Hola de Guatemala!

Hola de Guatemala!!!!! Estoy aqui en el mejor pais en todo el mundo! This keyboard is a little bit different so if things are kind of messed up then you'll understand. The flight was great! It was a litle bit scary flying into Guatemala City because we flew into a thunderstorm for a little bit and there was lightning all around us, but I knew that it would be safe so I wasn't too worried. I sat next to Elder Nelson on both flights so we got to talk and he's really great. I hope that I get to be companions with him someday. We landed around 8:30 and then got loaded up and had to wait for the other people flying in on a later flight so we were waiting on the side of the street for about an hour and a half or so. We didn't actually get to the CCM until around 10:30. My first impressions of Guate...AWESOME! It's the best!! It's HUGE!!! The city goes on forever and is just a really massive area. When we were stopped on the side of the road we all got out to stretch and these two families had little stands set up to sell stuff and they sold us drinks and they were all so nice and everything! The coolest thing I have seen here was a Chuck E. Cheese's!!! I was laughing so hard when I saw it it was hilarious haha. Alright so on to the CCM. It's a heck of a lot smaller than the MTC in Provo. Only one building really, but since we have so many of us, there wasn't enough room in just the one building. So they're letting us use the rooms at la casa de huespedes (west house) which is normally for people who come to go to the temple and need a place to stay. The veterans all say that our rooms are nicer, but I don't think that they're that much nicer. We have two sinks and a bathroom and shower in our room which is nice, but we have no desks or anything and the rooms are a bit smaller. So we won some and we lost some. But it's still awesome! My new companion is Elder Glenn from San Diego California. He is definitely more at my level of Spanish and I think we are about at the same level generally and we both know more about different things so it works well. We've only been companions for a day, but I can tell that he's going to make a great companion, so I'm really enjoying it so far. We have 2 Latinos that we just met today staying in our room with us along with 2 other North Americans. We are the largest group of North Americans to come to the CCM in history, so we're pretty proud of that fact. And yes there are actually two Hermana Alaya's here. They're twins, so I'll have to talk to them and see. (One of the teachers at the CCM is Sister Ayala who served her mission in the Independence Missouri Mission, which is the mission we live in, so I told him to look for her.)  But anyways! The food is pretty good. Not the same selection as the MTC in Provo, but still good. They have thick tortillas here which will take some getting used to haha. But I really love it here so far and I'm really really excited to be here!! I saw Elder West (my friend from college) here my first night and he's doing well so it was good to see him and I see him all the time. The schedule is quite a bit different and I'm still figuring out when I get to do everything. I'm pretty sure that everyone's pday is on Wednesday so that's when you'll be getting emails from me for the next 6 weeks. I'm able to communicate fairly well with the Latinos so Spanish feels like it is coming along great and I can't wait until I can really speak it fluently! I also can't wait to get my cool stuff from the vendor that comes to the CCM. There are quite a few teachers here that all speak English pretty well so I have been pleasantly surprised. Although they don't want us to speak English very much haha. After the 3rd week here no mas ingles para nosotros. Well anyways we only have 20 minutes today so I'll have to cut this a little short. Just know that I'm loving it here much more than the MTC in Provo already and I can tell this will be a great experience for me and will be tons of fun. It was great talking to you all yesterday and I love and miss you all tons. Write if you can!!! Love you all!!!          


Con amor, Elder Norton