Monday, October 26, 2015

Week 12 - Zacapa


Hey Guys!

First thing: We didn’t run out of money this month! We finally got around to paying for electricity this month AND managed to save enough to break even for all of our needs. Unfortunately, that also means I have 50 quetzales left for the week (which is about 7.50 in American dollars) and we're living off of rice, bananas and eggs. Yesterday we had to starve, though, because we don’t buy things on Sunday (to keep it sacred.) I learned yesterday that I can't not eat and work. It was pretty awful, but now we have food again!

This week we had cambios, which is basically where the missionaries get relocated to different areas. This apparently happens every six weeks. My zone was going crazy this morning. Ten minutes after we finished studying scriptures this morning, two of the other elders came over and went OFF over the changes. Here's what happened:

 -Elder Mortensen, our zone leader and the only gringo who could fluently speak Spanish in our district, finished his mission and went home

-Elder Lott, another gringo who just finished being trained, is training another missionary 

-The districts were re-organized: The three gringos (me, Elder Lott, and Hermana Stoddard) were all put in one district, and my companion, Elder Franco, is the zone leader.

Elder Franco did NOT want to be zone leader. After we received the news, he freaked out a little bit, but now, he's more or less cool with it. It’s a stressful time for us in Zacapa, and we have no idea how our new district is going to turn out. We'll do our best, though. The only worry I have is that the other gringos speak about as much Spanish as I do, which isn't a lot.

I'm starting to become more comfortable with Spanish: it’s actually starting to sound like intelligent conversation rather than babbling. The Latinos tell me that I've picked it up a lot faster than the other gringos, but I still can’t understand half the things people say. Si lo fue mi decisión, yo seria fluente en Español ahorita, pero no puedo controlar la velocidad de mi crecimiento en la idioma. Paciencia...

I love you guys!! Thank you for all the support!! See you soon!!

Elder Reed 

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