5 months (week 13)

hey family, i loved getting your letters as always. i’m always a little self conscious about reading them because i always laugh out loud and all the people look at me like i am crazy. mom, its great to hear that you are having a good time down in vegas with your sisters. its crazy, i talk to the people down here all of the time about the importance of family and how god blessed us with a family to learn and to have incredibly fun times. your being in vegas with your sisters is a perfect example of that and i feel the same way about my family that i have been blessed with. the masters finish sounded awesome and i can’t believe it was a year ago i was watching it at alex helegans house. its always great to hear from you guys and i love you all so much.

ok, so this past week was crazy. i finally finished my training as a missionary which is 12 weeks. so i am done with training which also means i have 3 hours of study a day instead of 4….4 is just too long ha, ha. i just finished my second change and also hit 5 months on sunday. man is time flying. yea, so this week was a little crazy. the reason i am writing you today and not monday is because i had to go down to the cap and sign some papers for my visa as well as have an interview with the president. my comp had done some things that were against the rules so i had to talk to the pres about that monday as well. i can promise you i didn’t break the rules and i am doing just fine. i left to go down to the cap on sunday night and we hitchhiked down to santa eleana to catch a bus to the cap. the bus left at 9 and we didn’t get to the cap until 6 the next morning. the bus ride was good going down though because i sat next to another gringo and a friend, elder hill, so i just talked to him and slept for like 6 hours. so the bus ride down there was pretty easy. when i got to the cap the assistants sent a couple of taxis for us and we headed to the area office. the area office is the headquarters for the church for all of central america. from there we got on another bus and went to the immigration office to sign the paper for my visa. such a pain to go all the way to the cap to just sign one paper that takes like 5 mins. but its all good because i also got to talk with the pres and his wife a lot too. so yea, after signing the visa paper i headed to the mission office to talk with the pres. the interview went well and i absolutely love president watts he really is the greatest and i could talk all day with him. i also talked with hermana watts for like an hour. i took my family pictures down to the cap and was showing them to some other missionaries when hermana watts said she wanted to look at them too and she asked me to tell her about every picture. that was fine by me because i can talk about you guys forever and tambein i could talk with hermana watts forever. hermana watts is like my 2nd mother. this is no joke that woman is a saint. i have never felt such warmth around somebody other than my own family. she makes me feel so special and she has such a kind heart. yea, so that’s why i didn’t email you yesterday because i wasn’t here in peten. oh, i almost forgot, elder lloyd, who is one of the assistants to the pres gave me a suit. he found a ralph lauren suit at a paca and thought i would look good in it so he just gave it to me. it fits just about perfect too. that’s perfect because my other suit is falling apart. im really sad about that but it just can’t handle guat ha, ha. i was really happy about that and i have a couple pictures of me trying it on that i’ll send too. so after waiting around forever the assistants sent us by taxi back to the fronte norte bus station to wait for another bus to take us back to peten. the bus ride back was ruff and i mean really ruff. we got on the bus at 5 and i just had 1 other person with me. the bus they put us on was terrible too and the air conditioning wasn’t working for like 6 hours of the ride. after about 3 hours of being on the bus i felt sick…sick to my stomach. i didn’t know what sickness it was but i needed to use a bathroom but the next stop was not for 7 hours, the bus stop in santa elena. the bus was hot, i was sick, and the seats didn’t recline so i was in heck. it was really hard and i even let my attitude get a little negative. that doesn’t happen very often ha, ha. yea, so i didn’t sleep at all, i was hot, and i was sick to my stomach. i won’t go into details about my stomach but lets just say it wasn’t pretty when i finally got to a bathroom. the one good part about the bus ride is that i was sitting next to a little guat man and so i talked with him for probably 4 hours. yea, all in spanish. i could understand everything he was saying too and miraculously it seemed like he could understand me. that was a real confidence builder because i was actually not feeling that good about my spanish before leaving to the cap. i just figure i can understand just about everything now as long as i really listen and i can talk pretty well. it was really fun talking to that man. of course, i told him why i was there and about my mission. i told him about jose smith and gave him a restoration pamplet. he says he wants to talk to the missionaries more so i would say that it was a success. it really is just the best being a missionary and telling people about the lords church. oh freak, i forgot we had a baptism on saturday with the son of the family we baptized a couple of weeks back. the dad didn’t end up baptizing him because he wanted my comp to do it. i was a little disappointing his dad couldn’t baptize him but its all good because he still got baptized. i forgot my camera this week so i will send you the pics next week. another fun week here in guat. oh yea, i’m getting a new comp but i don’t know who but i am staying in my same area and my old comp is going somewhere else. i loved hearing from you guys and love and miss you. remember to always pray as a family and your personal prayers.

love elder call

this is my new suit looks good huh

love you guys

Guat (week 12)

i loved getting your letters this week, they were so great. i loved hearing about the healthy cookies mom made...that was so funny. i loved hearing that you all liked general conference as well. i love getting your letters and i always laugh so hard when reading them that the people here think i’m mental. i can’t help myself, you guys are just so funny. so this week as far as teaching goes it was good. nothing i can remember this week that was really out of the ordinary. general conference was really good though but a little frustrating at times. we watched the first saturday session on an iphone 5 so we could watch it in english. we watched the second session in english also. the priesthood session was the part that was frustrating because the sacerdocio session isn’t on lds.org so you have to have a link to get to it. so we starting asking the presidency to help us get the link and they would not help us. they had like 1 hour to have somebody send it to them and they just wouldn’t try. so that was what was frustrating. i watched it in spanish which was good. i could understand it or at least understand what they were talking about but because i was so focused on what they were saying i couldn’t listen to the spirit. so i feel like i kind of got jipped and only got half out of conference…at least the priesthood session. from what i listened to though it was really great. saturday night we slept at the zl’s house so we didn’t have to take a bus back to our house and then get up early sunday morning and take a bus right back to san bonito where the rest of our zone is. holy cow, that was a ruff night. i slept on a little cot and probably got like 3 hours of sleep all night. i woke up the next morning feeling a little sick. i felt sick but nothing i couldn’t handle. we watched the sunday sessions in english too but it took a ton of effort to do it. we needed a computer and speakers to watch it and once again the presidency did nothing to help us so we were forced to run around for like 45 minutes trying to find someone who had a laptop so we could watch it. i’m in guat though so it’s like nobody has computers. that was super stressful though because listening to it in spanish is just not the same. we got it all figured out and ended up borrowing somebody’s phone for internet for the laptop and then somebody else’s speakers from their house. ha, ha crazy but overall it was funny and conference was really great. the 10 hours of conference didn´t even seem that long and i really enjoyed all of it. after the second session of sunday conference though i hit a wall. i had no energy and i felt like a zombie. my skin was aching and i had a blistering headache. we took the bus home and when i got out of the bus at my house i just about collapsed on the ground. i could barely walk. i have never been so sick. i went inside and went to my bed immediately. this was at like 6. i laid in my bed until ten with the worst cold sweats and headache ever. i thought i was dying really. i thought i had a crazy guat disease from like a chicken or a mosquito or something ha, ha. i’m serious though, i can’t ever remember being that sick my entire life. we called the mission nurse and she told me what to do to help the pain which was basically to take tylenol. my comp said he thought i was going to die and that he had never felt somebody’s face be so hot. at ten and without hope i asked my comp for a blessing. he gave me a great blessing. after the blessing i said a personal prayer begging god to heal me so i could carry out his work. i remember saying i don’t care if i am dying ha, ha or if i can’t think because my head hurts so bad just please give me the energy to walk from one investigators house to the next. i have never prayed with so much faith in my life. i don´t know why my faith was so strong in that moment but it was and i remember thinking if god wants me to feel better he will cure me. there was no doubt in my mind. i had spent 4 hours trying to sleep but couldn’t and after the blessing and prayer i fell asleep probably 10 mins later. i woke up this morning healthy….just my normal healthy self ha, ha. that was a serious faith builder because being as sick as i was last night there is no way i should have felt better when i woke up this morning. it was a complete answer to my prayers. the reason it was so cool to me is because i know god answers prayers but i can’t remember ever praying just once with that amount of faith and getting such a plain answer the next day. so mom, no need to worry i am fine and healthy. the lord and his angels are watching over me as i KNOW they are watching over you and especially ben going through high school. i know there is a band of angeles watching over ben in high school just as there was watching over me when i was in high school. make sure ben knows that he is never alone. he has a family that loves him and an extended family that loves him as well. i have met people here who have never felt loved. not only does ben have our family but he also has all of our cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents cheering him on and they have his back…that right there is like 60 people, and tell ben to not forget about god the father and his son, jesus christ and all of the angels in heaven that are behind him as well. i know they are all behind ben like they are behind me here in guat. family, never ever forget to pray personally and as family. it’s just like we heard in conference, if satan gets a hold of the family he has won the battle. pray always and make sure christ stays in the center of your lives and the center of the home always. i love you all and i know god always wants to hear from us and he will answer our prayers in his own time.

love you all!

elder call

 me with a little chick

 me with mud all over my face. i had some new investigator of mine convince me that it was a good idea to put mud on my face because it is good for my skin…crazy how i would never do this but in guat.

my investigator that convinced me to put mud on my face. this is him like 50 feet in the air trying to get us some coconuts

Time is Flying (week 11)

i’ll start off as always by saying i loved your letters. dad, its always good to hear about the sports world…thanks for sending me that stuff because now i have something enertaining to talk about with the other gringos. 6 flags this week 3 times are you kidding me that sounds like a total blast. i seriously feel like crying thinking about ben and ella running off and onto all the roller coasters. families are the best and my family means everything to me. nothing else matters to me but the church and my family. ha, ha, but i was also dying laughing thinking about charlie and what a wuss that kid is…oh, that’s mean…ha, ha. but yea and charlie going on all the rides at the theme park. how does that kid not slide out of all of the things that hold you in on the rides? ha, ha that is really funny but i actually kind of have a hard time believing it ha, ha. thanks for the pictures mom. if you have time try to send some every week. i love seeing the pics of the fam and loved seeing my city by the bay. i know i have said it a bunch of times but i absolutely love that city. as for as my week…well it was hot as nam over here in peten! i didn’t even know that it was easter yesterday. the gente here do something called semana santa which is a catholic holiday for the death and resurrection of christ…its holy week. so for this semana santa everybody went to the playa in san jose. san jose was cracking. there were parades, fireworks, dances, and it was crazy. there was like a million people in the lake. we did a lot of good contacting but everybody we talked to wasn’t from san jose so we didn’t have that much success. the best thing that happened this week though is we got 2 more fechas. a guy named juan carlos…this guy is flawless. he has probably 30 years and wants us to teach his wife as well so they can get baptized together. we are also going to give the aaronic priesthood to wilmer...he’s the last baptism that we had. so after he gets the priesthood he can baptize his son the next week since this saturday is general conference. what the freak? is that not the most beautiful thing you have ever heard. 2 months ago these guys were not married and didn’t have the gospel and now they are married and baptized and now the dad is going to baptize his son…i feel like crying thinking about it. the gospel really does bless families. they are now preparing to go to the temple. they have to wait a year but still 1 year strong and they can be together for all of eternity. i can’t think of anything better. our other fecha that we have right now is with a girl that is 23 years old. she has 4 younger siblings that she takes care of because her mother died and the father lives in the states and abandoned them. this girl is incredible. she is struggling with her faith a little bit but i have faith god will answer her prayers and she will pull through with her baptism. if she gets baptized the rest of her family will hopefully follow her example. i love that family and they are all so close because the only thing they have in this world is their family. she has some doubts but nothing a little instruction, reading, and prayer can’t fix. overall all it was a good week. i also did divisions this week with the zone leader, elder vestel, who is like my best friend here. it was dope having such a good friend as my comp for the day. that was really good and i learned a lot because he has a lot of experience. he only has 2 months left in the mission. that was really fun though and we had a really good first lesson with some dude we contacted on the street. we taught him about the book of mormon and he said he would read it and pray about jose smith. that was super cool and the spirit was incredibly strong. i think i have said it before but its super great having the spirit and feeling the spirit all day. i went all of high school feeling the spirit like 1 time ha, ha, but its such a blessing and we should strive to have it with us and be worthy to have it with us at all times. something else i would like to suggest to you guys that i have started doing 1 time a week is on Sunday when you say your prayers at night simply name off everything that you are thankful for…i mean everything. i pray for like 30 mins when i do this on sunday and my comp always thinks i have fallen asleep ha, ha but i’m not asleep i’m praying and thanking. i just think about everything i could possibly be thankful for and thank my father in heaven and that’s all. i don’t ask for anything i just say what i am grateful for and that’s it. from my experience of doing this i’ve felt more grateful the whole week for the blessings i have. god knows what we want and what we need so even though for one day we’re not asking for things we need i’m sure god will still bless us for what we need and/or want. i really recommend trying this because it is great and it really humbles me to think about all of the thing god has blessed me with. well, that’s about all i have for you this week. i hope all is well and i love you all. elder call

 i got these sweet scripture cases made. one is leather and the other is crocodile...so sweet ha, ha i am really excited about them. it took the guy like 6 weeks to make the croc one because when i ordered it he had just gotten the skin and he had to dry and stain it. but i think it turned out dope and was well worth the wait.

me sitting on the ledge of a members house at the top overlooking the beach and all the people down on the playa for semana santa. one night when i was lying in bed i heard all these booms and i looked out the window and i could see all of the fireworks they were setting of on the beach…it was super dope ha, ha.

 vestel and i today. we had a zone activity and went up into the jungle and crossed these huge swinging bridges that are like 200 feet above the ground…it was super fun. 

that’s all i have for this week…love you all and miss you and remember to always say your prayers.

i cant believe another week is gone (week 10)

wow, so i absolutely loved getting your letters today as always. i love hearing about the family. mom, please send me some pics of the family because i really want to see them. it seems like ella is turning out to be a really good tennis player. i just hope she doesn’t turn out like andre agassi…too much tennis made that guy a nut. that’s so great ella found a sport that she is great at and i am assuming she really loves it. ben…i freaking get the chills when i think about that kid driving. how the freak is that kid almost 16? mom, remember my drivers license experience in oakland? ha, ha, what a memory, we were the only white people in there with all of the gangsters throwing up gang signs ha, ha, so sketchy what the heck was i thinking going to oakland dmv ha, ha. i worry about ben in rugby too. i worry about all of you all of the time…it is really funny. like i never did worry in the past but right now i just like get scared thinking about ben in rugby and driving…i admit i’m a wuss. speaking of me being a wuss, you know how i am one of those people that whenever they hear about a sickness or disease they think they have it. well, i have that and it has gotten worse in guat. i’m perfectly heathly but i always think i am going to get a brain worm or some freaking flesh eating disease here…i’m ridiculous. its great to hear that the family is doing so well. no baptisms this week but i probably had my best work day of my mission thus far on saturday. i don’t know what got into my comp but he actually wanted to work really hard so that’s what we did. we didn’t rest. we taught 8 lessons and all of them were pilas. the spirit was really strong in all of them and my spanish…what the freak…i don’t know what i did but my spanish was flowing. i taught the majority of probably 5 of the 8 lessons we taught. i was just spitting spanish, asking inspired questions, and sharing scriptures that came to my head. it was just a really good day for working. i just want every day to be like saturday was. it was one of those days i can say i did everything i could and that i did my best…so that was great. another good story is we were eating at wilmer and catorinas house for dinner and when they gave us our food my soup had an iguana in it. i was like, “what the heck is going on here?” wilmer was cooking that night so he just went off into the forest behind his house and killed like 5 iguanas for dinner. ha, ha, what the heck! it was ok, i guess it tasted like chicken ha, ha. this week though, holy cow, it has been hot. they say the heat is just starting and i thought it was hot like 2 weeks ago but that was nothing compared to yesterday and the previous days this week. it is smoking right now. i just sweat sitting down, i sweat with a fan, i sweat when i sleep, and its just weird its so hot. its not bothering me that much though surprisingly, the lord must be helping me with that. but the people say that in 1 month its going to be even more hot. i’m going to be honest, i don’t know if that is possible. really, i dont know, i thought that this earth is supposed to have goldilocks conditions where the temperature of the earth can support life. if it gets any hotter then it was yesterday i might die…really, i might die. we go through a 5 gallon water jug like every 2 days and its costing me a fortune in pure water ha, ha. today for p day we went to these caves in the mountains. it was pretty sketchy and i couldn’t help but think that the cave was going to cave in on us…ha, ha, i’m such a wuss. but it was really fun and the cave was super cool. it reminded me of the time we went up to the caves by the cabin. i think we did that…i don’t know maybe that was a dream. oh, speaking of dreams, i had a dream last night that i was in san fran with you guys and we wanted to go to cheeseboard but ben was like noonoo i don’t want to. ha, ha, then mom you were saying, “i have been to the best restaurants in the world and cheeseboard is better” ha, ha, so funny and so random. but i was a little sad because the dream ended before i could go to cheeseboard. that’s about all i can think of right now that happened this week. i love you all and miss you all. mom, mothers day is only 2 months away…can you believe that? i will be talking to you in no time. love you all and miss you and remember to pray always…the lord hears and will answer all of your prayers.

love, elder call

got this jersey at a paca for 2 dollars perfect condition frank gore jersey…ha, ha.

elder robinson and elder vestel the zl with me in the caves this morning

elder robinson and elder vestel the zl with me in the caves this morning

my second baptism here in guat (Week 9)

wow, i loved getting your emails today they were so good. life seems good back home in alamo california...i’m not going to lie...75 degrees, hikes, bike rides, man i dream of doing stuff like that here. i really loved yours emails today. they really were incredible and keep me so motivated to do the work here knowing i have all that support back home. the weather here is starting to get a little brutal. everyday this week it has been about 100 degrees and in a couple weeks its going to be 110 and above everyday. no wonder the lamanites were dark skinned…ha, ha, that makes no sense because the nephites were white. ..ha, ha. i can’t believe brady is gone on his mission that is crazy. i thought he just got his call and was having to wait forever to leave. i have no idea how i have been out here for 4 months already. i feel like i have been here for a couple of weeks at the most. the days just fly by like none other. i swear i get up, study, go to lunch, teach and then the day is over. it feels like the days have 12 hours not 24. this week the district leader came to our area to do interviews for the baptism we had saturday so i went to san bonito, another area, with elder laourtizen who has the same amount of time here in guat as me. that was an absolute blast. our spanish was great though. i felt like that day i was fluent. i taught perfectly in spanish and contacted 3 people in like 45 minutes and gave out 3 BOMs. super fun day because elder laourtizen is super motivated and just wants to work like me. so it was super fun just being able to retire for the night knowing i did everything i could do to change peoples lives that day. i don’t know how i am going to do it with my comp but i want to get him motivated so we can work all day everyday. the highlight of this passed week was definitely the baptisms we had saturday. wilmer and catolina are awesome and just the best. i baptized catolina. so it was the first time i had actualy baptized someone ever. super cool and i couldn’t have imagined it to be better. i was a little nervous but the spirit was just so strong and the smile she had on her face when she came up out of the water is something i will cherish for all of eternity…that was just incredible. the next day i confirmed her a member of the church and conferred the holy ghost to her. i really didn’t know what i was doing. i mean i kind of prepared something to say in the blessing but the spirit took over and i really can’t even remember what i said but elder ortega said i had perfect spanish. wow, the gift of tongues, how crazy is that? i don’t even know what i said but it was good and it was good spanish…so sweet, ha, ha. that was such a good experience. i hope so bad and i pray that they will remain strong in the church and that they will go and be sealed in the temple for all eternity in 1 year. if i am in the capitol i will be able to go be with them when they do it. oh, and sorry if my english is bad, i think in spanish 24/7 so i don’t really know english or spanish right now ha, ha. my comp says i talk in my sleep in spanish so that makes me happy to know that i am practicing spanish even in my sleep…ha, ha. there is a fair in my area, san jose, right now so there are like a million people in this small little town. i want to go and do some contacting but ill have to see what my comp says…i can’t wait until i am senior comp. all is well out here in peten guat i’m loving every minute of it. pray that i will find more people to teach and please pray for my spanish ha, ha, ha. love you guys and miss you!

elder call

with one of the new assistants to the pres. he’s a super cool guy and we did divisions with him last week. we got along really well and taught some really good lessons

wilmer and catorina right before they got baptized. i don’t really realize how much bigger i am until i look at the picture ha, ha…i look huge…love these guys and hopefully their son is going to get baptized next week.

another funny thing i meant to mention is when you ask people "como esta" they tell you exactly what they are doing…it is so funny. like, "como esta" and they’ll reply, oh just washing the dishes. oh really, i didn’t know that ha, ha or they well say pues aqui which means “well here” and i just think, oh really, well next time i wont ask you because i already know what you are going to say ha, ha, ha. this is just something i think is super funny.

First week of my second change (week 8)

once again, i love getting your letters, they are the best. both of them were so funny i just laughed the entire time reading them. dad, what you said about kev crushing molly on the court is hilarious because i just picture the same thing…so funny, that kid is hilarious. that sounds like a total blast going to that tennis tourney. about our crazy family day trips those were the best…i love doing those things. to be completely honest, apart from the family of course, i probably miss san fran the most. i don’t get it, like why do i like a city so much…it doesn’t make any sense, but i love that city...that is my hood. seriously, sf is one of the best cities in the world and i miss it so much. so last week i said that this change was probably going to be hard because of my new comp…this change will be hard i think but not as hard as i thought last week. ortega and bonilla didn’t really like each other that much so i think ortega was really lazy to make bonilla mad. i love bonilla and he is my dad but his social skills were a little bit off. he loved giving "sincho" which is like getting after people for doing something wrong like breaking a rule or something. yea, so bonilla loved giving sincho. i realized he was just trying to do what was right so it was never that big of a deal for me. ortega though didn’t like it at all and that’s why i think they didn’t get along that well. so this last week was good but a little slower then the ones in the past because my comp is a bit lazy and it takes a while to get out the door. but it was a good week and a lot better then what i expected. we did work and we did teach but i still would like to do more work. the highlight of the week was confirming the fecha with a family for baptism. they are getting baptized next week and their wedding was last night. it so cool that we invited them to follow the commandments so they got married and next week they will get baptized. i just think it is so cool that they probably would have never heard the gospel if it wasn’t for us missionaries being here at this time. i absolutely love this family and they are the best. i have some pics that i will send you. they are the best and are so happy and they just make do with nothing because they are dirt poor. they are literally dirt poor and their house is the size of mom and dad’s bathroom. they just have a bed, some clothes, and that’s it. they love planting flowers though so they have pretty flowers all over their property. what’s incredible is that they barely have enough money to survive but they love life and are so happy. it just reminds me of that quote in my farewell how money doesn’t correlate to happiness. its so true because most of the people here are so happy and cheerful but live off of nothing. yea, so the fecha and the wedding last night was the highlight of my week for sure. today was really fun though too. we play soccer ever monday in santa elena which is a 45 minute bus ride from our area. we meet up with other missionaries and play soccer. today though was not that competitive because sister missionaries were playing with us too. i didn’t have that much fun so i left early with another missionary on splits. he and i explored santa elena. its not a giant city but its pretty big. we did what i like to do best…just explore and wander just like i like to do in the city. we ended up at some sketchy market with a bunch of counterfeit cool things. then we met up with the rest of the missionaries at pizza hut where we always have lunch. we walked around for like 3 hours exploring and it was the best. my comp doesn’t like to do that so it was cool i could go with another missionary. really fun day but its like a 100 degrees again today. i don’t know if i told you this already or not but the only grocery store is here in santa elena so we have to come here for p days every week pretty much which is cool. it’s a 45 minute bus ride to get here. its actually a van not really a bus and they load like 28 people in it…well 28 is the record…but usually there’s about 24 people in the van so that’s always fun. we also have to come here on wednesdays for district meeting in santa elena so we come here twice a week. in our area we only have tiendas which are like little shacks where they sell drinks, chips, beans, and eggs but thats about it. i’ve started running with my comp in the morning everyday which is a lot of fun. we ran every day this past week starting on tuesday. my goal is to drop another 25 pounds to get down to like 200 and my comp wants to drop 18 this change. we have 6 weeks to do it and it is definitely possible. my goal is just a little bit more than mom's 2 pounds weight loss goal ha, ha. yea, but i am loving it here as always and its the freaking best. this week i’ve really had a better understanding of spanish. i am starting to be able to somewhat understand what the people are saying to me when i talk with them. i can talk fine but its my understanding that is hard for me. i can understand gringos but natives are really hard especially if they talk in vos. i don’t know if they have vos in mexico dad, but its like another form of the tu verb. they take the verb tener for example and they just take off the “r” and add an “s” so it’s tenes. for the command form they take of the “s” so its just tene. it’s different than what i’m used to, and luckily not everybody uses it, but its just something i need to get used to. i’m not supposed to use it though because i am supposed to always use ud but sometimes i use tu when talking to kids to practice. i don’t use vos though because i want to learn ud and tu before i use vos. yea, that’s my spanish and my life out here in san jose peten guat and i’m loving every minute of it. i love you guys and miss you.

elder call

hermano wilmer and i and his youngest son carlitos

this is the whole family 2 kids one 12 the other 6

this is a pic after they had been married wilmer and catorina

another incredbile pic of me jumping over looking the lake. im a huge fan of this pic haha

down at the lake

holy freak i forgot to tell you a story we were eating lunch at wilmer and catolinas house and they had these little chillies. wilmer told me they were not spicy so i ate one. it was spicy really spicy but i could handle it i could handle spice pretty good. bonilla ate one and was crying so ate no more and ortega ate like 3. i was like oh ya thats really good. wilmer kept on telling me to eat more so i did. my moutuh was on fire. i ate 5 with the food and it was hot. after the food wilmer was like have another and i was like freak alright if bonilla and ortega did. so we all at one more. bonilla cired haha and ortega was crying to but i was doing ok. i decided to show the who the alpha male was haha and eat like 6 more. i had 6 in my mouth and were chewing them. terrible decision absolutly terrible. i haven{t been int hat much pain since nam. i was dying crying weezing i was making a fool out of myself haha. it was reallyfunny though and they were all dying. the pain in my mouth lasted another 30 mins but the fire in my stomach lasted teh entire day. learned my lesson haha don{t try to show off by eating a lot of chillies.

here is a picture of me right in the middle of all my pain hahaha good times

an incredible sunset with just the top of my head that is visible

My First Change in Guat...Week 7

wow, let me start by saying dad your letter was so funny...i haven’t laughed that hard since vietnam. the thing about kev ha, ha so funny...tennis and then you were like, “yea i’m raw at tennis too if molly is the bar”…ha, ha, ha. i’m still dying laughing ha, ha, ha…i can’t even believe how funny that is. oh, and the part about mom ha, ha, ha that’s so funny 2 pounds…then you were like i lost 2 pounds fasting yesterday…so funny. i have lost 20 pounds since getting to guat. my pants don´t stay on with my belt so i had to make new holes in the belt. i have lost 20 and the heat hasn’t even kicked into full gear here yet. elder sommers, an elder in my zone who was born in my area, lost 50 pounds in 3 months here in san jose. if i lost 50 pounds i would have a 6 pack ha, ha. wow, so news about me, i just finished my first change here in guat. elder bonilla, my trainer, is leaving and elder ortega my other comp is going to finish training me because he just finished his training. wow, so how do i feel about that? mixed feelings…elder ortega is a lot more fun and outgoing but elder bonilla all he does is work. to be honest i wish bonilla was staying but there is nothing i can do. let me say this next change is going to be really, really hard for me. i love elder ortega but he, well, just doesn´t like to work. he likes staying and talking at members houses. oh, and ortega doesn’t know a lick of english so i will have to communicate in espanol which will be really hard but really good for me. i’m just worried about the work. i want to work from sun up until 930 at night. i don’t want to make elder ortega mad when i tell him lets leave the members house and go out and teach. its going to be a really hard balance that i am going to have to find. not to mention, i am going to have to do most of the teaching probably too…ha, ha wow, this next change is going to be really interesting. as long as i can say i did my best i’ll be happy. that is what’s new with the companionship and we might get another companion also. there are a lot of tri comps because there are just an absolute ton of missionarys in the mission right now since we’re preparing for the mission to be split. this week with our investigators was good. we are having a couple get married this sunday so we can baptize them…this family is just the best by the way. i will try to get a picture for you guys. but our fecha for this saturday isn’t going to happen because 2 days in a row we saw our investigator at the bar, right in front of our house, slamming down beers. i mean, have some respect, there are hundreds of bars and you have to go to the one that is right in front of our house…ha, ha…i mean, we can see him from our window…we can hear him laugh too…it’s like torture…ha, ha…so we need to figure out the best way to talk to him about drinking and to see if he actually wants to get baptized. his name is hugo and its the guy that has been taking the lessons for 12 years so obviously he knows drinking is not good. i will let you know what happens with that. but all i can do right now is pray for him. not counting him, we have 4 people scheduled to get baptized this month. i just want to work, work, and work so i really hope ortega wants to do the same. this past week though has been weird weather wise. the beginning of the week was super hot like usual then the last 3 nights i have been cold all night…like in my bed shivering cold. i don’t get it, it was actually really cold at night. during the day it was like 70 then at night who knows what the temp was but it was cold…probably because it was cloudy but who knows for sure. this month is when it is supposed to just get really, really, hot. something else interesting happened on sunday. estabamos caminando a la iglesia domingo cuando yo vi mi primero persona muerto. el hombre estaba tirado in la calle y eschuchamos que lo mataron con un machete...que miedoso. estoy ecribiendo in espanol entonces ella no puede entender. no quero que ella se preocupe para mi…yea but i am loving the mission. it is so fun and i love teaching so much as well. that is pretty much all the news i have for this week. oh, and mom, i just read your whole letter about dave so sad…ha, ha, i love that cat and i want to cry but for some reason i think i'll be fine ha, ha …love you guys and hope all is well in alamo. 

 i just wanted to send it again just because it is so cool and i have nothing else to send this week. i mean look at zarahemla in the background ha, ha, ha.

pic 2. elder sommers and i. he is the one that was born in san jose. born, in case you didn´t know, is the first area of your mission. yea he is the man though and is from kansas. kansas…what the heck, he says his stake is half of all of kansas…ha, ha. he played football too…full back and middle linebacker. he came into the mission like 250 and weighs 205 right now. he is in san andreas which is the area right next to mine and we are in the same branch for church.

me with one of the members parrots ha, ha