ANT EXECUTION

before get into Gary and the ants, we have to share a few things about our learning Spanish. We were decided we needed more exposure with Spanish speakers, so, the first thing we did and will continue doing is arranging to study with missionaries during their study time. (We do this with the sister missionaries since the elder missionaries live not so clean) So, we have a picture of us with Latino sister missionaries. The house is about 15 min drive from our house, and, their house is nice and very clean. Nothing but Spanish and we had a wonderful time. These sisters are so focused and dedicated to their work it was really inspiring. We loved the visit.

We decide that we had to speak Spanish all the time. So, yesterday we started. And our goal is to do it for a week. Well, it was tough to do and we ended up not saying much! However, we feel this is the only way we are going to really begin speaking Spanish some day. (We tried speaking to people around our home, that failed. The only person we were able to talk to was the guard at our front gate, and, after saying good morning and how are you and where do you live, about five times, he didn't want to talk any more). However, we have now been invited by the lady that cleans our house to dinner every Sunday. She is a member of our church and also feeds the missionaries. (Picture included). Well, we have had a blast, only Spanish speaking, and, it is so much fun! Lots of laughs and we always get puréed black beans and scrambled eggs, but, is the best they have and we love it!!

So, the little ants that live in Gary's MacBook and iPad finally got out of hand. They were running all over his screens and hands. How was he every going to get rid of them? Can't spray, that would short out the key board or something. Well, he put iPad, MacBook, and iPhone in a plastic really big plastic bag. He carefully sprayed bug killer in the bag but not directly on the computers and quickly sealed up the bag. After waiting for 10 minutes, he opened the bag, checked the computers, and ants all gone!! He gassed the poor things!! An ant execution! Kathy wondered if their was something that he did in his past they she doesn't know about. She was surprised by how satisfied he was with himself!

Oh, and finally, we have a little lizard that lives in our house. He gets by the light fixtures and eats the moths. We like him. Have not named him yet. Any suggestions?
Love you all!

MALACATAN

We traveled to a mountain city named Malacatan. We took the office four door Toyota truck. This model is not available in the US. Very powerful pickup. It is more than a two hour trip on two lane roads. Elder Flores is our pilot. He always has two hands own the wheel and never takes his eyes off the road. Lot of big trucks on the road and every other conceivable kind of transportations: walkers, bicycles, carts, scooters, motor cycles, cars and trucks. We are always passing something. The trip is terrifying as usual, and, the back seat belts has never been used and are under seat somewhere. We passed a scooter so close that Gary could have put his arm out and drove the thing, A whole family on the scooter, dad driving with a kid on his lap, mom behind with a kid on her lap a nursing another. A five pension family on one little scooter.
There a lots of animals roaming around beside the road. We wondered why no "road kill" like we see in the US. Well we found out: Ahead of us were about a hundred big black birds all gathered around something. They were really big vultures finishing off a road kill! No doubt finishing it off completely! I guess I was wrong, there is garbage collection here.
Traveling along further, a great big pink pig came out of the bushes on one side, crossed in front of us, and into the bushes on the other side!? Aaa we don't know what to say about this. For some reason, it seemed perfectly normal here.
We were looking for a hotel for kathy and I, and, we drove into a beautiful place. The elders went in to check it out. They came out and said it is too expensive and too dangerous. Why is it dangerous? Malacatan is a clean very nice city, but, it is nice because of drug runners. It is very close to the Mexican boarder and drug runners bring in a lot of money!
So we ended up in a little hotel in the middle of the city. As the picture shows, it is just beautiful outside the rooms. Lots of plants, colorful walls, and clean. And a great little restaurant that we had breakfast in. However, not so great on the inside! Small room, one little rickety chair. Kathy's sheets were ok but not Gary's He slept on top off the sheets covered with Kathy's night gown. Well, all in all, it was the best $13 a night hotel we have ever been in!

OUR HOUSE

This is our house. Gary is taking this picture from the middle of the road. He is waiting for the garbage truck (there really is no garbage collection here at all. Garage is handled by collecting it for a few days, then, finding al local open space and burning it. The pick up in our little collection of town houses is done by some local guy that just takes It home and burns it. Gary has to wait in the street for him to show up and pay him cash. We were told the pick up would be about $5 per month. Gary didn't know it was cash. So, after ten minutes of totally not understanding each other, he finally just picked up the trash and took off without pay. So this week, Gary was ready with cash in hand, and, the garbage man only took about $2 for the month! So Gary figured that without knowing it, he negotiated a better price.
The other picture is our front gate, There is a man there day and night. We pay about $13 per month for the service. Our guard does not have a machine gun like other guards. I guess we have a lower priced guard.
That bump thing in the road is a " speed limit sign" This one is not as high as some others. But, they work. Drivers come up to the bump really fast. Slam on their brakes, go over really slow, and the hit the gas pedal again.
We were so frustrated with learning the language because we study and study with what seems little result. We finally reached a point that we were ready to give up. With lots a prayers a a few tears, we decided that our situation was unique in that the new young missionaries are usually paired with a Latino and, along with daily meeting with investigators, they are completely immersed in the language. We are not completely immersed. In the office where we do most of our work, the office missionaries will speak English to us. And, you would get a kick out of us try to speak Spanish to each other at home! With bad pronunciation and constantly looking up words, it take 15 minutes for us to say good night! So, we had to solve this problem. Our solution was to pay some Spanish speaking person to come to our house for several days a week and talk with us. Well, at church on Sunday, a lady approached Kathy, and, has invited us to dinner at her house on Tuesday and will be glad to spend time with us a few days a week. Then, the lady that cleans our house invited us to dinner Sunday night with two of our office missionaries. (See picture) When we got there, our office missionaries were translating for us until we asked for no English. We spoke more Spanish there then we ever had. And, our cleaning lady said she would be glad to come to our house to speak with us several days a week. Along with our office missionaries deciding to not talk English to us in the office, we have been blessed with a solution to our problems with in a few days of our time of complete despair.

ADAPTATION

Before we talk about getting adapted to our area, we want to tell a you about a young missionary we talked to at the mission quarterly conferences. He came from a broken home in Arizona
and as a child he suffered much abuse from his step father. Broken arm and broken leg. So, he lived with his great grandmother for a while and really loved her but she got too old to take care of him. So, he lived with his father, a bad environment, however he met the sister missionaries. He was 14. He listened to the sisters mainly because he liked the sister, but, they were replaced by elders, however, he was baptized. About mission age, he wanted to go but had no financial means and no support From his father. He got a call from his aunt. She asked if he wanted to serve a Mission. He said yes, but had no money for the dentist, doctor, or anything. She said she had lined up a dentist and doctor that would do the work for him for no cost. He was amazed. But, he said no one would support me and I could never live here while waiting to leave. She said, her ward members had agreed to pay for his mission and he could come and live with her now! So, here he is, almost done with a great mission and doing wonderfully!
Now, how we are adapting:
Well, Gary has an ant family living in his laptop computer. These ants are about as big as a printed period on the screen. They are tiny and very fast. For some time, Gary either thought his mouse was going wild now and the, or, he was just seeing old people eye floaties. Than, he discover his live-in ants. No they have an agreement, the run around on his screen and he squashes them!
Then there are the tuktuks: We are ok stopped up against a bus with its full exhaust in our face, (there are no emission controls here at all) but, when one went down a little road and pulled over, and pointed to a flat tire, Kathy went white in the face and said this is it: this stop is on purpose to rob and kill us, and, I am going to die without my kitchen being done! Well, he was a nice guy and indicated we should get another tuktuks.
Now, there are no traffic laws, I think the drivers have agreed to do the following: if there is a space fill it! However, they are very polite with each other. Our driver tried a U turn in front of a speeding motor cycle and car, (we were ready to die again) he could not complete the turn, the cycle and car just stopped and waited, no honking or anger. We were speeding along a two lane road and we had a truck in front of us an were going up a hill on a curve, our driver started to pass!! And there was a car coming head on, he just moved over and now we have a three lane road. The way speed is controlled is with speed bumps. These are not normal speed bumps. They are used anywhere including highways (two lane) , and, they are a large hunk of concrete across the road. So high, that in the Toyota carolla we were in, all the passengers had to get out so the car would not high center!!
We have our windows open, no screens, day and night, a few nights ago we were awakened by a strange animal noise, we stayed in bed shaking and terrified that a monkey was going to jump through the window!! Nothing happened. We don't know what it was.

Here we are working in the office. Gary got up in Sacrament meeting and gave a little talk in Spanish (his testimony). But, We still can not understand spanish speakers very well.
We love our mission and are getting more involved with missionary work every day.

TWO BRIGHT STARS

We arranged to visit a sister couple to review their Preach My Gospel, and, English training. We are to help the senior missionary with her responsibility to train her new companion. We arrived at a very humble apartment. The surroundings were a fairly poor neighborhood (housing missionaries in lower class, but not destitute, areas places them among the people and protects them from being viewed as rich). We went up a long stairwell to their apartment. They had a small table and a few chairs and mattresses for beds. Very humble. We sat down with these sisters and got a chance to see and feel there countenance. They were beautiful in all ways! Nicely dressed and groomed. Glowing completions. They looked healthy, happy and committed. We were so impressed by their three hours of study: scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and English for the Latino junior companion. We left with a love and appreciation for these wonderful missionaries. From the view of our first impressions, they are like two stars in a very black sky!

THE DOG DONATION

Before we get into the dog thing, we need to tell you about the meeting we went to today, that lasted four hours, with the mission president:
Recently we have been a little down about the extreme poverty that surrounds us. We begin wondering, just a little, why we were here, what good could we do. Well we went to this meeting. Called a zone conference, put on by the mission president, president Maravilla, he begin teaching us and we have to say he was amazing. He would have the missionaries laughing one moment and in humble repentance next. What a really great leader!! However, what impressed us the most was the brief story of his personal situation. When he got married, they were dirt poor. They lived in a shack, and, their bed was only about two feet wide. He and his wife begin a path of obeying Gods commandments, and now, he has great responsibility in our church, he was just called as an area president, and he has prospered both spiritually and temporally. So, we felt bad about our previous thoughts and we have begun to look at people for what they could be and not what they are. (By the way, the president and his wife kept their little bed as a reminder of where the came from)
Now the dog. We ended up today working with a little missionary that speaks no English. He had broken his foot and has to hang around the office until he heals. His companion went with other missionaries so there was just him and us. We tried to teach him English and he tried to teach us Spanish. The blind leading the blind. It became late and he had to come home with us. No missionary can be left alone. He really is a nice little guy. While at home the door bell rang. There were two ladies and little girl. They wanted money for something about dogs. They had this crumpled up piece of paper with names and signatures on it and a picture of a really ugly dog. Our little missionary talked to them and attempted to tell us what was going on. Gary, thinking he understood the Spanish, decided it was a donation to some kind of dog refuge. This dog really needed a refuge! Well, Gary gave them a little money but wasn't about to sign any petition. So, they went their way and we were pleased with our Spanish capability. Later, when the English speaking missionaries showed up, they heard the story and told us it was actually a raffle for the dog. Give us some money and you might win a dog. Well, with Gary's luck he would have won this very ugly dog!

A REALLY BIG SPIDER

In a room upstairs where had some stuff stored, Kathy walked in and came back out yelling for Gary. He ran up and Kathy said there is something really big on the floor. We creepy into the room and there was the realization of Gary's night mares. A gigantic brown spider, probably four times larger than the biggest wolf spider in salt lake. It was on it back. We figured it was going to flip over and jump on us. Gary ran down stairs for the only weapons available: a broom and a dust pan. Shielding each other, we approached the beast with weapons ready. We pushed it with the broom while positioning ourselves to run for dear life. It was playing dead. So, Gary pulled every big of courage he had, swept the thing into the dust pan, it barely fit and threw it out the window. Exhausted, gary and Kathy retreated to their bedroom keeping the weapons close, and, with much fear, got ready for bed. This is not the worst part of the story, Gary now has to face the scariest thing of all, his imagination!!
This night is not done yet. We are laying in our bed reading a few verses from the Spanish Book of Mormon, we look up, and right over our head is a big black bug! We stare at it close and it seems to be staggering ready to fall!! Gary gets his broom weapon and has the plan to sweep it aside. As he goes in for the sweep, Kathy doesn't trust him and jumps out of the bed screaming!! Gary's sweep was dead on and the bug is not in the bed, at least we don't think it is.

THE GREAT TUKTUK ADVENTURE

Well, we believe that we are on the road to becoming missionaries since we both have continual diarrhea and are covered with mesquito bites.   With these issues it seems that Gary has lost some weight.  He can tie his own shoes now!

They are little three wheeled "taxes" running all over the place (picture attached).   And since we have not gotten a car yet, we are dependent on the office missionaries for us to do shopping and so on.   The office missionaries are gone a lot doing things around the mission.   So, we were a bit stranded and afraid to take th TukTuk's.  Watching these things run around town, on the wrong side of the road and on sidewalks, is a little terrifiying.  However, two sister missionaries talked us into going with them, just to "break the ice".   The senior companion sister is a big strong girl, major athlete, and, pretty much not scarred of anything.   She thew us into one of these thing.  We sat in the back seat, three of us crammed in, and, she sat by the driver where there really was not seat.   No seat belts or doors, of course.   And we took off!!  It was an exciting ride.  Kathy and I were both "white" and shaking when we got off, but, alive.  We took another TUKTUK back, and, now, we are frequent riders.  In fact, we kind of like them.  We are nice to the drivers and they seem like good people.

Conference was wonderful.  We went to the stake center and the stake president had set up a computer for the english speaking missionaries  ( we are told to watch conference in our native language).  We had a wonderful time with these missionaries.  They all cheered for the Seventy from Guatemala that spoke.   Kathy and I were encouraged by the talks and reminded that we are here to vertually save lives!!
The turnout for Sunday morning was unbelievable.   The members are all "beautiful people" and we love them!!

Our apartment has "sky lights" over the bathroom and the stair well.  This amounts to a piece of corrigated transparent fiber glass, just tacked down over the hole.  Kathy was taking her cold shower this morning and let out a little "yelp".  Some big birds were jumping around on our skylight and you could see them fine just above her head in the shower.  However, we are getting used to the way of life here and spending lots of time trying to learn spanish!!