The Return of Elder Rice

My companion convinced everyone that my 1 week divisions was actually a permanent change and that I wouldn´t be back. Some he told I had got super sick, or in an accident, or that I had committed a sin. So when I walked into the church when I got back everyone was all like, “What in the world!” It was sweet.
 
We had our Zone P-day yesterday, which turned out winning top 3 in the zone P-days that I have had. We broke up into teams and played little mini games to see who comes out on top. Obviously my team was the winning team. J Then all the Elders went outside to play soccer, and the sisters watched the movie “17 Miracles” in the kitchen, while yours truly, Chef Rice, whipped out 12 pizzas from scratch to feed everybody. The best part was that everybody was super stuffed with pizza for only about 40 bucks.

Last week I was in San Lucas Toliman for a week. It was alright and all, except I only had 1 pair of clean clothes to take with me.  I gave some dirty clothes to the lady that washes the clothes there, and then her dad died the next day, so I ended up in the same clothes for the whole week. Moreover, while on these week long divisions, we had divisions with another area, Santiago, for a day. The elders there are the only ones in the mission that speak in another language, because everyone there speaks in Tzutujil. So I pretty much just followed my temporary, temporary companion around, as I don´t speak in Tzutujil. But I did get to know San Pedro la Laguna, another very touristy area. Overall, one of the craziest weeks I have had. I felt like a traveling pastor or something, with just my scriptures and about 15 dollars travelling all over for a week.

The best part?- After being in a bus or in a pickup for about 4 hours, I got back here in San Andres, and the water was off again, and it has been off since I got back. Apparently they had water all week, and then when I got back it left again. For sacrifice we receive blessings, eh?;)

All I sent back with grandma is my pictures and a letter for a friend... this sentence sounds wrong for some reason... I got a ton of sweet stuff though. The socks are exactly what I wanted, all of my socks have big holes in the heels, so they are a great relief to have! Much thanks to everyone who contributed!

I totally feel for the missionaries there, and their feeling like they’re in a bad relationship- pouring their whole hearts into someone and then being rejected. I imagine that this part of Guatemala is more like the states as far as rejection goes. In other parts pretty much everybody will at least let you talk to them, but here people just tell us they are busy and to come back another day. We try to be really careful with our word choice and our questions so that the people either have to accept us or else condemn themselves by saying that they don´t want anything we have to offer. We read D&C 1 the other day, which at the beginning talks about how everyone will have to hear the gospel, and then we talked about how there won´t be any excuse one day. So we have to work in such a way that everyone gets a very good, fair chance.

Kinda funny how Andrea got her permit no problem on the first try J I´m pretty surprised that you let her drive the Prius even just in a parking lot!

Elder Rice