First week in Guat!

 Guatemala is so different! Their culture is completely different and everyone is so warm! There have been so many things that have happened in the past week and it is going to be hard to get them all down, but we will try! It will be a very long blog post! This week we went to a the old baptismal font in sericatche (I know I completely butchered the spelling), we taught english in the school, we taught a dance class (when I say we I mean that I supervised while Kass taught), and we learned how to make corn EVERYTHING! We are having so much fun and we feel like celebrities here. Everyone wants to touch us or be around us. It’s going to be hard to go back to the states and just be regular old people! All of the kids LOVE having their pictures taken, so we might have an overabundance of kids pictures, but they are so cute! I wish it were possible to remember all of their names and do something for each of them!

We weren't sure what this was supposed to really be. Goal sport? Cool sport?? Who knows haha.

 There was a GIANT spider in the shower! 

The baptismal font was so beautiful! I was so sad because the language barrier that is between us and Guillermo caused us to wear normal clothes instead of our swim suits because we thought we were going to a village. We were sad about that but we didn’t let it stop us! We still went in the water with our clothes on J  We rode there in the back of a pickup truck and then walked about 30 minutes to the actual font. There were so many beautiful waterfalls that you could hike up past. There were tarzan vines hanging all around us! It was so beautiful. 

On our way to the baptismal font! 

 Can you imagine being baptized here? So beautiful!!!

 Anyone who knows me knows that this was a struggle for me. I hate walking up slippery things and having nothing to hold on to! but I did it! 

 Tarzan vines! 

These pictures don't really go right in the middle of the baptismal font pictures, but they are such a pain to move so we will leave them here! We went to an activity at the church and kass was the main attraction! Such cute kids!!!

 This is Mario. He is a fun kid and he is in the ward. He is Jeff's age. He told me that he liked me and I told him after he went on a mission we will see what happens but that I will probably have 5 kids by then. He was super offended and pouty about it. Every time I see him he looks like he is about to cry. It's no fun to be a heartbreaker! haha.

 Kass creeping up on Guillermo! 

 On our way back we stopped at a little village and blew bubbles for the kids. It was so fun for them! They had never seen bubbles before. 

On the walk back, Guillermo said that he was feeling kind of sick and that he needed to “far”. He told us to go up ahead and that he would catch up to us in a minute. We kept looking back at him and taking pictures and making fun of him. We were teasing him and asking him if he felt better and he said “No! The far wont come out! It’s a shy far.” We laughed soooooo hard! Guillermo is our fav. 

 Meat cages in the market. They stink and gross us out! 

 Love seeing the creative baby carries! 

 Hanging out with Fatima before we knew that she was going to stab us in the back!

 This was a pretty spacious truck...  We have seen worse when our camera wasn't around!

 They have water in bags here! 

We also taught English at a really big school in Seamay. We spent about 30 minutes in 8 classrooms. It was hard to teach like that because we know that a lot of it won’t stick when we are only teaching once a week, but I guess it is planting the seed! We have been teaching English with Guillermo also. He is teaching these 3 little kids and we love them! They are so fun to be around because they actually want to learn, and they really try to practice. We are quite impressed with their learning abilities! We are excited to see them grow during the time that we are here! These were some kids that we were teaching English to!

Is this a Hurricane Tiger shirt?! 

 Now they know their ABCs! 

 Dinner! 

 Pretty view up by the swimming pool! 

 We hung out with the Choc family the other day and they showed us what they do on a typical day. We learned how to make tortillas, masa, corn drink, and nasty burned corn drink from scratch! We couldn’t believe how much work they go through! We love the Choc family. There are 3 girls and 1 boy. The oldest girl is a little younger than us and we LOVE her! She is so sweet. The whole family is so welcoming and loves having us in their home. They live in a small little shack with a dirt floor and a hammock in the middle of the living room with a small table. They are the sweetest people on earth!  We want to do something really nice for them before we leave! We took pictures of each of the steps to making tortillas! You can see what a process it is!

First, we went to the corn field and harvested corn! 

Then we shucked the corn! 

And had lots of fun with it! 

 

Then we picked off each individual kernel.

Then took the corn to the mill.

 Then started to make tortillas!

Kass was pretty good at forming the tortillas but I really sucked! She kept saying that they were good, but we know it was out of kindness!

Every time we sit down and visit at a members house they give us this nasty coffee substitute drink. After they take all of the kernels off the corn, they roast the cob and boil it with water and then serve it like a tea. Sometimes they will put sugar in it and that makes it a little bit more tolerable, but even still, its really hard to get down! Right before we left for the corn fields Sister Choc put this in a bottle for us to drink on the way. I protected myself by saying I wasn't thirsty and Kass just kept talking about how thirsty she was! She kept putting her tongue over the hole and pretending to take big gulps (spilling it all over herself in the process) but in reality, when no one was looking, she dumped it little by little in the grass. What a good friend! 

We got trapped in a Guatemala rain storm and I cut my toe really bad! Kass gave me a piggy back ride up the hill. True friendship!!! 

Notice the baby hanging from the nail in the wall... They were probably wondering why these crazy gringas would want a picture in the middle of the street! Little did they know, the picture was of their baby! haha

 GIANT grasshopper thingy! This picture doesn't even explain how giant this thing was.

The town of Senahu!

  

 Walking a casket ALL the way up the hill to the cemetary.

 Kassara and her giant 60 cent coconut! 

 Lychee! The best fruit ever when they are fresh!

 Kass taught a dance class at a preschool! It was so much fun because all of the kids were so anxious to learn and were so well behaved! They were much more behaved than American preschoolers, probably because they actually want to be there and it is entertaining! All of the kids loved Kassara and were so sad when the class was over. We will be teaching there 2 times a week and we are excited!

 

The weirdest coincidence happened to me the other day! It was p-day for the missionaries which means they spend lots of time with the Spradlins, who live right above us. We were eating breakfast at the same comedor this particular morning and there was this gringo missionary who looked so familiar to me! I told him he looked super familiar and asked him where he was from, he said California. He was from a part that I am not super familiar with so I knew I couldn’t have known him from there, but then he told me that he lived in Provo for a little bit before his mission. We made the connection that he knows my friend Rachel and a few months before his mission he slept on our couch for a week! I knew I recognized him! It is SUCH a small world! 

 Baby carrying craziness in the market! See how many you can find!

 Rooster just chilling by the veggies!

 The bouquet of flowers I bought for 12 cents!

Kass being a cutie at the market! The curlers weren't quite ready to come out yet! 

 But now they are!!! HOTTIE!

 On a hike up the mountain! It's so beautiful! 

 This is the inside of a really sad house. We love this family! There are 6 kids and no beds to be seen! We don't know where they sleep. There are wooden boards that we think they might sleep on.

 Us with a few of the kids.

 Trying to see what Elder Spradlin would look like with hair!

 Hideous picture of me, but we found these random clowns on the street! Not sure what they were doing! haha

 Getting kids to smile for pictures is really hard here and getting them to make a silly face is even harder! I was shocked that this cute little girl stuck her tongue out with me! :)

 The branch presidents home

 Baby just hanging from the ceiling! 

 This is their stove!

 EVERYONE loves to have their pictures taken, even the parents! It is hilarious to see the parents pushing their kids out of the way so we can take a picture with them! This is the branch presidents wife in Seamay. She is really sweet!

 This is their water supply. This is where they do laundry, wash dishes, etc.

 These 2 girls were named Ashley and Kass. We were telling them that we were twins and they were so excited! So we took a picture with our twins! haha

 Ashley and Ashley!

 We taught some kids how to do a pyramid and they had a blast!