Alyssa Letter

wow so it{s crazy to think that easter already went by!!! i guess the
holidays don{t really feel the same here! so the big celebration was
semana santa...i guess that is the equivilant to easter in the
states..but really all the catholics here are just crazy! so this
¨holiday¨ that they have they do all these processions in the street
and it{s like a parade kinda thing of jesus and his death. really it{s
quite sad but they get really into it. the people pay Q400 to carry
these giant statues and yeah seriously they are nuts! there are about
100 people carrying these things for a block...that is how long your
turn is and then they trade off. the churches rake in soooo much money
for this!!! we calculated it out and it was like 90,000 for the whole
time which is every friday for like 7 weeks and they everyday for a
week they have the marches! you could check out youtube and probably
find some videos of it...

(Hey everyone this is Eve....here are three links I found to view this GUATEMALA
parade Alyssa is talking about.....It is wild compared to our 4th of
July parade in Idaho Falls)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iJI23zbJgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWCphBTf9cc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHPpCCbXzkQ

i have some but i forgot my camera cord so i can{t send them. but
everyone is dressed in thsese little harry potter robes and they have
hats and stuff....each church too has a different color haha purple,
pink, yellow, haha it{s nuts! well yeah so that was exciting...yeah so
it was really weird to leave my area in the jungle! everything there
was sooo different and now we are in a real city! i felt so out of
place for the last week! we have hot water sometimes.....a place on
the roof for my hammock....couches...yeah it{s really weird! but i
will be here for probably the rest of my mission. our area is smaller
in the streets...there are tons of drunk guys passed out all over the
place. also we have a colony in our area...basically it{s that there
is a mountain side and they just build a million and half houses all
the way down and the conditions that they live in are very sad. but
the people are some of the most amazing people i{ve met. so what
else...i{m with the nurse now, training in the office and what not...i
thought it was funny because yesterday i had to do all the
filing...hahah good thing i had all those years of practice at Aspen!
hna king my comp said i was one of the most efficient file girls she{s
had haha. but yeah so we do the nursing thing, go to the hosptial with
the sick and afflicted, i{ve already had to give some elder a few
shots in the butt!! haha jason would probably think that{s funny so i
thought i{d include that in my letter...but yeah it{s different doing
both things...we have to speak english in the office so my spanish and
english are both horrible...can{t seem to keep them straight in my
brain! well i{m not reallysure what else to say about here...our ward
is great very small we only had 50 or so people in sacrament...and
they are faulting a lot with the priesthood so if we don{t help them
out this ward will not exist anymore! so it{s kinda nice to know that
we have a goal and it{s like a do or die kinda thing! they are very
willing to help, but the thing is that no one really knows how...but
that{s why we are here. my companion hermana king is from georgia! she
was an er nurse for a year before her mission and she is amazing! i
have already learned soooo much from her! yeah well i guess that{s it
for now, not really sure what else to write...hey send more stamps if
you guys get a chance because that is the only way that i can write
anyone besides on e-mail and our computer time isn{t very much! that{s
the only thing that i ask...i hope everything is going great at home!
glad to hear that jason is going to be with amber´s brothers, they are
really great guys! and tell alicia to write me so i can hear all about
her hawaii adventure. tell grandma and karla and all the aunts,
uncles, and cousins hey! love and miss you all! until next week (if we
have time...) -hermana collette