Hermana Jesse Thompson -1st Area... HueHuetenango (prounounced way way) Guatemala

My new companion.  She's from Peru!

All the Hermanas in Quetzaltenango

Jesses Apartment

Hola Familia!!!! 

Let me just say my subject of the email explains it all. I am snow white because i am the whitest person here and everyone else is dwarfs because they are all so tiny!!! So lets start with leaving the CCM. The club next door had a little firework show in celebratino of us leaving..okay not really for us but we like to think so! Also, in my area there are fireworks like every single day!!! People do that at any hour for peoples birthdays. unfortunately as missionaries we are not allowed to use fireworks, but im sure there will be fireworks on my birthday ahaha. 

So I love my companion, shes a sweethart!! When we arrived there were 5 gringas (aka white girls) and I think 4 latinas so there were 9 trainer hermanas waiting for us. Anyways, I got put with the shortest latina and the only latina who didnt speak english so life has been quite the party! She is the sweetest, but its a shame I cant understand her because I bet she is even sweeter than I think haha. She kills the spiders and is half my size! Since our language barrier is a issue i point and she kills. we make a greta team. She also lost like 40 pounds in my area cause she has been in this same spot for like 5 months I believe. She only has four months left so Ill probably be her last companion. She has the biggest spirit and the people love her here!

So back to this language barrier issue. I can understand her ususally, but I really cant understand anyone else here. I don't know what they taught us in the MTC but its definitely not the same thing we learned in the CCM. But thats okay!!! My area is called HueHuetenango (prounounced way way) and is a very very poor area but I love it. I feel like im on a very long camping trip without the smores, but that okay cause i get the spirit! haha Everything is green here! They call Guatemala the eternal spring for a reason haah. 

There are a million dogs here, but in the mtc they told me if I touched tehm I was going to die so thats comforting. Every night i go to bed to a chorus of dogs howling!! haha  I love our apartment. The other Hermanas say it's the worse of everyone's but I love it!

So back to the part about me being white and tall. I must be famous here or something because I turn many many heads. I am taller than everyone and whiter, but i will say its not the greatest attention. Most of the time its guys whistling and saying hi honey or stuff in english. Its pretty annyoing but Ive learned to ignore it! The bummer part about the height is that Guatemala was not made for tall people! My head hits the bus roofs and I usually duck when entering houses. Everyone looks at my companion, then at me and says ¨mas grande¨haha here its socially acceptable tocall people fat so im just thankful no one calls me gordita haha. 

The people here are so great! i just wish i could understand them!! We have taught lessons on the floor, in the dark, and much more. They are so humble here and have literally nothing. We were walking on the main road when my companions went off the side into the mountain and we ended up at this little house. These people had wood for a bed and one bench, yet they were so happy with who they were!! The spirit was so strong in that lesson it was amazing and i know they really want to strive to come unto Christ. 

I haven't had super strange food yet and my tummy is still going strong! I did have watermelon with syrup and spam, that was strange. We have lunch with the members every day which I love! we only eat breakfast and lunch because we have to work during dinner, but thats okay with me! My mom said she will post the photos on my blog.  Its crazy cause you can cross the street and there's an american mall! Yet on my side its dirt roads and people without walls or a roof. 

This week was hard!!! When I arrived we took a three hour bus ride to my area in a school bus with tons of people. they just squish us all in there! A little man half my size came and took my heavy bags and off we went! It was crazy! Im still in culture shock! 

Love and miss you! 

I do have a change of address. I have received stuff to my old address and this is the same one but its more exact so for now on use this. 

Hermana Jessica Thompson

Mission Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission

5A Calle 14-35 Zona 3

09001 Apartado Postal 206

Quetzaltenango Guatemala

Just added that part at the end! I love letters and will write back soon.   And love the ones I havent gotten too! haha

love you all!!!!

Jesse, Hermana Thompson, the Gringa. 

Only 5 more days left with my MTC family in Guatemala City...then off the Quetzaltenango

Last week in the MTC

Subject: My last few days of warm showers

Hola!!!

 

Well everyone! this is the email weve all been waiting for! (okay so its the one I've been waiting for.  This is the last letter from the MTC!!!!! In 5 short days Ill be on my way in a five hour bus ride with about 30 other missionaries on my way to Quetzaltenango and I could not be more esxcited!!!! I will miss the food, the pastries from the little pasty man, my companions, my teachers, the preident and his wife, my district, clean water, warm showers, but I am ready to go and begin the work!! By the way, I may not be able to write next week unless my mission presidents allow me to when I arrive next Tuesday, so dont miss me too much!

So for our Pday we went to the giant relief guatemala map which is a 3d to scale map of Guatemala! I am stoked that there is a volcano so I can go roast some marshmallows; it will be great! Then we went to a giant market in the middle of zona 1 and it was amazing! So many amazing things that people make here. I oved it!!! then we got back and had a volleyball tournament, too bad im not very good at volleyball (the bruises on my wrist are proof of my lack of skill).

Some of you may wonder how the spanish is coming along? Well a teacher told me my spanish is cute because the grammer is equivalent to a three year old so I have that going for me!!! haha  I'm working hard on it. 

The next day was probably the craziest day at the MTC! 30 new nortes came (one was my good friend from school hermana Cornelison so its been really fun having her here!) so they got our classrooms and becasue my district is the smallest (8 people, one elder went home because of medical issues) they decided to give us the cafeteria for our class, but people are always in there so we are called the nomads because we have class in about five differed places every day!

In other news. my bug bites I received have been upgraded, they went from dime sized to quarter sized. The Guatemalan bugs just love me here, lets hope the people do to!

Shout out to Presidente and Hermana Cox for inviting me and my companions up for chocolate chip cookies because i tthink we are their favorite. You wouldnt know by the way he comments about my lacck of volleyball skills, but they are pretty great!

I came on a mission because this church has brought me the most happiness in my life and I want other people to feel that happiness. But theres another reason. Because of my faith in the Book of Moromon. Its another testament of Christ and a record of Ancient American people. It is a volume of holy scripture that coincides with the bible and happened during Christs lifetime. Christ did visit the Americas, and I am so lucky to be in the area where it all happened. The book of mormon provides the fullness fo the Gospel and guidance of life. Everyone can come to know the truth of Christ through it. It promises neverending  happiness and inexpressible joy, and it blesses families! I know that and I can't wait to share it with the world and help people come closer to Christ! I have seen the blessings in my own life and its true.

 

Love ya all and talk to ya in Quetzaltenango!!!!

Hermana Thompson

 

Hola!!!!

 

So we had another earthquake but this time it was a lot bigger, apparently it was in Mexico and hit Quetzaltenango pretty bad and Guatemala city just got a nice shake up. It was pretty fun, not gonna lie. Alright, so we only get a little bit of time to write today because we are driving down to a big marketplace (and eating Wendys! Never been so excited for American food before) for our Pday. Good news is we get our cameras so in 2 weeks (we cant send photos from the MTC) you will finally see my face!! haha  Anyways, this week went by in a blink of an eye! Every two weeks new nortes and Latinos come and go! I am so blessed to have the group of Hermanas I have now they are so great! Lately its only been two sisters at a time who come!

Nothing too exciting this week! After i emailed last week and heard about Alexs article on the cover of the New York Times, I told Presidente and he let me read it! Shout out to the best Presidente EVER!! also it was a fabulous article! For fourth of July the little pastry man(who makes fresh bread and pastries, every day, yes we are spoiled) made a giant American flag cake, which was amazing! oh and we got hamburgers so I felt pretty American! Except for the fact there were no fireworks but we heard some gun shots in the distance! close enough ya?

Funny story of the week. We walked to a little market and some elders in my district were asking a store clerk where the soap was. They explained it as llevamos con el sopa, donde. the store clerk just stood there confused. about two days later they realized that sopa meant soup, not soap so they asked the lady we was with soup, where is it. they are hilarious.

The language is coming along, my word of the week is "hipo" which means hiccup because Im pretty sure my companion has a hiccup disease that causes her to hiccup all the time. its pretty great. We had a teacher this week who spoke great english and claimed he learned it from MTV(which is very different from my other teacher who learned hers by reading the book of Mormon). After ten min of him saying all the English slang he knew, I began to believe him, but don't worry he learned it on the mish.

We had a 24 hour fast for fast Sunday and it was great! The spirit here was unread. The testimony meeting was amazing and everyones testimony was in Spanish was so great and spiritual! I read Matthew 4 and says that fasting brings miracles and I believe that.

1 month down. two weeks and ill finally be in Quetzaltenango!

 

love ya

hast luego

Hermana Thompson

July 2nd 2014

Subject: Entonces si, this is the CCM -

Hola familia!!

Okay so i feel like i should point out that we actually do have fun at the CCM, we laugh all the time and occassionally play some jokes on each other. The best jokes so far involve hiding each others name tags because they are magnetic so we get rather creative. Ive attached them to the toilet paper so they get a surprise when they go or my personal favorite attached it to the ceiling. I figured alex would be proud of me for those haha. but dont worry its all out of good fun.

Well life is pretty repetitive so there really isnt much to say. every day we wake up at 630, get ready, eat breakfast, go to call, maybe teach some investigators, eat lunch (which is fabulous becasue we get ice cream, its the time everyone looks forward to) then we teach some more or learn  some deportes. its pretty much the same thing. 11 hours of class a day but don't worry guys im definitely not bored. Ive never learned so much in my life! I have officially reached my halfway mark here so this means only two more pdays here and im off to Quetzaltenango!! As much as i enjoy being in this happy prison, im ready to go!! hahaha

Learning is pretty exhausting, but its probably because my bed is made for very tiny people. My feet hang off the end, but its probably gonna be the best bed i have all my mission so im gonna enjoy it while i can!

Well, lets see something great i have learned is that if you convince your minds of things it will happen. For example, we wanted chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and guess what happened the next morning. pancakes. so ya even tiny miracles happen.

But seriously this week i learned an insane amount as usual. My favorite is how I feel about this great privilege of serving a mission and doing something for others like Christ did for us. I am so honored to be worthy enough to represent the Lord. Every week we get to watch devotionals from apostoles and its a low key christmas happiness! We got an ensign and that was like christmas! But just so you all know, i would LOVE some sleep for christmas so please send it haha

Anyways, I AM OVERWHELMED AND SO HAPPY BY THE EMAILS!! If i dont respond i apologize but i will get to them promise!! i feel your support every day and i am thankful to have you all in my life :)

 

love you all! Promise these emails will be more exciting soon! 

love

Hermana Thompson