Week 17, Tierra Nueva - Mixco is NOT the safest city in the mission


 
Elder Walbom didn’t have time to write a group email this week because his zone (a group of missionaries in a specific area) had a golfing activity together, on their P-day.  He said the activity was fun, but it just didn’t leave him with much time for other P-day activities. 
During the time we spoke on a video chat Elder Walbom said that he and his companion exceeded the goals they had set for finding people to teach.  They found 5 new people this past week!  He also said that he is getting fed regularly by the members in this new area. He told our family about one of Guatemala’s most well-known dishes, Pepian, a spicy sauce that is served with meat and rice and asked us to make it so that we could experience a little bit of what he was experiencing.  Here are some pics of our Guatemalan Pepian chicken dinner.  We served it with Jamaica juice, a beautiful purple drink, similar to Kool Aid, that is Elder Walbom’s favorite.  It reminded us of Indian food and was actually quite tasty!

  
Though Elder Walbom likes being closer to civilization, parts of Mixco (his area is Tierra Nueva and it is in the city of Mixco) are not the safest places to be, especially after dark.  For the past 2 years, some of the area they are entering now was closed to missionaries because of muggings and other crime.  Elder Walbom and his companion always have to be very aware of their surroundings.  A couple of times Elder Walbom wanted to take a picture of some of the beautiful scenery in Mixco, but his companion told him that he shouldn’t pull out his camera because it wasn’t safe. 
They don’t want to seem like they have money and attract unwanted attention. (This is despite the fact that we purposefully stuck frayed gray duct tape all over his camera so that it wouldn’t look nice and new, before he left.)

Here are some of the pictures he did take, with his descriptions:

 "My comp and I in the house of familia martinez. They welcomed me by playing a song on their guitar and singing as a family. The song was The lost sheep or something like that. Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."


"Recent Converts in the area. They are super nice. They are super faithful and all of them were baptized. We were here for the birthday of this little girl Ashley."

 "This is where I live. It has been described as a cave."

 
"This is a super nice area that we went to for zone p day. It's called Cayalá."


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