Merry Christmas from San Jeronimo

Hey Mom,

Ha ha! Yeah, sorry I am on early. We didn't do anything for an activity today because we were going to go to Coban as a zone but the Hermanas in the district didn't want to— so we just stayed here. And it's probably a pretty good thing we did cuz all of those tamales we ate on Christmas are sure gettin the better end of me. I have been on the john since like four thirty in the morning! Ha ha ha! Phillip...you sure were right! So good thing we stuck around here. 

Well I am going to send a lot of pictures today. The first ones are of the activity that we did for P-day last week on my birthday.

The first one here is of what Elder M. did for me on my birthday.
 He woke up super early and did it and hung it
on the wall so I would see it when I woke up. Ha ha!

The next ones are of our P-day activity.
We went to a waterfall and It is a called Los Churos.
(And no...that does not refer to a wonderfully fried desert snack
rolled in cinnamon sugar typically eaten at Disneyland. Ha ha!)

 So, this is from the top. First the waterfall and then that is the pool at the bottom that we were at first. It was super cool! And that is one of the Hermanas. You can´t see the other one, she´s behind the rocks but they didn't want to come up so they stayed down there and took pictures of us from down there. I still haven't passed those ones to my memory card either though.

That pool that you can see at the bottom of the waterfall is supposedly pretty deep. It sure gave me the urge to jump in I'm not gonna lie.

This was another little waterfall that we found on the way down. 

In the first picture, that water that is running right past me is pretty much all the water from the waterfall! It doesn’t even look like it but it is It was super cool! 

I was just sitting on the rock right next to this big old river running right over it. 

After we were down at the bottom for a while we hiked up and around to the back and hiked down the river to get to the top of the waterfall.

You can see it better in the ones from down below like where
Elder M. is squatting on the rock.
That is just a giant rock where the water is falling
and the water just runs right over it.

  The last one is just on the way back up the river to 

find our way back down to the bottom.  

Here's a couple of the lunch that we had for the Christmas Conference.

It was chicken and rice and salad and it was Great! We had it at this nice hotel.

This is a photo of the Verepaz and Coban zones at Christmas  Conference.

There is one of Hna. Watts with some of the girls from the orphanage. I loved that picture! 

Alright, these are some pictures from our BRANCH Christmas party. It was super fun. We had it at a hotel that is owned by one of the members of the branch. It is super neat.
You would love it mom! It's got a pond with a bridge and everything! It's way cool!   

We did like a little performance called a pastoreda. Idk...its kinda like a parody about challenges the shepherds faced on their way to see the baby Jesus. It was kinda weird, but whatever...it was fun.

 So, before the production, we did our dance performance thing as the Elders´ Quorum.
I didn´t get any pictures of that though. I was going to get them from this girl in the branch´s camera that took some, but I haven´t had a chance yet. I´ll try to get them for next week though cuz they should be pretty hilarious.We made old man masks and put them on with like this black cover thing that we put over us and started dancing like old men and then when the first song ended they turned of the lights and we pulled off the masks and the cover thing and underneath we were all dressed in our black pants black vests and red ties and we started dancing normal. It was super funny and way fun. But here are a couple pictures of us all dressed up in our vests and stuff. 

The first one is of Elder Monzon and I and Presidente G. C. He is so awesome! but he left to Mexico last week. I can't remember if I told you that. 

The next one is of a few more of us. The young looking guy with the straight up Brigham Young beard is our branch president! Ha ha! He´s way cool.

Also some pictures of the pinata afterward. It was super fun. They made me lower the pinata because it got stuck and no one else could reach it!
Abby, Taylor and Bryan have been joking that it must be a boost to his self esteem to finally be the tallest person around. :)

 
 Then there are a couple of the dance they had at the end that we took these pictures on our way out the door.

 

Here are some pictures of my desk area with all my Christmas stuff! Ha ha! That is the mask that I used for the dance.

And my happy birthday banner that Abby made! Thanks Abby! Your the best!

And one of my Grandma Stella doll on my desk by my popcorn can.... 

This is a photograph of Hayden's Christmas Tree and the presents we sent for he and his companion.  We sent the ornaments and the lights and told Hayden that it was his job to find, make or create the Christmas Tree. He told us on the Christmas phone call that the Wednesday before Christmas he still had not found a tree and had not found the time to create one.  He was feeling a little down about it.  He said that while they were out working they passed a "Paca" or a Guatemalan thrift store and in the window was this little tree. He told me that he thought to himself, "That tree is meant for me." He raced in and bought it. He put it on a a couple of boxes from his Christmas presents and the Elder that was there before him had left his bed sheets so he created in his words, "A little tree skirt." and he was set. He has created quite a little Christmas for himself. He always has been resourceful. I think it looks pretty great! and it brought a little bit of home to Guatemala.

OK—gotta go! I love you Mom!  

Thanks to everybody who sent me stuff for my birthday and Christmas. I love you all so much!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Elder Welch