First week up in the mountains.

Date:  November 3, 2014
Area:  Correl Pek
Companion:  Elder Vargus from Nicaragua
Week 46

I'm now finally in what is called the mountain area of my mission.  I've been waiting for this time for quite some time, and boy is it what I expected!  Nice and cold!  Early spring weather back home, sure beats the blistering heat of the valley, although we're right in the middle of winter right now so it is actually a little bit colder than usual.  We we live in Korral Pek which means corral of rocks.  We have to go to another area on Sunday to sleep so that we can e-mail on Monday's, because the e-mail spot is so far away, but they are saying they don't want us to do that anymore so we might have to find a different way to do things.

Chalac is our district, it is the main area and our area is an hour hike away from it.  Our house is actually a bit nicer than in Canlun, although we have no fridge here.  We have plenty of COLD running water which means cold showers in a cold place.

My companion has 5 months in his mission and he is awesome.  He had his birthday recently and I used the stuff you sent me for my birthday to decorate our room while he was showering.

We do have a laundry lady again, she uses this cool iron to iron our clothes.  She puts hot coals in it to heat it up!

The views are amazing and hiking is not nearly as terrible as it is when you are sweating buckets all the time.  Even when you are not hiking, but now, an hour hike?  NO PROBLEMS!  Another hour to return after a half hour visit?  I'll deal with it.

We've been visiting a lot of members this week and not a lot of the investigators.  Getting to know the area and such.  Saturday was the day of the dead or Saints as they were calling it here.  Every member and their neighbor invited us to eat with them so we were up and out of the hosue form 7 to 6, 11 hours on Saturday visiting people and eating some food hourly.  It was a good day.  We were able to set some pretty great plans for the next week so that we can raise the numbers that were pretty low today.  We are going to work to improve and meet our goals.

One of the best things about my new area, there are pine trees!  I'm living with pine trees again!  Although they are a little different than back home and there's a lot more other plant life to go with it.

Pine trees!!!

Our big adventure this week was going to Coban because Elder Vargas needed to get a test done.  We only had four hours in Coban to do P-day things, in fact I'm there as I right this and we'll be going really soon to get something really good to eat and then go back home.  About 9 hours of travel in total in one day.  It's really not that fun though, hopefully if we can get here with more time then I can do more things, like looking for a certain Kekchi Dictionary that's out there.  O well, we're doing good, we're happy and we're pumped to work.

One final note.  I did get mail this week!  One package from Grandma Pam, THANK YOU, I loved the Pez...sadly they are all gone.  I did share though!

Many other letters saying happy birthday, from the Barnsons, Mom, Steve and Jennifer, Amy and a few others I can't quite remember.  I got them!

I love you all, keep up on being awesome!
Elder Jered Lamont North

Please take the time to write, he would love to hear from you.  It is time to mail Christmas Packages as mail can take a long time.  I would wrap the gifts inside and then write a note telling him not to open until Christmas.  :)  If you can send a card or a gift to his companion that is very nice also.  A lot of the native companions don't get much mail.

Elder Jered North
Guatemala Cobán Mission
Apartado Postal #34
3ra Calle 2-02, Zona 3
Cobán AV 16001
Guatemala, Central America