This weeks broadcast from sunny Santa Lucia, Guatemala!

Well, we had our changes last Wednesday, and as expected I got transferred. I am in El Palmar, Santa Lucia, which is a little tiny town about 30 minutes from the coast. My new companion is from here in Guatemala, from the capital, and has been out about 9 months. Our house here is actually pretty nice, I´ll send some pictures next week maybe. So we had to take a 2 hour bus ride, with suit cases and all. It was alright actually, I just talked to a few people there riding the bus and then slept. When I woke up I knew I was in trouble... The first thing I noticed about the area is that... IT IS HOT! But seriously... It´s hot!


The town where I´m at is really peaceful and quiet, which is completely opposite from where I was before. The people here are all very, very humble, and for the most part at least are willing to talk with us. The streets here are mostly dirt and rocks, with a couple of the main streets being cement, but the coolest part is that a lot of the streets end leading straight into the jungle! This area is exactly what I imagined Guatemala would be like before I left. It is very different, but I like it so far and I´m excited to be here! The only problem here is the mosquitos... Even if we kill all of them in our house before we leave, or before bed, there are always more within hours, and if we closed all the windows we would literally cook in our house... But It´s not too bad... OH! The hardest part is that we don´t have hot water anymore. Our water comes out of a well in our backyard... Taking a cold shower at 7am everyday really sucks... But the good thing is that when you get out you dry off and warm up pretty fast. I didn´t have much time to write this week, because there were some problems with the computer here in the internet cafe, but I will write more next week!


Also, Mom-Can you use baking powder to make bread rise? Some dude tried to tell me that in the store the other day... And does it rise while cooking or does it need to sit a while? How much do I need in comparison to yeast? Send me a biscuit recipe for next week please! Thanks, got to go. Love you!
Love, Elder Rice

Going somewhere new tomorrow! The adventure continues!

So it turns out I do have changes tomorrow. I will be leaving my dearly beloved Villa Nueva and going somewhere else. I have met a lot of people that I will miss a lot, and have learned so much. Tomorrow morning I will go with my companion to a big church about 45 minutes away, and all of the missionaries that have changes will be there. Then they say a bunch of stuff and then read off the names of the new companionships and where they will be. After that I go with my new companion to our new area and get back to work. In anticipation of disappearing from civilization, I bought a pair of combat boots yesterday for 240 quetzals. There are some pretty intense areas in our mission, and while it´s possible I stay here close to the capital, it is also very possible I will go to the mountains, which supposedly eat shoes for breakfast... Anyways, all is good, I´m still alive and well.  

The other day I talked to a guy from Toronto, Canada, which was pretty cool. And I heard for the first time what automatic gunfire sounds like. I had been asking my companion how you can tell the difference between gun shots and the fireworks which the kids set off all day every day. Luckily it was just some guy target shooting in his backyard, but it is a very unmistakable sound...

 You asked about how we handle our finances. We pay all of our bills and buy our groceries and everything. They give us between 2000 and 2500 quetzals every month,(about $250-$300 dollars) and if you run out, tough luck. Fortunately I have learned to be super... I don´t remember the word... uhh.. like not spending money. (frugal?) I bought some real boots yesterday, but only had to use 40 quetzals from my debit card, the rest was money I had saved.

There are lots of days when all of our plans fall through, but you just go visit other people, or go knock doors. With all of the standards of excellence we have here in our mission, we don´t have time to have nothing to do. As far as cooking, I took our cheap little stove apart and sort of fixed it. It is now an unfused direct connection to the wall socket, but until we get a new one it has worked well. The cinnamon rolls turned out awesome, if you could send me a very simple recipe for frosting it would be great! I also made a calzone that turned out pretty good.

Elder Rice

 



Picture from our día blanco last Sunday

Picture of our baptisms for that day, with our ward mission leader. We gave him the privilege of baptizing our investigators, because he does an awesome job as the mission leader

The Family Cisnero. One of the families I will miss the most. The entire family, except the dad, are all members and as soon as the dad has his passport to get married, he is getting baptized too

Got yeast?

 I got this recipe for bread, to make like pizza or cinnamon rolls or egg McMuffins or whatever from another Elder here.  I bought everything that I needed to make it, but as hard as I looked I couldn´t find yeast. Other Elders have told me that they do sell it here, but I guess I´ll have to look more. So I went ahead and just made the bread without the yeast, or ¨Unleavened Bread¨... or as my companion called it “Jewish Bread”. So I have been making Jewish pizza, Jewish cinnamon rolls, Jewish calzones, etc. Sadly, our little electric stove gave up the ghost the other day... and our microwave bit the dust several weeks ago... so we have a whole bunch of food in the house and no way too cook it! It’s great. L I have been learning how to cook, actually pretty well I think. 

We have transfers on the 30th of October. Nobody knows for sure yet, but it’s looking like I will be transferred, as I have been in the zone longer than anybody else. Who knows... We found a family the Saturday before last and taught them and everything and then the next day they came to church! Which is pretty unusual! Anyways, they are getting baptized this Sunday, and we married them last Saturday. It was pretty crazy to know them for like three days and organize their marriage. They already have 3 kids and have lived together for 10 years.

 Love, Elder Rice

 

A picture of the couple we married signing away their lives into matricidio

The newlyweds and their kids

Jewish (unleavened) cinnamon rolls

Pics from the zoo!

Still working hard and doing good stuff here in Guatemala! Coming up on changes again, and since I have been here for 3 changes already, I think I will be moving to another area L I have come to love so many people here in my area and will be super sad to leave. But I am also super excited to see more parts of the country. More than likely I will be going either to the mountains, where it’s really cold and super intense leg work outs from all the hills, or to the coast, where it is incredibly hot and humid.

We went to the zoo last week. It was a super normal experience. I never really got too much joy out of going to the zoo... Anyways, photos were sent to my beloved mother to post online J

Also, we bought a gallon of homemade ice cream the other day... for about 4 dollars. Ya´ll should be jealous.

I bought boots yesterday. They are great, and only 20 dollars, more or less. I’m going to use them until the end of this change and if they still work well buy another pair. The Ecco Tracks that I brought still have some life in them, but not much, so I am going to save them until my last change and absolutely murder them, then wear them on the way home, and bronze them when I get back! J

Love, Elder Rice