Monday, December 29, 2014

Chaab´il Ralankil! (Merry Christmas in the awesome Q´eqchi´ language)

Elder North with some of his Christmas packages.  He told us the
only reason he got these was because one of the missionaries
in the area got hurt and had to go to Coban to get medical treatment
and was able to bring them back.  He didn't have them as of Monday.
Sorry for that Elder but glad he was able to get his Christmas gifts.
Date:  December 29, 2014
Area: Korral Pek, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Sierra

Obviously this week was Christmas, if you didn´t notice then I have no idea where you are.  For us missionaries Christmas is a very special time that is just as busy, as it is the time where we remember the birth of our savior Jesus Christ.  So we go around sharing the news with everyone that He was the greatest gift that was ever given, and the first one, and the best of all, was that He was a gift given to everyone, but not everyone in general, but to everyone personally.

As for my Christmas day, it went well, we had to go all the way to Chulac, which is an hour or so hike, half uphill half down, we missed the festivities of our branch but we got to sneak in on the festivities of the Chulac branch at least until it was 10:30 then we retired to the house of the Elders in Chulac since we as missionaries are suppose to be in bed then.  We couldn´t get to sleep, one because of the fireworks and then we decided it´s Christmas so we can open the packages we have, that actually turned out to be a pretty cool idea because in the morning we didn´t have much time.
Getting to talk to Jered!

One of those reasons I didn't have much time in the morning was because I got to call my family! What a wonderful experience that was.  I had planned in my head that I was going to speak more Spanish to my Dad, speak more 
Q´eqchi´ so everyone could here how awesome it is and how awesome I am at it, but we just ended up talking about experiences in the mission in English, which is just fine. I´ll have plenty of time to talk to people in different languages after my mission and stuff, but there was only fourty minutes to talk to my family. I thought it was pretty funny that they were really interested about my badger brain eating experience.

As missionaries they only get to talk to their families twice a year.  Once is at Christmas and the other time is at Mother's Day.  So it is pretty special and we really cherish the time to talk to our missionaries.  We were thankful for a pretty good connection this time and for Jered's sacrifice to travel out of his area to get service so we could call him.  And YEAH we were anxious to ask him more about the eating of the badger brain.  We asked him on a scale of 1-10 how was it.  He said 7!!!!

I got many things for Christmas, one of the oddest ones was I got an advent calendar for December... Now what am I going to do with a calendar for December when December has already passed? Well. Why not use it for January instead, it´s almost the same and you get the same concept of using the calendar and what it says. 
Where Se-Pakay is, on the other side of the mountains.
Another part of his area he was explaining to us on the phone.

Mail takes a long time to get to Guatemala, even more so during the holidays so he didn't get his calendar until the end of the month.  O well.  Stiff fun to read the scriptures and see the pictures of Christ.  

I got wonderful insoles for my boots and shoes, chocolate, candy and some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuff, the best thing was that I got some Q´eqchi´ study material, I don´t know how Dad did it, but he did and got me a dictionary that is sold here, but isn´t that easy to find.

The work is going along fine, we´re trying to work out more, meaning work farther away from our house to find more new people to teach, and we found a large family, unfortunetley we weren´t able to teach them that much and our second visit with them they were busy, but it´s a start, everything starts somewhere.

That about sums up my week. I love you all!
Elder Norte
Cardamomo plant


A Christmas tree - I think in Chulac
Christmas gifts - thank you everyone


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