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.

35

Got to talk to Ian today.  He couldn’t get into a city with internet to call Ryan for Father’s Day so he called and talked to Ryan and I.   They are loving the village they got to reopen. He said they walk close to 12 miles on a normal day but in the next 2 days they’ll be walking over 24 up and down mountains.   I asked if he’d like to hike when he comes home and he’s not to sure about that.  He said they walk about 2.5 hours to an investigators house each way but it’s worth it because she’s getting baptized soon!   

He said it’s been such a blessing to get to come home in the evenings and sleep in a real bed and eat (pretty ok)food and even speaking English.  He hasn’t been able to do those things in a very long time.   It has helped keep his moral up.  

He loves the people, especially the kids.   They all crowd around him to shine their shoes in hopes of getting some money.  They always give a little extra.  He said he remembered one of the boy’s names and asked for him.  Now he is the “coolest” because the Americans knew his name.  Lol. 

He talked about his testimony of the scriptures and his mission.  Said it was just something he knew he needed to do but now he realizes why. 

He sent Picts:

Shoe shining kids 

Elder on his bday. 



Whole group of us on our hike.  Garbage like this around the water is normal. People just throw their garbage into the streams here. It’s super sad.  I love my life straw. 



Church and my apartment and the b-ball court I get to play on.   

34

Hey everyone. I have been doing super good here in the mission. We have opened up a small village in the middle of absolutly nothing and we have to ride in the back of a pickup truck for about an hour and it is so beautiful. We have water falls in our area 5 minutes from the house and we found and otter swimming in the river. I finally am living in a nice house with a hot shower and more than one room to do studies and sleep. Also we live in the chapel and so we get to play basketball very night after 7:30pm because we have to be in the house after dark because the church is the only place that has light. Our little Branch President has been working so hard here in Pancá to try and strengthen the members and he has been praying for missionaries for a few months now and almost cried when we showed up and said we would be the perminent missionaries in the area. His kids even started to jump up and down to celebrate and we started to laugh. Its amazing to see that impact missionaries can have on the people who really trust in the lord and I have learned a lot this week about doing just that. I have been having to speak in Kiche and Spanish so its been a little rough but I love every minute in the mission and I regret nothing.  Me and Elder Newman have also been washing our own clothes in this thing call a pilla. I think I might have a picture but thats all for now. I love all you guys and Ill see you soon.  

33

Hey everyone I have had a pretty good work here in Guatemala. I  confirmed a little girl as a member of the church Sunday and I have changes too. I will be going to another village here in the Sameish area. On Wednesday I had to go into Xela to get medicine because I have a stomach bacteria and I also had a fever of 102F so that wasn't good. (it wasn't a parasite the last couple weeks they thought I had:  So with all these changes in my health  I am down about 10 pounds but I still love being here in the mission. Maybe I'll have abs if I keep loosing weight. 

  The little boy we baptized last week received the holy ghost yesterday and I confirmed the daughter of the Branch President because he could come to church. This also means that we ran the church service and talked and also taught the classes. Now I will going to the change meeting tomorrow to find out who is my new comp and going to another village. We'll I have nothing more to say so I love you guys lots and Ill see you soon. 

On our prep day went to a waterfall. It was  beautiful.  We found an old abandoned house that when I tried to kick the door open the whole door fell out.  We saw some old clothes in there and set them up on a chair like a little old lady. 

There is some kind of protest here so we can't get the bus back to our locations tonight so we get to stay in a hotel.  Its the first time i've slept in a queen size bed and probably the only time in my mission.  I am soo excited!!!   

Love you - Ian

32

This week has been pretty good. 

We had a baptism this Sunday for a little boy named Arón and also the daughter of our branch President. On Saturday we went to this like village 15 miles from our area and we had to walk back from 5:00-8:30 at night in the dark because there wasn't any other way to get back. We have been riding on top of a lot of buses lately which is awesome because we are one of the only areas of the mission that has approval to do so. Its super fun!  Today we got to ride with a little pig so I took some photos of us together. 
  I also started reading Jesus the Christ on Wednesday and I'm on page 165 today. It is so good and I love learning more about our Savior Christ. 

I really don't have more to say. We talked with a bunch of drunk people and I destroyed a Pastor that tried to Bible bash us. I said some stuff and he had now idea about any of the scriptures I used and he just said sorry and left. HAHAHAHA. I struggle because many of the pastors here don't even know the bible.  It frustrates me. 

Just another normal  experience as a missionary. Love you all and Ill see you soon.

Pig in a bag on the bus

Me hanging on the back of the bus (no seats ever) 

31

 

 This week has been just about every other week in the village. We have been walking about 15 miles everyday and we have been talking to a lot of people. We have been walk a lot to the villages in our area and I have learning how to bare my testimony in one of the native languages K'iche. I also learned how to introduce myself and ask if we can say a prayer. We did a little bit of service this last week digging behind a drunk guys house. His wife is an inactive member of the church and we are trying to reactivate her and help her. We went and ate be a river and about 5 minutes later it started to rain super hard so we ran into a half built house and then we have to walk 15km back to the house which was a bummer because the bus cant come when it rains this hard, but all in all I have been doing great and my comp and I get along well so its pretty fun. Well I hope you are all doing well and Ill see you soon

30

This has been a really fun week. We have a goal in the mission of talking with 20 people everyday and we were the only area in the mission to meet the goal of 140 in week. My comp and I have finally found some people who are actually want to hear more about the church. We had 5 members attend church this Sunday and I played piano and directed the meeting and blessed the sacrament. We went and visited a village in our area and the are 80 members of the church of the 350 in the village, but all the services are in Quiche which is super cool and I had the chance to talk to an old lady in Quiche I only understood like 15% of what she did but she did understand what I was saying to her so I guess I am learning a little how to speak Quiche. 
We had to the chance to go to Walmart today and we all brought Suitcases to fill with food because there isn't a lot of food where we are here. There aren't any grocery stores, but we can buy eggs from a member so we do have some food I guess.

NEW TEETH! 

 I also received a photo from my last area of my favorite member with her new teeth. She is a lady that has been blind for about 10 years and hasn't had teeth for almost 30 years. She has one of the biggest testimonies in world and I was so happy to see her smile after 30 years. I have been having a super fun time here climbing mountains and I hope all of you are doing good too. I love you all and Ill see you soon.

MOUNTAINS I CLIMB EVERYDAY UP AND DOWN TO GET TO HOUSES: 

29

Hey everyone. 

I received my new son this week  (brand new Elder I get to train) named Elder Martinez from Chihuahua, Mexico. He has a super cool story. He is a convert of about 2 and a half years and no one else in his family is members. He also was raised by his single mom until she left to go the the USA and he lived with his grandma before he left for the mission. The Bishop of the ward and his daughter, the girlfriend of my comp, converted my comp and he loves the gospel and works nice and hard. 
We are opening an area in a little village and we have been knocking doors for about 4 hours everyday to try and find people to teach. We have luckily found some really awesome people to start teach and I really hope that these people and progress and accept the beautiful blessing the gospel brings into peoples lives. The area is called San Bartolo and it is an area that hasn't baptised in over a year I believe. I am so excited to continue working here in this awesome place.

 I hope everyone is doing well and I'll see you soon. Love ya

Picts of some of the families in my last area :

 My new apartment.  Its a 10x10 and has HOT water!!! yay!! no more cold showers!

 My new village - we hike the hills everyday to get to people's home

 Elder Martinez

 Trails we walk every day on the hills

28

4/15

baby parrots- they were prickily

                                              HUGE Moth!!

                                               MY Hammock

                                            members house

me and my companion

Buenas Tardes.

 I have been having a super happy awesome week. On tuesday one of the members of the church  bought 2 parrots and I got to hold them but they are still babies so they dont speak yet, but I tried to teach the birds english. The member said the birds would probaby learn english faster than she would. On wednesday I got a call form the mission President and he told me I was going to be training a new missionary and yesterday I got the call that I will be opening an area in the mission. I am super excited to be traing and I have been praying a  ton to get to train a new missionary and I know that the lord has blessed me with this. I went to the market today in the middle of Huehuetenango and I bought a hammock. I am a little sad that I will be leaving all the good friends I make here but I know its what the lord wants. 

Well I dont have anything more today, but I love you guys a ton and I will se you soon. 

27

April 2nd

Hey friends & family, 

I'm doing pretty good over here in Guatemala and I think I can finally speak spanish so that good.  We have been working super hard to bring this message to people of Guate. I feel like we have been having a lot of success and I have been praying super hard for baptisms and we had one saturday and Anabela was so happy when she left the changing room with her white clothes and one of the other missionaries said "Wow she looks so happy." This was something super cool for us because she has had a really tough life. She was orphaned when she was 9 and lived with her grandmother. Also the grandmother never put her in school so now through the church she is learning to read and write. We also starting teaching a family again that came to the baptism of Anabela and they want to baptised now too. It is amazing to so the spirit work with people. The truth is I'm just a person and through me the Holy Ghost and help people and share the things God wants these people to hear. I love this gospel and I love this church. 

I hope that all of you who aren't members of this church can take the opportunity to talk with the missionaries where you live. 

Well I love you lots and I'll see you soon.

26

3/26

Hola my friends. 

I have been working super hard and also melting from the scorching sun. I am always super sunburned, but it's okay I finally bought sunscreen and have been putting it on everyday now. Sadly the tan lines have gotten worse and my skin is more pale than ever before. I also have 6 months in the mission and I burned a tie which was pretty fun and I made a makeshift flamethrower to do it. We will be having our baptism this saturday if she passes her interview today and I think she will. I found out that me Zone Leader and I are 3rd cousins and he is such a good guy. We went to Xela yesterday because me comp was have nerve pain and need to get medicine so we didn't really get to have a p-day, but luckily we have today to write. Last night we got to cook some food from Honduras with my comp for a family that we have been teaching and I also made scrambled eggs with hotdog. I have been loving the work and I can't wait to hear from our prophet this next week. I love that we have the ability to hear a living prophet in our time and that he can receive revelation for us to guide is in our difficult times. I have seen the effect that this gospel can have in people's lives. I know that God has called me to serve and that he wishes nothing less for me than to feel that truth and the love that he has for his children.  

I hope that all of you are doing well and I pray for you everyday. 

Me- burning my 6th month tie!!

dinner at family's home 

Love you lots and see you soon.