Wow! This has been a good and interesting week. I have learned a lot and have grown a lot. First of all let me just say that I know I am where I am supposed to be because there are a lot of places that I don't think my leg could have handled. I am serving in the city of Huehuetenango. I love it! I am thankful that I am in a mission where you get the opportunity to work in the city and outside of the city. My area is called Las Flores. It is a great area. I love it! It is in the heart of Huehue.
The city is fun once you get the hang of it. My companion is Elder S---. He is from El Hefe de Mejico (Mexico City.) He is a great missionary! He tried to give me the "We are going to work harder than you gringo have ever worked in your life," but it didn't work. We get along great and he is great at teaching lessons. So, I am learning the Mexican ways. It might be good since there are a lot of Mexicans in the States. I am lucky too because he talks really clearly and not really fast. He is really good even though he teaches me like I have never heard of the Gospel. I am glad to have a Latino companion because they can help you in situations. During the week I wrote down all the experiences I had in just a few words each. After I will explain a few of them. Not going to lie. The first 2 days I wanted to leave because I could not eat because of nerves. Plus, people just don't eat here. I don't eat breakfast because the dishes in our place have not been washed in forever and we don't have soap yet. Then we have lunch at members' houses. We get good food there but then they don't eat dinner here. When I walked in to email, Elder Mauter was in here. He was my comp in Provo and he said he can tell I have lost a lot of weight. I think I have lost about 10 or 15 pounds in a week! We will see how this goes. Haha!
So the first day we needed a bus to get to the other side of the area and a minivan was going by and we hopped on but there had to be 15 people on this thing. My comp and I are standing in the doorway of the bus, I have 1 foot on the bottom and 1 hand on the roof rack and we are going like 45 or 50 miles and hour on the main road. My comp says to me, "Welcome to Huehue!" At that moment I decided that I just need to forget it and live like the people. We ride like that often. Yesterday we were looking for a service opportunity and we saw a man, he looked about 80 or 85 years old, standing over a well with a wheelbarrow. We went over and they were digging a well. They had it about 40 feet deep and I couldn't see because it was dark, but there was a guy down there digging. There was no rope only little holes for his feet. It is a dangerous thing. They dig all of their wells by hand. It's amazing! I have pictures.
The first day in the field our bathroom had a broken fitting, so the hose was sitting in the toilet so it wouldn't flood. We went out for the day and came back and we had 2 inches of water in our whole house, so I spent 2 hours sweeping water. All my stuff was wet so it was a good way to start out. Figured out that there are some people that hate gringos, but for the most part the people here are so nice. I love the people.
It is freezing here. I underestimated the cold. When we wake up in the morning it is so cold I just want to start a fire. It feels like when you are camping and you don't want to get out of your sleeping bag. During the day it is so nice though. KFC stinks. They have this fried chicked here that we have had a couple of times at members' houses that is so good. I love it. They have a burn Satan holiday. The other night we came out of a lesson and there was smoke everywhere and fires everywhere. I was like, "What is going on?" It's just a holiday where they burn dummies of Satan. Kind of interesting.
We had our first baptismal date this week. Her name is Sarah and she is from the Dominican Republic. She is so hard to understand, but I am working on it. And yes, I learned how to give a 15 minute talk in sacrament meeting in a language I don't know. It went well.
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| Teaching a Family |
Also, it is kind of weird seeing drunk people just passed out in the middle of the road and last night they had this parade come through the city that was the equivalent of a Disney parade. They had music and the chipmunks and all sorts of characters. I am loving every moment of it now that I am in the groove. It stinks because we have to buy water and watch what we eat, but there is no way to never get sick because you eat at members' houses and they make juices with the water and stuff...but it's okay. I love it here! We get to do lots of fun things. Anyways, I will attach pictures because I am in the field now. Yay! Well, I love you guys, and also, here are the addresses for getting stuff to me. The first address is for letters and the second is for packages. If you already sent them they will get to me. It might take a while though.
Thanks for all the support!
Elder Reinhold
Letters:
Elder Jakob Reinhold
Mision Guatemala Quetzaltenango
5a Calle 14-35, Zona 3
09001 Apartado Postal 206
Quetzaltenango Guatemala
Packages:
Mision Guatemala Quetzaltenango
Elder Jakob Reinhold
5a calle 14-35 zona 3
Edificio Las Tapias, Oficina 105
09001 Apartado Postal 206
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Numero de Telefono (502) 7763-7471
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