Week 3: Another Email!! This one from Guatemala!

First email from Guatemala MTC after just arriving

May 18, 2011

hello. i am currently in Guatemala. from what i saw on the drive from the airport to the ccm, it looks like a pretty cool place. i can see the temple less than a block away from my bed. its pretty cool. the trees are super big here and theres alot of hills. the food we ate so far has been really good. its going to be really weird here in the ccm because almost everyone is latino. elder moon and i are companions, and there are 4 other elders in our room who don't speak any english whatsoever. this is going to be the hardest thing of my life. also im so so tired right now because i have hardly slept at all. i slept for maybe 3 hours max this past night. i looked at my watch this afternoon at 12 00 i think it was and i thought my clock was wrong, i thought it was almost time for bed. it was a little disappointing, but only eight more hours to go now... blahh.

the ccm is very small compared to the mtc, of coarse. the rooms are nicer though, not really as much drawer apace, but it has nice tile floors and the beds are nice wood, along with the closets. its pretty hot, and very humid. My pdays are going to be wednesdays while i am here, so you can expect your next email next wednesday. the ccm seems kind of strange so far. another big change. elder moon and i both kinda miss the provo mtc. also im typing on a spanish keyboard so things might be a little off here and there, and i dont know how to start a new paragraph on it.  the bathrooms here are nicer than in provo too, although the shower heads are like just below my neck. some of the elders who have been here for three weeks said that we can all probably expect foot fungus in the next three weeks, because of the change of environment. i sure hope i dont. i guess in three weeks after being here they take the north american missionaries to a mall and let you barter with them and buy things and theres good food there i heard. sounds like it could be fun. hopefully i can speak by then.

i dont really know what else to write since I talked you you for like an hour last night. i didnt really see too too much of Guatemala on the drive here but ill try to tell you what i saw. lots of big billboards absolutely everywhere. and there big archways in the road that go under one of those chanels that they had in ancient times to bring water to different places. i cant think of what they are called right now. but i guess it was built in the 1700s and its still standing, and cars are driving right under it. it was kind of cool. just alot of vegetation here, and things are built wherever they can be built, even on the sides of mountains. i got the package you sent me. thank you. although i still think im going to have to ditch some more stuff eventually.

i guess the winter here in Guatemala is starting to come, and by that i mean the rainy season. they said its from May to September or October or something like that. good thing ill be in here for at least a bit of it.  i hope you all are doing well at home. miss you and love you.

Love Elder Hopkins