1st Official Email! 9/26/18

Hey everyone,

 My first week here was super long. My Spanish is progressing super slowly, but I am definitely learning. I have felt the spirit here this week more than ever before. I love it so much . The days go as you wake up at 6:30 and workout then we have breakfast at 8. At 9 we start our classes until lunch at 12:30. Then classes from 1:30 till dinner at 5:30 until 6 then we have classes untill 9.I love the Latino Elders here they are super funny and some of them know English very well. They are all so willing to help you out. Elder Sanchez( a Latino elder) from Nicaragua speaks super good English and is a super amazing guy. He is the only member in his family to have joined the church. He had to drive 2 hours every day to church by himself. And he is paying for his whole mission by himself. He wants to move to America so I said he could live with us. 
   The chocolate milk here is not very good but the rest of the food is super good. They have these cool fruit called lache I think that are all spiky on the outside are like a grape on the inside that tastes like a pear. Its super strange. I cant wait to go out and teach real people. I can already understand a lot of questions but responding is still super hard for me y mi companero.

 I miss you guys lots and I hope that you have a good time at work and at school. I will email you guys in a week.

 Yo se que la iglesia es verdadra. Yo tesifico que Jose Smith restorado la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultmos dias.

OUR DORMS

MY COMPANION 

 Love you all and Ill see you soon ;) 

He made it !!

To LA and to Guatemala safely

Hey Family. I made it here safely and everyone is speaking a lot of Spanish after they have been here for 3 weeks. There is about 50 missionaries that all came on the flight from LA and they are all awesome. There are also lots of people that are serving in the same area as me so thats cool. It seems all so unreal but also so good at the same time. I hope that I learn Spanish quick because if I dont the MTC is going to a little rough. I love you all and Ill see you all soon. we have a short time to email so sorry its short today. its just to set it up and stuff.

Update at 1:05pm yesteday.  

Pict with Elder Henry in CA on their way to Guatemala

Today at 6:45pm Ian flies out to Guatemala.  He will arrive at 7:45am there because of layovers.  He woke up early to hug his siblings and gave them each a little present this week. His buddy Dean was his "companion" yesterday as he was set apart on Sunday evening.   Today his dad is his companion.

For those that don't know what a mission entails....   first off Ian and us as a family have saved for him to be able to serve. It is all at his own expense.  He has put his education on hold to serve the Lord.  We as members of this church believe this is a blessing and something the Lord has asked of us.  Boys go at 18 and girls go at 19.  While serving his primary jobs will be teaching the gospel and service to those of his called area.  (Chase chopped tons and tons of wood on his mission.) Each missionary comes home a more amazing person. Although it feels like a sacrifice I can attest it is such a blessing. I see the man his brother is from serving the Lord on a mission and I already see how Ian has grown into an amazing man just getting ready and staying worthy to serve.   He gets to check his mail each day on Monday and calls home on Christmas and Mother's day.  His email will be on this blog. Unfortunately packages don't usually make it to the missionaries in Guatemala. But letters can. So you're welcome to send letters if you'd like but emails are more of a sure thing.