Letter 4

Hey Momma,

It’s crazy how fast we’re growing up huh, haha, pretty soon you and dad are going to be right in my shoes on a mission of your own. I’m glad you guys got to visit with Mikey. I’m really jealous I couldn't be there haha.

I’m glad to hear that Rick and Gavin are doing great. Rick’s spirit has always touched me and it’s fascinating to see how close to the spirit and Christ he has become. I woke up this morning and realized that today Gavin is probably headed to the Philippians because we just sent out a huge group of missionaries. I hope everything has been going well for him in the MTC and the language has been coming.

I have been grateful that I was blessed with the easiest foreign language to learn. Some of the missionaries here that are going to places such as Northern Guatemala Cuban, I think it’s called, have to learn Spanish in the MTC and then get out in the field and have to learn really old Indian dialects like Kechi and Kichay, because 75 percent of their mission speaks it. They also get the opportunity to hike around in jungle with machetes. I think that would be an amazing experience, but so stressful and such a trial.

One of my new teachers is a Latino and doesn’t know a lick of English. We are switching to full Spanish speaking teachers and we aren’t allowed to talk in English haha. A good way to put how our Spanish is going is that we can understand pretty much anything they say to us, it’s just getting out the words that is difficult. He said it took him 8 months to learn the language. He spoke for us and the language uses a lot of clicks and weird sounds that make no since. His Kechi Book of Mormon was twice the size of the English one.

I’ve really grown close to my whole district. There are 6 of us boys and 1 hermana. It’s a weird situation because she is the first case in few years where there has been a hermana without a comanero. My companion is cool as heck and has grown to be a really good friend, and hopefully we can meet up after our missions and go to school together or something. He wants to be a mechanical engineer also.

Keep me updated about how Rick and Gavin are doing. I’ve been keeping in touch with Donavon and Hayden. Ask me questions about Guatemala to and anything you want to know. It’s a really unique place from what I’ve seen so far. I’m so high up in elevation that it actually gets really chilly here sometimes. They call it the land of eternal spring because it is always like this year around. There are only two seasons; rainy and not rainy. Half the year they say it rains every couple hours and the other half is just clouds and sunshine. If I go farther south when I leave they say it will get really hot because it’s at sea level.

Oh, and tell Lisa, Grandma Bay, Joe, and Brother Richardson I really enjoyed their letters and thank you so much! I just don’t have enough time to respond. If I get time I’m going to write letters to you and dad and have you guys give them out. I sent one to Em last week.

Also how are Marissa and Ana? Michael? Emerson? I keep them in my prayers every day.

I just figured out that we can get packages and the guy that gave us mail was just confused. Not that it really matters; I’ll be gone before any packages get to me here.

I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Dabel