43

I have been dying of heat. It is super fun with my comp Elder Newman becuase we just miss all the same american things like Cafe Rio, Beef Jerky, clean tap water, and sleep. HAHA. We have been walking a ton and at this point we have talked to every house within a hour of our house so it been hard to find new investigators. We have started reactivated a lot of families. Our first week in this area only 25-30 people came to church, but last sunday we had 50 which was unbelievable. I really have been seeing the fruits of working hard and obeying the commandments.

 I have been studying Kiche and I can now introduce myself and bare my testimony and say a lot of very simple sentences. Hopefully one day I can speak as fluently in Kiche as in Spanish.  I didnt take any pictures and so I have nothing to send to you guys so Im sorry for that. I went on exchanges for a day with an Elder from Honduras and we found a lady that only spoke Kiche so I started talking to her in Kiche and it absolutely blew his mind. He said that he thought we were speaking in English haha. 

I got to play basketball for the first time in 3 months which was super fun and I have gotten so bad. My comp and I put fun goals every week and these last to weeks we have down 150push-up in the morning and 20 every hour until 10pm every day expect for sunday and Monday. I still am fat though.  

Well I am 2 weeks from 11 months in the mission which is nuts and I feel like I have just started. I wish there was more time but the Lord only gave me 2 years so I will have to make the best of the 13 months I have left. I hope everyone is reading their scriptures and praying. 

Love you guys lots and Ill see you soon.

42

Hey I have been having a lot of fun in my area with my comp Elder Newman and we were able to marry and baptise a couple this friday and the mission president came with a pair of older missionaries from the office. It was so cool to see them so happy. They kissed in the baptismal font.  We will be accompaning them tomorrow to the temple with the Branch. 

We met our weekly goal of hitting a cow in the nuts with our sling shot so I can say all in all it was a week of success. I have been craving american food latley, but I only get 1 more year of enjoying the food here so I shouldnt complain. 

It is amazing to see how much prayer has effected the work here and I am humbled everyday. 

I really didnt have a ton more to talk about and I only took a few photos so I hope everyone is doing good and I love you lots. See you soon.

41

7/22

Hey everyone. We were just having absolutly no luck the other day while we were out tracting so we decided to say a pray and 5 minitues later we found a man who wants to get baptised and it was just a miracle. He isnt married so we will be having their wedding this friday and right after they will get baptised and become the newest members of the church. My companion and I are as happy as can be. The husband named Rafael was investigating the church for some time and recieving the missionaries but was giving permission to be baptised when he was younger. Its awesome to see that after years of other missionaries hard work that it payed off. Sometimes people just need time to change and not everyone will progess in the moment. I got my package and it was so nice to recieve my socks. After years of not liking my socks from Christmas I was super happy to get them. We had to wake up at 5am to run to the city 4 hours aways to get some baptismal clothes and we hit a dog on the bus ride back. Well I have almost nothing else to say but I love you lots and I'll see you soon.  Quote of the Week: "Thats the nicest dirt house I've ever seen."

Also I bathed in a little tub this week because we didnt have water but I am wearing shorts dont worry.

40

7/15/19

Hey fam. I have been having a good week here in Panca Momostenango and it will be really sad when I leave this place. I have seen the lords hand in so many ways and it is amazing to see the change this gospel can make in people. Sure its probably only about 1% of the people that accept us but every soul has worth in the sight of God. This last week we visited an inactive member named Benito and he is having trouble with the sabbath day because he has to go to the city to sell to support his family and I just had a feeling to open the scriptures randomly. The first scripture I found and read was Helaman 12:1 which says " And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him." I didnt know that scripture before, but the Lord made me and instrument in his hands to help others. It is such a blessing to be here in the mission.

 On a less spiritual not we went bird hunting with this little boy because one of his parents died and the other lives in the states and he has to live with his half deaf grandma. The kid just needs a friend. We didnt get a single bird with our slingshots but he had a good time. When we left we found a taranchula in the road and I almost stepped on it. Sadly I forgot my cord to upload pictures. Thats about it so I love you lots and Ill see you in less that 14 monthes. 

39

7/8/19

Hey everybody. What a week of fun. I was stuck in the Momostenango until thursday because of a bunch of leadership meetings and on the 4th of July a member threw us a party and it was awesome. He made us home made hamburgers that tasted like I was in the states and we drank Coca-Cola. Then at about 8:30 he lit of a bunch of fireworks for us which was super cool. Me and Elder Newman felt like we were in the states. We cant swim so in the moning on the 4th we got in our pila(washing station) to bathe hahaha. On friday we were invited to enter a Tuj which is like an igloo made of dirt that is like a sauna. It is an honor when someone invites you to enter their Tuj so we did it because there are no rules against it. 

This whole week we have been working with a few different families and they are starting to progress, but there are some problems that are limiting them. I also will be staying here another change with Elder Newman and we are so excited to keep working to try and help the people here in this beautiful place. I am so thankful for the gospel and I encourage anyone who wants to go on a mission to just do it. Its not always easy, but its so much fun. Love you lots and Ill see you soon. 

38

7/1/19

Hey so I didnt take any pictures this week which is a little sad but thats okay. I got to visit every area in the disctrict this week to do baptismal interviews, Canquixija, Rancana, and Xepon, because everyone will be baptizing this next week. 

Last night at about 3:00am in the morning we woke up to a satan ritual in the middle of the corn and my comp and I were flipping out. We took the next pickup truck out of there at 5:30am. Today everyone went to play soccer but we werent feeling it so we just hung out with all the the little kids in the center of Momostenango that shine shoes and just gave them life advice and bought them candy and I bought a sweet little wallet for 40cents. We had a big store open up the middle of Momos and we bought this rip off brandof  Dr.Peper called Dr.Thunder and it was so good.

 Thats about all that happened and Im loving it here in my little village of Pancá. Love you lots and Ill see you soon.

37

June 24th 

Hey everyone. I have had such a fun a spiritual week this week. We did a lot of walking to the little girl’s house that was baptized on Saturday to finalize the plans and make sure it was still what they wanted. On Friday we went to invite a ton of people to the baptism and we found the biggest pig I have ever seen in my entire life in the morning. This pig was about 400lbs and was about 6ft long. It was a baby dinosaur. In the afternoon we walked the 1.5 hours to the girl’s house and found a fair in the middle of nowhere. So since we can’t ride rides and we had a cita we just bought these super cool slingshots and some churros to eat while we continued the trek to their house. 

Maria Karina was baptized and became a member of the church Saturday morning at 10:30am. The water was super cold and we felt super bad because we had to dunk her all the way under the water and she kind of freaked out. HAHAHA.Sunday she was confirmed and family is as happy as can be. Then at night we were shooting a little basket and found a crab which absolutely blew our minds because we are like 200miles away from the sea. 

 I’m so thankful for this opportunity so serve, but I can't wait to watch all the new superhero movies. Love you guys lots and I’ll see you soon. 

Week 41

53 miles walked

3 Tortillas eaten

8 Dogs hit by my slingshot

1 Coca-Cola Jumbo

36

June 17th 

So we have been walking a lot lately and we had to walk about 12miles on thursday to place a baptismal date with a little girl who doesn't speak spanish. With our best Kiche we asked her if she wanted to baptised and she said yes. We are having a lot of fun together, Elder Newman and I, here in our village of Panca. It doesnt show up´on the map so dont try and look for it. HAHA. We are slowly helping build this little branch and Im so happy to be here serving with these awesome members. 

Also we had an emergancy meeting with the mission and the President got rid of a ton of rules like no drinking Coca-cola and using axes and machetes. So this week I drank coca-cola and Pepsi and also chopped a lot of wood. I really missed chopping wood Im not going to lie. We are really being pushed to focus more in the rules from the Missonary Handbook.

 I love you all and Ill see you soon.