Here is what Ashtin had to say yesterday in her email she explains a little bit, but if you want to email her it may be best to go through dearelder.com as that basically goes to the MTC and is then printed out and delivered to her.  The way I understand it, it goes through the SLC MTC and they use a carrier to deliver a "pouch" full of mail to that MTC.  Make sure you choose the Guatemala City East Mission.  Also, the keyboards are different than ours so to save time she is skipping all the punctuation etc!  So all you teachers out there will just have to bite your tongues!

MI FAMILIA Y AMIGAS!!!!

you have no idea how happy i am to email you haha. we were literally like screaming walking to the computer lab. anyways first things first. mail. since im going to be in the mtc for 6 weeks and not two, please send letters within the next four weeks to the mtc. also i found out that the address i gave you for the mission isnt actually right. the mission home has changed but i dont have the address for it. so until then i think you can probably send it to the address you have and theyll forward it but idk. as soon as i find out ill let you know. also, i love all the emails but i dont have a ton of time and no printer so heres a solution. dearelder.com. get on there and you type a letter so its as easy as email but then they print it and give it to me in letter form. i get them every thursday. that way ill have time to read it and respond. also, if you send a package, DONT put pictures of Jesus and Mary because now they will open those because they suspect youre hiding something. just write my name kind of big so they know its a missionary. the mtc address is still correct so you can use that to write letters.

alright so the mtc or ccm here is pretty awesome. its very small and right next to the temple. we get to go later today!! yay!! the ccm is gated and has cameras and security guards...kind of like a fun prison haha. the driving here is insane. so glad i dont have a driving mission. i cant say much about guatemala because i havent seen much of it. just what i saw when i got off the airplane. we get to go on field trips every two weeks so next week i get to go to walmart. i forgot or lost one of my towels so i have to buy that haha but other than that, its just little stuff like shampoo (dad asked which is why im saying this) so the food here is serioulsy the most amazing thing ever. the only problem is how much they give us really. we have to eat it all and sometimes i feel sick because of how much but its delicious so oh well. and also so long to the idea of losing weight...haha. the weather here is basically like indianas only it rains a tad bit more. the rain hasnt been awful, it will just randomly downpour.

were called the nortes here because were the people who cant speak spanish haha and whenever we have a meeting they give us little translator headphones so we know whats going on. honestly its kind of distracting because im trying to understand the spanish and then the english comes in and they dont always translate completely accurately. my spanish is alright. im able to get by but when the natives talk...its so fast and i havent quite gotten used to the accent yet. my comp and i are trying to speak it a ton more though. ill get it eventually.

we actually have a real investigator(not just a teacher pretending) and he is amazing. he works here and my entire district is teaching him. hes started praying our way instead of the catholic prayer and says he feels the spirit and feels closer to God now. he went to church on sunday and is reading the book of mormon. my comp and i try to tlak to him in spanish most of the time and he usually understands. i can usually know what hes saying but sometimes its hard. i lvoe teaching though. the spirit is so strong especially when we bear to him our testimonies. hes got an incredible spirit and really wants to know God. he says he believes what hes saying but wants some time to think about baptism. whats sad is that when he does say yes to baptism, we have to give him to the missionaries in his area. but hopefully we would get to go to his baptism. oh also listening to him pray for the first time out loud with us was so amazing. the spirit was there and i know he felt peace. i get what theyre saying now about that first prayer. its incredible.

so they took our cameras when we got here so there will be very few pictures of anything in the ccm. its very sad, i know. my district is really awesome. .there are 12 of us but only 4 of us are going to the east mission, whcih is kind of sad. my schedule is basiclaly like this. get up at 630 and study, eat and study, go to sports (super fun. we get to work out and just relax which is nice), study, eat, study, eat. sunday was amazing because we got to rest from all the studying. we watched an awesome movie about the slc temple and had a couple devotionals. its a major spiritual renewal. we all ahve to prepare a 5 minute talk and 10 minute sunday school lesson and then they randomly call on people to give them.

so despite the fact that im exhausted literally all day errday, im enjoying myself so much. i love it here. my comp is really good (hna windsor and i have already developed separation anxiety haha, if we dont see eachother for a second we are like DONDE ESTA MI CUMPANERA) and i feel the spirit so much. i pray more than i ever have in my entire life. probably like 20 times a day and its so awesome. i feel so much closer to my Savior. i feel like i can relate to Him more than before too. He also left His family and friends to go with people He doesnt know to preach the gospel. He suffered for the good of others and sacrificed for them. now obvioulsy im not as selfess or suffering near as much but i like seeing the connection because i want even more to be like Him. He is the greatest example of the perfect missionary.

we have one teacher hno mendez who is hilarious and really good. i dont think this mtc is like provos...our classes tend to be a lot of us being like where is our teacher and then being like okay well what do we want to learn haha. flashcards have been a really good thing.

i love you all and i hope everything is going well. im doing great so dont worry about me.

love,

hna wilcoxen