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