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