We have become lovers of our humble barn house

HELLO THERE!!!

I really want to learn Kekchi. I have already learned Spanish, and I know how hard it was, so it should be easier to learn another language. Turek is learning it and loves it. I think it would be a really fun experience. We have interviews and zone conference this Thursday and Friday. So in my interview I'm going to tell President that I want to learn kekchi. It will raise my chances of going there but it's not like it makes it 100% sure that I will go there. I talked to an elder who is in our zone now that was in the Chik and he loved it! He said the people there are just amazing and love the missionaries so much. Yeah the language is going to be tough, but I think I'm up for the challenge! And it is really beautiful and pure jungle which is also a plus!

I have a pretty funny/stupid story that happened to me this week. You know how I am kind of challenged when it comes to receiving burns on my left hand....Happened again! Haha! But this time with boiling hot water. I was getting my Laky (Guat Top Ramen) ready and I was about to pour the water into my bowl and the handle on the pot was really crappy so it just kinda dumped all over my hand. It hurt for a few hours and I couldn't really fall asleep because I was in quite a bit of pain. But now it's just like a bad sunburn on my hand. So it's not too bad. So what does that make the left hand burn count go to...like 4? or 5? I need to work on my clumsiness. Haha.

(Nicole came to spend the night Monday and Tuesday with Allison while Dad and I were with Jake at his State Golf Tournament. She's a great example to Allison. One in a million that girl!) Yeah I know Nicole is one in 7 billion (the world population) and that's why I love her. She is just the bestest ever!!

It hasn't rained this month so the river has gone down A LOT!

Some of our investigators are doing pretty good. Not very many people progress here. We did find 3 more really sweet investigators. Hadassa (23) Mayaei (18) and Jessely (16) They are really awesome! They said that their parents always accepted missionaries into their home when they were really little, but didn't really know what was going on. So now they are really interested in each lesson so far and seem to really be searching for something in their lives. I'm not sure what happened to their parents because they don't live with them, but they did say that they lived in the US for a short period of time, so maybe they are still there. We have a cita (appointment) with them on Wednesday so we are going to ask them about all that. They are really nice too, they gave us Pizza when we contacted them and taught them the Restoration. And they gave us little cookies for the 2nd lesson about the Book of Mormon. They seemed really excited to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it too. So I hope they did that and they prayed with enough faith to receive that special witness from the Holy Ghost. We shall see what happens!!

Wendy, we haven't seen in awhile now even though we have passed by her house several times, so we were forced to drop her as an investigator. Maybe she will accept missionaries at a future time.

We did have 1 investigator in church this week. We also gave talks in Sacrament Meeting, so she didn't have to bear through not being able to hear the ward members giving talks, because being missionaries we make sure everyone can hear! So that was good. We also had 50 people in church!!! The highest assistance....ATTENDANCE (sorry, Spanish getting to my head).... I have seen since being here! So that was really good to see. We also had more than 3 kids in Primary! 12 actually!! And they sung/screamed their little brains out. It was pretty legit. Haha!! So hopefully they keep coming and we can have a little fun trying to teach them some more primary songs.

Are you guys still trying to find a new place to live? How is that going?
Nah, we have become lovers of our humble barn house!

We went to Tikal again today! That was pretty fun. We tried to explore a little more and take some different pictures, so it was just a dandy ol time! I will try and send some pictures about that later because this computer doesn't like my camera right now. So hopefully next week. So maybe then you will be able to see the haircut that I got! Dun dun DUN!!! Hahaha!! It looks pretty good! Better than I thought anyways. Elder Toolson cut it for me too! So it was FREE! Nothing beats free!! I will just let you think about that and give you a little suspense for next week. I can't just give things away that easily ;)

Oh, for another Christmas item, if it isn't too late. Sorry. I would just really like a little booklet called The Pocket Reference Book for Missionaries, Parents, & Instructors. The 3rd edition would be preferable. Hopefully it's not too hard to find. It's probably at Deseret Book. It has really good scripture references for questions that a lot of people have, so that would really help a lot. It also has explanations and beliefs of other religions....So I would really like that....if you can....don't want to be a burden...

Way to be in finishing the Book of Mormon again Mom! So far out here I have read the Book of Mormon twice, the D&C once, Pearl of Great Price once, the New testament once, and now I am in Psalms in the Old Testament. But I do get 1 hour of study every single day, plus time at lunch, plus time before I go to bed. That's a lot of study time. After I finish the Old Testament, I am going to continue reading Jesus the Christ, until I get those Manuals...then I will study D&C and the Book of Mormon again. Then I will move to reading it in Spanish!

So that's pretty much my life as a missionary this past week, nothing much else has really happened!! But I love you all so much and I hope you have a good week. Tell Jake good luck for me, or if you get this after the tourney, tell him Job Well Done! Until next week....
Stay Strong.
Keep the Faith.
Love
Elder Jordan Smith

PS Ma yookat chi kisik?
Pronunciation: Mah tyokaht chee keeseek?
Translation: Look it up...haha. Yes it is Kekchi.
LOVE YOU ALL