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

Freakin Hot...Week 6

right now i’m sitting in this same internet cafe as always and its like 100 degrees with no air. i’m dying quite literally. the scary part is every time i say "hace calor" when a member is around they just say wait until next month. my comps say it gets up to be 120 and the average in march, april, and may is 115…so that’s like 155 in black pants.  i never wore pants before the mission because i was hot when it was 75 degrees but now here with humidity and this heat i might die really ha, ha. i was dying at your letter this week mom and dad.  charlie on the bike i can just see it ha, ha, so funny.  that kid might not be athletic but he is the funniest in the family ha, ha.  its great to hear ella is doing great its weird to think that when i get home she is going to be a young woman…what the freak? but make sure she knows that it doesn´t matter how good she is at tennis i will still beat her…i won´t lose.  i will fake an injury before i lose ha, ha . wow, ben its great to hear you are killing it at rugby that’s freakin awsome dude!  2 out of 2 "man of the match" awards...wow...i want to see you play so bad. whatever you do, suck up to helu man, if he loves you, you are set. if he loves you then he loves you but if he hates you he won’t play you.  so don´t do anything stupid because he has the hookups for college.  oh, and kill everyone in those games. the thing that shocked me most is that you are driving…that scares me…that really scares me…ha, ha. well, please don´t die because i want to see you again ha, ha, just be safe. im sure you will do fine but if you have any questions ask aunt ann, her god given gift is driving.  don´t forget about me, im pretty good myself ha, ha.  about the 458 italia that just made me sick. i miss cars so much here. remember when i said you just don´t see the cars you see in alamo anywhere else?  its true, here i get excited when i see a 93 toyota ha, ha. the cars are terrible here ha, ha, so i have moved on from cars to motorcycles here. man, i lie in bed at night and think what i would do for grandpas bmw 850 gs...that motorcycle, holy freak! i would take that over a bugatti if i lived here. im serious, freak, that thing is so dope. tell grandpa to ride it down here and visit me ha, ha. i love you ben, your the man, and rep that last name big dog. mom about the crime its just really bad in the capital, up here in peten there is like none. speaking of the cap, we got some really big news this week. the mission is going to be split up…mission coban and mission guat city east. there are 10 zones in this mission, 5 are in the cap and 5 are out of the cap. the mission splits in july. everybody tells me that the cap is not fun to serve in and everybody wants to be out of the cap. so i hope so bad i am in mission cobon. im not kidding, mission coban might be the best mission in the world. the area i am in right now is a part of it. oh, and 50 percent of the missionaries in the mission are going to east and the other 50 percent to coban.  they are bringing in missionaries from other missions in guat to these missions. its crazy news…i have layed out the pros and cons of both though. pro of the cap you are guaranteed to speak spanish so your spanish is going to be good.  pres watts is staying in the cap for mission east so i would still have him…he is the best by the way and last there is this guy who makes dope suits for missionaries and that is in the cap as well.  but in mission coban it is jungle the entire thing.  there are waterfalls, tikal, like i went to on pday last week, crazy animals, and low crime.  also you might have to learn the quechee, that isn´t how you spell it, but thats how you say it. anyway, its the language of the mayans and its a crazy language that about 1 in 15 missionaries learn in the mission. if you do get called to an area with quichee then you are pretty much going to be in that area for your entire mission because the language is really hard.  i wouldn´t mind learning it as long as my spanish is really good because you are never going to use that language after the mission. so yea, mission coban is the way better mission but if i go to the cap then fine i will have a freakin great time there too. so thats pretty much all the news this week and we still have that bap date in 2 weeks.  im running out of time though, so i love you guys and miss you. oh freak, i almost forgot, we played soccer this morning, gringos vs lats, and i had 9 of our 13 goals, oh yea, i’m repping the call name down here as well.  we beat the lats 13 to 10. they didn’t like that because they say soccer is in their blood, ha, ha…anyway, love you guys...you’re the best! 

elder call

Probably the coolest picture ever, ever, taken of me...look at my athletic skills and look at where i am at.  I look at this picture and I am speechless...Christmas card worthy I think,  haha

rep west side area till i die even in Guat

a huge spider we saw when we went out teaching Friday.

Swagged out in Guatemala (Week 5)

so, my subjects this week don’t have anything to do with anything…just letting you know ha, ha. its great to hear from the family as usual. dad, its hard to say who’s letters are better yours our mom’s. man, i don’t know, but your letter this week was great. coach helu what a guy so unique and you can’t understand anything he says. its awesome to hear how good ben is doing in rugby…that’s awesome! i wish i was there to watch him play because it seems like he is tearing it up. keep talking to helu for me so i will have a hook up with him for after the mission to play rugby7 at byu. its also great to hear ella is killing it at tennis…that’s awesome. oh, by the way, kev liked tennis so much when we all played that he is playing at dvc now too…ha, ha. ella and kev should play together ha, ha, that would be too good. so, this week was work as always but the highlight was getting another fecha. we got a fecha this week with a guy named hugo. he has been taking the lessons for 12 years and would never commit. well, we got him to commit, and he came to church yesterday so hopefully he will stay strong to that goal. he knows the church is true and knows the book of mormon is true also. so we are thinking maybe a word of wisdom problem but we are not sure. anyway, we are praying for him and teaching him 3 times a week. we also had a really great first visit this week. we were knocking on doors, well actually we weren’t knocking because houses don’t have doors here, so we were clapping and yelling “buenas” and we got invited in. killed the lesson. the spirit was so strong and my spanish was just flowing. you would have thought i was fluent. it turns out that the dad of the family had one of his sons die so we told him about the plan of salvation and that he can be with his son again. incredible lesson and i invited them to be baptized and they said yes. we didn’t set a date with them but they want to follow jesus christ through baptism…really, really, cool…best first visit yet! the mosquitoes are back at our house and there are more then ever. its terrible and sometimes i can’t sleep at night. oh and dad i was at a members house yesterday for lunch and he served his mission in panama. he said he didn’t know you. he served in 91 so you were back i think. he was on the san blas islands for 13 months. he showed me a bunch of pictures and i wish so bad you would have been there to talk to him about it. he loved it so much. i told him grandpa baptized the first san blas indian and he was so happy to hear that. it was great, he was telling us a bunch of stories and stuff. when i am on this mission i think of you all the time dad and how you were doing the same thing as i am right now only like 20 years ago…its pretty crazy but its the best. we met our goal as a zone for 30 baptisms so today for pday we went to tikal, the giant mayan ruins guat is known for. it was nuts…so incredible. i think its zarahemla but who knows for sure…ha, ha. i will send some pics. the spanish is coming along fine but still needs lots of work. listening is the hardest part for me and its hard to keep up with what the people are saying and there are a bunch of different accents too. it is coming along though and every week it gets better. i love you guys and miss you…just know all is good with me in guat.

elder call

Hugo our new fetcha

Tikal fun fact: right here is where George Lucas filled the millenniam falcon landing in the movie with the ewaks

the main temple at Tikal

Week 4 in Guatemala

sooo...i haven’t showered in 5 days because the water in our house isn’t working and i have been eating tortillas and hot sauce every meal for the past 3 days…what the freak am i doing here in guat? my comps dont´t know english and i dont´t know that much spanish. on top of that its probably close to 95 degrees right now as i'm sitting in this little internet cafe thing. what am i doing? oh yea, thats right, baptizing gentiles. i had my first baptism on saturday with hermana morina. it was awesome and makes everything just worth it. to bring a lady who sleeps on her dirt floor with 4 little kids and no money to the knowledge and goodness of christ is incredible. what we are doing out here is changing lives little by little. we also had 4 of our other investigators attend her service as well which was awesome. elder ortega baptized her and that was his first baptism as well. the spirit was so strong and the smile she had on her face despues the baptism was a memory i will cherish for the rest of my life…just incredible. she also said that she is going to go to church until the day she dies. so hopefully, and i’m praying, that she wont forget this experience and be inactive in a couple of weeks. i really don’t think that will be the case. so that was our bautismo and it was really, really, cool. i have been meaning to tell you about the branch…its crazy. first off, singing is supposed to invite the spirit but man its hard when nobody knows the melody. i’m in no way saying that i am a good singer at all. but the people in this place have no idea how to sing and its brutal. i meant to tell you earlier that the first lesson i taught with my companions i couildn´t stop laughing during the song because of how bad at singing my comps are…its just nuts ha, ha. i’m kinda used to it now but its still pretty brutal ha, ha. i think we should have a few more fechas in the near future. san jose is pretty hard for investigators because there is no support. most of the members live in san andreas the town next to san jose. so it can be really tough and a baptism in san jose is a big deal. elder bonilla, elder ortega and i are going to kill it…this is just the beginning. oh, another thing funny about the branch is that nobody respects the speaker. its so funny, people are walking around, talking to each other, saying hello, so everybody is talking during the talks…its so funny. the branch is just so relaxed that its great. its silent at least during the santa cena. thats when you feel the spirit the best. well, not my best letter, but i don´t have as much time today as i usually do. love you all and i know you are all doing awesome. i love getting your letters every week so please keep them coming.

Love, elder call

This is hermana morina. ya she is really small. haha

elder ortega and I in this picture we has to walk to the church which is like 6 miles away and it was like 100 degrees. I was dying!

I died haha.  I can't even tell you how hot it was.  Like there is no way to describe it.

Trying my very hardest to get coconuts from our tree in the backyard.  this was hilarious because we didn't have any clean water to drink from so we had to get the coconuts from the tree and drink the water out of them. it was really quite tasty. haha

elder champagne and i at zone conference

the zone leaders on the ends. elder vestal and elder ware then elder Champagne and I in the middle and some random missionary in the middle tambien.

this is how I look when I go do service. haha

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

A turatntuala i found in the bathroom about the size of half your hand.  my comps say they get twice as big.

Where I am right now in the isla de flores

Pretending to eat a spider obviously I would not eat it so I don't know why I put pretending haha

another pic of where I am isla do flores

another pic of the beautiful isla de flores

picture of my comps and i overlooking the isla de flores

isla de flores

oh and the jungle you see in the background of this picture is like the jungle we had to chop down for service but a little more dense.