Elder Jackson Lee: cars

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April 25, 2016

Week 20: He Kills It In Lessons

So I got my new companion on Tuesday. His name is Elder Ward. Brandon Paul Ward is his full name. He's from Centerville, and played Lacrosse in high school. He's 20, and just completed 21 months in the mission...freaking viejo! His family has a cabin up Weber Canyon, and chances are I've waited on him at the drugstore multiple times. His dad was the CEO for Mrs. Fields, and is now a lawyer for the Color Run. But yeah, since Elder Ward is so old in he the mission he knows a TON! He kills it in lessons, and also knows all sorts of tricks outside of lessons having to do with living the mission life. He taught me how to make corndogs, and he spent 6 months in an aldea called Colotenango where he learned how to make corte! I learn a ton from him every day.

Elder Ward making corte

He is one of the harder workers I know so far in the mission, but is also really firm about how you have to enjoy yourself here, so he is super fun, and really funny. I definitely have lucked out having two gringo companions in a row as my first two companions. Not that latinos are bad, but it's a lot easier to relate to and develop a friendship in your native language with someone who had a similar life to your own. I say I'm lucky because Elder Ward has also had two gringo companions his whole mission, out of 14 companions so far... Anyway he is a super cool guy, and being his companion has been really great so far, and it's making time go by really fast as well.

This week I've basically spent the time showing Elder Ward around the area, which has been really fun, introducing him to the members here that help us out a lot, and our investigators. Elder Ward's first area in the mission was Las Rosas, which is in the zone, right next to the district Chiantla, so we keep running into people who knew him two years ago, during his training, when he couldn't speak Spanish very well which has been crazy.

Sorry about the shirt, but I couldn't resist helping a member out with his car! (stupid idea)

Also, we got a little rain this week. Haha!

February 15, 2016

Week 10: Zaculeu Ruins

Hi! This week's emails were awesome...please keep them up. I love hearing that I'm still a topic of conversation around home. Haha!

I've decided that I want to keep a running list of all the foods I want to have at my homecoming (see sidebar). I want to make a bunch of authentic Guatemalan food that I eat here. It really is awesome.

Today is 4 out of 12 weeks of training down. I only feel like I've been in the field for a couple of days. This training change will end on April 19. I'm almost halfway there, and at that point there will only be another month until Mother's Day when we get to talk again. You guys need to figure out how to use Skype by then, haha! Also...at that point I will already have 6 months!!! <-- Look, I'm starting to apply Spanish grammar to my English now. -_- ...

I had my first division this week. I went with Elder Diaz to his area for two days. He has only been on his mission as long as I have, but he's Latino. I was worried about the language barrier, but everything went really well. I was able to communicate pretty much everything I need to. My Spanish is a lot better than I thought it was. Nobody in Elder Diaz's area would believe that I was new, and Elder Diaz said he would think I was fluent, which gave me a lot of confidence.

Every 6 months the whole mission goes through the temple, which was last week. The Quetzaltenango temple is very beautiful! I had a good time, but it was pretty much just a normal temple session. My companion and I had to ride chicken buses all day to get there and back though, which was kind of a pain...haha!

This week my goal is to speak only Spanish, no English at all, and it's going very well. I'm two days in and haven't run into anything that I couldn't say or had any problems yet, and it's actually really hard for me to write in English right now. I'm forgetting so many words and how to spell so much stuff.

Today we had a Zone activity and we went to the Zaculeu Ruins. They were really cool, but the best part was that afterward we went to McDonald's (never thought I would look forward to that!...) and to a store called Pies, which is like a WalMart with lots of American stuff. And I found protein powder!!

To finish up...I don't know which I hate more, sunblock or sunburns... I think I'll play if safe from now on and avoid the skin cancer down the road haha.

Elder Lee at the Quezaltenango Temple

Elder Lee and Elder Van Katwyk at the Quetzaltenango Temple

Elder Lee and Elder Van Katwyk

Hillside Road in Chiantla outside of Huehuetenango

City view Chiantla/Huehuetenango

Elder Lee making dobladas.

Elder Lee, Zaculeu Ruins

Zaculeu Ruins

Elder Lee and Zone, Zaculeu Ruins

Elder Lee, Zaculeu Ruins

Elder Lee and Zone, Zaculeu Ruins

Artifacts, Zaculeu Ruins

Illustration, Zaculeu Ruins

Artifacts, Zaculeu Ruins

Elder Lee and missionaries, Chicken Bus

Elder Lee found protein!

Weekly car picture ;)

February 8, 2016

Week 9: Big hello! Look! Two giants!

Hello Family!

Story of the week— Since I'm 5'10 and my companion is 6'6, when we walk down the street we always hear kids say "Hola gran! Mira! dos gigantes!"

So it was my senior companion's six month mark last Friday, so that night I bought us cheescake and super cola (it was super good), and we went on our roof and burned a tie on a little bonfire as we ate. It was a pretty good time.

I tried lots of new foods this week. There is a thing called wiskil (if I'm spelling it right). It's kind of like squash. They eat it with lemon squeezed on it, it's super good. I also had a mayan drink called pozol, it's made with corn and cocoa...and also super good, although a little weird. There's a hot sauce they have here called picamas. Everybody here has it, and they put it on everything, often accompanied by ketchup and mayo, and it's amazing! My new favorite snack is fruit (super cheap here) and we put sal negra (black salt), chile picante (chili powder) and squeeze lime over it. I'm in the habit of putting lime, chili powder, and salt,or picamas on everything.

This last week was also the celebration of the town's patron saint, it's called feria. And it's just like being at Kamas Fiesta Days. Tons of booths selling things, rodeos, that kind of thing.

As far as the missionary work goes, Spanish is still going really well. I love learning it, and I'm doing really well with it. the people here are very warm and accepting of the gospel (and love to talk to gringos, especially bolos (drunk people); we found out bolos also have the gift of tongues, they always seem to speak perfect English!) But the problem is they are all huge chambones (guate slang for a lazy person) so they are never home for their set visits, nor will they keep commitments, and none of them come to church...we end up teaching the first lesson, and never seeing the person again, over and over.

But yeah, still enjoying it here a ton, everything is awesome. I always love hearing about (and especially from) everyone. Please tell them all I'm thinking about them!

The companions...