Hola from Guatemala

Hola familia!
We arrived in Guatemala this am at 6 their time. The flight from LAX to Guatemala was about 4.5 hours and we arrived very tired. We unpacked our bags, and ate breakfast, and then had an orientation to the CCM. It is even smaller than I thought. It sounds like their goal is to make it as big as I thought but right now the only missionaries that are trained in the CCM are the Latinos going to CA and the NA Elders serving in Guatemala and the Hermanas serving in CA. The buildings currently have a capacity of about 50 missionaries. The goal is to have all the missionaries that are being sent to CA come to the Guatemala MTC, but right now that isn't logical. The temple is right next to the Mission home, and we can go on our p-days but the temple is closed for the next two weeks for cleaning and maintenance. We will go when it opens again.

We have a new district. All of the Elders that Hna Atkisson traveled down with and then the three Hnas. We will also have a Latino companion. We will be with our companions the gringo hnas for classes, but gym and meals we will spend with our Latino comps. We haven't been told yet who it will be.

The MTC here is so beautiful. And it is marvelously warm and humid. Because it is winter there is a nice cool breeze, and the temp is about 70 today. We studied outside this afternoon for comp study. It is so fun to hear all the sounds of this place, none of them are familiar to me. It is so pretty.

The CCM is behind gates and fences. You cant really see what is on the other side of the fence. As the fence goes around some parts it has that barbed wire stuff across the top. Most of the time we´ll be in the CCM but on the 8th I get to go out to go with the Mission President´s wife and one of the Hnas.

Our classes will all be in Spanish. And the MTC Pres said that we will have two types of meetings. Those meetings dedicated to us learning the gospel and the doctrine, and those will be in English and meetings dedicated to us learning the language and those will be in Spanish. He said that unless it is a grammar principle to not be really worried if we don´t understand what is being said. (HA I found the ´ ok sorry about my poor punctuation and my run on paragraphs. It is a Spanish keyboard and I can´t figure out how to make a new paragraph.)

Most of the missionaries here are either new like us or have been here for three weeks. I´m a bit concerned because we´re supposed to be teaching in Spanish this week and I don´t feel like I can communicate the message in Spanish. I have so much work to do.

The MTC president´s wife was kind enough to get the MTC pres to let Hna Newren and I to have an hour nap this morning. It makes studying easier if your eyes aren´t blurry and they don´t keep trying to close. It was very nice to be able to take a nap, and I´m pretty sure I´ll sleep pretty well tonight as well. Pray for me to be able to remember what I study so I can learn how to teach the gospel and communicate in this language.

Sorry my message is so disjointed.

We´ve had two meals so far and the food is sooo good. Flavors like I don´t normally have, but it is soo good. We had eggs this morning that were scrambled and had some kind of red pepper in them and I don´t know what else but they were really really yummy. If I could communicate what I thought I´d have asked the ladies in the Cafeteria what they put it in. But even if I could have asked, what they would have answered probably wouldn´t have make sense.

This is such a pretty place. The building is made of so much rich looking wood.

I don't have much more time, so I´ll just say it was wonderful to be able to talk to you all and I love and miss you.
Mem

Note from the editor: I took the liberty of making paragraphs, so that I could read it better... Hope none of the rest of you mind! ;) To get the full flavor of Mem's email, imagine it as all one paragraph...
Anybody know where the "enter" key is on a Spanish keyboard is?