HI MAMMMA!

 Did Sam cut her hair?! She look so fab, i love it! and tell grandma that I do know amy funk and kendra also knows her so I was already on the hunt for her when i got here so i will have to ask her about grandma, she is very nice!

i am glad your sewing machine is getting put to good use, i love my blanket and so does everyone else here! oh and yes this is my last week in the mtc! by this time next week i will be on a four hour bus ride with all my favorite people in the CCM heading to Reu, so don't freak out if you don't get an email because I don't know if i will be able to write when i get to Reu.

okay so last p day we went to the market, i bought jackie a keychain but i figured out i cant send it til i get to the field, which is next week!! the market was super fun! it reminds me of china town in new york except everyone speaks spanish and everyone is like 10 inches tall. all the girls bought native dresses and we all look awesome! My friend Hma terry found a dress she loved and she told the lady to hold it while she went to grab her purse or something and when came back she saw me turning the corner with the dress in my hand, ha ha ha! so i bought her perfect dress just seconds before she could, i had no idea! it was super funny! it was like less than 10 bucks in in american money and it is awesome so I just could not resist. Mom, i think you would love Terry, she is totally your kind of girl. and we talk about our moms together because you two are like the same person from what we have gathered! We came to the conclusion that we are both pretty darn lucky to have such great mothers! it is pretty weird that this is my last week! I am so not ready spanish wise, but I can get by so I am not stressed about it.  but I am definitely ready for a change so i am so excited! I am going to miss spending all day with my district though, I laugh my head off everyday because the elders in my district are some of the funnest guys I know and all the hermanas are very sweet and we talk about everything. we are just about as close as you can get with someone in 5 weeks. for these last two weeks we are finally allowed to play soccer during deportes because we don't have any native districts in our deportes time so we now play soccer everyday in the rain and I love every second of it! even though I now have a huge boo boo all down my leg, but my skin heals weirdly fast here!  well I hope everything back home is going well, tell Jackie good luck with school! I love you all and I want to thank you for the opportunity you gave me to come here because I love it already and I have not even been outside the MTC yet! I want you to know that I am going to work my very hardest this last week to prepare for the field! don't forget to tell Utah I say hello! I brag about Utah to all the people here who diss on it because I love Utah! Tengan una semana fantastica!

 con amor,

HO

Oh one more thing! i think I cursed myself with that bug comment last week because today in the temple I saw a spider that was big enough to wear as my shoe. but dad should be proud because I didn't even scream or cry, (that is only because I was in the celestial room.)  but don't tell dad that little detail so he can think I am like super tough and stuff!!

hi mum!
 
Tell little Calvin I miss him. I can't believe the Guzys sold their house already! that is so weird, I am going to have to write Ryley! Good luck with your hearts tournament, i vote we do that again in 17 months!  
I got your Dear Elders and I love them, thank you so much! (yes I did beat Garcia) what they do is they print them out and deliver them so it is nice because I can read them whenever I want because I have them on paper and I get to hear from everyone more than just on pday.so send as many as you want and tell the world because I love getting them!  
I sang in church yesterday,so that was fun! I have another best Latina friend, her name is Hna Avila. She speaks pretty good english and she is like the sassiest girl on the planet so naturally we get along very well. She is this tiny girl from Guatemala city and she is super pretty. She leaves for the field tomorrow so she gave me a present to remember her by, it a little colorful coin purse with Guatemala sewn on the front and it's adorable. she has a matching one and she said she was saving it to give to her favorite companion but she wanted to give it to me instead, so sweet! it made my day!  
So I haven't seen hardly any bugs (except the giant belly up cockroaches in the chapel) but i am literally covered in bug bites; so they are here, they are just very sneaky. it still pours every single day here. One of the Latino elders hit the volleyball over the fence last pday so we now play basketball which is just as fun. it always rains during our deportes time so we play basketball in the pouring rain everyday and it's a blast! I always have fun with my travel group, there are 20 of us 10 girls and 10 guys and I really like all of them, i got really lucky! One of the Hnas in my district, Hna Barba, loves mother Teresa too so we sit around and talk about how great she is all the time. Hna Phillips is my best friend here, I feel like I have known her my whole life! I am totally that annoying girl in the group that talks about her family every second and I pull out my picture book like every hour. Everyone just thinks you guys are so good looking, all the hermanas ask if max and alex are single. ha ha! and Elder Wilkes has a neice the same age as Calvin so we are always debating which one is cuter. Elder wilkes is from Alpine and he is this 18 year old kid who is just brilliant,and so nice. He is the best Norte in the CCM at Spanish so I am lucky to have him in my district because he helps us a lot, it's like having another teacher. Hna Browns 17 year old brother died a few years ago so she has some really cool stories and she is so tough! Everyone loves her! and Garcia and Jorgensen are just hilarious and so much fun to have around. my teacher is an angel and everyone is obsessed with him because he is the greatest guy in all of guatemala, he is awesome! we pretty much have every personality in my district and we all compliment eachother very well.
Well I just figured I would tell you a little about my favorite people here since there is not much to report other than that because all I do is study and learn all day, which is great! I now teach in all spanish and I love giving lessons because the spanish just flows and it feels so good! I still have a lot to learn but I am on my way!
Oh and I actually go to the market tommorrow which I heard is super fun so I am very excited! We get a new group of Latinos and another district of Nortes on wednesday.

con amor,
Hermana Outsen

all the missionaries in the CCM who are going to Retalhuleu minus Terry (and the guy next to me is my teacher)

a few of my favorites at the CCM, Hermana Phillips, Elder Jorgensen, and Elder Garcia

Oh I’m HALFWAY there, Oh livin on a prayer

dear fam,

that is so funny that Landon and Sherrie are camping buddies! Im sure he will never forget that vacation! and I do love my blankie, I sleep with it every night and everyone is jealous, it makes me popular in the CCM so thank you! and everyone loves all of my necklaces, I am pretty stylish here in the CCM! and I also love both my bags, they are perfect! and the food here is way good but for the most part it is pretty similar to back home, but there are definitely some meals that are freaky. We have nachos for breakfast like 3 times a week.

Walmart was not that interesting because it was pretty similar to back home except it is where all the rich peeps of Guat shop. we also went to the mall for lunch and it was very nice and big! but the rumor going around is that Reu is the poorest mission in Guatemala, and the hottest; thats what all the natives tell me anyway.

We got a huge group of new Nortes so now we have a bunch of English speakers roaming around which is pretty lame, and I am no longer the only blonde. I did get four new latina roommates who don't speak any english, they are super nice but they are no Hermana Rios, but I still like them. two of them are going through the temple today for their own endowments!

    The first night for all the new Nortes we had a little midnight crisis. so here the water just kind of turns off whenever it wants (mid-shower, mid-toilet use) probably like 2 or 3 times a day from 20 minutes up to 2 hours. So obviously there is a little something wrong with the pipes. we were all woken up by this crazy loud noise that sounded like a thunder storm or a shoot-out or something. I ran out in the hall and saw at least 20 gallons of agua pouring out of the ceiling! I was lucky because my room is pretty far from the crime scene but a few rooms had like three inches of water and their stuff got all wet. about 10 of us grabbed brooms or mops and helped the workers push all the water into the bathroom and we let the shower drains take it from there. so that was probably the most exciting thing that happened to me this week.

thanks to all the new Nortes, our classroom is now in the chapel because there is not enough room in the inn, I mean CCM...(which is currently under construction). so we have to walk back and forth to class everyday about five minutes. but I dont mind because we get to cross the temple grounds to get there and see all the beautiful hills of Guat!

   I have made some really good friends here already, specifically, Hma Phillips and Hna Brown. Phillip is going to my mission so that is exciting! Me and Hma Brown just talk about all the cute elders and quote remember the titans all day. They keep me happy, I absolutely love them both! I love my teachers more and more everyday, I got so lucky when it comes to my district and my teachers! they are all wonderful humans. Well have a fab week! I love your e mail more than anything!

Les amo y extraño

con amor,

Hermana Outsen

The CCM president and his wife are from good ol Draper Utah. Hermana Rios is sitting next to the mission president, and Hma brown and Phillips are the two girls right behind me (the big native girl is brown and the one with the awesome curly hair is phillips) oh and notice that I am on the second row which means all the girls on the first row and half the girls on the second row are shorter than me!!

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sup fam! 

glad to hear grandma had a good birthday, I wish I could have been there! and yes I do get the pictures so please keep on sending them my way. so last Pday we went to the guat temple and it was tiny but gorgeous of course. while we were in the session you could hardly hear because it was pouring so hard outside. We got to walk home in the rain and we were drenched, it was awesome! and since then it has rained like almost everyday this week. 

So it is a sad day for Hma Outsen because Hermana Rios is leaving tomorrow for the field, we get

a whole new set of latinos tomorrow. Hermana Rios (the really short one) is so fabulous, I love her! I am amazed at how close we got considering the only english she knows is the head shoulders knees and toes song and "dream of little angels tonight" ha ha but somehow we communicate with my broken spanish and very extreme body language.

we got a new teacher (Hermano Moldanado).He is like the greatest guy on the planet! he is obsessed with soccer and he is so funny and such a good teacher. He is 22 and he speaks really good english, he is studying law and got accepted to Brown University, which is apparently in the States, so he might go to school there but he hasn't decided if the wants to stay in Guat or not yet. He served in Peru and he is just so awesome! I love both of my teachers. 

I am writing today because there is no time for us to do it tomorrow but Tuesday is my Pday. Tomorrow the guard will open up the gates of the MTC and we get to go out and see the actual streets of Guatemala!! (the temple, church, and computer lab are outside the gates of the CCM but they are super close, maybe two blocks away) so tomorrow we are taking a walmart trip and I have never been so excited to go to walmart in my whole life! then in two weeks we get to go the market! Hopefully my spanish will be good enough by then to bargain some prices!

My district is still awesome! Although my favorite girl here is hermana Rios, I do love the Norte sisters too! It is funny because I get along really well with the older girls and I love them: hermana Phillips (21) Hermana terry (22) hermana brown (24) and hermana Barba (22) because all the 19 year olds are annoying. My district hangs outs with District Job and together we make up all the missionaries that traveled here on the 24th so they were all on my plane. anyway, we all get along really well and we have a lot of fun! 

Well I think about you everyday and I love you a whole lot! Say hi to Salt Lake for me! 

Love, Hermana Outsen!

ps I don't know how to work this keyboard so hopefully that explains why there are no apostrophes and the enter button is freaky and does not have the same function as utah keyboards so sorry) oh and also you can still send dear elders for free to the guat ccm so if you feel like doing that I would love to beat Elder Garcia!