53

Hola Familia. 

Me and Elder Apaza my new companion from Peru. 

I saw that lots of my friends start with something in spanish so I figured Id do the same. This week was pretty fun. On tuesday I went to an area in my district called Xepon and we went to teach some people but a lot of them werent home. All the members know my name in this area for some reason and everyone wanted to give us dinner and so we ate really well actually which as awesome. Then we worked in our area until friday and I went to another area in the district called Racaná and it was super fun as well. A nice break because their arent as many mountains in this area to climb so my legs got a break.On sunday morning we received a very sad notice from the members that the 17 year-old son our our Branch President had comimtted suicide and so we spent almost all of our time yesterday helping out the family with other members from the branch. It is so sad to see someone so young end his life and miss out on so much in life. Sometimes life is hard and we feel sad , but we can always count on the Lord to be at our side to help us through. He will never abandon us in our hard times. The truth is sometimes the Lord carries us. This is a poem I love a ton.

One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

Well I love you guys lots and Ill see you soon. 

Attachments area

52

10/7

Sweet family we just baptized 

 Learning how to make the traditional belts. I made one for your classroom mom

My teacher 

Hey everybody. I hope that everyone had a fantastic time watching conference this weekend and I hope you all learned a lot. Sadly I was only able to see a like because of power outages here. I have received my new comp Elder Apaza and he is from Peru and he is super fun. His just a little guy that is dying walking the mountains with me but he is slowing accepting the fact that this is his life now. I am still in the same area and I will be completing 6 months in the area after this change. I really didnt do a whole lot but I did get to play some basketball today which was fun.  I hope you have a good week everyone. Love you lots and Ill see you soon.

Spoke to Ian- with no power meant no water for 5 days.  They had some trucked in for them but it was for drinking/cooking only.  So only one shower the whole week as well.  Things are ok now. 

51

9/30
Eu Nao Falo Portugues

Hola everybody. I have had a very interesting week here in my beautiful homeland of Guatemala. We had our Multi-Zone conference with our mission President and he just really put a lot of emphasis on how we need to read the Book of Mormon more here in our mission and I think it is not something that just missionaries need to do, but everybody. If you want to claim the Book of Mormon as a true book you have to read it and follow the invitation of asking God the Eternal Father in the name of Christ if it is true.Then and only then the spirit of God and testify of its truth. Then on Saturday we had 2 baptisms of a couple that we have been teaching and it was super awesome to help 2 of my siblings come unto Christ. On Sunday our mission President come for our district conference and just ripped everybody a new one. It was awesome. Well that is all I have for this week and I let you know who my comp is next monday. Love you lots and Ill see you soon. Les quero mucho.

(Book of Mormon Videos Below)

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/categories/book-of-mormon-videos?lang=eng

50

9/23

Well hey everybody. This week started off with interviews from our President and it was awesome and he told me I will be staying in my area for at least 6 weeks more which will put me at 6 months in this area. He said I might also train again I that could mean 12 more weeks in this area. Then on thursday I competed one year in the mission and I got to burn a shirt after I wore it for 12 days straight with my comp Elder Newman. We had burgers and fries and then burned the shirt with our favorite member. And to finish the week off we found a giant alien spider and it almost bit me. Well that is it for this week so I love you lots and Ill see you soon.

49

9/16



This week was pretty fun here because it was Independence Day on Sunday and every school does a presentation  with the running of the torch kinda like the olympics. Also one of the little girls from our church became the Niña de Independencia (Girl of Independence) for her school which is a huge honor here. 

We also had a family that was a big surprise show up to church on Sunday which was absolutely awesome. They mother of the guy who brought his family to church is an inactive member of the church. He has a little son who is 6 and he has cancer which just broke my heart. His name is David and I would ask that you pray for him because he just the sweetest little kid. On Saturday night my comp was dying from 8pm to 3am in the morning because he ate a bad egg and I just slept the whole time. Today we played soccer with the whole mission in Xela and against 10 teams my team took 2nd place and we lost the championship 0-1. 

Well that is all I have for the week so I love you lots and Ill see you soon.

48

9/9

Hey everybody. Not much has happen since I sent an email last Thursday. We did walk very far to go contact some people and a guy was selling sugar cane. One whole stick(4 feet) for only 1 quetzal or 13 cents. We were able to find some more people to teach which is awesome, but their biggest obstacle would be that they live about 1.5 hours walking from the church.Today was really fun because we played soccer as a zone and I got the backflip down. I took a video, but I didnt land super well. We also found some Gatorade in glass bottles so we had to buy it of course. I still have 3 weeks left in my area until me and Elder Newman have transfers and we are running out of people to talk to. We have been praying for a miracle and we work hard everyday to put in our part. I have faith that something good will come from it. If nothing else comes from it at least my legs will get stronger.  Hopefully I will have more to say next week but for now

 I love you all and Ill see you soon.

47

9/5

Us helping a family build their house

my favorite new pop ! Just kidding we just have lots of knock off pop here

Hey everyone. I have been pretty good out here. My comp and I have been working really hard and were were tasked with the job of teaching temple classes. We didnt have our p-day this week until Thursday because we went to the temple as a mission and I loved every minute of our session. I also got to kill a duck with an axe and then we cooked it up for dinner. It was really super tasty but really hard meat. I have been reading the book "Saints" by the church and it is so good I finally hit page 300 and I absolutely love it. I have also started fasting once a week and I have seen so many blessings come from doing so. I have also been putting better goals with my comp so that we can improve more.

 I really dont have a lot more to say but I love you lots and Ill see you soon.

46

8/25

Hey people that read my emails. I have had an awesome time this week in my area. On Tuesday we got the job of covering another area called Nimtzituj which is in Chuinajtajuyup. Its only like a 30 minute truck ride from our are Pancá. There are a ton of members there in Nimtzituj, but there are a lot of less active members. We got to do a lot of service this week which is awesome I work like a champion. We hauled some wood and worked in the corn. We contacted a lady and she was all mad and didn't want to hear our message and we asked if we could help with something and she said that we could come back the next day to work in her corn. She just laugh after saying that because she didn't think we would walk the mile back to her house. Sooo, we showed up the next day to work and she was super surprised. Now we are teaching her and her family. Haha. On Saturday we got to see our beloved Prophet speak here to the people of Guatemala. It was such a cool experience, but he had a special message just for the people here in this country and I get to serve here with all these wonderful people. We also received a few new American's in our zone and it is so sad and funny to see them struggling to speak because I was in their position a 10 months ago.

  I only have 371 days left.  Im old now in the mission

45

8/19

Hey everyone. I have been doing pretty good here. I have a whole other change with Elder Newman here in my area of Pancá. We thought that he would be leaving so we decided to go to the farthest house that we could see in our area and after walking a few mountains over and taking 2 hours to get there... no one was home which kinda sucked but we gave it a try. hahaha. Then when we finally got back Our shirts were actually yellow which was super gross. I was asked by a little kid in our branch to baptize him and I thought that was very sweet. I have been reading in alma lately and it has got to be some of the best stories in The Book of Mormon. I also got the book Saints on Saturday because Elder Newman finished it and It is so good. Im already 150 pages in. The church really has so much evidence of its truth and I cant believe people try to prove it wrong. No one ever has and no one ever will. I really didn't do a ton of crazy stuff but I did enjoy my week and I did complete 11 months in the mission today which is awesome!!!!! 

I hope that everything is going good and I love you lots see you soon.