Time is Flying (week 70)

I loved your emails this week as always and it was crazy to see how torn up the house is… it’s nuts.  I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing well back home that always makes me so happy. Mom you are so right our family is just the best.  

Well as for my week it was a little crazy. Tuesday we had concilio and it was awesome. I seriously love that conference so much. I can always feel the spirit just so strong when my president of the mission is teaching us and when his wife is teaching us.  It’s the best. They are just soo great and you can just feel how much they care about us and the mission. I learned a lot in that conference. Right now the mission is changing a lot. We are really cracking down on obedience on the little things. Obedience brings blessing but exact obedience brings miracles. We had our zone meeting this week as well. I was a little nervous at the beginning because the assistants, president and his wife were all there. Well I was a little nervous at first but then I said a small prayer that I wouldn’t be nervous and that I could help the missionaries in my zone to feel the spirit and to have more animo to work. Overall I think that the meeting went really well and it showed this week in our weekly stats. The greatest part of the week was a division that I had with one of our district leaders. His area is called Val Pariaso and its out in the mountains. It was freezing cold and raining. We hiked the freakin biggest mountain in the world to get to a small little village. I thought that I was in Mongolia and it was awesome. The best part though was finding a great investigator in a barber shop. We taught just a fantastic little lesson about prophets. The spirit was really strong and he wants us to go back to visit him. That was the best part of the day and it’s just too bad that I won’t ever be in that area again to see if he progresses. That was such a fun day and I really put my boots to work that day hiking up huge mountains haha. This Sunday our investigators who were going to get baptized this week didn’t go to church. She can still get baptized but we haven’t been able to meet with her this week. We are going to meet with her tomorrow to see how she feels for this Saturday. Be praying because we need it. Well actually she needs it and her name is Marcia Bol. Pray for her. Those 2 kids Jefferson and Edson that came to church last Sunday also went yesterday. Their parents still haven’t been able to go to church because they are both really sick. We are hoping to put a couple fechas with those boys so they can get baptized.  I’m dying to teach them though. We are going to teach them tonight and we have planned to watch the video of the restauracion. I’m excited I love teaching. Overall this week was good. This next weekend is change weekend. I can’t believe that it has already been 6 weeks how could that be? That was one of the fastest changes of my mission. How crazy.  I don’t think that I will have a change though to be honest.  It would be weird if I had a change. I love the mission and the life lessons that I learn every day. Just remember we are not perfect but we should strive to be a little better each day. Repent sincerely and all your sins will be forgiven. I love the savior and I’m forever in debt to his sacrifice. Use his sacrifice in your lives please. He did his part now do yours. Love you all and have just a fantastic week.

Elder Call

don't send this to everyone... i just want you to see how great my mission pres is and this is what he wrote me after the zone meeting this week

Elder Call - thanks for your constant effort to improve the zone. Your example will mean so much. I appreciated your lesson in zone conference and your desire to get the missionaries pumped. They are quiet but hope you can spark them up with success in their work. 

Love you,

Pres. Curtiss

i dont know why this is in grey but this is me now but ya i love my pres soooooooooooo much he is just the best!

elder garcai and i he was my comp last change in salama and i absolutely love the guy haha

my 18 month celebration and my comps one year celebration.

my glasses of baptise and retain

Happy Mother's Day (week 69)

Happy mother’s day to the best mom in the entire world and I thank god every night in my prayers that I have you as my mom. You have always been there for me no matter what I have said or done.  You are the best mom in the world and I mean that but that doesn’t mean you should get cocky like you already are with your lemon squares haha. Love you mom sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.  I loved talking to you all yesterday you all sounded soo great and just so happy. I loved it. It may or may not have made me baggy thinking that is the last time I am going to talk to you guys until I get home…hombre que loco.  

Now as for my life right now I basically told you everything that is going on in my life yesterday. This past week was fantastic though because we had investigators in church. That is just the best. Sunday here in the mission can either be the best of worst day of the week. Yesterday for this week it was the best. We also found just a fantastic family yesterday as well. They are really receptive and ask lots of questions which is the best. I love it. When we were singing the first hymn the mother of the family cried. Her kids went to church with us in the morning and they loved it. The parents told us that they were just talking about how much they liked church all day. Ya at church is where they learned how to sing the hymns and they wanted to start off the lesson singing the hymn they learned in the church. It was called cuando hay amor. I don’t know what that is in English but ya we started singing it and the kids were singing it with my comp and I. The mom started to cry and it was the best.  Oh crying of happiness of course haha. Ya the lesson though was fantastic. The spirit was just sooo strong. The parents right now are not married so that’s a big problem but I am 100 percent sure that if they are feeling the spirit and do the things we tell them to do they will get married and baptized. As for the kids well  I am almost sure they are going to get baptized because when I told them that church is only 1 time a week  they were soo sad. They like church more than I do I think haha. Ya so that was the best lesson of the week. We are going to teach them again this Thursday.  I can’t wait to teach them again. We also had a conference this week with elder ochoa. He is a 70 and gave a talk in general conference the last year october.  We had that conference friday. It was great. The spirit was just sooo strong that entire conference and it was like 8 hours long. I learned a ton. Our mission president talked a lot about how we can increase our faith as well.  Studying the scriptures and putting them into action. I wish I had my notes with me right now so I could write what he said but it was fantastic. Elder ochoa talked a lot about repentance. He compared it to a splinter. When we have lots of sins it hurts like a splinter does. Now to take it out it will hurt even more but once it’s out you can fully heal.  That’s so much like repentance.  Just think though repentance isn’t a bad thing it’s a fantastic thing. Through repentance we can be happy and feel free of our burdens.  It’s the best. I have a strong testimony of repentance. Its real and when we really repent we can feel clean and pure. It’s the best feeling we can have when we have truly repented of our sins. I loved the conference and I love preaching repentance to the people here in guat and overall just a fantastic week. Thank you for everything you all do and I love you soo much.

Elder Call

me making tortillas

me with the dopest bus driver in the world

us with member who always leaves with us. check out his wonkie eyes though they are dope haha

Congrats Rachel (week 68)

Wow!!!! so the biggest news of maybe my entire mission…chel is getting married how crazy.  im so happy for her and i hope trever has a clue what he's got haha. loved your letter this last week as well and mom it sounds like you had a blast with your sisters because your letter was short as heck hahaha.  dad im celoso of your mexican party that your going to have with the fam thats going to be a blast. if you see any chapines en little mexico digales que tu hijo esta en guat y que el ama los chapines jaja. digales que soy puro chapin y que cuando regrese a mi casa voy a extranar las tortillas con todo jajaja.

This week was a good week but we didnt have as many lessons this week as the last week but we did put 2 new fechas with some of our investigators this last week. We now have 3 fechas...2 with marsia y edwin quines son hijos of a less active member. she has been less active for like 35 years but we got her to go to church this last sunday for the first time in like 25 years that is a feat if i have ever heard of one. She was sitting down with us at church and the flipping 1st counseler in the bishopric asked her to give the closing prayer for sacrament meeting. freak, you just don't do that to a less active member who hasn't been to church in 25 years but hey she did it and she prayed like a champ. i actually think it made her feel more part of the church and that the people want her. overall i think it was good. we have fechas with her 2 kids who are progressing right now as well we just need to get them to come to chruch.  now our other fecha that we have is with an investigator named leonardo. he is living with a less active member. they are not married but want to get married and leonardo always goes to church. we met him at church. it was sweet to see him going to chruch i dont think it is going to be a problem. he said he's liked the church ever since the first time he came. im just praying that god will help my comp and i know how we can help him prepare for baptism. if he can get married and baptised that is the beeeessst becuase that would complete the family and in 1 year they can go to the temple to go get sealed.  that is the best. there are sooo many missionaries that finish their missions and haven't baptised any families. i have been so blessed with that. in july im going to have 2 families that are going to get sealed in the temple who we baptised.  man it just doesnt get any better than that. in november of this year 3 families that we baptised in family will be sealed if they stay pilas in the church.  that is just the best i mean it just doesnt get better than that. when i think of those families and the sacrifices they made and the changes they made it just makes me cry. sometimes when i go to bed i just lay on my bed thinking about the people that i have met here in guat and i just get teary eyed i love the people here soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much like i cant even beleive it. ya i just love them soo much. i love guat i love my comp i love the language i love the people and culture. i love everything that has to do with the mission. this letter is just soo unorganized haha its funny but ya we taught that other family that we taught 2 weeks ago Saturday too. we had another good lesson with them. they are going to go to church and they all want to go to church but they are training for a half marathon right now so they are going to go to church after the race which is in like 2 weeks.  We just need to be patient with them. this family would be sooo pilas if they got baptised. the grandmother of the family is in charge of the aldea where she lives. she is the reason there is running water there. everyone loves that lady and she is just sooooo nice and so freindly. if we baptize her she would just be soo pilas and the church would have like 50 baptisms in that area because im sure she would share the gospel with everyone.  carlos her son and his wife are also such good people. i love them soo much. i just am praying and fasting for them. its funny i dont really even know them but i can just see their future if they get baptized.  so pray for me and for them to accept the gospel.   overall it was a good week. vi un hombre aahhh mejor no voy a contarles esta casaka cuando regrese es un poco ascoroso haha. this week also we wnt to san cristobal to do a interview it was awsome. i saw some of themembers that i knew and love as well it was the best. we did the interview way out in some aldea and we were out late and there were no buses to get back to the mera san cristobal so we had to walkcall a taxi it was nuts though we were freakin out we though we were goin go have to camp like way out in the forest haha it was dope. after the district meeting this week we went to eat lunch with president curtiss. it was my comp president and his wife it was great. that man is the best i love him sooo much. He's such a good example of how i want to be when I'm older.  this week we have a conference as well with elder ochoa who is a 70 and it should be good. i'll tell you about it this next week when you call for Mothers Day. love you all family hope all is well and cant wait to talk to you all this weekend. love you all keep safe and follow forward love ya

Family (week 67)

I loved your messages this last week.  I just can’t believe that Rachel is going to get married.  That freaks the heck out of me haha. When I think of her I just think we are still so young.  Crazy how fast time flies. I’m happy to hear that the family is doing well and doing what you love. Spending time with the family and going into san fran to explore and eat.

This past week was great.  My comp and I killed it this week in our area. We had sooooooo many lessons with members and soooooo many new investigators. Probably it was the best week of my entire mission. We found and taught a ton of new investigators.  The best investigators that we found this week live in some aldea in our area. They are a great little family that has talked with the missionaries before but it was like 15 years ago. The missionary’s went to their house and helped build it and paint it. They still remember the names of those missionaries even though it was like 15 years ago.  It’s amazing the impact I have on the people here even though I probably don’t realize it. But ya for that reason they let us in because they loved those missionaries. We taught them lesson 1 because they had questions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  It was just a fantastic lesson and the spirit was really strong. They had lots of questions about our message and that is just the best.  Ya but it was just fantastic because these people are just so great… really good people. I feel like I have met them before because the moment we met them we just clicked and talked like we had known each other forever haha and it was just so cool. So that was the best thing that happened this week.  We also did a division this week with the elders that are in Santa Cruz. I got to go to Santa Cruz for a little bit which was cool because I had done a division in that area like almost a year ago.  This Sunday was fun as well because there is a sister in our ward that is from El Salvador and so we bought all the ingredients Saturday and we made pupusas in the church after the church meeting ended.   It was great. All the other things that I did this week I can’t really remember. Oh we have started going to the gym as well. Every morning at 5:30 we go to the gym to work out haha. Ya so that’s all that is new with me here in Guat but I still just love the mission and love serving the lord.  Remember the most important things in life… keeping the commandments and family and never forget that. This is our 4 minutes and we need to do it with everything we’ve got so we can live with god forever in paradise. Love you guys and hope you have a good week!