Dear Family,
Sorry that I did not write on Monday like I normally do but as I am sure that you probably all know, it is because .........I AM NOW IN BELIZE!!!!!! CRAZY!!!!! President and Sister Hintze told me about it last Friday so the last few days in Sensunapan were super rough. I couldn't stop thinking about how it would be and all the what ifs. But it was tough to say goodbye to all the people that I have truly grown to love. After seven months in one area there are a lot of people like that. It was probably the hardest to say goodbye to the Magana Family. Tears were shed and emails were shared. Thankfully we will have a way to communicate after the mission because of facebook. But this change has come at almost my half way mark....which is tomorrow by the way :) Because of this and the fact that it isn't just a normal transfer but I am leaving El Salvador and probably won't go back until the end of my mission, I feel like I am ending one mission and starting another. And after being here for a day I really feel that way! The culture here is SO different. There are Jamaican, Latin, Caucasin, and a German people that are like the Amish. Depending on where you are, they speak english, spanish, or creol, or a great mixture of them all. I am in a town called Orange Walk that is pretty northern and close to Mexico. I honestly haven't gotten to work yet here so there is much that I don't know but you can just feel the "chill" atmosphere in the air. I live in a house that has two companionships of sisters. My companion is Sister Rodriguiez.....how weird to say sister!! She is super short and is from Guatemala and has been here in Belize for about five months. Before this week, there were only one group of elders in all of Orange Walk but we are splitting the town into three areas. We only have a branch here in Orange Walk but there are about 500 inactives.....YIKES !! We have a lot of reactivation work to do. But I am excited and a little nervous. I honestly don't know when to speak what language. I went through customs yesterday when we got here and I automatically started answering in spanish and the officer told me somewhat forcefully to speak in english because I was now in Belize. Oops. But that was in Belize City....they are on the coast and don't speak much spanish there, only english and creol. It rained almost the whole day and night when I got here yesterday. fun fun. There is mud everywhere and when I see the elders they are just covered in it. It is a whitish color. ha! And for the first two days I will be walking but after that we will have bought our bikes, yes, I said bikes. How very very different! The money is different and the food is different, everything feels different. But we hardly spoke any english in the house last night. There are three gringas and my companion but we spoke Spanish. Oh, random story, yesterday in the airport in El Salvador, we were going through all the check points and at one there was a problem and the man asked me in broked english if I could speak spanish.....I can't tell you how wonderful it was to say, yes, I speak spanish !! haha! Due to my pleading, the group of 11 of us who were leaving El Salvador were able to go to the temple yesterday morning before our flight. What a wonderful blessing!! I thought a lot about you Mom and Dad. I got to do inititory and a session. I LOVE THE TEMPLE !! Hermana Heap
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