CAMBIOOOOS

New Elders in Santaigo

Ixcola. Long and busy week and long email coming in(read the last 2 paragraphs if you don't want to read all of it). I can't remember if I said it or not but here in Santiago we share a ward with 2 other Elders and we have Lunch and dinners with members almost every day. We are always with them because of that and all our meetings they are with us so basically we are with them whenever we don’t have appointments. I am saying this though because we had transfers on Friday and everyone left and I am the only one to stay in Santiago. My comp Elder Grutz got transferred to the city, the very farthest possible place we could have gone. Elder Casady got transferred to the city as well. Lastly, Elder Marin got transferred to his house. Shout out to my guy, bro did it I’m almost there though, 7 months in the mish is starting to get there. I still feel just as lost as the new Kids who just got here. 

We got Elder Siow, Elder Richardson, and my comp Elder Martinez. I’m pumped for this new group. Elder Siow is simply just a good dude. One of the biggest homies in the mish. Elder Richardson just loves the work and finishes his mission soon. Great guy. My comp Elder Martinez finishes his mission this transfer and is a legend in the mish. I keep getting super Lucky with my comps. He's from Mexico and I'm hoping my Spanish will take off this transfer because now I will only be speaking Spanish with him. We are all gonna focus on Tz’utujil this transfer too. 

So what I want to talk about is the answers to my prayers that I have been getting. I have been asking what/who I need to focus on this transfer and what I need to do to lead an area that I don’t know very well(mine) and help lead the other area I know less about. 

I have had 2 experiences in the first 2 days of the transfer where members have come up to me and asked for help because they are struggling with the decisions they are making. They have shown insane trust in us that I haven't really seen on my mission yet. I realized this is what I need to focus on a little more. I kind of forget that members need lessons too. That they need to hear these scriptures. They need to learn about having faith, repenting, etc. One guy who got baptized not too long ago let us know that he feels terrible. He feels like he is destroying his family. He lost his parents and started drinking after his baptism. Since then he has been inactive and feels distant from his family. I realized I have been a member my whole life and not everything was perfect for me either. I had made decisions that I'm not so proud of as do all of us. So that point I wanted to make to him and to all of you reading is that the game doesn't end when we get baptized, receive the priesthood, go to the temple for the first time, or go through the temple and receive endowments, get married in the temple, etc. Satan is going to try a lot harder after the covenants we make with our heavenly father. Every step we take closer to God means he wants to try harder and we have more to lose

 So my invitation to you guys is to read the scriptures DAILY. Go to church every sunday and partake of the sacrament worthily. Repent daily and ask your Heavenly Father what you can do better if you don't know. Satan is working on each one of you individually and that is Something I can promise. He shares something in common with our Heavenly Father and that is the fact that they will never give up on us. So you have the choice to choose which one you are going to follow. One of them is eternal happiness and the other is not so great. Never be tempted and convinced to think that you can't get better. You ALWAYS can. 

 Scripture of the Week:

D&C 31:5 “Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live”

DyC 31:15 “Por tanto, mete tu hoz con toda tu alma, y tus pecados te son perdonados, y tus espaldas serán cargadas de gavillas, porque el obrero es digno de su salario. Por consiguiente, tu familia vivirá”

 

My new comp Elder Martinez

    SYLIVIAAA

Sylvia's baptism - I got to

FaceTime and watch! 

What up everyone. So kinda an L week for the work this week. We got bailed on a lot more than usual and our baptisms did not happen. The dad is still not home.  We are still waiting on him. He is in the military here so they can't have any contact with the family so who knows when he will get back home. Hopefully it will be before the transfer ends which is on Friday. 

Besides that it was an alright week. I did divisions with one of my ZL's and it was fun. We went and visited one of the families that we have been teaching. We helped them chop some wood and what not. I am getting pretty good at making tortillas too

Elder Ovando also knows the scriptures like crazy. To the point where he looks so far into the scripture that it is super hard to understand and there is 0 hope for these Catholics to see where he is coming from haha. Alsooo Sylvia from San Martin got baptized yesterday!! I am sooo excited for her and proud of the covenants that she has made with our Heavenly Father. I knew when I got transferred out it was because other Elders had something I couldn't give her. So a HUGE shoutout to Elder Grimm and Elder Surage. Legends

Really that’s all I got for the week though. Sometimes a week just is like that. A good thing I learned this week though is from a good friend Elder Taula in his email from last week. Here is a scripture he shared with us and I wanna share it with everyone. Patience and faith is key for everything. 

Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”

Isaías 40:31 “pero los que esperan en Jehová tendrán nuevas fuerzas; levantarán las alas como águilas; correrán y no se cansarán; caminarán y no se fatigarán”

Weekly Jose trip

Mi familia in San Martin

Jealous cause they were at the Jazz game

    LENA

Morning view

Yo Ruddup. Weeks are flying and I have been loving my time with “Elder Utz”. We had our baptismal dates for yesterday but we changed it because the dad is out of town and they want him to be at the baptism. However, super clutch because they want the baptism to be in the lake. We are getting super close with the family and they are amazing to us. 

 

We took a dope hike into one of the volcanoes super early. We woke up at 4:30ish and started the hike at 5:30ish. Then we got to the spot at like 7:30-8ish. Actually a super tough hike up. We had breakfast up there and ate beans, eggs, and tortillas. Super gas. However the way down wasn’t just a hike. We were doing service for a member and brought down a lot of wood for him and his fam. He had his wood pre-cut already, so we just went and packed it up and brought it down with him. It was freaking hard. There were a couple falls and it was so funny lol. Definitely glad I did it but that's a once in a lifetime thing probably. It really killed all of us. The worst part was this 10 year old kid was doing just as much weight as us so made us feel super dumb. But they just built like that. They are basically cheating though. It's in their Guatemalan Blood, it isn't fair.

 Super sick pictures tho. You guys ought to join the google photos and see. 

Super dope story. We went to visit one of our investigators the other day and we decided it was the right time to invite her to baptism. We shared a video of Jesus Christ’s baptism. We asked her what she knew about baptism and then we both shared our favorite scripture of baptism. Spirit was there no doubt. The whole time I just kept saying prayers in my heart to help her feel the spirit and accept our invitation. After we shared our scriptures and shared our testimonies I invited her to be baptized on March 17. Definitely my best baptismal invitation. The spirit was so strong. I had so much faith in her that she would accept the invitation. Andddd then she busted out laughing. She asked if we were just messing around with her. When we weren’t laughing and we were being serious she was like, wow you guys are being fr? We explained more and testified more. By the end of the conversation she said no(very politely) and told us that she doesn’t feel ready at all and she thinks if she joined our Church it would create problems with her family and more dumb reasons. So that was super sick and a bummer lol. Anyway we still felt super happy after and felt good about it. She’ll get baptized soon fs. We have a lot of faith in her. 

That’s about it for the week tho. What I learned this week is that we just gotta do our part. Just like sports. You can try your best and do everything you can and still fail. Just a part of life. So don't be sad when your investigator laughs at you and says no. Just do your part and be happy with it. Applies to everything in life. We all are going to fail. Just don't be a baby about it. Just keep working and God will bless you

 

Scripture of the Week:

3 Nephi 28:20 “And they were cast down into the earth; but they did smite the earth with the word of God, insomuch that by his power they were delivered out of the depths of the earth; and therefore they could not dig pits sufficient to hold them”

3 Nefi 28:20 “Y eran arrojados en la tierra; pero herían la tierra con la palabra de Dios, de tal modo que por su poder eran librados de las profundidades de la tierra; y, por tanto, no podían cavar fosos de hondura suficiente para contenerlos” 

Couple of Guaties

Boys in Guat

Lena

Journal time

Throwback to being Pedro for Halloween

    NDHIBAL'

Post church flick

Uxla china'a a todos. Superrrr fast week here in Santiago. I think it was the fastest week that I have had in the mish. We have been working super hard with this inactive family who has a couple family members who are not baptized. Familia Ratzan is their family name. They are a cute little fam. They are all girls. Of all ages. We put the sister in law and her 2 kids on date for this coming Sunday!! They are awesome and love coming to church. The other members and inactives are a lot harder and haven’t come back yet but we won’t lose faith in them. The mom is probably 30-ish and the daughters are 10 and 9 years old. Super cute family. I have also been a lot more familiar with the area lately which is good. We had interviews with President this last Saturday and they went great. He told my comp that he will be leaving most likely and I will probably get to stay here! So another chance to lead the area! Gotta get perfect at knowing Santiago by March 22nd so I don’t do a horrible job. 

Other than that this week has flown by so fast that I don’t remember too much of what is going on. Me and Elder Grutzmacher had pretty similar childhoods and we always tell each other stories about home. It is fun but also gets us a little trunky. We never fail to make it happy and find the gospel in it. We always are like home sounds sooo nice and college seems so fun. However, the mish is just so sick right now and we both love it. We are so happy to be here right now and super excited to get home and start our lives. We find it funny because we just want to be in 2 places at once. We came to the consensus that we want to be home so bad, just no sooner than the day we finish our mission.

A lot of time to think out here and a lot of time to observe the things of the world from an outside perspective. What I have learned so far on the mission is life will always be hard. It will never be a life without doubt, confusion, sadness, etc. However, we can limit all of that and put it to an all time low with the gospel. Really is as simple as that. If we follow the gospel, we succeed in life. Whatever life we want to live, we can. We have the power to choose. Super cool isn’t it?? Agency is a pretty cool thing. Whatever we think is too hard to overcome, too hard to learn, or too hard to do, just remember that nothing is impossible with God. We just have to CHOOSE to follow him and to follow the example of our Savior

Scripture of the Week:

3 Nephi 27:21 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do”

3 Nefi 27:21 “En verdad, en verdad os digo que este es mi evangelio; y vosotros sabéis las cosas que debéis hacer en mi iglesia; pues las obras que me habéis visto hacer, esas también las haréis; porque aquello que me habéis visto hacer, eso haréis vosotros”

Ex Elders in Guat

2 Goats