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

    MY TWO FAVORITE PEOPLE'S BIRTHDAY

Last week with Élder Pérez

Short week this week so just a brief update because it’s Christmas and I don’t want to write a lot and I know you guys don’t want to read a lot.

This last week I had my last couple days with Elder Pérez. Bro’s the goat and I learned so much from him. I am so sad to see him go but also I am very excited to lead San Martin this next transfer

I am in Chimalt 2 with Elder Lewis and Elder Nordgren and it is lit. They are both gringos and they know how to have a good time. I have noticed the big difference in areas though. I haven’t paid for a meal since San Martin. All the members here love to feed us and it is so nice. They are all so lit and so funny. All of them speak a lil English but not too much so some of them are always swearing and saying stuff they don’t know the meaning of. lol

I get my new comp on the 29th and am nervous and excited to see who it is. Whoever it is, I know we’ll ball.

That’s it though, this last week has been fun but I can’t wait to get back to my friends in San Martin. Also shout out Oakley!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Also shout out to our Savior. The birth of Jesus Christ is the single greatest thing to happen in all of our lives!! Remember him today!

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 14:5

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed”

“Mas él herido fue por nuestras transgresiones, golpeado por nuestras iniquidades; y el castigo de nuestra paz fue sobre él; y con sus llagas somos sanado”

Élder Pérez saying goodbye to Billy and his family

Our dawg Pedro/bolo - with Elder Lewis and Elder Nordgren

Making, tying and eating Tomales

My artwork - pile of tomales

Throwback - Baby Bo and Baby Oaks

   3 DUNKS 

Billy, Valery & Michelle - 3 Dunks

Yooo what’s up! GREAT week this week. The best week and day of my mission this week so let’s dive in shall we.

Saturday and Sunday were the best days of the week. We had our baptisms on Saturdayyy! Valery, Michelle, and Billy!! It was such a beautiful meeting and the spirit was sooo strong. All their families came and a bunch from the branch so there was like 40 people there. Elder Pérez baptized 2 and the branch president baptized 1. I got to stay dry - however I did confirm Billy and that was really cool. I was kinda worried because of the language but it actually went great. I only needed help with the last part of the confirmation but everything else went good lol. Best blessing I have given fs. Better than the ones in English tbh. The kids looked so great in their all white and they were all so excited and nervous haha. It was the best. Right after Billy was dunked under the water he said, “Que Rico” with a big smile on his face.

Sunday was amazing because Elder Pérez gave his farewell talk to the branch and during it the family of Michelle and Valery walked in!! For some background info. Valery’s fam doesn’t come to church and is very inactive but not sure for how long. At least the 3 months I have been here they haven’t come once. Michelle’s fam hasn’t been to church in 4 years!! And 8 of them came and it was literally like Christmas morning. The families are related and came in together and I couldn’t stop looking back and smiling. Even though they are all members so it doesn’t count for our numbers, idec. The numbers counted in my heart.

Those were the 2 biggest highlights but we had a great week. I got today and tomorrow with Elder Pérez and then not sure where I’ll go and then a new comp on the 28th. It’s happy and sad at the same time. Hoping my new comp is a dawg

Scripture of the week:

D&C 6:36 “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not”

D&C 6:36 “Mirad hacia mí en todo pensamiento; no dudéis; no temáis”

More from the baptism

Last Sunday with the Goat

Christmas package came early!

Christmas parade 

Me and Sylvia homies or sum

Go Soph!

    TRES FECHAS                      

Giving Billy a haircut

Yoooooo wuddup. I had another great week this week and it went by so fast. These past 2 weeks have definitely been the fastest two weeks yet. I realized there is sooo much that I just don’t say in the emails I have been sending so let me update you all really quick.

- We have been visiting inactive families a lottt because contacting is near impossible but you guys already knew that. However we put 2 more kids on a date this week!! Their families are inactive and we have been teaching and meeting with them a lot the past month or so. The 2 girls we have put on date are cousins!! So this Saturday we will be baptizing Billy, Michelle, and Valeri!!!!

- This kinda happened a while ago but Kimberly went psycho, cussed the Santay Family (Geovani,Sylvia, and Billy) out and fell off the edge of the earth. Really sad actually but yeah she returned our Book of Mormon and said peace. Satan is darn good at his job. But we keep our chins up and work cause Satan is a lil boy

- I get to stay in San Martin for at least one more transfer after this one!! President said I will be leading this area starting the 28th. Super pumped. I love San Martin. 

- I have to say goodbye to Elder Perez on the 20th, he is going home. He is a living legend in the mission, he will be missed by everyone and especially me. But since he is going home 8 days before transfers I get to hangout with a companionship for that time. Hoping it’s my district leader Elder Lewis!

- My language is not horrible. I am getting to the point where I know the language well enough now I have to start fixing the details of my grammar. I don’t feel left out of the convos anymore lol and I love understanding almost everything cause latinos are freaking hilarious. I still have a lot to learn, like A LOT. But if I were to train someone who knew 0 spanish, I would be confident that we could hold our own against Guatemala. 

That’s it for this week and the past couple weeks since I have been lazy with my emails. My fault. But the boys be shouting people out so ig I’ll hop on the train. 

Shoutout Con dawg neal

Shoutout kam32 for his wisdom teeth

Shoutout Bowser on a task successfully completed

 

Shoutout Sprendie, lindi wants you bro

Shoutout Millie June on walking and talking

Shoutout Ma and Pa for being the best abuelos in the world

Scripture of the week:

Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible”

Lucas 1:37 “porque ninguna cosa es imposible para Dios”

Sunday school with a stray

Futuro Misionero Billy

    HERMANO INGLE

Fiesta de Pizza

Hey everyone, hope you guys are doing well! Fast week this week!! I did not have Dengue Fever this past week so I actually slept better. I did my first ever divisions this week with Elder Phillips and we made an official date for Billy. He said he doesn’t want to wait for his mom anymore so December 18th is the day. Sylvia still wants an answer to if she should get baptized. She has a crazy strong testimony and comes to church every week so not sure if she wants a vision or what but hoping that Sylvia can find the answer she wants. Geovani is a great help with his mom too which is so nice to have an extra missionary working on her. Also no one here can pronounce England so they call me Hermano Elder or Hermano Ingle lol.

This week was really fun. For our English classes we gave them a test on everything we have been learning. We had a review and then they took the test on Wednesday. I said, alright you guys, if you can all average above an 80 percent then we will have a pizza party for you all next English class. I thought idk man, 80% is kinda high, they are all really terrible at English! hahaha. But they Killed it!! They averaged a 93% and I was like bro what, they just be pretending not to know English. I was so excited though. But then I realized wow. this is gonna be a dent in my VERY limited budget so I had to call in the big guns. Thanks Mom and Dad for the Dominoes Pizza, it made their day! 

Divisions was super fun with Elder Philips and I got to explore Supongo for a day. Let me tell you, contacting there compared to San Martin is day and night. It was nice to have a day where people actually showed us some love and interest. There are so many fake Dunks and Jordans here but they are all wayyy too fake to even consider buying. But in Supongo there were some fake Dunks that looked great but the chick was trynna say they were real and sell em for 900 tookies. So that was a bummer I couldn’t get em. 

Anyways those are just a few highlights of the week. Spanish is definitely coming quickly but still have a good 4-5 months til I could consider myself fluent. I love my area even though the work is hard and am hoping I can stay here for at least one more transfer after this one. As Elder Sprendie said, the inbox is dry, you guys should definitely help a brotha out

Scripture of the week:

1 Nephi 3:7 “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

1 Nefi 3:7 “Y sucedió que yo, Nefi, dije a mi padre: Iré y haré lo que el Señor ha mandado, porque sé que él nunca da mandamientos a los hijos de los hombres sin prepararles una vía para que cumplan lo que les ha mandado.”

Divisions with Elder Philips

La cabra (Billy)

"Hermano Ingle, It's Jesus!"

Me and my brothers during Christmas

    DENGUE FEVER

Guatemala

What’s up everyone, long week this week so that means short email haha. So unfortunately I was feeling pretty sick a week ago Sunday into last Monday and usually sicknesses just go away after a bit but this just didn’t.  It was just a really bad fever from Sunday night all week to Saturday. We think it was Dengue fever which is a sickness from mosquitoes which would make a lot of sense. Mosquitoes have always loved my blood. Not that fun, however we still worked everyday nonetheless. Dengue was a lil boy and doesn’t stop the Lord's work. 

We are in the process of trying to baptize these two little girls who are cousins and their families are inactive. I think this can be a great way to reactivate their families too. Two birds with one stone hopefully. The goal for Silvia and Billy to be baptized is in the next 2-3 weeks. Silvia got some cold feet but is staying faithful and keeping her commandments. 

Not much honestly that I can remember and I am not that motivated to write an email haha. Love all you guys and hope you guys are getting and reading the emails. I absolutely love getting emails from home and especially the fellow missionaries. Praying for you all at home and in the field. 

Scripture of the week:

James 5:14 “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of The Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”

Santiago 5:14 “¿Está alguno enfermo entre vosotros? Llame a los ancianos de la iglesia, y oren ellos por él, ungiéndole con aceite en el nombre del Señor.”

Tortilla making

Us and a cow in the back

Shout out to Condawg Neal

 TOUGH WEEK BUT WE BALL

Billy with the greatest books ever written

 

What’s uppp everyone! I hit 3 months on the mission wooohooo. I wish I could say time is flying right now haha but it’s good, we getting by. 

Honestly not much happened this week. We were supposed to have our baptisms on Saturday but they decided they needed a little more time to prepare for baptism which is amazing. I am so proud of them for being patient and taking this covenant seriously. My companion really is wanting this baptism because he ends his mission in 6 weeks and baptisms in San Martin just don’t happen. We had some rough couple days not seeing eye to eye on this baptism but I am very glad that Sylvia and Billy were able to make this decision on their own. The baptism should happen within the next couple weeks!! They are awesome and they expressed how tight they are on money but they paid tithing on Sunday. Man seeing that was top 3 best moments on the missions fs. 

Anyway I had a lot of lowlights this week so I will keep this email real short. Sickness never gets better and contacting just doesn’t work. However, a big help for me this week was D&C 18. Check the scripture, it’s really cool. I love it so much because missions and life are so hard. They can be very discouraging or sad but, with all we need to do is have faith and gather Israel. It is what our prophet has told us is the most important work today! Even if it is small, one person, 2 people, a lot, or only a small message. We will have great joy living with our father in heaven.

D&C 18:15 “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father” 

DyC 18:15 “15 Y si acontece que trabajáis todos vuestros días proclamando el arrepentimiento a este pueblo y me traéis aun cuando fuere una sola alma, ¡cuán grande será vuestro gozo con ella en el reino de mi Padre!”

Every bus we take 5 times a week

Geovani

More of San Martin

Me and the Uruguay legend Elder Davis England

I MISS SPORTS

Billy - Elder England

Yo wuddup from Guaties closing my 11th week. This week was good but man imma keep it 100,  I really missed sports this week. Not sure why but all I thought about was Lacrosse and college football. Big FOMO but we good, we’ll make it back to the LAX field

I also found a Classics sweatshirt in a thrift store here! Which if you guys do not know what that is, it is a lacrosse team I played for during high school. Good thing I got my Classics shorts to complete the fit. Chat let me know what you think with an email back!!

This week was crazy in San Martin. Almost everyday this week there was a big event going on. Had to have been some Guatemalan holiday or something. One day there were a lot of fireworks, a big soccer game in front of our house, a fair, parties, etc. On Saturday they literally just cut out the power in San Martin for the fair, and at least that is my theory. So English class didn’t work at all. They came but we ended up just turning on flashlights and making paper airplanes and talking in the dark. Super fun actually. But the fireworks were really cool because they shot out from this guy in a box. I can’t explain it, just head to google photos and check it out, pretty swag.

We are doing great with Sylvia and Billy but Kimberly just went rogue on us. Weird, we haven’t seen her in almost a week and she isn’t answering us on the phone. Her baptismal date along with Sylvia and Billy is this Saturday. But if you guys wouldn’t mind, keeping these 3 in your prayers

Other than that, same old and imma keep this email short. Nothing new here other than my Spanish is improving a little bit. It is still horrible though, but progress is progress

Scripture of the week:

Alma 38:9 “And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness”

Alma 38:9 “Y te he dicho esto, hijo mío, para que aprendas sabiduría, para que aprendas de mí que no hay otro modo o medio por el cual el hombre pueda ser salvo, sino en Cristo y por medio de él. He aquí, él es la vida y la luz del mundo. He aquí, él es la palabra de verdad y de rectitud”

Trip to Antigua

English class

Guaty fairs

La palabras De Dios

Classic fit 

Me and Ralph

    BE PATIENT IN OUR AFFLICTIONS

Familia Coy niños

¿Que onda? Another week down. Time is going very fast and would have gone very fast this week if I wasn't sick. Luckily my sicknesses haven't been too serious. And if you know me very well you know I never stop coughing, sniffling, and breathing weird at my healthiest so when I am sick it is bad lol. But we good, just gotta listen to Alma 26:27 which btw is the scripture of the week. It's funny because this scripture was brought up to me so much this week so I thought it would be fitting. Also it's hilarious when Elder Pérez says it in english. But gotta give credit where credit is due, so shout out my sister Macy who introduced this scripture to me first

This week was full of events but here are a couple. We had a multi-zone conference in Patzicia and it was 2 hours away on a bus but I am pretty sure it's like from draper to Salt Lake distance wise, America on top for the freeways. Maps says 14 miles from San Martin to Patzicia😭🤣 but I got to meet about half of the missionaries here. Got to see the OG too which was lit, shout out Dobby. 

Later, after English class we had a lesson with the Santay Family and we put 3 of them on a date for baptism!! November 18th is the special day. The 4th member of Family Santay is actually a member but has been inactive for the past 5 years and doesn't have the priesthood. It's funny how we met him because it was late at night a couple weeks ago and we were walking back to our house and this guy was walking alone towards us kinda eyeing us down and we were like aight how much money we gonna lose rn, but then he got closer and yelled "Elderes". We were like what is going on. But look at us now, he's my best friend here and it was his birthday this week too. Anyway he has been getting ready to receive the priesthood and baptize his family. God's timing is crazy and perfect. 

Making more progress with a lot of more people and references is the key to San Martin. Contacting in the street I don't want to say is a waste of time because no missionary work is a waste of time and the gospel is meant for everyone on the earth. However, let's just say it is a good way for me to practice Spanish and learn new bad words in spanish. We can just leave it at that.

But to end, I am loving it here and the work is going great. I got my Guatemalan friends and family here who I am having so much fun with. They can't replace you guys at home, but man I am lucky, the people here when they aren't drunk are amazing. Especially the kids!! Makes me miss my best friends at home, who btw are getting huge already. Halloween was sad not to be there with the fam. Last shout out, but Brayd and Soph should get money or something for their costume🤣🤣

Scripture of the week:

Alma 26:27 "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success"

Alma 26:27 "Y cuando nuestros corazones se hallaban desanimados, y estábamos a punto de regresar, he aquí, el Señor nos consoló, y nos dijo: Id entre vuestros hermanos los lamanitas, y sufrid con paciencia vuestras aflicciones, y os daré el éxito"

Feliz cumpleaños Geovani Santay

Élder Pérez es mi mejor amigo

Me and Macy

Brayd and Soph, legends