SPANISH!!!

Hey well this week we had changes so it was a big week!

My new area is called Olintepeque and it is absolutely huge, we cover a ward and also a branch called San Carlos Sija.  The area has a lot of giant fields and gated communities but there are still a lot of houses and the members seem really cool.  Everyone speaks Spanish  and I think the coolest part is that from pretty much any part of my area you can see the temple of Xela!  My new companion is Elder English from Idaho, my first American companion in 20 months haha its been a lot of fun and we have been working like crazy this week.

We have a cool investigator named Nestor.  His wife is kind of a less active member but has been reactivating.  Wow, Nestor is so cool and is in 1 Nephi 16, just a really solid guy and he is going to be babtized on April 9th.  We have been going with him every other day and, though I havent been here very long, Im excited to see him grow and accept the Gospel.

Other than Nestor there werent really many investigators here in Olintepeque.  We decided to work really hard and to talk with literally everyone.  While knocking doors we found a guy named Cruz who let us in.  He explained that his mom is really sick and that his dad passed away about 8 years ago.  We taught him the first lesson and challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, but it didnt seem to us that he understood very much.  We returned with him on Saturday and we were shocked but how much he remembered and liked the first lesson.  We read the Book of Mormon with him, invited him to church, and he came!!  I feel so happy that we came in contact with Cruz and we will continue helping him progress and learn about the plan of Salvation.

This week was my birthday and the sister missionaries in our area did something really nice for  me and my comp.  My companion doesnt really know a lot of the members, so the sisters talked with a member family and planned a little surprise dinner.  We went to the members house at 8, read a scripture, then went to eat.  I sat down and one of the members put a plate with two stuffed wrapped burritos in front of me.  I thought to myself, "Can it be?" and it was: TACO BELL! After the delicious Taco Bell and some cake, the members gave me some candy and chips and stuff.  It was an amazing day and I really felt the love of Heavenly Father has for me.

I know that Jesus Christ gave His perfect life for us.  Lately Ive felt such a profound peace in my heart and just so... good.  I know that we can all feel the peace that Christ offers us, before the mission I felt it from time to time but a lot of times I felt nervous about tests or friends or stuff like that.  There are a lot of stresses as misisonaries and a lot of setbacks, but I notice that life is really just so good and that the hard times make the good times better.  I love all of you and know that the Church is true.  

Temple and blessings

This was a great week!  

We went contacting on Tuesday and found 3 new families that dont go to any church, which for us was a huge miracle.  One of those families has already come to church 3 times but never got babtized, so we will definitely work a lot with them.  We found these families because we felt inspired to go contact a specific place even though there arent that many houses.  Following the Spirit helped us find these families, which was a huge faith booster and now we have some investigators that are pretty positive.  

On Thursday we went to the temple which is always a great experience.  We went a little early and ate in the dining room as a zone.  I bought a Book of Mormon picture book which will come in handy for teaching people who cant read too well. Our temple trip went well, afterwards we went to a zone meeting with President.  We talked about repentance and the Gospel of Christ.  President said that here in Guatemala there are more than 47,000 Evangalist churches!  Before he told us he asked, "How many Evangelist churches do you think there are here in Guatemala?"  A sister missionary replied, "How many street corners are there?"  There are lots of challenges but the church continues to grow and we keep finding people to teach and its all because this isnt our work, its the work of the Lord!

I did divisions in an area called Chirijox with an Elder Fris from Argentina.  Their area is right on the side of the mountain so we did a lot of climbing!  We went to a part of their area called "Alaska" and, yes, its very cold.  We taught some people, went back to Chirijox, taught a family... pretty good divisions and I learned a lot.  When we got back to the house he taught me how to dance like Michael Jackson haha we had a good time and got a lot done with my "che".

DOMINGO HAS A BABTISM DATE FOR THIS SATURDAY!  For us this has been a huge miracle, our ward hasnt babtized an adult man, with the exception of an old guy that went inactive and according to our information for about 2 and a half years.  Our plan is to babtize Domingo and in a few weeks he should be able to babtized his son and in the future his wife will be converted.  We are really excited and we feel blessed to have found Domingo. We need everyone to pray to bless Domingo and so that he can overcome any problems or pastors or whatever comes his way. 

That was it for this week, I love you all!  Thanks for always writing me and supporting me.  Nos vemos!!

Good week!

Hey well this was a pretty good, though very busy week!  On Wednsday we had interviews in the chapel of San Cristobal.  President was in a very good mood and helped me with a lot of things.  We discussed Enocs call to serve, how he wasnt quite the best servant but the Lord knew what Enoc would become.  My district has been pretty disanimated lately so we talked about how to help them out.  A lot of the success in our lives comes from our attitude, which has been something that has been tough for me to understand but I feel like Im improving a little each day.  President congradulated us for what we are doing in Nahuala haha he told me that one of his friends was one of the first missionaries in Nahuala.  The town people got really angry and kicked the missionaries out of town.  Now there is a ward and a branch here, so things have grown considerably.  Its a huge blessing to be here, even if I dont speak their language I always feel their love.

On Thursday we had zone conference in Toto.  As a zone, we thought about the challenge of finding people to teach.  Faith is the key, but how can we have faith?  We talked about things that diminish our faith and things that kindle it.  After a lot of talking and scripture reading, we came to the conclusion that the central problem is pride.  Every missionary wrote some goals on a sticky note and together we are going to humble ourselves.  When we are humble we are teachable and have the spirit!!

After the meeting, the zone leaders, my comp, and I ate lunch with the stake president, President Tzic.  While we ate "churasco", potatoes, and some vegetable salad thing we talked about how to help the stake.  Xeroxon has had some big obstacles like not having a mission leader or counselers.  President promised us that by Sunday we would have a mission leader and now we do and hes super pilas!!!!  He served a mission in El Salvador so he knows all the lessons and can teach in Quiche so we are definitely excited for that.

I did divisions with Elder Rojas there in Toto and I have to say, I dont really like being in a big city.  Most of the areas that Ive had havent been very populated or big, but the zone leaders are in a super dense and wealthy area, which is both good and bad.  The good thing is that they have a lot of cool members and the not so good is that there are a lot of people that dont really want anything.  At about 8 we went with a member family and they said they would give me the "Bienvenida."  I thought, "oh what in the world is that," then one of the ladies snuck behind me and put something on my head, which I thought was an egg.  It was just an orange so I said, "I thought that was an egg!" Then, yep, she smashed an egg on my head haha I was not expecting that.  

Things are improving dramatically here in our area.  We have 11 babtism dates!! Now, Im not saying that each one of them will be babtized because there are some pretty big challenges but we are pretty excited.  We contacted a family in a far part of our area and they are super cool.  The dad is named Domingo Xum and he is super ready, its a golden family.  Domingo and his son came to church and said they would come play soccer tomorrow with our members.  Its amazing how, with a lot of diligence and goals and prayers God can lift us and help us out.  He lives!!  I love you all! with love, Elder Call (hey that rhymes hehe)

2015 in review!

Hey guys well it kind of felt like we were just barely starting 2015 but its gone!  Isnt it crazy how fast time seems to fly?  Its hard for me to believe but this was by far the best year of my life.  Lots of little mountain trails have been walked, lots of lessons have been taught, and lots of changes have been made in my life.  I challenge everyone to make some personal goals and stick to them this year, we can do it!

This week we found out that our investigator Alexander cant get babtized.  Apparently the marriage laws here changed like 1 month ago and anyone under 18 cant get married.  That was kind of a bummer for us, but we found a family last week and they are pretty positive.  The last family of converts got babtized about 4 years ago here in Xeroxon so it would be a HUGE blessing for them to be babtized.  Tonight we are doing a family home evening in the house of some members and will keep helping them progress.

New years made things a little bit complicated this week, lots of people buying and selling stuff!  Most people celebrate the new year by lighting fireworks and being together as a family.  Some members gave us dinner at like 8 but other than that we didnt do anything for new years, though it was a good time to reflect 2015.  

Today we had our zone activity.  We went to the chapel in Toto and played mafia, volleyball, and soccer.  Our zone has like 11 companionships, its pretty cool though we usually have to travel pretty far.  Thats about it haha I feel kind of bad that I dont have much to write.  Things are going well, we are working and searching for new people.  The work is a little tough at times but I feel like Heavenly Father is happy with what we are doing.  I love you all!  The church is true and so is missionary work.  

Miracles and a new house!

Hey guys!  Well like I told you last week the fair came to town.  Things were absolutely nuts!  We went through a really rough patch because a lot of our appointments fell.  The Catholic church lit off millions of "bombas" all throughout the day, even at 4 00 in the morning haha.  The good thing is that the fair is done and things should be normal until Christmas.

To tell the truth I am absolutely exhausted right now.  The fair ended on Thanksgiving day, but I wasnt there because me and the zone leaders did a gigantic division.  One of the zone leaders came here to Nahuala to look for a new house with my companion.  I went with Elder Rojas from Panama to do a double division in San Cristobal.  Elder Caseres and I first went with a guy named Santos to do a babtism interview.  Haha I did an interview with him last week and he passed, but he didnt show up to his babtism!!  Apparently his mom got sick so he couldnt go.  Anyway the interview went well, Santos seems like a very nice, very humble guy.  He uses a wheelchair because he was living in the USA but got attacked by a gang and got deported.  Really sad storty but Im very greatful that he got babtized on Saturday!

After the interview with Santos I did an interview with a lady named Albertina.  She also has a sad story, here kidneys are failing and doesnt have a lot of time left to live.  Super humble, nice lady.  She passed the interview with flying colors and also got babtized on Saturday!

After the interviews my companion and I went to do some visits with the sister missionaries.  Their investigator wasnt home, but there was a family who wanted our help hauling fire wood from the mountain haha so that was pretty interesting.  The service ended and we met back up with Elder Rojas and the companion of Elder Caseres to interview a family.  Long story short is that the family isnt ready quite yet but their daughter Vilma got babtized and the elders will keep working with her family.

We got home, did our planning, then me and Elder Rojas had to talk about some companionship things with the other elders.  I think this gigantic division was productive and I sure did learn a ton.

On Sunday we had some miracles happen.  Saturday afternoon our appointments fell and we felt impressed to return to visit an old investigator.  We dropped him because we kind of thought he was a little crazy and didnt really want anything.  Anyway, we returned with him and invited him to church.  He said he would come, but we still had some doubts.  On Sunday at 745 we found him standing right in front of the chapel.  He only stayed for 40 minutes but for us this was a huge miracle!  A lot of people are super affraid of our church and dont even want to go inside.  Having him come was such a huge blessing and we look forward to visiting him this coming week.

The other miracle also happened in church.  After our investigator left a teenage girl walked in and sat in front of us.  All the members started looking at here and asking, "who is she?"  She wasnt wearing the typical corte dress of Nahuala so we were all a little confused.  After the meeting we talked with her and turns out she got babtized 6 months ago in Guatemala City but returned to live here with her family.  Her parents dont go to any church and her sister is Catholic but not really, we look forward to working with this family and with the Lords help they should be babtized.

Today we changed houses.  Its a ton of work!  Our new house is a LOT better, much bigger and I finally fit in the bathroom.  Things are looking up in Districto Xeroxon!

Things are good!

As you can probably tell by the title of this letter, things actually improved quite a bit for us this week!  We have been working like crazy lately, not necessarily with a ton of appointments but rather looking for positive people.  To do so, we took members with us 6 out of 7 days, and some days we went with 4 different members.  I feel like Im working more than I ever have in my whole mission and I can see a lot of great blessings in both my life and in our area.

This week we went to visit a guy named Jorge, who is extremly Evangelico but he always recieves us and is reading the Book of Mormon.  We walked into his little workshop, where he was fixing something while listening to some Pastor "preaching" on Youtube.  I could feel that there was a really bad spirit present, I dont like it when these "Pastors" take the Lords name in vain and, as we say in spanish, "estafan" a lot of people.  Anyway, I felt inspired to put on a video by Jeffery R. Holland where he bears his testimony about the Book of Mormon.  I kid you not, the Spirit of the entire room changed and we could all feel a much greater power in the little workshop.  Even with this Spirit, Jorge went on a rant for about 25 minutes about how, apparently, Jospeh Smith WAS a prophet and that the Book of Mormon IS true, but that he would never come to our church.  Moral of the story: Satan sure likes to make everyone super confused!

We went to a part of our area this week called "148", which is a little bit far but we found that the people speak spanish fairly well and also speak Quiche.  We found a lot of people that had never seen missionaries before, so I think it might actually be a good idea to put a pair of missionaries there.  

We set a babtism date with a guy named Eduardo this week.  He listened to missionaries in the past, but kept falling in his addiction to alcohol and was also living with a girl though they werent married.  He said he could come to church this next week, but we are a little bit confused because it appears that he may be living with his girlfriend again.  I have a good feeling that he can change and be a powerful influence here in Barrio Xeroxon.

This week we had another miracle.  Saturday was a really rough day, we went from appointment to appointment and nearly every single one fell through.  We were pretty disanimated, and both me and my companion were thinking about maybe just giving up.  We felt inspired to go visit a family of some members who had given us some references, and they decieded to go contact with us at 825, which is really late here.  Anyway, we invited both families to church and guess what?  One of them actually came!  Thats a really huge miracle for us because everyone here is super fanatic about church and religion.  We have a lesson planned with them on Tuesday, so thats something really exciting for me.  

Personally, I feel that things are going pretty well.  I kind of feel like Im in my prime as far as missionary work goes, I also feel a much stronger spirit with me at all times.  Work, work, work really is key to missionary work.  By working effeciently with our members like we have been doing here, I think my district would improve a ton and we would be doing what the Lord wants us to do.  All is well down here in Guate, Love you all!!!

Elder Call goes to an entirely different planet!

Haha I think the title of this letter explains a lot!  Monday night I said my final goodbyes to everyone in Brasilia and Tuesday morning we headed to changes.  My new area is called Xeroxon (try saying that one 3 times fast) in a little city called Nahuala.  

Have you ever seen grown men wearing skirts?  Or how about entire families bathing together in a little brick hut?  Well, come on down to Nahuala!  Everyone here speaks Quiche, in fact, there are very few people who speak spanish very well.  Sometimes missionaries call this "Mission Nahuala" because the culture, climate, everything is just so incredibly different.  Speaking of climate, it gets really cold here!  I dont think it will snow but apparently next month the lows will be freezing or below.  The mission work, due to all these factors, has been struggling for a long time.  We have to use members to try translating for us because if not no one understands.  Its an entirely different world here, lots of changes.  

My new companion is a really good guy from Yucatan, Mexico.  Waiting to see who your new companion is can be a little stressful, but Im glad that the Lord put me with my comanion Elder Kauil.  Hes a great worker, maybe a little bit disanimated due to the lack of success in this area but hes an awesome guy.  We have done a lot of careful planning and hope to elevate our ward here.  I dont think it should really be a ward because we dont have a bishop, or councilors, or a mission leader, etc.  There are about 100 people that come each week, but most are women and children.  One of the stake councilors is in charge of our ward right now, lets just say that there is a lot of disorganization.  

Thats about it for this week, these past few days everyone has been celebrating "Dia de los muertos" so its been really difficult having lessons.  Im still trying to absorb everything and I want to know our area a lot better.  I love you all!!!