July 11, 2011

Hey I’m trying really hard to send my email but internet sucks, we didn’t get to the waterfall today.

Hello Family! This week has been good, the best news is we put a fecha con familia Ortiz. So hopefully all follows through, ha!

OK story of the week!

So it was late and we were walking home and we wave down a jalow (ride) and they stop and they say the truck bed is a lil dirty but you can get in. So we hop in and see a big lump of something but its dark and we can’t see. Well eventually we pass under a light and it's 5 chopped up cows, all the parts just chopped up and thrown in and the heads were just looking at us. So that was our bloody cow massacre jalow (ride). 

Hmm… what else  Ooh, a few weeks ago we knocked this lady’s door and she wasn’t interested but we saw her Saturday and she had a dream about us and wants to listen to us now :)

Oh I got the package you sent! Thanks!

Not much else happened, just been working either in hot sun or pouring rain. This is the last week of my first change! Woo! This week I ate McDonald's twice and once at Taco Bell…Yum!

Oh yeah the service we did! So we did service for Hermana Kati. I love her house, the inside feels like a grandparents who lives in the States. But the service was to cut down a giant lime tree… the 4 of us with machetes. Well the young women were there but didn’t do crap. So this lime tree was huge and all the branches were grown in through the fence and stuff, huge pain but really fun. The tree was filled with thorns so we are all cut up Ha! But after Hermana Kati made us 4 a really good lunch and in her house you feel like you are in the States :)

Well I’m writing this Sunday night. Tomorrow we are planning on going to a waterfall. Hopefully all works! Goodbye for now, Love you all!

July 4th, 2011

 Hello! Happy America Day... blow something up for me since I’m not there haha.

This week was good… not much happened.  It went by fast so it’s hard to think of what happened.

We put two Fechas (baptismal date) one with Hilberto Guzman and one with Thelma Guzman. The dates aren’t till the end of August. They are a tuff family so we’ll see what happens. 

Next we met our new President. Him and his wife are very nice and happy to be here. I did meet Hermana Watts in the MTC and she was very very very very excited to see me again and she turns to her husband and says “Oh! Its Elder Asdel, he’s the one whose Dad is Edward Dale also!” 

So she remembered me from that I guess. She also wanted to give me a hug at the MTC but she kept going “Oh no I can’t, oh well I have candy for you.” 

She also made us cinnamon rolls that were really good! Next I had a quick interview. It was a quick get to know you. The next day nothing really. The next day we went to El Fiscal to help the Elders get contacts and get to an area they have never been to. 

Sunday we no investigators in church…Hopefully next week.

Today for P-day we played ping-pong and are going to eat McDonald's or Taco Bell, I haven’t decided yet. Also tonight for dinner tonight I will eat hot dogs, chips and soda in the American Spirit Ha!

Sorry I feel like today’s letter was short. 

Umm tell Grandma Asdel and Sandra Black I will be writing them soon.

Oh, and what you said about the road to Palencia…I go down that about 2 or 3 times a week in the bed of a truck. And it’s not brown anymore, its pure green. Also today I’m sending you photos from the walk to El Fiscal over a giant train bridge. It’s about 150 feet up and very easy to fall off or through. It’s really cool though.  

Hmm can’t think of anything else so bye till next week! 

The day Pres Torres left so did his rules...

so we got coke, one of his rules was no coke... but Pres Watts brought the rule back  but that's ok cause we "aprovechar"ed it.  Aprovechar is to take advantage of.  Anyways that's all for now bye love you all!

June 28, 2011

Hello! This week was good! Today we are down by the CCM because we went to the temple, and after the temple Wendy’s and Wal-Mart! This week it has rained everyday and we get soaked, but whatever.

So one day we were knocking doors soaked and bored and finally one guy was interested and invited us back Saturday. When we went back him and his wife were super interested and it sounds like we will have them in church next week! They are a young family with 2 kids and one isn’t named yet and they like the name Asdel so maybe soon there will be a baby with our last name!

Next is Hilberto and his wife…we’ve been working with them for a while now and his wife is super stubborn. But we brought the Gatica girls over and she opened up to them. And guess who we saw at church this Sunday… Hilberto! My first investigator in church!

It’s been a little over a week since the Gatica Dad died and things are going well over there. David’s baptism was Saturday and my comp baptized him.

Yesterday we had service; we helped a member put underground pipes from his house to his crops. It was hard, we used picks to dig up basically rock Ha!

Hmm…Idk what else happened this week…

Time passes by really quick.

Idk (I don't know) if I told you but there is a member in our branch that grew up in Oxnard and Augora Hills.

Our new Pres comes in soon… I met his wife in Provo… She’s one extremely happy lady haha.

I make all my own food. My diet has been cereal… PBJs… buttered pasta… sometimes eggs.

My first change is half way over as of today. Hmm... what else?

That’s all I can think of for now. I love you all. Talk to you next week.

June 20, 2011

Hello. This week I’m trying my email a little different. Hopefully this works haha!  
(Jake took photos of a hand written letter)

Anyways, this week has been a little different… There is a member family who are the familia Gatica. When I first got here one daughter (Estella) was on her mission. Well Estella got home this last week and asked us to teach her brother about baptism because his baptism is coming up. So we go over to teach the younger brother, David. Estella, Blanca (other sister), Walter (who is about 30 & weird) and the parents were all at home too. The Dad is in bed very sick.  The way their house is set up has us all in a room with a bed to the side.  So before we start teaching, Estella tells us Walter doesn’t know about the baptism. And sure enough right when we started teaching Walter started going crazy and the sisters were trying to shut him up. Eventually he did and finally we got to teach.  It was kind of a crazy/funny situation cause the sisters were laughing with us. Well when we were done we left and went home.  The next day we find out that the dad died that night…so we plan to go over and talk and support the family. Well right when we get there we see Estella running away mad and her sister asks us to help find her. So we were looking all over for her and can’t find her so we go back to the house and go inside and there is only a casket in the room we were in the night before and all these crazy people doing weird evangelic prayers and weird stuff. That’s why Estella was mad because the dad didn’t want that. Well eventually we leave and they ask us to come back the next day at 2:00pm.  So the next day at 2:00pm we go over to the house and there are a million people there. Then they said lets go and 6 guys pick up the casket and start walking and the group follows and all the crazy evangelicals sang their creep song over and over…Well we walked about 2 miles in the streets blocking traffic and when we get to the cemetery they put the casket in…And cement it closed (above ground graves here). Then when it’s done it starts pouring rain. After church the next day all of the members went to dedicate the grave. The end.


The cool photos I’m sending are from a place the Gatica girls took us today. Enjoy!

This week I got my package of ties and candy…thanks! So I’ve got both now. Things are good. It pours rain every day so I get soaked… The Patagonia jacket works well. 
I walk…a lot and hitchhike in pick up trucks. The buses are cool. They are pimped out school buses with strobe lights and all.  We aren’t having many lessons right now. Most people aren’t home for lessons or they are Catholic.

That’s all I can think of for now! Love you all. Talk to you next week!

Palencia 2 ~ La Joya

Ok everybody! I’ve made it to the field! My first area is in the capital called Palencia 2. Although it’s in the cap we are nowhere near the cap, we are in the mountains! My companion is Elder Rowan from Idaho. And yes mom, his mom is part of the missionary moms group!

Well my house is made of cinder blocks and there is a kitchen living room and bedroom. I am going to try to attach pictures. I live in an area of Palencia called La Joya.

So far I've met a lot of the member families that are awesome. One of them is familia Diaz. The mom is the young women’s pres and she has two daughters that are always playing American pop music in the house. One night I talked to Kristal for a while about American music artists and stuff. She was loving it. I think she’s about 16.

Another family is familia Ajpop they have 2 awesome boys 9 and 11 they just got baptized and are working on their older sisters, trying to get them back to church. The 2 boys, Michael and Kobe didn’t want us to miss the NBA finals so they turned it on for us. Haha bad missionaries oh well...

Lets see, I walk alottttt and sweat alllott. They have little stores everywhere to buy snacks and stuff. I always get bolsas de agua puro, which is basically a cold bag of water you bite a hole in and drink up. One picture I am going to attach is a laky omelet it’s an omelet made of top roman.
Oh yeah, one day last week there was a church activity to raise money for this family who needs a house. We are going to be building them a house on Saturday, which will be about an hour hike from Palencia. At the activity there was a member who’s a dj and he blasted music all day. There was volleyball and we played with the ward members. The members would get all happy when I would spike the ball.

Since today is p-day and there is a Wal-Mart in our zone we went there and went to a sit down pizza hut where they played American music....America! Ha ok I’m going to try to upload photos now! Bye all I love you!

Guatemala CCM June 6, 2011

Hello all… I have a short time for internet today and I don’t really have anything to say except IM OUT OF HERE IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!! And that I'm super excited to find out where I'm going and what not. All I know is that I'm getting picked up.

Sorry I don’t have much to tell you! I'm all packed up and ready to get going! The CCM was great but the field will be even better!! I love you all and I’ll let you know everything the  next time I’m able to email!

June 1, 2011 Guatemala CCM

Hey how’s it all going? Last p-day in the CCM and I'm out of here!!! Yeeeee! Time to get out and do something!
Lets see this week I have one story and that’s about it and then next week I promise my emails will get more interesting!! Here’s my story, there are these things that come one day in Guatemala called san pops de mayo.  Basically they are giant ants and they have wings. So they fly down, land, shed their wings and go on with life... get eaten by birds... Well as Elder Way, Elder Gunnell and I were looking at them and a local came up and said, “ohhh son popos! Sabe rico!” Which means they taste rich/good and we talked to him about how you’re supposed to eat them.  He said to cook them con limon y sal. Sooooooo we collected about 50 of them and took them back to the CCM and asked one of the hermanas that work in the kitchen if she would cook them for us for our breakfast and she said yes!!!
So we go up stairs to shower and then go back down and she brings them to us in a bowl with limon and some sal. So I ate them and they were soooo good! Idk how to explain the taste but it was good. So now I have eaten giant ants :) haha anyways the rest of my week was pretty routine and I am just getting ready to leave. Sorry for the short email but that’s all I really have!
Love you all. I'll talk to you soon. I have no idea when my next p-day is!