Holy Freak that Scared Me (week 24)

I got on the first computer at this computer place and a bunch of crap came on the screen. I plugged in my memory from my camera and more stuff popped out I was like freak virus I unplugged my memory and went to the other computer and I found all my pictures deleted and a virus on the card. I freaked out and was like comp help me. Calmly he went into his backpack grabbed a memory and plugged it in. In the memory it had a program to destroy the virus and restore my photos. So ya I just about cried. I have all my photos still and everything and downloaded this program onto my memory. Ya so the reason I am writing you all today is because yesterday we went to Tikal again and we got back to late and I didn´t have time to use internet and catch the bus so here we are. I still can´t believe that mad is married that totally freaks me out. Bens hair is still looking incredible and don´t think i didn´t catch him wearing my watch haha. That’s all right i gave him permission on mother’s day and the wedding was a good occasion to use it. Yes so I am officially in Coban i have a new president. pres Curtis but I still have not met him. So pres and sister watts are no longer my parents here in the mission. I said my last goodbye the last Tuesday a week ago it was super sad. We had zone conference with them. At the end they wanted to take pics with everyone. When it was my turn I was super sad I love pres watts but Hermana watts there is nobody like her in the world she is a saint. She started bawling and we couldn´t even take the photo for like 5 mins it was so sad. I love those people especially Hermana watts haha. I’m still sad but excited to have a new pres. the pres wife is 100 percent chapiin. chapin is to guatamalteca as gringo is to white people. Apparently she has a different kind of love for the missionary’s haha. She gives sincho like nobody’s business haha. I still don´t know them I have only heard rumors. The tri companionship is still great. I love my comps so much I’m serious and not just saying that. We laugh all day. Elder rojas the one from the domican doesn´t back down in arguments so when we argue we argue for like 2 hours because I’m the same way. Its great we aren’t mad at each other just arguing which is sooooo fun. For example I hate bugs so I went around our house with raid and a candle. Yes raid is flammable so I blowtorched every bug in our house to the afterlife. Rojas however said it’s bad to kill bugs like almost as bad as killing humans. We argued about that for like 3 and half hours. It was soooo funny. He wouldn´t back down. I was like there is no commandment anywhere that says you can’t kill insects’ haha. He was like it’s an abomination to god I was like if it’s so bad why is there no commandment or scripture haha. Anyway it was hilarious and I love both my comps so much haha. I have been in the my area for about 6 months. I love my area but I’m about ready to leave haha. I think I should have a change but we’ll see. With the new president who doesn´t know the missionaries I wouldn´t be surprised if there wasn´t a whole lot of changes. This change we had a baptism Saturday which was great. Their wedding was Friday so her husband who is a member and rm baptized her. Iit was really cool. They have a date to get sealed for ever and ever set in 1 year from now. Super cool. The baptism itself was nut.  I was so stressed. So much crazy stuff happened.  I had to give a blessing to a person that we chose to give a talk because she was sick and she wanted the blessing before the baptism so I had to do that with a ton of other stuff on my mind. At the end after the baptism we bought refreshments but we didn´t buy enough cups so last minute elder cocigua and I ran out the church trying to find a  teinda with cups and we needed more cookies too. It was nuts. So we ran out of there and all the teindas were closed. Terrible because it was late. We ran I swear a mile and didn´t find anything so we had no choice. Saturday night all the bars were open so we went to a bar to find cups and got made fun of by the drunks. I made the decision to shake the drunks hand bad call he wouldn´t let go so I waited for 15 seconds. When my comp had cups he yanked my hand out of his and ran the heck out of there. Oh no but there were dogs and what do dogs like to do chase things. So we had like 10 dogs who wanted to kill us along with the drunks as we were trying to run as fast as we could back to the church. We almost died. We got back to the church and i immediately had to give a blessing to a dying lady that was nuts. I was sweating so much and I was dripping sweat off my arms onto her. mid  prayer I opened my eyes and she had a huge beetle in her hair and it freaked me out and made me move which distracted my comp from the blessing and also which splashed a bunch of more sweat on the poor old lady. She was drenched by the end. haha That’s just a few things that happened that night it was nuts. I couldn´t calm down and sleep forever. The baptism really was special  even though I couldn’t feel the spirit because I was to stressed all night haha. Her smile though and knowing that she was clean of her sins was good enough for me. Great and memorable nigh.t I filled up 3 pages in my journal of all the things that happened Monday. I went to Tikal again which was cool. I met a dude at the top of a temple from Napa and we began to talk for like 30 minutes. At the end I told him about what I do here and stuff. He is 20 and by himself and he had a ton of questions. At the end I gave him a book of Mormon and told him to go to Mormon. org.  He said he would. He said he would talk to the missionaries in cali also. I told him to tell the missionaries that he was contacted by a missionary at the top of a temple in guat. haha That missionary is going to be sooo jealous. The top of a temple made by the  nephites or lamanites in a lugar where possibly Jesus walked haha nuts. Love you all and hope that you have another good week.

Elder call

mission pres and wife

baptism

you guys need to get workin in la obra misional... (week 23)

hey family loved getting your letters again this week they always are one of the highlights of my week. sounds like you guys had a heck of a week in for the wedding and all the family that was in town that sounds fantastic. really put me baggy for about 20 minutes thinking about all the crazy fun you guys were having im happy you guys got to have that good time.

well as far as my week it had its up and downs. again with the obra in our area we are having some trails. we are having a really hard time getting investigators to progress like i tell you every week. we can knock doors all day everyday and nothing not one guy will progress but all will listen and act like they care haha. so we are really just trying to figure out the best way to progress our investigators. ill tell you the key to missionary work. here is a little secret the missionaries are not the most important part. not even close. its the members 90 percent the members. references are everything. with a reference the investigator will have a friend in the church and will be more likely to go to church. also when we have a member with us and they are talking and teaching the investigator is more likely to listen and to relate. as missionaries we can bring the spirit and know what to teach but the member is key. sometimes people think we are just machines trying to get people to come to church and that we don{t care about them or anything. when we have a real person of the same town as them they will be more likely to focus and listen. now as missionaries we study everyday and follow the spirit on how we can teach the people and not teach the lesson. we pray that we can connect with the people more and be there friend and to trust us. that being said like i said arriba members are everything. so family and other people that read this letter is help the missionaries with references. the reason i say all this is because last night we had the opportunity to watch a broadcast from provo with the 12 and all the new missionaries in the mtc and mission presidents. i don{t know if you saw it but if you didn{t find it and watch it. the video brought me to tears several times. how important this work is. the time to act is now. we only have this life to act and then down its over. well you know minus the spirit world but in even there we will be the same person and have the same desires. but anyway these are souls we are talking about people children of god and we as members as the church need to work. it is our duty to help the mission work and to help the members. if we don{t then wouldn{t you guys think its a little selfish not to share. oh we get eternal life and get to be with our family's forever others don{t. we need to say something to them so they have the choice to deny the truth or accept it. so ya there is my little bit of sincho that i have for you guys. im dead serious family when i say you need to watch this broadcast that was last night. you guys will get the spirit of missionary work and feel the importance. it will drive Ben and Ella when they are faced with decisions that lead to a mission or another path. for ben at least for a mission and for ella temple marriage or if she wants to serve a mission. i love you guys and this church is true and you will feel the spirit of the lord as you try to serve god and choose the right. church and family is what is most important and we shouldn{t let anything else get in the way of those 2 things. love you guys so much and i hope you have a good week.

elder call

oh i forgot to tell you by the way our investigator delfina got married last saturday and is going to be baptised this saturday

             a turtle we bought from some guy in the street so we could let it free in the lake hahaha

getting a jalon or hitchike from san pedro back to our area with the police. we had to walk all the way there this week it was long hah alike 2 hours of walking but we got lucky on the way back.

a great picture of the lake in our area

Mads Married (Week 22)

let my start by saying first happy fathers day dad and second what the freak is madaline doiing married. that really scares me like what the freak i feel like she is such a little girl its so weird haha. i can remember the days when rachel and i would get bossed around by madiline all the time. rachel and i would always try to fight back and run and stay away from her haha. congratulations and i can{t believe that. the wedding sounded incredibnle and if at all possible i would love to see some pictures. if you guys could send some to me that would be great.

this week was just about the same as the week before. 1 of our fechas fell because we can{t even find the guy and the other one didn{t go to church because he had to leave for a week to work somewhere. as far as delfina everything is still good and she is on track to get ba´tised in 2 saturdays. her husband is going to ba´ptis her so that should be an absolutely incredible experiance for her and one she will cherish for ever. as far as our other investigators again it is so hard getting them to come to church so we had another 0 people come to church as investigators. its so frustrating but this week we focused a lot on menas activios and recent conveerts. we visited a bumch of people this week in those 2 catogories and we had an incredible attendence this week. usually its just like 90 or 85 but htis week was 125. it was great. that was really satisfying. i just need to remember that i am not only here to baptise but to visit everyone and get less actives to church. we went to san pedro again this week which is always an adventure. well we walked all the way there this time which is like 13 kilometros. saber how manyt miles but it took like 2 hours we had no luck with a jalon. haha it was like mid day you could see my skin because my shirt was stuck to my skin i was so drenched in sweat. i drank 6 litros of water that day. it was hot haha. the work in san pedro is awesome though. nobady knows the church there so our presence there is doing some good. the poeople are really nice and are so willing to listen as well. we are talking to the zls about gettting our entire zone to go out to san pedro and talk to everyone one of these days. wipe that place clean just like the witnesses haha. well see if there tactic works and if the zls will let us do it. all and all another good week. i love this work and have never been so happy in my entire life. im loving every second and the time is going by sooooo fast. i cna{t beleive i have been away from home for 7 months now haha crazy. love you guys and its so great to here from you. have a good week and pray always.

elder call

my comp had to get a bed and when the delivered it to our house they gave us shirts and we made them tak a pic with us. they look happy in the pic but these guys were super annoyed hahaha it was so funny

wilmer and catorina 

                                                                my comps in our area

Another Week Gone By... (week 21)

i can’t believe it’s already been a week since the last time i wrote you…i just don’t get it… the time is flying by so fast right now it is just ridiculous. the time flew by so fast this week i literally can’t remember what we did all week, ha, ha. well, to start off with, i love my new comp. he is hilarious and he is so motivated to work it is great. really the only thing that i can remember about our week right now is that it was a really good week for the work. we actually had some success this week, except for the fact that nobody came to church yesterday, but other than that it was a good week. we have been working really hard with our investigators and have really been trying to help them progress. we have been praying a ton for them and trying to figure out how we can help them take the next step. your prayers family are really helping us and i am so grateful for that. we set 3 new fechas this week which is pretty much a miracle. we haven’t had any success setting fechas since before the last 2 changes probably. so it is a miracle that so many of our investigators actually want to progress and take the next step forward. its too early to know if they will get baptized or not but just the fact that they are exercising their faith by taking the next step and trusting in the lord to guide them is what i am grateful for. the good part is they are showing god that they are willing to trust him that much more by making a goal of getting baptized. yea, so as far as the work went this week it was really good. as far as fun stuff goes, i really can’t remember what fun things we did because the week just went by so fast. today was fun though because for pday we went to this mirador thing in our area with the rest of our district. my district was once again shocked about my area and how beautiful it is. yea, but this mirador thing is basically like a giant tree fort thing way up in a massive tree. it’s a sketchy guatemalan tree fort that’s like 100 feet in the air…so scary…and the final steps of getting up to the fort are just a ladder strapped to the tree with wire and then a chair strapped to the tree with wire on top of that. it was literally so sketchy and i was totally freaking out…just imagine climbing half dome over again that’s how freaked I was…it really was that scary ha, ha.

love you all and i will try to remember more things about this week to share when i write again next week. love you all and please remind ben not to forget to write me next week too.

love elder call

Mission Coban (week 20)

whats up family great to hear from you this week haha. no but really it was great geting your letters and you made up for it for sure. i wasn´t really even that disapointed that i didn´t get letters i was like more worried like someone might be dead or something. i also thought maybe the house caught on fire so you had nothing to email me with haha. im freakin nuts i know haha i have not changed a bit i always just think of the worst thing possible in situations like that haha. man i was jelous about you guys going to the ball game. those are literally the best seats in the park like actually front row just left of the plate get outta here. man i can´t beleive that the last time i was in those seats was a few days after i got back from thailand. that was almost a year ago holy crap. man i love thinking about all the things you guys are doing at our house best summer house in the world. dad what you said about our grandparents is dead on they are both incredible. man i have a great family. i thank god for that everynight.

ya so whats new this week. well i don´t feel like i am the new kid in the mission anymore which is great. i almost have 7 months and there are a bunch of new areas in the zone with brand new missionaries. like i said last week as well i feel pretty good about my spanish right now. im nowhere near perfect but i can talk and communicate just fine. thats a big relief because i never thought i was going to get to that point. as far as me whats new. i have another comp again. yup i am in another trio. pero esta bein it will be good. the guy is super cool. he is a lat from guat. he has 3 montsh in the mission. pres has put him in trios his entire mission because he is waiting for his visa for mexico. so ya he is only temperal but he has no idea when he is going to get his visa. trio will be fun. there are pros and cons of both. pro you arent stuck with 1 other guy for 6 weeks you have someone else to talk to. cons everything takes longer and you don´t get as much time to teach. i really am excited though for this change both my comps are so fun and we laugh all the time. its not all laughing we do a lot of working too of course haha. as for as the area its still about the same. we are really praying that our investigators will just freakin progress. we also found a wife of a member that isn´t a member and just started teaching her. she is just about ready for baptism as well. we have only tought her once last night but it was a great lesson. she has talked to the missionaries before and loves our message. so we are praying that she will want to progress as well. i think that it is looking pretty good with her though. im also glad i have another comp because rojas is starting to get baggy he leavers in like 2 months so at times its hard to get him motivated but now i have another fresh comp ready to work to help me give him animo. ya so thats whats new in this crazy country of guat. love you all and i will send you pics next week because i didn´t bring my card reader.

love you all and have a good week

elder call

to answer you question mom the only reason people are sad they are not going to be in mission este is because of president and sister watts almost nobady wants to serve in the cap haha

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