First Impressions

Hey family,

Things are going good, these keyboards are Spanish keyboards and they don't correct my spelling so I hope you can excuse my mistakes. 


The first day we arrived was nuts. Lots to do and we were super tired. The guys from utah had their flight delayed, so I didn't get my companion until the second day. His name is Elder Lorshieder, and, like you would expect, no one can say his name. I used to think the Latinos had a hard time saying Stoddard! 


When the Utah guys go here on the second day, the first thing one of them did was clog the toilet and before anyone knew what was happening our floor was flooded. So that was fun to clean up. 


Food is great here, I don't think they've made anything that I haven't liked. Some guys are really picky eaters, but I'll eat anything they put in front of me. I should probably get a little more picky so that I don't get sick while I'm down here. I totally forgot to take my antibiotic when I got off the plane, I guess there was just so much going on. I feel just fine though, my coughing has gone away completely. 


Remember when we were joking about me writing emails in Spanish? That's absolutely not gonna happen. My Spanish is getting better everyday, but I am nowhere near good enough to write an entire email. 


This CCM is different from what I've heard about the Provo MTC in a lot of ways. The speak your language thing doesn't really exist. Around the other Nortes, we always speak Engish unless we're in class.For some reason, I expected to come here, exclusively speak Spanish and learn it super well and super quick and it wouldn't be anything like Spainish classes. I was sorely mistaken. It's the same stuff, it's just as hard, the only differences are that we only take two classes: Spanish and Seminary and we have the gift of tongues helping us. 


We've been teaching lessons to our mock investigators and yesterday Elder Lorscheider and I decided we wouldn't bring any notes to help us, because we felt like we were reading too much. I think that was the best lesson we've had so far, there are not many feelings that are better than coming out of a good lesson. 


I am so tired, all the time. I catch myself falling asleep, especially when we watch videos. Most of the time I don't know what day of the week it is except Sunday and P day. One thing I'm a little disappointed about is that we don't really get to leave the CCM ever. I guess I expected that but I forget that I am in Guatemala ALL the time. 


One thing that's weird that suprised me was all the american stuff. There's a dance club right across the street from our room (we call it the great and spacious building) that always plays american music. Most of the signs and billboards have english on them.


Our teacher came in and told us we needed to write our testimonies in Spanish so I hope I don't embarass myself here: Yo sè què la libro de mormon es un libro verdadero y es la palabra de Dios. Yo sè que Josè Smith era un profeta y mediante èl, la evangelio era restaurado. Nosotros tenemos un vive profeta ahora y su nombre es Thomas S. Monson. En el nombre de Jesucristo amen.

Love you guys and I'll talk to you in a week
Elder Stoddard