Week 5

¡Hola Amigos y Familia!

So in 5 days, I am going to be out and about among the people of Guatemala, and I’ll be able to send pictures soon! Everyone´s getting really, really tired of the CCM.  [Jeff leaves on the training center for the mission home next Tuesday morning, so this will likely be his last email from the CCM] 

So... Interesting things that happened this week...

On the last P-Day, after I sent you an e-mail, I was exploring what was in the ceiling above our room after deportes [sports], and I found a book full of the other testimonies of elders who had gone through the CCM. That was really neat, and over the past 9 days we´ve been able to read through the words that other elders left behind for us. We also found a small sculpture of a sheep made of corn husks and wood with the book, too. 

It rained for 5 days straight, and since then, it’s been pretty dry. We have orientation tomorrow, and I think the thing I’m most worried about is this tropical disease called Chikingunya. Apparently it freezes up all your joints and hurts really bad. I don’t know if Jodi wrote you about it, but apparently her companion [Sister Logan] got it before they were transferred together. We´ll see, though.

Overall, it’s been just another week of studying and preparing. I promise I’ll have more exciting things to write about next week when I’m in the field. 

I had a pretty nice spiritual experience this week. One of the other elders was having a rough time learning the language and was pretty frustrated with the work in general, so I shared a scripture in Ether 12 about how the Lord makes weak things strong. Apparently this scripture was an answer to his prayer, and he shared with me a scripture afterward: "As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." [Proverbs 27:17] I know that I haven’t been able to work with any of the Guatemaltecos yet, but I’ve been able to make a difference to the people around me, and that has made all the difference in how successful my time has been at the CCM. 

I love you all! And I’ll talk to you later, when I’m attempting to speak Spanish and working my hardest!

-- 

Elder Jeffrey Reed