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