Good Day

So, I guess this post is just to reward all of my true fans who just couldn’t believe me when I said that I wouldn’t post for a while. Or maybe you believed, but you were just really hoping! Anyway, congrats to you and congrats to me for having an amazing day!!

My day started on an overnight bus again. I left the Tikal area at 9:00 PM and I arrived at 6:00 AM having slept the bulk of the night. I have mad bus sleeping skills by the way. So, originally I was gonna spend a day on the caribean coast, but I decided to stay an extra day with friends at Lake Atitlan and try to make it also to the Guate Temple instead. Wise choice by me!

With the Temple address in hand I exited the bus, did a quick change into my white shirt and tie, and headed over to the cabbies. Lucky enough there is head cab dude at this station who directs the fares etc. He knew exactly where the Temple is and quickly dispatched a driver for a good price for me.

I arrived too early to the Temple to get started, so I had a pleasant wait outside in some amazing weather. It was very peaceful with only a few cars out and the sun just rising. I had plenty of time, so decided to do both initiatories and an endowment session. I don’t think this Temple sees many visitors that don’t speak Spanish, because a few troubles trying to get me clothes and set up. My first pair of pants had a busted zipper, so we had to return them. But by then I had placed my key in the pocket. It was a big difficult and funny mess trying to explain this all to the Temple workers.



In the end I had a great session with only a bit of dozing. (did I say already that I have mad sleeping-on-the-bus skills? Well I do) By the time I left the temple it was a late…oh 10:30 AM. Sweet still with plenty of day to get to Antigua for the evening. I grabbed some breakfast at the little church run restaurant on the Temple complex. And then headed to the bus stop. Originally I thought I would take a taxi from the Temple to the microbus area to catch one to Antigua. This would have been fast and I likely would have been there by like 12:30. But it also would have cost about 20 bucks to do this. Instead I decided I would just hop on a bus and try to figure out a way to Antigua on the ol’ public trans.

At the stop by the Temple I spoke in my crappy Spanish to a couple of guys waiting. They were both members and had great advice for me. I hopped on with one of the guys and he pointed me the way. I made it to Antigua at 1:30…a bit later, but 19 dollars richer. Sweet!! The guy that helped me out deserves a medal or something. Or at least 2 blessings in heaven. Part way through the trip he asked if I wanted him to come with me the whole way to make sure I got there. What a cool guy!

In Antigua (and I know this is long, but you shouldn’t be reading it anyway, so just stop if you want), I found a room in the first place I look and it has Wi-Fi. This is actually the only place I have stayed where I can get the internet in my room. And well this just makes me happy. I then headed into the central park area. Antigua is an old colonial capital, which you can read up about online if you want.

Then went for a just-below-my-lactate-threshold run for 57 minutes. My average heart rate was 164. I love my heart rate monitor. Yo.

Run. Done. Now for dinner. Because of the cheapness of getting to Antigua I ended up having 57 Quetzals or about 7.125 dollars for the rest of the trip unless I wanted to change some money, which I did not. The shuttle to the airport is in dollars, so no worries on that. After an afternoon snack and a bottle of water, I was left with a grand total of 14 quetzals for dinner. With that and backup dollars, I headed out to find my last dinner in Guatemala.

And as luck would have it the church in the square had some type of activity and there was a street vendor hang out with tons of people around. I guess this rarely happens, so I got lucky. Still with only $1.75 in quetzals I could not really buy a lot, and I was hungry. My Spanish skills came in super handy, and I talked a lady into selling me two taco like things for 3 dollars. And when I say talk, I mean I just repeated myself a few times until she took pity on me and said yes. I then purchased a Grapette soda. Yum-Yum. And I still have 7 quetzals left over. I think I did that just about perfectly.

And that concludes the post that never should have been. Thanks for reading mom.

Tikal

Sitting on the top of Templo #4 I couldn’t help feeling that I was stuck in the Book of Mormon one moment and then Star Wars the next. I kept imaging myself as Mormon and then the next second I would be Luke Skywalker prepping my X-wing for the final launch against the Death Star.

I left the lake and then took a 4 hour “chicken bus”, which is an old school bus, to Guatemala City. I bought a ticket on a “first-class” overnight bus to the city of Flores, which is about 40 miles from Tikal. The bus ride was 9 hours long and I slept for about 7 hours of that. Important because I wanted to be ready to go to Tikal right when I got in. This bus is the perfect way to travel. It was comfy. I could sleep on the bus instead of a hotel, and I didn’t waste any daylight.

So, when I got in the taxi drivers start hounding me. The price wasn’t too bad to the hotel I wanted, but cheaper if I could split. I looked around and spotted a gringo pouring over his guide-book. Asked him if he wanted to split and voila-- a new friend. Travis is from Georgia—is 21 and is taking some time to find himself. So, we ended up splitting a nice hotel and doing the whole Tikal thing together. It worked out perfectly, because he had a similar monument-pace as me. We saw everything pretty quickly, but with enough time to think a bit.


This is Travis. My new Bulldog (UGA) friend.

Tikal was pretty magnificent. Huge and covered by Jungle. I think my favorite part is that the jungle is still on and over everything. One of the tallest pyramids is still covered and inaccessible to climb, because of the foliage.

There weren’t a ton of people in the park with us, which was very nice. This was a very hot, but peaceful day. After we got back we went for a run around the island of Flores with is .83 miles around (thank you Google Earth) and by the time I finished I was soaking with both sweat and hose water that people sprayed on me by my request. The sunset was incredible and the locals were all playing in the water. Was running path. I was in heaven. My pace wasn’t great….but oh well. It was HOT!!

The day before I was to come to Tikal, I was looking at pictures and there was one shot that I swear was from Star Wars, so I googled it and yep I was right! I guess a true fan would have already known that, but I guess I get points for discovering it on my own. As you all know I am a huge Star Wars fanatic. So, this just increased the anticipation. And Tikal did not let down. Tikal is only in a short part of A New Hope towards the end when ships are coming taking off of Yavin 4. But it is the only exterior shot of the Jungles of the 4^th moon of Yavin, so it really defines the jungle moon. Multiple subsequent books have taken place on the moon, and let’s just say that I have been enamored with the Jedi adventures in that jungle for 25 years. It was great to imagine being in it. Just google star wars and Guatemala and you will get a wealth of info.

So, this is the last entry from Guate, and so will likely be the last blog entry for a few months. You can all stop checking it every day. Thanks for reading!!

The Lake

I am sitting at the beautiful Lake Atitlan. And it is amazing!!! We stayed in this little resort hotel with grass and lawn chairs. It is pretty sweet!

The last week or so has been full of more Spanish Classes, helping to build a stove in a little village and volunteering in a little clinic here in Xela. Oh and I also went to a black sand beach on the Pacific.

And remember that pink/purple camera? Well it is pretty crappy and so I have only a few shots. But I have been bumming good pictures of myself off of others. So, without further ado. Here are some pictures.

This is the black sands beach at Chaperico...

And the sunset...



This is a women's group that we went to to teach about health and self-esteem. It was great fun.


Just a sweet shot of the morning in Xela...


At the market with another student. Her name is Debbie. I stole a bunch of pictures from her...including these next ones and some at Lake Atitlan.




One of Pop Wuj's projects is to pay for and make stoves in the rural area around Xela. The women now cook over open fires...


Me mixing clay...Debbie took this one too...


Lake Atitlan in the morning.

Having fun.


We all bought artwork from this very talented painter.


Jen and Debbie!


The group of us that went to the Lake. I am way into this story.


Right below our hotel. These shots are from Melissa's camera.

From our grass balcony

Me and Melissa with our matching

Well I guess that is all for now. Today I am off to Tikal. Which just happens to be the Massassi Temple on the fourth moon of Yavin. Go Figure.

Remember Lot’s Wife

The best things that come out of the BY Academy are beautiful women, and the Devotionals. Luckily, both us these both are available to us heathens in SLC. As most of the great women make it out of the BY still single, and all of the devotionals are available online. I often download the devotionals to listen to while running or for road trips. So, I decided to get the last 6 months or so for my time here in Guate. On the website they also have many classic speeches. I highly recommend checking the page out at speeches.byu.edu

The talk that has had the most effect on me recently is the devotional on January 13, 2009 by Jeffery R. Holland titled Remember Lot's Wife. Why was Lot’s wife punished? What was her sin? Was it simply for looking back at her previous life? Yes and more. Elder Holland masterfully describes the danger of focusing on the past. He describes the Wife as having no confidence in the future. She was scared to leave and simply did not trust in the Lord that what lay ahead was an improvement on what lay behind.

Here are just a couple of quotes from the devotional:

“Don’t yearn for yesterday.”

“Past is to be learned from and not lived in.”

“Faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.”

He devotes a large section to forgetting and forgiving other’s pasts, so that they too may have hope and faith in the future. If we could all stop remembering the faults and problems and nit-picky little things and just move on then we would all be immensely happier for it. I’m so critical of myself and always pushing for better, that many times I forget those I hurt with my critique. My hope for the future is to remember the good and leave my friend’s and my faults in the past.

He relates a story of a man who is the brunt of all jokes of a town. After, leaving the town he gains his inner strength and confidence. Upon returning however the town beats him back into his old self. Elder Holland is pleading with us to let others change and become better. I add that we really need to lay off return missionaries. Why do we have to continuously barrage them with the question, “when are you going to be normal?” Why can’t we bask in their glory for as long as we can?

I want to add that I love Change. I push for it. I crave to see things improve. I critique my activities. Look for ways to tweak things here and there. I push people to see the better in themselves. I push other’s relationships when I shouldn’t. I love this quality about me, and think God would have has look to the future. But at times I wish I would just lay off put on the breaks and RELENT to others.

This isn’t one of those times, and I really urge everyone to follow the link and listen to his council. speeches.byu.edu

“Don’t be dissatisfied with the now.”