Time is Flying (week 70)

I loved your emails this week as always and it was crazy to see how torn up the house is… it’s nuts.  I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing well back home that always makes me so happy. Mom you are so right our family is just the best.  

Well as for my week it was a little crazy. Tuesday we had concilio and it was awesome. I seriously love that conference so much. I can always feel the spirit just so strong when my president of the mission is teaching us and when his wife is teaching us.  It’s the best. They are just soo great and you can just feel how much they care about us and the mission. I learned a lot in that conference. Right now the mission is changing a lot. We are really cracking down on obedience on the little things. Obedience brings blessing but exact obedience brings miracles. We had our zone meeting this week as well. I was a little nervous at the beginning because the assistants, president and his wife were all there. Well I was a little nervous at first but then I said a small prayer that I wouldn’t be nervous and that I could help the missionaries in my zone to feel the spirit and to have more animo to work. Overall I think that the meeting went really well and it showed this week in our weekly stats. The greatest part of the week was a division that I had with one of our district leaders. His area is called Val Pariaso and its out in the mountains. It was freezing cold and raining. We hiked the freakin biggest mountain in the world to get to a small little village. I thought that I was in Mongolia and it was awesome. The best part though was finding a great investigator in a barber shop. We taught just a fantastic little lesson about prophets. The spirit was really strong and he wants us to go back to visit him. That was the best part of the day and it’s just too bad that I won’t ever be in that area again to see if he progresses. That was such a fun day and I really put my boots to work that day hiking up huge mountains haha. This Sunday our investigators who were going to get baptized this week didn’t go to church. She can still get baptized but we haven’t been able to meet with her this week. We are going to meet with her tomorrow to see how she feels for this Saturday. Be praying because we need it. Well actually she needs it and her name is Marcia Bol. Pray for her. Those 2 kids Jefferson and Edson that came to church last Sunday also went yesterday. Their parents still haven’t been able to go to church because they are both really sick. We are hoping to put a couple fechas with those boys so they can get baptized.  I’m dying to teach them though. We are going to teach them tonight and we have planned to watch the video of the restauracion. I’m excited I love teaching. Overall this week was good. This next weekend is change weekend. I can’t believe that it has already been 6 weeks how could that be? That was one of the fastest changes of my mission. How crazy.  I don’t think that I will have a change though to be honest.  It would be weird if I had a change. I love the mission and the life lessons that I learn every day. Just remember we are not perfect but we should strive to be a little better each day. Repent sincerely and all your sins will be forgiven. I love the savior and I’m forever in debt to his sacrifice. Use his sacrifice in your lives please. He did his part now do yours. Love you all and have just a fantastic week.

Elder Call

don't send this to everyone... i just want you to see how great my mission pres is and this is what he wrote me after the zone meeting this week

Elder Call - thanks for your constant effort to improve the zone. Your example will mean so much. I appreciated your lesson in zone conference and your desire to get the missionaries pumped. They are quiet but hope you can spark them up with success in their work. 

Love you,

Pres. Curtiss

i dont know why this is in grey but this is me now but ya i love my pres soooooooooooo much he is just the best!

elder garcai and i he was my comp last change in salama and i absolutely love the guy haha

my 18 month celebration and my comps one year celebration.

my glasses of baptise and retain

Happy Mother's Day (week 69)

Happy mother’s day to the best mom in the entire world and I thank god every night in my prayers that I have you as my mom. You have always been there for me no matter what I have said or done.  You are the best mom in the world and I mean that but that doesn’t mean you should get cocky like you already are with your lemon squares haha. Love you mom sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.  I loved talking to you all yesterday you all sounded soo great and just so happy. I loved it. It may or may not have made me baggy thinking that is the last time I am going to talk to you guys until I get home…hombre que loco.  

Now as for my life right now I basically told you everything that is going on in my life yesterday. This past week was fantastic though because we had investigators in church. That is just the best. Sunday here in the mission can either be the best of worst day of the week. Yesterday for this week it was the best. We also found just a fantastic family yesterday as well. They are really receptive and ask lots of questions which is the best. I love it. When we were singing the first hymn the mother of the family cried. Her kids went to church with us in the morning and they loved it. The parents told us that they were just talking about how much they liked church all day. Ya at church is where they learned how to sing the hymns and they wanted to start off the lesson singing the hymn they learned in the church. It was called cuando hay amor. I don’t know what that is in English but ya we started singing it and the kids were singing it with my comp and I. The mom started to cry and it was the best.  Oh crying of happiness of course haha. Ya the lesson though was fantastic. The spirit was just sooo strong. The parents right now are not married so that’s a big problem but I am 100 percent sure that if they are feeling the spirit and do the things we tell them to do they will get married and baptized. As for the kids well  I am almost sure they are going to get baptized because when I told them that church is only 1 time a week  they were soo sad. They like church more than I do I think haha. Ya so that was the best lesson of the week. We are going to teach them again this Thursday.  I can’t wait to teach them again. We also had a conference this week with elder ochoa. He is a 70 and gave a talk in general conference the last year october.  We had that conference friday. It was great. The spirit was just sooo strong that entire conference and it was like 8 hours long. I learned a ton. Our mission president talked a lot about how we can increase our faith as well.  Studying the scriptures and putting them into action. I wish I had my notes with me right now so I could write what he said but it was fantastic. Elder ochoa talked a lot about repentance. He compared it to a splinter. When we have lots of sins it hurts like a splinter does. Now to take it out it will hurt even more but once it’s out you can fully heal.  That’s so much like repentance.  Just think though repentance isn’t a bad thing it’s a fantastic thing. Through repentance we can be happy and feel free of our burdens.  It’s the best. I have a strong testimony of repentance. Its real and when we really repent we can feel clean and pure. It’s the best feeling we can have when we have truly repented of our sins. I loved the conference and I love preaching repentance to the people here in guat and overall just a fantastic week. Thank you for everything you all do and I love you soo much.

Elder Call

me making tortillas

me with the dopest bus driver in the world

us with member who always leaves with us. check out his wonkie eyes though they are dope haha

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.