La semana de lluvia (the week of rain)

Glad to hear everything is going well! I can hardly believe it’s been 3 months already. As far as health I’m doing all right. Healthy, but I have gained ten pounds J  As far as learning to tolerate the fruit here, I have developed my ability to detach from reality for a moment and eat the fruit. At least I don’t gag anymore though!

Also, I got music from my companion, so don’t worry about trying to resend the USB. (I mailed one to him, but it never got there) but a few things that I might want are a little sew on flag patch thing of the Oregon flag, because I am tired of all of the drunk people speaking English with me and asking me for money! When I say that my country is Oregon they don’t bother me J  Also, I was thinking about asking for my black combat boots, maybe for Christmas or something, if they can fit, but I’m not sure. It would depend how much it would cost to send them, because if it is a lot it would just be better to buy them here. They would be nice because my feet are getting wrecked from walking in shoes full of dirty water all day.

Wow! What an incredible week for nature! To start off the week we saw a volcano erupting about 100 km away at night. Que incredible! The lava was shooting hundreds of feet into the air and in the night sky. It was super awesome! Sadly we were out doing our missionary thing, so we didn’t have cameras.

Then for the last 3 days we have had an incredible amount of rain! The rain just dumps out of the sky. Fortunately they have an awesome drainage system here, called “the streets”. All of the streets had 3 to 4 inches of running water. And the streets aren’t flat here, the water really runs- Like a river! And we get the great privilege of walking in the streets during these awesome rainstorms. We have umbrellas that we bought here, but the rain combined with blocking the waterpark status waves that the cars shoot at us, have completely destroyed mine. We usually get home dripping wet, but it’s all good, I really don’t mind all that much. In fact, many more people invite us inside when its dumping down water J The only bad part about the high tech drainage systems is that at the bottom of the hills the rivers form small lakes. Walking through them sucks, cause the water is nasty, but we make up for it by skipping rocks while we walk. It’s pretty sweet to skip a rock down a street/lake.

This week I made an interesting discovery. The bills (money) here are actually from some bank in Canada! I’ll try to send a picture next week of the fine print, but I’m sure ya’ll can look it up on Google.

See ya in 21 months

Any ways, lots of love, -Elder Rice

Got a New Companion!

I got my new companion this last Wednesday! Elder Maldonado, from Mexico. Both of my other companions got transferred, and now it is just us two. He is a great companion. He has almost 10 months in the mission, and up until now all of his time was spent up in the mountains, so he is very glad to have the opportunity to be here in the Capital for a little while.

It sounded like you had fun at the ward campout. I miss going camping sometimes. When I get back, that’s one of the things I want to do right away.

Favorite food here? Hmmmm…We had Taco Bell yesterday! That was my favorite meal this week. My least favorite... We had these plantain fried things in the house of one of our families that we teach that really was difficult for me to eat... I really don’t like the plantains L And they always give you a TON!

I wish we could eat dinner with the members sometimes. The only real meal I have is lunch. Other than that, usually oatmeal for breakfast, and oatmeal or bread for dinner. Also, I am eating my vitamins every day. I figure it’s a good way to keep track of time, because when I run out I’ll have like 3 months left.

Other questions from this week: Most people here have cell phones. I’m pretty sure it is cheaper. There are a TON of those silvery grey indestructible Nokia cell phones! Very few have smart phones, but they are available if you have the money. Yesterday I saw some Beats headphones (the huge red or black kind) for 180Q, which is a little less that 20 dollars I think. Upon closer inspection, they still looked like the real thing! Obviously they weren´t, but the counterfeit things here are SO well done! It’s incredible!

Time is flying by, and I am having a great time, learning a ton, and helping a lot of people. To anybody who is thinking about whether or not to serve an LDS Mission, my advice is that it is worth all that is lost.

Finally got some pictures!

We had another 2 baptisms this past Sunday! It was great. And we have a list of about 20 or 30 more people that are listening to us and in various stages of learning. But both of my companions will be transferred tomorrow and I will get a new companion. I am both sad and excited.

Yesterday we got a call that told us we needed to go to the Capital to sort out some legal problems with our Peruvian companion. So we had to travel almost 2 hours in various buses to get there, and then sit about 3 hours and wait before heading home. It was greeeaaat... But, fortunately I have a short story for ya´ll today.

The buses in the city are different than our busses. They are more like a light rail train with wheels that drives on their own special highway. Anyways, we went to get on the bus, and my two companions got on first, and this little Guatemalan lady pushed in front of me to get on. So the doors start closing and I need to be on the bus or else I would be separated from my companions. So I just plow on in and barely make it. Almost. When the doors closed my foot was still on the out side, and the doors closed quite firmly. So we leave the bus station, and my foot is still stuck outside the bus, and people were yelling and my companions were pushing on the door trying to open it, and I was trying to pull my foot back in. It was great. And the thing with the driving here is that my foot was well within striking distance of other cars or buses. So I couldn’t just wait until the next stop. Anyways, that’s my exciting story for the week. 

Mom, you get 9 internet points for your answer regarding last weeks scripture.

I haven’t received the USB you sent with the music on it yet. We have changes tomorrow, so if I don’t get it then you should send another one. I would say just email some songs every week, and maybe that is the best way, but it takes several minutes to upload a word document here so... there is that. As far as things we can’t get that I would like you to send, there isn’t really anything so far. We pretty much just teach, preach and do as missionaries do all day, then go home and sleep. So I haven’t really been wanting much of anything. I’ll be sure to let you know when I do though. Also, I do not need G2 pens anymore.

As far as living conditions go, its nothing to brag about, but we have food and water and everything we need. The shower isn’t bad, we pumped up the juice on the heater thing and now it’s a little better, we only have short burst of cold water. The toilets are the one thing I would wish to be better. Enough said.

I have a whole new perspective now, and am glad to hear you are helping the missionaries. Also, you should encourage Jared to go on splits. Or I should I guess. We have some youth here that go with us lots and I wish I had done it before my mission.

I’m a little sad about Fin Diesel,(his fish died L) but it’s all good. There is a tiny aquarium shop in our area, and I could buy a fish tank and fish here for about 7 dollars (albeit, a tiny one with a gold fish) but we are not allowed to have pets L

Attached are some random pictures, I am out of time, so next week I will try to help with captions better. Love, Elder Rice

Elder Rice and Elder Vallejos

International Dining ;)

Getting our shoes shined at the park

The rooms at the CCM (Guatemala MTC)

Fellowshipping night with our ward

Collin and his companions Elder Vallejos and Elder Flores

A Baptism

Homemade Tortillas!