Branch activity and phone call highlights

Well hey there!!

It was so great talking to you guys! Too bad we couldn’t talk for a little bit longer, but it’s all good! I’m not really sure what to write since I just told you everything, but I will do my best I guess.

Well New Year's is coming up this week too right? I hope you all have a great New Years. Make sure do, ok? And tell me about all the family activities, BCS Bowl games, and the Vegas stuff.

I love all of you so much and I am ready to keep on truckin' in the work of the Lord out here in what we missionaries call The Land of the Kawachines, also known as The CHIK. Hopefully we find some success. We have been working super hard. We had 200 contacts this past week! But we really only have one possibility to be baptized, but he is never really home. So we shall see what happens. We have actually never really taught him! So keep praying that we might know where to go to be able to find the people that are willing to accept us and are willing to go to church.

I'm starting the Book of Mormon again, using the manual you sent me for Christmas. So it will most likely take me a while to finish it, but it will be just great! I am also trying to focus more on this language so maybe I can start teaching a little bit more. I can teach a tiny bit of the Restoration, but that’s about it. But I’m improving!

The division I had with Elder Norton was way fun! We didn’t eat lunch until 4 in the afternoon! We hiked way up to a place called Las Quebradas (the Brokens) and we found some pretty cool people up there but I don’t know if they will ever come to church. We are going back up there this Thursday so we will see how it goes!

Well I really don’t think I have noticed a change in me, really. I guess you will have to see what you think when I get home, because I feel the same. But being with only men for 2 years and being culturally sheltered and spiritually enlightened probably has changed me, but I haven’t really noticed any of it so far...

The following pictures are from the Branch Activity we had on Christmas Eve:

We had Chicken Caldo for our Christmas Eve dinner with VERY FRESH CHICKEN!

It's a Guatemalan custom to line the streets and floors with pine needles for Christmas.

Well that about wraps it all up for this week I think. Hopefully I have some more stories for you all! I love you and hope that you have a great week and a happy new year!!
Stay Strong
Keep the Faith
Love Elder Jordan Smith
TUQTUKILAL!!! (PEACE!!!)

Phone call highlights:

--He screamed like a little girl at the beginning of our conversation because a bat flew in his face!

--He carried on a full conversation in perfect Spanish with his Grandma Angie.

--He bore his testimony to us in Q'eqchi. It sounded amazingly hard, but really cool.

--He told Allison that he doesn't shower very often because the mornings are really cold and their shower is outside with freezing water!

--He said that carrying their laundry down for a mile isn't that bad, but bringing it back up is really hard. So he has learned to pack it up and carry it on his head like everyone else does there! I hope he'll send a picture of that soon!

--He had to talk to us outside to get better phone reception and he told us there was a Q'eqchi man staring at him very curiously as he watched Jordan speaking to us in English.

--He made a grilled cheese sandwich for his Christmas dinner :(

--There are about 20 different churches in his area. This makes it hard to find people that will listen to their message because they are either a Pastor in one of these churches or are related to one of them and feel obligated to support him. People also just go to the nearest church to where they live. The members of the Santo Domingo Branch are very few in numbers but are very faithful and travel a long way to get to church.

--He told us how hard the work is, how hard the hiking is physically, how little they have, but not in a complaining way....just stated matter of factly. He ended each of these sentences with "But it's all good!"

--He said that he probably doesn't want us to go pick him up when his mission is done. He said it would be so amazing to have the chance to have the plane ride home with his whole MTC/CCM group and get to walk down the airport escalator with them. (They are mostly all from Utah). He loves this group of elders so much. He said that we can go to Guatemala anytime (and he said he plans to go back often), but would love to have this last time all together with his best mission buddies!

--We asked him if he had any questions for us. He said, "Tell me what it's like over there in the U.S.? I hear you guys have carpet! I have heard that when you take a shower, you have hot water! I have heard that you can go to a store in a car and buy whatever you want and put it all in a thing called a refrigerator!" Poor kid!

--We ended our phone call by kneeling all together as a family and asking Jordan via speaker phone to offer our family prayer. He asked if he could do it in Spanish because he wasn't sure if he could remember how to do it in English. It was one of the most amazing prayers I (Mom) have ever heard! He talked to our Heavenly Father in such a way that is indescribable. Even those that couldn't understand his words were touched by the spirit that came over us as we knelt together. Then it was time for us to say goodbye. One by one we all broke down in tears as we said goodbye to our beloved missionary. What a wonderful Christmas gift to have that time to hear his voice and feel of his spirit. We'll talk again in 5 more months! Can't wait!