Email 28 May 2012

Whoa, Another month gone...which means 22 months on this thingy-ma-jigger. Great times and long days. Very worth it in the end though. It is really weird being the "old guy" in the mission and having to give a lot of advice and what not. Feels cool, but at the same time it is hard. You never want to say something that would ruin the future of someone's mission. Chances are, that I only say things that do just that. My bad. Life is good though.
Not too much news, but a goodish week. On Thursday, our branch had an activity for "Mother's Day". They did it a little late, but at least they did something. Pretty impressed. It was my first activity since being here! and... probably my last. The youth were put in charge of it. It was basically just a Talent Show of sorts. Heard lots of good music haha. It was cool though because we got a few investigators there. It allowed people to have the opportunity to invite friends and what not.
 Friday I got what I hope is my last haircut in Guatemala. I’m really trying to not cut it here again...that way Becky can cut when I get home.
We found quite a bit of new people to teach this past week. The 2 best are the same two people that showed up to church last week and this week. Mike...(just a random guy we talked to in the street), and Belinda (the wife of a less active). Hopefully we can create some magic up in that :)
So Saturday, we got our "prize" for doing the 40 contacts the week before. We traveled down to Xela and had a small little conference with President Bautista. Then we watched a movie. We saw "Tangled". It killed all of us... All we all want to do now is go home and hang out with the ladies, but we can’t. Yet... haha. I still need to see it at home though because we watched it in Spanish here. Afterwards we ate lasagna though. Delicious.
Best part of it all, I got the package! and the cuff links were inside the Skittles. High five for that. I’m a fan. After all that we got permission to run over to Walmart. I got 3 Dr Peppers and 2 Mountain Dews. Awesome purchases...
Over the weekend we had 2 deaths here in Nahualá. The father of a member and the daughter of the other. Saturday we went and visited the guy who had the father die. We saw his casket open...weird. While we were there, we received a lot of attention from everyone. They fed us and talked to us a ton. We were really respected by lots of non-members. Pretty cool. Sunday morning we followed the procession thing. In the states everyone drives behind the hearse...here, everyone walks behind the pick-up. You can see the difference, but means the same. It wasn’t as sad as the other death though. This guy I became good friends with when I was covering the other ward too had his 3 month old daughter die Sunday morning. She wasn’t sick at all and was perfectly fine. No one understands what happened. Especially him... He just kept telling me Sunday Afternoon when I went to visit him that he hated life. It was so sad. Seeing the little coffin on this tiny table just made me want to cry. Held it in though. Just hope I was able to give him some words of comfort. I’m not a fan of little kid deaths. Those are terrible in every single way possible...

That has been the week though. Anyways, I hope is going well for everyone back there. Things are going just fine for me for now. No problems lately, so I’m happy :) Please, have a good week everyone! Do some good...and...smile big! Love, Elder Bitner

Following the Pickup

Cemetary

Puppies born in our backyard

Email 22 May 2012

Rainy Season

Hey Wonderful People,
Finding out about 2 minutes ago my travel plans was the best part of my day...haha. I’m glad to hear that they finally do exist. 3:30 pm? Not bad... I definitely thought it was going to be a lot later than that. Lucked out I guess. We'll have a good afternoon to spend my first day in the "casa". Just make sure you set things up with President Martin, please. And let me know the plan.
So I know it is somewhat weird that I’m writing today. They switched our P-Day on us so we could go hike this mountain in my area to visit this little tourist site that looks over Lake Atitlan. Sadly it didn’t work out though. They decided to not let us do it in the end because of some complicated things. Next week it looks like we are going for sure though, so P-Day will be on Tuesday again next week I think. For P-Day we went to the Zone Leader's area and started off the day with a District Meeting. Ours lasted about 5 minutes. Pretty nice and short meeting. Funny too haha. After we began to play basketball in the city there. After some manipulative talk on my part, I got everyone to travel over to Totonicapan to play in the church there, since it is a lot nicer. Before that though, we ate some "chucos" (weird hot dog thingies)...then to the Despense to buy my weekly Special K ;) and then to play. It was a lot of fun to play. I’m excited for Night Basketball at the Stake Center when I get back home. That was basically my P-Day though. Just played basketball for a good amount of hours!
Anyways, about the past week... Rainy season is official. Rains everyday...and I love it. We had another 40 contact week this past one. Finally accomplished the goal. Yay :) For all the people that did this one, President Bautista is having a Movie and Lunch deal on Saturday. Supposedly we are going to be able to see a pretty legit movie too. Right now, that is what everyone is looking forward too haha. This past Friday my comp and I went to another area of Elders in the District to try and help them meet the goal of 40 too (we exceeded!). It is a place called Juchanep, right outside of Totonicapan. I went around "tracting" with a kid that came to the mission with me named Elder Bagley. Had a good time with him... Funny stuff occurred haha. After we accomplished the goal of people, we began to visit some members. I had a lady sew a Hollister tag onto the back of the tie I was wearing, so now I have a fake Hollister tie. Pretty cool. Then we went to visit their Branch President. Something pretty crazy happened there. We walked in, and the President was like, "Elder Bitner? That is my son's name!" His little 3-year-old son has the name Bitner... Russell Bitner Alvarado! How freaking weird is that? I was tripping when he told me. Thought it was sooo funny haha. They told me they found the name in the Liahona in an article about Hinckley. They have a 7-year-old too, and her name is Marjorie...the wife haha. I took a pic with Bitner though. That family was really awesome though. They even gave me a jersey of Real Madrid doesn’t get much better than that haha.
Something random...a lot of people think I’m from Canada. When I say I’m from Arizona, they say "no....you are too white. You would be darker." What they forget is I’ve been here for 2 years, so I don’t see any sun haha. Ridiculous.
At church, we had 2 investigators. Hopefully some positive things come out of both. One guy was a guy we met a while back named Mike. We exchanged phone numbers and he would call me randomly all the time. Saturday night I saw him in the street and told to show up to church tomorrow at 10. At 9:30 he called me to make sure on the time and then showed up. He liked it a lot too supposedly, so we have a good little shot with him. He lives in the area of the other Elder's though... Whoops. I don’t care haha. That is the mission and the life right now though.
Things are good as always. Hopefully things are well back there. Everyone take care though and be happy. I love you guys. July 12th at 3:35 pm we will meet again. Yippeee! Love, Elder Bitner

The other "Bitner" in Guatemala

Email 14 May 2012

Elder Adams

Long Time No Talk,
So...I know this is pretty late of an email. We got held up in Xela trying to get Bergeson a suit and playing soccer and yeah... We had a "tournament" with my old Zone in Xela this morning. The Zone Leaders made the teams and everything, but my team won the championship :) It was a good feeling. I was just impressed we did so well. It was awesome.
This basically is pointless I feel like. I just talked to everyone last night, so it feels weird saying the same ol' stuff really. You all know I had changes in a way. A moved like a block down the street to open up a new area called Xeraxón (pronounced Share-uhh-shown). My new companion is legit though. We are getting along great and he is hilarious, which makes everything so much better. His name is Elder Adams and is from Maine. Well, sort of from there... It is complicated. In a cool kind of way though. I’m very happy with the changes.
Was sick a little bit this week, but not a big deal really.
Other than that we have just been trying to get settled into our new house. I’m a big fan though. Anyways, it was great talking to you guys yesterday. I really enjoyed it, but obviously a longer conversation without so much delay would have been a lot better. Sadly, it didn’t work out like that. Pretty crazy to think that the next time I talk to you is going to be when I’m at home! It is sneaking up quickly. 2 months and we will be reunited again.
Let me know if there is anything people need from Guatemala! I’ll send a longer one next week. Love you all so much and miss you all so much. Again, I loved talking to you yesterday :)
With much love, Elder Bitner!
 PS-You are all the best.

David's clothes rack he made out of an old box spring

David's Mother's Day Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner - Special K

Victorious Soccer Team

Email 7 May 2012

Juan Esteban Guarchaj Cotiy

Hey there folks,
Pretty hard to believe that I’ll be making my last phone call home this week. Looking forward to it being over...because that way I can say that the next time I talk to you will be when I get home! Legit.
It has been a good week. Juan Esteban Guarchaj Cotiy is your newest member in Nahualá! Friday was the baptism, and it went pretty well. Things started off late as usual sadly. It was the baptizee's fault this time though. He didn’t show up until 5, so that is when everything kicked into gear. The only problem was, the light went out right about 5 too. No electricity... It was light outside still though, so not a big deal really. The coolest thing though, was the fact that right when they started to get up to go into the font....the light came back on. As Juan and my companion walked into the font, they had the 3 little lights shining down on them in the water. We all know a thing like that would go unnoticed in many situations, but I realized the mini-miracle that it brought. For me, it was amazing. Sunday he was confirmed, and now is a legitimate member. He is a very happy guy it seems. His wife...is sooo happy. They had been together 6 years, and until now did he decide to make the decision to join the church. He told us many missionaries had passed by with him over the years, but this time his mindset was different. He wanted what was best for his family. Great, great experience for me to be a part of. Never will forget that one.
Other than that though, the week was pretty normal haha. Tuesday I ate 3 dinners! That almost killed me. Lots of noodles. Didn’t get sick, and I was able to fit it all in my little body. That is definitely a miracle to me! We found a new house for the new area here in Nahualá. Turns out...that I’ll be going to that area. I’ll be opening it with a kid, I don’t know his name or anything because all they would tell me is he has some 5ish months in the mission. Yay for being with new people haha. Rumor is that Bergeson is coming out here to be in an area close by, so that is exciting. My companion right now, Elder Nuñez, will be training. Should be weird to see everything work its way into place tomorrow. On Wednesday, two missionaries came to stay with us. Belus (who was in Quiché when I was there) and Bagley (who was my friend on Facebook before coming out here). We had a good time. Belus had to come to the baptismal interview for Juan, so that is why they came out. We took advantage of the time though and made a "tuj" appointment for the 4 of us. We got to bathe in the steam room yet again. We even did again on Saturday. Twice last week! Hopefully second-hand-smoke doesn’t become a problem of mine haha.
Something interesting I found out about this place here was the fact that the women cut their hair one time a year for the most part here in Nahualá. May 2nd we were visiting and a ton of the ladies were cutting each other's hair... We were like, "What's the deal?" And then they explained that to us. Pretty weird tradition, but cool at the same time.
That has been my week though. I just got back here to Nahualá from Xela. Went and ran a few errands. Nothing too exciting. I got to eat Wendy's again! Felt like a real P-day... haha. Hope all is well. Can’t wait to talk to you guys on Sunday. Should be a good last call..... ;)
Love you all and miss you all. Take it easy, Elder Bitner

Church in Nahuala

Drunk in front of our house

Email 30 April 2012

Invitation for Baptism

Hola,
How goes it yourselves? It goes alright for me. Good and bad things happened this past week. That's life though week in and week out. There are always the hard moments and the happy ones. First off, the thing that made me mad, really mad in fact... It was honestly the only bad part of the week, but it had quite the effect surprisingly. I finally got Derek's and Brittany's package. I was very excited to finally be holding it my hands. The thing on the front said that it contained a cotton shirt, cuff links, and a tie. That got me really excited to open it. Then the other missionaries pointed out to me that on the box it had a sticker that said Broken Package, and it had Guatemalan post office tape all over it. That had happened before so I wasn’t too worried. I opened up and found the shirt, "El Gran Diablo Blanco". Everyone got a kick out of that one. Pull out the tie next. Canali brand. Nice... Then the cuff links, but wait! They weren’t in the box. Someone in this country that works for the postal service cut open my box and took the things that had me most excited. So...I have the french cuff shirt to wear home but no cuff links. Maybe I’ll be able to find some here that I can buy, but it will be a hard search. Mainly hurts because Derek and Brittany actually put forth the effort to send me the box and it all didn’t even get to me safely. Upsets my little heart.
Other than that, the week was fun and good. We had a couple soccer activities. We went to Chirijox Tuesday afternoon, to help the 3 Elders there with an activity they were having. Played soccer against a legitimate team that was only investigators... We won and lost a good amount of times. Pretty balanced out. Ate some eggs... It was fun. Getting home was hard, but we made it happen. Just had to pay a little extra of course. Thursday night the people got together at the church in Nahualá to play some soccer. We went, and again...lost and won. Not too many complaints. I’m slowly getting better I think. Needless to say, I love soccer and that is all that matters really. Wish I would have played it longer when I was a kid.
Service continues to absorb our lives haha. Chopped wood a heck of a lot this past week. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday... Thursday we chopped for close to 3 hours. Tired us out, but hey! It made my body feel really good. Chopping wood really is like the perfect exercise. Saturday we even helped make a "Chicken Cage". By that I mean a literal cage for chickens. Didn’t quite finish, but it is basically done. Just needs a door and a roof. We'll see how they decide to do those... Guatemaltecos are really creative when it comes to things like that. After working on the cage, we bathed in another steam room. This time around it felt a little more sketchy, but we are both alive... No permanent side-effects thankfully :)
Good news. Juan, the guy who was going to be baptized on Saturday, has a legitimate date for this Friday, May 4th. He changed from Saturday because his mom wasn’t going to be able to make it to it, and he really wants her to be there. Good enough reason for me to change the date. The invitations were made Saturday and passed out yesterday, so it is a done deal basically. Nuñez and I are both quite excited about it. Friday will be a great day...

I’m still eating "Baliadas" like crazy. It is basically the only thing that Honduras is famous for in the food terms. I’m sure Little Billy has eaten a ton... I’m pretty sure I know how to make them. They are a lot easier than pupusas haha. We ate them 3 nights this past week. Last night we had a big little marathon of making them with a member family. It was a lot of fun. Found out there that "Bit", but pronounced "beett" means fart in Quiche. Weird, but funny haha. Anyways, hope all is well and that everyone is continuing to be happy. Two weeks until my last phone call home - crazy. Love you all and miss you all!
Take care my loves, Elder Bitner

Sticker that brought the bad news

This is how the package came

Shirt from Derek

Baliada

Making Tortillas

Email 23 April 2012

Personas en la casa,
What's good? All is good here. For the most part at least... Life always has those little things that you don’t like to deal with obviously, but we always get through them. "Gracias a Dios". One of those things was the fact that I had to give the message in District Meeting this past week. Almost made it my entire mission without having to do such a thing. I was on a roll and then just had to go and break that streak for me.
I have realized something over the past 7 days. Nahualá reminds me of Cunén! Only because I get to chop lots of wood again :) Not really sure why I find it so fun, but I do and it's awesome. We chopped for some members this past week quite a few days. I lost my talents in that department, but they are on the return right now. Is there any way we can get a wood fireplace at home? That way I can have a reason to chop wood in AZ haha.
Another thing I have realized about Nahualá... The fact they speak a language I don’t understand is one thing...but because it is still "dry season" there is a ton of dirt/dust. You’d think I would be used to it because of Arizona deserts...but not really. There is a ton of wind in Nahualá because it is pretty high up. The dirt always manages to make its way into my house, which means sweeping is one of those hell-ish things I have to do now. Cleaning isn't really that big of a deal for me, but trying to sweep all this dirt all the time..... Happy to say that rain is still here, so the "rainy season" is almost here :) Yay.
We got a phone call this past week from one of the assistants. They put a new task to be carried around in out minds with us. We have to find a new house...for future missionaries. At the end of this change (in 2ish weeks now) they are going to be putting in another pair of missionaries in Nahualá to cover one of the wards. We aren’t sure how it is going to happen still, but we have been looking for a house. They almost don’t exist there. We have 2 options and I would not want to live in either...so I hope I stay in the house I’m in at least.
Saturday night I did something for the first time in the mission. There are these things here in some parts that people bathe in. When I was in Colo they were called "Chuns" or something like that...and here in Nahualá they are called "Tuks". They are little buildings somewhere on their property that serve as saunas or steam rooms. Usually they are very, very small, but this one was decent sized!, so I managed to fit alright :) It was a hot little room. They have a pile of burning hot rocks in the corner and every-so-often you throw hot water on top of them to produce the steam/vapor, while you hold a bowl of cold water to splash on your face and body so you don’t get burned from the steam. They can get very hot. Felt amazing though... I now want one in our backyard, so try to find someone that can build one or build one yourselves. They are very simple things haha.
Yesterday after church and lunch we went on a visit with the relief society of the Calvario Ward in Nahualá. We had to ride in a pick up forever to get to the house of where we were going. I got to stand on the bumper and hang off the truck, so I felt right at home. I loved Colotenango so much.... haha. Great times. Anyways, we made it to "El Rancho de Teja", which is where this family lived. They were recent coverts that haven’t come in a few weeks now. They only speak Quiche and live in a house without running water or electricity...so that gives you an idea of their situation among the others that live up in the small little place. It was a fun little trip though. My comp and I went and got water for them with the Relief Society. They get water out of these holes in the ground. Not like a well though...like just weird holes that are randomly there haha. Quite the walk to get the water too. Who knows how they do it all the time considering how old they are. I enjoyed it though.
That has basically been my week though. Our baptism still is set for this Saturday, but we'll see what happens with that. We are going to try and see him tonight to make things for sure, for sure. Just keep your fingers crossed :) haha. I love you all so very much and miss you all just as much. Hope all is well and that this week is a good one for you guys! Take it easy. Don’t worry. Be happy.
Love, Elder Bitner

Road so high - in the clouds

Getting water

Inside Steam Room

Email 16 April 2012

Familia,
Still in Nahualá... haha. Good ol' Quiche talking. People have been teaching me little things though. On Saturday they taught me how to ask a girl to marry me. Ever since then, I have been popping the big question to everyone. Surprisingly there are a lot of rejections haha. Cool right? It is pretty fun to learn little things like that because they are really easy to remember. Trying to speak the thing fluently though? That is a very different story. Got some good news! We set a baptismal date with this guy named Juan this past week... Come to think of it, almost all our investigators names are Juan hahaha. This one is the husband of a member, so it would be really good if he follows through with it so he can get sealed someday in the temple with his family. It is scheduled for the 28th... We're really hoping that it works out. He looks positive about it, but it isn’t a for sure thing sadly. This past week we started to read the Book of Mormon throughout the mission. We have 40 days to read it...so we have 33 left. I’m a little ahead of schedule, so all is well. I didn’t think I would keep up very well because of love to mark things, but I’m doing well! We also had the goal of contacting 40 people this past week. By contacting I mean putting a follow-up appointment with them. Out of the 40 we got 31... It is really hard to talk to people in Spanish while they respond in Quiche. They are intelligent enough to not let us know that they speak Spanish, so they just speak in Quiche until we walk away. Rain is on its way. Rained a ton this past week. Thursday we almost didn’t even leave the house... It was pouring for over 4 hours nonstop. It was crazy cool. I’m happy it is back because now everything will be green again :) Right before I leave. Perfect timing. Saturday night we were at another dinner appointment, when everyone started screaming in Quiche and ran out of the house. Nuñez and I were just like what? haha. We had no idea what was happening, but turned out that the electricity shorted and almost started a fire. It was shooting out a ton of sparks and having mini-explosion sounding things. It was very weird. I just wish the people would have said something in Spanish to us at least... Luckily we left out of curiosity, so we managed to survive :) Life is going well though. Have thought about home a lot this past week, so that is kind of sad for me haha, but hanging in there and loving all that I can! Take it easy everyone. Happy late B-Day to Derek! haha.
With much love, Elder Bitner