Email 1 August 2011

Note from MOM - Dad wants everyone who might not know that you can click on the picture to make it full size.

Another week down... About 51 more to go.
So I have officially hit that year mark as everyone seems to be aware of. No one has forgot about me yet, so that is good... haha. It is still hard to imagine I have been here this long. Next month, I’ll only have 11 months left. I’ll have more time than I have left, or something like that. Not sure how to describe it haha. Pretty cool though :) So far it has been a fun adventure. Couldn’t ask for anything better. Well, to the week...
So now that we live 2 hours away, we stay the night at the Zonies house. Last Monday I got to go on Divisions with Elder King, my buddy that was with me for Christmas and New Years :) We were able to have some fun with a recent convert family of his, so it was a nice night. On Tuesdays we have our District Meetings, which really is just a Zone meeting here because there are no Districts haha. 12 people in total, with every single one of them being from the states :) Therefore, we get to have our meetings in ENGLISH! haha. A definite plus on things... We aren’t staying the night tonight though because our meeting was changed to another day this week, so we'll see what happens. I’m not excited to travel another 2 hours tonight because the trip from and to Cunen isn’t all that fun. I feel sick and such, every time we get out. It is miserable. This morning we turned the trip into an hour and a half though. Somehow the driver knocked off the other half hour. Still confused on how that happened exactly haha.
We finally got pillows :) Now sleeping is better. I’m not having to use two towels folded up in a pillow case! Nice change...
On Wednesday we decided to take another adventure to the waterfall. And by we decided, I mean I convinced my comp to go haha. We called it a part of my year celebration, even though that was Thursday. After quite a bit of walking and such on some rather sketchy paths and bridges made of trees at points, we found it. We actually got stuck at one part by the river. We ended up having to jump, and I mean jump....rock to rock to get across to the other path. It was awesome haha. When we finally made it to the main part, I was just amazed. We had to cross two tree bridges across some pretty fast flowing parts, so that was kind of scary for me. But I got over it after a few times across it. We actually were able to use that tripod you sent me! That little thing is so legit haha. I had it around a tree at one point... On very unlevel surfaces. I can’t believe it... Allowed for some really good pictures in fact! I loved it sooo much. So much in fact that I ended up taking 199 pictures on the adventure haha. I still like taking pictures as you can see :) Just can’t wait to use Photoshop again someday. But honestly, I was so amazed by the whole experience. Waterfalls are awesome. Way better when they are just in the middle of a mountain, with all kinds of jungle like around it. Have to find some more now...
As for my year mark day or "Hump day", as some call it. It felt really good. Woke up thinking, "Halfway done...Wow that went fast." Anyways, in the morning... We had our weekly planning session. Boring... It does help at least though. We also got ice cream in the morning to celebrate :) That was pretty awesome haha. We got what are called Bombas from a place called Sarita. A Bomba consists of a scoop of ice cream (I got strawberry), then banana chopped up, followed by some topping (I got caramel), then 2 more scoops of ice cream (chocolate and vanilla is what I got), then some peaches, topped off with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, a cherry, and a wafer. It was awesome... I think I’m addicted to them now in fact haha. In the afternoon, we went and had lunch with a member family. Then the dad/husband of that family took us out to get to know some of the houses of some of the members that live far away. We traveled pretty far in fact. Went to La Barranka to meet a lady... Then to La Hacienda to meet another lady... And finally to Utspantán to meet another family. It was there in Utspantán that it began to rain very very hard haha. The guy we were with didn’t have anything, so I let him use my rain jacket... My comp used his... and I used.... Well, I used nothing haha. I was soaking wet by the time we got to the family we were going to visit. The lady there was nice enough to give me a towel to dry myself off a bit though, so that was cool. At that house we put a fecha (baptismal date) with a kid that hadn’t been baptized... He is only 9. He is scared of water though, so that will be fun to overcome. It was a fun little trip with the guy though. He is really nice. He just got back from the state’s 3 months ago. Speaks no English however. Such a nice guy. His wife is the lady that washes our clothes in fact and now we are going to pay her for lunches certain days of the week. Familia Gomez Gonzalez is their name. Great people :) At night, I celebrated by having what I called "Baggy Night", or some would say "Trunky Night". I ate Macaroni and Cheese with a Coke, while watching my videos from home haha. It was awesome... didn’t get too homesick though ;)
Friday morning we did some service. I was able to cut some grass with a machete again. It was fun haha. Almost something I want to do at home, but it is just pointless in the end. Just the thought of you holding a machete cutting grass is cool haha. I got a big blister on my thumb though. Not so cool.
I have been able to become good friends with all the little kids in the branch. They love me haha. I have some girls teaching me some of their little girl hand games in fact! I’m learning a lot of fun things right now. It is awesome... Not going to lie, I love my area.
So today for P-day, we had some fun. This morning we visited some ruins here in the main part of Quiche. They are just now starting to uncover them. Only one is uncovered though. The rest have grass and plants all over them. It is like the Book of Mormon! When the cities were taken by the earth. Pretty neat :) There are some caves at the place too. We walked through them. Felt really good until you get to the very back and you have the sketchy old people lighting candles everywhere. There were a ton of people doing rituals there in fact. Kinda scary to be honest haha. We went for a hike to try and find some arrowheads and such. We found some pieces of pottery... So that is kind of cool haha. We also had a football and frisbee, so we threw those around for a while. Squeezed 10 of us into a bus already full... It was a mess. Good day thus far though...
Life is good. Cunen may not be Huehue, but it is still awesome. All kinds of neat stuff and neat people. We have found a few people to teach... So far the only baptism looks to be that 9 year old boy. I love you all sooo very much! Have great weeks and smile at life because it is nothing but beautiful :)
Love,
David-Elder Bitner