CHANGE 

Oliver (looks like my future son)

Yo another quick week this week. Promised my mom a good email this week so it might be a little longer than usual.

Me and Elder Barber are trying to work hard out here and man every night I wish 9:30 bedtime was a thing. We HAD 4 fechas but that has narrowed down to 2. The other 2 fechas didn’t come to church for the 4th and 2nd Sunday’s in a row, so we had a sit down with them and said alright, you either have a desire or you don’t; which is fine if you don’t, we’re not forcing the gospel on you, that’s not our purpose. However, if you aren’t ready, then we are going to help and find the people who are ready. So that was a sad little break up but it’s ok. We’ve got others who are ready.

We had a lesson with 3 of the sons of one of our fecha’s and wow it went good. They were so into it - so into the atonement and being baptized with the right authority. They believe that Joseph Smith was a real prophet; which is real lucky. They also want to schedule calls every single night because they aren’t home very much because of work. They are super excited about the church and what we have to offer them. Funny story too, they hate Donald Trump and all conservatives lol. I just kept saying yeah he’s so racist, wow I hate that guy. Then they got super pumped up and I earned their trust. Whatever it takes for the conversion of their hearts.

I definitely have been able to have the chance to observe all different kinds of people on the mission and learn. I have been able to learn about myself too. I have noticed that a bunch of these people who feel the spirit and know that what we teach is true, still don’t change because the distractions of the world are simply more important to them.  I realized that is me a lot of the time. Definitely not as extreme as smoking, drinking, living with someone before marriage, etc. However, music, sports, friends, work, which are all great things but can be bad if they take over the time we have to think about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

So my challenge to myself and everyone else is to: read that chapter before you go to work or school. Listen to that talk before you go to the gym or practice. Do something to think about our Savior before you do your everyday activities because it will invite the spirit and I promise if we do those things we will have more success and happiness.

The Savior died for us so that we can repent and CHANGE. If you’re feeling like you want more success or happiness, do these things!! And if you feel that you are as happy as you could possibly be (like some angry Catholics here in Guatemala), then do these things so that you can have MORE happiness and success. More importantly, it will always bless the ones you love and others around you. Always strive to be better and appreciate the Saviors atonement by CHANGING!

Love you all

email me a lot. I love emails

Scripture of the Week: 

Ephesians 4:15 “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ”

Efesios 4:15 “sino que, hablando la verdad en amor, crezcamos en todas las cosas en aquel que es la cabeza, a saber, Cristo”

Ideal Companionship

     4 FECHAS

Valeri

Pretty fast week this week. We put another fecha on the books!! So now we have 4 fechas but 1 of them loves to hear from us and says he believes but the past 3 Sundays he hasn’t come to church, so we gonna have to be hard on him lol. He'll be good tho - trust!

Other than that, just more of the same San Martin grind. I in fact am missing lacrosse a lot but got some sticks in the house so I am playing a lot of wall ball. 1000 lefty’s yesterday and today combined. Almost everyday I wakeup thinking I get another chance to play Park City - all the homies know the feeling. But the boys gonna bring it home this year.

Shout out Kam!  Also shout out Ralph, he just turned 12!

Scripture of the week:

Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveleth his secrets unto his servants the prophets”

Amós 3:7 “Porque no hará nada Jehová el Señor sin que revele su secreto a sus siervos los profetas”

Geo

Throwback - Go Bengals

    LIL CAMERA

Tough Jungle Pic

Another solid week here in San Martin. We got 2 more fechas this week with a guy I found a month ago and another one with Billy’s brother Angel. They’re super sick and I hope they stick to their commitment to be baptized. We have been super good at staying proactive and trying to work at all times. Yesterday we had nothing to do so we walked like 4 miles into the jungle. Literally nothing out there but like 3 houses. Got into an argument-ish with this Evangelic guy who said he hated his church and it was corrupt but still said it’s the one and only church he’ll be apart of.  I don’t understand people. They’re so afraid to change

Other than that though not much. Literally just as missionary schedule as it gets. We have tried making every day fun tho. We went and tried to touch some cows which was kinda scary but they were nice. Had fun with a horse and with some kids. We interviewed people one day as a way to utilize Facebook in a good way and make new contacts. Made a really cool video out of it and it goes so hard. We’re not sure why the church hasn’t posted it yet but it’s prolly just cause they haven’t seen it yet. When they do they’ll see it and it’ll be the most watched video on the gospel library app. It’s in my google photos. Go check it out there and give it a like on Facebook

My Spanish is getting so terrible. I am getting worse everyday lol. Me and Elder Barber only talk in English but we good. I’ll get better I hope. I also bought a lil camera that makes pics go way harder.

Scripture of the week:

Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”

Mateo 6:24 “Ninguno puede servir a dos señores, porque o aborrecerá al uno y amará al otro, o se apegará al uno y menospreciará al otro; no podéis servir a Dios y a las riquezas”

Future baptism Jason

Moto

Billy

    ALPHA

Elder Barber?

Que onda amigos?  Very successful week this week.  It is such a grind with Elder Barber!  We made great contacts and have more potential than ever in San Martin.  He has made me a lot better at bing “Alpha” which is what he loves to strive to be.  He is such a funny guy and we get along so good.  He always has podcasts on about the church and has so many motivational audio recordings on his phone.  One of the motivational audio recordings is his alarm.  It’s some army guy just yelling at us to get out of bed and if we don’t we’re weak and we won’t survive in the world lol.  It’s so funny but it makes me realize how lazy I am. I wasted a lot of hours in my life sleeping in haha and probably will continue to do that after the mission.  So beta but I started to exercise and do pushups and man I am so weak but it’s a start.  We good tho, we ain’t beta anymore.  

I love all the motivational recordings too because it relates so much to missions, the gospel, and just everything about life.  One of the motivational recordings is about how bad things happen in life and that’s just part of it.  So when bad things happen this guy says, “Good”.

It would be so nice for life to be perfect for us.  To never have problems, trials, or mistakes.  This is the plan that Satan proposed.  For us to not have free agency and for life to be perfect so we can’t sin.  When bad things happen we can learn, change, repent, grow, etc.  The plan Jesus proposed is for us to have our free agency, make mistakes, have bad things happen that we can’t control, and learn from it.  We can’t experience true happiness if we don’t know true pain. 

Love you all, hope all is well wherever and with whatever you guys are doing.  Email me por favor! I think it’s cool.

Also, shoutout Sprendie for having the most mid mission in the world.  Bro really thinks Fiji is better than Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, France, Tahiti, California, Singapore, Chile, Samoa and Bolivia/Oregon.  Que raro.

Scripture of the week:

Alma 37:33 “Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ”

Alma 37:33 “Predicales el arrepentimiento y la fe en el Senor Jesucristo; Ensenada’s a humillarse, y a ser Manson y humildes de corazon, esenales a resistor toda tentacion del diablo, con su fe en el Senor Jesucristo.”

Future Baptism!

The Zone

2 cousins 2 goats

    2024

Billy and Elder Barber! Happy New Year

Yo ruddup, Happy New Years!! 18th week!! 

I finished my time with Elder Lewis and Nordgren on Friday.  It was fun while it lasted but I was very ready to go back to may home in San Martin.  On Friday we went and picked up my new comp Elder Barber.  Bro's a legend.  He grew up like 15-20 minutes away from the Strand in Dana Point so we bonded over that.  He's a super hard worker too.  I for sure believe that President receives direct revelation on who should be companions.  We have had 2 work days and have more potential than ever.   

We have met a lot of new people and my past investigators are doing great. We set a date for Michelle’s aunt for the 20th of January. So lit. Elder Barber fits right into San Martin. For New years we hung out with Billy, Geovani. Sylvia, and the rest of their family. We all did little fireworks in the street and it was super fun. Then we had to be in the house but we could stay up until 12 so we went on our roof and watched all the fireworks. They all went off at 12 and it sounded like a warzone. It was soooo loud hahaha. A little bit sad though not gonna lie. Just sitting up on the roof of an Apartment in Guatemala on new years kinda got me in my feels lol. But that’s beta so we don’t let it affect us.

We also contacted this very Catholic man and set up our first “fight” on Friday. He was actually very nice but he just spoke from his head. Our plan is to go, talk about faith because faith isn’t a fact, it’s a belief, action, and testimony. So we will go share a scripture about faith, bare our testimonies, leave, and just hope that he feels The Spirit, because that is one thing he doesn’t have.

That’s really it because I was in Chimalt in a different area doin nothin most of the week - lol,  and only have 2 days back here but a good two days. I am so excited for this transfer and I know we can make crazy progress in these next 6 weeks. 

Scripture of the Week:

Mathew 6:24 “24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”

Mateo 6:24 “Ninguno puede servir a dos señores, porque o aborrecerá al uno y amará al otro, o se apegará al uno y menospreciará al otro; no podéis servir a Dios y a las riquezas”

Goated trio for a week

Me and future baptism Sylvia

A couple of champions

Throwback to home MTC