Everything's Great

April 17, 2012

Well good afternoon my dear family and friends!!  I really am glad to hear from you and to know that everything is going crazy good!

Things here in Orange Walk are going pretty good except for the extreme heat as usual.  I think that I've just got used to having a really sweaty shirt all the time..  GROSS!!!

So BE Lacrosse is going great I assume.   I don't know what dad does to get all those boys into shape but he can definitely put me through the course when I get home.  I think I'm putting on a few pounds here in Orange Walk and not because of the tons of food that I eat but what I eat.  People here have a huge Spanish influence on the food that they eat so they love to eat lots of beans and eggs and fried bread and things with lots of grease.  But don't worry, I'm not eating a lot so that I can come back nice and slim and then I can put on the muscle later.  (hahah - you know how big I was before I left!)

Well yes it’s grandpa’s birthday!  The sad day is that I'm not going to be there for it. Make sure to let him know that we'll go out to Burger King with him to make it up to him.  I feel like this month is really flying by!  I could have sworn that it was just Christmas and now it’s Grandpa's birthday!  Crazy things.  I can see why everyone would tell me that when you get old the time flies even faster..  Implying that now I’m old too... hahah

1 – How are your scriptures holding up?  Do you have both English & Spanish that you use?

Well I'm not going to lie my scriptures are taking quite a hammering going around with me all the time.  As you can remember I'm using the scriptures that I got for seminary when I started and they are looking beat up. But for right now I usually walk around with them and not so much in Spanish. Almost everyone here speaks both English and Spanish perfectly. But you got to love it. I even use the little glue-ins that my seminary teachers had given me. So you never know when they will come in handy seminary.

2 – What kind of wildlife/bugs/critters have you seen in your new area?

Well to talk about little animals here in my area I'm going to tell you all a story. One day my companion decided to take out the garbage from our house and sadly it’s not like the states where you can just go and take it out side in a big can that you have, but what we have to do is we have to go and put it into our neighbors with their permission of course. So as he was going to take it out he noticed that a whole bunch of ants were on his hand and he dropped it and started screaming as these nasty red ants bit up his hand. It was really funny to be there and I imagine that the people in the street thought so too seeing a white kid in a shirt and tie jump up and down. But other than that there are a lot of insects here and rats the size of small cats etc... Something random here is that they have little ants that climb up and down your walls. They are really so small that they almost aren't worth killing but if you leave your food out they somehow always find it and you end up with some extra protein in your cereal. hahah

3 – How big is the branch in Orange Walk, and do they have a piano for you to play there?

Well the branch here isn't too huge - last week there were like 78 people in church. And yes I actually do play the piano here. They had been without a piano player in the branch for at least 6 months. Can you imagine church without piano? But actually a nice lady came up to me and thanked me for all the time that I put in to learn the piano. Then at the end she told me to thank my parents for all they did so that I learned to play the piano. SO like I said it’s one of the best things here in the mission. Especially here in Belize - THANK YOU PARENTS!!!!!

4 – We know you don’t overlook the ocean anymore, but what is your new apartment like (now that it’s clean and all….)?

Well actually my companion and I do clean our apartment often. We actually got up early on Monday so that we could clean and not have to do it in the heat of the day (I’m becoming more of a morning person.... kind of).  But my apartment is....... ok....  It’s exactly what we need. We have a shower and rooms with beds in them, and like Bryant said we are living out of our suit cases so that was a great investment!!! But really it’s a nice house, I can't complain much because we never really are in it-hahah

Well funny story of the day!  So my companion and I decided to make some purchases this Monday and what I needed to buy were some new sandals..... Yes, my trusty sandals that have lasted me soooooooo long have died!  I remember having those sandals for sooo long.  Remember the Speedo ones?  They have officially died!!   But my companion decided to get something to help him work out.  He bought himself a Vibro Belt!!  It’s pretty much the coolest thing ever.  It’s a belt that you put on and it just shakes your stomach and supposedly it makes you skinnier (doubt that).  But it’s definitely the purchase of the month in our house!  If anything - it’s funny.

Well the baptism of Marcos and Jeffery went really well this last week! With the help of a lot of the members things came together and we managed to get some refreshments and stuff. But the most important thing is that they were happy with it, and from what I could see they were definitely happy.

Well things are great and hot here in Belize!  But I’m definitely enjoying myself and working really hard.  Maybe I'll bring one of my shirts home so that you can see them. The necks are all torn up from so many times of being washed and they are slowly turning the color yellow.  It’s part of the experience though and that’s why I love it. The people are great!  My companion and I are great!  And we're working hard to help as many people as possible.

Well, I love you all and have a happy birthday Grandpa!

Elder Sutton