Email 18 July 2011

Chicharines

Mis Amados Hermanos Mios,
¿Que tal? Guess what, a year ago today, I was giving my farewell talk. Crazy haha. Pues, this week has been a good one I feel like. Technically I guess just about all my weeks have been good ones though... I can’t think back on a week that I didn’t enjoy in the end. Kind of crazy how that works. You would think there would be lots of weeks that I just would hate, but I’ve enjoyed all of them! How? Who knows... Guess what song I heard this week. Allstar by Smashmouth. It was sooo random. Very cool though. I knew every word even though I haven’t heard the song in years haha. Well, about the week.
We'll start off with the baptism. Do get straight to the point, it didn’t happen. The lady went out of town on Monday and was supposed to come back Friday afternoon. She didn’t make it back... She is supposed to come back today, so we'll see what happens. We have an appointment with her tonight, so we can try and explain some things to her even though she doesn’t speak a lot of Spanish... If we can make it happen, we are going to have the baptism tomorrow. Who knows though... I was a pretty sad guy on Friday and Saturday because we weren’t able to have it. Welcome to the life as a missionary though. Things never work out like you want them to at first. Oh well. Have to remain positive.
What else... On Thursday, we were able to have some fun. We went to talk to Diego in the morning, and he invited us to go to Huehue with him to get Dominos. We couldn’t deny that opportunity... haha. We met up with him, and he drove us down there. We got 2 large pizzas and a 1.5 liter thing of Coke for 180 Quetz, which is about....22 dollars. I don’t remember how much pizza costs, so I don’t know how that price compares to the states. Can’t imagine it is too much higher, but I wouldn’t be too surprised I guess if it was. It was a nice little meal though. We got one of Pepperoni and the other was Cinco Carnes (Five Meats), Diego's choice. I love talking to Diego. He talks to us like we are normal humans, not gringos... Not missionaries... Not tourists... He actually considers us as his friends. It is nice :) He wants us to come back to visit him in fact, so he can take us places all over Guatemala. I might just have to take him up on that offer someday after I get home because there are a ton of places that I’m not going to be able to see in my mission. A trip back is definitely necessary... It was fun to drive in a normal car again too. Little 2006 Honda Accord. Sadly when we were driving with him his BRAKE LAMP light came on. Luckily we were able to tell him what that meant though haha.
On Wednesday we went and got our Nachos in Ixta. Since Berg has been sick, all he has wanted to eat has been those nachos and Subway. Basically nothing else makes him feel good. Well actually, he is better now, so we don’t have to worry about the food thing so much now. We are both still picky though because we ate pretty well this week. Monday we got Subway. Tuesday we got Subway (I put honey mustard on my sandwich to see what it was like... disgusting. Don’t recommend it). Wednesday we had Ixta nachos. Thursday pizza with Diego. And then Friday we ate with our cook lady... Put a big damper on our diets haha. It was still pretty good though. Better than what we usually get. Saturday we went and ate Nachos again...(While we were in Ixta we got our shoes shined by these two little kids. I beat boxed and spoke English for them haha. They are my two new buddies in Ixta :) ). Saturday night we ate "chicharines", which are pieces of fried pig skin covered in mayo and ketchup, with an inactive family. That was fun haha. And on Sunday we ate with the cook lady again. Pretty good week foodwise. Dinners sucked for the most part. I usually skip dinner or breakfast every day. It is a fun life haha.
We spent one day cleaning our house really well. Moved just about everything to sweep and such. I even changed my sheets ;) haha. I feel kind of clean now when I sleep! Just kidding. I still feel like fleas are eating me alive. I don’t like it at all. You get used to it though. The other day actually, we gave some clothes away to this kid here. I don’t how old he is to be honest, so maybe he is pretty old and we don’t know it. He has some problems though... If you saw a picture you would understand. Bergeson gave him 2 short-sleeved shirts, and I gave him a pair of shoes and a church sweater. He has worn them every day since haha. Everyone calls him Elder Vasquez or Elder Jacobo now. He has no money and a family that want nothing to do with him, so Diego takes care of him and it is really cool. Anyways, when I was getting the sweater to give to him, I pulled it off the hanger and saw what looked like a white fuzz ball on the sleeve. I felt like it was something more than a fuzz ball though. I brushed it with my finger, and it popped. Out came tons of little baby spiders. They were all not born yet, so luckily they didn’t attack me or anything. It was still a little disturbing... Guatemala has taught me to hate bugs. I was writing in my journal the other night and a spider fell from the ceiling right onto my journal! I miss the states way of living haha.
I met the nephew of the lady that cooks for us this past week. He is 15 and lives and studies in the states in Sacramento. Kid speaks perfect English. It was awesome haha. He looks like he is our age though, so that was a mind bottler, ya know when your thoughts are so crazy in your mind it feels like they are trapped in a bottle? hahaha. Name that movie. I know it isn’t the exact quote, but it is the best I can remember haha. His dad spoke English too for the most part. Same with another guy that was with him. He lived in Tennessee though, so he had a southern accent. That was funny to hear haha. I love finding people that speak English.
I have been taking freezing cold showers for the past week... Not fun.
Well, that was my week basically! We have changes this week, so we shall see what happens I guess. I have a feeling I won’t be going anywhere. I hope that is how it is at least. One of the assistants is my good buddy, so I think he will make it happen. We have a lot of possible baptisms in Ixta supposedly, so I don’t want to leave quite yet. I want to work with them over there and see what we can do to make them grow. Who knows... You’ll find out next week what has happened! haha. If I get changes I’m going to be very mad because I want to see this lady actually get baptized... Praying that I don’t.
I love you all lots! Have great weeks. Life isn’t perfect, but with the Gospel we learn to get over that. Love everyone. Share what you know. You don’t know how good you guys have it. Enjoy your surroundings.
Love the blondest person in Guatemala,
Elder db

PS-I hate everyone that got to see the final Harry Potter.  Haha.

House after rain

 

 

 

Email 11 July 2011

Hola...
How are all of you guys? Hopefully things are going like they usually do. For me, things are good. I’m really starting to get the hang of being in Guatemala. I think it has finally hit me that I’m in another country haha. Guess I just never wanted to really welcome the idea, but here I am and I know it! Being in a different country really helps the language come. I feel like I have gotten a pretty good grasp on the español. I still mess up and get frustrated, but it is improving quite well. Just got to work on all the different words! haha. I had a mess up this last week in fact that was pretty funny. We went to eat nachos in Ixta... The owner was talking with us. He asked us how we were, and I responded, "Bien pero estamos casados." There is a slight mixup there... I wanted to say the word "cansados", which means tired, but instead I said the word "married". I told the man that we were married. Cool right? haha. We fixed that one pretty fast though... Most of my dreams are actually in Spanish now. Blows my mind...
Monday night we celebrated the fourth of July. Bergie and I, along with a few other Elders, bought some fireworks. Went and lit them off at their house. It was awesome... haha. There was one we were a little sketched out about, so we let this old man do it for us. He was crazy with it though! He held it in his hand and just let it fly out of his hand. We all ran while he lit it and he stood there all nice and calm. People here are crazy when it comes to stuff like that.... It was a pretty good July 4th though. We made what we could of it.
Anyways, this past week has been good. When has one of my weeks not been good? haha. I’m way too positive out here. I did finally get to meet the new President. I was really worried to meet him at first because we found out one of our friends here was going home. We were thinking the guy was very strict, but it turned out to be the kid's choice. We had a conference with the new President on Tuesday. He turns out to be a very nice guy! I actually like him a lot so far haha. One thing we all had mistaken... We all thought his Spanish was going to be perfect... It sure isn’t even close really haha. He only learned it back when he was on his mission in Paraguay. Now he is trying to remember it. He knows some, but it just isn’t good haha. It is actually very funny to listen too because we can’t understand it the way he says it. He has lost any accent he might have had, and now he is trying to regain it all back. So yeah, he can speak a little bit, but that is it. His wife speaks absolutely nothing haha. One of the Sister missionaries translated for her.
On Wednesday, President Bautista actually came up here to Huehue to have interviews with each of us. They were only 10 minute interviews, but they were nice. I was one of the first to go since we live the furthest away, so we had no idea what was going to happen in it haha. Did it though, and it was great! Speaking in English just makes everything so much better. In the interview, we just talked about my mission thus far, my family, where I’m from, etc... He actually said that he just drove through Glendale recently. He went to some Mitsubishi Dealership. Pretty random... haha. He asked us to share with him one of our favorite scriptures we had recently. I shared D&C 101:36-37. Like it a lot... He is a very nice guy though. I like him a lot! Things seem like they are going to be quite fun still. He is pretty strict, but that is normal. I’m really excited to have him as my President. I have a good feeling that I’m going to enjoy it dearly :)
We had a couple bad days this past week. Bergie got pretty sick... It started Monday after we ate breakfast at McDonalds. He just had some bad crapping issues haha. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday it was just a little thing. Didn’t bother him... He was able to walk around and such. But then on Thursday.... Wow. It hit him hard. The whole day he was doing it every hour. We didn’t leave the house. We walked to the tienda below our house to get some drinks and snacks, but that was the only time we left. He was in major pain. Friday was a little better, but still not great. Morning we left and did some things, but when it came to the afternoon it got bad again. We had to go get him some pills and stuff from our friend's pharmacy. It was bad. We ended up going to Huehue Saturday actually to get him checked out. He had to poop in a little cup and stuff haha. It was pretty funny. When the lady gave us the results we thought everything was okay with him. Then she told us that he an infection in his intestines, which is exactly what I told him. We went and got a bunch of medication for him and stuff from a pharmacy. Called the mission nurses when we got home. They told him to not to take any of the pills they gave him if he wanted to save his insides haha. Luckily he is feeling a tad bit better. He is going to buy some Metamucil today, and supposedly that will help him more than the pills. We'll see what happens I guess. He is pushing forward though, so that is good...
One thing we started to enjoy was Mac and Cheese. The Kraft, blue box type. They had it at the place we buy food, so we loaded up on it. We bought 12 boxes of it.... We ate two of them Tuesday night, and we can’t even look at the other boxes. We feel like they might have made Bergie even sicker. We have been trying to sell the 10 we have left haha. We don’t know what to do with them... Velveeta is so much better in every way imaginable. Miss it.
I sang a drunken guy with a drunk on Friday night haha. It was great fun... Don’t Matter by Akon. It was crazy haha. He enjoyed it a whole bunch though. I’m really starting to get sick of drunks. So sick of them... It gets very old quick haha. They pet my hair too. I just want to punch them most of the time! We saw a big old quarrel in the street in front of our house the same night. A guy pushed another drunk very hard, and he fell to the ground and couldn’t get up. We thought he was dead, but he eventually got up and walked away. There were about 7 gun shots from the same group of people. Not sure what those were about, but it was sketchy. I love my area... haha.
Before we left to Huehue on Saturday, we were waiting for a truck to pass by... While we were waiting, this truck came speeding down the road. Crashed into a kid on a bike so hard. He attempted to brake, but way too late... The kid hit the street so hard. Scared me. I thought he was going to have broken bones and all that. The kid got up off the ground holding his head, speaking a lot of mam, and sat himself on the side of the road. Everyone got out of their cars to see if he was alright and such. We tried to talk to him and help him because we were right there next to him during the whole thing, but he wouldn’t talk to us. We ended up just walking away. It was pretty intense though...
I got a jersey from a guy here. Says Colo-Colo. It is the basketball for the team in Colo. The one I got is very old, but it is legit. It is like an American flag haha. Makes me laugh when I look at it. I’m going to wear it all the time at home haha.
So about my package home. I gave all the stuff to the guy... His plane leaves on Wednesday. My guess he will call you Thursday or something to try and meet up with you guys. He is very nice to be bringing it all. There is quite a bit... You should probably get him a gift certificate or something. He is going back to AZ to see his daughter get married. I don’t know how long he will be there, but he'll have time to take his wife out to eat I’m sure. He is a cool guy though. Speaks pretty good English, so you should be able to understand him :) I gave him the house number and both of your cell phones. So just be expecting a call sometime this week, alright :) Hopefully it all works out okay!
Ill tell you a little about yesterday... We were going to go to Ical for church, but a truck never passed. We decided to go to Colo for Sacrament and then head up to Ical for the last hour. At the Colo church there was a lady that had been coming with the ex-bishop and his wife for a few weeks. Our Bishop pulled us aside and asked us to talk to her for a little bit. We talked to her and set up an appointment to come by after we were done with our church duties. We showed up to the appointment and we began to talk with her... She told us she wants to be baptized on Saturday! So guess what... We have a baptism this Saturday if all goes well haha. She is like 80 years old though, so it is a bit strange. Never thought I would be baptizing a great grandma on my mission. She is a nice little old lady though, and I guess everyone does need their salvation one way or another. We had to go up to Ical to help a kid that just got his mission call. They sent the part where it says where you are going in English, so they didn’t understand a lot of it. I went and translated it all into Spanish haha. He is going to the Perú Lima East Mission the 6th of October. The kid is really poor, so I’m hoping he is able to get all he needs... Plus he doesn’t speak Spanish really, so it will be quite the adventure for him! haha. Oh! Also, at the Colo church I had a dog sleeping underneath my chair the entire time. Didn’t realize it until we got up to leave haha. Everyone wears cowboy hats to church too. I think they are confused on who exactly they are... Their people fought the cowboys, they weren’t the cowboys.
Last night our friend Diego bought Pizza for us haha. We went to his house to eat and talk with him. It was fun. Really nice guy. Just the pizza was strange. Had mushrooms, hamburger meat, hot dogs, ham, pepperoni, peppers, onions.... Very strange. I felt pretty sick after eating a couple slices.
Life is good. The Gospel is perfect. The people aren’t...but God does work in mysterious ways to make them willing to do what may seem impossible to us. He knows all. He loves all. And I love him. The earth is ready to harvest. Everyone grab a tractor and let's get to work haha. I’m just happy to finally have another baptism... I’m excited :) Hopefully everyone back at home manages to continue to be happy. I miss you all and love you all so very much! Until next week :)
Love,
Elder Bitner
Smile folks :) There is hope in everything we encounter.

Email 4 July 2011

Panorama of our Room

¡Hey Hey Hey Everybody!
Happy Fourth of July! It has been good thus far here in another country... Ate breakfast at McDonalds. Breakfast burritos, an apple pie, orange juice, and a McFlurry. It was delicious :) haha. Right now I’m writing you guys listening to Blink 182. The internet people always put on English music when we come in. Love it haha.
So this week was actually very uneventful. Nothing happened as planned... I’ll get into that in a second. How is everything back at home though? People think it is amazing I have a tortoise haha, so hopefully I still have one. He hasn’t died or anything yet I hope. Connor said he is leaving the MTC soon. Isn’t it crazy how fast time goes by? I can’t believe I am where I am in this whole thing. I feel like I just said bye to you guys in the MTC parking lot. It is almost like I just walked away crying from the car haha. At the same time though, it feels like that happened forever ago haha. It is a weird mixture of feelings. Hopefully it is going well back home though, especially with Grandma and Grandaddy moving in :) You guys are going to party hard haha.
Well, about the things not happening as planned... Our entire week was planned/based around the conference Thursday with the new President. We had ideas of what we were going to do each day... When we were going to get our laundry... Our food.... Send our letters.... Visit investigators.... Stuff like that. But of course, the conference was cancelled, so I have yet to meet President Bautista, or even hear his voice. Supposedly we are going to have a conference tomorrow, but we'll see if that actually happens. We have to stay here in Huehue tonight for that reason. Means we will probably get Subway for dinner :) So far he is just like Lorenzana... Planning things, but then just cancelling them. Actually, he did have a conference, but just with the Elders in Xela (Quetzaltenango). It happens like that a lot actually, and I have been in Huehue my entire mission so I miss out on a lot of things. I’m used to it by now. In fact, I even prefer it that way. I love Huehue way too much to say I want out of it. Anyways, I was hoping to be able to tell you what the President was like and what not, but sadly that isn’t an option for me. Sorry about that. Hopefully I’ll have some news about him next week though! We can only dream.
I have come to realize a few things this week though. Things that pertain to the dogs and people here. I feel like the ratio is about equal: one dog for every human.
The dogs are always bugging us. Whether it be attempting to chase us down the road or trying to get food from us. They are always annoying. They are almost always sooo freaking ugly too. It has been rumored that the people that believe in reincarnation, or whatever it is called when you die and come back as an animal, come back as dogs in Guatemala if they were people that would have gone to Hell otherwise haha. It is a pretty good Educated Guess.
Another thing I realized is that after you eat some real chili (as in peppers) you probably shouldn’t touch your eyes. I did that on Wednesday, and I could not open my eyes for a good half hour. I was straight dying! It hurt sooo bad. Made me really mad haha.
I also witnessed a guy walking down the road shaving his face with a very ghetto razor. I figure that is how their faces get so messed up. Don’t you love figuring things out?
On Thursday, even though there was not a conference, my Zone Leaders somehow had pouch for me. They brought it up to Colo. It was 2 packages. One from my friend back home and the other from you guys (my parents). The one from the friend had some Easterish goodies. Yoyos, colored Goldfish, Animal Crackers, eggs filled with favorite scriptures, Swedish fish, and some highlighters. It was quite fun to open and go through everything. Lots of randomness haha. You already know what was in your package... The camera did make it, so high five for that. I love it thus far. Takes some pretty cool panoramic photos, which is exactly what I really wanted so I’m happy. I didn’t think it would be completely water proof, but it is haha. So that is actually really neat. It would be cooler if I was in Hawaii or the Bahamas and could swim in the ocean though. I’ll use it there after the mission though ;) The batteries you sent were not the right ones... You sent CR2023 when I asked for CR2025. You’ll have to give that another try in the next package I guess haha. The Reese’s were delicious though. I gave a package to Bergeson and kept the other for myself. Bergie had his eaten within the first night... haha. I have managed to survive a bit longer than that. I did watch Tyler's video. It was really sad to be honest. Bergie was like, "I don’t know how you are watching this... It would be killing me." I guess I’m stronger than I thought in that department of life. The article of Bin Laden was random. I’ll hang that in every house I have. Perhaps even in the window just so people can see haha. The Skittle blenders were sooo freaking good. Berg and I ate the box of them in like 2 minutes tops. They were yummy.... Sunday night we cooked the Velveeta. It was so good. Put that in every box you send please haha. I ate it while drinking my last Dr Pepper. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more of that.
On Saturday we got to do something kind of fun. We went to Ixta to help with a service project the church was doing. In the central park there, there is this basketball/soccer court (like the ones in the CCM) in front of the Catholic church that all of Ixta uses for tournaments. The church was asked to paint it...The lines and such, so Bergie and I went! It was soo much fun. We got to wear normal clothes all morning, which was a nice change actually haha. He and I were in charge of one of the hoops and goals. We painted the bars that held it up and such. We painted it blue :) I had to climb up on top to paint all the high parts... I got so dirty. Paint in my hair.... All over my hands....and arms.... On my chin. On my WHITE basketball shorts... haha. I found it really fun. I love doing things like that now. Service that is... Just makes everything seem better in life. Love it :) After there, we hit up that restaurant I told you about last week. We got those Nachos again. Sooooooo freaking good. I feel like I’ve never tasted anything better. Besides maybe a chicken crescent roll ;) haha. The owners of the restaurants love us. They talked to us for a good portion of the time we were there. I love conversing in Spanish now haha. I just want to work in a place with a lot of cool Mexicans when I get home. Just got to find somewhere that pays good and doesn’t kill me, or put me in line at immigration haha. We went back to Colo after we finished our food. We went to this place that sells a bunch of corte stuff. They are making some bags for us that we have wanted really badly. It is going to cost 125 Quetz, but I’m very excited for it haha. They are like the bags people use for basketball with draw strings (like my Mexico bag filled with fireworks), but of corte material. Going to use it all the time at home :) haha. Then we went and visited our friend Diego in his pharmacy. This drunk guy came in and started cussing and chewing out this kid that was working with Diego. The drunk guy ended up slapping the kid pretty hard in the face... But then Diego took the drunk and threw him to the ground. It was soooo awesome. I just wish I had gotten it on video. Probably the coolest thing I have seen on my mission. I was just like, "Oh shoot...That just happened" haha. Saturday just felt like a really good day though. I enjoyed it quite a bit. For church we went to the Ixta branch. The President got up to start us off... Berg and I looked around and it was just us two and 4 others. We laughed about it. There ended up being 35 people though. Just took them a little bit to get to the church I guess. We had investigators show up to church in Ical and Colo, but of course not at the place we went... Just my luck. After church though, we went to lunch at the usual place. The lady gave us some really weird looking stuff. We had no idea what it was.... Came to find out it was the stomach of an ox. Can you believe I even try to eat this stuff??? She saw that we were kinda disgusted by it, so she got us some fried chicken instead haha. Eating all this stuff is going to make my stomach so strong. You know I haven’t thrown up once on my mission? Crazy...
That is about all I can think of though... Hopefully you are enjoying life as much as you can! I’m doing great as always. Loving the mission still, so that is always a good sign ;) Enjoy the Gs present in the house :) Glad I missed that 121 degree weather. It is still pretty hot here though with all the humidity. I like it so far though. Hang in there guys. I miss and love you all so very much!
Love,
DaViD

"Cancha" we painted

Me painting our part

The delicious nachos

Me eating the nachos

Sunday dinner

Me shooting Bin Laden

Email 28 June 2011

My Beautiful Family and Friends,

Me on the Balcony

Today is my 11 month anniversary in the life of a missionary. Only 1 short month from that year mark, or as Bobby called it, "Hump Day." ha-ha. Pretty exciting stuff. 13 more to enjoy this work, and then I’ll be back at home drinking some lovely Vanilla Dr Pepper from QT. Cannot wait ;) ha-ha.
I was very happy to be able to talk with Rachel and Bobby Sunday night. It was nice to hear their voices and to hear that things are going pretty well for them. Made me quite excited to be honest. I was really happy to have something to do Sunday night, too. Kept myself occupied. Always nice ha-ha. It was great though. Now just another 6 months till I can talk to you all again. It will go quick... ha-ha.
Sorry I didn’t email yesterday... Obviously they changed the day on me again. They gave emergency interviews yesterday to those that wanted them before the new President arrived. Therefore today is my email day and P-day. Yesterday we had absolutely nothing to do though, so it was a completely pointless day to be honest ha-ha. I did however eat the best nachos of my life at a little restaurant in Ixtahuacán. They were soooooo good. Can’t even describe it. While we were there, we found out the missionaries that were there got changes the night before... Then last night, we found out they aren’t putting new ones in. That means, it is our area again! ha-ha. Once again I’m over the 1 Ward in Colo and 3 branches in Ixta, Ical, and San Pedro. Supposedly there are some positive investigators in Ixta though, so hopefully we'll be able to work with them in a successful manner :)
This morning on our way here, we were riding this bus thing. It is basically just a minivan, just a tad bit bigger ha-ha. They drive with the door open because it gets filled quickly... So Bergie and I were hanging onto a pole, while hanging outside a door... We both had our backpacks on, and we were driving pretty close to where everyone walks. This old man was walking down towards us, and I knew something was going to happen. He looked away and as we drove by, Bergeson's backpack just smacked the guy in the face real hard. Really sad, but very funny too.
Anyways, we'll get on to what happened this past week... So on Tuesday, Elder Ronfeldt, our assistant, came to our District Meeting. For what reason, I’m not really sure, but he did give us a rather good lesson I think. Now that I think about it, I can’t remember what it was about, so maybe it wasn’t that great after all! ha-ha. Just kidding... With him came "pouch". However, I did not get anything. It has been a while since I have gotten something. Luckily you guys just sent a box though, so I have something to actually look forward to ha-ha. It was at this meeting we found out about the Conference we had Thursday, which would be the last one with President Lorenzana as our Mission President. Pretty sad thought... On Wednesday, we went down to Huehue in the evening to stay in our Zone Leader's house with them. First though, we stopped at a mall there to get us some Subway. The USA vs Panama game happened to be on, so we ended up watching it. It was cool. I got my good old meatball marinara sub though! It was delicious as always. After that, we went to the Zonies...
In the morning we woke up and traveled to Xela. There we had our final conference with President Lorenzana... It was a lot sadder than I thought it would be. A few missionaries gave talks, and then President got up and spoke to us. He told how much he loved us and how we were all his teachers. He taught us about things we need to be careful with in life... Lots of good advice came right there. Finally, he told us that he was going to be living in Xela still. Turns out his job had asked him to take over things in Mexico and Guatemala, so now he isn’t really leaving after all. He made jokes about the missionaries that will serve in his ward ha-ha. Said they are going to work harder than they ever have. Also turns out that he will be the institute teacher for all of Xela, which is actually a very large city... And he will also be in charge of the EFY program they are opening up in Xela. He is really happy it seems. To be honest, I don’t know how long this will all last though... I have a feeling he will a be General Authority rather quickly in his life. He is insane in the church. Great guy and great Mission President. I’m going to miss having him as my President. Who knows what this new one will bring... Hopefully only good things. I was lucky to have President Lorenzana, and I assume I’ll be lucky to have President Bautista. President Lorenzana actually is no longer our "President" officially, and Bautista is as of today. Kind of crazy to think about... Not sure what is all going to happen.
The assistants told me that they have to drive around Bautista to every area the first two weeks, so that will probably be when I meet him. We actually might have a conference with on Thursday if I remember right. That might get cancelled like always though. I’m excited to meet and hear him for the first time. It is going to be a big change...
Before we all left from the conference, President took a picture of the entire mission and then a picture with each of us. He gave us all little pins too. They say "Misión Guatemala Quetzaltenango" on top, and on the bottom it says, "Misionero Excepcional". In the middle is a picture of a small temple with a family above it. It is a pretty nice looking pin, however, I’ll probably never wear it. More of one of those keepsake sort of things ha-ha. It is cool though. I got to see Shaw again too.
We left the conference on a different bus than all the others because we didn’t want to be smashed again. Before we found the bus though, we went to this place called Club 99 and bought some Dr Pepper :) I got four cans... It was beautiful ha-ha. We got on the bus and went back to Huehue. We stopped at a gas station in Huehue before heading up to Colo, so I could pull out some money to buy jerseys for Cole and such. There I saw the Bishop from my old ward, Cerrito Del Maíz. He wouldn’t let us leave until we let him buy us something... He ended up getting us each a small little pizza...A big Gatorade...and a small can of Pringles. I love that man... ha-ha. He is awesome. I actually miss that area a lot to be honest. I want to go back to it towards the end of my mission, but I don’t know if that will happen because there are Sisters there now. That Bishop is awesome though. Bergeson and I were very happy ha-ha. But the ride back to Colo in the back of a truck was very, very cold. We could only laugh at how bad we were shaking...
On Saturday, I searched for some jerseys. I was able to find a few. I got Cole a couple, so he'll be able to have those when the box gets there. That is once I send it... It is going to be expensive, so I’m nervous to send it. Oh well though. We actually talked to a guy that lived in the states for 6 years. His job was to drive around all the illegal’s to different states to work and live. He said he had to do a lot of drugs, cocaine and such, to stay awake during the long drives ha-ha. He was a crazy guy... He did ask quite a few questions about the church though, so that was cool.
We got 2 references this past week. Both of which seem really positive. One of the members that gave us one told us that the lady wanted to be baptized this week perhaps. I doubt it will happen this week, but it is cool still. Hopefully some good comes out of it.
That was my week though... Again, it was nice talking to you guys for a little bit last night. The circumstances of the call were rough, but we made the best of it.
Hang in there everyone. I miss you all and love you all so much! You guys are amazing! Until next week...
Love,
David :)......Elder Bitner!

With President Lorenzana

The Pin he gave us

A favorite thing: mountains in the clouds

Email 20 June 2011

Elder Bitner''s home (top/orange)

To All That May Care,
Hi. To start off, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! Sounds like it was a pretty uneventful one, but those are nice I guess sometimes. Hopefully you were able to enjoy yourself though. Hopefully everyone else was able to as well. Anyway, how is everybody??? That’s good. Well, this week has been a fun one. Nothing too much has happened though. Just saw new things and such. Hopefully things are better back home though. With Tyler's death and everyone. Hopefully everyone is starting to rid themselves of some of that sadness. Remember, there is light in every storm. Well, moving to the events of my week...
We shall start with Tuesday. As I mentioned last week, we now go to Huehue for our District meetings. This week's was good... We take our clothes down there now to get them washed. It is good and bad. Good because the lady does a good job. Bad because we have to carry it around with us in whatever it is we do after District Meeting. Gets old after about 50 feet of walking. Something I’ll have to get used to now. For a while at least...
At the meeting, we were asked by our Zone Leader to get a bunk bed frame out of the Missionary's room in the church in Colo for the Elders in Ixta. We went and got it that same day. The thing was covered in spider webs. It was tied together with metal wire. It was just a pain. After having quite a few spiders crawl out onto us, we got it out the door and to our house. The Zonies came to our house on Thursday and took it to the Elders.
We went to Huehue Thursday afternoon to stay the night there because we were supposed to have a conference Friday and Xela. When we got to Huehue though, they found out it was cancelled. We actually almost didn’t even get to go... haha. Rain started pouring down right when we went out to try and find a truck. It was crazy... The street was covered by at least 4 inches of water in just minutes. I was amazed. It was beautiful haha. Bergie and I went to Don Juans though once we got there with the two from Ixta.
When we got back from Huehue, I found my Book of Mormon on the ground. Guess I forgot it. It was sitting in a huge pile of water! The rainstorm had put so much rain on our roof, that it began to leak into our house... Just happened to hit right next to where my Spanish scriptures were. They are quite wet and ruined now. Still kind of can use them. The pages are just pretty messed up. I’m going to try and order a new one or something though. We shall see I guess... It has been raining a lot more though. It is crazy.
On Wednesday Bergie and I hiked up to the letters on the mountain that say Colotenango. Took a while to get there because it was in the middle of nothing. No path. We were doing it old school style haha. I actually didn’t even make it all the way to the letters because I got stuck at a cliff area. If I would have tried to get down it I would have for sure slipped and fell a little ways down the hillside. It was really cool up there. A perfect view of all of Colo, and when in the shady parts, it felt great. I was really happy during that short time period. It was awesome.
On Thursday we took a little trip with a friend of ours here and a less active. We went to a little "laguna", which is basically like a pond haha. It was really cool there. They had canoes you could rent to go out on, but we didn’t do that haha. Would have been bad if we fell in. They had a monkey there. That was weird... It was just a pretty little place, so it made it worth the trip. Our friend who drove us, Diego, took us out to lunch too. We had "caldo de pata" at some little place... Caldo de pata is a soup that has the meat and other things from the shin of an ox. It was....disgusting. The worst thing I have had in the mission by far. Liver is close, but eating the shin of an ox is just plain weird. It smelt like pure slaughter. Took me back to the time where I watched the cow die. Smelt the exact same way haha. He also bought this thing for him that is call serviche. It has all sorts of stuff in it... Tomatoes... Onions... Shrimp.... Crab.... Octopus... Clam... Lime.... Sounds really weird, right? I tried it though. Had a piece of shrimp, crab, and octopus. Strangely enough, the octopus was my favorite haha. Tasted really good. It was a fun trip overall. Being in a normal car was really fun. Helped us grow closer to Diego too, so that was neat.
On Thursday I woke up at 5am to a ton of noise outside. Looked out the window to about a 1000 corte women waiting outside of the gym there. Turned out there was some organization giving out money to everyone for each member they had in their family. 100 Quetz a person I think. Couldn’t receive more than 600 Quetz though. It was pure chaos all day. It was the exact same thing Friday too. On Thursday though, we came up with an idea. The streets were lined with people right? haha. We took 75 pamphlets and wrote our names and number on them and then went out there and handed each one out. Didn’t get very far down the line, but it was really cool haha. We went back to our house and just looked out our window. Saw people actually trying to read it and others flipping through looking at the pictures. It felt good. Not one was left on the ground. They all took them! We both thought it was a fun thing to do haha. Some people wouldn’t take them until they saw someone else take one. Followers...
On Saturday, I spent quite a bit of time trying to help a guy set up wireless internet. Couldn’t figure it out. He speaks English and everything though, so we were actually able to communicate the problems and such. Still couldn’t figure it out though. He bought a CNet CWR-935m thing. Didn’t work for me though. It would be a lot better if you were here Dad haha. I definitely don’t have your talents. I just miss photoshop on the computer. That is all I’m good at really haha.
We work with everyone. Nobody progresses though. The inactives won’t go back because of other people that go. Investigators don’t progress because they just can’t stop smoking and drinking. The only ones that have hope are the ones that members tell us about. No one has given us anyone though, so it makes it difficult. We teach, but the people don’t even understand us.
Everything is good though. Didn’t go to all of church yesterday because Bergie was sick from stuff Diego gave us Saturday night when we shot some baskets with him. It rained quite a bit too though, so it was a good day to be sick. Pretty simple Sunday. I love you all though! Have great weeks and be happy :) Hang in there guys. Miss you :)
Love with every cherry in the world on top,
David B :) aka Elder Beautiful

Email 13 June 2011

Note from Mom - There are two posts again due to the loss of Tyler in our family please be sure to read June 6th first.  Sorry! 

Beloved Family and Friends...
This has been the saddest P-Day of my mission thus far by far. I cannot believe what happened this past week. It is so hard for me to picture...As well as understand. It is a complete shock to me. I loved Tyler. I was able to do quite a few things with him. The most memorable was our day together in Vegas. Being asked by a Chinese cab driver if we wanted a free ride to a strip club... Being chased down by the black guy because I walked off with his CD. The two girls at the pool... We had a lot of good times, and I always will miss him. He was an amazing kid... My heart goes out to all that were affected by his loss. He will always be remembered. No doubt about it...
Well, I guess I’ll continue with the events in my life this past week...
First off, I got another story about a drunken guy... On the way home this past Monday on the bus, I was yet again talked to by a drunk. He sat next to Larson, but after he pretended to fall asleep he was left to me... We stopped at this one place and a bunch of people got off and a bunch more got on. I had an empty seat next to me when the people were getting on, so this man took it upon himself to yell out in Mam to all the girls that there was an open seat next to the "gringo" haha. One girl did end up sitting next to me thanks to him. The entire time he proceeded to try and get me to talk and flirt with her with small Mam phrases he was teaching me. I refused though because I could not stop laughing. He was absolutely crazy, but it was another good moment to laugh at haha. I actually dealt with quite a few drunk on Market Day... We had one follow us for a good while. Wouldn’t leave us alone. We came across a friend of ours though, that told him to go away and clean his shoes. Having friends that speak English and Mam comes in handy a lot... haha. My advice to everyone just is to not drink. Simple as that...
As we all know, I went through changes this last week. Gropp went home and is enjoying life as a normal human, and I’m still here in Colo. Surprise surprise.... I’m okay with it though because my new companion is Elder Bergeson, who was one of the Elders in Ical, and my best friend from the CCM haha, and we are in charge of both Colo and Ical. More area, which means more possibilities :). I have gotten extremely lucky with my last 3 companions... Shaw to Gropp, and now Bergie :) It is nice. Bergesone is from Houston, so I actually know about some of the things he talks about. Pretty cool. His dad is a chiropractor there. Does quite well for himself...And by that I mean he drives a Dodge Viper SRT10. Berg said when I come visit him after the mission I can drive it, so book my plane ticket now haha. Anyways, Bergeson's old comp is now rotting away in Xela with the assistants until he goes home next week. But yeah, life is good for me. I’m going to enjoy this change just like the 3 before.
With the changes came new things to the Zone... There are actually a lot of people from my group in our Zone now. To be specific, there are 7 of us. It is pretty cool. We are no longer our own District up here in Colo. Bergseson was the District Leader, but we got switched Saturday so we wouldn’t be just a 4 person district. We are part of the one down in Huehue again, which means we have 14 people in our District. That is a rather large District... haha. We got a new Zone Leader, Elder Becerra, who was in my District back in Cerrito. He has almost 2 months less time than me, so that is something different to experience. He is the first person to be a leader over me that had less time. I definitely don’t mind though haha. I’m perfectly fine with being a normal missionary my whole time out here. Pray for that. I don’t like responsibility out here. Too many whiners.
Bergeson and I have been working well together though. Didn’t shock either of us haha. A lot of the time we don’t really know what to do, so we just walk down this really big street handing out pamphlets and talking to those that speak Spanish. Then we come to a bridge. We stop and have a boat race, and by that I mean we take empty bottles and drop them off the bridge into the river and race them to a certain point. I have yet to win... Mine always sinks. Not sure why that is... Then we come up the same road, which is quite steep at parts....doing the exact same thing! Fun? Yes... Productive? Probably not, but that is about all we can do until we get a reference. Got to love the life as a missionary in such a random place!
That has basically been my week in a nut shell though. Not too bad... but not too great. I still can’t believe what happened with Tyler. Can’t get it off my mind in fact. It is sooo sad to me. I shook as I read Rachel's email. It honestly just is a terrible thing that we are all unfortunate to deal with. Hang in there everyone... I love you all and miss you all so very much. You guys mean so much to me. Keep smiling and keep moving down the path of life... Even if it smacks us right in the face.
Love always,
David, otherwise known as Elder Bitner

Email 6 June 2011

Zone

Hello all my favorite people that actually open this up and read this novel of my mission,
Sorry this has come later today. We went down to Quetzaltenango this morning so Gropp could try to find a few things before he heads out. We ate Taco Bell for lunch, which was nice, and we visited the new Walmart there. It has all sorts of things from the states. Pretty awesome. Also ran to Hermano Cuque there, my favorite person here haha. He was in town for an EFY conference or something. It was awesome seeing him. He ate lunch with us and shopped with us. It was great :)
Things are going quite well for me still. Hopefully they are with all of you as well. The happiness on my part might change this week however. Another change is over, which means a new one is starting... Gropp goes back to Idaho in just 3 days now, while I stay behind and receive another companion and perhaps a new area. We can only hope it is a cool companion. Gropp thought I was going to get the wonderful opportunity to train (something I don’t want to do), but we have come to find out that only one 'Sister' will be coming in this change, and unless something very dramatic changes the rules, I will not be training her... haha. I’m pretty scared for these changes to be completely honest. Mainly just because I know I’m getting a new companion, just not who it will be! Worries me...
This week has been good though. Not much has happened with me still... We were supposed to have a conference on Tuesday with President here in Huehue, but he didn’t show like normal haha. Instead we listened to the assistants for a while talk about whatever they felt like. It was....fun. We did finally receive pouch. I got the talk mom sent me (thanks for that mom) and 2 letters from friends. Not too bad :) They gave us McDonalds for lunch, but we were all pretty disgusted by it, so after we went to our favorite little place to get those delicious crepes. There were 8 of us there. Quite a site for those little Latin’s here.
On a more random note, I got my haircut. It had been quite a while to be honest. My hair was getting pretty longish. Now, it is rather normal. Had the lady cut it with just scissors, so it was more American like haha. Still not perfect though. Had to get some touch-ups from an Elder. Moving on though...

Went on divisions for a while this week with my good pal Bergeson. We went up to Ical in the morning to visit a family of investigators that I actually started teaching with Shaw, so it was kind of cool for me. The dad wasn’t there though, so we waited for a while. And in Ical...waiting means food, which is never a good thing. She started by bringing us a cup of water, which we did not know if it was for drinking or the washing of hands, so we did both even if it did have many, and I mean many, gross little thingies floating around in there haha. Lovely, right? Don’t be surprised if I end up at home one day with a parasite. The chances are a lot higher than I originally expected coming to this country. After the water though, out came the beans... The grossest looking and tasting beans I have ever seen/tasted in my life... They were so gross in fact, that Bergeson paid me 40 Quetz, or 5 Dollars, to eat his haha. Not much later, another cup of water was brought our way, but this time it was green! However, there was no delicious flavor like there should have been... Instead more things on the disgusting side because it too was filled with endless little floaties. After that little shin-dig we went back to Colo to get some lunch that would hopefully get rid of the awfulness already inside of us. Guess that isn’t what God wanted because we were served rice with liver. Now liver, is honestly the grossest thing I have ever eaten. Pure vomit. Sounds good, yeah? I have had that 3 times now in Colo, and it only is beginning to taste worst. That is expected though... Now although I ate all this, I did not get sick. I have no idea how I didn’t, but I’m eternally grateful for my health haha. It was very hot outside that day, so I just don’t understand how I didn’t die. Lucky me!
As part of Gropp's final full week in the mission, we partook in some celebrating... That being me buying 2 new soccer jerseys haha. A Manchester United one and a France one. Pretty cool ones ;) I bought them in the Mesilla, which is the border of Mexico. Gropp wanted to go up there because he spent a good 5 months out there. We went and had lunch. He got his haircut. I bought my jerseys... It was great! On Saturday, we went down to Huehue to see one of his investigators from his last area get baptized. That was pretty cool, especially since both Elders there are our good friends. It was a nice service though. I’m sad we weren’t able to get a baptism this change, but I guess that is just part of the difficulties of being in a hard area. Just got to keep going I guess... I’m sad he is going though. This has been the funniest change of my mission. He really understands how to find enjoyment here, which is something I am lucky to have taken from him.
My week was good though as you might have noticed. Like I said, not too much happened, but it was still nice. It continues to rain, and I love still love it! Might have to pull out the sweaters and rain jacket soon. Pretty excited haha. Can’t think of anything else. It is fun though still! Hang in there. Love you guys :) Miss you all as well.
Love,
David!