Family!
I love email! Haha and i have so much to write, and not enough time
to write it all. I wrote Haley a letter today with some letters for
her to send to friends. I have no idea how long it´ll take to get to
you. And if you ever send a package, tape a picture of the savior to
it and write religious materials inside. the postal workers are very
superstitious and won´t open anything with a religious message.
The stomach problems are much better, but apparently it comes back
after a week of recovery haha. bring it.
Dear elders only come once every week or two, and regular mail is even
slower, just so you know. I may not get a dear elder from last week
until next week.
I´ve already been here two weeks! It´s crazy, but I love it!
On monday we had an incredible day, we went to the central park of
Guatemala City to proselyte. Most of the gringo missionaries had a
native speaker to be in their group. But Elder Frodsham and I were on
our own, which was awesome, but tough. If you can, look up pictures
of the central park in Guatemala, it´s like a gigantic square with a
big fountain and a beautiful catholic church overlooking it. It´s
cool. When we left the CCM (MTC), there were about 50 of us who all
piled into one bus. The bus driver made bank haha there was a whole
army of us. We drove for about 20 minutes through the city. Most of
the city is concrete, it looks rather ghetto. Little did we know we
were driving through the nicer parts of town. When we got to the
park, we were given some instructions and then sent to go talk to
people. It was sketchy. There were a bunch of homeless people, and
people doing drugs right in front of us. Lost of people were taking
hits from some type of liquid. It was really weird and really sad.
Elder Frodsham and I talked to about 20 people, handed out two Books
of Mormon, tons of pass a long cards, and had some interesting
conversations. Some people are sooo crazy, but so cool haha. We
talked to three old men, two of which were blind and they were really
into the idea of religion. A couple of people felt like there was
little more to life than survival, and we wrote down their names and
addresses so the missionaries in those areas can visit. During the
two hours that we were there, the Catholic church was celebrating a
holiday by exploding bombs in the middle of the square. It was really
loud and freaked us out haha.
On our way back, we all piled into a bus and drove through a different
part of town. I dunno if i´ve mentioned the red zones before, but
they´re places where missionaries aren´t allowed to go, neither are
the police. The last two missionaries that went into one barely
escaped with their lives and had nothing left but their undergarments.
Everything else was stolen. We drove by one on our way back to the
MTC. It looked like Hell on Earth. People talk about ghettos in
America, but these were something else. It was a gigantic valley with
´´houses´ stacked on top of each other. It looked like a million
people live in the valley. I don´t even know how to describe it. All
I´ve heard about from those places is drugs, theft, rape, and murder.
I went to bed in tears that night thinking about it.
Monday night, our teacher invited a friend of his wife to come to the
MTC. She expressed interest in the church and has had a rough week.
Her husband left for the United States (illegally) four months ago.
Usually it takes one or two months to get there from here. She hasn´t
heard from him, but in the news there was a story about 70 illegals (5
from Guatemala) being shot on their way across the border. She has no
idea if her husband is still alive. We had an opportunity to share
our beliefs with her and help her out. It was a very emotional
evening for her. I talked to her about the purpose to our trials in
life, and the hope that we need to have to endure such trials. I also
talked about the power of prayer and the knowledge that I have that
God loves me. It was really cool and our teacher said she really
enjoyed it.
AHHH not enough time to write. We eat beans and eggs for breakfast
every morning, usually with some sort of pancakes or french toast.
And they have a really sweet cream of wheat type thing that´s really
good. We eat a lot of chicken, lots of mystery meats, and a lot of
rice. They always have really potent juice and I´ve been avoiding
that lately. sticking to the water. I´m now the only elder in our
district that has not received a letter from a girl (besides family)
haha but i don´t care. I take pride in it?
The Spanish is coming along okay. I need to be more diligent about
speaking Spanish more often. Last night helped with that. Elder
Clark, the area authority of the Seventy spoke to us. It was sweet.
He talked about the importance of Love, obedience, faith, the spirit,
and work in the life of a missionary. It was a huge boost. Speaking
of which, I struggle with feeling the spirit, it´s one of my
weaknesses. I am able to listen to the spirit every night before bed
(when my roommates aren´t talking), but I´m trying to become more
proficient with it during the day. Do you have any advice? I want to
become comfortable with receiving revelation before I go out into the
field, and I´ve really been working hard at it. It´s been bothering
me. I feel worthy to receive revelation and I have the faith that the
Lord can and will answer my prayers, and I have specific questions.
What am I missing?
Oh! This week we taught a sweet lesson. The teacher who was watching
and evaluating us told Elder Frodsham and I that we did a phenomenal
job. He shared the scripture about a good tree bringing good fruit.
He said we were good trees because our lesson was amazing fruit. it
was cool. The next night he had me recite the first vision to his
native speaking class who didn´t think it was possible to memorize
something so long haha. It was funny, but I felt awkward. I have so
much more to say, but I don´t have time! Brock, I got your letters,
thank you for those. Good luck with the job search, I´ll pray for you
and Aubrey. Haley hang in there! I have a letter for you. Keep up
the hard work. Mom and Dad I love you, thank you for the advice. And
sorry if I didn´t answer every question you asked. Email is so rushed
here. I love you all! Tell my friends to write me if you see them
haha.
Love,
Elder Austin Tyler
