March 24, 2012, About to leave the CCM!

Thanks for the pictures. Hopefully I can send some next week. I have
no idea how next week is going to go. I'm just going to go along with
everything. I can't believe its been 2 months already! Glad life is
going well and the kids are having fun doing all their stuff. And I
did hear about Staci, grandma told me last week. Tell the Barrs I said
hi. I honestly don't know when I will get to email next so if you don't
hear from me for a couple weeks I'm still good. I'm very excited for the
field. 3 days!!!! This week was cool. Me and the other nortes going to
my mission had to go into town to sign a few things to live in
Guatemala. I haven't been in a car for 2 months and it felt like we
were going way fast like 70mph and I look at the speedometer and its
only 40. And they are all crazy drivers here, but it is always nice
to get out. We had in field orientation yesterday. Don't let the name
fool you, we did it all in the classroom in the ccm. Kinda boring, didn't
learn all that much... but I'm going to start packing today and I leave
Tuesday morning!!!!! 4 elders in my district leave on Monday including
my companion. I'm going to miss all of them. Something cool last night, I
gave my first blessing. I had stood in on one before but last night at
about 3 am my companion woke up barfing and he was really sick and
asked me to give him one. One of the Latinos anointed him in Spanish
and I gave the blessing in English. its hard at 3am right after being
woken up but it was a great experience and I think I will always
remember it as my first time. I'm aiming for a baptism next week. They
say its very very possible. Lots of elders get them in their first few
weeks. That's all the time I have always send me mail and dear elders
and I will have a new address for you all in about a week or two.
love you all -elder kilts

March 17, 2012

Hey how is it going? I'm sorry you have to go to school so early. I
guess it just makes the weekends even more enjoyable. Has Zack gotten
his license yet? Sam told me they were doing that new for the Strength
of Youth thing. Maybe when they come out you can send me one? Tell
Michael I said congratulations and let me know where he is being sent
when he gets his call.
This week has gone by very fast. I don't even remember most of it and I'm sure
I'll be out in the field before I even know it. I'm getting very excited only about
9 or 10 days left! The Spanish is definitely coming. I blessed the
sacrament this last Sunday and a couple days ago I did a temple
session in Spanish. I could understand most of what was said and I
learned a lot of vocabulary. We are teaching lots of lessons. And we
even have an actual nonmember that we are teaching. He works at the
cafeteria and he said he would go tochurch with us on Sunday.
We get to go out proselyting on Monday but
we won't have a native companion this time, just me and my north
American companion. I'm very excited it will be the 3rd time I get to
go out into the city. We also have our orientation this week. I don't
know what that is all about but it is supposed to help us get ready
for the field. We are learning lots in our classes and we are getting
great experience here. I totally love it here but I can't wait to get
out into the field. I really hope my first area is up north in the
jungle but I'll be happy to go wherever I go. I'm excited to meet the
mission president as well, and to maybe get more time for email every
week. Three missionaries came to visit the CCM here yesterday. They had
all been out in the field for about a year and they were serving in
the Guatemala city central mission. When I told them I was going to
the north they told me I was very lucky and they have heard lots of
cool things about my mission. The general consensus among them about
Spanish was they all considered themselves fluent after about 6
months. I can't wait until I can consider myself fluent and I know I
will learn lots more Spanish out in the field. I don't have any more
time. So thank you all for your support and I hope to hear from you!
Send all letters to the mission home address (posted). If you use
fedex to send mail it gets here in about 4 or 5 days and it costs
about $1.50 or $2. Thanks, love you all

March 10, 2012

Hey things are going great. I'm supposed to tell you all to start
sending mail to the mission home, but I don't really know that address
so mom maybe you could look that up and I will try to find it. Also
after this week send dear elders to the GCN mission home. It sounds
like life is busy as usual over there and it sounds like you all had a
good stake conference. Jake I wish I could be there to see your play.
And I'm glad youre doing good in your schoolwork. The weather is nice
down here it's like summer each day except Utah is hotter. My favorite
food here is the guacamole. We got to go to the city last Tuesday and
we saw this huge map of Guatemala and it had all the mountains
sticking up and everything. It was probably about the size of a small
baseball field and I got to see my area. Theres not really that many
mountains and my whole area is jungle and it has hundreds of mayan
temples and ruins. Then we got to go to the central market. It was in
the main part of town where the president of guatemala lives. It had
lots of old spanish and european architechture and it was really cool.
The central market was neat too. I spent like $4 and got a few
souvenirs. And we have not been to the zoo yet but we always hear the
story of the guy that got eaten by a lion (halfway eaten). Emily I am
so jealous I have always wanted to go snowshoeing. And cross country
skiing is way fun too. There are tacos here but they are all soft.
When you were a bear did you win or did you lose in your fight? haha I
want you to mail me letters and I always love your drawings. And I got
to lead the music in sacrament meeting last sunday! cool huh!
It sounds like things are going
great over there. I'm quite excited to go to the field in about 16
days! There are 4 elders going to my mission. Me and elder Story are
from Ogden and elder Hatch and elder Montoya are form Nevada. We got a
new group of missionaries this week. They were given the choice to go
to Provo for three weeks and learn no spanish there and then come here
or they could come strait from home. Its about half and half. Then
there are all the latinos that make up about 70% of us. They always
come straight from home. There are no hermanas as far as I know in my
mission. I heard they don't send north american hermanas to my mission.
My district leader is elder Quintanilla he is the ONLY latino here
that doesn't speak fluent spanish, and there are ten of us in the
district. My companion got called to be the AP so I get to follow him
around everywhere. I haven't given a talk yet but I have led the music
in sacrament meeting. What they do in the MTCs is everyone prepares a
talk and the branch president selects someone from each district to
speak. But he doesn't say who is speaking until about 30 seconds
before. I wish I could send pictures but I will be able to in about 3
weeks. I am definitely getting better and better at my spanish. I
talked to a couple missionaries who were coming home from their
missions and they were staying the night at the CCM and I got to have
a nice 30 minute conversation with them in spanish. So it is
definitely coming and I feel like I will be prepared in a couple
weeks. My favorite part of the day is personal study. Its great to be
able to start off the day feeling the spirit and I wouldn't give that
time up for anything. It is very important to study the scriptures and
I would challenge each of you reading to make it a part of every one
of your days. I don't have any more time but I hope to hear from you
all. You can send my dear elders this week to the guate CCM. Hope to
hear from you!                          

March 3, 2012

The MTC is still great. I'm excited to get out into the field. About
24 or 25 days!!! Glad to hear that Utah has gotten a little bit of
snow! We never get any here if you can believe it! But I love the
weather. Me and my companion were talking this morning about how it's
either gotten colder here since we´ve been here or we are just used to
it. Because the first week I couldn´t stand to sleep with a blanket
but now I need one to be comfortable. We did get to go out into the
city on Monday. I was paired with a native companion and they dropped
us off in a neigborhood and we went out street contacting and knocking
on doors. We got 4 refferals and one was really interested so
hopefully the missionaries in that area are having a good time
teaching him. It was great to get out and see what it is like here and
to talk with the locals. My spanish is definately coming along but I've
heard I learn like 10 times as much in my first 6 weeks in the field.
I'm loving it. We probably spend about half and half gospel vs. spanish
study, but a lot of our gospel study is in spanish so we kind of learn
in our gospel study as well. My supplies are holding up quite well. I
just finished the last of the snacks you sent me so I get to rely on
mealtimes. Oh well. The only thing I'm almost out of is mouthrinse. So
I am doing just fine with my supplies. Tell the missionary moms that
stuff is very cheap at the distribution center here. Maybe 50 cents
for a BOM and about $1 for a hymn book. And about $4 for a mini
hymnbook. So all of the missionaries now are coming straight here from
their homes. We have a group of NA's coming in from their 3 week stint
in Provo and one group coming directly from their homes. They are
changing the language program and we are part of the last 9 weekers.
The ones coming straight from home only have 6 weeks total until they
go. I'm glad you guys are having a great time and summer is coming up
fast for you guys. I'm glad emily had fun skiing. I sent letters last
sat. and you all should get them in a week or so. And I will write
more today. They say it takes 12 days. Dad it sounds like track is
going great. That reminds me of a couple seasons ago where it would
only snow on track meet days and we had to cancel a lot. I hope you
had a great time with your talk and your lesson. And I hope you get
better soon. I also hope you guys are enjoying sleeping in with no
boys in the house to wake you up. I don´t have much more time, so
thanks for all that you guys do, I really appreciate it and you are
all in my thoughts and prayers. Thanks for the picture. We don´t
avtually sleep that much. But sometimes we wwould really like to. I
think we might get about an hour or two in today. I love p-days. Well
I will write you all and please sent me daer elders to let me know
what is going on! Remember to send them to the GUATEMALA MTC and not
the MTC. Love you all! Adios!

Week Two in the CCM

Thanks for the emails. Sam- I get to speak to the little kids just
whenever we go up to the temple which is about once every one or two
days.  Dad my first week has gone very awesome. I love
it and I am learning spanish very fast. I don't know what area they
will send me to first, that's up to the mission president but there are 3
other elders going to my same mission. There's also a good chance that
I might be sent to an area sometime during my mission where I would
have to learn some native dialect. I think its called ketchi or
something and I saw a BOM in that language and it just looks like this
gi'lj k'ghb r´tlo gh'ot. Very crazy but I might come home knowing 2
languages. Mom my daily life is basicly wake up, go to gym, race to
the showers, breakfast, personal study outside, language study
outside, about an hour of class, lunch about 3 hours of class and
whatnot, 430 is dinner, more class after that, refacción (snack time)
at about 7, more class, then daily planning. Sometimes they have in
our schedule time to go contacting on the temple grounds, or TRC. And
on Monday we have a ''proselyting activity'' where we are going to go
somewhere in the city and proselyte. Oh and tomorrow we have
companionship exchanges and I will be paired with 2 latinos for the
day. Sounds like life is as busy as normal over there. Glad you guys
are having a good time because I am too. Emily- have lots of fun
skiing! Elder Storey is in my district, he's shown me some of his art
he's quite good. My companion is elder Holmstead from around Boise. He
went to BYU-He and I like to sing and play the piano. We get along
very well. We will have the same district for the whole six weeks, but
four of our roommmates leave in about 10 days. They are from all over.
Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador. We are going to really miss them. I'm
very excited to get into the field. I want to go out and do this stuff
for real and I want to see the rest of the country. I have about 150
of that emergency cash left. I had to use 40 for my bag and 10 for
food. I'll send you some letters in a few days you should get them in
about two weeks. Things are going great here I'm loving everything but
these crazy keyboards here. I can't find half the punctuation marks.
But yeah I'm having lots of fun. Gym is my favorite. I lift weights
half the time and the other half I'm playing soccer or basketball. My
district is great we have ten people all Norte Americanos. Well one of
them is tongan but we all fit into the North amercan group. We have
two tongans in our zone. The latinos love them they are quite the
characters. The latinos now now to give all their unwanted food to the
tongans. It's quite awesome, we all love the latinos and the latinos
all love us and think us white kids are just the funniest people ever.
Thats all the time I have today. Send me lots of dear elders we love
to get them! Love, Elder Kilts.

Elder Kilts is on the right side, third row up, second one in, blue tie.