December 2, 2019: "a bunch of panicked gringos started sprinting through traffic"

Well its been a super crazy week.

It all started Monday when I got the call that I'd be going to Guate. Every once in a while we have to go to immigration in guate to renew our visas or something. But usually you do it in your first 6 months and sometimes you have to got 2 or three times in your first year. But nobody from my group had ever gone so we thought that it would never happen. I was kinda pumped honestly because theres a lot of legendary stories from guate trips in the past. 

Tuesday morning we left from huehue to xela, 2.5 hours mas o menos. We talked to a bunch of drunk guys that wanted a libro de mormon. We gave it to them and they all started to read it. One guy said he used to be a missionary but only lasted a year because he couldn't aguantar. Then he became a bolo.

We got to Xela at like 10 and waited until 2 to hit the road. I visited some people from my first area. Then we met up with everyone. Elder Godfrey and henry and fisher and a whole bunch of homies from the mission ender up going. It was pretty awesome until we hit the protests. Protests again. Idk why I always happen to travel when the chapins decide to block the road. So we were stuck in traffic for about 3 hours. We got off the bus and played with our trompos and just chilled. We thought it was gonna take a while so we all went to look for a tienda. As soon as we left, traffic started moving again. So then a bunch of panicked gringos started sprinting through traffic to get back to the bus. A lot of people were filming us. We made it to the bus just in time. It went about 30 feet and then stopped again for about 2 more hours. I was not a feliz boy. But it wasn't that boring honestly cause we were just chillin with the boys. 

We got to Guate at 11:30. We had a lot of big plans cuz we were gonna stay in the temple. We were gonna hit up the MTC, go to a restaurant we always wanted to go to and get krispy kreme donuts but since we got there so late we had to stay in a different hotel. We had to settle for a shabby gas station to get some food and then we went to bed. 

The next day we woke up and went to immigration. We saw some guys from a different mission that I knew in the MTC a year ago. Then we did some legal stuff. I met this guy from Ecuador thats living in xela and trying to get citizenship. It was cool because I literally worked like where his house is. 

After that we had to wait for more people to finish their stuff so we just went to a park and chilled with the boys for like 2 more hours. Then we went and ate food at a super nice burger place in a super nice mall. It felt like I was in America. Then we had to get on the road again.

We made it almost all the way, like an hour out and then our bus broke down. I think I just have super bad luck with buses. But we had to wait for about 2 more hours. We did the same  thing we did yesterday. Chill, play with trompos and also talk with the mayan city council. Out in the aldeas they have these leaders that wear corte and have these special authority sticks that cant touch the ground and make them feel important. We kinda walked in on one and just started talking to them because we were bored but they weren't mad because were all gringos and were entertained by us. I spoke a little quiche with them even though they speak kachiquel. They were impressed. One of them was named santos and became our homie.

Long story short, we got to xela. The most waiting and not doing anything I've ever done in my life. We went and stayed with the marbles. They made us cookies. 

Friday I met up with my ward at the temple because it was the ward temple trip. We took our recent convert titi. It was cool because I got to do baptisms. Before missionaries weren't allowed to do them. But now we can so that was a pretty cool experience. 

We were gonna have a baptism of a little girl Friday but at the last minute the dad found out and said he'd beat her and her mom if she did it. Now he's making them go to the evangelical church. So yeah. That was disappointing. 

We have an investigator thats awesome. His names Dylan. He's living with his uncle because he had problems in the capital. He's been living there for over a month, already has like 5 or 6 asistencias to the church and he reads the BoM everyday. Super pilas. We have a few pretty positive investigators but everyone else is kinda just starting out right now.

This morning we woke up at 4am and went to this place called El Mirador for our district activity. It was pretty cool. It this place at the top of the mountains. We didn't have to hike at all though because the road went right to it. It was freezing though. Definitely the coldest Ive been in my mission. But it was cool because all the clouds were underneath us. We could see 3 volcanos too. 

So it's been a pretty good week.