Sorry no pictures this week I forgot my chord... Bad week to do that huh? Anyways I´m was so excited to hear about and see Will and I pray that I won´t be thinking about him in all my lessons today haha but no promises... Brad and Michelle are going to great parents, you two just ahve to promise me that you won´t have anymore until I get back okay?
Okay so I was transferred which I sad about. I really wanted to see what happened with our investigators and adjusting to a new area is never fun, but at the same time it can be exciting. The area is Chimaltenango, and it´s a really amazing mix of city and mountain life, or as my friend Elder Davis says the fake mountains. In that he means there are stores shops and normal life but within this huge city there is people wearing the traditional clothes (called corte) people riding horses with cowboy hats and a machete at their belt alongside the cars, etc. Its an amazing mixture of old culture and a westernized city. It´s cool because I have everything I need readily available, but if I walk twenty minutes one direction in my area I´m next to a field where strong old latino ladies are hacking at their crops with a machete. Wow my life is nuts. This is the areas that are poor with a lot of widows and dirt floors but down in the city everyone is pretty normal like is Guatemala City. Except for the fact that I saw a man dip is bread in his sprite and eat it the other day, and then his daughter followed in suite. Gross
My apartment is way nicer than my old one except for the fact that our shower is broken so a solid stream of freezing cold mountain water coming out of the wall is all we have. Mornings are a sight to behold with a lot of girlish screams coming from the bathroom at about 7 o clock every morning. Also it´s a bit cooler up here so the freezing cold showers don´t contribute to that. But other than that I´m really enjoying the new apartment with tile floors (yes! I can actually clean the dirt off) and more space.
The area is huge which is a bit overwhelming considering I´m probably going to be leading the area next change because my companion has been here forever, but who knows. That doesn´t mean senior companion, just showing a new companion the area, but we´ll see. We have to plan smart so that we aren´t taking a bus in between every lesson from one side of town to the other. It´s way different compared to my last area which was tiny. It´s really cool to be surrounded by the mountains though with peaks of volcanoes in the distance etc. Guatemala is awesome.
My companion is the most difficult adjustment. With Elder Tarax when we had differences we could simply talk about them, but Elder Alberto is someone who likes to work out a lot, look at himself in the mirror, and doesn´t have the best attitude. He does like to work which is good, but his intentions with baptisms are very numbers driven leading to a lot of his past baptisms being people who haven´t stayed active. He is a good worker though, and he has listened to me when I suggest something which is good, but I don´t feel anywhere near comfortable making suggestions. So maybe I just need to be more bold and not worry about what he thinks, we´ll see. Part of the reason that he is numbers driven could be the zone. Our zone is extremely numbers driven, and don´t get me wrong numbers are important and have their purpose, but when the focus is on the numbers and not the people there in lies the problem. I don´t leave district meeting feeling inspired, I just leave feeling awful about not achieving our goals. So we´ll see what I can do to contribute to the focus of the area in my lowly position as a greenie haha.
Anyways I hope that wasn´t overly negative, I lov ethe area, and am learning a lot from my new situation with my companion. I need to take initiative in different ways and I know there is a reason I´ve been sent to this area with this companion. There is always something we can learn, we just need to look for it. Sorry I don´t have much to write about investigators or anything, it´s all so new to me, so maybe next week, and I promise pictures. Also I´m sending another DVD with pictures, hopefully this time it will work. Try it on a PC mom maybe that will work.
I love you all, am learning a lot, trying not to get down in the difficult times, and really enjoying the good times. A mission is hard but it can be gratifying, I love you all and Mom email me about any details I forgot, I can add them next week. Also ask Anne for the note I made to you in her email.
I´m excited to hear about the first week of Wills life!
-Ben
Ben is a brand new uncle...had to post some pictures of his cute little nephew...William Peter Pearson!
