Settling In

Hey family,

[T]hings are still going good here, and I think my spanish is getting better. You guys said before I left that you would be living for my emails, I didn't really expect to be so excited for emails too. 

Things are getting better here and I'm starting to get more into the swing of things. I have quickly learned to expect to be called upon to do something I didn't know how to do hours before. I think being able to speak but not being able to understand might just be a Stoddard thing, dad because I'm finding that I remember what to say and can form sentences with the limited spanish that I do know, but often times a teacher or someone will say words that I just haven't learned yet.

The teachers are good, Hermano Higueros is our main teacher, he's great. He's a 20 year old Guatemalan return missionary who served his mission in Provo. His english is perfect because he started studying it when he was 4. He's a really great teacher.

Elder Lorscheider's a good companion. He's from Utah (Like most of the Nortes are) and he's going to my mission, so I'll proably see him again when we go to the field. We get along good, no complaints. Having a companion everywhere we go in here is weird because it's all one big building.

I go to church in [the] Joseph Smith [room], but I have class in Brigham Young because our district is bigger than everyone else's. I got a picture of me, Hermanho Higueros and Elder Lorscheider in front of the temple here last p-day so whenever I get to send pictures I'll send that.

I really want to go to the field, but I know I haven't learned everything that I need to here. A lot of the time it feels like there's 2 or three things I should be doing at any given moment. It's good they keep us busy because it doesn't really give us time to think about anything besides what we're supposed to be thinking about.

At meals the teachers encourage us to sit with latinos so we can have some kind of real world spanish experience before we get to the field. I understand what you were saying about the dominican spanish now dad. Also the guys from Chile talk really fast so they're hard to understand too.

Also I forgot to say in my first email they did give me a haircut when I got here, some Guatemalan barber took a number 4 clipper and cut all my hair to that length. Felt like I was in the military while I was getting it. I also had to get another (tetanus?) shot. I think they only last 5 years down here, so that was good. No peanut butter shot yet though, I think they give it to us when we leave.

Love you guys and miss you.

Elder Stoddard