Week 13: Getting more acclimatized

Ruins in his area

July 26, 2011

hey family.

This week was good, more lessons, more contacting, more Spanish. the usual ya know.

That is kinda funny that you went and had lunch together with Elder Davis' mom. I haven't seen him for almost a month since we're not in the same zone, but next time i see him am sure well have a little laugh over it.

oooohhh three new envelopes in the mail?? thats awesome. letters are the best. I got a bunch this week actually cuz we had interviews with the president so the assistants brought us a bunch of mail. it was great to hear from some friends that are on missions, Danny and Brett. Also heard from Jesse and his family and Laura Payne, the Bishop and a bunch from Grandparents haha. Grandma sent me a few pictures of my friends from grad that she found and printed out for me. looks like fun. i have a bunch of really good looking friends. My comp said that Parker looks like he could be my brother, i said thats because he is my brother. It was hard to read the return address on Danny Kearl's letter haha, but I think i got it right. Brett sent me some pictures that were super sweet and funny haha. and i got a little photo of what the Calgary temple is going to look like. its the best when you receive something you didn't know you really wanted until you actually receive it.

To answer your questions, I'm fine at night, sometimes I'm a little warm, but thats cuz i always sleep with my sleeping bag as a blanket. The days are different everyday, alot of the time it will rain in the afternoon, but the days usually start out hot and sunny. its the best when its cloudy, no rain, and a nice cool breeze. I have been in a few big rainstorms, where the roads up the mountain are literally a rushing river. its kinda cool. My shoes are fine, although i wish i got more waterproof shoes. not just the boots i have, which are awesome by the way. I'm sure within a year some of my shoes will be torn to pieces, that's kinda the norm here i think. My comp has some shoes that are just completely destroyed. but I'll be fine for a while. my Spanish is doing alright, a little more everyday. its hard to see it in myself because its just a little bit more everyday. My comp says that I've more than doubled my Spanish abilities since I've been in the field though, so that's good. i still have a long way to go of coarse though.

Still no packages have arrived, if there are FOUR coming my way now, its going to be fun for whoever has to carry those to me, or if i have to carry them all home walking, haha, but thanks

oh mannn. i was looking so forward to hearing where Brendon is going to go this week. it better get there by next week! and that's so crazy still that Kianna is getting married, and so soon! all the best to her though. This week we had an activity in the ward, and its true about latinos and the activities here. we got there like maybe ten minutes early with a bunch of investigators, and there was no one really there yet, nothing set up. so we had to wait a little bit and then it ended up going fine. it was called day of the market, where everyone got tickets that they could trade for things and then at the end, depending on if you got spiritual things you went to the different kingdoms. it reminded me of the one youth activity we had where they said it was a Hawaiian luau and we all got dressed up and went all out, and were really excited, then they tricked us and said our "plane crashed" and then went through all the kingdoms. But they had candy apples after, and they looked to good even though im kinda allergic to apples I decided to risk it and have one and i was fine, so that was good haha.

Still planning to have a baptism on august 7th for the family Ajkikji, and we're working with another guy to get him baptized the same day. He was a really quite kind of a strange man, like he was super depressed, really quiet and stuff, but he's opened up more to us and he seems more happy in his life now, so that's really good. At first he seemed like it wasn't going to be worth teaching him, cuz he was quiet and didn't really respond and seemed like he just agreed to things cuz he didn't think he had much self worth or something, but he has changed quite a bit. His name is Mauro and he has a little boy that's mentally challenged, and we don't know what happened to his wife or family yet, i don't know if she abandoned them cuz she had a mentally challenged kid or just divorced or what, we haven't found out quite yet. we will see.

the fam Ajkikji are bread makers and they sometimes make bread for us. It's funny how things change to you on the misison, cuz whenever we teach them, in their kitchen area, there's cockroaches, and mice running around everywhere, but i still always look forward to eating their bread that's made in this kitchen. Anyways, i took some money out of my credit card account today so you might want to pay the bill soon, i might have to take out more next week though, so maybe wait a little bit.

well i love you all so much! stay cool. keep it classy.

love your son, brother, and friend

Elder Hopkins

oh the photos,

well one is just my breakfast one day. some fried plantains. yum,

the others, the ruins, are just some random ruins of some old church in my area. they're just in a random field, and there a soccer field they made right beside it. its nothing cool to them i don't think but it was cool to me. there a bunch of big empty tombs outside of it too. pretty cool

well love you! bye!!

Fried Plantains for breakfast

Ruins in Tanner's area

Added note from Tanner's Mom
I told Tanner its supposed to rain 50 mm in Guatemala City on Thursday (except i accidentally told him tomorrow) (he is just outside Guatemala City) and he said:

haha yeah? well I'll wear my boots, but the weather is so different in every little place here. like sometimes it will rain like crazy just on the other side of the mountain from us and none in our area, but I'll watch out. thanks! love you!!