, two missionaries who have been here for a few weeks and two Latinos.  Talking to the Latinos is pretty cool.  I don't know much Spanish and they don't know much English.  There are a few of them that call me Elder Woody, because they think I look like Woody from Toy Story.  Some times I'll be walking down the hall and like three of them will salute me and say "sheriff."   I'll just be walking down the hall and have to salute like three different Latino elders.  One night the lights were off, I was laying in my bed and I heard "Elder Woody."  I responded back "Si" (yes).  All he said after that was "I'm a snake in my boot."  It was probably one of the funniest things I've ever heard. 

Remington has described the MTC as drinking out of a fire hose. Personally, I think it would be a whole lot easier if the fire hose was in English.  We've watched two videos on dealing with stress, so you can imagine it's hard at times, but it's getting better.  We get to play sports for like an hour every day, that helps a lot. And even though it's hard it's some really good times. 

My CCM district is amazing.  They are some of the coolest guys I know and I've made some friends, even if I don't speak the same language as some of them.  In one of the stress videos they were interviewing missionaries.  One of them popped up, and in my head I was like, "that guy looks familiar."  It was Shane, but a lot younger.  It was neat to see someone I went to college with when he was in the MTC. 

My Spanish is coming.  It feels like it's coming slowly but
that might just be because the days are so long.  Our teachers are
really cool, so it could be worse.  We went to the temple today. That
was pretty great.   It's nice here in its own way.  It is very pretty.  I
would send you pictures but they take our cameras while we're at the
CCM. I got a few picture before though so I'll send those when I can. 
Also, at least while I'm at the CCM, my P days are on Wednesday. 

I love and miss you all. Things here are hard but great.  On the way over I met up with missionaries in the airport in Salt Lake and LA. At Salt Lake there were like 15 or so and I think I was the only one not from Utah. I did get a window seat for two of the three plane rides, so I got to watch the whole thing. I can finally say I've flown in a plane now, three in fact.  On the plane to Guatemala I sat next to a lady who didn't speak English. We rode in a re-purposed school bus to the CCM. Security here carry huge guns. Things are different here and really neat. 

Love Elder Jarvie