Congrats Rachel (week 68)

Wow!!!! so the biggest news of maybe my entire mission…chel is getting married how crazy.  im so happy for her and i hope trever has a clue what he's got haha. loved your letter this last week as well and mom it sounds like you had a blast with your sisters because your letter was short as heck hahaha.  dad im celoso of your mexican party that your going to have with the fam thats going to be a blast. if you see any chapines en little mexico digales que tu hijo esta en guat y que el ama los chapines jaja. digales que soy puro chapin y que cuando regrese a mi casa voy a extranar las tortillas con todo jajaja.

This week was a good week but we didnt have as many lessons this week as the last week but we did put 2 new fechas with some of our investigators this last week. We now have 3 fechas...2 with marsia y edwin quines son hijos of a less active member. she has been less active for like 35 years but we got her to go to church this last sunday for the first time in like 25 years that is a feat if i have ever heard of one. She was sitting down with us at church and the flipping 1st counseler in the bishopric asked her to give the closing prayer for sacrament meeting. freak, you just don't do that to a less active member who hasn't been to church in 25 years but hey she did it and she prayed like a champ. i actually think it made her feel more part of the church and that the people want her. overall i think it was good. we have fechas with her 2 kids who are progressing right now as well we just need to get them to come to chruch.  now our other fecha that we have is with an investigator named leonardo. he is living with a less active member. they are not married but want to get married and leonardo always goes to church. we met him at church. it was sweet to see him going to chruch i dont think it is going to be a problem. he said he's liked the church ever since the first time he came. im just praying that god will help my comp and i know how we can help him prepare for baptism. if he can get married and baptised that is the beeeessst becuase that would complete the family and in 1 year they can go to the temple to go get sealed.  that is the best. there are sooo many missionaries that finish their missions and haven't baptised any families. i have been so blessed with that. in july im going to have 2 families that are going to get sealed in the temple who we baptised.  man it just doesnt get any better than that. in november of this year 3 families that we baptised in family will be sealed if they stay pilas in the church.  that is just the best i mean it just doesnt get better than that. when i think of those families and the sacrifices they made and the changes they made it just makes me cry. sometimes when i go to bed i just lay on my bed thinking about the people that i have met here in guat and i just get teary eyed i love the people here soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much like i cant even beleive it. ya i just love them soo much. i love guat i love my comp i love the language i love the people and culture. i love everything that has to do with the mission. this letter is just soo unorganized haha its funny but ya we taught that other family that we taught 2 weeks ago Saturday too. we had another good lesson with them. they are going to go to church and they all want to go to church but they are training for a half marathon right now so they are going to go to church after the race which is in like 2 weeks.  We just need to be patient with them. this family would be sooo pilas if they got baptised. the grandmother of the family is in charge of the aldea where she lives. she is the reason there is running water there. everyone loves that lady and she is just sooooo nice and so freindly. if we baptize her she would just be soo pilas and the church would have like 50 baptisms in that area because im sure she would share the gospel with everyone.  carlos her son and his wife are also such good people. i love them soo much. i just am praying and fasting for them. its funny i dont really even know them but i can just see their future if they get baptized.  so pray for me and for them to accept the gospel.   overall it was a good week. vi un hombre aahhh mejor no voy a contarles esta casaka cuando regrese es un poco ascoroso haha. this week also we wnt to san cristobal to do a interview it was awsome. i saw some of themembers that i knew and love as well it was the best. we did the interview way out in some aldea and we were out late and there were no buses to get back to the mera san cristobal so we had to walkcall a taxi it was nuts though we were freakin out we though we were goin go have to camp like way out in the forest haha it was dope. after the district meeting this week we went to eat lunch with president curtiss. it was my comp president and his wife it was great. that man is the best i love him sooo much. He's such a good example of how i want to be when I'm older.  this week we have a conference as well with elder ochoa who is a 70 and it should be good. i'll tell you about it this next week when you call for Mothers Day. love you all family hope all is well and cant wait to talk to you all this weekend. love you all keep safe and follow forward love ya

Family (week 67)

I loved your messages this last week.  I just can’t believe that Rachel is going to get married.  That freaks the heck out of me haha. When I think of her I just think we are still so young.  Crazy how fast time flies. I’m happy to hear that the family is doing well and doing what you love. Spending time with the family and going into san fran to explore and eat.

This past week was great.  My comp and I killed it this week in our area. We had sooooooo many lessons with members and soooooo many new investigators. Probably it was the best week of my entire mission. We found and taught a ton of new investigators.  The best investigators that we found this week live in some aldea in our area. They are a great little family that has talked with the missionaries before but it was like 15 years ago. The missionary’s went to their house and helped build it and paint it. They still remember the names of those missionaries even though it was like 15 years ago.  It’s amazing the impact I have on the people here even though I probably don’t realize it. But ya for that reason they let us in because they loved those missionaries. We taught them lesson 1 because they had questions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  It was just a fantastic lesson and the spirit was really strong. They had lots of questions about our message and that is just the best.  Ya but it was just fantastic because these people are just so great… really good people. I feel like I have met them before because the moment we met them we just clicked and talked like we had known each other forever haha and it was just so cool. So that was the best thing that happened this week.  We also did a division this week with the elders that are in Santa Cruz. I got to go to Santa Cruz for a little bit which was cool because I had done a division in that area like almost a year ago.  This Sunday was fun as well because there is a sister in our ward that is from El Salvador and so we bought all the ingredients Saturday and we made pupusas in the church after the church meeting ended.   It was great. All the other things that I did this week I can’t really remember. Oh we have started going to the gym as well. Every morning at 5:30 we go to the gym to work out haha. Ya so that’s all that is new with me here in Guat but I still just love the mission and love serving the lord.  Remember the most important things in life… keeping the commandments and family and never forget that. This is our 4 minutes and we need to do it with everything we’ve got so we can live with god forever in paradise. Love you guys and hope you have a good week!

Semana Santa (week 66)

Hey familia loved your letters from this last week. I am soo happy for you guys and how much fun you had over the break. I’m jealous about your trip to Six Flags… that is just the best.  Sooooo fun and Tatsu is just sooo dope. I love that ride haha.  Easter dinner also is always one of my favorite meals of the year and lamb is soooo tasty haha. You guys are soo lucky.

Ok as for me this week was nuts.  It’s crazy being in a new zone again but it’s fun though because you get like a new start with a bunch of missionaries that don’t know you and that’s fun.  Well I got to Coban Tuesday morning and I did nothing for like 10 hours. I just knocked president’s door when he was doing interviews all day and it was sooooo boring haha. The good news of that though is I was with my best friend or I guess now my companion. It has been sooo funny this week because we just look at each other and say, what the heck are we doing together because people are going to see that we are on illegal divisions and then we just laugh and say oh wait we are comps haha. It’s so funny and I just don’t get how it’s possible that he ended up being my comp haha.  Ya so the better part of this week was spent walking around our area and getting to know it. Then we would leave with members that would show us where other investigators live and where members live.  It was good. It’s funny because at the start of the week we would get lost like 6 times a day. It would take us soo long to get to our house because neither I nor my comp knows where it is.  It was funny.  We didn’t end up finding the investigators houses but we did end up having some leccions. We also found a couple great new investigators. We were getting to know where the menus activo members live. We went to this one house and met a less active named Roxanne. She lives with like a ton of people in her house so we invited everyone to listen to us. Roxanne now goes to another church that isn’t the church of ours.  Man let me tell you big mistake. I don’t want to talk bad about other churches but if you guys could see the churches here you would be shocked about the things they say and do and it is ridiculous… pure apostosia.  Well we had just a killer lesson with that Roxanne and other members of the house. Just fantastic and the lesson started shaky a little bit because my comp and I are not used to teaching together but it ended sooooooooooooooooooooooo well. The spirit was sooooooooooo strong. One of the more powerful lessons I have had in a while. It was great. We talked about the BOM and its importance and later about the resurrection.  It was a long lesson but they kept asking us questions and the spirit was just soo strong that you could touch it haha. Ya it ended up being great. Apparently that less active sister wanted nothing to do with the church and wouldn’t affiliate with it at all. She is more interested now and I think we will reactivate her and hopefully baptize the other people in the house. We went back the next day for another lesson and we watched the restoration video with Joseph Smith and it was just another super powerful lesson. Sooooooooooooo strong the spirit was. Wow that was like Yoda but ya it was soo strong.  I love lessons like that and for lessons like that I love being a missionary.  I look forward to working hard with my comp in this area even though we don’t know anyone here haha. My comp is great. The ward was good as well. Yes I said ward. I am in a ward for the first time in my mission. I call the bishop, president always and I feel bad but I have never said bishop in my entire mission and it’s weird. I love my new area, new zone, the coldness of Alta Verapaz. I’m looking forward to this change a lot.  Love you all and have a good week. Oh freak I forgot to tell you that we had a baptism too. It wasn’t really ours because the elders before us left it but still we had a baptism which was great. Her name in Natividad and she is a saint. She speaks pure Kekqi so we had to get an elder who knows Kekqi to do her baptism interview. It was great. Ya so love you all and have a good week!

Elder Call

some things on the street for semana santa

hermanita and i. remember her she was like my favorite member and i lived in her house in san cristobal. i saw her on tuesday and i have to go to her house tmrw with my comp to sign a contract. love that lady. so ya its great san cristobal is in my zone so i am going to be able to go back and visit.

 

my comp and i eating churrascos

some funny statue

my comp filling up the pila bautismal because the water pressure was super slow that day so we had to fill up a good part of it by hand haha

natividad she is just great and soo happy haha

alfredo kike and i from the house of peter in salama when i had to despedirme sunday

we were in the plaza or like the mall here in coban when a mormon exursion was going on. i don't know if  that how you say it in english but whatever. ya so there were a ton of mormons from the cap and they bought us like 2 gallons of ice cream and 10 cones haha

today at pizza hut with like 70 missionaries

I Got A Change (Week 65)

Hey I loved your letters this last week. I know that I say that at the beginning of every letter every week but I really do love your letters!!  haha. I loved the pics of the beach that is the best. I know I say this just about every week as well but I just absolutely love where you all live like it is just one of the most beautiful places in the world. Oh quick random question is there a lot of garbage in the streets where we live or no? Oh and are there a lot of stray dogs I just can’t remember haha. Ya so I hope that you all have a great week and remember the importance of this week as well.

Ok so as you can tell by the title yes I got a change. President called me Sunday in the afternoon telling me that I am going to be going to the zone of Alta Verapaz.  We are going to be reopening the area meaning that my comp and I are going to both be new in that zone.  Kinda crazy but I’m super excited for the challenge. It’s going to be a little tough though I think because I don’t know Coban at all haha. The best news though is that my comp is going to be my best friend in the mission. I think that I have talked to you guys about him before. His name is Elder Brito he is from Bolivia. I have sent pictures of him home before. We were together in the branch of Rabinal together. I was in Cubulco and he was in Rabinal. When the president told me he was going to be my comp I just about screamed when I was on the phone with him haha.  I did scream but it was after I had ended talking with him haha. I’m soooo excited.  I’m super excited. That’s one side of course there is the other side as well. I’m sad because I love Salama. I love the people here sooooooo much. Like it’s the best and saying bye to everyone was the worst and I really hate it. Like it’s the absolute worst.  I just cannot believe that I have been here in Salama for 5 months. That was the fastest 5 months of my entire life.  I just cannot believe that I was here in Baja Verapaz for the same amount of time that I was in Peten. Just think remember when I opened Cubulco well in that amount of time until now it’s been 5 changes ago… think about how fast that was. Now to think that I will be home in 5 changes that scares the freakin heck out of me…like how could that be possible? I don’t want to go home. Not even a little bit haha. Well just to see you guys then I want to come back and be a missionary again. I was just thinking the other day about it. We went to some missionaries’ area to do a baptism interview and I was just talking to the mom of the girl afterwards just cracking jokes and talking to her. I was just thinking how much I love the people here and I cried a little bit. haha It was horrible but it’s true because I love the people here so much. Ya but saying bye to the people here in Salama was hard. I just did not like saying bye to my convert here as well. I love her and she is doing great and that just makes me so happy.  Saying goodbye to peter and the patajos is going to be the worst. I’m going to do that tonight though I haven’t had to do it yet. I feel sad about leaving this area and all of the investigators I have. Man it’s just the worse especially when the people cry.  I’m super sad but at the same time happy to have something new.  Another thing that I cannot believe is that peter is going to leave on his mission. He is getting ready to go to the temple. Peter is soooo pilas and I love him sooooo much. I cannot believe that he is going to be a missionary in 15 days that is just nuts.  So as far as our area this week was good. We were able to put together 3 fechas this last week with Haiti, Sucy and her aunt Maria. They still have a long way to go to be baptized but at least they are preparing and are willing to have the fecha.  That was the best thing that happened this week. Also the new senior missionaries came down here on Friday and wanted to get to know the area and all the leaders here because president has assigned them to this district because it just never grows. That’s a long story but ya it was fun to go around with them all day in their car showing them the areas of the zone and the leaders of the district. They have just fantastic advice and I can’t wait to see them and put it in action with the leaders here in Baja Verapaz.  Oh man I forgot to say how sad I am to leave my comp. I don’t think that I have talked about him a lot in my letters but he is just the best and he is turned into one of my best friends in the mission. I love the guy we stay up sometimes until like 1 talking about random things. He is the best and I’m soo grateful that I had the chance to be with him. He is hilarious and I just love the guy. Ya so I think that’s all I have time for to say for this week. If I could put everything I want to put in this letter it would be the size of harry potter. Sorry it’s horribly written with a mix of Spanish and English words and a mix of Spanish English grammar. I just don’t have time to make it organized and pretty but I hope you get the point haha. Well that’s all I have time for this week. Love you guys and have a good week! 

Love,

Elder Call

Pic of me with my new comp by the way

General Conference (week 64)

I loved getting your letters this week and hearing that everyone is safe and happy.  I loved your inspirational words for me for the tough week I had last 2 weeks ago.

The good news this last week is that it wasn’t as frustrating of a week as 2 weeks ago. This past week on Tuesday we had concilio with the president and his wife in Coban. I love that meeting and it is always soo special. President talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how powerful it is.  He said that our testimony will not grow unless we are reading the Book of Mormon every day. That book is the key to our happiness in our life. In it we can find the solutions to our problems and find so much peace through the teachings of Christ. I loved that because it’s so true… my day is always better if it starts out with a good study sesh in the BoM. I loved sharing that with the zone as well. I hope that you are all studying the BoM daily as well back home.  Wednesday we had interviews with the president and with the entire zone as well. I mean I know I say it in just about every letter but president is seriously the best. I love him and his positive outlook on everything and he is truly just such a great example for me.  We continued throughout the week visiting Haiti and Sucy and we also started teaching her aunt as well. They are all receptive and are still progressing. They are our investigators most pilas right now but we still need to find more investigators. We still have a lot of work to do.  General conference was awesome as well. There were three talks that really called my attention.  The first talk was by Holland Saturday morning session. I loved that talk… absolutely loved it. The other 2 talks were during the priesthood session.  Uchtdorfs talk as well as Eyring.   Both of those talks impacted me so much.  I could feel the spirit sooo strong and I just loved them. I could listen to those men talk all day.  I loved Uchtdorfs example with air force one and I just died laughing with that.  It’s so funny because before the mission I really didn’t care for general conference. Now I have been in the mission I look forward to it.  I love it and just think of the blessing that it is. We have prophets today that receive revelation for us… for each and everyone one of us. God still talks to his children and the heavens are not closed.  He has called prophets today to help us with our daily trials so that we can make it back to his presence. I don’t know about you guys but I’m soo grateful for that. I mean that just makes soo much sense to me. God is my father and wants me to return back to his presence so of course he is going to call people in these days to help us make it back to his presence. I feel like anyone that is a Christian and doesn’t believe in that needs to think a little harder haha.  I love conference and I can’t wait to get all the talks in the liohona to be able to study it a little more.  This Saturday is also changes. I think I am going to have a change. I have no idea where I will be going but I think I will have a change.  I love the mission and I love all of you guys.  Read the Book of Mormon and pray daily. I love you all and have a good week!

Elder Call

Pic of dope mineral pools that we visited today for our zone activity…we left super early this morning and got there at 8 so ya I’m sooo tired but it was a lot of fun.

Coban (week 63)

So as you can see by the subject I’m in Coban again. We left his morning at like 4:30 so my comp could visit his old area in Tactic and so we could eat breakfast there. It was sooo early in the morning I just about died of being so tired.  We didn’t even get to bed until 12. The good news is that we didn’t have to get off the bus halfway there to go to the bathroom.  Ya so we are in Coban again today and tomorrow because we have concilio tomorrow.  Ok as far as this past week it was a tough week for us. All of our fechas that we had fell…. all of them and they are all because of family members giving them sincho because they were listening to our message as missionaries. Sucks but that is the mission. Now the good news is that we found 2 new good investigators. Something that we do to find new investigators is use the simi to find members who haven’t been to church in forever. We use that to find menus activos. If we find menus activos we can lots of times find people that live in the same house but are not members. So that’s how we found these 2 great investigators. Their names are Haiti y Sucey.  We have only visited them 2 times but they live in the house of a less active member.  Everything that we have left them to do they have done. When they read the things that we leave them to read they read it but they don’t only read it they understand it. They could explain to you the entire plan of salvation. That is just not something that happens very often. Usually you would have to explain it like 20 times to the average investigator but we didn’t even have to explain it one time to them. It was great.  One of the most satisfying things at least for me, is if people ask you questions it means that they actually want to learn more and care. When people have 0 questions about the resurrection after we teach it then that means they didn’t understand anything or they just don’t care. These investigators ask questions and it’s the best. Ya so as far as right now they are the investigators most pilas that we have.  This week we also did divisions with the elders in Santa Barbera. They went great. I was with Elder Frandson. He is from Wisconsin and has like 5 months in the mission.  I learned a ton that day.  Elder Franson struggles a lot with his Spanish but he is soo humble and doesn’t get down on himself for it at all. He has the spirit when he teaches and that’s the most important thing.  Love Elder Frandson and I need to remember always that the spirit is the very most important thing. It’s the same for you guys back home.  You should all strive always to have the spirit with you at all times. Just think that god has promised to give us the Holy Ghost always if we are living worthily and striving to keep all the commandments. I think that there are few things more special than that. I love you all and hope that you all have a good week!

Elder Call

These pictures are from when we went to go eat churrascos with peter and the patojos that live in his house. So fun I love them sooo much!!

Weekly Letter (week 62)

Love getting your letters every week they give me animo to work hard the following week. I love how you guys always go into San Francisco that is just the best. I know I say it every week but if you just take a look at the pictures you sent me last week of the golden gate on crissy fields you just realize how spoiled we are for where we live. That’s just unheard of.  I love it.

Well this week was really tiring. (I have no idea how to spell that)  I can’t remember why but my comp and I were on the phone the entire week at all hours of the day.  I hardly slept. The work in our area is going ok. The family that we were teaching by our house now wants just about nothing to do with it. They just changed all of a sudden when they got back from the capital. They are Catholics and so I think that some members of their family said something. I’m super sad because I know that they know the church is true but they don’t want to change. It’s sad but we will move on. Now for Gilberto ya like I said he is gone as well but we are teaching one of his kids. His daughter’s really good friend is a member of the church so that could be a good possibility for the future.  Cindy the little girl that we had a fecha with is going ok. The people that she works with are not a good influence on her at all. Her dad supports us teaching her but the people where she works say only bad things about the Mormon church so that is a big problem that she is going through right now. We are praying super hard for her and that she can recognize the veracidad of our message. Now for the good… we are teaching a reference that a member gave to us her name is Marlin. She is living with the members right now because she is working down here in Salama. She is super super receptive and is great. We have a fecha with her right now and she is assisting church as well. Right now she is doing great but like all investigators there is always always a problem so we are just praying that we will find that out now sooner then later so we can figure out what we can do to help her. We are also teaching an investigator named Amisaday. He is sooooooo pilas but he cannot get baptized right now because he is living with another girl and that girl is married so they cannot get married.  The good news is that my comp knows a lawyer who lives in Coban that always helps the missionaries in these types of situations so we called her and she is going to start to help us get them divorced faster. That’s the majority of our good investigators right now. We have others but just are not progressing as fast. We need to find lots of new investigators though this next week so we have some good investigators for April.  That’s the work in our area and the things that we are doing and focusing on right now. Now for the funnies that happened this week.  On Thursday  all the elders of our zone had to sleep at our house because we had to leave to go to Coban early Friday morning. It was fun and it is always a party when the missionaries sleep at our house. It was getting late and we were going to go to bed when I had the idea that we should sleep on the roof haha. Our house is like in a 5 story building so everyone got there mattresses (I don’t know how to spell that either) or culchones in Spanish and brought them up to the roof. We slept up there well went up there and laid under the stars. We didn’t really sleep because it was freezing and we basically talked all night. It was fun as heck though and a great memory. Friday we had zone conference with the Pres in Coban. We played jeopardy at the end of the zone conference but his categories were like church based. Just an example of why I have the best pres in the world. Like zone conference with pres watts was great but it was always like 8 hours sitting in a chair listening to him talk. With Curtiss he gave us a super powerful message of like 2 hours then we played jeopardy. It was dope. oh and long story short we played it with like 2 other zones and it came down to the wire to see who would win. Let me just tell you all that I represented the family name well and answered the 2000 point correctly to win the game for my zone. I felt like a champion… I felt like Ken Jennings the ultimate jeopardy winner. All that jeopardy with you dad didn’t go to waste haha. It was a blast. Ya so the mission is the best just the best. Something that I love doing as well is taking the sacrament each week and just remembering for 15 mins all that my savior did for me. I love taking the sacrament and I love the peace it brings to my life. Just to start another week fresh trying to do what’s right. Don’t miss the opportunity during the sacrament to think about Christ. It’s the best and helps me make good decisions for the entire week. The church is perfect and Christ is our savior that’s why I’m in this flippin country teaching people about that. I love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Love you all family and have a good week!

Elder Call

Oh and by the way sister braithwaite that was in your ward well her best friend is in my zone so i thought that was cool because she said that the family call is the best...

my 2 best lat friends in the mission besides elder bonilla. this is elder trujillo the ap and elder brito. remember elder brito he is my friend that was with me in rabinal when i was in cubulco. He is the man and is zl now in coban so i get to see him all the time in conferences when i got to coban it's dope

oh elder brito is from boliva and elder trujillo is from ecuador they are dope

sunday we went to the branch in san jeranimo to talk to the branch pres for pres curtiss about some problems they are having and when i was there i saw i member that is from san cristobal that i knew when i was there. cesar caal he is the man and we almost have the same last name. it was the beeesssst to see him. i didn't even realize how much i love this guy until i saw him again. that was a highlight of the week. freakin love that guy

some monkey that we saw today hah