CCM

August 21^st 2013

WE ATE FRIED PLATANOES FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! YOU OLD MAN. Im obsessed with Guatemala. they say we have five minutes to tell you we are alive and that guatemala is not a jungle hahahaha i canNOT wait to tell you about my physcho flights... i met 7 other missionaries in slc and then there were 26 of us at LAX. the 26 of us have been split into 2 districts. i think im the slowest typer here. how embarrrrrassing. hahaha anyway the food is sooooo good and my companion is the cutest thing in the world. she is from washington and goes to Dixie state on a golf scholarship.

Jane:

(and everyone else)

You are going to love this place its freaking amazing fyi they take your camera as soon as you get to the mtc...?? not sure why but just keep that in mind. also... im leaving the MTC the day before you get here so that sucks. but all the hermanas that have been here for a while are wearing THE CUTEST GUATEMALAN dresses i have ever seen and im going to buy a billion of them. not really but i guess we get to go to the market in 4 weeks so just pack light, youll regret bring tons of crap plus seriously those dresses are the cutest. the president is hilarious and son{t worry, you won{t fly alone! also i wouldnt reccomment sing Party in the USA as you hop off the plane at LAX with your dreams and cardigan because all the other missionaries glard at me...

I saw amilia!!! she was thrilled to see me. love you all!!!!!!!!

HARMAN HOOOOOLOWAY

August 27^th 2013

Gues what!!! everyone speaks the same language here... its spanglish. it feels like ive been here forever! but its sooooo good. sorry this keyboard is in spanish so no puctuation or capitolization cuz... i don,t know how hahahah we only have 40 minute to write and read email!!! ah! thank you sooo much for all of you who have wriiten. every single person is just sittin ghere bawling. not because were sad but just sooooooooo happy to hear from the people we love. like seriously, we cant stop crying. i always though missionaries loved p day because they got to wear jeans and take naps but its actually because we get to read and write letters to our family, im so glad things are going well for everyone. hahah mom so funny that you were tracking our flight. i have soooo much to tell tyou guys!!! so i made a list of topics:

The trip: i sat next to an older couple on my way to la and i was reading through everyones notes that you sent me!! (thanks so much) and i started to read walkers and I was BAWLING!!! like i could not stop so the poor people next to me were just staring hahaha and the lady whispered to her husband, i think shés a missionary... and he noddded and then i started crying harder... yikes embarassing. anyway i offered them some dark chocolate kisses and they sai that a lot of kisses, where are you going with all of those hahah so i told the guatemal and oh my!! the guy said his father was among the first 6 missionaries to open guatemal as a mission!!! so cool. they were on thier way to malasia where the lady was from, she served in singapore and thwy were super cool. there was this little girl sitting behind us who litterally knew 2 words which she repeated over and over aghin: JUSTIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN BIERBERRRRRRRRRRRR it was funny/annoying. i was soo happy to see al the other missionaries in LA!!! i basically just slept the whole way. oh... one of the hermanas siters was my friend at oakcrest. crazy. 

my district:the greatest human beings to ever grace this planet. we seriously have such a great time together. all the other districts are jealous of how much we love each other and how much fun we have. we take lots of breaks to have mini dance parties and just sing dumb songs. our elders are the goofiest haha oh man its just a big huge árty i guess i expecteed the mission to be a bunch of serious, hardworking adults but seriously, we´re ust a bunch of loud, goofy idiots having a good time. we still work hard and know when to be reverent and stuff but we try not to take ourselves to seriously-

My roommates:we have 2 hermana that have been here for 3 weeks and also a group of 3 latina roommates. they are all AWESOME. one of the Latinas in from here and know perfect english so she halps us a lot with our spanish. one of my other roommates is from springville and went to day care or preschool or whatever at the birds!! she grew up with kelsie. AND!!!! she had really long hai but one side is shaved!!!! Im so mad i didn´t do that before i left. also... on another note, we aren´t allowed to sit my the boys at meal times??? and we can´t really talk to them hahah also we have to sit a cross from a latina at meal times and talk to them its been really helpful for my spanish but sometimes they make fun of us hahaha which i understand because we sound pretty stupid hahah

Companera: is my best friend. seriously. im going to have SUCH a hard time leaving her, she reminds me so much of Carly and its so comforting to have her with me all the time. SHe doesnpt look like carly at all but she has the same manerisms and voice and shes so fun and goofy and she walks like carly and makes faces like carly and im crying writing about it beacuse its seriously been to best experience to be her companion. and it makes me miss carly TONS. love you carlton. we are seriously the 2 loudest people here in the CCM and we have kinds already gotten on the presidents wife bad side hahahah we laugh to loud and so the weirdest goofiest things. oh man we have so much fun. she is reallllly determined to learn the language so she keeps me motivated, thank goodness becaue some days im just ready to give up. i can understand everything but i cant find this words to respond!!! its soooo frustrating. but she so cute and help me out tons. so luck to have her.

Noel: we taught our first investigator on Thursday. THATS RIGHT!!! the day after we got dumped here, they tell us were going to be teaching someone. we weren{t too wrorried because we assumed he was a fake investigator because thats what they do at the provo ccm sio we kept asking our teachers, hes fake right?? and they said no but we didn't believ him until we tuaght him hahaha oh he is definitley a real investigator haha he has been working on construction for the ccm and was curious what all these mormons were about. he is very catholic which is... good and bad. we talked to hima lot about faith and just got to know him on our first day. one of his friends told him that we believ that we are the only true church and that was a major concern for him we did not have a good answer for that hahah but we gained is trust and sked him to say the closing prayer and he said no... so the next day we met with him again, answered some questions and stuff taught him how we pray and them asked him if her would pray and he  said he would say one of his catholic prayeres and we were like OKAY!!! saweeeet!!! so he did and it was cool and anyway the next day he said a prayer OUR WAY!!!!! and we were so happy and we invited him to church and hes a little shy so he was nervous but said yes!!! then we asked him to be baptised and he said she has already been bautisado so we explained more about priesthood and folling christs example by being bautized by immersion and stuff anyway he said to give him a little more time and yesterday he told us that he LOVED church (he could come here because its just missionaries here so he went with our teacher who is in the bishopric and couldn' tsit with him. so he sat with the missionaries and said they weret very friendly!!! so sad. he said we are much kinder missioniers) but i was upset because we gave those missionaries an awesome oppurtuidad but they didn't talk to him!! but Noel said he loved the music and the members were friendly to him. thank goodness. anyway it going well... he speak a tiny bit of english and we speak a tiny bit of spanish so... hahaha es muy interesante

Construction:We are in the middle of the biggest renovation on the ccm and its been crazy. it doesn't really bother me because i guess i have been around construction lots but some of the sister are like. ' what is the noise!?!?!' and im like... you've nerv heard a tile saw before? and they look at me like im crazy. also!!!! we are part of history!!!!! right now... as of the day my zone arrived at the CCm..... (drum roll please) THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THERE HAS BEEN more hermanas than elderes!!!!! in la ccm EVER!!!!!! crazy right??? so exciting. also the guatemala ccm is the only internation mtc with a medical staff! aka the cutest old lady and her husband. from murray.

Sunday:Everyone has to prepare a 5 minute talk IN ESPANOL for sacrament meeting and a 10 minute lesson with your companera for sunday school and then they randomly decide and announce it in sacrament/sunday school. talk about nerve wraking!!!! sheesh. anyway we didn{t get picked for sacrament and we were relievd but also wish we could have just gone to get it over with ahah THEN!!!!! we got piced for sunday school!!!!! and they told us we could do it in ingles hahaha thank goodness and we did a great job! :)

My teachers:Bruno and mendez. Bruno is pretty serious. we have her from 10 am to 3 pm and then Hermono Mendez  comes in until 9pm and HOLY COw the funniest person EVER!!! he is bilingual and from here, he just got back from his mission in honduras and he reminds me soooo much of the little side kick guy on the king and I (feel free to tough any sharp and pointy objects) haha oh mnay i have written so many hilarious quotes from him but he can be serious when he needs to. i was having suchhhhh a hard time with the language yesterday and we feeling so frustrated so i told him about it and he had me turn to page 90 in preach my gospel in spanish and i don{t remeber the quote excatly but i SWEAR it was in there just for me it basically about how having the spirit with you is more omportant that anything else and he testified to me that learning the language of the spirit is more important than spanish.

Harmana Terry; some random sister came into my room on thursday night (when we get our dear elders printed) and had we read a section from her letter. it said ' look for hermana holloway, her mom is sending her out today . make sure you make her feel welcome and safe. i started crying which is apparently not too unusual these days haha but she gave me a big hug and said welcome to la ccm!! haha but it was soo comforting i guess her mom is on that blog thing or website or whatever.

Prison/chaos:this place is cray cray. i have not been let out of these gate yet except to walk down the street to the computer lab and its killing me!!!!!

CCM inspector:some guy from salt lake who is the president of all the international mtcs has been here and they have ben cracking down on EVERYTHING haha its actually been pretty funny

Dear elders/emails I am so sorry i don{t have time to write everyone who has email me but i love you alll soooooo much. you can dear elder me or send me emails stright to this adress. thanks you for all your support peeps, i love you all so muc. love you mommy!!!! miss you like crazy i have 2 minutes and im freaking but love you tons. see you soon.!!!!!!!

All my love!!!!!!

Hermana Holloway

sorry about spelling and stuff hahaha

September 2^nd 2013

Ok coolest experience of the week. 2 of our little baby 18 year old elders, straight out of high school gave the sweetest most powerful blessing i have ever heard to a girl in our district. there was just 4 girls and then the 2 elders and we all felt the spirit so strong. i just know there is no way that and little 18 year old kid could say such powerful things on his own!!! So cool ELder Vincent from Hawaii and Elder Toupo from Alaska. good guys.

OH! remember how one of my campers brothers was here!? i totally met him (i mean there are only lie 100 people here so its not that hard) and he was just super nice and excited. he's like some kind of head honcho here and he's leaving for the fild tomorrow.

We are not getting any new north american Hermanas this week!!! Im so bummed cuz im really sick of being the new girl hahaha.

I love you all soooo much. our p day seems to change basically every week, its kinda unpredictable.

if you're sending letters or packages they say to send them to the mission home 2 weeks before i leave for the mission home (so in 2 weeks, dont send stuff to the CCm, just to the mission home in quetzaltenango) of the 24 of us that have been here for 2 weeks, only 5 of us are going to quetzal while at least 15 are going to este. it crazy. our cute little latina roommates are leaving tomorrow!!! I will miss them like crazy. Life is beautiful!!! I haven't been sick or sad which seems to be a rareity here so im counting my blessing and hoping it doesn't mean more tirals for me in the field. please pray for my spanish. I love you soooo much!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for being the best!!! Can you please send me Wendy's email and karens' email so i can write them??? sorry for leaving all those thank you notes up to you. do you think you could tell me how much is on my debit card? did you get those letters by the back door sent?? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Love you all like crazaaaay. you da best. the church is true. i love these people.

send me pics and I'll send you some when i finally get my camera back. love you!!!!

Hermana Holloway

September 14^th

I SURVIVED THE GUATEMALA EARTHQUAKE OF 2013 and I HATE YOU FOR GOING TO JAMES TAYLOR WITHOUT ME.

You guys are the worst. i love James Taylor!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( but im super glad you got to go. Its true folks, there was a earthquake they told us was a 5.0 on the richter scale. it didn't feel that big but we were all sitting at dinner and i was like who is kicking my chair!??! and then then entire room starting shaking and it was kind of like a roller coaster ride and i thought i was going to throw up haha it was actually pretty cool. then we all evacuated and they told us there might be some after schock which there never was but it was so cool!!!!!! I LOVE GUATEMALA!!!!!!! Everytime the latinas ask we wear im going, they're like ahhh!!!! MUY FRIO!!!!! es MUUUUYYYY FRio. haha and im like... it doesn't snow... it can't be that cold. but ive litterally heard it 28 times this week. so please send my that landsend jacket haha. WE STUDY IN THE CAPILLA (chapel) NOW!!!!! so its about the best thing that ever happened to me because we get to LEAVE THE CCM!!!!!!! And walk past the temple to the chapel. its beautiful. Ok. a few more hermano mendez quotes, even though he is not my teacher anymore, i still talk to him all the time. I saw him walking through the halls of the ccm at 9:30 at night with these giant statues of some cowboys on horses. I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING!??? and he's like What? I have no friends. I need somebody to talk to hahahahaha and then later someone asked him if he got a haircut and he's like, no, my head got bigger. HAHAHAAH we about died. Our new teacher, hermano hernandez told us what i think is my favorite mission story when he was explaining to us the importance of asking for referals from everyone. he served in Peru and one day they knocked on a door and asked a man if he would like to hear thier message. he said he was a pastor and that he hated the mormons. " ok, well... do you have any enemies?" my teacher asked. the man replied that he hated the man who lived on the corner. so they went and knocked on his door and he was baptised 5 weeks later hahahaha so great!!!!!

MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was seriously the best day ive ever had at the CCM!!!! I woke up and my adorable roommates (who are leaving on tuesady!!! I totally going to cry, they are going to guatemala city central) made me the cutest sign that said happy birthday Grace Holloway because they love my name. they're so cute. then i went to the bathroom and when i got back there were a ton of balloons on my bed and a snickers bar!!!!! I LVOE MY COMPANION!!!! oh check out her blog and comment on it and tell her mom about my blog. holla for guatemala kelci robertson. anyway we walked to the capilla and there were WHITE PEOPLE THERE!!!!!!!! there was a blong kid sweeping and someone in my district is like... that is the whitest guatemalan i have ever seen HAHAHAHA he was difinitly NOT guatemalan. anyway they were the bishop and the first couselor and their families and BOTH of them work for the embassy!!!!!!! It was SOOOOO cool to talk to them. and instead of studying we actually got of our butts and help to clean the chapel!!! it was the best birthday gift ever. we just had a grand old time. one family was from gilbert!!! and the other was from likr draper or something. but they were so fun to talk to and i officially want to work for the us embassy. what a sweet job!!! they have lived in russia, singapore, south afria kuwait and like a million other places. then we walked back to the CCM for lunch and hermana nicholayson (the presisents wife) called me into her office. i was freaking out. i was like oh my gosh somebody died. i was almost in tears. shes like " your mother emailed me this morning..." in my head i was like ok  ok okokokok just tell me who died (my really close friends grandmother died the day before) i was really freaking out. then she's like, " happy birthday. I want to give you a birthday gift, will you please be the leader for all of the hermanas in the ccm?" HAHAHAHAHAHAH i almost laughed and was like grinning from ear to ear, i would LOVE to. hahahah "good. the presidents of the general relief society and the young womens program are touring latin america and are coming to the CCM for dinner tonight and they would like to eat with about 16 hermans. will you please invite 8 latinas and 7 other north americans?" YIKES!!!!!!!!!! So i did and i ate dinner with them and suddenly im a leader for all these adorable latinas that i can barely communicate with. its interesting. ANYWAY!!!! my companion and i went to teach our investigator slash (where is the slash sign on this computer?) and when we came back into class (which is in the gym of the chapel) our whold didtrict had disappeared... i was like where is everyone? and they all popped out from beind the stage curtain and threw ballonns at me and sang happy birthday to me. then they gave me the cutest sweetest card that they had all signed with really nice notes. i am seriously the luckiest. on our way to bed hermano mendez came up to me and he's like, why didn't you tell me it was your birthday!? and i was a little bummed that he forgot because we're really good buddies then he just smiled and handed me the cutest little gift bag full of candy and gave me a virtual hug hahaha what a dork.

We had a leadership meeting for our branch on sunday morning and it was IN SPANISH!!!! obviously. i have no idea what was going on. then ith branch president asked me to tell him about how the hermanas are doing and i was like... "todo esta bien....." hahahah oh my gosh. then he asked me a  few more questions and i think i did ok. My district sang a song in sacrament meetin!! we did pretty good.

oh yeah, me and the nurse here, hermana burbage have become pretty good buddies, she said she sent you and invite to read her blog. so you should do that haha and tell me what its like. she might have some photos of me on there. i think that pretty much it, love you all to death, thanks for the birthday wishes. you peeps are the worlds greatest. love you allll!!!!!! the church is true!!!!!!!!

Thursday September 19^th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMPA!!!!!!! Y MOMMA TOMORROW!!!!!!

Im alive!!!!! Oh my I am so sorry, we were supposed to write on monday but the internet was down then on tuesday we had a huge field trip and the temple and no time to write and yesterday we had no power so today is the day!!!!! Are you people getting my emails? because no one ever responds to things that i say... like how im the leader of the hermanas  and i survived an earthquake??? ive asked like for people emails and my bank account information and i havent recieved any of it. are you out there!???? no one has said anything about all the crazy stuff that has happpend here and im honestly starting to think you don't get them or you don't read them?! or do you just not respond to them? it's super weird.

Thank you sooooo much for the photos!!!!! I love that one of me and satchel and Gabe. how is or was SC!!!?!?!?! Satchel= thank you sooooo much for you notes! You are the sweetest. im so glad youre having so much fun with your friends and that school is going well!!! I love you so much!!!!! Gabe= you note was SOOOOO FUNNNY!!!! My roommates and I were dying over "can i be done now mom, please can i be done? are you writting that? " hahah so great so even if its painful gabe, thanks for writing me, i love your little baby guts. Nolan youre spanish teacher sounds hilarious (did i already say that)? and im glad youre enjoying school! Im sure you guys have had a blast with mom and dad being out of town. Yesterday was the WORST day i have had at the CCM. First off, we didn't get to write home and i was super grumpy then for some reason our district doesn't get a classroom, we have to study in the cafeteria and move our crap 5 times a day so people can eat and its a disasster. them there are like 40 latinas and somehoew their room assignment got really messed up and since im in charge i had to figure out what was going on, there were like 12 hermans in one room and only 8 beds and their companion was in a totally differnt room, it was pycho and also i don't know spanish hahah so... anyway i found everyoune a bad and we only get our dear elders once a week and as i was about to cry myself to sleep someone brought me 2 dear elders, both from walker. THANK YOU WALKER!!!!!!! (ill email you personally in a second) But it seriously was the best.

Anyway if you're reading this... life is good, i have less than 2 weeks here in the CCM and I am dying to head out. We went to the marcado on tuesday!!!! IT was amazing. first we went to this giant park with a huge relief map of guatemala that was built like 100 years ago. of course quetzaltenango is like one of the highest points haha but so cool!! Then we got dropped off basically in down town and we went to this giant underground market!! I didn't really need anything excemp a small little bag for times when i don't need my giant green one hahah one floor was the food markets and the meat section was DISGUSTING. it smelled terrible and i was gagging the entire way. Gabe would have LOVED it. Then we were supposed to walk to a Wendy's which was quite an adventure hahah me and my comp and a set of elders kinda wondered around the city unil we found it. i tell you, i have never been more thrilled to see Wendys and order a giant frosty. ok here is the best part, we were waiting for the bus is this park slash plaza thing and me and my comp kinda wanted to talk to people but we didn't have a BOM or any carrds or anything or even a pen to write down number so we just wondered around, we played with the pigeons and looked at the fountain then some guy comes up to us and just asks us who we are. it was something i never expected, i assumed that missionarys had to but forth effort to talk to people but i guess we stick out enough here that people actually approch US it's strang. anyway we start trying to talk to him in our horrible spanish then ANOTHER guy comes up and say to me "what are you guys... MORMONS"!? hahah and for some reason i didn't recognize it as english hahahah so im like, "si, somos misionaras por la iglesia de jesucristo, que usted sabe sobre la iglesea?" and then hes like "oh my grandparents were members." and i go "do you speak englih...??" hes like yeah... hahahahahahah oh my gosh it was hilarious so we talked for like 20 minutes, he went to high school in california and then he's like yeah, i was baptized when i was 11. WHAT!??!?! IM TALKING TO A MEMBER HERE!!!! so i asked him why he stopped going to church and stuff and he just talked to me for a while and i asked him if he had a BOM and he said he still did but didn't want to read it, he is more interested in being a muslum haha anyway. it was a real treat. when he said bye and told him to get to church and he sai "I probably won't but thanks anyway." afterward i was like GET ME INTO THE FIELD AHRITTAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Yesterday 20 new northamericans showed up. 3 are sister. this one girl got off the bus and was like" thats my friend... how do i know her? and we looked and each other and gave each other a big hug and both of us were like, "how do i know you??" so we started talking and she goes to USU and is studying EL ED and we were in the same interview group to get into the program and had become really good buddies!!!! SO i was thrilled to see her.

mom as soon as you know your new address PLEASE emial presidente boutisa (mission president, NOT CCM) and inform him. 

ALso please ask betty what thoses cookies are called. remember how i was obsessed with them? they have little seeds on the top? what are they called and where can i get them?? I love those things.

I was chosen to speak in sacrament on sunday. it was a little scary but i think i did ok.  

love you all!!!!!!!! Way bummed im not there to see all the craziness at the hoouse but it sounds like evrything is gonig well!!!!!! If you're online, hit me back in the next 15 minutes!

ALLLLLLLLL the LOVE!!!! HNA HOLLOWAY

September 25 2013

6 more day here in Guatemala City!!!!

HOLA FAMILY!!!! (PLUS JANE)

THIS WEEK WAS PSYCHO!!!!!!!!!!! Like the wierdest things have been happening. me and my companeras (thats right im in a trio now) were saying that we could write a best selling mystery slash horror novel abaout this last week, it was so bizaree, i can't even discribe it. but honestly... sheesh. one day i went to do laundry and 2 of my shirst we wet.. in the washer. like someone stole some of my clothes?? Then the latinas were freeaking out about dark spirits and black animals and then someone stole a large sum of money and then they said if it wasn't returned they would search our rooms and whoever stole it would get sent home and all the latinas thought they would be framed and they freaked out then the same thing with the elders happened. it's bizare  for some reason the latinas won't go to bed until like 12 and they ALWAYs wake up at 5?? Like i honsetly am so ready to get out of here. the money was returened and all is well but someone came and got me at lunch and told me that there was a man going through our stuff in my room so we ran upstaires and there was no one there and nothing was missing like i feel lilke there should be a scooby doo episode at the guatemala CCM it's the weiredst.

OK!!!!!! ANYWAY!!!! on a positive note! :)

please tell aunt collete thank you so much for writing me, im so sorry it was a while ago but thank you!!! Love you!!!

Some spanish mix ups.... Some of the elders in my district told our fake investigator that they were 'excited' for her baptsim but they used the word for sexually excited hahahahaha and i once tried to tell a latina that the pastry was cherry flavored and said BEER flavored instead. also when talking abou the santa cena you use carne as the word for flesh but my comp didn't know that hahah so after a lesson we taught she's like' you told them that we take the bread to represent the meat of christ' hahahaha also the words for fish and sin are like one letter off so i told someone that mediante la expiacion, they're fish could be washed clean. that was awkward.

Our teacher asked me the other day if i had any pioneer ancestor and was fasicated by it. it's crazy how much i take my herritage for granted. The latinas are soooooo funny when we tell them we're from utah. they always ask if we've been to conferencia general and to the salt lake temple and do we know president monson? haha

THe presidente used to own like a billion taco bells and he's still obsessed hahah like when i told him i was from centerville he got all excited because he used to own the taco bell there so then on our p day when were were driving around the city in a big ole bus he's like, ' on the right is one of the most famous buildings if guatemala, so i get all excited and it was JUST A STUPID TACO BELLLLLLL. my gosh. then he was talking to us about our spanish and saying ' the only place you hear spanish in the states is at the local taco bell hahahah he is soooooo ridiculous.

we invited the kitchen staff to play soccor with us one night and that was a huge mistake hahahah they were soooooo good. plus it was raining and it was soooo fun, us americans are terrible at soccer. haha oh!!! by the way whenever we talk about being americans, the latinas are like ' well, we're american too.' oh... awkward.

this one distric tof all boys sang Joseph smiths first prayer in spanish to the tune of come thou fount and it was probably the coolest thing ever

can you print a copy of that fiminsit blog article anr copy it into an email so i can read it??

oh my gosh one of our little latina roommates told us about her novio and we asked to see a picture so we're all gathered around and we're like... 'we know this guy... we her here 2 weeks ago?' and she was like SIIII!!!!!!!! and she started kissing the picture and getting all excited it was adorable. also there is a sister here from guatemala city and i was telling her how we had a roommate who was from guatemala city and her parents work at the templ and the sister said, 'heremana Gonzales?' and we were like YESSS!!!!!! She was our favorite and this cute little siter started crying and siad she was her best friend and they grew up together, and they were suppossed to go into the MTC together but theier bishop wouldn't let them because they would be too roudy together. hahah i love the gospel. im also sure that story didnt make sense

can you look up the importance of butterflies in pictures of christ?

I talked to a hermana who served in quetzaltenao and said we are really going to have to learn kiche (another language)

LOVE YOU ALL TO DEATH!!!! I'll right you from QUETZALTENANGO next week!!!!! LOVE YIO!!!!!

October 7^th 2013

dos gringas en totonicapan QUE LOCOOOOOO

IM ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! barely omg this place is crazy. ok first of all my trainer is from AMERICA!!!!! YAY!!!! we can communicate. shes actually from vegas and flew to the ccm with alyssa edwards? sweet!!! She finished her traing the same day she started training me. YIKES!! but she's awesome and her spanish is incredible. i basically follow her around all day everyday. ok... so where to start!?

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR MY BIRTHDAY STUFF!!!! seriously that ipod has been a life saver, i am so spoiled :) but seriously thank you so much and all the songs on there are PERFECT!!!!! and the jacket is soo perfect, i have worn it everyday. seriously. it starts pouring at about 4 everyday and we don't come home until 9. OH MY GOSH our apartment is ooo sketchy. hahahahaha its so funny, when you turn the freezing shower on, the light in the bathroom turns off hahaha i die laughing everytime. ok but sooo good to see Betty and oh gosh i totally hugged enrique!!! WHOOOOPS!!!!! so against the rules but i firgot in the moment hahaha but i can't thank them enough, the cake and cookies were so yummy and it was just so good to see them. 

 i decided to look up what the heck to road to emmas is, i looked in the bible dictionary and read the story and HOW COOL!!!! the song is way cooler now haha i had no idea. 

ok soo... the end of my CCM experience was great and sad i everyday i just want to go back and hang out with my buddies, seriously i miss them so much and saying goodbye was horrible. but i saw elder gutierez and general conference!!!!!! When we saw each other was started running towards each other and kinda stopped awkwardly to give handshakes instead of hugs and he told me all about  his first day in the field, when they got off the chicken bus... it drove away with one of his bags on top!!!! oh my gosh poor guy and his camera was in there and stuff. so then they were treacting a bit and they went to a members house and there was a dead armidillo on the table which they ATE!!!!!!! for dinner ohmygosh poor guy he said he was just crying the night haha so sad. 

the drive from gute city to xela is soo pretty and we litterally drove through clouds, it was awesome. it was with 6 others missionaries from my district, we have a meeting in xela tomorrow all together and i'll probably cry when i see all my pals and especially my old comp and BFF Hermana robertson. anyway so then they introcuced us to our trainers and btw the presidents and hermana boutista are CRAZY NICE like i love them. i was so happy that my trainer speaks english. oh man. she's super conservative and we're really different but we work well together, so my area is called toto and it's about and hour bus drive from xela and it's up in the mountains, sooooo gorgeous, i'll try to send photos. im usually walking on cobblestone paths through corn fields it's the craziest. i feel like it hasn't even hit me that im here but the other nigh we were sitting in a ladies yard, she was weraing traditional clothing (almost everyone does) and had just started a fire to make dinner and we sat on almost broken stools teaching her abou the gospel while her chickens were procreating behind her (awkward...) but i was like oh. im  on a mission... hahaha and then the next lady we taught was openly breatfeeding her baby like oh!! there's your boob. cool. sheesh. my comp does most of the teaching but on the first night i invited someone to be baptised! and the will be baptised on the 12th!!! hopefully... she's 17 so she needs permission from her mom. 

OK my district leader is totally and compleatly a young GARY HOLLOWAY. oh man it kills me, he's such a goofball but he's an awesome missionaries i seriously fell like the missionaries that know how to have fun and don¡t take themselves to seriously are the most effective. anyway elder gnieting is always giving me advice, he's such a nut, he told me he has a list of all the things he HAS to remember when he gets back to th estates. i asked him what was on his list and he's like "i can't tell you the first one..." i was like is it to remeber that you like white girls? he was like, exactly... hahahahahahahha and we have to remember that we actually like dogs. we hate them here but they're nice back home. oh gosh i feel like ive lived here for 40 years but it's been 6 days. oh man. 

ok so general conference!!! awesome right? they set up a little tv in a room in the chapel so all the gringos could watch in it english!!! cool right?? there was like 8 of us. it was awesome. i don't think i've ever apprieicated conference so much. ok on saturday we were going to a member house for lunch in between sessions so like 10 of us walk over there and when we get there there was seriously like 60 people and we hiked up 3 flights of stairs to the roof and suddenly we were a çt somesone wedding lucheon!??? i have no idea but i took FOREVER and we had to meet people and kiss everyone on the cheek and then we waited for food forever and when we were done eating it was 1:47 and we're like RUN!!!!!! so we were litterally all running to the chapel wich is quite a sight, all the kids are like hello gringos!!!! hahah we stopped at a store and im like why are we stopping here? and the ZL was like oh there's skittles here, we always stock up when we pass this store hahahahahahah of course we have to stop for american candy... so we had  it just in time to sustain the profeta it was great. GçConference was totally about marriage and missionary work right? and like... women. which was interesting. 

ok but seriously i had no idea how important members are in missionary work, we work so closely with the members in our barrio. they are my favorite people in the world, i would die without them, we get fed every day and they are so funny and fun and they just adore us and they are always willing to let us have lessons in thier homes and stuff. 

oh yeach did you hear that talk from sister oscarson? i ate dinner with her like 3 weeks ago when she was at the CCM!!! she super nice. 

ok is that really our house!!! it's so gorgeous!!!!!!!! how perfect. oh man i hope everything is going well... oh my gosh satchel being suspended is hilarious and also sad, what a punk. 

oh we ride the micro bus everywhere. it's terrifying hahah its like a 12 passenger van with about 30 crammed inside. the first time i rodew it i was with some elders and we were like trying not to touch eachother but they kept shoving people in there and i was like so cramped up against the baby and some lady and an old man and mini gary holloway goes " welcome to GUatemala!!!!! but yikes. look up photos of toto maybe, it's so pretty and also see if you can listen to kiche (i don't know how to spell it ) but we're teaching afamily and the mom doesn't speak spanish, solo kiche and when she talks to her kids, it sounds like parseltoung. like seriously. its terrifying. but email me back soon if you're on!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! oh and we ran into this super old drunk lady who was speaking to us in kiche and we were liike... we don't understand you... yikes. i haven't anything super weird yet, just rice and veggies and bread and beans and chicken. 

oh how are granny and grampa??  tell them i say hello and also hello to jack and coog!!! 

oh also there'e this family in our ward and the dad is a tall white guy and i was soooo disappointed when we spoke only spanish, i guess he grew up here but he has 12 kids and 8 of them have bright red hair it's freaking hilarious. all the members and missionaries  here litterally say "freak" it mush have been started by some punk elder. it's annoying. hahah 

oh walker and nolan, watch this video online called stay within the lines mormon messages for youth bu holland. its great and mom seriously if you could please send me the talk by president holland in a dear elder abou tmissionary work and the atonement, that would be aweosme, send dear elders to the mission home now please!!!! 

also some moms are already working on christmas boxes and i hate to aske for stuff but i would love if you could send some more momory cards for my camera for some reason i only brought one. also like 2 shade undershirts. also my comp has this super cute calendar thet her mom made on shutterfly.com and it was fam photos and stuff but i would love one for the year 2014 or honestly any calendar but her's is fun and livens are scary aprtment. thank you so much for the notes and candy and stuff, don't send too much i thinking it's probably crazy expensive.  haha oh the lady upstair does our laundry, we just do our garments. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! dad and walker, i hope you hav or had a fun trup, sounds like a party!!! love you guys soooo much, this is WAYYYYYYYY harder than i imagined it would be... but all is well the presisdent says it take 3 months in the field to feel comfortable with spanish, it's sooo  frustrating, i just want to know it NOW!!! ugh but seriously all is well love you guys!!! email me right back!!!!!

HNA HOLLOWAY

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