Navidad en Guatemala

Christmas down here is nuts. NUTS. I was fortunate to talk to family on Christmas Eve for 40 minutes, and after that, we went to the Bishop´s house for a Christmas Dinner. We had permission to stay out until 1230AM Christmas Eve, so we got to watch the most insane firework show ever. We went to the roof of the Bishop´s house, which looks down into all of Villa Hermosa. 

Imagine this - Every single person in Guatemala has access to professional grade fireworks, and a lot of them. Then, at exactly midnight, everyone sets them off at once. PUCHICA. It was absolute insanity. There were fireworks going off above us, below us, to our right, left, front, back, everywhere. My companion asked me if we do that in the US, and I said, well, this would definitely be illegal. 

We moved our PDay to Wednesday this last week, and nothing was open, save La Torre (local grocery store). We didn´t do anything that day, except for sleep! 

We didn´t get all that much food on Christmas, but the days following we had 2 back to back lunches every day. I thought I was going to die. We were stuffing handfuls of food in our backpacks and clothes when people weren´t looking, but we didn´t do a good job of hiding that fact, because we couldn´t stop laughing. I felt so sick after every meal, but you just gotta eat it.

My companion should not be allowed to use superglue, ever. Ever. She is constantly getting her hand stuck on things. A few weeks ago, she glued her fingers together. Friday, she glued her hand to the toilet while trying to fix the handle. The next day, she glued her hand to the superglue bottle. I have pictures of every time, but the toilet one was definitely the best. 

I taught a lesson to a canche (WHITE PERSON!) the other day. We contacted her in the street by her house, and started speaking Spanish, and she interrupted us and said she doesn´t speak Spanish. We found out she has lived here for 2 years (but she doesn´t know Spanish...) and is from Denver. My goodness, it was the worst lesson ever. I can´t teach in English PARA NADA. I think I told her 20 times that God has a plan for us because I just didn´t know what else to say. 

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Feliz Navidad, Prospero Año y Felicidad

Feliz Navidad a todos!

The youth in my ward are beyond INCREDIBLE. Five of them organized a Noche de Hogar (Fmaily Home Evening), invited 2 nonmembers, invited my companion and I over to teach them, and all this by themselves. The lesson went so good, and they are now 2 of our new investigators!

On Friday we woke up at 230AM for our zone´s Actividad Navideña! We staggered to the church, got on a bus, and headed to the city to do a Temple Session! President Brough and his wife were even in the session with us! After the temple, we went to El Frutal to the Meetinghouse there to play sports, have lunch, and a devotional. Lunch was awesome! The cooks from the CCM came with ham, turkey, stuffing, cranberries, rolls, green beans, and brownies for us. Best lunch I have had in weeks. After lunch we had a devotional with President Brough, his wife, and daughter. After everything, we got our packages (yes I got all my packages!), and went home to work for the rest of the day. We had a really good day that day, with 8 new investigators and 10 lessons with a member!

There was one really sad thing that happened this week. We were supposed to be baptizing Maury, Keler´s brother, on Sunday after church. But as we were walking to the church for his baptism, we got a call from the Elders that they couldn´t find him. We called him and he was in Zona 1 (The capital). He said he was with his mom, but his mom was in his house. So...we don´t really know what happened. We are hoping for this Saturday now as a date for him, but we aren´t sure what will happen!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. It is really weird to not be at home for Christmas, and especially to be in tropical weather for it instead of freezing conditions! I love you all and am so grateful for you, and want you to know that I am happy here. 

By the way, my companion and I had lunch at a member´s house yesterday, and her daughter is an RM from the Las Vegas Mission, and was one of my instructors in the CCM. It was really weird eating lunch at her house. It was like going over to one of your high school teacher´s houses. Weird. 

Anyways, I am looking forward to talking with my family tonight! Love you all and stay safe!

A Testimony of Obedience is Written on my Face

Wow, what a week!

To start it off, we had transfers. There are two companionships that live in my house, and last week, the companionship was one latina and 2 nortes. Well, both the nortes got transfered out, one to La Gomera and one to Chimaltenango. Now, there are 3 latinas and one norte in the house - me! 

Well, you may be wondering what in the heck I am holding in the picture I attached. Well, it is the remnant of the GROSSEST LUNCH I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE. It was soup. However, the broth of this soup was basically only cooking oil. It had onion that had been quartered into pieces the size of potatoes, and...chicken giblets. I was lucky, I didn´t have much giblet-wise in my soup, except one thing. A chicken heart. I nearly hurled when I unearthed this thing in my soup. Luckily, I happened to be wearing a skirt with pockets, so I did a sleight of hand and got the thing into my pocket when no one was looking. NO. NO. NO. 

I taught my first lesson in English this last week! It was basically just as horrible as in Spanish haha. This less-active family in our ward invited us over to teach them, and turns out, they lived in the US for a very long time. Their son is 11, so we were teaching him about the Priesthood. It was weird because my compañera would speak in Spanish, and then I in English, but it went well. 

Speaking of my compañera, she gave a 12 month old boy a piece of hard candy during one of our lessons and he started choking (duh). So she learned a valuable lesson about babies and candy that night!

We had a Christmas Activity in our ward on Saturday, which was really well attended. One of our investigators came, even! His brother was an absolute terror throughout the activity, though, and even punched another kid in the face. We ended the activity with a dinner, including weird chicken (well, everything always includes weird chicken here). 

I gave a talk on Sunday. It was about missionary work, and was supposed to be 5 min. I talked about the apostle Paul and his ministry and related it to a talk by Elder Holland. About 4 minutes and 59 seconds of my talk was just reading his talk haha. Bullet dodged. 

Well, Sunday I was really, really sick. I couldn´t eat anything and had a fever of 101. I felt awful, but we had to keep working. Sometimes I thought I was just going to collapse in the middle of the street, I was so achey and exhausted. I woke up the next day better though! Still some stomach pain, but that is a daily thing here. 

Saw  my first scorpion ever! Ew. My companion killed it in the street, and I just stood back and made faces at it. 

So the reason for the title of this letter is because, for some reason, everyone here is fascinated with the scar I have on my face! They are always asking if it hurts and what happened and everything, and I never know how to answer them in Spanish. However, the thing is is that I have to learn how to tell them because it is a good story of the importance of obedience. It´s kind of weird to me, though, for all these people to notice it, because it has never been something I have ever really been aware of, since it has basically always been with me. (For those wondering, I think the story goes that I fell off a Lego sculpture when I was 18ish months old and hit my face, because I wasn´t being obedient to my parents in letting them help me down). 

Anyways, Merry Christmas and have a good week!

Day of the Devil and Christmas Devotional

So I´ll start this letter with a funny story from a couple weeks ago that I keep forgetting to include! So 2 weeks ago, we had interviews with President Brough, and got packages and letters while we were there! Nearly everyone got a Halloween package, including myself, that was filled to the brim with candy. Except for one Elder. Yes, he got a Halloween package. But instead of candy, his mom filled it with canned soup. 

Yeah. His face when he opened it was really one of the funniest things I have ever seen. 

So last week was the first time I was ever mad, really MAD with my sweet companion. We were in a lesson, at 852pm, 3 miles down a hill away from home, teaching members, not investigators, about prayer. We had 8 minutes to get home, and we did not have our contacts. I was fuming. If we don´t get our contacts, we have to call President. We had already had 7 lessons with a member that day, and we really needed to contact. We got a ride back to the house, and I looked at her and said, ¨follow me¨. I turned and started sprinting to the closest tienda, ran inside, contacted the 6 we were missing, turned around, and sprinted home with her trailing behind me.

The thing is, I really shouldn´t have been that upset. We have a mission phone, we could have called people to contact them. We did make goals for contacting after this happened, but I definitely overreacted. 

We had 26 lessons with a member this week, thanks to Kati, one of the local youth! She came out teaching with us every single day. She is preparing to go on a mission, and is doing a very good job at that! We even gave her parts to talk about in the lessons. 

So, Day of the Devil is a ¨holiday¨on December 7 here in Guatemala. Everyone buys Devil Piñatas, but these aren´t piñatas for candy. No, these piñatas are filled with all sorts of explosives. At 6pm, everyone hangs their devil in the street and lights him on fire. Oh. my. gosh. You would think the world was ending because of the thousands of explosives going off. Nuts. 

We watched a live Christmas Devo from Salt Lake City on Sunday! It was really cool to see, but it was in Castellano (Spanish), so I didn´t understand a WORD, other than a few typical gospel terms. We heard from the Prophet, from the President of the Primary, and from Elder Nelson. We had to have an investigator with us to be allowed to go to the Devo, so we brought Eddy, one of our best. But, while we were there, he leaned over to my companion and told her he is going to Spain this week. For 3 months. NOOOO. 

The transfer call happened yesterday! Yes, tomorrow is transfers already! In my district, 5 people are leaving, including the District Leader and Zone Leader. One Elder has finished his mission and is going home, and the two Gringa sisters from my house are leaving. But....I get 6 more weeks with Hna Sol! Yay!

Okay, so there really are no rules for the road down here. The other day we saw a kid who couldn´t have been more than 7 YEARS OLD, driving a van. It was a little scary. 

Anyways I love you all, and thank you for your support and prayers!

Chuchos in the Chapel

Yeah, IN. I´ll get to that story in a minute. 

Anyways, hi! Can you believe it is December already? I sure can´t!

I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Thanksgiving - we don´t get dinner here in the mission field, but for lunch I had Ramen and McDonald´s french fries. Living the dream!

So, as soon as I said that it is really warm here last Wednesday, it got COLD. Really. Really. Cold. Like, 2-sweaters-on-while-out-proselyting cold. Like, 4-shirts-3-sweaters-2-sweatpants-socks-and-2-blankets-at-night cold. It finally let up yesterday, but man alive, we are within the tropic lines, you wouldn´t think it would happen! Okay, yeah, it was probably in the mid 60s during the day, and 50s at night, but STILL. Brrr. 

Alright, so the chucho! Hna Sol and I got to the church building last on Sunday, and we saw the girls who live in our house waving for us. ¨Hna Judd! Do you have any food on you??¨ Well, duh, I always have food in my backpack. Anyways, turns out that a huge, fat, chocolate lab chucho got into the chapel! We tried luring it out with snacks, but he was much more interested in being at church (the opposite problem we have with our investigators...). It took forever to get the thing off the property, and it just kept coming back! I don´t know what happened in the end, because we had to go sit down, but when we came out after Sacrament meeting, it was gone. 

We had a district PDay yesterday, where we all went to the chapel, and watched 17 Miracles on the projector. The elders even cooked us French Toast! I´m pretty sure the French toast wasn´t all that great, but I haven´t been in the US for almost 3 months now, so it was good to me! 

Spanish is still a major frustration, since I feel like I am not participating much during lessons. However, every once in a while, a miracle happens, and I just start talking to them, without even really any idea of what I am saying, but it just...happens. Really cool to experience. 

Alright, speaking of Spanish, time for Favorite Guatemalan Spanish Words with Hna Judd!

1. Vaya (means sure, yeah)

2. Cabal (means exactly, perfect)

3. Puchica (Puchica is probably my all time favorite Spanish word, because it has about 17 different uses, but nobody knows what it actually means. You would use it while starting a story, to say dang it, and like 15 other different ways)

4. Saber (it is used in the verb form, meaning to know, but Guatemalans actually use it to say I don´t know)

5. Eso (means perfect, excellent, always done with this weird finger snap they do down here)

6. Chambon (lazy)

7. Shuco (gross)

8. Perdon pues (ah, I see)

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well!

Miracles and Members

Hola everyone! This week has been awesome, and really fast. First off, we took a trip to Antigua last Tuesday! It is literally so beautiful there, and we had a blast going around to all the tiendas and just hanging out. 

On Wednesday, I experienced my first companion exchange. I was sent to Amatitlan to work for a day with Hna Saavedra. She was nice, and I learned a lot, but I missed my area and my Sol! 

So, miracles. Milagros. We have had miracles left and right this week. The first one you are not going to believe. 

1. Gerardo. Yeah, the guy we dropped because he wouldn´t stop drinking. He is getting baptized this Sunday! Out of the blue two days ago, he showed up to church!He realized that he felt different without the gospel, and that he was ready to make changes. Last night we committed him to baptism this Sunday and I nearly cried. We are getting him a blessing for strength in his addictions tonight, and an added blessing is that he has been sick to his stomach, so he can´t drink anyways! 

2. My other first baptism is happening this Sunday as well! Keller is 8, and is so excited about being baptized. We went last night to ask his mom to sign his papers, and she said no. I almost died on the inside. So we kept talking to her and she said Y E S. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

3. We have to have 12 lessons a week with members and 12 without every week. Well, this week we had 24 with, and 9 without, and 5 less active lessons! The members were head over heels trying to help us. SO awesome, because they really aided in the progression of some of our investigators.

The bees down here are insane. Like, super-natural space bees. They are HUGE, and totally black. Building a nest on a roof is not good enough for them. Neither is a tree. No, these bees feel it necesarry to BORE HOLES IN CONCRETE WALLS AND ROCK TO LIVE IN. I´m not sure, but I feel like a sting from one would probably kill you. 

I haven´t mentioned this yet, but my mission president lived in MN for 3 years when he was a teenager! His dad was the Minneapolis Minnesota mission president in the early 80s! I told him exactly where I grew up and he knew where I was talking about. 

Anyways I love you all and I am having such a wonderful time down here!

Chuchos and Churros

From 11/11/2013

Hola!!!

Yeah, surprise, I am emailing today. It isn´t our PDay, but we switched around our district meeting and PDay this week, so I am emailing today (which is a bit of a bummer since I don´t get as many emails when I email early)...I would recommend emailing me during the weekend if you want me to catch you, because I honestly never know when I am emailing. Apparently next week I am emailing on Wednesday? I have no idea...

I have survived yet another week in the field! I love Villa Hermosa. It is so beautiful here, and most of the people are really nice and receptive to what we are teaching. I always go home SO exhausted and with sore legs and feet because we walk and walk and walk all day long. I was trying to think of a good synonym for how much we walk here and the best (and fairly accurate) one I came up with was imagine walking around the Minnesota State Fair everyday for 8 hours...and there you have my mission. It hurts really bad sometimes but the work is progressing here and it is worth the discomfort. 

I knew coming into my mission, as a dog lover, that I was going to see some dead dogs. Well, I saw my first one on the way to our district meeting today. Surprisingly, it wasn´t as devastating as I thought it would be. The chuchos (street dogs) have a pretty awful life so actually being dead, for them, is the better option...

But seriously, the chuchos down here. There are thousands of them. And they all love me. I am the pied piper of chuchos - they all follow me around, especially one really funny one, who I now call my chucho. Her name is Oreo (yeah, I´m creative). 90% of the time when we are teaching a lesson outside, I have a chucho sitting right next to me. Sigh...they are just a little annoying. Except for Oreo, she comes when I call to her and we love each other. 

So this week was a rollercoaster. It started off good, but got really bad really fast. Thursday, Friday, and especially Saturday were HORRIBLE. My companion and I were so discouraged and everything was going wrong and no one wanted to hear our message. One of the people we have been teaching, Gerardo, we had to drop, because he is drinking and lying to his wife and hasn´t shown up for the last 8 lessons. It´s hard to have to do that, because he was so receptive when we were teaching him, and we really want him to make the right choice, but he isn´t. Then we have Giovani and Florialma and their two kids. I contacted them in front of the grocery store, and we have been teaching them at their house ever since. Everything was going great with them and they were accepting everything we were teaching and Giovani even had a baptismal date and had gone to church, but on Wednesday he said that he knew everything we were teaching was true but he just needed time and he and Flor aren´t married and only one of the kids is his and they are moving to Peten in 3 weeks. Yeah, so there´s no way we can make this happen, especially since Flor has stopped showing up for lessons and they are moving and are unmarried. So, we are going to teach them until they move and then send a referral to the Coban Mission. Those three days, no answered their doors, all our appointments cancelled, no one we contacted listened to us, and we were so sore and exhausted and a little sick. We were praying and praying and praying to have a good day, and finally, we had Sunday. 

Sunday was really, really good. We had 3 investigators come to church, 8 lessons with members, 7 new investigators, and 39 contacts. Finally, things picked up and our prayers were answered. 

Lunches in the field are more than just a little terrifying to me. We eat at member´s houses more often than not and let´s just say that the standards for anything to do with meat are just a little different than in America. Also, the portions here are enough to make you want to die. Three days ago, we were served 2 hamburgers the size our our heads for lunch. It was nothing short of a miracle that I was able to put them down. What´s really terrifying is the chicken. I have not eaten cooked chicken once here. Uncooked chicken on the other hand....yeah. I haven´t gotten sick save some stomach problems yet, and I am hoping I will never. 

Okay, so more on Hna Sol! She is literally the sweetest person ever and we work together so well. Oh, and somehow, this girl is FLUENT in English. She has been in the mission field for 7 months, and is such a hard worker but does it with kindness and love in her heart. We were both saying to eachother last night that next time we have an interview with President Brough we are going to say that we never want another companion and we are happy here lol...but I know I only have 9 weeks left with her and then I´m going to have another companion. Or two. But hopefully one. 

Hna Sol comes from an inactive family, though her brother did serve a mission before going inactive. She loves him, and they talk often, but some of her family is a little less than excited with her being here. She keeps her spirits so high, though, and is a wonderful example of a hardworking missionary. 

This week we taught 32 lessons, and had 523 contacts! I don´t like contacting, but In the last week I have learned how to do it entirely by myself. You just say, Hola! Much gusto! Nosotros somos misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias, y tenemos un mensaje a cerca de Jesucristo (or familias, or profetas, or iglesia, or...). Cuando podemos visitarle y compartir con ustedes? And then they usually say something along the lines of I´m catholic or I don´t have time or no...to which you say Ah, vaya, nos gustaria a invitarle a la Iglesia es a la par de la Maxi y las reuniones es 9 en la mañana a domingo. Nos vemos! Once in a blue moon you get an address, but usually it is the above exchange...

Tomorrow my district and I (6 elders and 5 sisters...all awesome) are having a tourist day! We get one every transfer (6 weeks), so we are going to Antigua! I am very excited.

Anyways thank you for the emails and letters. I love hearing from everyone! Talk to you next week!

Drumroll Please

Ha, you thought I would tell you where I am right off the bat!

I am in the field, alive and well!

My last week at the CCM dragged on and on and on, but all in all I am grateful for the experience I had and was a little terrified to leave. 

The day I left the CCM, last Tuesday, President Brough, my mission president, came to the CCM to pick us up early in the morning! He is so nice! We all got on a bus and went through the city to the mission home, which is in a PENTHOUSE SUITE in the city. So. Nice. We had some instructions there, and then they sent us Greenies out to the field to shadow a companionship. I was sent to Villa Hermosa, Guatemala, to shadow Hna Blackmer and Hna Sol! We taught lessons, walked around and contacted, and I spent the night at their house. I had so much fun with them, and really really loved Hna Sol.

Next day was transfers! I packed up all my stuff and headed to the stake center at 5AM. There, I found out who my trainer would be and where I would be to train for 12 weeks and who my trainer would be. Guess what. 

Villa Hermosa. Hna Sol. Ahhhhh!!! Hermana Sol. She is the best trainer (Mami) I could have ever asked for! We get along so well and she is teaching me so much. She is from Southern Mexico, and is like a Mexican Becca! I LOVE HER. My house is awesome. There are 5 girls living there, and it even has a skylight in the kitchen! Too bad I can not for the life of me figure out how to attach pictures here...because you would get a kick out of this skylight. My house is in a safe gated community with guards, so no risk of me dying lol. 

We have taught a lot of people this week, and even got 5 baptismal dates! The field is white for harvest...We taught Diego, who just got baptized, and his mom Rosi, Giovani (who has a baptismal date and came to church) and his wife Florialma, Edwin (who has a date) and his wife Nelly, and Gerardo, who is getting baptized this Sunday! 

My first PDay was yesterday (but we write on Tuesdays. We did some shopping, some writing, some cleaning, and some sleeping. I even got to sleep until 630, which is nice because my trainer makes me get up at 530 lol. 

Anyways I need to get to my other emails because the internet went out so I lost some time. Write to me, and I will try to figure out how to attach pictures next week. 

Much love,

Hna Judd

A Child and a Chapel

14 October 2013

Hey everybody!

I always write a quick outline for my emails before email time so I have my thoughts straight, and the first thing on the list this week was "literally nothing has happened this week". Okay, maybe not literally, but either I am not remembering anything from this week or it was very dull. I suspect the latter. :)

 

We did get a couple new "investigators" to work with this week. The first is Antoin, and I am teaching him by myself. We are doing something called Missionary-Missionary, where you make a profile of an investigator, are paired up with a missionary from another district, and take turns teaching one another. I am teaching Elder Glover from District Samuel (Antoin). I will be teaching him for the second time in about 2 hours, so wish me luck! The other investigator was a youth from the local ward, who was close to mission age, who my companionship and I taught, but it was only a one time thing.

 

Tomorrow we get to leave the CCM for 6 hours!!! We are going to go into the city to see a huge relief map of Guatemala, and then to lunch at WENDY´S, and then to a Guatemalan market! I am so excited to leave here for a while; you get so stir crazy cooped up in a fenced complex all day.

 

This last week we have gotten to have class in the capilla (meeting house, or chapel), but today was the last day we got to do that. The walk there was wonderful: we went through the gates, down the street, across the street, past the temple, across the temple parking lot, down the stairs, across the capilla parking lot, and into the capilla. Highlight of my DAY. However, tomorrow all the viejos are leaving, and we get their old classroom in the CCM, which is the nicest classroom here.

 

Why? Because tomorrow we become Viejos!! That means I only have 2 more semanas in the CCM (thank goodness). We are getting about 20 North Americans and 50 Hispanos tomorrow, which will be the last batch I watch come in to the CCM.

 

IMPORTANT. I will be leaving the CCM early in the morning on Tuesday, October 29. I will not have the opportunity to email the week that I leave, which means that next week is my last email in the CCM. I may or may not be able to email quickly from my Mission Home, which is about 20 minutes from here, but I have a feeling that I won´t be. So, that means that there will be a 2 week gap between next week´s correspondence and my first in the field. Lo siento! :( I will be sent somewhere in the Guatemala City Central mission (most likely Solola, Chimaltenango, Antigua, or Porte San Jose) for 12 weeks to be trained in. I will write as soon as I can! Just know that I will be safe; it is not that long travel-wise.

 

If you send me Dear Elders, or letters, or anything, now would be the time to stop sending them to the Guatemala CCM, and start sending them to the Guatemala City Central Mission. Please keep them coming, I absolutely LOVE them! Physical letters are also nice...:)

 

Oh! When we were over at the capilla one day having class, we heard some kids outside playing football (soccer), and we saw that District Samuel was out talking to them through the fence. One of the kids, 13 years old, spoke English AND Spanish AND German AND Italian. Kid genius, I tell you....

 

I don´t think I´ve really said much concerning the weather here in Guatemala, so I will now. Surprisingly, it is NOT very humid. When I got here, the first thing I said was, "Wow, this feels like Minnesota, only less humid". FOR REAL. It is actually fairly chilly right now, probably high 60s, low Seventies (just found out the number seven doesn´t work on this keyboard). It rains like clockwork every day around 1, except now rainy season is nearly over so it´s becoming less and less frequent. Even though we are above the Equator, our summer is their winter, and our winter their summer, because the rain cools it down here. So we are about to go into the hot season! There are thunderstorms here in the afternoon quite often, and the thunder is SO loud.

 

Quotes:

"A person is like an orange. When you first bite into him, he´s gross." - Elder Johnson, referring to a hard-to-crack investigator

 

Thank you everyone for sending me letters!! Talk to you soon!

 

Hermana Judd

Cockroaches and Conference

I apologize ahead of time, but the enter key on this computer is not
working! So I am going to do this (/) everytime I break a paragraph. /
Alright, let´s start off with the cockroaches! Hna Baugh and I both
found one in our closets Monday night! I screamed, hit it with my
hairbrush, threw my hairbrush on the floor (shattering the brush),
then ended up throwing away my hairbrush and my toothbrush which had
been in close proximity to said cockroach. EW. Speaking of bugs, I got
my first Guatemala bug bite on Thursday! It was during sports, and I
felt a pain on my leg, so I looked down, and saw blood (but no bug).
It is still swollen and red and itchy and disgusting. I have no idea
what bit me, but oh man, it it the worst bug bite I have ever gotten.
/ We got to leave the CCM bubble last Tuesday! We went to the stake
center to play some basketball, and then we went to Walmart! It was a
legitimate Walmart, only you had to go through guards to even get in
to the store, and the prices were in quetz. I had to pick up some
candy (yeah, had to...), a hairbrush (see above story), etc. etc. But
they had really everything that a usual Walmart would have, just weird
brands. After Walmart, we went to the mall across the street and I had
SUBWAY! Did that ever taste good. It kind of throws you off when
things cost 40 quetz here, but in actuality is only like 5 dollars.
After our outing we had a devotional on missionary work by my favorite
apostle, Jeffrey R Holland. Considering we don´t get much media here
in the CCM, we crave devotionals. / So before last week, we got to
leave the CCM grounds and walk a block over to the CRE house to do
computerized language learning. However, they just moved the computers
to the CCM, right across from my classroom, so as of right now we
NEVER LEAVE THE RELIGION PRISON. But, starting tomorrow, our class got
moved to the church a few blocks away! So now we will spend most of
our time OFF CCM property!! :) / My district has been trying to speak
solo español, but as you can guess, it has been going terribly. I try
so hard to only speak Spanish, but I don´t speak very much any more
anyways, so by the time I do open my mouth, I have forgotten that I am
not supposed to speak English! Oh well. Really the biggest problem
right now in the CCM is learning the language. Slowly but surely.../
So there is this adorable little Latina in the CCM. Her name is Hna
Guidos and she is SO adorable. She is so tiny and little, with the
appearance of a 12 year old, and the voice of a 6 year old. I cannot
understand a word that comes out of this girl´s mouth, but everytime
she speaks, it´s so cute that I am captivated. Then she asks me a
question and I just stare at her like a deer in the headlights. :) /
So my compañera, Hna Fisher, thought she had learned the term "we
killed it", like we did a good job. Anyways, at snack time we have to
say a Spanish word or phrase to get our food. So Fisher went up to the
teacher behind the counter and said her phrase. The teacher stared at
her for a good 10 seconds before muttering, "what"? Turns out, she had
said to the teacher, with an entirely straight face, "I am going to
kill you." / CONFERENCE! Conference was sooo good in the CCM. The
girls got the front row, and we watched it in English! I particularily
liked S. Gifford Nielson, who not only quoted my mission scripture (O
that I were an angel...), but also told a story about a missionary
from Guatemala! Shout out! :) I also liked Holland, of course. It was
cool seeing Adrian Ochoa give a talk (Sunday second session towards
the end) because not even two weeks ago, he was at the Guatemala CCM
giving us the only live devotional we have gotten since I´ve been
here! / Two nights ago I cut about 5 inches off a girl´s hair! Hna
Camargo is from Arizona and her hair was waist length. It was really
heavy and hurting her head, so she had me chop it off! Talk about
nervewracking but I think it looks okay...lol./ Quotes! Overheard in
the comedor: "it smells like my burning flesh!" / "Hey baby, give me
your snack!" - Hna Ovalle (doesn´t speak English) / "Did you know it´s
easy to learn a third language after you have learned a second? I want
to learn Taliban. Is that a language?" - Hna Fisher / Love all of you!
I´ll be emailing on Monday next week!

Getting Duped and Secular Songs

Hola everyone!

 

Another week done at the CCM (phew). It feels like I have been here a month.

 

So life in a trio is getting better and better. We are becoming friends and praying and working together more diligently. I'm actually starting to enjoy it!

 

Okay so I figured I would give a rundown of a day in the life of a missionary at the CCM.

 

6:30 get out of bed (ugh)

7:15 CLASS

8:15 Desayuno (breakfast)

8:45 CLASS

10:00 TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning)

11:15 Sports and shower

12:45 Almuerzo (lunch)

1:30 CLASS ON CLASS ON CLASS

5:15 Cena (dinner)

6:00 MORE CLASS

8:00 Refaccion (Snack)

9:00 Planning

10:30 BED

 

Day in and day out! So much class, I think my brain is going to melt.

 

Tomorrow, EVERY SINGLE HERMANA IN THE CCM EXCEPT FOR MY COMPANIONSHIP IS LEAVING. Every. Single. One. The CCM is divided into three groups: The 0-2 weekers are Nuevos, the 2-4 weekers are Medios, and the 4-6 weekers are Viejos. The native speakers stay for 2 weeks. There are no medios at the CCM, only Nuevos and Viejos. The Viejos run everything. They have callings, make sure the Hnas are where they need to be, etc. etc. So tomorrow, my companionship turns into Medios, and we have to assume A L L the responsibilities of Viejos. Nooo! On Wednesday, we are getting 20 Norteamericanas: 4 hermanas and 16 elders. I'm excited for that, but I'm sad to watch my beloved Viejos leave.

 

So here in the CCM, songs get stuck in your head. A LOT. And more often than not, it is a secular song, like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or 1D. So we have taken to spiritualizing the songs that get stuck in our heads: For instance, to the tune of Party in the USA,

So I put my scriptures up, they're playing my hymn, the pianists fingers fly away,

nodding my head like amen, moving my soul like amen...

Haha, you do what you have to do.

Last night, all the elders and sisters were gathered around the piano playing songs like "Halo" and a whole selection of Disney songs, so that was WAY nice. I got to break out my piano skills and play the first part of Don't Stop Believing (aka the only song I know on the piano other than Carol of the Bells). Also, my companera Hna Fisher LOVES Abba, so she nearly dies every time I play it, which is way more than I should be...

 

Yeah, it is straight up Religion Prison here. There are gates and guards and ahhhh I am just so excited to G E T O U T O F H E R E.

 

Sundays are awesome. I had to talk, AGAIN, but this time I got to talk in English, and with my companeras. We watched two movies, "The Testaments" and "Legacy". We were all laughing WAY too hard at Legacy. We seriously found every part where someone wasn't dying HILARIOUS. It's amazing how much your sense of humor changes here...you find everything funny.

 

So...I am emailing on the nurse's laptop (American keyboaaarrrddd), because I missed my original email time, which was 10am today. Why? I had to go the eye doctor! Guess who has spots in her vision. Yeah. Everywhere I look there are little grey blurs and spots dancing around in my field of vision. So I went across the city to the opthamologist today, and he dilated my eyes and shined about 20 DIFFERENT LIGHTS in my eye until I thought I had seriously gone blind, then told me that I was IMAGINING THE SPOTS. Ha, right. Anyways, apparently one of my eyes isn't quite 20/20, so the other eye is compensating, and I developed astigmatism. So tomorrow at Walmart, I have to pick up reading glasses to attempt to correct it. 19 years old, and I need reading glasses. Going through the city was crazy, though! The drivers here are insane. There are no regulations on the road, and you only get in trouble if you hit a physical person on the road. There are lots of American stores, like Payless, Little Caesars, Taco Bell, IHOP, McDonalandia (not a misspelling...), so on and so forth.

 

We get to go on a field trip tomorrow! We are going to the Stake Center to play sports, then to Walmart, then to the mall to eat American food (they have Subway!), and something else that I can't quite remember. So I will detail all of that in my email next week.

 

Oh, one time this week we walked out back to the basketball courts for sports time and there was an ambulance and a bunch of nuns just in the court. I still just don't even know why; it was so weird.

 

Also, SEND DEARELDERS. I loooooove them. :)

 

Love you all,

Hna Judd

 

 

Week One in the CCM (MTC)

Hola everyone!

So this week went by quickly, yet not. They say the days go by slowly in the CCM, but the weeks go by quickly. I think that is true!

 

Okay so both my plane trips were really good. I actually sat next to a woman who grew up in Guate on the way to LA! She was so excited that I was going there. In LA I met up with 13 elders, and 4 other hermanas, then we flew to Guate. I had an entire row to myself, so I actually got to lay down and "sleep". We arrived at about 5:30 am, went through customs, and got on a school bus to go to the CCM. The driving here is NUTS. People cut each other off and whistle and swerve and motorcycles go between cars. Once we were pulling in to the parking lot, we looked to our left and saw a pick up truck with a bunch of men armed and ready to shoot in the bed. Welcome to Guatemala.

 

They let us take a nap, and that was good, but other than that the first day was really hard for me. I was choking back tears at dinner, and once we went to bed, I just sat there and cried. I have never felt more homesick in my life than I felt that first night. Fortunately, that has been getting better every day. I haven´t cried since!

 

There are 7 missionaries in my district. Elderes Toma, Wickhamshire, Johnson, and Rhoton, and 3 hermanas, Hna Brough, Fisher, and me. We are a trio, which has its challenges, but is fun most of the time.

 

On Sundays (the best day ever btw), we all have to prepare a 5 minute talk IN SPANISH and we are called at random to come up and talk. Considering they call only 6 out of like 50, I thought I was safe. WRONG. Guess who had to give a talk on Enduring to the End in Spanish. Yeah. Speaking of Spanish mine is doing fairly decent. Hna Fisher doesn´t know ANY spanish, but Hna Baugh knows more than me, so we balance each other out. I can roll my r´s when I say words like hombres (shoulders) nombre (name) Cristo (christ) etc. Seeing a pattern? :)

 

I swear I am going to gain like 40 pounds here. They feed you SO much and all you ever do is eat and sit and eat and sit. But the food is actually really good.

 

The Hispanas here are HI-larious. We have 4 in our room and despite the language barrier we are always rolling on the floor laughing by bedtime. We pretty much play charades and they say english words like "shut up!" and "toothpaste!". Hna Montanas taught us the Macarena (the words) a few nights ago.

 

Did an Elder Allen ever serve in our ward? Because I am in the CCM with his sister down here! She was so excited when she found out and started saying things like "WBL Ward getting dissolved" and "Roushars".

 

P Day is the second best day of the week, besides Sunday, since we aren´t holed up in a classroom for 10 plus hours. We have pretty much chilled, played sports, went to the temple (which was awesome) and now we are emailing! We do have classes later, but esta bien.

 

Okay, so package info. Don´t worry about the packages, they get here. No catholic stickers, just write HERMANA JUDD really big on the package. I still haven´t gotten Dear Elders yet but I think that will happen tonight.

 

FUNNY PHRASES OF THE WEEK:

"Como se dice how?" - Hna Baugh

"I´ve been 19 for 1 1/2 years" - Yours Truly

"Yo se que El Libro de Mormon es avocado" - Eld Toma (it´s supposed to be verdadero)

"I just love foreign stale cereal. It´s like a surprise game, a treasure hunt." - Hna Michaelis

 

Alright I love all of you and hope to hear from you soon! I don´t think I´ll be emailing next Tuesday since we are going to Walmart (holla), but it will be sometime, like Monday or Wednesday.

 

Love you!

Hna Judd

I'm Alive!!!

Okay so the keyboards here are really weird. anyways i´m sorry that i couldn´t write yesterday, we didn´t have internet! so we have like 5 minutes today to send a quick email. we are under a hurricane warning right now!!! not going to be a bad one though. I got suuuuuper home sick yesterday and was crying and wanting to go home but today is better.

So we got into guate at about 5.30 am yesterday. the plane ride to guate was good, i had my own row! you could defs tell when we were flying over the border, it was lights, then no lights. at all. there were 13 elderes and 5 hermanas flying. my companions are hna fisher and hna baugh. they are both from utah. we share a room with 4 latinas, who we can barely talk to! today hna baugh asked "como se dice how?" hahaha...she asked how do you say how. :)

The food is really good here. i like it a lot. we have had chinese, lots of eggs, and today for almuerzo (lunch) we had cafe rio.

I can roll my r´s kind of already! gift of tongues i tell ya.

We are teaching our first investigator tonight (although i have my suspicions that he is actually a member...) so that will be really interesting! I am very excited about that. We have been lesson planning for the first couple hours.

Okay so we have to go already but know that i am okay and that i love you all and i am doing good!

I´ll have some more info on packages the next time i can talk (sometime next week, no idea when).

love,

Hermana Judd

dear sister judd

I'm a month late with this. But.....

:)

:)

:)

It's here. 

Dear Sister Judd:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

 You are assigned to labor in the GUATEMALA GUATEMALA CITY CENTRAL MISSION. 

 It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Guatemala Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 7, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language. 

Oh, how excited I am to serve the wonderful people of Guatemala! I'm just so happy to be called as a missionary. 

106 days until Guatemala! 

Also, this is a video of me opening my call:

they are in

My mission papers were officially submitted by my stake president on Friday, March 1, 2013. 

That is a screenshot of when I completed my online recommendation and submitted it to my bishop in mid February. 

I am estimating that I will receive my call at the EARLIEST late next week, but the probable dates are between March 21 and March 23. Which might be hard, because I am leaving for Utah on March 22 for a spring break trip! 

I seriously love this.