Called to Serve: Week 3 in Guatamala

wow, i cant believe that it’s been a week since the last time i emailed you guys…crazy…time is really starting to fly by. i loved getting your letters. mom and dad, both of your letters had me dying laughing. actually, i’m still laughing and i wish i wasn´t because the man who owns this internet shop, i just looked back at him, and i swear i can hear him saying “gringo loco” under his breath ha,ha,ha. i think that the funniest part is charlie not being able to ride his bike up the slightest upgrade. i can picture those little chicken legs trying to drive his body up the drive way and not being able to do it ha, ha so funny. i can´t believe i was his age when i was riding my bike over that neighbors lawn saying neiner, neiner, neiner! mom, another thing that was hilarious you wrote is about little joe stone and the popcorn going flying, i love that kid, and i feel like i was just like him. i feel like him and i would have gotton along great if i was his age tearing stuff apart haha so funny im glad you guys had a lot of fun in the city for aunt anns birthday. the city is what i miss most about life back at home, besides the family, i love that city. elder bonilla, my trainer, thinks its really funny to say new york is the best state, all in his broken english…its so funny. i always will rep cali because its the best! oh, about christian’s spanish…dad, i email him every week and he says he gets a ton of practice speaking spanish especially on sundays because he is in an english ward and has to translate the entire meeting to his investigators in spanish. i feel like i am learning spanish pretty quickly because i have an hour to study it in the morning and i have to speak it with my companions if i want to say anything, and you guys know how i like to talk, so i get a lot of good practice all day everyday. dad, i was freakin dying laughing when you said that charlie says that mom is the best. i can totally see him saying that. you’re right about mom though, its really hard to compete with someone like her. i mean, is there anybody who doesn’t like mom? well, if you can find someone i would “eat my hat” (one of moms sayings). dad, i was also dying when you were talking about dave and how he doesn´t have a place to sleep with me gone…that’s hilarious. dad, your right about your parents though, they are the best. i mean, they need to write a book, oh wait, they did write a book, but the book should really be on parenting. just look at your family and look how every family is strong in the church and they all have fantastic families…i don´t know another family like that. i cant even start to even acknowledge all they have done for the lord with all of their church callings…i don´t even know them all…quorum of 70’s, temple pres, mission pres, mtc pres, patriarch…just incredible. they are just remarkable people. i am blessed to have them as my grandparents and as my examples. now on to me, this week has just been more of the same…teaching people and teaching people. it can get frustrating at times though, because elder ortega, my other comp, likes spending a lot of time at members houses and i want to get out and teach but i don´t know how to say that politely while we are at a members house and how not to have him mad at me…but for the most part he is great though. there is one tough thing about teaching here and that is you have to have a member with you when you are teaching past 530 at night. that can get frustrating too at times because if we don´t have a member we have to go back to the house and call members until one will come with you. all in all though, teaching is great and we do a lot of it. we have a lot of great investigators right now and we got 12 of them to come to church this week. that’s a really great week and its great to see that they are keeping there commitments. when investigators keep their commitments that’s how you know they are wanting to progress and come unto christ. we still only have 1 fecha that is for this next saturday but with the way our other investigators are going right now we should have a lot of fechas in the future. the thing that i had the most fun with this week is probably comparing myself and the world we live in to the book of mormon times. book of mormon prophets would go and cry out repentance and the people would yell at them and would say they are of the devil. i love that because when i have people yell at me and say bad things about me i just compare myself to them. its crazy to think that we don´t live in that much different of a world than those guys. there are wicked people, good people, and the church. we are just in the last dispensation of the church. i am like the missionaries in the book of mormon…its nuts. oh, and another thing that is fun to think about is that i am actually like the missionaries of old because i am teaching in the same place they did here in guat. i am teaching lamanites everyday. another thing that is fun to compare is how alma in the book of mormon always talks about being filled with the spirit of the lord and wanting to teach. that’s just how i feel everyday when we leave the house. i am filled with the spirit of the lord and its like another force inside of me that is making me want to teach every person we come in contact with…its nuts and its funny to compare myself to myself a year ago. i always think that if i knew then what i know now, i would go back to high school, stand in the commons area, and preach to the people. saying that cracks me up but its so true…who knows if i would actually do it…probably not because thats kind of weird but i always think about that before i go to bed…well…that and pebble beach to be honest ha, ha. but just thinking how great that would be if i converted people in high school. ha, ha i really am a missionary…holy freak…weird, ha, ha. i am really loving every minute of being out here. mom, you said i write just like i talk. its because i don’t have time to make it all nice and pretty so whatever comes to my mind i just write it ha, ha, and thats also why i write ha, ha so much and why my emails are so disorganized, so sorry about that ha, ha. charlie, its great you learned how to ride a bike, thats awesome, and my spanish is coming along great buddy, thanks for asking. ella, it sounded like you had a total blast at that daddy daughter church thing and i’m also glad you are loving tennis…that is so fun. i miss tennis and i think about that last saturday i had in cali. the entire family, plus grandpa, john, ann and rachel, were all there at that house that kev was house sitting, and we were playing tennis…thats like the funniest thing in the world…i mean what the freak. ben, email me so i have your email address and could you also text kev and get his email for me…that would be great. happy to hear you’re killing it at rugby, thats awesome dude! i miss rugby because its so fun. love you kid and love the family. i will send you some pics from this week. oh, and also send me rachels email as well. Love you guys, Elder Call

oh my gosh i almost forgot our sevice so we do service usually about 2 times a week. the past 2 weeks on saturday and friday have been choping down this ladys enire backyard with machetes. really really fun but sooo hot. probaly an acre of just jungle and we shoped it all down to the ground really hard work but feels so good once we finished. i dont have a pic of that buyt that is teh lady that we have a fecha with this week. she is the same lady that has no money or food and we teach by flashlight. poorest lady i have ever seen and she has to support her 4 kids as well she is a trooper. as for the pic this is of a family that is less active but the dad is the man. i don´t even know his name. everybody calls him chino because he has chinise eyes. anybody that has squinty eyes heere they call chinos so thats the story behind that. so we built taht shelter that is at the top of the picture for him. he is the man though and look at his shirt proves to you he is the man. he is less active like i said though but we have got him to come to church these past couple weeks which is great. love you and and elder calls is out

Cool pic of some clouds

Just a few of my mosquito bites

noutstro casa nueva..although we have just half of it but it is pretty nice though.

my desk that I study on every day. pretty good set up I think

This is a picture of the main room where we sleep and study. the kitchen and the bathroom are in different rooms. thankfully the bathroom isn't in the same room as where we sleep like our other house. Such a poor design. I mean who cam up with that idea. so stupid haha