Incognito in Guatemala

I’m glad Grandma and Lydia got to Guatemala okay. I helped translate for the last group that came in and gave away vitamins and taught about healthy living. They were apart from the group Gma went with though. Since I’m not allowed to have visitors while I’m here, our mission president has me in a nearby area until grandma leaves, which is pretty much just a vacation for me in a big house, with plenty of electricity, hot nice showers, and more friendly people. J Here’s my undercover story: (please read in a mysterious voiceJ)Starting last Friday, and lasting until the coming Saturday I am in an undisclosed location of the American Continent working as the companion of one Elder Haertel. The details of the current situation cannot yet be disclosed as the situation is ongoing. I have however received reports from a Central American contact that our plans to bring 15 or more new people to church have not yet been realized... Over.

So far lots of cool stuff has happened here. One of the days we spent knocking doors and ran into this absurdly polite British guy that rejected us so pleasantly that I feel like it made me into a better person. We also talked to a young adult woman, who, after several minutes of talking, disclosed that she had actually been born and mostly raised in Canada, and spoke fluent English.

Yesterday we climbed the famous ``Hill of Gold``, which was alright, pretty much just a big hill close to the lake where supposedly the Mayans hid a ton of gold, but they really just use it to grow corn and coffee on the hillside. Also, I stepped in a big ant hill the other day and it was like that scene in the newest Indiana Jones where the ants consume the flesh of the people... it was great. We also had a little earthquake, but it was just a tremor at 6:30am.

Funny story: the other day we were knocking doors and we taught a family of a mom and her 5 daughters. So after the lesson I asked them if they wanted to see a magic trick, and I did the classic bill change one I learned before I left, in which I turned 25Q into 500Q. They were all blown away, so we bounced to leave them in shock. We got out to the main street, and all of a sudden all five of the girls are running after us with a 50Q bill in their hand yelling for us to wait. We just told them we can`t use our powers to get gain J Magic tricks are the only way we have found so far to get people to not just ignore us when we talk to them in the street, so I have been brushing up a bunch! J

That’s cool Jared decided on business management as a major.  I have been thinking a lot, and I actually think that that is something that I want to get into also when I get back, we`ll see what happens eh? I have also thought of maybe trying to be a translator, but who knows what kinds of opportunities there are out there for that.

Paz y Bendiciones,

Elder Rice

The pictures of Lydia you sent are right outside the church.
Here’s a link to her travel blog if you’d like to check her out   http://travellydia.blogspot.com/