I'm liking this.

Photo sent through email.

He looks HOT - Handsome too.

Daniel Shipley to me

show details 11:30 AM (10 minutes ago)

 Things are going really good, i am really enjoying it here.

1. You know my first question is going to be about the wart?? Why did they not take it off in Provo?? Did you have it before you left??  Do you still have a thumb??? My thumb is gone now but its ok. ha kidding. i leave in an hour for the doctor and it is covered by the church. It wasnt a big deal but Hermana Steimle was looking at it and was worried about it. so she wants to get it taken off. She is also taking us to McDonald's too so that will be nice.

yeah, last wednesday was the guatemala independence day so that was cool to see but we actually didnt get to see to much. there were gun shots though which was funny. everyone  carrys either a sword here or a gun. they are really protective. Mail here takes about a week to get here but they like to keep our mail hostage and give it to us when they think were ready to get it. the person in charge here is quite interesting. the president is cool but the supervisor is good.

Dad and i went to the temple on Fri - Megan and sister mcgee were there.  have you heard from Garrett? Craig? Devin? Gage? that is really cool that you saw them there. garretts pres said he cant email in the provo mtc but in chile he can so i wont for a while be talking to him. and craig i talk to through email. he was assigned to provo for a bit, idk why but oh well. i hope he can go to mexico. i don't talk to devan or gage cause i dont know how to get in connect with them.

did you find out about the ipod? - we bought the spanish hymns to put on it if you can have it. the ipod is good to have and i sent dad an email of what to send.

I'm surprised you have a companion from the states.  I thought you would have had a native. yeah they usually have state missionaries here, the natives go everywhere else.

how is the food?? are you adjusting??  beware of the street vendor food - geri told me the kid in her ward who was in guat and went home ate that food and that is why he is sick.  the food is good and i am enjoying it. we dont go out much so we cant eat out to much and they also tell us were not allowed to eat at the vendors because their food is no good.

i love your emails - i post them on your blog - everyone likes to read them - hopefully you've had several letters - we are trying to figure out the best way to send them.  so what address will we switch to and what date should we start sending stuff to the new address.starting next wednesday you should send stuff to my other address here it is

Elder Daniel Wayne Shipley

A.P. 340 - A

Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

how is the language coming - i pray for you all the time to be able to learn it quickly. the language is coming along really well im picking it up, but still needs alot of work.

do you still exercise in the guat ccm - don't make me have to send new clothes - or should i say there will be no bigger sizes sent - so watch what you eat and exercise.   im pretty sure i have been losing weight but im not sure, ha, there is no scale, but i play soccer and i love it so that is keeping me moving.  - i have to go but i{ll finish later.

Elder Shipley -----------------------

 Does the Guatemala south mission include the area around the temple??? Have you been out with the missionaries yet??? The temple is in my mission so i am not sure about going to it, but im sure that we might be able to do so. we will see though. and they stopped doing the missionary companion exchanges here but we went to the plaza which was fun.

ps it is 74% humidity today - it is stiffling - is that how you feel all the time - it is raining all the time here, and the weather is constantly in the 70's, it is great. i love the weather here. they say it doesnt get to hot in the south only in the north. so that will be good.

dad and I are working out all the time - i'm doing 30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on tread mill - my knees are still killing me - but i need to move - i'm hoping they improve.  - that is good you guys are working out. keep working out and stay in shape. i hear that most missionaries who go to the south end up losing around an average 30 to 70 pounds, they do alot of walking and dont eat as much. ha so i may be a stick when i come home.

well - this will be it for today - let me know how long it took the snail mail letter to you and you pkg should be there by Fri or Mon - i'm curious to see if you receive all the stuff i put in it.  i got a letter from you, and some dear elders yesterday. it takes a week to get here to guatemala but the supervisor of the ccm is strict and holds the letters for tuesdays, he is a little crazy but its all good. i got one pic to you but it took forever to send so next time i'll try to email them to you, or we can just stick to the mail for sending the card, we'll see.

____________________________________________________

now to tell you about my week. so friday we did some contacting at the temple grounds and talked with members there and got refferals there. and we asked them for their testimonies. although we couldnt really understand what they were saying the spirit was strong with these people and you can tell they truly love their religion. our teacher told us that is one thing we will notice about guatemala is that the people here appreciate religion alot more than americans do. it is their lives and they love it. yesterday was a really fun day too. we got to go to the Plaza park. Look that place up and see pictures of it, there is a beautiful water fountain there. it is the place of the state capital and the cathedral and then a huge square. anyways yesterday we went and were contacting people. It was so much fun, although i struggled with the spanish but we managed to give away 3 libro de mormóns and 6 pamphlets. it was so much fun and im glad i was able to go there. we talked with so many people, and it amazes me to see how receptive they were. then about half way through apparently there was a gang fight. the kids all just went crazy and at one moment they attacked the capital building. they were throwing rocks at the catholic childern and were going crazy. then they started yelling central, central. so we found out it was a central gang, thank goodness haha. but when the sirens started going off they were all like... vamanos. which means lets go. it was scarry but it was comforting to know that the lord protects us and that if we have faith that he is there to protect us nothing will happen to us. i know that he would not let anything happen to a group of 50 missionaries. anyways when we were done we had 10 mins left and we were starting to group up to leave. as we were leaving i felt prompted to talk to this guy who was just sitting on the side with his wife eating some food. So i asked the teacher if we could go talk to him and she said yes. so we went over there and he was really interested. it surprised me, he wanted the book of mormon a pamphlet and also to have the missionaries to come over to his house and teach him. it is amazing how you can get a prompting on how to talk to someone and then if you act on it god will do his side of the work by touching their souls. That was a huge testimony builder to me becasue we could of easily just walked away from this man but since i listned to the prompting he may be baptized. anyways we never really have to much time to email here which is a bummer. oh and the doctor, so we took a 20 min drive to the american doctor and he froze off my wart, it hurt pretty bad but i am ok. it is a huge blister right now but he said it will fall off in 3 days. i was asking him questions about which mission do they see the most in there and they say they see the south the most. they say it is for dumb reasons though, like eating at vendors. one missionary was crossing the street and was hit by a bus, but somehow only suffered minor injuries. they say the angels sure do look out for us though. then after the doctor the presidents wife took us to mcdonalds and we got some american food which was good. but yeah, so im loving it here, and i can not wait to get out of the mtc and into the field. everyday when i look out the window i just cant wait to get out. but it is coming fast, only 4 more weeks. it is  crazy i have been here for a month now. only 23 more. well till next wednesday. i'll talk to you later, i love you all and hope and pray all is going well.

love - elder shipley
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what an inspiring email - i'm so glad you are in tune with the Spirit - you have always been so obedient, it is definitely paying off - can you believe Lisa is going to conference with Makenna and Andrea - and she is getting baptized on the 28th of Oct. - I'm not sure if you'll get this today or next week - I'll write again soon.  love you sooooooooooooooo much - the time is really going fast!! love, mom

thanks. i snuck in one last email. that is so cool about lisa. i am so happy for her, she was sending me questions through the mail and i was able to answer her concerns. that is really cool though. im really happy for her choice to be baptized. well this is my last email. i´ll talk to you later.

love elder shipley