Elder Bitner: 21st Birthday Email 26 March 2012

Bosque Zone

Heeeelllllllooooo,
What up folks? The week went well... Had some interesting changes to it, but everything is still good. Maybe even better to be honest haha. That is for now at least.........
So my age has officially reached the 21 peak of life. The birthday went really well though. I even got a couple gifts! My bishop, Elvis, gave me this wallet thing – cool thing. The second counselor in the ward (he lived in Mesa a long time...he only talks to me about Arizona and how it is his "real" home haha) and his wife gave me this shirt that says, "guat's up", like what's up... then it says Guatemala underneath it. I love it haha. Such a sick shirt.
Anyways, the actual day of my birthday was extremely random. Got a phone call at 9 a.m. from President Bautista... He then talked to my companion, and we found out that he was going to be having emergency changes that very day at 1 p.m. I thought to myself, "Well...there goes my birthday." So much for having a happy birthday, right? He packed his bags and we showed up to the mission home at 1. They were having a "training meeting", so we both got to stay there. The reason for the changes was that the kid that was training had a back problem. Compressed a disc in his vertebrae or something to that extent, so he was going to have to be in Xela in order to be close to all the doctors and what not. So Celis (my comp) went to take his spot training in Huehue, and the kid with the back problems is now my comp. His name is Elder Conte, and he is from Panama. I love the kid... He is really cool and we get along a lot better than most haha. It is a nice feeling being with him. Supposedly we are going to have to go to a bunch of doctor’s appointments, so he can get treatments to help out his back. I’m perfectly fine with that.
All those events made me miss my birthday lunch... I was not a happy camper. I didn’t even eat a lunch on my birthday. I almost had to even go to Huehue with Conte to get all of his stuff because they didn’t even tell him about the whole plan until he got to Xela. But I explained to the assistants that it was my birthday and that the Relief Society of my ward had planned a surprise birthday dinner for me...so they let me stay. I was with Cuellar and Bergeson for 2 days! It was AWESOME to say the least haha. We had a lot of fun. The birthday was really good in the end, but the morning part of it and early afternoon was miserable.
That was all the craziness of the week... Elder Conte didn’t get to the area until Thursday night, so we have just been getting to know the area and what not since then. It is going good though. No progression with anyone thus far, but plans are becoming deeds and frustration is becoming happiness. Life is good.
Thanks again to everyone for the birthday wishes. I did get the big package from you guys. Loved everything. I've already worn all of the ties believe it or not. In fact, I’m wearing Rachel's and Bobby's gift right now. Has made a lot of the others jealous haha. It was a great package :) Thanks a lot!
Anyways, thanks for everything. You are all the best.
Much Love,
Elder Bitner :)