January 17th, 2011

Hey fam! So today was I super good week! You wanna know why???? Cause I had my first 3 baptisms!! Woohooo! Their names are Mercy, Michelle and Estaphany. It´s a mom and her 2 daughters who are 14 and 12. They are suuuuper stong and are going to be great members. We are still working on the dad who says he knows it´s true but he´s not ready. It was cool though because Mercy told us that she´s really glad we were the missionaries in her area because she said she wouldn´t have let the Elders into her house. She has a really hard time with men because in the culture here they are the BOSS and the women do whatever they tell them to. And she´s a feminist and hates that. So that was cool. We also have another baptism this Saturday. Her name is Jessica. She is 15 yrs old and have a 6 month old baby. She confuses me cause she keeps all her commitments and reads in the BOM and answers all the questions right and stuff but I don´t know if she reeeeally gets it. But that´s ok. I´m excited for her. I´m starting to think that she´s only getting baptised cause she thinks that we are her ticket to the united states. On the walk home from church, she asked if she would have to have a Visa to get there if she just went home with us. Bless her heart. In answer to your question, we kinda stopped teaching Luiz. The president was worried for our safety cause he could be dangerous and such. We still go visit but not as much. Time is flying here. It is CRAZY to me that I´ve been here for 4 weeks already. Strange. I guess that´s what happens when you´re having fun. haha It is soooooo hotttttttt it´s INSANE! Everyone tells us that it´s just the beginning of the hot season. They say it starts right now and ends in May when the rainy season starts. And then it rains until November. I´m excited. haha Our electricity went out for quite some time. It was very intersting to try to live by candelight but also quite an adventure. In answer to your question on if I feel safe or not. I do. Every single house that they go to, they tell us that it is soooooo dangerous here and that 2 white girls really shouldn´t be here. But I´ve never seen anything horrible of felt unsafe really. But then again our curfew is 8 so maybe that´s why. haha

Funny things that would only happen in Guatemala.....
-There was a dog in the chapel on Sunday. The sad thing is, is that I didn´t even think twice because it seems so normal to me. Until an oooold man who can hardly walk started chasing it around the chapel in the middle of sacrament meeting. BAHAHAH! It made my day. (speaking of which, I had to speak yesterday. yuck!)

- Yesterday Hna Nelson and I were walking down the street and a drunk man came up to us and we kinda stopped like what the heck? And he got down on his knees and started bowing down to us and telling us that we are beautiful angels. And that his heart is gone and he thinks we have it! There were tons of people around and it was slightly embarrasing but nevertheless...hilarious!

- People are sooo honest here. Everyone describes people as the ugly on or the fat one. I heard someone describing me the other day as the Gordota (which means like not just fat but OBESE) hahaha I told Hna Garcia (one of the latina hnas that lives with us and she assured me that they were just being sarcastic but I´m not sure what to believe. hahahaha

- Something else interesting is that eeeeeveryone kisses everyone on the cheek as a greeting. I´m not a huge fan. The other day a man greeted me that way and he was drunk and I did not enjoy it so much.

Anyways, that´s all for this week. I tried to send pictures again but BIG SHOCKER, my computer isn´t working. I´ll try again or maybe I´ll have better luck next week. Love you all!!! Thank you sooo much for your love and support! You´re the BEST!!!!!

Love, Hermana Alston