Message from Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright so here's the haps:
  1. I made nice with one of the drunks. He really isn't capable of saying much, but I think we're on good terms.
  2. My ability to understand Spanish has dramatically increased. I noticed as I was sitting in someone's house as my companion and the sister were talking about a book that I could literally understand nearly everything. Cool, huh?
  3. We're teaching a bunch of people. It's nice.
  4. I was almost robbed by a blood thirsty motorcycle gang wielding firearms. Luckily, my companion and I escaped down another street as they were about to turn around.

    I'm hanging in there I guess. I'm following some advice I read in the Ensign (there are like 100 old copies of the ensign in my room) which said when you get to the end of your rope just tie a knot and hold on. I decided that you just have to let the mission happen to you. It wants to kick the crap out of you. Sometimes God wants to hurt your feelings just so you come crawling back to him. Everything just points back to Malachi and the whole refiners fire concept. What am I being refined for? Is the mission it or is it something nastier later in life?

   The food is great. I love the black beans and we eat street food all the time, which is against mission rules but is really our only option. The bugs are gone. I bought a bunch of poison and I haven't seen a cockroach in a few days. I`m half way through my change (for those of you who don't know what that is, it means I'll have a new companion in 3 weeks).

And in local news, someone robbed a bus and shot a bunch of the people in it and also someone randomly shot and killed a two year old who was playing outside in my neighborhood.

You think life is bad there, Please. Please. One point of clarification: I don't tell you all of these nasty stories to scare you or brag, but to help you realize that I recognize that what I`m doing here probably isn't what I would want to do under normal circumstances. I`m trying to show you through what is happening here, that I have not given two years of my life to a cleverly projected fairy tale. I'm not spending two years of my life in a place that makes Brooklyn look like a playground, for something I don't whole heartedly believe in. All of these things I share testify of my testimony that what I'm doing is important.

Keep on trucking,
Michael D. Rex

message from Michael - November 2nd

Weekly update: So generally I write Mondays but yesterday we spent all day contacting at a cemetery because of some crazy Halloween like holiday were people cry over their dead ancestors. It was pretty cool, actually. Its full of huge catacombs and tombs and stuff. Too bad I can`t take out my camera anywhere without the expectation of being robbed. I get yelled at A LOT here. People don`t like Americans. Some guy thought it was insulting to call me a Yankee. Night time is scariest though. A lot of creepy drunk guys on the street threaten to kill me. I think back to Kirtland and the early saints being tarred and featherd... No. These people will literally draw and quarter me over my watch. Oh I also get sassed a lot because Americans don`t consider Central America a continent. I tried to explain to them that it`s broken up by hemispheres and its nothing personal but my Spanish isn`t THAT polished yet. So has anyone looked at Guatemalan crime stats lately? Someone is killed in Guatemala City every 80 minutes. Now I won't die. No way no how. BUT, it wouldn't surprise me if I got shot or something cool like that. Some US Embassy guy who looked pretty bad, (he had a cool shady eye and was really buff) said this place is going down hill fast. We could have another Venezuela like situation where they pull everybody out. I hope not.
    As far as the people we`re teaching and stuff its going well. We have a few nice families we`re talking to. My companion is from El Salvador and knows pretty good English so we`re able to communicate well. It`s kind of gross how when we`re at a families house for dinner he cleans his plate with his fingers... Table manners don't really exist here.

Conclusion: People here don't like me. I`m a little grossed out by them. I`m having a good time.

Michael Rex

Photos from Michael 10/26/10

First photos from Michael in Guatemala City...

Message From Michael 10/25/2010

Alright so I´m in my first area here in Guatemala City. Somewhere in zone 7 of Guatemala City. My apartment is a garage turned apartment full of spiders and cockroaches with an added on bathroom. Kinda gross, but it works. I've not once walked into my room and not seen bugs on my bed. But I'm trying to fix that. My second day we visited a little neighborhood in our area known as a red zone. These red zones are areas designated by the city as dangerous for latinos let alone gringos but we went anyways. Imagine a Brazilian Favella. Jordan can go on that level of Call of Duty and get a good idea of what it looks like. We also met a 118 year old man who still works in his field. Walking around the streets of one of the most dangerous cities in the world at night can be scary for someone like me (a mormon gringo from the states). I have already been threatened, chased, and sworn at multiple times by multiple drunks :) The climax of the third day was when we walked into the room and my latino companion casually said, ¨Something tried to eat my bread.¨ How sanitary.
    As far as the people, they generally are pretty kind but can be unusually condescending when they know something you don´t. Like spanish. I think this is based on some sort of unassurity with themselves around gringos. Dad will be happy to hear they think I sound like a Spaniard. I know he recieved that comment multiple times on his mission. The missionary lifestyle is starting to work for me. I don´t mind getting up so early anymore and my neighbors blast GunsNRoses and Kanye West incessantly which is a pleasant reminder of home. We eat a lot of Pan De Manteca from the Bakery down the street which are these really cheap rolls. About 4 cents a piece. I was also blessed to enjoy Taco Bell once this week :)

I wish I could write more but I just don't have time today. I love all of the attention I recieve from my family and friends! Thanks!

Message from Michael 10/18/2010

Tomorrow I leave for the mission field. The nine weeks of MTC
experience has proved itself a refiner`s fire in many aspects. I`ve
been required to show patience in ways I never thought I was even
capable of. I`m not sure if I`m a new man or if I`ve just been broken.
Either way, I`m sure all of you will all appreciate it. Do you have
any idea how much Evangelicals don`t like Mormons in Central America?
I`ve been yelled at so many times in a language I don`t understand it
makes my head hurt just thinking about it. We went to the park and did
a bunch of contacting and stuff last week. I also gave a sacrament
talk which actually went pretty well seeing as how I had no idea it
was coming and had no preparation time. Old man President Steimle
thought he could catch me off guard... I appreciate all of the love
and attention I`ve been recieving from anyone and I look forward to
seeing all of you in what seems like a lifetime, but, from what I`m
told, isn`t very long at all. I hope the blog looks spiffy. Make sure
to throw the link on my Facebook every once in a while.
   Anyway so tomorrow I spent the night at the mission home and then
the next day (or that day it actually hasn`t been made very clear)
I`ll meet my trainer. He`ll be my companion for six weeks following
that day and then I`ll most likely recieve another companion. Expect
another update next Tuesday or Wednesday. Make sure that my new
address is made known to everyone and that you`re using international
postage or DearElder to send me mail :)

Again, I appreciate the love and support,
Michael Daniel Rex

Message From Michael 10/13/10

Ok a few important things this week but I´ll start with something to lighten the mood. I know you folks from Utah will appreciate this.

   There`s a guy in my district who I think lives somewhere out by Bear Lake and lives on a farm. He was talking about all of the work on his mission and how it EXCITES him and how he LOVES work. Please tell me my extended Rex family is reading this. I thought of you folks.

    This week has been kind of slow. I miss my family and friends but am starting to enjoy this a lot more. Six more days. I`m ready for things to start picking up. I haven`t seen any prostitutes and or heard any gun shots lately. My spanish has improved drastically. I can almost understand everything and my speaking is decent. I can work my words around what I need to say, it`s just not consistently fluid. As far my doctorinal knowledge goes, I`m known for having an exceptionally impressive knowledge of the gospel and the scriptures. Which doesn`t really make sense because I hardly attended seminary and I didn`t really read my scriptures everyday either...

    My new address, which people should start using immediately and which I hope is posted on my facebook is as follows:

 

A.P 340-A

Guatemala, Guatemala, C.A.

 

It`s so short because it`s basically a PO box at a post office. The mail is picked up and handed out every THREE WEEKS. Kill me. I appreciate all of you who have been giving me so much attention. You have no idea how happy it makes you to get mail on a mission until you personally live it. Ha.

 

As for you, father, where is my advice on the plan of salvation? How do I properly explain it thoroughly without it taking 2342 minutes? Use Preach My Gospel as a reference if you don`t know exactly what principles I need to teach. Chapter 4. 

Oh also make clear on my blog that international postage is needed to send letters. I don´t think many people understand that. I've been getting a lot of mail but some people email me telling me they wrote me and then I don´t recieve anything. That's throwing me off a bit. My postage is different because it follows the pouch system. Also clarify that those using Dear Elder need to switch the destination from The Guatemala MTC to the Guatemala City South Mission. Dear Elder is still a free, efficient way to contact me. Also, I still haven't recieved those CDs I hope you sent. I hope you put Jesus stickers on the box.

 

Spanish is going pretty well. I´ll probably start writing you in Spanish in the next 3-4 weeks. My grammar is still pretty whack so there´s no need to embarrass myself but know that I can teach any lesson and address almost any Gospel principle in Spanish while also holding my own in casual conversation. 

Message from Michael October 6, 2010

Another great exerpt from the thriving socially forward metropolis that is Guatemala City: General Conference was interrupted this last week by the sound of gunshots.

On a lighter note, I was sitting in the cafeteria with some friends and my companion when a problem arose. My companion needed butter but didn´t know the Spanish word for butter and all of our cafeteria ladies live here. So, he asked my what the Spanish word for butter is and me, knowing it be mantaquilla, lied to him telling him it was spelled the same way but that there was an accent mark over the ú and the é. So, búttér. He´s not very good at Spanish. So he goes up the ladies and literally asks, ´´Tiene mas búttér?´´ Honestly probably one of the funniest conversations I´ve ever seen in my life. As you can imagine, he wasn´t too happy with us when he came back red in the face.

Also every bathroom in Guatemala makes me want to die. I don´t know how every single bathroom in the whole country can smell as bad as they do. Oh and I picked up the piano. No big deal. It only took me a few hours. Some people here claim I´m the next Bach or Beethoven. Who would of thought anyone would ever say that about anyone in our family, right?

Two more weeks until I leave the MTC. I´ll post my new address next week. Dear Elder will still work in the field and so will all of the normal letters. Unfortunately, I will only get them every three weeks. I miss everyone and hope everything is well.

As for you, Dad, I don´t know how you kept your sanity in Provo for 9 weeks. I would of lost my mind.