I'm in mission Coban (week 19)

as you can tell by my subject i’m in mission coban. yesterday was changes and i didn´t get one. this is going to be my 4th change in san jose and i am really excited. yea, this change decided what mission i am going to be in. wherever you are at the end of this change is where you are going to be when the mission splits. i am thrilled i am so happy. i’m sad that i am not going to be with president watts and hermana watts but thats ok because i am convinced i am in the coolest mission in all the world. my mission is straight jungle wherever i go. i am also happy i am getting a mission president that will be my mission president my entire mission. president watts is going to finish like 4 months before me so i wouldn’t have my exit interview with him and it would be with some other guy i barely know…so that is a plus also. yea, mission coban is dope. im serious, every area in the entire coban mission is better than the areas in the cap. the only negative is i really like pres watts and hermana watts. i also would have liked to know the cap at least for 1 change in my mission but that is a sacrifice that i am willing to make ha, ha. yea, so basically i am so freakin pumped. as far as being in my area again i’m happy but would have been fine to leave too. our area has nothing going for it right now…it’s really slow right now. we have a baptism not this saturday but the next but besides that its pretty dead. we don’t have anybody progressing right now. we have no problem finding people to teach but getting them to come to church or commit to a bàptism date is hard. por ejemplo, we have taught 40 new investigators this last month but none, i mean none, are progressing. everytime we find someone that is perfect they have work or school or something on sundays…its terrible. but the positive is that at least i am teaching people and people are learning more about our message. my comp and i are praying sooo hard right now to help our people progress or to find people who can progress. it’s a real trial of faith but that’s just part of the mission. we think we also need to try to get more references but we have hardly any members in our area too ha, ha. so pray for me and my comp so we can have success. the coolest thing that happened this week though is we had district conference and elder amado came. he is a 70 and he served with grandpa. hermana watts was telling me that its possible that her dad served with granpa too because he was a 70 and knew an elder call. i talked to her about that like 2 weeks ago and then sunday when i saw her she told me that her dad served with eran call as well and that he possibly served with elder amado too. so after the meeting sunday i bulldozed my way through everyone to ask him if he knew grandpa and he did. he said he served with grandpa and that he knew him really well. it was super cool and i felt like i immediately had a connection with him like we were good friends or something ha, ha, it was really funny. dad, ask your dad about elder amado and let me know what he says. that’s something i was like tripping out over…like that is so cool. the conference was really good by the way and elder amado is hilarious. he looks super serious, like he just wants to give everyone sincho, but he had everyone dying laughing like 15 times during the meeting ha, ha, it was so funny. i mean it was funny, the jokes i could understand, then the other times it was funny watching other people laugh ha, ha. as far as my spanish goes, i have a really good grip on it right now. they say learning a language is really hard at first then after a while you just start to feel it and you grow a ton. that’s what’s happening to me right now. i can understand dang near everything people are saying which is cool. its super helpful too because if i can understand them then i can learn grammar from the way that they speak and just copy what they are saying. im not perfect at spanish or anything but right now i am learning a ton and my spanish is getting a ton better. loving the mission right now and im thrilled about mission coban. love you all and hope you have a good week

pic 1 - fantastic picture of me and a crazy guy in my area. he is like a genius and he knows everything. well, that’s also the problem because he wont listen to what we have to offer. this is the guy that gave me mud to put on my face and said it would help. he also gives us massages for free and cracks whatever thing we want him to crack. he cracks our back, neck, ankles, and everything…its hilarious. he is also a genius with plants. he has an incredible garden and he makes his own compost and stuff. he has gringos staying at his house all of the time. they come to stay at his house and he teaches them how to plant and stuff and they give him money and food ha, ha, this guy is nuts. he grows coco in his garden and makes chocolate with it and i bought some ha, ha, it was really good. yea, so this guy is the man except he wont really accept our message.

pic 2 - me with a weird animal that wilmer and catorina caught out in the jungle

Last week of the change (week 18)

loved getting your emails as always family. summer at the house is always the freakin best. i mean i cant think of a place i would rather be. pool, fire, ping pong, basketball, man that is the dream. im so grateful for you guys and for making that backyard fun. i have such good memories of that house and never living there again is going to be terrible…like you said its like a vacation. i can go snowboarding, go to the city, the beach...man don’t even get me started ha, ha, but man i'm sad i'm never going to live there again. well, it just means i have to study my butt off and get a good enough job so i can live in alamo.

yea, so the life in guat is well the same as last week i guess ha, ha. yea, but right now it is sooooo hot the street bubbles because it is so hot. that isn’t a joke either. like there really are bubbles in the street. i think i am used to the heat though which is the good thing. i mean, as used to it as i will ever be. i am just used to sweating always. when i sleep, when i sit, walk, run, or talk…all day i am sweating. to be honest though, i don’t really think about it that much anymore. it doesn’t really bother me anymore. its just in times like right now when i am thinking about it is when i really realize how ridiculous this heat really is ha, ha. as far as the work goes right now its slow. we have a baptism not this saturday but the next and, depending if i have a change or not, i might not be here. if i’m not here then that is fine too. all that matters is that i helped her get to the stage of baptism, i mean that is what really counts. so we teach her like one time a week and that’s all. as far as our other investigators right now they are really having a tuff time progressing. its soo easy to get investigators and to teach them but it is really hard to get them to come to church. people think that all churches lead to god and which church you go to doesn’t matter…it drives me nuts. yea, so its kind of hard to get people to change that attitude when people have been telling them that for all their life. the only thing that can change that thinking is the spirit. they have to recognize that it is the spirit touching them and not just emotion. anyway, so that is the story of our area right now. today was a zone activity and we played soccer in a stadium where the team for all of peten plays. the stadium is actually in our area so the entire zone came to our area. it was kind of funny because the missionaries could not believe how beautiful it is here. people were like, how do you not just get distracted and think you are on vacation…ha, ha, good question. yea, but that isn’t really a big deal to me. our area is really incredible and beautiful but i know why i am here so that has never been a problem. this is the last week of the change and i am really nervous. if i have a change then it will decide what mission i am in when we split. if i don’t have a change then there is a good chance that i am going to be in mission coban…but who knows man. i’m nervous though, because this change could possibly decide where i am for the rest of my mission…in the cap or outside in coban. yup, that is the letter for this week. love you guys and pray always. god really does listen and answer su prayers. love you all and think about you every day. with schools almost out i especially think about you all in our backyard loving life. man, i’m loving life too right now but in a little different way ha, ha. love you all and take care. Love, Elder Call

pic – 1 i burned a tie for my 6th month mark…that is the tradition around here for 6 months

oh ya thats right mom a week late but happy mothers day and read the writing in the pic. love you your the best

Yo Yo (week 17)

hey, so it was freakin great talking to you guys last night and hearing your voices. you guys are the best. you really are and i am so happy for all of you and that you are all my family. tambien mom i am so happy you are my mom. i have no idea how i got so lucky to have you as my mom…either luck or i really knew what i was doing in heaven when i chose you to be my mom...if that is even how it works ha, ha. i just love you all so much and pray for you guys all the time.

yea, so today we didn´t have p day and to be honest i was a little disappointed. we had the opportunity to hear from a member of the quorum of seventy, elder martino, the president of the central america area. notice how i said in the line above i was a little disappointed. Yea, im not disappointed now at all…it was incredible. the part that really impacted me today was when he talked about the atonement. the spirit was just so strong and was testifying to me the truthfulness of it. in the first place its incredible that we can be forgiven of sins and comforted in times we need to be comforted. 2nd its so incredible what christ did for us. when he was in the garden of gethsemane he couldn´t prepare for what he was going to experience. there is no way to imagine the pain he was going to feel. he was willing to suffer and willing to bear it why? because of his love for each and every one of us. we cannot even think of the pain he went through there is no way to imagine it…its impossible. now think how he said to his father not my will but thine be done. in every aspect of jesus’s life he never, ever, ever, ever, thought about himself. think about what the natural man would do in challenges he faced. being treated like dirt all his life even though he was the savior and had the power to create worlds but he still just took it. he could have obliterated someone for talking bad about him, but nope, he never even thought that. after he was in the garden of gethsemene one of his trusted apostles betrayed him for money after he took on the sins of the world to save everyone. then one of his apostles cut the ear of the roman soldier trying to protect jesus. then what did he do? he did the opposite of the natural man and healed the guy who was going to take him prisoner. not to mention all jesus did was ask his apostles not to fall asleep and to stay awake while he was taking on the sins of the world. what did they do…they fell asleep. its so incredible and i have a hard time thinking how he could have so much love for us to be a perfect example and be perfectly obedient. its really just crazy and really, really, humbling. it doesn´t matter who you are you need jesus christ to be saved. just algo incredible and something i was thinking a lot about today. it was really cool hearing from an apostle and i would listen to him again instead of having a p day no questions asked. love all you guys and can´t wait to hear from you next week.
love,
elder call

Almost Mothers Day (week 16)

hey family, loved hearing about your weekend and ben’s tough loss in the norcal finals. ben still has great hair though and that is arguably more important ha, ha. i still love thinking about the incredible weekend you guys had down in pebble that sounded like such a blast. so this week nothing really that crazy happened. we went to san pedro again this week but our luck wasn’t quite as good. we ended up walking like half the way there before we got a jalon. it was fun though but it was a really long walk. the work there was good. it was better then the last week and we have some investigators there now. they want to hear more about the gospel and are interested in it. we have a couple good families there that are interested in coming to church too. it’s just kind of hard because it is kind of far from the chapel. they are expressing interest though and that is what is important. also i think when the mission splits i think the new pres will put missionaries there and will try to really get the church started there. so the way i look at it is I’m just getting the church name out there so people know who we are. as far as our area goes it is kind of slow. the work is kind of slow right now is what i mean. the investigators that we have had in the past are not progressing at all so we are not visiting them that much or like we used to. this past week we spent a lot of the week trying to find new investigators and we do have some good potentials. we also have some really good families interested as well which is the best. this gospel is meant to be enjoyed as a family. just think about how it has blessed our lives and the blessings that are promised if we live faithful lives. we also have an investigator named delphina. we put a fecha with her for the 1st of this next month and that is like a for sure baptism so it will be nice to have another baptism coming up. her boyfriend is an ex missionary and he gave us the reference. they are getting married soon and so she wants to get baptized so she can get married in the temple. she knows the church is true which is awesome. she is great and i am really excited for her to follow christ’s example and be baptized. this church really is true and i am so grateful to be a part of it. i’m so grateful i can spend eternity with you guys if we live righteously. that is all i want and is the best blessing ever. i love you guys so much and can’t wait to hear from you next week as well. oh, and can’t wait to talk to you this weekend. love you all,

elder call

pic - a members moto ha, ha