Guatemala

This is a long overdue post, and it's probably nothing new to most of you, but I did just want to share a few of my experiences from our trip to Guatemala in December (and I hope David does the same:)).-The hotel package we bought for our arrival in Guatemala City included transportation from the airport, bus tickets to Xela, transportation to the bus stop, and breakfast. We didn't choose what we ate for breakfast; our driver just stopped to get us something on the way. That being said, the first meal we actually ate in Guatemala was an Egg McMuffin from McDonalds. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not kidding when I tell you I felt like a true American fatty as I ate it at the bus stop waiting for the bus that would take us from the capital to Xela. David reassured me, "Don't feel embarrassed; this is what they expect from us." How comforting.
-Before our trip, I was pretty confident that I was going to get majorly ill and possibly die in Guatemala. It was inevitable. When Marie went, she contracted a lovely parasite. Everyone that I talked to told me to bring lots of Pepto Bismol because I was going to need it. And, 2 weeks before our trip, our lovely bishop (seriously, though, I love our bishop in our ward) told us about how his daughter went to Guatemala with her husband and she came home with typhoid. So we left America equipped with a Walgreens' supply of Pepto, Ammodium, and hand sanitizer and faced our doom. Well, actually, I just faced my doom because David wasn't worried at all. As it turned out, David got more sick than I did, but neither of us even were very sick at all. It was so comforting. But then, of course, as soon as we got home I caught the lingering-est cold of my freaking life. But the point is we survived.


-I called Marie before we left so that she could give me a run down of what I should expect (David was so used to the Guatemalan way of life that people parking their cars inside their houses seemed normal to him. Note that I said in their houses and not just on the lawn.... yeaaah). So Marie told me to be prepared for how hospitable and caring people there are because it was totally different than how it is here in the states. I feel like people say that a lot about Latin America. I think that it is true to an extent, but I think there are good people everywhere and, especially in the church, I often encounter people who are so genuine and caring and charitable. But I will say this: EVERYONE in Guatemala was so nice to us, not just the members of the church. Seriously, people we would pass on the street would stop to ask us how we were, where we were from, ask if we needed help getting somewhere, tell us a little about them and then wish us luck and see us on our way. Every time I wanted to shout, "Wait! What's your address or something so we can keep in touch?" because it just seemed so sad for that to be goodbye after all we had just gone through! I wasn't worried at all about being taken advantage of because I really didn't need to be.

-The Quetzaltenango Guatemala temple is quite possibly the most special and beautiful temple I've ever encountered. I understand that this may seem biased, because the love of my life lived with these people for 2 years of his life and loves them all so much and because I could be romanticizing this whole vacation. But during the dedication, I was so completely overwhelmed with the spirit. As we sang the closing hymn "The Spirit of God", I just sobbed and sobbed. I felt so embarrassed and I tried and tried to stop crying. A little boy who had been sitting behind me during the whole dedication (and who seemed kind of annoying while we waited to enter the temple and at the beginning of the dedication) noticed me crying. I was trying to avoid eye contact with anyone and everyone and beginning to compose myself a little as we were making our way down the stairs and out the temple doors, but the little boy hurried to catch up to me so that he could look up at me and say, as if agreeing with me, "It's beautiful." His English was probably about as extensive as my Spanish. It touched me so much and I hope that I always remember that experience.

There are tons more stories and pictures, but these were just a couple that I thought were funny or meaningful. I had such a great experience on our trip. To me, 10 days is a little long to be in a foreign place. And that proved to try David's and my communication skills as he was my only means of communicating with people around me. But we got the hang of it, we had a wonderful time, and we can now save our money for the next big trip we take, which won't be for a while, but I'm ok with that.