15 Months in the Mission (Week 57)

Let me just tell you family that I just cannot even understand how I have 15 months here in the mission and 13 months here in Guatemala.  I just do not know where the time has gone.  I feel like literally I have maybe 6 months in the mission. How has the time gone by so fast? I just don’t understand it at all… like at all.

This last week has been a great one but a busy one. I have had sooooooooooo much stuff to do that I don’t even have time to think.  Just about every day this week we have gone to San Miguel to find a new house for the new missionaries that are going to be there. San Miguel is like outside of Salama going towards Rabinal and Cubulco. Pres. called us and let us know that we are going to be opening that area next change. So we immediately had to start going to San Miguel to look for a house. So what does that require? Well walking up and down every street and asking in every teinda to see if anyone has a house to rent.  Ya I like walking and doing that but I mean we have to do that in the morning and then go home and do it all day in our area… more walking. haha. Let me just say that it’s tiring as heck and I don’t even have that much time to study. On top of that I have to get a presupesto for what all the stuff we need for the house. I say that in Spanish because I literally just spent the last 5 minutes of internet time trying to think what that means and I got nothing. Ya so we had to go find out how much all the furniture costs for the house and like the fridge, stove, beds, and everything else they need.  That also requires a lot of walking to go to all the stores to find out how much everything costs so the office elders can give us a check.  Then we have to go buy it all and order all the tables and dressers to be made in a carpenter store. Also we have to get a map of Salama and of San miguel and completely reorganize the areas for the missionaries here so that everyone has equal space to work with members.  We also need to go find a house in Santa Barbera where we can put the church because pres. is going to open a group over there for members who live in that area. Then we need to get a presupuesto of what everything is going to cost for that house. Speakers, chairs, microphone, pulpit and like all the stuff for the primary and stuff haha. Then I have other stuff to do like plan for the zone, plan an activity for the zone that helps everyone’s well-being and do all the other little stuff that pres. asks me to do and the aps… oh and work in my area. Let me tell you I’m not complaining at all. It’s the best. I love being so busy and it’s like I am all over the place all day every day. Its soooo fun!! Ya so that’s my life right now. It’s the best. In our area we have found a couple real great investigators. We were contacting one day down by our house and found a family. They are super pílas. They actually want to learn more about the gospel and keep commitments. They are reading the BOM and doing everything we say. The only bad thing is they went down to Guatemala and are going to be there for like 1 week. I hope they do not forget the spirit they have felt with us during the lessons.  They seem to be just a great possibility for us right now. We just need to get them to come to church and they are as good as gold.  That’s probably the best thing that has happened this last week was this great little family. I love finding people like them and it’s what gives me the desire to work even harder the next week. The mission is the best. The thing that I am working on the most right now is to have Christ like love for all the people I come in contact with. If I truly love the people I will have all the animo in the world to try to find the people that are willing to make convenios with god through baptism. The mission is the best and I love every second of it and I don’t like one bit how much time I have. It’s going by soo fast. Love you all and have a good week!!

elder call

Family and Friends (week 56)

BTW, there’s a back story as to why we can’t stop laughing about Nick’s letter this week. Nick was obsessed with the British automobile show "Top Gear" and he made us watch the Reliant Robin episode several times http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/clarkson-tips-over-reliant-robin   Nick would just belly roll with laughter when he watched this because he thought the Reliant Robin was a totally ridiculous car.      

Loved your letter this week and I love hearing about all the rain.  I just love that story and seeing the faith of you all in participating in the fast that’s…what a great story.  I have told that story in a few lessons it’s great.

I’m going to start off this letter with a story that I forgot to tell you all last week. So last week we had to go to a town called Santa Barbera because long story short I had to send Elder Ortega home and his comp stayed the night with us afterwards. President was planning on coming down here to divisions in Baja Verpapaz with some missionary’s and the plan was to meet president in Santa Barbera.  The president brought down the new comp of the Elder Guiterezz the old comp of Ortega that stayed with us.  Well that was the plan. That day the teachers of all of Baja Verapaz decided to have a riot and block the road up at the cumbre. The cumbre is the fork in the road to go either to Salama the capital, or up to Coban. So I had to call president and tell him that the road was blocked and everything. Well we made it up to Santa Barbera which is yendo towards Coban and we were able to pass through. We just had to get off the bus and walk like a mile to find another bus to take us to Santa Barbera. Well we made it there and pres met us there. We went to the elders’ house in Santa Barbera and unloaded everything out of president’s car. When we got back to the president’s car it had a flat. Haha… it was great. We had to take it to the nearest pinchazo or like a tire shop. Well there was only one in Santa Barbera and it was closed haha. So my comp, pres and I all got down and started to try to change the tire. Luckily I had experience. Haha that’s funny because I don’t.  I mean I got a flat tire just that one time but I had to call dad to fix it haha. Ya so luckily it was like the same type of system as the yukon so I kinda knew how to do it…right.  So after a while we finally got it changed on our own haha and it was sooo funny. My mission president has the best sense of humor and was just dying laughing. So like I was saying the plan was for pres to give us a jalon (lift) back to Salama but the road was blocked off and we were in his car so we couldn’t just walk through it. So we found like a sketchy back road through the mountains to get back into the valley. It was a straight adventure there were huge rocks, holes, logs and a bunch of other stuff… it was like straight 4 wheeling.  Well this is the best part because when we were making our way down the mountain we had to slam on our brakes because we were hauling and there was another car in the way. What’s so funny about that is the car was a Robin. Remember that car on top gear that has the one tire in front and the 2 in the back and tips over every second.  Ya we had to stop for that it was soooo funny!!!! It was making its way down that mountain with the rocks, logs, deep holes and everything. Pres. my comp and I were just dying. It almost tipped over like 100 times. It was literally sliding down this mountain because it doesn’t weigh anything.  It was completely out of control. It never tipped but it was soooo close and it was by far the funniest thing in the world. When the guy finally pulled over to let us pass he honked at us and it was a train horn that left that little car. We were just dying!!!!!  That was the end and we could not stop laughing. Pres. was just like I have never seen or heard anything like it. That train horn really came out of that little car haha… it was great. Ya so we finally made it to Salama valley thanks to those back roads down the mountain.  It was the absolute best. Ya so hilarious! As far as this last week it’s about the same for us. We are finding a ton of new investigators but we are having trouble helping them to progress.  It’s a trial of my faith and I can recognize it. We have a few people that could get baptized. They have been to church and everything. We are working super hard to help them and explain to them why they should get baptized.  Thanks for everything family and pray always. I love you all and have a good week!

Elder Call

I'm in Coban (week 55)

Hey family, I loved getting your letters this last week. Glad to hear that the family is doing well.  I know that I say this every week but you guys just have so much fun running into Berkeley and SF every weekend and that is just the best. I love that cupcake story… classic dad haha. Man I just wish it was the niners in the super bowl but ya I had a feeling the Seahawks were going to win because all I hear is this elder telling me about the Seahawks and how they have the best defense ever.  As far as my Spanish goes, I feel about 99 percent confident with it and no I am not studying Spanish like before to be completely honest.  The only time I study Spanish is in the bathroom. Other than that I barely have time to read the scriptures between traveling all around Baja Verapaz for the other elders doing interviews or just sooooooo much random stuff.  Oh, and the work in my own area haha. I study though when I have time and I am always learning new vocab.  If I don´t know a word I write it down in my planner to remember it.  Let me just tell you, it’s the best being able to talk with everyone.  In the beginning of my mission it was kinda torture. I just nodded my head laughed and said si even though I had no idea what they were talking about. Now I can joke back with them and keep a conversation going like nothing. It’s great haha…so weird when I think about it though because I can speak another language that just flows naturally out of my mouth. haha

This last week was an ok week.  We just thought for sure that we were going to have like 5 people in church. We called everyone before church to remind them to go there and they said they couldn´t and the other 2 said that they were going to go but didn´t. Man that just happens every week. That’s ok though because this next week is a new week and I have faith that god is going to help.  The good news is that my comp and I found like 22 new investigators this week. We are working so hard right now trying to find the people that the lord has prepared for us. So that’s awesome and hopefully this next week we will be able to help them get to church.  We are still working in the aldeas of San Juan and Tunel but this week we actually worked a lot with members. We got a lot of references and that is the most effective thing more than anything.  We always have one member that leaves with us. His name is Chevelo and he is hilarious. He is preparing to serve a mission and is going to put in his papers in just a week. He has only been a member for a year and is just great. He doesn´t work or study because he is going to leave so soon so he just leaves with us haha. Ya so that’s Chevelo and I don’t have a pic right now of him but I will take a couple this week and send them to you this next week.  So the funniest thing that happened this week happened Friday. We ate at this hamburger place for lunch and right after lunch I just felt sooo sick. So ya you guys know where this is going. It was great. We were in a lesson… just a great lesson and our investigator just kept on talking and talking. Basically I had to end it by interrupting him and leave the house. We were walking for no more than 30 seconds when I just yaked all over the ground in front of a bunch of kids playing futbal in the street. Let me just say it was soooooo funny and all these kids were telling me to go to the hospital because I was going to die. They were calling me gringo debil which means white person weak. I mean weak white person. So funny… ya so basically we just kept on working after that because we just can’t afford to lose a day. I kept on throwing up like every hour on the street haha. That night I asked for a blessing by my comp and peter. I yaked all night but then when I woke up in the morning I felt fine. I felt weak as heck. But ya I didn´t yak and haven’t since so that is a testimony builder. I was dying then the next day just fine like it was nothing and it was great. I know that it’s not a big deal but it really makes a difference out here for me seeing the small blessings in my life. It just gives me that extra jump of animo to work that much harder. It’s so cool to just see how the lord knows me and what I need. It’s great. Well family pay special attention this week to the small blessings the lord gives you and don’t forget to thank him for them. Love you all and have a good week!

Elder Call

peter and rogelio at church with my comp and i

elder bonilla and i in coban with another elder 

my comp and i

Salama, Salama (week 54)

Family, it so great to hear that you are all doing well.  I love to hear about the family and to know that all is well. I literally cannot tell you guys how happy I am for you all to be able to do what you do. Just go walk around and explore. I love Berkeley Oakland San Fran and Alamo sooooooooooooooo much.  You guys do what I like to do most and that’s just the best.  I loved hearing about Ella’s talk and I’m so happy to hear how well it went. Ella is just the best and I’m not surprised that she killed it up there in front of everyone.

Well as for me this was a good week.  Like I told you guys last week, my comp and I were going to go to all the aldeas to work. The people here in the centro don´t really listen to us or go to church. This is a super old area and there have been missionaries here for years so we decided to change it up and work outside. We went to an aldea called San Juan that is just about 30 minutes from our house and another aldea que se llama tunel.  We had a lot of success in these 2 aldeas.  I’m sorry I don’t know what an aldea is in English or I would use that word. I think the best way to describe it is an outside town or like a town outside the city or something haha…freak just use google translate. Ya so working in these 2 aldeas was great. We had a ton of success and most of the people have never even seen Mormons or talked with them before. It was great. It was like Cubulco all over again. Ya so my comp and I could just feel being guided by the spirit and just talking with everyone. It was a lot of fun. People were actually interested in our message and expressed a desire to hear more so we will definitely be going out there in the future.  This last Thursday we went to the wedding at the municipio of salama for Christian and Oneyda to get married. That was just awesome watching them get married. I have been waiting for that moment for a long time. Saturday they got baptized along with Liuos and Reina here in Salama. They also asked me to baptize them so that was just the best. I love those families so much and it just made me so happy to see them get baptized.  Just such testimony builder and what gives me drive on the mission. These families just have no idea the decision they just made and all the blessing they are going to obtain segun their decision to follow the savior.  I just couldn’t be happier for them because I know how happy they are and going to be.  I mean thinking about all the blessings I have had in my life thanks to a Christ centered home and I just can’t wait for these people to experience the same. I don’t know what I would do without my family and I love you all soooooo much.  Those were definitely the highlights of this last week.  Well really some of the highlights in my mission.  Now my new companions name is Elder Garcia and he is from Peru.  He is super fun and is a stud missionary. I look forward to working with him. Something that I just think is absolutely fantastic are the buses down here. I know I probably tell you every week but it’s just soo funny. This week we had to go to Santa Barbara an area like 45 minutes from Salama to check out a house to see if they could move in there. Well the bus ride there was fine I guess if you don’t think having a 400 pound kechi women sitting on your lap. Ya that happened and trust me I was even more shocked when she sat down then the amount of shocked you are right now hahaha. Weird as heck and only in Guat. On the way back I had to stand up in a little bus because there was nowhere to sit and I wasn’t about to sit on another person’s lap so I stood up like a hunch back and just about blew out my back on that 45 minute ride. So fun… well fun afterwards to think about it haha. Guat is just the best and I love the people here so much I just love it. Like I miss you all fam and friends but I’m not liking how fast the time is going. I mean I almost have 15 months… how could that be? I want the time to go by slower and I’m serious. Church is true. Read the scriptures and pray always. Love you all and have a good week. 

Oh and the marriages here are just the absolute funniest hahaha. When they are doing like the “I do” thing I was just dying laughing.  I mean you would think when the guy is saying like the vows and stuff they would look into each other’s eyes and stuff and just be like in love but here it’s like they just don’t even want to look at each other. They are like embarrassed and then when they say you can kiss the bride they hug hahahahha. It’s sooooooooooo funny!!!! I’m just dying laughing thinking about it hahahahhahah. Sooo funny I can’t wait to describe it to you all in person haha. That’s how it has been at every wedding in my mission thus far as well… not just them haha

Christian and Onyda getting married

a bunch of cock fighting roosters... hahaha

Changes (week 53)

I loved your letters as always fam.  Good to hear everyone is safe and didn’t commit suicide after the hard loss yesterday and dad I did sleep in my jersey Saturday. 

Well this week was nuts. My comp and I had to run around crazy all over Baja Verapaz for all sorts of things. We had to check houses, buy new beds, give out cell phones and do a million baptism interviews. Man it was nuts haha. It’s always a lot of fun though and I enjoy every second of it and especially when I ride on the buses. It’s just the best riding on them. Well not really that great but it is funny because I have never been on buses in my life outside of San Fran and it’s just hilarious I think. You guys should see how many people they put in some of these buses. It’s soo funny!!! As for my area well it’s coming along. We are having a really hard time finding the people who want to come to church. Although the church is in our area it’s still hard to get them to come. We are going to start focusing on the areas outside of the city because the people are a little more humble and receptive to our message.  I went on division this last week with an elder called Elder Colten. He is great and that day we worked like chuchos. We didn’t have any distractions from the zone and we just focused 100 percent on the work. It was great and we had a couple really powerful lessons. We found a couple good investigators that are good potentials for the future.  I love this area though… it’s great but it’s just a lot different than Cubulco. As for the families in Cubulco well the family that was going to get married this last week and baptized on Saturday couldn’t get married because they were missing a couple of papers. They are going to get married this week and baptized this week as well as the other family this week. So they will have 2 more families in that branch and pres is going to open another branch soon in Cubulco because they are just having so much success out there. Ya so I’m excited for this Saturday because those 2 families that I taught are going to get baptized and they want me to baptize them. Super exciting and I’m just so thankful the elders in that area are working and are not bad elders’ haha.  Well like the title of my letter says we had changes this week. My comp has a change and he is going to Peten. I am staying in Salama and I’m going to be training a new zl. Not a new missionary but just a person who hasn’t been zl before.  It’s going to be exciting but a lot of pressure because I only have 1 change here in Salama. Super exciting stuff. I also had my interviews with the pres that went great. The interview with Hermana Curtiss was great as well. We talked about the spirit and its role in our lives.  Like how if we don’t have the spirit then another spirit can enter… aka he who must not be named.  So we as members of the church who have been baptized need to have the spirit at all times so we don’t have the other one. Really interesting way to look at it. Also we talked about Abinidi and how when he was giving sincho to the king and the priests that he said he was full of the spirit so they couldn’t touch him. Interesting when you think about it and the same thing with Nephi and his hermanos.  Focus on having the spirit in your lives and strive to have its constant companionship. 

Love all of you and have a good week!

me with a ton of money to buy new beds and crap for the zone haha

a dope member in my ward his name is bryan

I'm not sick...(week 52)

 I loved getting your letters again this week family. I'm glad to hear that

the family is doing great that always makes me sooo happy. That little story
about Charlie is so funny. He is just the best.  That's super exciting about
Rachel going to Spain and I hope she learns Spanish so that we can talk when
I get back. That would be so fun.

Ya so I'm not sick anymore thank goodness.  I was soo done with that. Well
I'm still a little sick haha but not nearly as bad and I can go out and work
thank goodness.  I don't think I talked about it in my last letter but last
Monday we went to Coban for a conference of leaders. It's when all the zone
leaders of the mission go to a conference in Coban with the pres and we
receive instructions and stuff about how we can better our zones. Well the
conference was fantastic. just really great.  I felt the spirit super strong
like the entire time. The spirit just testified to me about everything we
were talking about and how it is true.  It just gave me so much animo to
work harder in our area and as a zone. It was fantastic really. We have that
like one time every month.  I'm really looking forward to the next one as
well. So as far as our area goes here in Salama we are having a lot of
trouble bringing people to church.  Nobody wants to go. It's horrible haha.
That seems to be the trend and has been the trend with this area for like
the last year. My comp and I are going to try something different this next
week though. We want to go work out of Salama in the Aldeas to see if the
people in those areas are more willing to make sacrifices to come to church.
We have got a couple potential investigators but they just need to go to
church. I did divisions with Cubulco this last week as well. It was great to
go back to that area and to see it again. I loooooovvvveee that area sooo
much. I got to see Adan, Maribell, and Joseline as well. They were just sooo
happy to see me and I was equally happy to see them.  I just received the
best news about Cubulco this last week as well. The first family that I
found in that area is Christian and Oneda.  Elder Fitzgerald and I found
them walking on the street our very first week in Cubulco.  I was walking
when we passed some man on the street. When we passed him I felt a really
strong impression to talk to him so we went back to talk to him. That guy
was Christian and we asked if we could visit him and we did.  We started to
visit him and his wife. He is 20 and his wife is 22. We taught them and they
were great and everything. They went to church 2 times with us. In fact they
prayed and received answers to their prayers. God answered their prayers.
how incredible is that? We also invited Christian to leave and make visits
with us and he did. He has such a strong testimony and shared it with our
other investigators. They have testimonies about the church and BoM. That
was just the best so of course we tried to put a baptism fecha with them.
That's when we learned that they are not married. We had to explain to them
that they need to get married before they can get baptized. They didn't want
to get married at first. We visited them like the next week and they
received an answer to their prayers that they needed to get married. So they
said they would but not until  March when the dad of Oneda gets back from
the states. That was good but also a bummer because at this time it was
November.  So in March would be a long time out. Well ever since I left that
area I have been calling them every week and giving them animo to get
married now so they can get baptized. Well  I called them this last week and
they said that they feel like they should get married now so they can get
baptized. Sooooo incredible!!!!!!! So they are going to get married this
week and get baptized on Saturday. I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo happy like so
happy. I love those guys soo much. They also want me to baptize them and I'm
pumped for this Saturday. It's incredible how much success Cubulco is
having. Also another one of the families that I taught and found are going
to get married in 2 weeks. Incredible because I'm the one who put the fecha
with them and they are super motivated to lograrlo and get baptized in 2
weeks. I couldn't be happier. I love this work and those families right
there are why this work is true. People are changing their lives to get
baptized. Love you all fam and have a good week!!! If you didn't do the
self-check last week then do it this week. Really you should be doing it
every week.  I love you all and thanks for everything!!!

elder call

Pics of a waterfall we went to today and a monkey

bbqing at the aps house last Monday before concilio with all the other zls

only on the mission...

concillo

Josylin and her parents adan y maribell and me when I visited them on division 

this is my zone here in baja verapaz

Happy New Year 2014 (week 51)

Loved your letters this week and I couldn’t agree with you more that we have the best family in the world both immediate and extended. Man, what you guys did for New Years is my dream. Going to sf to chill and just enjoy life. I mean it just doesn’t get any better than that. I’m glad you had a great day.

Well first off this past week I didn’t work a ton because I just about died haha. Monday I got sick as heck with a 102 fever and horrible stomach problems. Tuesday I did some tests and it turned out I have some freakin like parasite thing or something. The doctor of the mission said that I couldn’t do anything about it and that it would just pass with time. If I didn’t get better in 8 days then he would do something haha. So basically lunes, martes, wednesday, and jueves I didn’t even move. Luckily we have a lot of members and we were able to do divisions a lot. My comp would leave with a member and work and I would stay home and rest. It was the worst! I hate being sick. I mean so degrading to me because you guys know that I take pride in my killer immune system. The problem is that the freakin worm thing took me down this last week. The good news is that my stomach still hurts but that’s it. I don’t have to go to the bathroom every 2 seconds and I don’t have a killer fever. I was able to work fine on friday sabado and domingo. Well the highlight of this last week was definitely the baptism that Cubulco had. The last person to complete that entire family being baptized was awesome. It was the dad of the family and for him to get ready to be baptized was not easy. He had to stop several habits in his life completely and some of the habits go back to when he was 11. He has been doing these things for more than half of his life. Thanks to prayer the priesthood and faith he was able to conquer these addictions. It was the best because I got to do his interview. That was one of the most powerful moments of my entire life. The spirit was sooo strong. He really has such a strong testimony of the church and prayer. He can’t read but I could just feel his testimony even though he can’t read the ldm or any other church material.  Just a real blessing for me. Ya but really this interview was nuts and I was all teary eyed and he was just bawling. That’s just something I will never forget. I’m just sad I can’t go visit him all the time in Cubulco. I love that family so much and now they are all members of the church and really just a miracle. Not to mention they are dirt poor and have to travel to Rabinal every week to go to church which is not cheap. Oh also at the baptism service their daughter Joseline gave a talk. She is only 9 years old and she killed it up there. Scriptures, testimony, and everything… she is so incredible. I just love that family sooooo much. That was the best part of the week and I’m looking forward to finding new people to teach this next week. Love you all and have a good week. Never forget to pray and read the scriptures. Oh that’s another thing I learned this last week. I was talking to a member in church and he was talking to me about some people and how they have fallen into the path of wickedness before they could even realize it. What I mean by that is it was members that were great in the church and then fell away and now live a life of evil. He was explaining to me that when we forget or don’t do the little things in our life we invite the devil into our life. When we stop praying reading the scriptures and repenting we slowly go off of the straight and narrow path. That’s how the devil works and he is sneaky as heck. When we don’t do those little things the devil slowly comes into our life and takes it over. I want everyone who reads this letter to do a self-survey this week. Read chapter 5 of Alma and see if you are living your life the way Christ taught us. If not well that’s alright if we change. Get on your knees and repent, pray, read the scriptures, and if you need to talk to church leaders. This life is no joke and the little things count. Don’t ever forget to pray and read the scriptures. Those small things have power and will propel you towards eternal life with your families. I love you all again so much and have a good week. And do the self check!!!!!!

elder call

Adan and his beautiful family