First of all, on the airplane, I was able to converse with many people. The first lady I sat by was a devout atheist. We conversed for a couple hours about deep theology, the role of faith, creationism, and the importance or significance of contemporary religious organizations. I shared Alma 32 with her and it was an amazing experience. She said she was surprised at my open perspective and willingness to cleave unto all truth. She said she wanted to learn more about the church.
The next flight, I sat by a man who, believe it or not, was from Honduras and had family in Quetzaltenango. We conversed in Spanish and had a pleasant experience.
Then on my way from LA to Guatemala, I got to meet up with about 25 other elders and sisters and we all flew overnight to Guatemala. The whole time my thoughts were consumed with the peculiarity of the fact that I am now a missionary for Christ's Church. The woman next to me and a sister missionary spoke English, and she was so nice. She was impressed by our conduct and gave us her address, (which is in one of my friends missions) and told us to write her if we need anything in Guatemala. Completely shocked, exhausted, but eager, we arrived at the Guatemala airport and had time to write home and say that we were alive and well.
If I could describe that day in two words it would probably be "jet lag". It was super long, and the CCM (Mission Training Center) started us off on complete immersion in Spanish. I've caught on nicely with the language so far, and I don't think it will be a problem to speak in Spanish.
The next day I was called as district leader, and I had the opportunity to play piano for the congregation, so that was refreshing. My district is amazing, and we had an amazing experience last night. It was extremely loud in the halls and in the adjoining classrooms, so I told the elders to think that they were in the houses of someone they were called to teach and we still need to feel the spirit. We all shared our testimonies. The spirit was palpable. I testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ and His amazing (expiacion) can and has changed lives. We went around the room and talked about why we want to serve a mission, our purpose and our goals. Our district is progressing amazingly.
My companion is Elder Cleverley. He is the hardest worker in the whole CCM. His testimony is simple and sweet. He is truly amazing. He sometimes skips his workout time to study Spanish. He is an example to me. I've seen the gifts of the spirit poured out upon him and all the members of our district:This gospel is true.
At lunch, we have the opportunity to speak in Spanish with the Latinos. I've taken advantage of this. Every almuerza, I've sat with a different Latino, and I think that now I've met everyone one of them. They are so amazing, and they love it when I sing. So much so, in fact, that two of the elders asked me if I would come sing Les miserables with them in their hallway haha. I did, and it was amazing, the Latinos here are loving, kind, and understanding, one of the sweetest experiences was singing the song "If You Could Hie To Kolob" in Quiché (an ancient Mayan dialect) with the elders. We sang the last verse and a feeling of profound peace and love came over us all.
Missionary work is hard. We prepare lessons constantly and read Spanish books for over 10 hours a day, my brain is in a strange stage where I'm starting to think in Spanglish. This transition has been amazing but for some reason I haven't been able to write poetry as clearly in English.
I cherish the moments when I can pensively sit back and write poetry and improvise the hymns on the piano. I've had many sweet experiences and in those moments, I know that even though I'm speaking a different language in a whole new world, the medium of music is always capable of expressing all my thoughts.
I've covered the basics, but because I have a little bit more time; here are some other fun things.
The people here figured out I could talk like Kronk and now everyone in the MTC asks me to do a Kronk impression for them XD
I played piano for sacrament meeting
I've been fine waking up at 6;30 and I can already talk colloquially with all the Latinos.
I love you all!
Until next time,
Elder Young
For email only(read once a week)
blake.young@myldsmail.net
For handwritten letters or packages:
Elder Blake Daniel Young
Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission
5A Calle 14-35, Zona 3
09001 Quetzaltenango
Guatemala
To sign up for Blake's weekly Blog go to the following link:
http://blakeinguatemala.blogspot.com/
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