TITLE: I made it!

Well, I made it to the field! After a super long day of travel we finally made it. We had about a 3 hour drive to Quetzaltenango. We met the President and had a few meetings. Then met our new companions and headed out to our areas. My companion is the absolute best! Hermana Rodriguez is from Honduras and has only 3 more months on her mission. I am so grateful for her because she is so extremely patient with me. She doesn't speak a lot of English and my Spanish is not very good yet so it has been a bit difficult, but we are getting through it! She is teaching me so much, about Spanish and also about how to be a good missionary. She is amazing! I am in an area called Huehuetenango, its about 3 hours from Xela. My area is Cerrito de Maiz, it means hills of corn. And oh my goodness, there is so many hills! I went from sitting all day to climbing hills all day. I like the change but holy cow its exhausting. The people here are so great. So humble. 

The hardest thing is not being able to understand everything people are telling me. They talk SO fast! So most of the time I just smile and nod. Hopefully "si" is the right answer to everything cuz that what I have been doing! In a package from my mom I received a big bag of Halloween candy that she sent me to give to the kids. So that's how I get the trust and break the ice when we are looking for new people to teach. I just give them candy haha. And I try to talk to them and we usually just end up laughing together because I am not making a lot of sense. The little kids think its so funny when I try to speak Spanish. Which I  don't blame them, it is pretty funny. Day by day its improving though. I am able to speak fine in the lessons, its just outside of the lessons that are hard! 

My apartment is actually pretty nice. We don't have warm showers, but we are trying to fix it so hopefully by this week we do! But I am getting used to it, its no big deal. We get to eat at members houses every day for lunch. They cook yummy food, but lets just say my stomach is still getting used to it. People are constantly making tortillas, and oh my gosh, the tortillas here are to die for! 

We have a baptism date set for November 14 for a man named Manuel. He is amazing. I cannot believe how much faith he has. He has been an alcoholic for a long time, but once he learned about the gospel he realized that he needs to stop. We didn't have to try and convince him of anything, we simply taught the Word of Wisdom to him, and he said that he needed to change because of the commandment God has given him. Its pretty amazing seeing the strong faith of people here. I love it. It strengthens me for sure. 

Anyways, I don't have a lot of time to write, so to all of you who have sent me emails, I LOVE YOU! PLEASE keep sending them and keeping me up to date with your life, because I read all of them, I just don't have a lot of time to respond. Your emails keep me going and keep me happy. Thank you all so much for all your support!!

Muchas Gracias! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Baird

New companion

Hermana Rodriguez

First rain storm