Week 1...8/12/14...Flying to Guatemala and CCM

Guatemala City CCM

Aug 6, 2014, at 2:29 PM, Scott Pugmire <scott.pugmire@myldsmail.net> wrote: 

Hey, we just get a little bit of time to tell you hi and that we made it safe and sound. The CCM is absolutely amazing. I love it so much already! It was crazy in Utah there was like 40 missionaries going to the LA airport but they put me on a different flight by myself. It ended up getting delayed and I almost missed the connecting flight to Guatemala! Anyway, love you so much! ADIOS

August 12, 2014, 12:26 pm
 
Hey Mom!! I just want to say I love and miss you so much!

So unfortunately the keyboards here are weird (editor's note someone told us they have Spanish Characters) and I've only got an hour to write so there's gonna be a ton of errors. (Anna added a few corrections.) (Also our p-day changes from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday or Thursday so just make sure you email me by Sunday so I can get your letters. P-day has been great. The temple here is so pretty and amazing. Our district and another district went there this morning.
 

So a little about the country; the people are really short... and so are their cars. The drivers here are crazy and I think we almost ran over 6 motorcyclists and almost hit 4 cars on the way up to the CCM (Centro de capacitacion misional or something like that). Anyway, it's so amazing down here. The weather here is perfect! It’s only hot when we go outside and play basketball (I later realized that it was the air conditioning that provided the perfect weather, even the capital was hot!). I have a companion from Las Vegas Nevada, and he is just awesome. His name is Elder Stuart and he'll be serving in the Guatemala City South Mission. He's a great missionary, kind of quiet, but he’s got a really good heart and likes to learn, like me. He’s also a really good basketball player and wants to go play ball at either Wyoming Western or Dixie state or something like that!

 Guess what? Surprise surprise. I'm actually good at Spanish! I'm the best speaker in our class and better than most of the people on our plane that came. Well, that's what everyone tells me. I love talking to the native speakers. A lot are from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I have to interpret for all of the people in my room what they’re saying. Even for all of the people who have been here for a couple weeks.

I absolutely love it here. The food is amazing! All of the juice here is sooooo good and just delicious. Everyone is very friendly and we have a teacher who is just hilarious. His name is Hermano Menedez. In our district, we have 12 guys who are all just so funny. I laugh so hard every day. We're not always as focused as I'd like to be but I love everyone in the district. We've been learning so much so fast I already am starting to just see and spell in Spanish. I testify that the gift of tongues is real. Because there's no way I spoke this good of Spanish in Senora Gomez’s class. Sundays here are definitely the most amazing days ever. During the week there is a lot of just learning the language and teaching each other the discussions in Spanish. Get this, the second day they had us teach our very first lesson. IN SPANISH! It was so hard but now we’re doing so much better. There are a lot of people in my district struggling with the language and I'm trying to help them out as much as I can. There's this one elder in our district, Elder Evans. He is absolutely hilarious. He's been constipated for the whole week. Poor guy, but everything he says about it is so funny and he’s got such a good attitude about it.

 I hope that everything is going good down in the MN! I hope I’ve got a sweet blog going and that you’re not partying too hard without me! I love you all so much I’ll probably write another email out after I remember what else I was going to say but for now bye I’ll talk to you all next week! 

Love Elder Pugmire

p.s. we can get packages here at the CCM so things I would love to have. One of those towels that stay cool all day long when you add water, a couple sharpie pens not the markers, more of the micron .005 fine tips pens they’re like a tanish color and write really small. Mouth wash, and like a small travel fan would be fantastic because our rooms aren’t air-conditioned. Hope that this week goes by quick I get some time to write letters after this so make sure people write me! ;) love you all!

August 12 2014 12:47pm

Yes, send the boots. We had such a good devotional with Elder Bednar the other night it was amazing! We get packages at the MTC. (Editors note- since this is the second time we have heard this…Here’s the address):

Pouch Mailing Address: (letters only)
Guatemala MTC
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Address:
Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15
Guatemala City 01015
Guatemala

August 12, 2014 12:59 pm

I have a few minutes left so I'm just going to type. We got off the plane and then got on two super sketchy school buses, where our guide said not to worry about the guns everyone carries around, people get shot here all the time. It made me feel so much better.... not. Anyway, every single business has a 24-hour guard like every single store and anything else. We have two outside the MTC. We drove through the city and every building likes to be different and there are a ton of colors. Were right next to the temple. We got a quick nap the first day but now we’re just going, go, go all day long. We teach, learn, talk, pray, read, sleep, eat and repeat. It’s awesome. I love it, anyway, I'm not sure when I’ll be able to talk next time. Sometime next week but be sure to try to get as many people as you can to read my emails! I hope everyone's doing well I'm out of time so until next week adios! I've only got 103 times to email again in the next two years! Love Elder Pugmire