Cambios

What an interesting week!  This Wednesday we had interviews with President Smith.  It turns out they are going to close Choqui for a time, which I feel like is a really good thing for the area.  We spent most of this week strenghening all of the members before we left.

I learned a lot from Choqui.  First off, I learned how to do HARD things!  Being in this area was very difficult but it helped me toughen up and always do my best.  I learned so much about humility, which is what I gave my farewell talk on.  Funny how that has been my biggest lesson in Choqui!  The people, the members are the most humble, most kind people Ive ever met.  They will give up anything, do anything to help the missionaries.  They have taught me we don't need too much to be happy and enjoy ourselves.

One last look over my area before we leave

Saying goodbye to some of the members

I learned to be patient, something I have needed to work on in my life.  If we are patient and leave it to the Lord, we can do miracles.  Not a lot of people have the patience to endure hard things.  Being in Choqui taught me to endure and to do my best in my situation.  

Saying goodbye to everyone the other day was hard.  One elderly lady, who we visited literally everyday yet doesnt speak any spanish, was really sad that we were leaving.  She looked at me and just said, ¨Hermano, hermano, adios!¨ Then gave me a big hug.  Such nice people, Im really going to miss them.

Well, we have changes in the morning.  All of the missionaries meet at the bus terminal in Xela and head out on the buses.  Im excited for a new start and to meet new people.  The church is true and we have so many blessing.  Through faith and hard work we can do anything!  Love you all!

Semana 11!

Hey guys,

Wow, I just finished my 11 week in the field!  Crazy how fast time has gone bye.  Ive learned so much about myself, others, the Gospel, pretty much life in general.  This next week training will be done and we have changes, which I have no idea what will happen but I trust in the Lord.

This week we had a baptism interview scheduled for Rodrigo, a 9 year old boy in Paxajtup.  His dad came up to us one day and asked us to teach and prepare his son for babtism, so we worked with them for quite a while.  Our district leader and Elder Andy went to do the interview but, as it turns out, Rodrigo was only 8 so he only needed an interview from the bishop.  I felt kind of bad for our district leader but the important thing is that we helped prepare Rodrigo for baptism.

Jackson and Killer the dog

Rodrigo and his family

I spent the day of the interview in San Bartolo with Elder Flake.  We had a great time teaching some less actives, contacting, and teaching seminary.  We walked up to an aldea about 30 minutes away and found this dog, just the biggest dog ever.  Some boy came out to talk to us with a little cast on his arm, the dog bit him that morning!  Apparently they call the dog, "killer", so I stayed my distance from that thing.  We contacted a little more, met some great future investigators.  To top it all off, a member gave us some chow mein after seminary haha which was really good.  San Bartolo is such a cool place, its a tough area but Its still really cool.

The next day we hiked to Paxajtup and performed the babtism for Rodrigo.  The members in Paxajtup are pretty much all one big family of like 80 people.  The chapel over there is gigantic!  The babtism was amazing and I had the chance to confirm him a member.  Rodrigo was smiling so much and so happy to be babtized afterwards.  Great day.

Well, wish we luck on this next week.  Theres a chance I could train somewhere but I dont know if or where, but I should know this next Thursday.  Wednesday we have interviews with president which will be really great to have a one on one with him.  Thats about all from here in Guate, adios!

Utz a wach!

Utz a wach everyone!  Thats Quiche for How are You.  Ive been learning a little bit of Quiche little by little, hopefully some day I can get it down.

Well this week, statistics wise, wasn't our best. We looked for a lot of service this week, a few days ago we helped Sixto carry some wood up the mountain.  Now, Im a decent sized guy, so he gave me six good sized logs.  We put it on our backs and strap a piece of rope to the tops of our heads haha its crazy.  We did two loads and after that my companion and I were exausted.  Sixto tells me that usually he takes, get this, 15 to 20 logs every time!!!  The Guatemalans are super strong people.  Hauling wood definitely will not be my future career path.

The other day we were walking past a church and I recognized the scripture they were reading out loud.  Si alguno de vosotros tienie falta... James 1' 5!  I wanted to walk in there and tell them about the truth! 

The other day we had District Confrence.  The mission president, nurses, tons of people came up to Choqui for the first time.  They kept saying that my area looks like a work out, thats right!  President Smith talked about tithing and family home evening and gave some really great stories.  We talked to him for a while and he gave us some great advice.  After the confrence I had the opportunity to baptize two 8 year olds named German and Elmer.  Baptizing is such an amazing experience.  Most the branch was there and it was just a great experience.  This next week we have another babtism of a 9 year old boy in Paxajtup.  Good stuff! 

Vamanos!

Hey everyone, this was a really interesting week for me here in Choqui.  First off, our district finished up the Mes de Milagros and guess what, we did it!  6 baptisms in one month for our zone, which is just amazing.  We were honestly blessed like crazy this month and my testimony really grew.

This week something sad happened in Choqui.  One of the members in our branch had their baby pass away.  We didn't know what was going on but we were walking as usual and saw tons of people coming to this house.  I was confused but we walked in and our branch president explained what was going on.  It was realy interesting, gathered in the house was literally 95 percent of the people of Choqui.  Investigators, non members, everyone.  We had a little lunch then went as a town to the burial.  They actually had me give a priesthood blessing over the grave which was something super unique and special.  As I stood there I looked around at everyone and thought it was really cool to see the whole town together.  Certainly a day I will not forget!

On Saturday we had English classes at the church, guess who came_  Hector Torrez, remember him_  You probably dont because we contacted him nearly a month ago but he brought his family.  We showed him all around the church and taught an amazing lesson about the Gosepl of Christ.  We challenged the family to be babtized and they seemed fairly certain that they would.  The Spirit was thick in the room and I knew the could feel it.  Really awesome experiecne.

Oh, and one more thing... BAUTISMO!  We held the babtismal service for Sixto on Saturday evening.  He is a really funny dude, we still have to work with him a ton but I could tell something different about him after his babtism.  I loved the service and could feel an amazing spirit in the room.  He comes from a family where the dad wants to be babtized but only after all the kids are.  Weve got 3 more, lets go!

Well, thats about all from here in Guatemala.  Its been a lot of hard work, lots of challenging times but babtizing and helping other people whenever we can makes it all worth it.  I love serving, its awesome!  Adios!

The Miracles Continue!

BAPTISM.  I´ll talk about that a little later but yes, we had our first baptism this week!  

Alright, so on Thursday we did another division with the zone leaders.  This time I went to San Francisco and Elder Telford, just an amazing missionary, went to Choqui to help push things along with our investigators.  San Franscico is insane!  They have a gigantic market in all the streets selling literally everything you could want, just tons of people, tons of clothes.  It was a lot different than Choqui but I really had a great time.  My companion tought me how to be a more effective teacher and how to really love people.  I loved the division, learned so much and had a lot of good food with the members.  I finally had Morcaf, a drink kind of like coffee but that´s alright to drink and it tasted pretty good. 

Another reason why Elder Telford was in Choqui was to do a baptismal interview with Yoselin.  She passed with flying colors and was totally ready to be baptized.  Yoselin knows a lot for her age and her parents are members, just not totally active.  Saturday we held the baptism for her in Patalup and I have to say, it went absolutely perfectly.  She wanted me to baptize her and wow, what an experience.  I´ve never baptized anyone before in my life.  As I changed in the bathroom, with ¨How Firm a Foundation¨ being sung in the backround I looked at myslef in the mirror and just thought, ¨Wow, this is real, this is literally an act of God.¨ It was really humbling and inspiring.  We entered the water, performed the baptism, then changed and had a little snack with the members there.  It was such an amazing spiritual experience, I can´t really descibe how I felt.  What a blessing.

The other day Sixtos came to church with us again.  He´s starting to make friends and likes coming to church.  Elder Telford actually set a babtism date with him for this next Saturday!  He can´t read and it´s hard for him to understand a lot of things but he is as ready as he´ll ever be.  He can feel the Spirit and knows the Church is true.  We´ll work a ton with him to retain him in the church but wow, we´re really starting to have success.  Where is this coming from?  Why is our zone, which hasn´t had a baptism in 4 months, which has only 8 missionaries, with 3 of them being new, on track to having 6 babtisms this month?  I know it´s because Heavenly Father is blessing us and opening the hearts of the people.  I love being here, I love the hard times and I love the good times.  Serving a mission has been the best decission I´ve ever made and it´s changed who I am.  I love you guys and wish you all the best!  Adios!

                                                               The view in San Francisco

                                 
                                Where I sleep in San Bartolo on Monday nights-I love this thing haha

                                     It poured the other day-this jacket is awesome-thanks mom

                                                                                  Baptismo!
               

                                                 Yoselin and her family-she is on my left-she's 9

Me and Elder Andy at the Baptism

Mes de Milagros

Hola everyone, great week and Im excited to talk about it!  

Our zone has dubbed this month as the Month of Miracles.  Everyday we look for a miracle that happened in our area and report it to the zone leaders at night time.  Lets just say we had some pretty big miracles this week!

First off, one of our investigators named Sixtos came to church with us this week and wants to be babtized the 25th.  He needs help understanding things because he isnt too educated but he said he felt the Spirit and wants to come next week as well.  We still need to work with him but he{s a really good guy and everytime we teach him I can tell he want{s the Gospel.

We have a babtism this next week with Yoselin!  She lives in Patalup and is totally ready to be babtized.  I am just super excited to babtize someone into the Church, what an honor.  Its just such a blessing.

Que mas... OH!  Our wards attendence the other day was the highest it{s been in 6 weeks, just tons of stuff is starting to happen.  Yeah, we still have these moments everyday, companion things or whatnot but for the most part everything is going as best as possible in Choqui.  We{re running a little low on new investigators but other than that all is well.

To be honest, last week I was pretty frustrated.  Things just we{rent going right, I don{t know.  Elder Perry and I talked for quite a while about why we are here.  One blessing of being in an Aldea like Choqui is that it really strenghtens your testimony.  He told me, *I know a lot of great missionaries who{ve served in the cities but theres really nothing more powerful than a testimony of an Aldea missionary.*  Its really an honor to be where I{m at and to just do my best everyday.  I know the Church is true, goodness we are so blessed with all that we have!  I love you all so much and if any of you are going through hard times heres a scripture for you...

And not only so, but we GLORY in tribulations also[ knowing that tribulation worketh patience.   Romans 5{3

Adios!  

Elder Call

                                       HEre's a member named Ashley haha just like our Ashley!

                                   Here's Sixto, came to church.  Recognize the tie? haha

                         Here's me climbing up La Montana del Muerte-this is how we get to Patalup

        Here's my district and zone!  Smallest zone in all of Quetzaltenango and no girls because it's so tough but hey, I'm not complaining 

La Semana Loca

Hey everyone!  Wow, this was a pretty crazy week.  Tuesday night we got a call from the mission secretary saying I had to go to Guatemala City in the morning!  Apparently anyone from the States or another country has to go to Guate to fill out some Visa things.  We met 8 other missionaries at the mission office in Xela and guess who my companion was?  Elder Carter!  We talked the whole bus ride and it sounds like he´s doing really well.  

Well LONG story short, after two different hotels and a lot of driving we went back to Choqui.  We have a babtism date this month with a girl named Yoselin.  She loves the Gospel and loves having us visit her.  Celixto, remember him?, is still reading the Book of Mormon and everything but we still haven´t been able to get a babtism date.  Our other investigators are doing well for the most part and I hope we can help them continue to progress.

General Confrence was this week haha and let´s just say it´s a little different in Spanish!  I was lucky enough to hear priesthood session in English but everything else was in Spanish.  I thought it was really interesting having people speak in their native tongues.  When it was anounced that people would speak in Spanish all the members around me got really excited and payed a lot more attention.  I think it´s a great thing the Church did and I hope they do that more in the future.

Every week I wish I could say more but if I could say anything it would be to know that all is well.  Honestly, things are pretty tough sometimes.  Thankfully the tough times have helped me decide who I really am.  I´ve learned that no problems, people, areas, nothing can make me discouraged, only myself.  I know who I am and every day I work my hardest because I know how important the Gospel is and how it changes lives.  I know Christ lives.  Everything happens for a reason, there´s a great plan for all of us.  I know this is true.  Heavenly Father loves us, he really, really loves us.  I love all of you and know the Church is true.  Keep your eyes on what´s most important, don´t get too distracted and realized how blessed we are, adios!

                                           We saw this iguana outside our hotel in Guatemala City

                                           

                                                Me and Elder Carter from the CCM

                                           Feels like America-crazy nice McDonalds

                                            My companions fishhead-this caused some problems...

                                           The view from our porch-it's so pretty here!

                                        This is San Francisco, a town in our area

Me and Elder Haderlie headed to Guatemala City