Mail Call!

Tyler spent the first two weeks in Guatemala without hearing from anyone because there is such a delay for the "DearElder" to get to them. This week made up for it...

"The dear elders came! Wow that was cool. I literally got 8 pages of mail, and the website combines everyones messages to condense space, so it was very interesting to read, and very fun :) Thanks again! Dont hesitate to send more :) And I got alot from others! Bro Kiker, Castanoses, Jack, and Kouryn, and Grandma. Very fun.

This week FLEW by! We are officially the only NorthAmericans here, and on Wednesday we got TWO groups of Latinos! There are so many. They are WAY cool. Our roomates especially. I love hearing them say things in English. They always pronounce my comps name as "Neelsong" (Nielson), and me as "Muurr" or "Muuree". Alot of the Latinos who have taken english know that E's are always pronounced like Spanish i's, even though it is not the case with our last name :)
Be sure to thank Sis Davidson for her postcards! She sent me two last week, and they are the craziest things I have ever read. I will try to write her soon. I also got a letter from Chase, Maggie, and Noah. Very exciting. (Noah is quite the artist.)

The temple is in both languages! It is very interesting. The session is in English, and theres a 50 50 chance that the end will be in Spanish, depending on who is working that day. It is actually very surprising but I am one of the best spanish speakers here! (That isnt saying much!) Most of these missionaries have never even had a class in Spanish. Its tough for them, but we're getting it. We get to go contacting at the temple once a week. Its always members, but very very fun. There is a Shell station right by the temple that the church has been trying to buy out for AGES. I guess they happen to make a lot of money there so it is difficult. Anyway, if they ever get it, they will have this whole street, and are hoping to make it into a sort of temple square! I hope it happens. It would be way cool!

Heres some stuff I learned this week!
Five Fun Facts about Spanish :D
1. The Guatemalans have a phrase like we do in English to say "Piece of cake." Its Pan Comida, which actually means Bread Food. Haha.
2. The Latinos who are learning or have taken English (a TON of the teachers are, and they actually require it now for when Latinos are on their missions) are TERRIFIED of the scriptures in English! Which definitely makes sense when you think about it. They say it is the hardest thing ever, and its funny to hear them speak in Old English thees thous and thys. :)
3. Prepositions--these are SO weird in both spanish and english. We have a lot that they dont have, and vice versa. They have almost 5 different ways to say Through, and they only have one word (Por) to say by, on, next to, because of, in behalf of, etc etc. Very interesting!
4. "Dar luz a un nino" is an idiom that means to give light to a child, and it means to give birth! When a woman is in labor, they call her En Luz, or In Light. Weird!
5. I tried to tell someone that my battery was dead, and they thought it was HYSTERICAL. Thats one of those english phrases that definitely doesnt translate :)

Two more weeks and Ill be in the field!
Love and miss you
Tyler"

Life in Guatemala

Tyler is still loving life in the MTC. Last week they went out into the city and were paired up with 'real' missionaries for a day. He says it was "AWESOME, and definitely a reality check! Me, Hma Kochevar and Romero, and Elder Bird (hes from alexandria!) are actually probably the best spanish speakers here and we STILL had a rough time with the spanish. But it was still way cool. We went into some very poor villages with thousands of dogs and even some houses without roofs. It was tough to see, but the people here dont even mind! They are so cool."

He also gives some great info about the city:

"Guatemala City is HUGE, and I only say this because I feel like it grows every time I go into it. You can see it from the mountains and it honestly looks like 5 Utah Valleys all in between two volcanoes (you actually cant even see the Vulcan de Fuego, its so far away.)"

"Today is the 3 week mark, which means that the viejos and latinos left this morning. We will miss them! But we are excited for them. So yesterday, for a rest day, we all went to Las Colinas (the Church owns this huge plot of land up in the hills) which was WAY cool. I played soccer most of the day, but you could do football and hiking as well. The MTC president bought us pizza! It was way fun. And the landscape is SOOOOO cool. I think im going to do the hike next time (we go again in three weeks). They have these weird forest crabs everyone took pictures of. Way awesome.

I have yet to see signs of Halloween, even of Dia de Los Muertos! I think it is a Mexican holiday. I miss it! Have fun at carving pumpkins! "

Moore news

From Tyler:

This week has been good good good. The weather is way nice (it got down to 65 yesterday--all the Guatemalans walked in with scarves :) and our MTC president is AWESOME, i cant remember if I told you about him. His devotionals are WAY good (hes done overviews of the Book of Mormon that are excellenttttt), and he actually is a BYU-I professor when not an MTC president. Anywho. The food here has gotten very old very fast. Its very bland, and it never settles very well (our entire floor got a stomach bug on thursday :/ ) but its not too bad. Every now and then there are some good things. We had the WEIRDEST breakfast the other day though. Oatmeal, black beans, nachos con queso, scrambled eggs, chocolate cake, and Sunny D. Yikes! The teachers thought it was weird too though, so it might just be an MTC thing (thank goodness).
Tomorrow we get to go on divisions! I am way excited. You get to go out with a real missionary from the field and just do a day of proselyting. I think it will be way cool. You either go to City Central or City South, so I'm hoping for South, since I wont get to leave City Central in the field! Everyone is way excited for it. It will be cool to actually go do the stuff weve been learning. Also you get to go to lunch in the city and also the store (american fast food and soda! finally :) so we are quite stoked.

News from Guatemala

I'll let Tyler tell you in his own words:

Estoy en Guatemala!!!

Today is officially one week since leaving the USA. Wow it is different! Here are some quick thoughts on the MTC (I have 45 minutes for email here, but I still feel pretty rushed!):
Food--SO weird. But actually pretty good! The first day was pretty gross, and I still will never bring myself to eat beans for breakfast, but other than those it isnt so bad! They have this steak taco dish about once every 3 days that is quite yummy. Some weird things so far=lime salad, fried bananas, guatemalan hot dogs (guacamole, cheese, tomatoes, relish, and ranch dressing), minty cranberry juice, THICK jello, white rice soup in the morning (tastes like orchata. very yummy!) etc etc etc. I think, Mom and Dad, you guys would actually like the food a lot though. Dinner is always very tasty.
The City--WAY cool! We havent seen much of it yet, just the MTC street, but it is actually very normal. It reminds me a lot of downtown richmond, only with CRAZY exotic plants everywhere (seriously, there are tons of orange trees, and all these flowers with vivid colors and GIGANTIC petals and leaves) and everything is in spanish. There is a shell station every two blocks, and everyone drives REALLY nice cars (its hard NOT to find a BMW or Lexus). All in all, not what I expected!
Temple--WAY cool. Its nothing like what the pictures show, Its almost like New York where its just on the side of the road. The temple grounds are way nice. We get to go at 1:00 today. Cant wait!
Mechanics--Everything here is SOOOOOO small. There are a total of 75 missionaries here at a time, and the building itself is just like staying at a Marriott, only you also have class and gym. Every three weeks, 4 things happen. 1, the Latinos leave for the field, and new ones come in. 2. The viejos (older missionaries) go to the field. 3. The nuevos (younger missionaries) become Viejos. 4. A new batch of North American missionaries arrive and become the new nuevos. We have two weeks left in the rotation and then we become Viejos. very cool!
Another interesting thing is that this MTC is doing phase training now, but plans on becoming a real MTC. There are temples being constructed in Honduras, El Salvador, andQuetzaltenango. Once the four (including guat city) are completed, this becomes a real MTC and ALL latin american missions/missionaries will be sent through here! Way exciting.

Tyler's address

If you want to send Tyler a letter through the mail, this is the address:

Elder Moore

Centro de Capacitation Misional
Boulevard Vista Hermosa 23-71, Zona 15
Vista Hermosa 1 C.P. 01015
Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala C.A.

That will go straight to the Guatemala MTC. They tell us not to send mail to this address after Nov. 7, as he will be leaving there around Nov. 17.

Tyler is in Guatemala!

These are the new missionaries who just entered the Guatemala MTC with Tyler. His mission president is David Christensen. There are 84 missionaries in this MTC, 42 from North America and 42 from Latin and South American countries. Tyler will be here for six weeks.

Pictures!!!

These are the missionaries in Tyler's district while he's been in the MTC. They are all leaving tomorrow for their various missions. To see these pictures in an album click here.