It's Almost Over

Hey everyone!
Well, I’m in Mexico right now. And it’s raining. And it’s supposed to rain for a while. So much for coming home tan . No, but we’ve had a lot of fun. The last email I sent I wrote from our house in Guatemala, but it took me a while to send it. Since then we’ve had a lot of adventures. We picked up our friends that Thursday and then Friday went to the temple in Guatemala City. We took them to Antigua and then Saturday headed down to Lake Atitlan.

We took a boat over to Santiago, near one of the volcanoes. It is so pretty down there, but so touristy. Sunday we went to church in Solola where one of the missionaries I taught is serving. It was neat to see him. The church building was one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen and it had a great view of the lake and volcano. We headed back up to Chimaltenango and then Luis drove us up to Flores. Monday we took everyone to see Tikal. This time we got a guide and it was really cool to hear all the history. We were also able to give him a book of Mormon so that was neat. That afternoon we headed to Belize. Just minutes after crossing the boarder there was a night and day difference in everything. You could tell that Belize hasn’t been a war-torn country and that their government for the most part takes care of the people. The standard of living was so different there. We made our way to san Ignacio and on Tuesday we went on the most amazing adventure. We went to Actun Caves. We hiked for about 45 minutes, crossing a river three times. Then to enter the cave we had to swim in. We spent about 3 and a half hours swimming, hiking, and climbing around inside. We made our way to an open cavern where the Maya had done rituals and sacrifices. It’s all still in tact. Ill try to send pictures later, but you should all get on the internet and look up Actun cave in Belize to see it. Wednesday morning we got up early, took a bus to Belize City, and then a boat taxi out to Caye Caulker, one of the keys off the coast. We spent 3 days out there and had amazing weather.

Thursday we went sailing and snorkeling all day.......and during our snorkeling we swam with sharks and stingrays. I’m not kidding. They were some descent sized sharks too. The guides through some food into the water to attract oh....I’d say around 30...and then they told us to jump in. So we did. It was pretty sweet.

We spent all day Saturday traveling up here to Playa del Carmen. I’m excited for the beach if it will stop raining. Yesterday we went to church and another elder that I taught was there too. It has been so neat to run into missionaries I’ve taught and to see them in action. We went to Tulum, some Mayan ruins on the coast. If I had been a Mayan, I definitely would have liked to live there. Tomorrow we are going to Cancun, and then Wednesday we fly out in the afternoon. I think I’m ready to be done. I miss Guatemala, but I’m tired of traveling and doing the whole tourist thing. I miss talking with the native people and working with them. Right now feel like we are in Las Vegas on the beach. But I can’t complain too much......the toilet paper in our hotel is scented. That’s pretty swanky if you ask me. Well, thank you all again for your support. See you in a few days.
Love Kirsti

Santiago was a fun little city. Really touristy, but fun. We paid our little friend Pedro to take us to see Maximo, some Mayan idol that they do rituals around every day. It was kind of weird but kind of cool too. We also went to the catholic church. They had some memorial cites inside for those that were killed during the civil war. We went back to Panajachel for dinner and to sleep. Jeff got really sick, so in the morning only 7 of us went to Solola for church. Elder Reeder and his companion met us at the bus stop and we all went up together. They have one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. Nicer than a lot of the ones in the states. And the view overlooks the Lake and a volcano. Elder Reeder is such a solid missionary. It was neat to be able to see him in the field. After sacrament meeting we went back to Pana to see if Jeff was ready to make the trek back to Chimalt. We got back a little after noon and at 1:00 Luis came to take us up to Flores. We slept there and got up early to go to Tikal. We git a guide and it was worth it. It was seriously so cool to learn all about Tikal. Around 2:00 Luis dropped us off at the bus station and we headed for Belize. One more stamp in the passport. There was such an immediate difference in the two countries. It was amazing to see what civil wars and corrupt governments do to countries. Belize was so much cleaner and safer. We spent the night in San Ignacio and Tuesday morning went on a tour of Actun Cave. What a cool experience!!! We hiked up to a mountain with an opening to a cave that you had to swim through. We then hiked/swam through the cave until we climbed up a ladder to chambers that the Maya used for sacrifices and rituals. There were intact skeletons and so much history. I've never done or seen anything like it. We stayed the night in San Ignacio again in a cute little boarding house. Then got up early and headed out to Caye Cauker. It is so beautiful here. We are on a tiny little white-sand beach island. Our hotel is right on the beach. Yesterday we did a full day snorkeling tour that was awesome!! We swam with sharks and sting rays and got to sail the Caribbean Sea. It was amazing!

Goodbyes

That Wednesday night we had English class and it was my last night there. Elvia brought me a little ceramic dog that she said her husband sent. It was so sweet. I almost wanted to cry. Then when I said goodbye to Sandra and the girls she just kept hugging me and crying. It was like being on a mission again. It's so hard to meet so many amazing people and then have to say goodbye to them. On Thursday morning Eric, Keri, and I went to see Samuel, Elvia, and kids because I wanted to give them a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. They were so sweet and bought a cake and coke. It always amazes me that the people who have the least are also the most willing to give. When I thanked Samuel for the dog he said that it was small but it was given with all the love that the family had in their hearts. What a special family. I hope that soon they will learn the truth about the gospel. After we left we went up to Xetonox to say goodbye. They had made a beef caldo to share with us. I am also really going to miss that place. They were so wonderful to us and I feel like they gave us more than we gave them. That evening we went to the airport to pick up our friends. It was hard to grasp that 6 weeks was already over. We brought them back to the house and in the morning we went to Guatemala city by bus. It was and adventure getting to the temple but we eventually make it. We were late picking up Joe and Annie and then late getting to Antigua, so we only had time for them to buy some purple jade. The people in the store gave me a free pendant for bringing them all in. It was so sweet of them. We had a pretty classic ride home on the bus and then ate dinner at DeJavu. Saturday morning we headed for Lake Atitlan. We got on the Lake and headed over to Santiago.

No Subject

Hello everyone! Well, this might be my last big email from down here. Our friends have arrived and we are about to start our backpacking adventure. All we know is that in two weeks from now we have to catch a plane out of Cancun. It should be pretty exciting. I think it’s been over a week since I have written so I’ll try to sum up what we’ve been up to. Last week we went back to La Jolla to make adobe stoves. I am so impressed by the people there, especially the women. They are such go getters.To get to La Jolla we took a fletes……pick up truck…..instead of the bus. It’s fun because you are standing up in the back. You know how the windshield of a car gets bugs splattered all over it? Well, that’s pretty much what happened to our faces. I was pulling bugs out of my hair and wiping them off my face. When else could you have an experience like this! On Saturday we drove to Honduras to see the ruins of Copan. They weren’t as amazing as Tikal, but it was pretty cool. And now we can say that in the space of one week we were in three countries. Sunday a couple of us got to go out and work with the missionaries. It brought back a lot of memories and made it that much harder for me to accept the fact that we are leaving soon. Tuesday and Wednesday we went down to Panajachel to go to Tzunana and teach nutrition to the school kids there. It was so much fun. Most of the kids don’t speak much Spanish though so I had to teach it in Spanish and then the teacher would translate in Kaqchikel. The children there and all over Guatemala are so beautiful. It’s hard not to fall in love with them. Wednesday night was really great though. I had my last night with our English class at the church. They were all so sweet and one lady even brought me a present. It felt just like having to say goodbye in the mission. It’s so hard to leave people that you have grown to love so much. I’m almost glad I have to leave now so that I don’t get even more attached to the people. Gosh, I feel like I have so much to say, but I don’t even know where to begin. This morning I went to go say goodbye to a couple I met in English class that the Elders are teaching English to now because the husband works. They are so poor, but had bought a cake to share with me. I gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to start studying it. Hopefully they will want the Elders to teach them more than just English. But here is a picture of English class and the Sanchez family.Well, it’s late, but I want to say thank you to those of you who helped make this trip possible and for everyone’s love and support. This has been such an incredible experience that I will always be grateful for. I’ll see you all in a couple weeks! Love Kirsti

More Travels

A girl in Tsunana

Well, I've got 10 days to sum up. Last Friday we took all the new girls up to La Jolla to work more on the stoves. it was a really rainy day though so we got soaked on the fletes. But it was a good day. The people seem really excited about the stoves and they are willing to put in the work to get them. On Saturday we got up at 4:00 am to go to Honduras to see the ruins at Copan. It was about a 5 or 6 hour ride. The ruins were pretty neat, but didn't compare to Tikal. It's always fun to spend time with the group though. We only stayed for about 4 hours and then we were hot so we decided to go home. It was a miserably hot ride home though too. Sunday was a good day. I love going to church here. Sandra's mom came and so did a whole bunch of inactive people. It was packed! Then at 3:00 I got to go out and work with the missionaries. We weren't able to find anyone home, bit it was still good to be out working. It reminded me a lot of the mission, especially no one being home on Sundays. Monday me, Keri, and Eric took a half day off to shop in Antigua. We found some really neat jade stuff. Then we went to the orphanage. I am really going to miss those babies. Its been neat to see them grow so much in such little time. Edi is so alert and hardly cries now. Monday night we invited the Elders to come over for FHE. Silvia, Radolfo, and her daughter were still there so we invited them to stay. Afterwards we invited them to go to church and they accepted! And they went today-all of the kids except Silvia had to stay home. They Elders also have an appointment to teach them this week!

Tuesday morning we spent getting ready to teach nutrition down in Tsunana, so in the afternoon we went down and looked around. We had dinner at Pana Rock (it's like Hard Rock) and then got up early to go teach. It was such a neat experience. A lot of the kids don't speak Spanish very well so the teacher had to translate what we said into Kaqchekel. The kids had fun though. And it is so beautiful down at Lake Atitlan. On our way back to the hotel I stopped in on the missionary's district meeting. Elder Reeder was there. It was neat to see him. He gave the closing prayer in Kaqchekel. I can't imagine learning another language on top of Spanish during the mission. I bought all the missionaries ice cream and Elder Reeder had had some holes drilled into some Quetz to give me and the group coming to travel. What an awesome thing to do.

Babies

Ya, so I definitely fell asleep last night. So back to Thursday. We went to Patezia. It's a little city of about 11,000 about 25 minutes from here. There are 2 buildings (one is the stake center) and 3 wards that meet. They said in total there were about 480 primary kids and I'd say that at least 300 came to be weighed and measured. Most of them have some type of malnutrition. What we are planning to do is pick the 50 most severe and use the $3500 from the guy in the states to start a day care. Someone up there is donating a house to be used so what will happen is the moms will have to work in the daycare 1 day a week and then they have the other days off to work. A couple of us will also go each day. At the daycare we will give the kids vitamin drinks to help them get healthy. It should be a really great project that should be able to keep running once we leave. The relief society president was also saying that there is a huge need for eye doctors and dentists. Some of the kids are cross-eyed or have lazy eyes, and not many young men are going on missions because they can't afford to have their teeth fixed. Hopefully better nutrition will help some. Suzanna talked to her dad about eye doctors. We'll see what else we can do. On Friday I went to Antigua to be with the babies. Edi was looking so much better. His cheeks are a lot fuller. We came back at one because at two we left for El Salvador. It was only about a 6 hour drive to San Salvador. We got our passports stamped and headed on our way. San Sal is such a huge city. I don't know that Ive ever seen anything like it. All of the restaurants had play places that were huge. The grocery store was like the ones in the US. It was really kind of a shock being there. 


















We spent Saturday at Majual, a black sand beach. It was really pretty. That night we did dinner and a move. Melissa, one of the girls on the El Sal team, had to go to the hospital because she got dengue fever. They have been working on an anti-dengue campaign and she must have gotten bit working out there. We went to church on Sunday and it was a different experience. We had to take a couple of buses to get there so it took about 45 minutes. Some of the members were Americans that are working there. Many of the natives spoke English. It was a small group, but there were 8 missionaries. The people were so friendly though. After church we packed up and made the trek back home.

Monday we went up to Xetonox to do nutrition with the school kids. They are so stinkin cute. They sang us a couple songs in Kaqchequel and we just sat and talked to them for a while. 


















They just adore us and we adore them. The men made us lunch (beef with tomatoes and cucumbers). They were so funny. They kept saying "hola" in high, girly voices. After lunch we went up to the water tank and carried boards down to a house. We all bruised our shoulders in the process. It is so refreshing to be up in Xetonox. It is so beautiful and peaceful and the people love us. The children are beautiful and are fascinated by us. They are all so appreciative also. We told Martin that they really don't need to feed us every time we go there, and he said that it is the only way they know how to say thank you. It was really sweet.

On Monday night we went to an inactive families home to do an FHE. The grandpa has been really sick. It was so fun to be in their home. It reminded me a lot of the mission. Man, I miss that. The mission was so rewarding. This experience is too, but nothing can even compare to the mission. Tuesday morning I went to MesoAmericano (the Rose School) to help with English classes. It was better this week than last.

Doesn't Edi just break your heart?

We went to Hermano Pedro for the afternoon and Edi is up to 5 lbs! He is so much more alert and focuses his eyes on you now. It's neat to see how much progress he has made in such a short amount of time. The babies there are so adorable.

Big Antoni, Little Antoni, Angela

Angela is happy all of the time and has the coolest hair I have ever seen. Little Antoni is putting on weight and laughs like you wouldn't believe. He was looking at Edi and would touch his hand and then laugh and laugh. It was hilarious.

Yesica knows that big Antoni is her brother and gets so excited to be around him. Rosalio is precious and Estela is the biggest fighter I have ever seen. She is 8 but spends her time up with the babies. She was so malnourished that she couldn't walk, but is learning how. She has bright eyes and a glowing personality. She remembered all of our names after just one visit. She really is an angel. After English classes we ordered Domino's Pizza. Everyone was pretty excited about it. Yesterday we spent the day in La Jolla. I love it there too. It's a community of 35 families and they are so organized. Pedro couldn't' take us this week so we went in the back of a truck. It was awesome. My face acted as a windshield. And guess who we saw as we were getting to San Martin?.......Elder Ford! That makes it 3 for 3. When we got to La Jolla they wanted to show us a stove that one of the guys made after we showed them the video. It was awesome! Seriously. Way better than we could have done. We went to one woman's house who didn't have a base made and made on so everyone could see how. They guy who made his own stove helped a ton. They made us eggs with tomato and put it in tortillas. Such great people. We ate a tree. It didn't digest too well. Today we've been cleaning to get ready for the new wave of volunteers. 6 come in tonight.

This is why we were teaching them to make stoves with chimneys

La Mostaza Verde de Fe

I just keep getting worse about writing in here. Oh well. At least I'm writing. So, to begin, last Wednesday I went out to La Joya and Palo Blanco with Eric, Justin, and Jacob. It was so funny to be in Pedro's car with them. They were making up songs and raps about Pedro and anything else they could think of. Pedro was pretty amused. They would also do things like ask if we were there yet every 2 seconds. When we got to La Joya we checked out the square foot garden we had made. Pretty much everything had already started growing. We planted another one and then went around to other houses to look at the boxes they had made. I love the people out there. There are 36 families that live there. The women are so organized. Marta is such a natural leader and go-getter. I really admire her a lot. When we finished looking at the gardens we watched a DVD on the computer on how to make adobe stoves. There is such a need for it out there because they are cooking inside over fire. The smoke gets in their eyes and also gives them respiratory problems. Especially the kids. One of the men watched the movie and pretty much grasped the whole concept. We left them with plans to come back to build the bases of the stoves. We went to Palo Blanco next to teach English there. I love how much respect and attention the kids give us there. We taught them body parts and sang the chicken song and head, shoulders, knees, and toes, and then played Simon says. I think they really enjoyed it. They bought us drinks and wafer cookies. I guess we hadn't set an exact time to come so they had been waiting all day for us. Oh, a funny thing, as we were driving through Chimalt to go to San Martin we ran into Elder Ford again. They were coming in for a zone meeting. We took a picture. Anyway, later on that day Pedro decided to take us home through San Jose. 

But it had rained really hard and there was a mudslide so we couldn't get through. So we turned around and took another road. We were totally 4-wheeling. It was awesome and Pedro's little amigo did awesome. The boys named it "La Mostaza Verde de Fe." It was a pretty adventurous ride home. We ended the night with English class. The Elders came so they could meet this couple in my class that I think might be ready to hear the gospel. They are starting by teaching them English because the dad's work schedule is changing so he can't come to class anymore. They are such a cute little family. I really want them to start getting the lessons. On Thursday we went to Patacia to do nutrition with the primary kids

Sorry it has been a while

I have so much to catch up on. I can't even remember the last time I wrote. Last week was a great week. We spent time out in La Joya with the women's group and then on to Palo Blanco with the kids in the school. The women's group is so amazing. We are going to start building adobe stoves with them so that their houses aren't filled with smoke. The kids get a lot of respiratory infections because they breath it all in. We taught body parts to the kids in Palo Blanco then did Simon says with it, head shoulders knees and toes, and the chicken song. So far that chicken song has been a hit where ever we teach it. And I just thought the missionaries in the MTC loved it. On Friday we went up to Patecia. It’s a small city of 11,000. they have a stake center and three wards there though. We measures and weighed the primary kids (about 300). Most of them are mal nourished. We are hoping to set up a day care system where the mom's will work once a week there and 2 of us will go so that we can make sure the kids get supplemental drinks.


















Some of the kids were in the 0 percentile for height and weight. They also can't afford to go to the dentist so all the young men can't go on missions. It’s really sad. But we are getting some financial help from outside sources so hopefully we can help them work for a better life. That’s what's so great about HELP-International is that we never go somewhere and give things. We bring teaching materials and ourselves and we show them ways to improve life. We don't want them to become dependant on us or just get free hand outs. We went and visited a small community that help international worked with 2 years ago. They are thriving now and have all kinds of improvements planned. It’s great to see. We spent the weekend in El Salvador. There is a team of help volunteers there too, so we crashed at their place in San Salvador. It is such a humongous city. We felt out of place. We spent all day Saturday at the black sand beach. Yesterday we went up to Xetonox to work with the kids in the school measuring them to see if they are malnourished. 

Then we carried huge planks of wood down a mountain. I love being in Xetonox. I wish you could all experience it. They always feed us a huge lunch and when we tried to explain that they really don't have to feed us every time we go, they said it was the only way they could show how gratefully they are for our help. The kids are adorable. We recorded them singing a song in Kaqchequel about ants. You can hear it when I get back. Well, I’m sure there is a ton more I can say, but I’m running out of time. I love you all.
Kirsti