25 December 2017

Merry Christmas!!

So last week Steven said that he forgot to record a message.  He also gave us some information about when we would have our Christmas Call for this week.  And he was going to get a new companion at the next day's Transfers.  That was about it.

But today is Christmas and we got to talk to Steven for about 45 minutes.  We stared at each other for a while.  We were able to share our White Christmas with him.  (I don't remember ever having a White Christmas before.) And we talked a bit.  It was pretty amazing.

And he called us to Repentance.

His new companion is from Argentina.  He has been out one transfer longer than Steven.

We also received a message via the mission Facebook group page from the mission pres. that starting next week, the mission's p-day was going to change to Wednesdays in order to utilize Sundays more efficiently, and to start off the week with planning, and also to give the missionaries a break mid-week. So we won't hear from him again until 3 January 2018.

This video was posted on the aforementioned Facebook group on the 22 December - "a couple videos from our conferences."  I included the relevant one.

11 December 2017

We sent Steven a voice recorder for Christmas.  Apparently, he received it.  So here is some rambling.





He is starting to get that Spanish language cadence.  How fun to hear.



Here is a transcript, I don't know if I will do this all the time -it took a lot of time. But here you go.



Hello everybody. Hope you're all doing well. So I don't quite know what to say to you guys but. What the heck.  This recorder thing is really weird. I'm not exactly sure that it's recording. But oh well. The instructions say when it blinks blue it's recording. It is blinking blue. So. Here goes nothing.

Right now I'm sitting here drinking water out of a bag. Because they don't believe in water bottles here. I think I sent you a picture of one of these. They're actually pretty cool. You just have to bite off the corner and you squeeze the water into your mouth. It's like magic because you can drink it faster than a water bottle.

Guatemala is pretty cool I like it here. I really think I don't like about it is there's a lot of trash like everywhere. Anywhere there'repeople, there's trash because they don't believe in trash cans.

And there're preachers everywhere. Over here, there're two main churches. Number one. I think it's called Evangelica I don't know what that is in English you say Evangelical something like that. But it's basically like a Protestant type church. And there're a lot of little ones around. Is like a guy decided, "I like this idea of being a preacher. I'm going to make a church" and somehow got the money to buy a building. And then he started preaching. And he opened up his church. But there's a lot of those guys and they're kind of funny to listen to.

The other day we're on a bus. So we're on this bus. When we got on we realized there's a guy standing up and he was preaching but he looks like a pirate. It is really really funny. He has this scraggly beard and he had, it I think you know, like one or two gold teeth and then a few missing teeth. He just looked Super grubby. I don't even know what he was saying because, you know, Spanish is a little tricky to understand. But he was like, he just kept like quoting scripture. "Moroni" No he couldn't have said Moroni because that's in the Book of Mormon. (Spanish). I don't want to start speaking Spanish to you. But he said something about alcohol is bad but.  got you there, cuz that's true. But it was kind of-of funny. But we're a little disappointed because we didn't get to preach. There are a lot of missionaries that are afraid to preach in the buses.

My companion just looked at me really weird because I'm talking to nobody.

But in this mission there's a thing called buscar (sp?) and it's basically. Just like when we're on a bus we stand up and sing a hymn to the people on the bus and then bare our testimonies or preach. Most of the missionaries are super afraid to do it; they get stage fright or something. But the preachers do it all the time. What my companion I realize is sometimes they give us free bus rides when we preach to them. Like they don't charge; it's kind of funny. Its like if we preach to them, they are "he's preaching the Word of God" and they don't charge. That's happened like three times where we tied to pay these people and est nada. It turns out it's actually kind of fun to buscar? I was a little scared to do it at first but. It's pretty fun. So we could hand out like a dozen or so panfletos….pamphlets. But I can hand out half a dozen pamphlets just about every time.

There's also a lot of people that think you shouldn't be baptized twice. We had one investigator like that. She's thought that it would be like playing with God to get baptized in another church because she was already baptized in a different church. She wouldn't accept it which was really sad. But the good part about is that is we can preach on the bus and get free bus rides because todo es bueno y todo es de Dios.

Spanish is coming along. Right now I’m to the point where I can understand just about everything people say. There’re still a few people that - I don't know what it is - they talk a little fast or pronounce things a little weird and so it's hard to understand some people. But the majority of the time I have a general idea what they're saying at least.  But people still don’t understand me.  I realized  The other day- a couple weeks ago - we're teaching a lesson, me and my companion, and you know my companion (and he's pretty awesome. Elder Sunday, he is from Utah and he has a year in the mission -a little more than a year. And his Spanish is really good.) And so we're teaching this lesson in a Family Home Evening. The family invited a neighbor to come listen to us teach. We taught about the brother of Jared and how he had so much faith and basically used the story of the brother of Jared as an example to teach about faith. She didn't understand a single thing. It was really, really funny. In my part of the lesson she didn't understand a single thing I taught.  I taught her a little part and I asked her a question.  She just looked at me and nodded. Like “ah ha, that's right.” And I asked, “did you understand me?” “No, not a single thing.”  She didn't understand much of what my companion said either.  We asked What did you think about the lesson?  and she's like, Well it was nice but I didn't understand hardly anything because you guys don't talk good Spanish. She said this with bad grammar which was really funny. “I don't talk good Spanglish.”  Our Spanish was good, his [companion] Spanish is super good.  I could say a sentence grammatically correct but they still don't understand just because of the accent. Afterwards, we were talking about how important it is to lose the accent. 1, people understand you better; and 2, if you say it correctly but with the accent of the people then they're not going to pay attention to the weird way you talk, but they're going to pay attention to what you're teaching them. So it would better invite the spirit if you actually didn’t have an accent.  "I am pronouncing everything perfectly. How can I work on my Spanish accent?"  My companion said, you know there's a little section in one of those books (I had never looked at.)  So I looked for it and found it.  It was like an alphabet of all the letters and the sounds they make and it turns out the “d” in Spanish makes the same sound as the “th” in the word “that.” Who knew? The word “todo”, which means all, is “totho” It's like super weird.  All of these sounds I thought made the same sound in English are completely different. No wonder no one can understand me, that makes perfect sense. But now I am trying to nail down these letters because it's pretty tricky. Your tongue is used to talking in a certain way, but you have to retrain your tongue to work in a different way.


What else can I tell you guys? I didn’t understand much of the last General Conference that they had.  I think I understood two words because it was in Spanish. But from what I understand, there was a lot about the book of Mormon. That makes perfect sense to me because the Book of Mormon is super, super important. That's one thing that we stress a lot with our investigators here, because if the Book of Mormon is true, then the Church is true. As I was telling you earlier about how everyone thinks that everything is Todo es bueno y todo es de Dios, everything is of God. If you can convince them of the Book of Mormon is of God, then that convinces them that they were wrong. It's super important to have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because, if you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you have a testimony of the church. So I hope you're reading the book because that’s super important.

One thing that I have been learning is the more obedient you are to the commandments, or the mission rules for me, the more you are going to learn. So I think the more you read the Book of Mormon and pray and do all the little stuff, the more your testimony is going to grow and the stronger you're going to be in the gospel. The more you magnify your calling, the more you are going to learn about that calling and that small part in the kingdom of God. Whatever calling you happen to have, you need to magnify it, do the very best you possibly can. With those three things: reading the Book of Mormon, praying every day, magnifying your calling, you're going to learn. You're going to receive a bunch of blessings. So I invite you all to do that. I missed out on a lot of time when I was younger.  I had a bunch of time as Teachers quorum President and leadership and I didn't do anything, I did not magnify my calling at all and now I really regret it because now I can actually see all the good that I could have done for the quorum members that weren't going to church. So I invite you guys to do better than I was. You will receive blessings.
I Think we should probably go, cuz we have stuff to do today. Love you all,
Adios

4 December 2017

Hello everyone, I think writing to you guys in English is hurting my progress in Spanish.  So you all should learn Spanish so we don't have to bother with English, plus, Spanish makes more sense anyway. Haha just kidding.

It is so weird to think about Washington weather.  Over here the rainy season is just ending, and the dry season is beginning, which basically just means relentless heat.... but I like it here.

The other day my companion and I were talking about how different it would be if we were anywhere else. First of all, on a mission, you get to learn a ton. Setting aside the gift of tongues and the blessing of another language, you are living a higher law. All of the rules that didn't make any sense before and didn't seem fair, make so much sense.  And when you are obedient with exactitude, you learn why they exist.  The more you follow them, the more you have the Spirit with you.  The more you have the Spirit with you, the more like Heavenly Father you become. I am convinced that the only we to learn the mysteries of God, is through obedience.

We are here in this world to learn from our own experience and through our own agency. But the only way you are going to learn and fulfill your divine potential is to be obedient in all things. So I hope you are all reading your scriptures, and saying your prayers, and magnifying your callings. These three things are super awesome blessings that we have been given; they are all ways to learn, and at the same time, further the work of the Lord.

I love you guys, enjoy the rain!

27 November, 2017

Hello family. 

How's it going?

So lately my companion and I have been working a lot with the members and working super close with our ward mission leader because we want our converts to stay active in the church after they get baptized, and church leaders have received revelation that through members is the way to go. We could spend all day just working solo, and we could get a ton of baptisms, and have lessons all day long, but those that progressed to baptism most likely wouldn't stay active in the church. But when we go to the members, and they introduce their friends to the church (not us), and they invite them to church, beautiful things happen. People that normally wouldn't be open to the gospel are suddenly receptive, and they become stronger converts than they otherwise would be.

Through working in the organization of the church, I'm struck by how perfect it is. There is a solution to every problem we have in the organization of the church.  The only problem is people don't always magnify their callings. Every calling in the church directly relates to missionary work, from bishop right down to the nursery. We have had investigators who wouldn't be able to go to church if there wasn't a nursery to watch their kids and if they couldn't go to church, they wouldn't be able to partake of those blessings.

Now I realize how much I missed out on all that time I had as teachers quorum president and first assistant in the priest quorum. I never went out to visit the less active quorum members, and now I realize how much of a difference I could have made in their lives if I would have magnified my calling. Now I am going to make it a lifelong goal to do the most I possibly can in whatever calling I have. And I invite you all to do the same, I know there is great potential in this church because it is lead by living prophets, we all just have to put our shoulders to the wheel, and prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. It is our responsibility and privilege, to prepare the world to receive its king.


Adios, love yáll!!!!

20 November 2017

(We asked Steven if he gets to watch the LDS broadcasts)

We did get to watch the face to face.  President Goodman made it obligatory, but it was super awesome.


(We asked him if he walked or biked around.)

And we walk... all the time!  I've almost killed my black shoes already, but the other day we found a guy that repairs shoes, so it's all good.


So part 2:

It turned out that the guy we were looking for happened to be the drunk guy that we found. He used to be super faithful, and strong in the gospel, and he still has a super strong testimony of the gospel. He loves the church with all of his heart, but Satan has been working really hard on him, and he fell into inactivity. I don't know how it started, or why he left the church, but he has so much sorrow because he knows that the church is true, but he knows he is fallen. Right now he has a problem with the word of wisdom that he is struggling to overcome.


love you byeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

13 November 2017

So one day, about 4 weeks ago, we were having a pretty hard time finding a reference (because nobody has a mailing address). So we stopped by a members house to ask directions. Now this guy (I'll call him Juan), was an inactive member, he used to go out with the missionaries all the time, and apparently, he was really good at the missionary work too. He says he spent 3 years in missionary work, even though he never served full time. But since then he has fallen inactive. But he still knows everyone, and he is friends with everyone. Supposedly he was one of the first members in this area.

So we stopped by to ask this guy for directions, and when we got there he was out front by the well, drinking beer with a buddy. I thought he was just a random drunk guy, and my comp just kind of ignored him at first, (cause he was drunk). So we went in to talk to one of his two nieces that live with him, (the two girls are super active in the church by the way). She came out and said she didn´t know the person we were looking for. The whole time we were talking to her, Juan was making jokes about exaltation and other doctrinal points, and I was pretty confused cause I thought he was just a random drunk guy(and I could only understand half of what was said, cause it is all in Spanish). But then she started to cry, and my comp said something like"I can´t imagine how hard this is for you". By this time I was starting to think this drunk guy might not be so random.

So we started to leave, but then Juan called us over, and started making jokes again about the church. My comp asked him if he knew the address we were looking for, and he said that he didn´t. Then he said "I used to work with the missionaries all the time, I love the missionaries! When can you come visit me?" sS we put a time to have dinner with him, and then he said. "I have a problem." My comp said, "I know."  Then he burst into tears. He began to roll up the end of his shorts, to reveal the edge of a temple garment. And he said "I need your help"...(it is a little uncommon for people here to go to the temple and make those covenants)

Just at that moment, the bishop pulled in to the driveway. We said hi to him, and made a hasty retreat because he had the situation in hand.

part 2 of Juan coming soon

7 November 2017

P-Day was a day late this week.


(We asked if they had Halloween)

No, they don't have Halloween here, but they do have Día de Los Muertos, (day of the dead) on the 1st of November. they have this really weird dish that they eat called fiambre, I don't know what that is in English but it is like this salad with all kinds of processed meat and these really weird red vegetables, and then everyone goes to the cemetery and does..... something, I don't know what they do honestly. it's pretty cool.


(We asked if he wanted us to try to send him anything)

My companion's family got him a little voice recorder that he makes recordings on and sends them in his email. that would be pretty cool if you want more info than 2 paragraphs. I'm sorry okay?! I never learned to type fast!


We were pretty happy this week, cause a less active member we have been working with finally went to church!

I've got a pretty cool story for yall but I don't have time to write it all today, and I don't want to send only a part of it. so you'll have to wait, sorry.

(I blame Steven's cousin Denton for that.  He was notorious for giving half a story, leaving us hanging because he ran out of time but promising to tell us more next week.  However, by next week, there was another cool story, so we never finished the first.  ;-) )


(We found this blog entry about how The Day of the Dead is celebrated in Guatemala.  We also had to do a search on fiambre and an "images" search for the Kite Festival kites.  WOW!! BEAUTIFUL!)

30 October 2017

So the ward I'm in is called Cuyotenango or something like that. Yeah basically all the church buildings have super tight security, there are bars on all the windows, steel doors, 10-foot fences all around the building, and they all have some kind of spike or wire at the top of the fence. They are basically bunkers. But it makes sense, cause the clerk's office alone has more wealth in it than most families here. and nobody has an over, If it was easy to get in there, it would be an easy loot. Most people don't have cars so they don't need much parking, my ward has 3 spaces for cars in the front on a little grass field and in the back there is a half-sized basketball court, I think people park there too. Most people that don't take the bus use motorcycles because gas is too expensive. the buses are basically full-sized vans that they pack people into, and I mean they PACK people into these things, it is the most uncomfortable thing ever, and traffic laws don't exist, you can basically do whatever you want as long as you don't kill anyone, I'm pretty sure its bad if you kill someone.

(Flora Speaking Here:  We found his church building here on google maps.  Check out the street view. )


We usually have lunch with the members, and it is pretty, good, they have this plant that looks like a bigger banana, but it's not, its called a platanum or something like that,  but they don't eat it like a banana, it is always fried. At first, they made me gag, but now I love them. Other than that, the weirdest thing I've eaten is shrimp in a tortilla, shells, feet, eyes and all. Other than that, I haven't had a problem with the food, the members are always surprised to hear I haven't gotten sick yet, or that I don't have a list of foods I don't like.

I thought I sent you a picture of my compañero, his name is Elder Sunday, and he is from Utah. At first, I was a little disappointed cause he is a gringo, and he is a bit awkward. But he is the most dedicated missionary I have met thus far, and he is the best trainer I could have asked for. We already have 4 baptisms, and we are learning all the time. You might think you are doing everything right one day, and then you get a spiritual slap in the face, and realize, you have so much to improve on.


Here are me and my companion.

Here are some pictures from our last baptism, there is one of Melany and her mom, and one of Osman and his family. Osman was baptized by his friend from Guatemala City, and Melany by a different ward member. My companion is in there too.

This is from my first baptism. That is Tyler, and Carlos, and the older brother of Carlos Steven, who performed the baptisms

23 October 2017

Hello family,

Well, I had my first to baptisms last week. Their names are Carlos and Tyler, they are both around 10 years old, and super awesome. Tyler is from a member family but he hadn't been baptized yet, I'm not sure why, something to do with their parents getting divorced. Tyler's older brotherStevenn wanted to baptize his brother, so we just had him do both of the baptisms.

I'm learning very quickly, that it isn't us that does the baptizing or the converting, or really anything. All we did for Tyler and Carlos, was teach a few lessons and pray a lot. It was the Holy Ghost that converted them, God that led us to them, and it was they who excepted the message. God literally doesn't need us, because without Him, we couldn't do anything. But he always uses people to accomplish his work.  Isn't that interesting?

We are here to learn.  God sends out the weak and the inexperienced to do his work so that they can learn.  It makes sense though: we are on this earth to learn and fulfill our divine potential.  How could we do that without doing his work?  If we were only here to baptize, the Spirit would always lead us to people who are completely ready, and just about to jump into the water. But sometimes the Spirit leads us to the most Catholic people imaginable, and it is all so we can learn.

It is interesting to me, how everything God asks us to do is so we can learn; and while we're at it, we can help further his work in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

16 October 2017

I'm in a town called Cuyotenango, which means get this, Whosville.

I never really realized how hard it is to be a missionary. It is super hard but also super rewarding.

9 October 2017

I'm sorry I didn't get to write to you last week, they made me go to Guatemala city to sign my visa on p day, and I didn't get a chance to use a computer.

We haven't baptized anyone yet, but we have two planned for this weekend. One is Tyler. I don't really know him; his brother just came up to us one day and asked us to help him organize a baptism.  It was a pretty awesome miracle. The other one is Carlos, he is 11. And we have been teaching him and his family for a little while.  I think they missionaries before me had one lesson with him and his grandmas. We seriously have a miracle every other day, it is so awesome.  Maybe I'll just tell you about the ones that get baptized though, cause I still don't have a lot of time to write.

But I need to tell you this story real quick. We were teaching these 3 kids we found in the streets, they are awesome investigators by the way.  We were teaching them it the street at like 8 o'clock.  Not many people were out. This drunk guy comes up. He said,  "So you guys are the Jehovah's Witnesses right?" (in English) and we were like "no were the Mormons" (in Spanish) and he was like "I didn't come all the way out here so you could talk to me in Spanish, I'm from new york. but I want to know what you all believe. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?"  And then we answered some questions real fast, and he walked off. I said we'd be happy to answer more questions if you have them. but he said, "I doubt you can find me, I live way out in the hood!!!!!"

There are a lot of drunk guys out and about, especially in the evening, it isn't uncommon to find them sleeping on the sidewalk. The other day we contacted a lady in the street and we were interrupted by a drunk guy.  So I pulled him to the side so my companion could keep teaching the lady.  Then I gave him a pamphlet, taught him a thirty-second lesson about Jesus, and asked him if he wanted to be baptized... just for fun.  Then he walked away. It was so funny though.

In the Mission

We Received this Message Today

I just got to the mission, everyone here is so nice. The bus ride took a while. there were some protesters that blocked the road or something like that, I guess people don't like the government. all is well though, I'm sorry I don't have time to write more.

P days are on Mondays in this mission, so that's when you'll get the next email.

I love you guys

4 Hours Later We Received This

Dear Brother and Sister,

Your missionary has officially made it safely to the mission!   Sister Goodman and I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with him.  We are excited to start working alongside him in the work of the Lord here. We already love him and we know he will be a truly outstanding servant of the Lord.

With our love and appreciation,

President and Sister Goodman

Week 5

I'm glad you are all doing well, that's awesome.

I don't really have much to tell about what I'm doing. It is basically just lots of class time, we haven't really gotten out of the MTC much.  Since we are leaving for the field next week, the teachers have started cramming content into the classes. There is a ton of work learning the lessons, the language, and all that good stuff.

My favorite day of the week is Sunday, which is weird cause it never was before.  But now the Sabbath is actually a delight. I'm not quite sure what is different though. Maybe it is cause we work so hard the rest of the week, or maybe it's because... Well here is what I think. Most of the week, I'm operating under a certain level of stress, so when Sunday comes around it is finally a chance to rest mentally.  We have all kinds of devotionals after the usual three meetings of church so we get to rest, and refuel spiritually. It is seriously the greatest thing in the world.

My district here is the greatest, it will be sad to leave them when we go to the field next week. my companion is pretty awesome, his testimony is really strong, and he works so hard to be the best he can. We still have some things to work out, in the actual teaching part though.  He tends to give 2 thirds of the lesson, and I give a third, almost every time. I don't want to say it's his fault, but I'm pretty sure it is. That is awful of me to say though; there are a lot of things he is really good at.  His Spanish is better than mine, and he is a lot better at preparing lessons.  He just doesn't always know when to yield the floor. But aside from that little quirk in our lessons, we work really well together, and I love him.

Speaking of loving people, the Latino Elders are so much fun to talk to. They like to joke about Trump a lot for some reason too.... Most of the time the ones that speak English are easier to talk to, cause they understand that they need to talk slowly for us to understand since they went through the same struggles when they learned English. some of the other ones will talk super fast, and when you ask them to repeat it slowly, they will say it just as fast, just with pauses between the words, which doesn't help much.  Anyway, they have such a great senses of humor.  Also, everyone here listens to American music.  There is this Catholic school down the road, and they are always blasting music, most of which I recognize.  It's a blessing and a curse, cause we aren't supposed to listen to worldly music.

Next week I will leave for the field.  As far as I know, it is a 3 or 4-hour bus ride to the mission home.  There we will be assigned to a trainer, who is basically just a companion who knows the ropes and is willing to take a newbie under his wing.  We will have five minutes to write and say we didn't die on the bus. So it will be a couple weeks before you get a real email.

I am not ready to go to the field at all, but I also know I will learn much faster out there, and I am excited to get to work!

love you all, Adios!

Week 3

So it turns out McDonald's delivers here!  Isn't that crazy. They have little boxes for the food on the backs of their motorcycles.

So I didn't have time to mention in my last email, but we had a visit from Elder Cordon of the 70.  You know, the guy grandpa and I met in Nauvoo.  He gave us a very nice devotional on missionary work. It was pretty awesome.

Today was the most interesting P day of all, we got to go to the zoo, and there were a few animals that got out of their cages.  Nothing dangerous, just a few peacocks, and some kind of reptile lizard thing.  I will send you some pictures when I get out of the CCM.  By the way, I asked a teacher why we can't send pictures, he said it was blocked on these computers... something to do with youtube.  So you'll have to wait for the photos for another 3 weeks or so.

I'm halfway through the CCM and boy is it crazy, time flies by so fast.  I feel like I just got here last week.  I can't wait to get out in the field, but its also super terrifying, cause I'm not anywhere near ready, and I am already halfway there.

We just had a huge group of people leave, so there are only about 32 missionaries here right now.  We got 3 or 4 new ones today, and there are about another 100 coming tomorrow.

It's crazy how similar Guatemala city is to America.  Aside from a different language, it's about the same. It is like a more colorful version of downtown Seattle.  I can't wait to see what it's like in the field. We are just 3 blocks away from the temple, so we go there every P day.

I'm almost to the point where I can read the book of Mormon in Spanish, and I can understand most of Preach My Gospel.  There are occasionally a couple essential words in the sentence that I don't know, but it's coming along. The scriptures are harder because they are written in vosotros form, and they use an odd vocabulary. But when you think about it, so do the scriptures in English. It's like when you're a kid, and you can read just fine, but the scriptures still make no sense. But I've been reading it every night, and it gets easier. At first, it took me 10 minutes to read 2 verses:  I had to be constantly checking the English scriptures, or the dictionary, or both.  But now I can understand most of it without either.

The gift of tongues is an interesting thing. I always thought it was basically God will put the words in your mouth, and you can suddenly speak another language, but it's not like that at all. You have to work diligently and study hard.  God will help you learn faster, and when you need it, he will bring words you've studied to your remembrance.

Week 2

Everything is great over here, I'm busy all the time, and it's great cause I'm learning so fast.  I don't have time to think of everything I left behind, and the spirit is always here, cause we are always studying the gospel.

So I think I mentioned in my last email that they have us practice teaching investigators almost every day. The investigators are played by the teachers, and they are real profiles of investigators the teachers had when they were missionaries. So all the challenges the teachers had to overcome with those investigators, we do as well. Even though we aren't actually teaching a real investigator the spirit is super strong at times. Our first investigator was Micaela, and she was very excepting of the gospel, there was only one major obstacle to overcome with her, and maybe I'll tell you later. But our second investigator was Estefenia, played by the same teacher as Micaela. Estefenia is completely different, we've had two lessons with her.  In the first one, she didn't want to have anything to do with prayer, or repentance, or anything like that. She refused to participate in a prayer with us or anything.  The only thing she wanted to know, is why a loving heavenly father would allow good people to suffer.  We were expecting something like that, but we totally blanked, and we couldn't think of what to teach her.

So for our second lesson, we prepared some scriptures, and we were going to teach her about the importance of trials in this life and how they are for our good, but we decided we had to make sure she was going to seek the answers for herself.  So we started the lesson talking about prayer. We taught her that the only way she could know the truth for herself was to pray, and God would give her the answers she needed. She said that she would respect our beliefs but she didn't believe in prayer. We both bore our testimonies, and eventually, she agreed to participate in a prayer, so one of us offered a prayer.  When it was over the spirit was super strong.  We asked her what she felt, and she said she didn't know.  We talked a little bit about how we can receive answers to our prayers if we have faith and a real intent and all that good stuff - and guess what she said.  She said when she was younger her father was a very bad person. He was always drinking alcohol, and being an awful father.   Eventually, he left, and to this day she has no idea where he is, but that her life is better without him.  I felt impressed to ask her to pray right there, so I did.   She said it would be better if one of us offered it, but I said no, it is better than you do it. Then my companion said, Five years right, it's been five years since you prayed?  I know your Father in Heaven wants to hear from you after all that time.   She had previously told us she hadn't prayed for five years. she agreed to offer one.  She got as far as "father."   There was a long pause, then she looked up with tears in her eyes and said I can't. We asked her why, and she told us her story.

One day, five years ago, two Mormon missionaries came and taught her about prayer.  They told her if she had faith, real intent, and sincerity, she would receive an answer to her prayer.  Through tears, she told us that she prayed, the whole night long, with so much faith and sincerity.  But she didn't receive an answer.  She said, she didn't expect her father to change magically, or anything, but five years have passed, and she still hasn't received an answer.  After another long pause, I felt the prompting of the Holy Ghost.  I said, What is it you would like to talk to Heavenly Father about?  She said I only..... I only want to know why he didn't answer my prayer. Then I said We don't know why he didn't answer your prayer, but He does.  Will you ask him?  After another long, teary pause she said yes, then she prayed.  It was one of the most powerful prayers I've ever heard.  After the prayer, it was way past time to go. We taught her what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost, and then I said, One of Heavenly Fathers favorite ways to answer prayers is through the scriptures.  Will you read the Book of Mormon tonight and search for answers? and she said she would.

More to follow on that next week. I'm sorry I'm out of time,

Love you all. Adios.

Week 1

It sounds like everything is good over there. Please don't give me any actual spoilers when the next movie comes out Issac. It might not make a difference though because they do watch Star Wars here. I asked one of my teachers and he looked at me like I was crazy, cause why wouldn't they have star wars!

So I missed my flight from Seattle to LA, and they rerouted me and Elder Trampp to Atlanta and then to Guatemala. we were only 6 hours late, so it was all good.

My companion is pretty great, we get along pretty good, the only problem is we're still learning how to teach. I have the best district ever here in the MTC, well technically its called el CCM... Spanish and stuff. So they divided us up by Spanish skill into 2 groups, which actually turns out to be North Americans and Latinos. I have yet to meet a Canadian among the North Americans though. But they divided those two groups into districts of 12ish people, and my district is the best.  We have such great people in it: everyone such great testimonies, and great senses of humor.

Speaking of teachers, the teachers here are great.  They all have a sense of huma\or, and they're super patient. We're in class basically all day except when we are eating or something, but it is the best thing ever.  We have already learned to pray, bear testimony, and share scriptures all in Spanish. The teachers speak to us in Spanish, and we are supposed to speak Spanish as much as we can. If you ask them a question in English, they will pretend they don't understand you, until you at least attempt it in Spanish. They all speak English by the way.  But we are learning so fast, I've already started to think in Spanish a little bit, and sometimes I accidentally write them in my journal.

We have realistic practice almost every day of teaching an investigator. One of the teachers named Sister Morales plays a character named Micaela and we are supposed to go in, one companionship at a time, and teach her a lesson that we prepared. So far we have taught her 3 lessons and she has expressed a desire to be baptized. My companion Elder Kirkman and I got her to break character in the last lesson.  She just randomly started laughing because of something one of us said, and just as she was starting to calm down Elder Kirkman yells, "Esta es el Espiritu!" which means," It's the spirit!" because we had just finished talking about how to feel the holy ghost. But after he said that she started cracking up all over again.

But yeah, I'm having a blast, and learning so much. I feel like in the last 6 days, I've learned more Spanish than I ever knew before, and all the other gringos here say the same thing. Most of their language teaching revolves around helping us obtain the gift of tongues, and it really works. I don't think any other language program would have as much success as this place, even if they used all the same teaching techniques because they don't have Heavenly Fathers help as much as we do.  On top of all the grammar, they teach us specific language tasks, and that is how we learned to pray and bear testimony and all that stuff.

We just got back from the Guatemala temple.  It is super small but really beautiful, it might just be my new favorite. After we are done emailing, we are going to the distribution center, which is great cause there are a few things I need.

The food here is soooo good too, the only problem is the portions are huge, and it is insulting to throw away, or refuse food., so I guess I figured out why people gain weight in the CCM!

I have a few pictures but I heard a rumor there are laws against sending pictures out of the country, so until I know more, they'll have to wait.

Anyway, I love you all.

P.S. I don't know if they have Jack in the Box, but I do know they have Wendy's.
P.P.S. Guatemala is so beautiful