Week 1: I've never been so spiritually and mentally fed in my life

Week 1

Hey guys, its ya boi Elder Severe. Wow it has been a crazy but awesome week. I guess Ill just take you through it. Btw these keyboards are wack so dont mind my spelling and punctuation. So after I got through security I made my way to my gate and saw a group of about 15 boys dressed in suits. I sat down and luckily met a familiar face. Elder Jamakowski, he went to my highschool. So we talked for a bit and a got familiar w everyone and we got a pic right before getting on the plane. We flew to LAX which was so nice to navigate with such a big group. I was nervous at first thinking I had to go by myself. We were able to make it to where we needed to go and sat around and talked for our 4 hour layover. It went by really fast because we just talked together. The flight to Guatemala was rough, but it made up for it when the literal first thing I saw getting off the plane was a huge volcano with nothing around it. It looked like it was from a movie or something and it was awesome, i havent seen it since though. The church had people there to pick us up and made it super easy and alll the bois were super cool.

We got to the CCM (central de capicitacion misional de Guatemala) and started the longest day of my entire life. It felt like it would never end. We put all our stuff in our rooms and went downstairs and ate the worst meal of my life. It really had me worried but they made up for it because every meal since then has actually been really good. Even the worst meal wasnt even close to that first one. So we had to wait for a few hours in this room where they processed all of our information. We didn't even have any classes until later that night we had a tiny language class. I dont know if I can stress how long that day felt. We would always say how it felt like we were there for a week and it was still the first day. honestly the days have kinda blurred together but the next day we got into what our normal schedule would be and it's very busy. We rarely aren't doing something. But I like it, I actually really enjoy it here. On day three or four i felt kinda sick in the morning and I thought it was just cause I didnt eat and so i tried to pound at breakfast. That sent me to the bathroom where I threw up everywhere. That stuff came SHOOTING out my mouth. I really felt bad for the janitor cause I didnt even make it to the toilet :/ after that I felt fine which is good cuz i didnt miss out on language study. 

Honestly I have no where to gauge how the language is going except for the fact that we kinda stayed away from all the latinos for the first few days and then suddenly on like the fourth day we were able just to start talking to them. It was so cool cuz even though theyre like kindergarten level conversations it just kinda clicked out of nowhere. The Latinos are wayyyy nice though. The ones I talk to at least. So are my teachers. I have a morning one and night one. Theyre both super awesome but me and my night teachers are homies, i love that guy. On saturday it was sooooo coool. Elder Soares from the 12 came and spoke to us. Our tiny mtc of about 100 or less elders. He spoke in spanish and we had translaters speaking to us in spanish but its so cool seeing apostles address outside of conference. He talked for about an hour without reading anything and he just seems like a super cool extroverted guy. He was super funny, at least to the latinos, and used huge hand gestures and was super loud and just not like something youd see at GC.

 On sunday we had a devotional where we heard a speech to the missionarys from like 5 years ago from the one and only Russel M Nelson. The boi. Same thing he just spit bars for like an hour and used a different side that you dont normally see and he was so funny. I love him so much. Sunday we dont have any language study it's like only devotionals and it kinda sucks tbh. I felt the spirit a lot but its kinda hard to go all day listening to those. The whole day is in english, except for sacrament meeting which is only in spanish. I bore my testimony. I think it was so bad and dont know if I even said anything right, and at the end I teared up a little and all the latino hermanas were like AWWW so it was embarrasing but kinda funny lol. Monday was probably the same cant remember tbh and tuesday was too. But we had another general authority come. past member of the 70. but he was awesome. I don't have enough time to write about what he said but it was soooo cool and that was in spanish too. He said he served here like 40 years ago and back then all of central america was his mission and there was only one church. Now Theres almost a million members and tons of missions so it was cool. His name is elder mask I think.

Finally after that at night the hermanas wanted us to give them priesthood blessings. We have three of them. It was my first blessing and it was so cool. The spirit was so strong and everyone was bawling... except surprisingly me. I didn't even shed a tear which was cool. After two elders in our district of 9 wanted one so i gave one to one of them and that was pretty cool too. Everyone says theyve been stuggling with home sickness and they hide it really well. I woulnt have known unless they told us about it. I honestly havent been homesick at all and it has been such a blessing. I love learning the language which is something a lot of the elders complain about. I though I would be missing my phone a lot but i havent even thought about it until I go to take a picture of something. Oh yeah we can't send pics by the way. The ccm is probably the strictest mtc in all the world but its whatever. Ill send you a bunch in 6 weeks. I can honestly say this is the greatest ive felt in a long time. I've never been so spiritually and mentally fed in my life. Were reading the book of mormon in 20 days and so far im on track. I think im like the slowest cuz i literally mark like every verse.. except for Isaiah.... but the scriptures are sooo awesome.

Love you guys i have a lot to say but im out of time. I hate when missionaries tell people to write them but tbh i was kinda butthurt when i only had my fam write me, love you fam, 

Elder Danny Severe

yeah thats my name