Hello!!

Hey guys, this week went well!  First off, we had a multizone conference with President Smith.  We talked about on how we can help the church here in Guatemala grow.  For the last few years, at least here in Huehue, there have been babtisms but the church attendences havent really been going up.  We talked about working with our members and inviting them to help in the work.  A big thing that maybe we havent been doing too well is family history!  After this meeting, we are definitely going to focus a lot more on helping our converts and members understand family history so they can go to the temple.

This week went well for us, we have been working a lot with a girl named Sandra.  She works in a store right in front of the church, but she wasnt progressing for a long time.  This week she finally talked to her dad, and he gave her permission to come to church!  He also wanted to talk with us, so we are hoping that we can also start teaching him as well.  

This week we were walking when we saw a couple trying to carry a bed.  We offered to help, they accepted, then we talked with them for a while.  They are brand new here and super positive!  They have been looking for spiritual guidance and dont go to any church.  When I was on divisions my comp talked with them and they said they would come to church.  We were really bummed when they didnt come to sacrament meeting.  During our class our bishop stuck his head in and said, "Elders, there is a family looking for you!"  They came!  They really enjoyed church, Im excited to start working with them.  Miricales still happen!

I have some news... Eduardo babtized his daughter this week!  They are still on track to being sealed in the temple, which is really special to me.  His conversion inspires me to keep searching for families and helping them understand the gospel.  I love the work, know its true, and love all of you!

We did it!

Hey guys, well, we did it!  Carlos finally got babtized on Saturday and it was such an awesome experience.  The Spirit was strong, this family has come so far in their progress so far and it will be exciting to see them keep progressing.  In his interview with President Smith, Carlos says his next goal is to get sealed in the temple with his family.  This whole experience has taught me that miracles still exist, that God still loves us.  Through helping this wonderful family many lives will be blessed through their service and testimonies. What a great way to finish off this change!

Speaking of changes... my companion has changes tomorrow!  It was super unexpected to me, but Heavenly Father sure has taught me a lesson.  It doesnt matter where I am, who Im with, or if Im a leader or not.  Im here to do whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do.  I will do my best to work hard and to learn as much as I can.  By the end of this next change I will have been a district leader for 6 months in the same area with 3 different companions, Im excited to make this next change the best one yet!

We have been teaching this 19 year old named Christian, he finally came to church yesterday!  The only challenge with him is that he is a little, well, lets just say he has some strange ideas.  We were talking about how God loves us and God wants us to have families.  We asked, "Christian, would you like to have a happy family?"  He responded, "Yeah, actually I want to have 2 families, 2 wives."  Haha we thought he was joking but it didnt really sound like it!  Christian needs a lot of help but hopefully he comes around, we will keep working with him!

I would just like to finish this letter with my testimony.  This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know it, and knowing it has helped me change into a better person.  I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet, that he actually did restore this wonderful Gospel.  A year of prayer, fasting, experiences, and personal revelation have combined to give me a strong testimony.  Every day I feel the Holy Ghost working through me, which is something that sadly didnt happen before my mission.  I feel more confident, more love, and happier.  My mind and thoughts are cleaner. I dont have as much anxiety as I did before.  I can testify that the Spirit exsists and we can have its company if we try seperating ourselves a little bit from the world.  We need to avoid distractions, we need to repent and keep in mind why we are here on this planet.  I guess Im a living testament of somebody that has completely changed, so never give up on your goals or ambitions.  President Hinkley once said, "Your best is good enough," so lets do our best to strenghten our testimonies and to be happier. Lets trust in our Savior!  I know he will help us out.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Call.

The week!

Hey everyone!  To be honest, there were quite a few distractions this week.  Some of you probably know that there were elections this week, which is a really big deal here. A lot of people were working extra hard to make sure that their political party won or protesting, which meant not a lot of people in their houses!  On top of that, my companion got sick because he ate 4 fried tacos from my convert Israel haha his food is not very clean.  In spite of all the challenges, we focused on the good and did our best. 

Carlos was supposed to be babtized this week, but due to some protesting President Smith decided not to come to Huehue.  Its been kind of hard for both me and my companion to wait so long, but I guess this experience is teaching us ´pacience.  Manuel and his family continue to do well, they couldnt come to church because they had to go vote in a village far away but promised to come next Sunday.  We worked this week with a little boy named Alex, who is super cool but his whole family is Catholic.  We recieved permision from the grandpa, mom, grandma etc. but something strange happened when we passed by to teach him.  His aunt decided to join in on the lesson and I could tell that there was a bad spirit present.  We will have to keep working with Alex, but I have faith that he can be babtized.  We have some new people lined up to teach this coming week, so I hope some of them are positive!

I think some advice I would give for anyone called to the Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, mission would to bring waterproof everything!  Though it hasnt rained too much this season, there will be times when we are super far away in the mountain and it will start dumping rain haha. My companion always says that this is the Rambo mission because of all the mountains, crazy languages, rain, etc...  Speaking of my comp, things have been going well between us.  Hes a great guy, its kind of funny to me because even though he is from Peru he is pretty much a Gringo.  He has seen tons of movies, likes longboarding, used to be in the Peruvian military, loves pizza, we relate to each other well and it makes mission work a lot more fun.  This next week is the last one of the change, so we will see if I have changes or not.  Either way, Ive enjoyed training my companion and in a lot of ways he has trained me.  

I would like to end with a scriptue, which I wont quote but I would like for you guys to look it up.  I love 1 Nephi 17 15, I love Nephis rock solid example of righteousness.  Do we simply "try" to keep the commandments or do we "strive" to live them?  There are so many blessings that Heavnely Father wants to dump on us, but first we must do our part.  I love the Gosepel and being here in Guatemala.  Love you all!  Que Dios les bendiga!

Hello!!

Hey family and friends, this week was a little bit crazy, sad, and happy all at the same time!

On Tuesday I did divisions with Elder Shoemaker.  Even though it was a hot day one of their members left to do visits with us for 8 hours!  We contacted all of his friends and it was really cool to hear his story.  He served a mission in Guatemala about 15 years ago and now he is a body guard for the president of Guatemala.  It was a great division and I learned a lot!

Lately we have been teaching a man named Manuel and his family.  Its the very last house in our area, about a 35 minute walk (I say walk but its more like a strenuous hike haha) up into the mountains but Im certainly glad we found these guys.  They dont go to any church and, though they may not be the smartest people, they are very humble and like listening to us.  They have a babtism date for the 3 of October so please pray for them and we will do our best to help them.

Now what you all probably wanted to know about... the babtism of Carlos.  Everything was going fine, Carlos was super excited up until the day of his enterview with one of our zone leaders.  The interview lasted and hour and, though Carlos knows everything he needs to know, there was a sin that happened a long time ago.  Our mission president just wanted to make sure he has repented, so he scheduled an interview for this Friday.  The day after the interview we passed by to talk with Carlos and he told us, "Elders, Ive made my decision that I will not be babtized."  We were wrecked!  After working for so long and helping this family so much Carlos made up his mind.  We tried responding to his doubts but still, nothing.  Anyways, the next day was Sunday and Carlos didnt come to church.  We scheduled an appointment with his wife and, after saying a prayer, I asked, "Do you guys have any questions or doubts?"  I dont know why I felt like I needed to ask that question, but, after a few moments of silence Carlos opened up, "I just wanted to ask forgiveness for what I said yesterday.  I was confused and a little angry about my interview, so I decided not to go to church anymore.  Today in my work I felt so bad that I came home early and, while I was walking, the Holy Ghost revealed to me that I need to be babtized on Saturday.  What time is my interview at?"  How cool is that?  

I testify that the Spirit is real, that God loves us and watches out for us.  Regardless of what the world says, miracles still happen and the Spirit still exsists.  In my personal study today I read 1 Nephi 4;6 which talks about how when Nephi went to retrieve the plates of brass he didnt know how he was going to do it, he only trusted in the Spirit.  Lets trust in the Spirit and try our best to be worthy of it!

My week in 5 minutes!

Hey haha I literally have 5 minutes so Im writing as fast as I can!  

This week we went to the temple! The temple always puts things in perspective for me.  Our entire zone went together in a tiny microbus, which was really packed but we made it in one piece.  What a blessing it is to have a temple in our mission.  It always helps me understand the purpose of missionary work, the "why" behind everything we do.  We arent here to babtize but rather prepare families to enter the temple.  After the session we had a meeting with our mission president, which was excelent as always.  He talked about how God always keeps His coventants.  If we do everything He says and keep our covenants, our lives will be so much better.  

The other day we saw one of our investigators who came to church, an ex gang member named Fernando, in the street drunk!  Alcohol is a huge problem here in Guatemala because, well, its really cheap.  Anyways, we helped get him on his feet, walked him home, and we hope he will keep listening to us... we will see!

Carlos is getting babtized this week!  This will be the first complete family that Ive had the privilige of doing the finding, teaching, and babtizing, so I think its an amazing blessing.  The change Ive seen in this family has been dramatic.  They read each night, pray together, pay tithing, everything.  What a great blessing, its hard for me to explain how grateful I feel in email but its such an amazing feeling.

Apparently Russel M. Nelson was going to come to our mission this coming Tuesday, but his schedule got changed somehow.  On Saturday he spoke to all of Central America from Honduras.  Even though we didnt meet him in person, the spirit was really strong and we learned a lot.  He focused a lot of the family.  The plan of salvation is the plan of happiness.  There is no other plan of happiness, and whats the key to happiness?  The family!  Thats why the apostles, prophets, everyone defends the family because, to be honest, the family is being attacked like crazy.  President Nelson also gave us a long list of terms to study like coventants, Abrahamic Coventant, etc.  It was an awesome conference!

Well thats about all the time I have for today.  Today was cool because we went to the ruins of Zaculeau and finished off at McDonalds.  This was a great week, we are working hard, being more obedient than ever, and all is well!

My week!

This week was a good one!  We had a zone meeting on Wednesday, which was pretty awesome.  We talked about success in the mission, a subject that a lot of missionaries talk about.  One of the main ways we can know if we had success in an area, according to our mission president, is if the church attendence goes up.  Some elders may have a lot of babtisms, but how many people did they help convert?  Converts dont necessarily have to be people that we babtized: they can also be less active members.  It was a really good meeting and it put a lot of things in perspective.

This week we helped the Cox family move houses.  Haha moving is always a lot of work but it was a good service project.  And guess what?  Lorenza, the mom, went to the temple on Saturday!  It makes me so happy to have converts that go to the temple, thats where they need to be to truly become converted.  Her husband Carlos came to church on Sunday and is on fire.  He cant read or write, but I can feel the spirit in his voice during our lessons.  Hes awesome!

Lorenza went to the temple and, speaking of temples... we are going to the temple tomorrow as a zone!  I love the temple in Xela, its one of the most beautiful temples on the planet.  There is such a great feeling of peace in the temple.  As a missionary, we only go to the temple 2 times a year.  I wish more than anything that we could go at least once a month.  Its funny to me how back home the temple was only 3 minutes from my house but I didnt go as much as I should have.  My invitation to all of you guys is to go to the temple!  Its not far, it doesnt take too much time, and the eternal blessings make it totally worth the trip. 

On the 25th a "special visitor" is coming to our mission, rumor has it that either Russel M. Nelson or Quientin L. Cook is coming.  Our whole zone is really excited, Ill definitely let you guys know all about it! Love you!

The craziest week ever!

Well, I hope the title of this letter explains how my week was!  WE BABTIZED A FAMILY!!!  It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.  The Cox Family is the humblest, nicest family I have ever met.  They were so prepared and ready for the Gospel.  They dont have a lot of material things, or even much education, but they are flat out awesome.  Now Im going to explain why things were so crazy!

Alright, so Saturday morning we went to the church (which is the stake center building) to fill up the font.  At 10 30 we turned the font on, then we had to run to meet the zone leaders to grab the babtism clothing.  As we were running back to turn off the babtism font we saw the wife of the second councilor walking away from the church. "Elders, the babtism font is pretty full you should go turn it off," she told us casually.  I thought it was a joke, but the moment we opened up the chapel door we could tell that the babtism font was "pretty full," because there was about half an inch of water on the floor! Nearly the entire church building was full of water.  Our church has tile floor thank goodness, but we still needed to clean everything up as soon as possible.  I called my district and we got things cleaned up in about an hour and I learned a lesson: dont flood the church!

In spite of the little flood, the babtism service went well.  I babtized Carlos and Valerio, my comp babtized Hermana Lorenza, and the elders quorum president, who is an 18 year old convert named "Tato," babtized the oldest son Vicente.  On Sunday we went with Vicente to visit his cousin, who now has a babtism date for the 29th of August.  The Lord is blessing us like crazy know.  Many times, as missionaries, we might get down on ourselves.  Months of rejection and trials can decieve us and make us feel like we arent doing a good job.  But, with the help of Heavenly Father as well as the members, we can overcome our obstacles and become powerful servants of God.

Everything in my district is going fairly well.  It still surprises me how some missionaries are kind of lazy, but Ive been trying to lead by example and do the best that I personally can.  Next week my companion finishes his first transfer cycle in the field, crazy!  He has learned a lot and is a great friend.

  Things are going well down here in Guatemala.  I know the Church is true.  Ive really grown to love the Book of Mormon and its been helping me become a better man.  I love Moroni 7 29, which I encourage you to read if you have a chance.  God is still a God of miracles.  He still loves us and wants the best for us.  Adiós mis queridos amigos y familiares!