Hey Family!
Well we had cambios (changes/transfers)! and Elder Segovia left to San Cristobal I am staying in the area of Las Margaritas for another month and a half! No it is a joke! :) Elder Segovia went to San Cristobal and I am now in... (drum roll please!) Por Venir Jalapa! I am about an hour outside of the capital. My companion’s name is Elder Barczi, he is from Chile also. Just seems a lot less weird and difficult. ;) He has been on his mission for nine months and is 26 years old. He speaks a little bit of English. After one partial day I really can not say too much, but from my spidey senses I feel like this is going to be a really good change. Both of us like a clean house and similar movies and music. We both like joking around, playing sports, working hard and we want to baptize, kinda nice to have a change. :) Elder Barczi was a bit of a rocker before the mission. He had hair down to his belly button or so! He then cut it all off and donated it a kid that had cancer. He also played rugby before his mission. I felt like the Lord was trying my patience with Elder Segovia... I think I passed. ;)
The journey to Jalapa was kinda long. We left the house around eight this morning and we went to Milagro. From there we made a couple more stops picking up missionaries with the church bus. We made it to zone 7, Utatlan, the mission office. From there we all got our suitcases and everything in the group of missionaries going to Jalapa. Then two by two we got into taxies to be taken to the bus stop, which is about 30 minutes. Elder Corrales, my “daddy”, was also going to Jalapa to be one of the ZL´s so we went together in the taxi. From there we paid our thirty quetz put our bags under the bus. I was happy when I saw that the bus was a bigger bus, more like a charter bus, just in Guatemala so not the nicest thing in the world but it sure did work. From there it was about a three hour bus ride to get to the zone, where we met up with our new companions. I put all my stuff in the back of a tuk tuk and away we went. (And away we go!)
POR VENIR, por venir in English means for to come. From what I have seen, this pueblo is super chill. It is a big change from Las Margaritas. For starters it is flat! There are really no hills (the town is in a flat valley surrounded by hills), which is really nice. Most of the roads are made from landscaping stones. I bet in google maps you could do the street view and see what they are. We will be using a lot less transportation here because we can walk almost anywhere. The thing is, is that when we need to go the city for a multi zone or something, it is really expensive. Like 200 quetz (abt. $26), which is a lot.
I love that the grass at home is green! Always in the past it would be green for the first month or so and then dead like all of the other yards. But now that we have the sprinkler system we will have green grass all year round. Mom that is awesome that you found another Salvia plant. I did not know that the other one died. Definitely find a way to keep it alive through this next winter. :)
That is good to use the money and get those things fixed that Erika's car is in a little better shape for driving a long distance. Oh to be a billionaire! That is sweet that he was able to do that for Erika! That big ol´ tip should help quite a bit (Erika received a large tip her last night working at Jalapeno’s).
Coach Knowles is going to be the new football coach! Hopefully they have a decent year this year. I am going to miss going to games this fall.
The temple is amazing but sometimes it is a little easy to just go through the motions. There is so much to learn there! That is really good dad that you want to learn more. We are always told about how important it is.
More than a scripture or quote today, it is more of a thought that I had, that my companion and I were talking about last night. Which is the importance of not judging. It is interesting how if we see somebody in the hospital, our heart instantly goes out to them. Even if the accident was completely their fault, we still feel that pull to help and take care of them. But at times people see a sinner in the church and it is a different story. The saying is that the church is a hospital for sinners. It is very easy to judge somebody for sins, or just if they are or are not doing something that they should or should not be doing. And oftentimes we focus on other people’s problems before we address our own. Thoughts more than anything, but interesting.
I am looking forward to getting continued updates of how everything is going with everybody! I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Marks
Well we had cambios (changes/transfers)! and Elder Segovia left to San Cristobal I am staying in the area of Las Margaritas for another month and a half! No it is a joke! :) Elder Segovia went to San Cristobal and I am now in... (drum roll please!) Por Venir Jalapa! I am about an hour outside of the capital. My companion’s name is Elder Barczi, he is from Chile also. Just seems a lot less weird and difficult. ;) He has been on his mission for nine months and is 26 years old. He speaks a little bit of English. After one partial day I really can not say too much, but from my spidey senses I feel like this is going to be a really good change. Both of us like a clean house and similar movies and music. We both like joking around, playing sports, working hard and we want to baptize, kinda nice to have a change. :) Elder Barczi was a bit of a rocker before the mission. He had hair down to his belly button or so! He then cut it all off and donated it a kid that had cancer. He also played rugby before his mission. I felt like the Lord was trying my patience with Elder Segovia... I think I passed. ;)
The journey to Jalapa was kinda long. We left the house around eight this morning and we went to Milagro. From there we made a couple more stops picking up missionaries with the church bus. We made it to zone 7, Utatlan, the mission office. From there we all got our suitcases and everything in the group of missionaries going to Jalapa. Then two by two we got into taxies to be taken to the bus stop, which is about 30 minutes. Elder Corrales, my “daddy”, was also going to Jalapa to be one of the ZL´s so we went together in the taxi. From there we paid our thirty quetz put our bags under the bus. I was happy when I saw that the bus was a bigger bus, more like a charter bus, just in Guatemala so not the nicest thing in the world but it sure did work. From there it was about a three hour bus ride to get to the zone, where we met up with our new companions. I put all my stuff in the back of a tuk tuk and away we went. (And away we go!)
POR VENIR, por venir in English means for to come. From what I have seen, this pueblo is super chill. It is a big change from Las Margaritas. For starters it is flat! There are really no hills (the town is in a flat valley surrounded by hills), which is really nice. Most of the roads are made from landscaping stones. I bet in google maps you could do the street view and see what they are. We will be using a lot less transportation here because we can walk almost anywhere. The thing is, is that when we need to go the city for a multi zone or something, it is really expensive. Like 200 quetz (abt. $26), which is a lot.
I love that the grass at home is green! Always in the past it would be green for the first month or so and then dead like all of the other yards. But now that we have the sprinkler system we will have green grass all year round. Mom that is awesome that you found another Salvia plant. I did not know that the other one died. Definitely find a way to keep it alive through this next winter. :)
That is good to use the money and get those things fixed that Erika's car is in a little better shape for driving a long distance. Oh to be a billionaire! That is sweet that he was able to do that for Erika! That big ol´ tip should help quite a bit (Erika received a large tip her last night working at Jalapeno’s).
Coach Knowles is going to be the new football coach! Hopefully they have a decent year this year. I am going to miss going to games this fall.
The temple is amazing but sometimes it is a little easy to just go through the motions. There is so much to learn there! That is really good dad that you want to learn more. We are always told about how important it is.
More than a scripture or quote today, it is more of a thought that I had, that my companion and I were talking about last night. Which is the importance of not judging. It is interesting how if we see somebody in the hospital, our heart instantly goes out to them. Even if the accident was completely their fault, we still feel that pull to help and take care of them. But at times people see a sinner in the church and it is a different story. The saying is that the church is a hospital for sinners. It is very easy to judge somebody for sins, or just if they are or are not doing something that they should or should not be doing. And oftentimes we focus on other people’s problems before we address our own. Thoughts more than anything, but interesting.
I am looking forward to getting continued updates of how everything is going with everybody! I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Marks