Lovin' the CCM in Guatemala!

Hey so they gave us a half hour today. Things are going great; its a
lot more relaxed here, we have more fun and we are learning a lot
more than we did in Provo. We talk with the Latinos at mealtimes and
my companion and I are in the same room with 4 other native speakers.
So they help us with a lot of Spanish and they give us a great chance
to practice our Spanish. They have let us off of the CCM campus a few
times now. Yesterday we got to go to the distribution center up by
the temple and we got to go contacting on the temple grounds. Its
about a 3 or 4 minute walk up to the temple. Yesterday at the
distribution center we ran into the Gua City South missionaries. One
of them went to BL. He was a senior when I was a freshman. Elder
Burpo, I think his first name was robbie or something. Dad you might
remember him he played basketball and baseball and he was in your
wieght class my freshman year. But that was cool to meet up with those
missionaries and to get some advice from them. They said you learn WAY
MORE Spanish in the first 6 weeks out in the field than you do in the
CCM. After the distribution center we contacted on the temple grounds.
It was all members but it was a great experience to practice our
Spanish. I got to talk to native speaking children too. It's crazy how
good they are at Spanish and they are awesome! But it's way cool here.
It's our p-day and for the past hour or two I was playing soccer. I
think us north americans are getting good but we might be eating some
humble pie once we go against the latinos. Our district is almost
twice as big as it was in Provo. We have 8 elders and 2 hermanas. We
all get along very well. We get assigned a district leader today.
Everything here is meant for short people. The shower head comes out
of the wall right about where my face is.  I have to duck when I'm
doing my hair. And I've never used so much hand sanitizer in my life.
They have it everywhere so that we don't get sick. Hopefully I won't.
The waether is great here its about 25 degrees celcuis (no se in
farenheit) every day and there is always a cool breeze so it doesn't
feel as hot. I got more sunshine yesterday than I have in the past 3
weeks in Provo. They let us study outside and we love to do that. As a
result of all the sunshine I got a slight sunburn. But it's pretty
much tan now. I think I am going to come back looking pretty brown. I
don't know though. It's very humid here too. Those cookies you sent me
in provo got kinda crunchy down there, but they are nice and soft now.
The food here is great though. We have fresh fruit every meal and they
have fresh fruit juice too. So the juice might be pineapple one meal
and tangerine the next. It's quite choice stuff. I'm enjoying it very
much it is so much different down here but its great. I really love it
and I can't wait to get out into the field. I also can't wait to be
able to speak Spanish. It's going to be awesome. Well thats really all
the time I have left. I sent you my new address. If you send dear
elders by Sunday I heard we get them on Wednesday. So you can send
those and I will give you my next address in about 4 or 5 weeks. Just
make sure the one I gave you is right it is at guatemalaccm.com That's
all the time I have left, the church is true choose the right and I
will see yall in a little less than 2 years now :)

Elder Kilts arrives in Guatemala!

Hey sorry about cutting you off Tuesday night my time ran out but it
was great talking to you. We got here at about 6:30 on Wednesday
morning the flight was pretty good. We got to eat breakfast and they
let us sleep until lunch. It´s great here the food is awesome. For
breakfast on Wednesday we had eggs and sausage and fried bananas. The
fresh fruit here is awesome in the one hour of gym that I have had
here I learned that I will be playing lots of soccer. I would say
about 60% of the people here are Latinos. We´re like the sharks and
the jets. Except we all get along and sit by eachother in the
cafeteria and we are cool with eachother. Guatemala is very beautiful.
Its very green and lush and hilly. There are lots of birds if you can
here them over the honking of the horns outside. I love it here, I
think I'll stay for 2 years :P We are learning a lot of spanish the
goal for next week is to be teaching at least 20 lessons. in spanish.
every day. its coming though. We had a branch presidency meeting to
welcome everyone in the new branch and us norte americanos had to use
translators to understand what was being said. Its crazy to be the
only ones I know of that are in this country and don´t speak good
spanish. We only have 15 minutes tonight so I can´t write much more. I
think I don't get email time again until a week from Saturday so you
will hear from me then.  Bye!
                       My new adress (they dont have enter buttons
here so i will do a new line with a \. And do not use elder) Joshua
Fred Kilts\Boulevard Vista Hermosa 23-71, zona 15\Vista hermosa I.
Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

Third P-Day

This is Josh's last email from the Provo MTC.  He's on his way to Guatemala Tuesday! I have posted the Guat. MTC address, it is just as easy to send a letter through dearelder.com.

This week was great. I am now totally used to it. I still miss everyone back at home, and my friends too. Yall's letters are a real morale booster it definately makes my day. BTW no mail after today or I might not get it. Moday afternoon is the cutoff for dearelder.com because I won't be there Tuesday to get mail. Why? I'm leaving to go to Guatemala. I am so excited. I leave Tuesday at about 4:30PM and I will get to Guatemala at about 5:30AM on Wednesday morning. Its crazy how fast the time has gone. I always love seeing the new missionaries come in every Wednesday because it brings back great memories of my first day. But it never seems like it was only two weeks ago that I was getting dropped off at the sidewalk and saying goodbye to my family and friends for two years. It feels like I have been here for forever, but it also seems like I was just sitting in church last Sunday, and it is already Thursday. The time goes by super fast here. I am learning a great deal of Spanish. Our lessons with our investigators are cool because I no longer need to bring my Spanish dictionary and I can usually just wing it and read scriptures. But I am still a long ways from being fluent. I do look forward to that day when I realize that I know Spanish. I am learning so much here and I love it so much. It's sad that I leave this place in a few days because I have grown to love the MTC so much. But I am also very excited to finally get to Guatemala and to see what thats all about. I think when I get there it will be just about 99% Spanish so I am both nervous for that, and excited to be forced to learn the language even faster. It's amazing how much I have already learned in two weeks. I remember my teacher teaching us how to pray in Spanish on the second or third day, and now just two weeks later I can teach anyone how to pray in Spanish. Its amazing what can happen when you are set apart as a servent of the lord and are blessed with "el don de linguas" or "the gift of tounges" as most of you know it. Well like how I mentioned to time flies by here I only have one minute left to write this. Most of you won't hear from me until I am down in Guatemala. I am excited and just know that la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimas dias verdad. (use google translate if you must to translate that.) Just know that I know that though, and that is the whole reason why I am here. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the church. Well bye now :)

Week Two in the MTC

Hey whats up mi amigos. I've been here for more than a week now and I'm loving it more and more. And yes mom my testimony IS growing I hope you didn't email your missionary moms about that. 1st I'd like to say happy birthday Jake! I hope it's a great day for you especialy as you get to pass the sacrement now! And bueno suerte (good luck) in your basketball games! Mom send my new license too with everything you are already going to send. And a couple of fitted sheets would be greatly appriciated the ones they provide sometimes shrink too much in the was. We got new ones yesterday and it was too small so when i woke up this morning my sheet had somehow magically made it onto the floor in my slumber. And mom also SEND me those pictures. Don't email them I cant find a printer anywhere. And I these computers wont let me upload any so the picture machine in the bookstore just got working today so yall will get some pictures in the mail those that have asked. And I will write people back today its my p-day so if I've gotten something from you recently I'll write back today. Sam I would rather have you send it not put it in my account and Zack I would like you to send that adapter since you found it. Mom also my Branch President said we should have a copy of our call letters so please make a copy and send it, and put the real one somewhere safe. Derek congrats on the mission call! I'm so excited for you it's going to be great when we all finally meet up and can talk in spanish. Dan you had better go spanish speaking so you can speak with Kody and Derek and me lol ;) Mom, where's spencer going I believe he opened his call yesterday I need to know! And someone please tell me who wins the super bowl! Anyways the spanish is definatly coming. We are heavily relying on the spirit when we teach our investigator. Me and elder Hatch always end up teaching something COMPLETELY different from what we planned and in español too so we definately couldn't do it on our own we definatly have lots of help. Tuesday night was the 50th anniversary of the MTC so for the fireside we heard from Jeffrey R. Holland and Russel M. Nielson. We were like, no more than 20 yards away from the pulpit it was quite awesome and theres a funny story that goes along with how we got those seats but I dont have mmuch time. They talked a lot about the MTC and that last year they hit the 1,000,000th missionary mark, and that 650,000 of those have gone throught the MTC. There was a lot of talk about standing on the shoulders of those that have been before us. And it's totally true there are so many people that have paved the way yet there is still so many people that need to hear the gospel which is why we need to work hard even yall at home. This is definately a great place to be and being here and hearing from apostales and feeling the spirit has definately convinced me that this is the true church and that Joseph smith really did restore the gospel and I know that I am not wasting my time here. I cant wait to get to Guatemala (in 12 days!!!) and to be there preaching the gospel and I thank you all for your support in my leaving for two years.

-Elder Kilts