FIESTA EN LOS CIELOS

Bappy

Super L week this last week for work but it's chill. We'll bounce back this week fs. Everyone we found last week was super sick and then this week we couldn't get a hold of them. We fasted to help out the area on Friday and it went really well. We'll see what God has in store for Alotenango this week.

I really want to focus on a cool miracle this week that happened personally. I got a text from my old area that said one of the investigators I taught named Dulce was getting baptized and she asked for me to go and baptize her. It was such an honor to do so and I was so pumped to do it. When I first met her she was very different. She had so many questions about the church. She also commented at the end of the lesson that she had been super depressed and even suicidal and felt alone and didn't feel God in her life. It was a super emotional lesson for her and honestly for us too. After that lesson I didn't see much of her. I got transferred and it's been a couple months since San Raymundo. But when I saw her today she looked different and a lot happier. She was still super nervous and her usual anxious self though.

When we started to go into the font she kept saying that she didn't want to and that it was better to do it another day. I just said yes you do, get in the water lol. So she did and stopped being so dramatic haha but we did the baptism first try and she did so well. I was so proud of her. Then after she received the Holy Ghost is when I really saw the difference. Her appearance looked different and she seemed so full of peace. A peace that I'm sure she has not felt in a very long time. She leaned over to me after and said that she felt so peaceful and felt like she was reborn. Obviously I told her that's because she was reborn and a remission of sins by the gift of the Holy Ghost will do that to ya haha. Overall such a cool experience and I'm so grateful she gave me the opportunity to baptize her. Hoy sí hay fiesta en los cielos.

I wanted to share a quick thought along with that little story. When we feel the Holy Ghost we rejoice. We feel happy. We feel peace. We feel love. We feel a forgiveness of our sins. When I meet people I always ask them what they like to do. And they answer with whatever it is they like to do. Obviously we're all different and like different things. Different things make us happy. But there is one thing that everyone has in common. That is when we feel the spirit, everyone loves it. EVERYONE. It's a feeling we all know but can't explain. But it's more powerful and worth more than anything in the world. And we can feel it when we follow the commandments like Dulce did this weekend. 

I love you all so much and I invite you all to focus on being obedient and paying more attention to the spirit this week. Stay safe!

Scripture of the week: 

John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Juan 14:26 “Mas el Consolador, el Espíritu Santo, a quien el Padre enviará en mi nombre, él os enseñará todas las cosas, y os recordará todo lo que os he dicho.”

Elderes de Israel

Every Saturday we do an activity with members and investigators -

Games and Pizza!

Division in Jocotenango

El Tuk Tuk

Multi Zone Conference

        GRINGOS IN ALOTENANGO

Antigua

Yo what's up, hope you guys had a good week. This week here in Alotenango was super good. We found 2 new families who should progress very well and I'm so pumped for them. It's the familia Apen and the familia Valle. Super cool but we need prayers like crazy for them. Also for one of our investigators named Ana Valle. Please pray for all of em.

One of the big highlights of the week was on Saturday. We have been getting a million references to call and send out to other areas.  We ate lunch and then the people dropped off our fresh water. While we were waiting for our water, we saw 2 Gringos walking up to us and they started talking to us. Then about 10 more came up. They were all members from Idaho. They are a group that wanted to help our investigators and recent converts and give them bunkbeds.  I knew about them but I didn't know they were coming today. It was super fun to go around with them and do service. 

This week I focused on integrity a lot during my studies. It was so good. Daniel 6 is such a great story. I always thought about it as more of a brave thing or a faithful thing that Daniel did and then I realized that it showed so much integrity as well. In Preach My Gospel it defines integrity in a couple short paragraphs.

“Integrity flows from the first great commandment to love God (see Matthew 22:37). Because you love God, you are true to Him at all times. Like the sons of Helaman, you “walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:21). When you have integrity, you understand that there is right and wrong and that there is absolute truth—God’s truth. You use your agency to choose according to God’s truth, and you promptly repent when you do not. What you choose to think—and what you do when you believe no one is watching—is a strong measure of your integrity. Integrity means you do not lower your standards or behavior so you can impress or be accepted by others. You do what is right even when others scoff at your desire to be true to God (see 1 Nephi 8:24–28). You live with honor in all environments, including how you represent yourself online. When you have integrity, you keep your covenants with God as well as your righteous commitments to others. Integrity includes being honest with God, yourself, your leaders, and others. You do not lie, steal, cheat, or deceive. When you do something wrong, you accept responsibility and repent instead of trying to justify or rationalize it. As you live with integrity, you will have inner peace and self-respect. The Lord and others will trust you.”

I invite all of you guys to study this and understand what integrity really means. Love you guys so much

Stay safe

Scripture of the Week:

Genesis 39:7-12 “¶ And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. 8 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; 9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? 10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. 12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.”

Génesis 39:7-12 “7 Y aconteció después de esto, que la esposa de su amo puso sus ojos en José y le dijo: Acuéstate conmigo. 8 Y él no quiso y dijo a la esposa de su amo: He aquí que mi amo no se preocupa conmigo de lo que hay en la casa, y ha puesto en mis manos todo lo que tiene. 9 No hay otro mayor que yo en esta casa, y ninguna cosa me ha reservado sino a ti, por cuanto tú eres su esposa; ¿cómo, pues, haría yo este gran mal y pecaría contra Dios? 10 Y sucedió que hablaba ella a José cada día, y él no la escuchaba para acostarse al lado de ella, para estar con ella. 11 Aconteció que entró él un día en la casa para hacer su oficio, y no había nadie de los de casa allí. 12 Y ella lo asió de la ropa, diciendo: Acuéstate conmigo. Entonces él dejó su ropa en las manos de ella, y huyó y salió afuera”

Gringos from Idaho Falls

Making bunk beds 

Grupo de Alo

     NEW COMP

Elder Steere

Yo what up, super lit week here in Alotenango and we had transfers. I am staying here and I got a new comp named Elder Steere. Bro's a goat. He's from Grantsville Utah and is 6'7.  Giant. Walking around with him is actually insanely funny. The kids' reactions are probably the most entertaining part. I'm super pumped to stay here in Alotenango and try and pick things up. Whatever we were doing last transfer wasn't working too well so I've been trying to think of different ways to work here. 

In our area we have a “group” with like 5 members who live here. The rest of the members who live in our area live in gated communities between us and a big ward. So technically even though they live in our area, they still go to the ward so we kinda are left dry handed. The Bishop of the ward said he can't do anything about it so my plan is to motivate them to come to our “group”. We need to visit them like crazy and gain their confidence then they'll be a bit more motivated. We also started family home evenings with all the families here in Alotenango and we are hoping that once we make good friends with the people in the gated communities, they will come to the family home evenings and make friends with the people here and motivate everyone to start working together. We'll see how it goes!

Lately I've been focused on trying to align my will with God's will. It's been tough to align mine with His but it has been super humbling ngl. Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel is definitely my favorite chapter and it talks about Christlike attributes. If we can get all those attributes down, well, our will will be aligned with our Heavenly Fathers. I invite you all to read chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. It's on gospel library and it's amazing.

Love you all and miss you all

Be Safe

Scripture of the Week:

Colossians 1:11 “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”

Colosenses 1:11 “fortalecidos con todo poder, conforme a la potencia de su gloria, para toda paciencia y longanimidad, con gozo,”

Mulan Restaurant 

El Chinito

Familia Maldonado

    2025

Volcan de fuego

Yo what’s good, Happy New Year, hope you all are doing well. Super good New Years and I’m excited to be in 2025, guess why,  we got 7 months left in the mish and I’m super pumped to finish strong. Everyone says 12-18 months is pretty freaking slow and I can attest to that 100%. But EVERYONE says that 18-24 is insanely fast so pretty excited about that but also pretty nervous. We got on the roof of our house to watch fireworks at 12 and I realized that Guatemala for sure has the better tradition on New Years. I’ll miss it fs, but good thing we got 7 more months to enjoy it.

We received a reference from some members last week and they are super cool. They actually want to progress and are progressing. They are a couple with 3 kids. Bro is 22 years old, wild lol. The wife is 27 at least though so that’s good. We taught them about the restoration and they took it really well and said they want to get baptized which is super good news. The hard thing is though that they work on Sundays, aren’t married, and the husband drinks so it is going to be a lil tough but we’ll work hard with them and they are going to get baptized soon. We taught them how to pray which actually helped them a lot and I realized just how important saying a prayer in the right way is. There are a few things that we should be saying in our personal prayers every time.

Present God(Heavenly father, Loving father in heaven, etc

Thank Him for all that you have

Repent and ask forgiveness

Ask for strength to resist temptations and change

Ask for blessings for yourself and others according to the will of God

IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, amen

I know the impact it makes when we make our prayers personal and meaningful. I invite all of you guys to pray just a couple minutes longer and reflect with your Heavenly Father on how you are doing. Love you guys so much!

Stay Safe

Scriptures of the Week

Matthew 6:5-13   “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  11 Give us this day our daily bread.  12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Mateo 6:5-13. 5  “Y cuando ores, no seas como los hipócritas, que les gusta orar de pie en las sinagogas y en las esquinas de las calles, para ser vistos de los hombres. De cierto os digo que ya tienen su recompensa. 6 Pero tú, cuando ores, entra en tu aposento, y cerrada tu puerta, ora a tu Padre que está en secreto; y tu Padre que ve en lo secreto te recompensará en público. 7 Pero cuando oréis, no uséis vanas repeticiones, como hacen los paganos, que piensan que serán oídos por sus muchas palabras. 8 No seáis, pues, como ellos, porque vuestro Padre sabe lo que necesitáis antes de que se lo pidáis. 9 Vosotros, pues, oraréis así: Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos, santificado sea tu nombre. 10 Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo. 11 Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día. 12 Y perdónanos nuestras deudas, como nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores. 13 Y no nos dejes caer en la tentación, mas líbranos del mal: porque tuyo es el reino, el poder y la gloria por los siglos. Amén.

Escaladores

(Went climbing on P Day)

Throwback to 2022

Familia in Rome

     2024

Happy New Year 

What's up guys, super good week this last week.  Hope you all had a super good Christmas.  For Christmas Eve it was lit, we had changed our pday to Tuesday. We made breakfast as a zone and it was super fun and super mid food. They put like 12 eggs in instead of 3 and the pancakes were super doughy on the inside but it was chill. I just had to pretend it was cream and it was good. For Christmas night we went and slept over at the Zone Leaders house and had a lil party with a member family and ate a churasco and a lot of tomales and paches. Insanely gas. The tradition here is at midnight to light off every single firework that exists in Guatemala so it gets super loud all over but insanely pretty. We did presents with the ZL’s on Christmas morning and made pancakes, super lit. 

The work has been a little slow but we finally got a member to go out with us and give us references and we actually found people who want to progress. Super interesting right. Anyways we are excited about our new investigators and a little frustrated with some other investigators who are wanting to change their lives but just don’t keep commitments but it’s chill. They’re super close and will get there soon

My niece Oakley’s birthday was on Christmas so I got to celebrate Jesus and Her!! Also shoutout Barby (Elder Barber) and Cor for the meetup. Crazy.

Love you all so much and be safe this New Year! 2024 is a year I will never forget and I am so unbelievably humbled and lucky to have been a servant of the Lord this year. Wouldn't trade it for anything!

Scripture of the Week:

Alma 13:28 “But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;”

Alma 13:28 “sino que os humilléis ante el Señor, e invoquéis su santo nombre, y veléis y oréis incesantemente, para que no seáis tentados más de lo que podáis resistir, y así seáis guiados por el Santo Espíritu, volviéndoos humildes, mansos, sumisos, pacientes, llenos de amor y de toda longanimidad;”

Amo a Oak

Christmas Birthday girl

Santa Vino at our Ward Party 

Happy Holidays

Elder Barber stopped by to visit in California

Barby, Corey and Bo 12/30/24

Throwback to 12/31/23

Barby, Billy and Bo