Hola! They gave us some time to write today! I leave tomorrow
morning! I GOT MAIL! Haha Dad, I got your letter with the SD card.
So I'm sending you guess a letter today. Mom, I tried to write you a
letter, but I only had time to reply to Dad's. I'll write you a
personal note as soon as I can. Dad, thanks for the letter. It was
awesome to read it.
I don't really know what to write about! Haha I've been so focused on
getting ready to go that I haven't really thought much about the past
week. For one, I'm really excited to get out to Retalhuleu. We have
an awesome group going and I'm excited to put into practice everything
that I've been learning the past nine weeks. I'm also nervous. I'm
afraid that I'm going to forget something important, that once I get
the hang of things (whenever that will be haha) that I'll will have
forgotten some essential part of what I should be doing. But I know
that with the guidance of the Spirit, everything will be okay.
This past week was a bit weird. A lot of people were waking up in the
middle of the night screaming. People were having nightmares and
stuff. It was over a period of two nights. The second night I had a
really creepy and awful feeling. I couldnt sleep and it was terrible.
It was weird. But yesterday made up for all of that. We watched
"The Lamb of God", "The John Tanner Story", and "The Joseph Smith
Movie". They were all amazing. I felt the Spirit all day and fasting
was a great way to start this new week. I think it's so cool that I
get to have conference my first Sunday in the field! That will be way
cool.
Adjusting to Latino culture is very difficult. Here are a few things
I've needed to get used to: I have no personal space. They don't have
any concept of respecting other people's things, space, etc. Haha
it's almost funny how awkward it gets. The second thing is that they
don't like to support leaders. They point out as many things as they
can to bring the leader down. We evaluated our teachers this week and
they got upset at me when I voted for anything less than an
"excellent" rating. It was so annoying. They would push me out of
the way and yell at me haha. Everyone else had the same problem. One
of the funniest things is when we sing hymns. Nobody knows how to
sing, but they all think they have the voices of angels. It's
absolutely hilarious sometimes! I've learned to appreciate the words
of the hymns more than the notes.
As an "adopted Latino" I've had a tough time the past three weeks, but
it's all worth it. I've learned so much. Haha some of the Latinos
didn't like the idea of having Gringos in their zone. Some of them
legitimately hate us. It's weird. Despite the divinity of this work,
there are a few in the group that don't even try to develop
Christlike love. I wonder what kind of past experiences theyve had
that have influenced their feelings toward us Gringos. All I can do
is smile and say 'love you brother!' It makes them even more mad
sometimes haha.
Haley! How was Homecoming?? Mom said it was great, but I wanna hear
more! How exhausted are ya? Was it worth the effort?
Apparently, we only have twenty minutes to write today. So I have to
get off soon. To conclude, I was reading in 2 Nephi 2 and 3 yesterday
and I learned sooo much! I don't know if it's the power of being a
missionary or that I was simply oblivious before, but I learn sooo
much more from the scriptures. You guys should check it out! I love
you and I'll inform you all about the heat of Reu next week! Love
you!
Elder Austin Tyler
