The English Update

Sorry, the title of this blog post is a little misleading, our new life is not actually becoming normal, but it is becoming more normal to experience new things.

We have so much to tell you!

To kick off the Christmas season, the kids performed in a Christmas play on their last day of school before Christmas break. They did such a great job, and it was so fun to see them engage with their friends and even speak a bit of Spanish. Tyler and I were surprised by some of the phrases they knew. They are doing so well. Please continue praying for Asher, Graycen, and Wrenley to make friends and stay encouraged through cultural and language differences.

One week later, we finished up our last week of school (for 2023) on December 22nd. We “fell over the finish line” and were so grateful to begin the time of rest and rejuvenation. People keep saying that language learning is a marathon and not a sprint, but I’m beginning to think they have never run a marathon before because that’s super challenging as well!

To start off our Christmas break, on December 23rd we attended a special Christmas Eve service and meal at our church. It was a great time of fellowship and cultural learning. The girls and their Sunday School class had prepared two super fun songs to sing, and it was so fun to cheer them on as they sang in Spanish and performed the motions! Wrenley still bursts out singing one of the songs from that night… “Sal-va-dor!”

There is a sweet couple from our church who has really helped us get involved. They have invited us to many events, met us to study Spanish together, and even taken us on a really fun day trip! We were so happy to be asked to their home for a Christmas Eve meal. We were a bit shocked to learn that on Christmas Eve it is traditional to spend the evening with family and share a special meal at midnight! You read that right. We were blessed to have the opportunity to be in their home on Christmas Eve night, and even though it meant we didn’t get home until 1:15am on Christmas morning, we will always cherish the memory of our very first Christmas in Latin America. Surprisingly, the girls handled the late night just fine, and were excited to get to sleep quick so they could wake up and open gifts just a few hours later!

On Christmas Day we opened presents, played with the kid’s new toys, cooked a meal together, called grandparents, and spent simple quality time together. It was different than years past, but wonderful in all new ways. A few days later, on Tyler’s birthday, we got to meet our future team leaders (once we get to Guatemala) in person! After eleven months of talking over video calls and messages, we finally had an opportunity to meet the Whites. We had a wonderful visit with them and it made us even more excited for Guatemala!!! Thanks for helping us celebrate Tyler’s birthday!

A few days later, our sweet friends from church invited us on a day trip with their grandkids to a nearby town to see a bunch of onyx and marble statues! The girls had a blast posing for pictures with all the animals and we enjoyed their company so much!

One of the requirements during our SLAM year (learning language and culture in Mexico) is that we have to be at a comfortable level of Spanish before getting a Mexican drivers license and being approved to drive. It has honestly been a pretty big challenge relying on public transportation and Ubers as a family of five, but we are happy to say that last week we took our drivers tests (miraculously passed, it was all in Spanish) and have been issued a vehicle. Now the next challenge is learning the safe and reliable routes, and navigating all the unwritten road rules. Please pray for safe daily travel to school and around the community, especially as we are getting used to this new reality. While we are sad to miss our daily visit with Samuel, the sweet man who would drive us to school and back each day, we are so so so grateful to have a vehicle now.

After our amazing break, we are back at school and getting geared up for nine weeks of classes before our next check point! We are excited to be even more intentional over the next few weeks about meeting with friends in the community or in our home! One afternoon last week we had Tania, our teacher and friend, over to our house after school. We shared a meal, played games, and had a great time together (sólo en español)! She was incredibly encouraging and so involved with the girls, her visit blessed me so much. We also took her to our playground and ran into a neighbor friend who we have loved getting to know! It was a special day for me as I felt a huge step forward in building friendships!

How can you specifically pray for us over the next few weeks? Please pray for our continued language development and opportunities to put the things we are learning into practice. We have so much to learn, and are just crossing over the quarter mark in our marathon (three of twelve months complete). Pray we can speak confidently, try new things, laugh at our mistakes, and keep the stress level low as we keep pushing deeper into Spanish.

With Love,
Tyler & Rachel