November 27, 2012

Heeeeello family and friends!
What a week I've had! Well...it was a week! The most exciting thing was...it was thanksgiving! Oh...wait...no it's not. But...I did make myself a nice Thanksgiving dinner of beans, eggs, tortillas, and I made a nice strawberry drink thing and I bought a pie!

 There are little bread stores on almost every corner here, so I took advantage of that and spoiled myself a little bit for Thanksgiving! It was a good, very typical Guatemalan meal! But...I've come to really enjoy those.

So, yesterday we went to Antigua! It's always fun to go there for several reasons. One, we get to talk to Gringos, and this time was no exception! I met a guy from Albany, who's just sort of living down here for kicks and giggles, trying to learn Spanish and get a job. He says it's hard to get a job not speaking spanish. Go figure. But...he was very typical hippy Albany type guy. It was funny to meet him.


















Also, in my journeys I came across possibly the SHORTEST person I've ever met in my entire life. 
She was begging in the streets, so I gave her a quet in exchange for a picture. I think I came out on top in that deal. Sweet old lady, though.

I've wanted to get a picture of a typical Guatemalan bus for a  long time. Dream came true yesterday.

For some reason they had a devil up right in the entrance of Antigua. Had to take a picture of it. The 7th of December is the day of burning stuff...not exactly sure what it's all about, but apparently all of Guatemala takes their garbage to the streets and burns it! My area is pretty nuts, and there is a big market right in the front of it, so that should be...interesting. Gonna try and get some cool pictures. Hopefully I don't get shot.

I'm so out of time right now!!! Stressful!!!

I've decided that I want to work with the members a lot more. I got a letter today from Jeff Foody that really tipped the scales for me. Gonna start going nuts with them! We have been really blessed here with an AWESOME ward, so I'm going to really take advantage of it and start using them a lot! So...everyone...help the missionaries! Have lessons in your home with them, invite them over to FHE with investigators! Get the work moving!

Ok! I love you guys a ton! I'm all out of time! But...have a great week, and next week I'll use my time here more wisely!!!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2

November 20, 2012

Well...Hello there familia! Ha! That's in SPANISH! FAMILIA!

I'm in a weird mood today!

So, as I'm sure you discerned from my last email, I'm training! I said goodbye to Elder Luna last Wednesday, and went to the Hospital (errr....Stake Center) to pick up my new baby boy! The big question here isn't so much if it's going to be a girl or a boy cuz...it'd be really awkward to train a girl, but if it's going to be a Latino, or a Gringo! All of my questions were answered! I'm the proud father of Elder Mariscal, directly out of the CCM from Mexico! The Mexicans just flock to me! Just so you're aware, I know saying, "Mexican" in America is really quite racist and offensive, it took about 3 months for me not to cringe when I say it...but...he's a Mexican! What more do you want?! He's a good kid! He comes from a family that is really, really poor. When he got here, he had one tie. One. And one pair of shoes that were WAAAAy too big for him. We're instructed as trainers to MURDER our children, so I was walking just about as fast as I could, but I felt TERRIBLE doing it, cuz every step he took he was saying, "Ow ow ow ow ow ow" With the blisters that were forming. So, we got that all figured out, I hid his tie so that he would pick from mine, and his blisters are now healing! So now I can murder him with a grin from ear to ear! I have to say...I can't think of anything that brings a smile to my face more than hearing him running to catch up to me. 

It's weird though...as I train, I feel like I'm training myself more than I'm training him. I'm really pushing myself to be a better missionary every single day, and I can see the change in ME! It's fun, though, sharing what I've learned here. It's made me think a lot about how I've changed in the past nine months. President talks about how every missionary has to go through his, "Personal Gethsemane" at one point or another on his mission, or several times! I think about my Gethsemanes...I am SO grateful for them. I'm sure I've got some more to come, but it's funny how you end up being incredibly grateful for the really hard parts in your life. Now I've just gotta help my kid through his! It's coming! I've seen a few signs of it up to this point...but he'll be ok. 

So, we have this investigator...he's an...interesting one. His name is Marcelino, and he lives alone. Doooooesn't completely surprise me that he's alone. He is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT convinced that he personally killed Jesus. Like...nailed the nails into his hands. Completely positive that he was there doing it. Not like...the weight of his sins did it, but that he ACTUALLY was there with the hammer. Odd. We taught him the restoration, and he told us that it didn't make any sense! God wouldn't use Joseph Smith to be a prophet! He'd use a prophet that he already used!   We asked what exactly he meant by that. He told us that one day, Job would be raised from the grave to build up Christ's church again. Nobody knows who this, "Joe Smith" guy is! God would use a Prophet that was tried and tested, like Job! It's amazing the things that you hear out here.

I gave a talk this week in church! I've decided that I reeeeally like public speaking! I just wish I could find more opportunities to do it! but...I think it'll be hard to do it in English, honestly...I don't know why! Dad and I used to always make fun of those misionaries who get home and say that they can't speak english, or that it's hard for them...but my brain just runs in spanish now! I get it! Oh...another thing that Dad and I always used to make fun of...weird spelt names! Met a guy this week who's name is, "Oscar Max" but it's spelled, "Oscar Macz" Add that one to the list!

Elder Pegram- They opened Comolapa up this week! Elder Tanner is training there in his last change! I'M INCREDIBLY JEALOUS!!!!

So, this change I am the third oldest missionary in my district out of eight missionaries...scary. I only have nine months! I'm not ready to go home yet!

Ok...my pictures. The first is of my kid! Elder Mariscal in his first moments of being a missionary in the field! I'm just such a proud daddy!

That second one I have entitled, "Angustia" It's how I feel every single Sunday as I wait for my investigators to show up to church...and then they don't!!!

Well...that's all I've got! Love you guys a ton! Have an amazing Thanksgiving! Eat a ton! Watch some football for me!

Love,

Elder Hopper

November 13, 2012

Family!
Well, as you all already know, there was an earthquake here! I think some of you knew before I even did, and I felt it! But...where I'm at, actually, our entire mission, didn't really get much of it. We were in the middle of our language study when it hit! My comp just about peed himself and dived under the bed. I quickly followed, however my bladder was under control. Since then, we've felt two more aftershocks! I always wondered why earthquakes were so bad in central south american countries, but now I understand! EVERYTHING here is made of cinderblock! If it falls...game over! Not much of a chance surviving a cinderblock to the head! But...i keep saying...I'm expecting the BIIIIIG one! 7.4 is nothing! Bring on the 10.5s!!! Ok...tempting mother nature like that probably isn't the BEST idea...but...I'm a missionary. I'm invincible. 

Other than that, we had a good week! The earthquake was definitely the most INTERESTING thing that happened, but it was a good week! Tomorrow, I'm giving birth! My very own son! I'm pretty excited! We went to a training meeting with all the other trainers on Saturday, and it was AWESOME! Our mission president let us in on some of the things that are happening with missionary work around the world, and right here! He told us that by this time next year, the church is expecting to have NINETY THOUSAND MISSIONARIES around the world!!!! How sweet is that?! Getting really close to double! In this mission, we have about 200 missionaries, give or take...well...take. By February, they are expecting to have 250!!! We are opening TEN new areas, and TWO new zones! It's so stinkin cool! I love seeing the progress that we've got here!

Well...I really don't have much more to say. It was really quite a boring week. My comp that I've had for 3 months now is out tomorrow!

 

 

This picture that I sent is in my area...I was walking along looking at the ground and I came waaaaay too painfully close to scalping myself on this roofish thing! So, I decided to take a picture of it! Naturally!

 That's all I got this week...really quite boring! I'm sure my letters from here on out will be full of fun stories about my new missionary! I'm hoping I get a Gringo to make fun of him all day long! But...in the most loving of ways, of course!

Love you guys a ton! Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2

November 6, 2012

Hello dearest family!

Well...the big news of the week...I'M PREGNANT!!! I wish I had an ultrasound or something fun like that to announce it, but...I already know it's a boy...so...not much need for that! But, to translate, I got a phone call from President Brough last night, and he told me that I had been called to be a trainer! So...starting next Wednesday, I will have my very own baby boy to mold and shape juuuust to my desires. Congratulations, Elder Petersen and Pegram! You're grandpas! So...I'm pretty ridiculously excited. Apparently the mission is getting a BOAT LOAD of new missionaries, and hardly anyone is leaving! So...they're opening up new areas, and a whole new zone! Gonna have success! I love it! 

So, did anything weird happen this week in regards to Guatemala there in the States? Cuz this Wednesday morning we got a...disconcerting phone call from our District leader. He answered the phone, and there is a normal greeting here...it's like..."Oooiii" I don't really know how to type that...but you get the gist. But I answered the phone, and all I got was a, "Hey." All stern like. Hmmm...I asked him why he was so serious, and began racking my brain trying to figure out what I did. He told me that it was kinda serious. Apparently the Area 70 had called President Brough that morning and told him that every missionary had to be in at 6:00 that night. That is WEIRD around these parts. If we could be in the street preaching till midnight every night, they'd do it. It is the most important thing we do here! So...we got ourselves all prepared for the end of the world. Literally...we went out and bought beans and rice for our 72 hour kit, put everything under the bed getting ready for the end of all things earthquake that was prophesied by the area 70! Ok...it wasn't prophesied, but that's how we interpreted it. Makes sense, right? Well...nothing ended up happening. What we've heard is that a group of Guatemalans tried to cross the American border and got shot. So the 70 didn't want angry Guatemalans on halloween taking their frustrations out on innocent American missionaries. So...we got FOUR AND A HALF HOURS to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in our houses. I was lost. Haven't had down time like that in 9 months! Also, Halloween here is like...new years in America. Just a really good excuse for civil people to get reeeeeally really wasted and pass out in the streets! And that's what they do! So...better to be inside anyways.

Dad-this picture is in memory of you. I call it, "Still life." Also, in this internet cafe place someone is playing angry birds and I'm listening to it. I hope you're still knocking down those stupid little pigs with all the malintent you can possibly muster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had a first this week! I contacted a lady and she told me, "Well...I don't believe in Christ." WEIRD. But that's not the weirdest thing. She told me she professed the faith of the ancient mayans. So I asked her about it, cuz I love to learn about other religions and compare it to the true one. My testimony always deepens when I do. But...I asked about the end of the world in December! Apparently, they don't believe the world will end! It's just then end of another cycle of years! Absolutely nothing will happen! So...when someone tells you on Decemeber 20th to, "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die," kindly inform them that you heard it directly from a guy who talked to a mayan that it's not true. Silly Americans blowing things out of proportion again.

This week we were teaching a REALLY Evangelical family, when the mom's phone rang. She answered it not in the typical way, but in a way MUCH stranger. Her first words to this person were, "Siervo. Bendiciones." Or, "Servant. Blessings." Thenk proceeded to refer to the person as, "Siervo" for the rest of the conversation. So my comp and I are now, "Siervo" to the other. It's a big ole bag of fun. Funny what Satan gets people to believe. I have the feeling that he just laaaaaughs about the stuff we do sometimes. Sad.

Last night we were walking in the poorest part of our area...we're talking little tiny sidewalk sized road made up of broken cement inbetween two walls of sheet metal houses all built on the side of a hill. Reeeeally really poor. But we're walking and all of the sudden I heard a very familiar sound. I told my comp to stop so I could listen and confirm what I thought to be true, and sure enough...the Halo (video game for all of you people who aren't super nerds like me) theme music was playing! It was very ironic to me that perhaps at one point or another I had played against this person here in Sector 23 of the Projects of Guatemala. I bet I beat him. 

Well...that's all I got! One more thing...VOTE!!! Go out and VOTE!!! I won't tell you WHO to vote for (Even though logic would suggest Romney) but VOTE!!! Also, there was a hurricane!?! What happened?! I hate not knowing what's going on in the world!

Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2 (I'm gonna be a DADDY!!!!)

P.S...Pegram...Recuerda ese vez que encontramos una cucaracha en nuestra casa y la quemamos? Y casi morimos al hacerlo? Estaba viendo ese vídeo ayer y pensé en usted. Es casado todavía? Y que esta pasando con mi otro papá? Dígale a el que su seis meses ya van acabando para casarse. Su no se casa al dentro del próximo mes...pues...¡falló! Felicidades, abuelos!!!

Ha...speaking spanish is like that secret language we all tried to make when we were kids. Fun!