[NICK] a WK later....brother can you lend me a dime?

Good morning and happy halloween! I havent seen a single pumpkin, child in a costume, or free piece of candy yet and i don´t think will sadly. But! i will get to see a bunch of drunk people mourning for the dead! A fair trade i say. Well today is a beautiful day here in Huehuetenango, its a partly cloudy day and the city is buzzing with anticipation for who will be the next president here in Guatemala. The elections are this coming sunday so there are posters and people every where showing their support for whomever they desire to win.
Apparently its gonna be a close one!

Well for this week i have few short stories and thoughts i´d like to share with you so i´ll start typing.

This last saturday we went to visit the family Gonzalas, a family we´ve recently started teaching. They seem quite interested and they said, they are going to attend church with us this coming sunday.
Saweeeet! anyways, when we got to the house their kids let us in and we sat down in the front room with the father as we usually do. The father always loves talking with us especially since he has been to the states for work and also has family there working too. So during our talk about the states he says "I have a question for you" and we said, "yes?" perking up hoping that it would be pertaining to our religion. He then asked us a very different question than we were expecting. "Do you guys have social security numbers?"..... That is never a good question coming from anybody that lives below the border of the states. Very nervously we replied "Yes??" concerned at what he would say next. He then proceeded to tell us about his cousin working in the states.. Illegally. He needed a social security number to be able to stay working there. So the father then asked us and i quote "would it be alright if my brother used your social security numbers until you go back to the states?"... That question was quickly replied with " No sorry (yes we included a sorry for some reason) but we are not able to be involved in those kinds of interactions while we are missionaries". And now might i add, HECK NO. Not only as missionaries but NEVER would i let ANYONE use my social security number! American or Latino! What did you think I´d say?! "Why sure! just leave it under the mat when i get home. Oh hey and could you also put that money that you stole from my savings account back when you´re done with it? that´d be great thanks" Anyways, he said "oh ok ok, its just he's in a tight spot and i just thought i´d ask for him." we resumed our conversation and eventually got talking about his home and financial status and how his experience at the states was. He said he wanted to go back really bad but didnt have the money. I don't know how close he felt to us and I didnt feel as though we were super comfortable with him yet, but his next question made me feel as if he was QUITE comfortable with us. "Do think there is any way that i could borrow 5,000 dollars from you guys? I just really need get to the states to earn some more cash. I would pay you back eventually for sure though."...... either i REALLY under estimated how close we were with this man or I am REALLY sure that the people here in guatemala think we just carry around thousands of dollars with us every where we go. We replied with the same answer that we gave him the last time, but this time he wasn't satisfied with that answer. I will finish the rest of this story later today because we have to leave now. But if we dont come back...
Until next time!

IMG_5511 (1).J

ps I just sent a picture and I'm sending another. 
Both from TODAY! right after playing futbol. P day pics woo hoo
Elder Delgado is the other elder. He is so awesome. we took the pic
because he wore barcelona and I wore real madrid and they are rivals
haha but we ended up on the same team and also ended up DOMINATING the game hee hee I scored 6! times.
yes Im bragging but I dont care.

[nick]WK 7 How much?

Well as i was hanging on for life outside the sliding door of the bus/van I was thinking what i would write about. I decided that... i had no clue. no new stories really because due to the new change all we´ve done is visit members mostly and yet some how we have still found a lot of new investigators which is wonderful. and so since i didn't have any really great stories i thought id tell you just a little bit about the finances of the country and we´ll see where it goes from there. So, here in guatemala the worth of a dollar is about 7.5 quetzals. In other wards yes, if you came here for a vacation practically everyone from the states would be considered "rich". To give you an example of the worth here, we live off around 40 dollars a week. thats including food for the week, taking buses, and P-days which includes eating out, a lot more bus rides, paying for the soccer fields and internet. We do all of this for 40 dollars. One random example that still amazes me is that for one of those small bags of chips here its about 7 american cents. also a regular size water bottle is about 15 american cents. Also i can go out to eat for and get a chimichanga with beans rice a soda and a smoothie for a little under 4 american dollars. its pretty crazy. To give you an idea of your average income its around 2,000 quetz a month which is roughly
250 american dollars. Thats the AVERAGE income per month. You couldnt even afford an apartment to live in, in the states with that income let alone buy groceries and transportation. The quality of living is obviously VERY different. being here has really given me an amazing appreciation for my lifestyle that i have back at home. I´ll describe you you´re average house here. Absolutely NO ONE has any of the
following: washer and dryer, dish washer, completely sealed windows, carpet, or drinkable faucet water. about 50% of the houses have hot water. There is NO sewage system and there is ZERO A/C or heating systems.  about 50% have four wheeled vehicles and zero percent might i add for the male teenagers have x-box´s or PS3s.  I am not exaggerating(?) about any of those. It is a wonderful and easy lifestyle we live in the states and i hope that you are all VERY grateful for where you are right now. Im not saying this for you to feel bad for me or the people that live here im saying this so that you will appreciate a little more the next time you take a hot shower or walk on your carpet, drink from the faucet or drive your car to work. Well thats just a little of the lifestyle here and i´m loving it! i hope that i can be telling you a good story next week! Thank you everyone for the amazing love i have recieied in my life and thank you for being an influence on my life in one way or another. Love Elder Wimmer

[NICK]WK6 a quick area move, to a nasty dirty apartment

Hello family, I'm on. Nothing special to share this week but the next i should have a story. We´ve got changes to a new area. although though its only the area right next to us, im really excited for something new. We went this saturday and did some major cleaning at the new house. The last elders apparently didnt realize there was a trash can in the house or they just misplaced there trash on the floor but their place was naaaaasty. (nobody was there cause the elders moved areas before the actual change).
As far as theTemple dedication. That is still a mystery. I kind of have a feeling i will be there but we dont know for sure yet. Cross your fingers! I dont have any good long stories but i did see something kind of funny recently. We were walking down a dirt road and came upon a mother cow and its calf walking the same direction we were. the calf was trying to get milk from the mothers utters between her back legs  AS she walked which was obviously proving a difficult task for the calf and an annoyance to the walking mother. Now what happened next may havejust been by chance but something tells me that the mother was trying
to prove a point. The mother kept walking, lifted her tail, proceeded to poop on the head of the young calf. I believe the point she was trying to prove was, DONT SUCK MY UTTERS WHILE IM TRYING TO WALK. and the moral of me telling you this story is... Patience. Good things come to those who wait, and those that don't, get pooped on.

[nick] WK4 mount kolob (dont miss this one!)

welllllllllllll hello people who read this. This last thursday i had a chat with my companion that i wanted to work harder and that i felt i could do more of.. really whatever he´s got., four days later on Monday, Elder harding (my companion) decided on a good place to find some new work. I was really excited to hear this of course. Im now going to start typing the experience that i had from my journal entry the morning after. "Well yesterday morning elder harding told me that we would be going up to a city called Talmiche to look for some new work. I said great and we left later that after noon. Talmiche is a city that takes 2 HOURS of HIKING to get to. The people here in Guatemalaaparently do not know what "swtichbacks" are because we hiked STRAIT up the mountain on a dirt road. we stopped a few times to drink of course for about five minutes each. Do lunges for about 2 hours strait with a back pack full of heavy books and you might understand how my legs felt after we had reached the top. When we arrived we found beautiful lanscape with crops, cattle, and little shacks spotting the round, rolling, and seemingly endless hills. It was dusk when we had spotted the house we wanted to contact. It was on top of a hill and enclosed by corn leaving only one or two ways in to the house. As we walked through the fence to get to the house two of the most vicious and unhealthy looking dogs came barreling towards us barking, growling and looking to gnaw on our bones. One of them specifically came and started nipping at my feet, of course i tried retaliateing and attempted kicking him in the face but i absolutely could not lift my legs high enough after climbing Mount Kolob. Hearing the commotion, im guessing, a lady came to our rescue and called for the dogs to stop. They immediately did so and ran back to their Dog house with only my right leg as reward. we talked with the lady, introduced ourselves, told her who we are and why we were here and asked if there was anything to do for her. She was very accepting and kindly let us chop her wood. We started chopping her wood and as we did so talked to her about her family, work, religion the usual small talk. She has 6 kids ranging from 12 to 26, her husband worked in the city and she stayed at home cooking, cleaning, farming, and tending to animals which includes one kitten, two dogs, two puppies, 10 or 12 chickens, four cows, one donkey, and one duck. she was not attending a church but believed in christ of course. she has lived there for many many years and loves her family a lot. During all of this conversation of course we were still chopping wood. we chopped wood for about an hour and eventually she said we could stop, invited us in to have some corn and we gladly accepted. I was especially grateful to stop because i had blisters on both of my hands now and they were both full of slivers( in order to finish this story i have to be less descriptive due to my short email time) We went in and she gave us some nice burnt corn right from the middle of the fire. mmmmm. i took a bite and immediately received third degree burns to my tongue and mouth, but dont you worry, she gave me half a lime as well. im guessing just in case we got thirsty or burned our tongue, which i had. How thoughtful of her, after our long hike and chopping her wood, she gave us half of a lime to quench our thirst. It was the best she had to offer though and i knew it. What an amazingly humble and kind woman she was. after we finished our corn we decided to leave, surprisingly not because we were full from the corn and lime but because it was dark and nearly 8, So we set up another appointment for THE NEXT DAY and headed for down the mountain... in the rain... in the dark... down the trail were 3 people had been murdered earlier that week. I prayed the whole way down the mountain and eventually we arrived home in safety...... we did our usual nightly planning prayers chat and got in bed. As i layed there on my pillow looking back on the day, i had hiked Mount Doom, i had been attacked by hell hounds, i had chopped wood till my hands were blistered and slivered, i had burt my tongue, cooled it off with a lime, i had walked through the dark night, the pouring rain, and life endangering trails and.... And i absolutely could not wait to do it again the following day. It was the lords work and the lords way and he allowed me to do it for him. The lady and her family all sincerely enjoyed our visit and knew that we came as missionaries of the lord looking to help, love, and just get to know her and her family. What a blessing it is to be a missionary of the lord, to be able to help others and experience first hand his work moving forward. It was my experience Done in the lords name and i hope there are many more days like this one to come.

[nick] WK 4 internet cafe'

(Is it harder for them to give up coffee or beer?)

> BOTH. i hate to say it... but its not as easy as you think to get
> people to be babtized here! the pastors here PREACH TO THEM THAT WE
> ARE THE DEVIL. about one in twenty people let us in and usually just
> cause they couldnt find an excuse which is sad. but im still loving
> it. I love contacting and trying new ways with people. our newest
> thing we try and my personal favorite is to say hey we´re new here in
> this area and we would just like to get to know the people more and
> see if theres anything we can do to help you? chop wood, move dirt,
> wash your dog, share a message? thats what i love to do. Service
> service service. i love it!
>
also just so you know im only doing a little time now but ill be back
on later. (confusing i know) but also just so you know, Always send
stuff! emails or whatever. i may not always reply but i ALWAYS read
them and they always mean alot to me. From tyler rhett jessica laurie
family friends. but if you specifecly ask me to write back i usually
will


(Where are you using the internet?)


 we are in a small cyber cafe in the central part of huehuetenango, it
>> looks very much like a small italian town with colorful connected
>> houses and stuff. the only difference is that every one is mexicanish
>> and scary looking instead of attractive and nicely dressed

[nick] WK 3 language dandy, dinner yum-up

The language is going just dandy. When i arrived Elder Harding said he was really suprised how well my spanish was. he said he was in the advanced class in the mtc and mine is just as good as his was when he first arrived in the field. He thinks im one of the best that have come that didnt know spanish before the mission. That made me feel really good haha cause i didnt feel like it was that great before. I can speak better than i can understand so thats what im working on most. listening. We have only taught a few lessons and they have gone pretty well, i can usually follow along and add my bit every now and then but by no means am i taking the lead on lessons.
Well to answer my typical night ill share an experience of one night i had of visiting a member. it was actually the family that i sent a picture of. the one with just the kids that were all over me. there are those three boys and then one girl that isnt in the picture. the girl is the second youngest and is about as big as the one whos doing the peace signs. They are all CRAZY they dont know my name all they know is that we are "mejor amigos!!" thats what we all call eachother.
The kids always come and sit by,below and on top of me and blow there noses on my pant legs. it was really hard to laugh at that one.. my pants still have a mark from it. any ways ill share my first dinner cita with them. We showed up around seven according to our plans and sat down to a small plastic table on a bench that absolutely should have broken the moment i sat on it. Im grateful for the amazing strength the bench showed that night so we wouldn´t have to make that our next service project. anyways i sat on the left side of the bench and on the right side was the little girl. Elder harding sat on the right side of the table and the mother across from me. the three boys were eating in the other part of the room. I was already nervous because i knew this family was quite poor and would absolutely give there best meaning i would absolutely have to eat every bit of what she served. "She" is Laura, the single mother of the four very young children. She is very humble and hardworking woman. when she finished serving up the food what i found in front of me was a bowl filled with a turkey leg, carrots, potatoes and filled to the brim with oil. I wouldnt be suprised to have found out she had poured the oil strait from her bottle to my bowl no water no flavor just strait vegetable oil. Im guessing its similar to some of the food you ate in china.
Also in front of me was a drink that had the color of chocolate milk which got my hopes up but then i soon noticed the large grey floaties lingering in the depths of the dark thick substance. as i looked around i also noticed that, of course, i had the largest bowl. the more i looked at the bowl i came to the conclusion that the turkey was a giant parasite that she had found and killed to serve us that night for dinner. we started eating and as i ate i increasingly felt my self becoming sick and naucious. while we ate i also came to realize that the little girl next to me had peed her pants, this did not help my nausea. not only had she peed her pants but throughout the entire meal she was wiping her greasy peed hands on my pants. how nice of her to share. poor elder harding tried the swallow no chew tactic and finished his bowl quite quickly. poor guy.... i thought it was a good idea at first as well. Laura being the wonderful lady she is saw that he had finished his bowl quickly and figured that he must be very hungry.. she happily took his bowl and filled it right back up for him. Seeing this i learned from his attempt and ate the food as slowly as possible. I eventually finished mine and didnt even get to see if elder harding finished his because right as i finished mine we had to go out side to take a "phone call". After elder harding had puked his guts out we returned to the table and talked. I was having a really rough time trying to keep my food down after all of these things had taken place but i toughed it out and held it in with all my might. we eventually all finished, talked for a little, then elder harding and i left to go home. My days usually arent usually that wonderful but usually have bits and pieces of that night strung throughout the day.

[nick] WK 2 transportation?

To tell you about the area. we walk most of the time here, we live on
the outskirts of huehuetenango so the houses are a little more spread
out. its kind of similar to kanosh maybe? every one is semi distanced
and all that. its not really a jungle here, its more of... i dunno a
mix of Utah vegitation but its just really dense in some places and
the trees are a lot bigger. there arent aspens though. so its
everything ugly from utah. we proselyte out here and our ward is out
here but we actually spend alot of time in the city of huehue, again
it is very similar to something like maybe in Seans mission but every
one is guatemalan and theres probably alot more trash here too.
EVERYONE just drops there trash wherever they want. its really sad.
when in the city we takes buses usually. either large pimped out
buses or small vans that have the side doors ripped of. i often find
myself hanging out side of those small vans with my feet on the lower
platform of the bus and my hands reaching in and holding on to
anything on that upper inner lip. sometimes they have a bar, sometimes
not and as i do this im usually spooning some small guatemalan man
that has some how found his way in between me and the van. and they
take no speed precautions here so i often find that my forearms are
sore due to clinging on for dear life as the start stop or turn in any
direction in the slightest. for some reason they wait for the last 5
feet to start to slow down at lights or speed bumps, and any time they
do stop, of course they have to get to 50 mph as fast as they possibly
can and FLOOR IT. i will have some mighty fore arms soon. we usually
shop at a small grocery store call maxi. it is a very small smith
probably, they have a semi good amount of american food. speaking of
which, i recieved that package and those marshmallow mateys were no
joke an answer to my prayers, i was saying to my companion all week
that i would die for some real american marshmallow mateys so thank
you!!!!!! i believe i recieved everything!! the ipod the charger and
lots of snacks, you smeaged  that ipod in SO WELL. i thought it was
stolen at first. i loved that package thank you very much also i have
taken out money two or three times for the i home, shoes, and food. i
dont think ill be taking any more out for a while. if i need to ill
let you know. food here is not too bad so far. lots of chicken and
rice floating in oily water. i feel great and ive only been sick once,
phew.. im starting to wright journals again too. i dont have much time
so ill stop there and ill write you next week! ill see if you have
more questions later. i need  a few more peoples emails too. i love
you all so much thanks for the package again and also tell chunie i
might not recieve that letter she sent.. sorry! love every one!