Week #12: Independance Day and upcoming transfers?

Greetings from Guatemala!  (That has a nice ring to it doesn't it!!)  La Verde area is nice and green - with field white ready to harvest.  We have 2 baptisms lined up for Saturday and another 2 possibilities for later in the month.  However, Elder Goodman may be transferred tomorrow and who knows what will be in store with a new companion.  He has been great - taught me a lot, and although I don't want him to get a transfer, he has been in this area a while.  But it will all work out either way!

In our branch there isn't really too much gusto in the YM/YW department.  When Elder Goodman came to the verde some 5-6 months ago he worked hard to help in this area...they started up a soccer activity every wednesday night.  The purpose was to help build up some relationships with some of the kiddos in the area and to find new people to teach in a way that is a bit different than the norm.  It works and we usually have about 6 or 7 new people to teach at the end of soccer night. This weeks soccer night was pretty awesome.  It was fun to tackle (that's a soccer tackle Dad, not a football tackle - maybe you can google a video on the internet on Soccer and tackling) the other players in the rain and mud as we played futbol.

We had another activity this week as well with the youth. It was a burger night more or less and it was pretty fun to make some burgers again. I even had the chance to make a Jucy Lucy Burger (feel free to explain this) which pretty much made my week.  It is those small diversions that can keep you going.

This week we also had the last of the new missionary meetings.  It went by pretty slow, but as usually happens, I ended up leaving the meeting glad I went, having learned quite a bit in the role-playing and the nice happy stomach full of cake and Burger King didn't hurt.

The joy was short lived though. As we were getting ready to leave we received a call a family that we are teaching.  The wife had gone been in the hospital to give birth to twins one of them didn't make it and she was not doing to well either.   This family is good friends with a member in the ward that has just lost his 4 month old son last month.   We went over the home of the family and he asked if we could go with him to the hospital the following day.

The next day at the hospital we started to look all over for his wife but we could not find her. All the time there was another member there in the hospital asking if we could help him give a blessing. Of course we said that we would but after we had found J's wife and helped her. We went on searching the hospital for the next 10 mins to no avail.  We then saw the member again and he asked us who are you looking for?  As we told him he smiled and said that the person we were searching for and the person he needed help giving a blessing to were one and the same. Apparently he had been calling people all morning from his ward to come and help him but no one could and then as he finished his last call we showed up. The situation was simply perfect and is was just another testament that we are merely instruments of the Lord for these 2 years.

Independence day here is today the 15th of September and celebrated by a series of parades performed by all of the kids of the schools.   The sad part is that these events were partially on yesterday (Sunday).  Throughout the week we visited all of the members who attend normally asking them if they were going to church this Sunday.  Most, save a few, were not and the pickup truck this week was quite roomy.  The President knowing it would be difficult this week offered up a reward of a special Family Home Evening to the zone who has the most investigators in Sacrament Meeting. We didn't end up winning and really weren't even in the running since our zone is so close to the center of all the activities but the incentive was enough to get us contacting old investigators, and pretty much anyone that would hear us as we tried to get anyone we could to church.  We didn't end up winning the family home evening night with President Ruiz but we will still be celebrating Elder goodmans Birthday with several families and with alot of cakes tonight!

I love you all and let me sign-off until next week answering a couple of your questions. (yes only two it's a holiday here you see - your are lucky you get 2 of your questions answered...)

Question: Have you seen any monkeys?

-No, there are not any monkeys in my area unless you count some of the drunks who try and climb the trees.

Question: What are you meals like? What do they consist of?

-Most meals are very simple, think beans and eggs - especially if we make them ourselves.  Many times we will go to a near tienda where for 3 quetz you can eat like a king.  Of course when we eat with families there is a wide variety, for example look at this scrumptious mountain rabbit - it was buen rico y de salud fue como beef jerky!

Week #11: Goals, Xetulul, and Service

Elder goodman and I have been hard at work though most of which is the simple norms of the missionary life. We served, we taught, we preached, we contacted, we walked, and even walked some more and maybe even walked just a little bit more.

Mom, to resolve any worries of last week I am completely healthy once more and simply had my first of what will probably be many bouts of Guatemala sickness.  I have climbed over that mountain and can look forward to the next, as "all these things shall give thee experience" - the always the experience you are looking for, but oh yes, an experience for sure.

Last weeks p-day was actually cut short. We received a phone call saying that we weren't really going to have a regular p-day - we were only to write home and do some of the normal work of the day. You see last month we had reached the mission goal for the month.   As a reward for reaching and exceeding the goal, we all got to go to Xetulul on Thursday.  

We met as a zone over at the terminal for the buses taxis and tuk tuks.  This isn't like a bus or train terminal that you may be picturing in your mind at the moment.  It is a giant farmers market kinda thing with a couple of larger streets where the buses and taxis wait. Once we were all on we left for Xetulul.  It is only around 30 min drive from there so it wasn't too bad of a trip.  For those of you who don't know what Xetulul is, I would encourage you to Google it [Editor's Note:  Let me Google that for you.], and for those of you who don't Google, it is kinda of like Six Flags on a much smaller scale, with only one roller coaster and several other very small rides. However for the price of 10 quetz (a little more than a dollar) who's complaining! Overall it was really fun. Normally when one goes to amusement parks you have to wait hours on end for rides,food or anything.  Here the only waiting was done by the people operating the rides.  Pretty nice reversal if you ask me.  There were several great moments here and it was a nice change to the normal Pday Activities.  We even had some Ice Cream while there - my first ice cream in a long time!

I learn more and more  each day about service and the beautiful ways it helps out the lives of people.  We do a lot of service on the mission, some days we chop wood, other days we cut the grass with machetes, (don't freak out mom), sometimes we draw bucket after bucket from a well.  All of these are forms of service and for the most part we do all of these to serve the people here, however sometimes we have the opportunity to serve our fellow missionaries in the field.  This week we did just that and turned our focus towards the hermanas of our district.  Throughout the week we went into the areas of the hermana companionships and helped them with whatever they wanted for the afternoon.  Sometimes we went contacting to find new people for them to teach and other times we went with them to visit some of their progressing investigators.  However everytime we helped them out anyway we could and it really ended up being a morale boost to us.  At some point in this week I actually felt as though we might have neglected our area a bit but I realized later on that the Lords work is the Lords work and it doesn't matter what area we are in - so long as those who have been prepared are receiving the blessings of the gospel.  

We also visited a lot of the the recent converts this week.  We know that it is important to visit these individuals and help them to continue to progress and build on their testimonies.   In one of these visits we found out one of the recent converts had started to drink again so we did what we could to help him to stop drinking again.  Moments like those make me realize just how important it is to visit them, continue to teach, edify and inspire to be better and better each day.  This is where the perfecting the saints comes into play, and we all must do each and every day in our lives no matter who we are.

Friends and family, don't be afraid to help others even at the inconvenience of yourself.  No matter how small the service is, the Lord knows what truly needs to happen and will bless you as you do his will in the way that only he can.

Week #10: Parasites, Papaya and "Sick" happens

If only we could travel around the mission on these instead of by foot!

As requested here are some answers to "some" of your questions:

1. How are the shoe's holding up?
   Answer: They are doing fine, I have to switch daily because of the rain and then being wet, trying to get them dry.  I mostly wear the Ecco boots, which are great as they don't let the water in.
2. You send all these pictures of you in the rain, without an umbrella...I know we packed one, where is it?
   Answer: We missionaries must be light on our feet, traveling miles and miles on foot, it's a trade-off decision I make each time we go out of the house.  A little rain never hurt anyone...
3. What is the best thing that happened this week?
   Answer: Two random people seeking us out, asking us to teach them because they wanted to get baptized.
4. What is the worst thing that happened this week?
   Answer: Being sick the whole week could qualify (more on that later), and the test to test for parasites, yeah that was pretty bad.
5. What is the funniest thing that happened this week?
   Answer: Teaching my companion the card game "Mao" where you make up the rules as you go and he started to flip out when started playing.

It has been another interesting yet fruitful week here in the mission field.  I have said before my companion, Elder Goodman is a District leader and one of the responsibilities is to make sure that the people taught are ready for baptism. On Sunday we were visiting an investigators that some of the hermanas in our district are teaching.  While there they gave us some lemonade. I had a pretty bad feeling about, I didn't want to drink it, but I was in front of them and not wanting to offend I drank it. For all of you who don't know water here is not like water in the U.S.   You can't simply drink it from the tap.   I was fine for the rest of Sunday and even all of the following Monday, however when Monday night rolled around it hit me. There was a thunderstorm going on at this time but it was still a good 80 outside. I started having chills and I knew at that point that I was sick. I have only ever had these kind of chills in my life when I was sick and if there was any doubt with the temperature as hot as it was, there was no way I was cold.

As the night went on things started to get worse. A blazing fever hit me as well along with a scorching headache.  Then a short while later, the stomach problems began.  That night we were going to be spending the night over at the zone leaders.   You see, when we have lessons or anything that is in Reu, we normally spend the night there rather than run the risk of not being able to get a ride back to our area that we live in. This was one of those night but the zone leaders were not there when we got to their house.  One of their lessons had run late and we ended up sitting there and waiting for them to finish and get to the house. I was seriously messed up by this point and I knocked out right then and there on the ground.  When I woke the zone leaders were there and opening the door, I don't really remember too much of what happened after that, only that throughout the night I went on several dates with the toliet closest to my room and by the end of that night we knew each other pretty well.

The next day we were supposed to go to El Porvenir which is a part of our area that is relatively untouched by missionaries outside the main city of Retalhuleu, but every time we have attempted to go over there and work, something always comes up that prevent us from being able to go. Literally since I got here we have been trying and every attempt has failed. As I woke I made the decision that I would not be the reason that we would not be going this time, there was always so much holding us back and it simply was not going to be me, when we are this close. We headed down to our house a little while after to get the stuff and get ready to head out and over there. When it came time to leave I was seriously dead had no energy and even now the time there is a bit hazy. The only thing I know for sure is that I was not running of my own strength, I was not working through my own will, but rather the will of the Lord. In the matter of 2 hours we found 13 New investigators making up 5 families.  All of whom are positive and sincerely want to know more. When we left we felt good about the work we had done and when we got back to the house, having no strength, no energy, I fell onto the bed and from 5:00 pm until 6:30 am I was out.  The rest of the week things went on as normal or as least as normal as they could with sickness always there hindering me.  In the last couple days I took some tests, to test if I had parasites, all of which came back negative... thank goodness!   The methods of testing are better left unsaid.  But Mom don't worry, all is well, as the t-shirt should say "sick" happens, especially in Central and South America.  You just need to expect it and make the best of it.  We are watched over, and the many prayers said on our behalf are much appreciated.

Closing out my first month in the mission we have had a lot of success, and this success comes in one of the hardest areas.   The prospects of El Porvenir will only add to this if we can overcome the challenge of getting these people from El Porvenir over to the the building some 30 mins away (by car) We are brainstorms and the ideas are racing and we definitely have a lot of work to do.  "yeah I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak (especially after this week of "sick"), therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God (and a little about my incredible companion), for in his strength I can do all things; yeah, behold, many mighty miracles we have (and hope to) wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. [Editor's Note: That is Alma 26:12 being paraphrased if you are following along at home.]

They make the "greenie" test the road to see how deep the water is.

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way..." Matt 7:14

Papaya anyone...

Week #9: Murphy's Law, S'mores and Philippians 4:13

Let me start off by answering your questions:
1. How do you wash your clothes?
Answer: We pay a sister in the ward to do our laundry, if we need something done quick, we use the sink/bathtub/bucket combo that I sent you a picture of to do it.
2. What kind of animals do you see in your daily adventures? Dad wants to know specifically if you have seen any monkeys but he always asks everyone that.  
Answer: No no monkeys, there are an abundance of stray dogs, and chicken/turkey/roosters everywhere.  I will include a picture of some peculiar birds I see up a tree near our house.
3. What about creepy, crawly insect life? 
Answer: More to mention here, maybe I will dedicate a week to just insect tales and pictures.
4. Where is your companion from?
Answer: Junction City, Oregon

This week has been a jam packed week in the service our the lord in Retalhuleu. I honestly don't even know where to begin. There is so much that goes on here and my head is spinning trying to keep up with it all.  I feel so much love for the people of Guatemala and am so happy to be here serving them.

As of this week I can finally talk, and I think most people understand, at least the expression on their face looks a little less confused and just in time as I was asked to give a talk this last sunday. I dont know if anyone understood me but I gave them my best shot at a talk in spanish.

There have been a lot of ups and downs this week.  We were doing baptismal interviews for the majority of the week. My companion, Elder Goodman, as district leader, is in charge of doing the interviews for the Hermanas in our district as well as for the zone leaders. These interviews took up a large portion of the week and more often than not when we crossed the city to an appointment that we did have schedule it had fallen through. Kinda funny just how often this happened and we simply learned to laugh it all off.

The electricity been off in our area for a large portion of the week (hence the request for more solar lights) making things interesting.   Some days when we hit a rough spot, we make s'mores using candles.  Nothing lifts one spirits better than a prayer seeking strength (Alma 37:36-37), and breaking out the s'mores in the middle of Guatemala.

There was a lot to bring us down this week.  Friday morning the son of hermano Hugo passed away.  He was only 4 months old.  It was hard waking up friday morning and my comp telling me that he had passed. We had a meeting that morning in the Concepcion area - after we went back home, and as we got ready to leave to go and tell the ward about the funeral service,  a storm started and it was the worst storm I have seen yet.  We needed to tell the members so we grabbed our rain gear and boots and headed out.  We told all those in the general area and then started to head up the road to the other members. After about the first kilometer the downpour of rain had soaked my pants and through my pants it soaked into my boots. I started to squish all the way down the road.  Eventually we were able to hitch a ride up to the next city. After we had told everyone we went to the service it was sad to see all of these people crying. Death is kinda  weird thing to experience as a member of the church, and with the faith and knowledge that we have. Through the gospel we know that we will be able to see and live with our families again and it gives us the comfort we need to push on in moments like those.

At the end of the night Hugo asked my companion if he would dedicate the grave the following morning and so we did. There is a tradition here in Guatemala that when someone dies, the family and friends of the person all walk with the casket through the city to the cemetery. I can only imagine how it looked to see Elder Goodman and I, a couple of fairly tall white guys walking with a group of Guatemalans through the streets.  When we got to the cemetery Elder Goodman and I carried the casket to the grave and after all of the prayers were said we put him into the ground.  It was a sad day to witness and I hope that I won't have anymore of these on the mission.

Later this same day we had three baptisms; Jeremy, Hilder and Cynthia.  This is when Murphy's Law or the power of the adversary took effect, in making things much more difficult than they should have been. We had had a full schedule all week long and didn't have time to give the members too big of a notice about the baptism.  As we ran around to let the members of the ward know (sure is a lot easier when you can call, text and put a notice on the ward facebook page - which of course we can't, we use our feet and our mouths), we were chastised by some for the short notice. When it came time to load up the pickup truck, the member who normally does it was out working. We scrambled to find another person for transport, and ended up turning to one of our investigators who thankfully could do it.  Once he was ready we made our rounds picking up everyone and started to head over to the Las Palmas building for the baptism. Eli was running out of gas so we had to go and fill up.  We were waiting at the gas station behind a truck who had brought multiple 55 gallon barrels to fill up and we had to wait quite a while for him to finish.   As we got to the building to set everything up, we come to find that the font doors were locked and no one had the keys. At this point we loaded everyone up again and headed over to the Concepcion building, where the  zone leaders were doing a baptism - so everything was open and they had the baptismal clothes that we needed. But wait there is still more.  We start the program and when it comes time to go down into the font for the baptisms, the door somehow got locked.  Nobody had the keys here either so Elder Goodman ends up jumping over the glass into the font from the front side in front of members investigators and the President of the Branch, slicing his toe open in the process.  (He is not hurt bad, just a sliced toe in case any of those missionary mom's are reading this, we don't tell you the real scary things...).

Jeremy's baptism with me went fine. I headed out and got changed. When I came back out there was chaos as apparently Cynthia was scared of the water and started crying.   After using Hilder as an example we finally got her to calm down and she was baptized.

I guess there are many things to be learned from this week... anything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong, isn't that Murphy's Law?  Maybe it was a lesson about "not to sweat the small stuff" or maybe it is that old Indian saying, "Everything will be all right in the end...if it's not all right then it's not the end!"   In the end the baptisms were completed and all was well.  But I believe, or better said, I know that it is really that "with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26) and "I [we] can do all things in Christ which strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

Peculiar avian wildlife that inhabits near-by trees.

If only California had some of this thing which we call rain...this is a daily occurrence.

Week #8 Sardines, Bucket Showers and Blessings

Let me start off by getting some of your questions out of the way. [Editor's Note: In our letters we include a numbered list of questions we would like him to answer. This week we included 6 questions, we got answers to two: Letters and Living Space]

Yes, I have received a few letters (family, Grandma, Lovells) and I did receive the package. It looks like it is taking 3-4 weeks for letters to arrive, and the package actually took just over 2 weeks. It probably helps being so close to the mission home. Remember anything that was sent to the MTC that I didn't get before I left, probably won't be forwarded on. I have sent out some letters in return through the post office so if my calculations are correct from the time you send me a letter to the time one gets returned you are looking at 6-8 weeks. I guess that means you should send me my birthday present now!

Buenos dias tardes y o noches personas quien leyendo me Cartas. The area in which I currently serve is called La Verde and I am in the District of Las Palmas. Elder Goodman and I are the only elders in my district. A fact that you might find interesting is that districts with only one companionship of elders are referred to as SoSo districts. Soso is a short way of saying relief society.

This area, I am told, is fairly large compared to other areas. I don't have anything to compare it to since it is my first. It covers everything from the Trinidad (where I am currently am writing from a netcafe and have just eaten at McDonalds) almost to the ocean. The Trinidad is the more modern part of Retalhuleu. Its were the bank grocery store and other amenities are located.

Transportation is a little different here then in the States. Everytime we travel we play a little game called sardines. We enter into a normal car and/or pickup and see just how many people can fit in before the door won't close. All 6' 4" of me isnt really good at this game. If my knees weren't going to be calised from praying - they will be from digging into seats, people and everything else that simply wasn't made for the tall person that I am. Pickups here are modified with handrails and guardrails so that people don't fall out - then people are stuffed in the bed and they pack-in what and who they can. Every Sunday one of the Hermanos in the ward goes around and picks up as many members as he can in his truck and drops them off at church. There are usually around 50 or 60 members in attendance each Sunday and about 40 or so of them are picked up by that pickup. Now that is service and getting to know and love your neighbor at one time!

Church services are pretty normal as compared to church back in Socal and The 'Fee. It is amazing just how uniform the church is in all parts of the world.

You were asking more about where we live. We live in a cinderblock house that "usually" has running water and "usually" has electricity. Sometimes the power does go out and sometimes the water doesn't work, sometimes it's both and sometimes it's for a few days. Like right now, we haven't had running water for the past couple days. I believe I have mastered the art of the bucket shower. I only have to use one bucket full.

We sadly do not have a "Mamita" at least not in the way dad describes it when he was in Chile. Hermana Alejandra is our landlady however, and she is one of the sweetest ladies ever and cooks for us all of the time, which is kinda cool. We do go over to the members houses for lunches.

My Spanish is coming along, I am at the point of when someone speaks I can understand most, if not all of it, which is nice. However the speaking part is much harder. It is interesting how I have come to recognize the Spirits hand in my understanding. We do a lot of "contacting" here and when we contact we usually end up teaching someone a lesson. I have noticed that when the spirit is present and things are going good I can understand everything that is said. But when and if the lesson or the conversations starts to head south my understanding flies out of the whole in the wall (I would say window but there aren't any). Once we hit that point I tap my comp and we know its time to end and leave.

This week we have 3 baptisms lined up and I have truly come to love each and everyone of these people. I am sure I have said before it is amazing to see the way the gospel changes the lives of these people. It is amazing to see the way they smile, when we come by and when they feel the Spirit.

Right now it is the rainy season in Guate and with that comes alot of temperature changes causing a lot of sickness to be going around. Since I have entered the mission field I have given or been apart of 15 blessings and every time I can see the effect of it on these people. I know I cant speak well and my companion, though very supportive, knows that I am the master of broken gringo spanish, but I still have the opportunity and when I give a blessing the words flow from my mouth straight from my heart. In those moments I am lucky to know even a fraction of the words that are coming from my mouth. I do know that when we open our mouths the lord will fill us with the words that will touch their hearts and give them the strength they need.

Yesterday we were going around picking up the people for stake conference - we headed down the road to pick up a sweet sweet little elderly sister. We were headed up the road back to the truck when we heard a *smack* we look back and see her lying there on the ground. She was doing all she could to keep breathing but was totally unresponsive as we tried to get her attention. At that moment, in the middle of a dirt road we gave her blessing - immediately after the blessing she regained herself slightly, then more and more within every moment. She was finally able to sit up and then when someone had suggested that she had better return home and rest. But she said, "No I'm going to church."

Every moment we are here we have the opportunity to teach, to testify, to heal the sick, to serve the children of our Heavenly Father and to change lives. There is no Place on earth I would rather be then in the service of my Lord.

Week #7 Las Palmas - Las Verdes Area

So im going to start off by saying that I am sorry for not writing last week but there was no way that I could so I will do my best to go over what has happened in the last 2 weeks.

The last day in the CCM for all intents and purposes is an all encompassing review day. Throughout the day we had a series of workshops going over and showing ways in which we can apply the fundamentals that we had been going over for the last six weeks in the CCM. I won't go into to much detail concerning these however at some point in that day we were told that we would be leaving for our missions at 7am in the morning however we would need to have our bags down in the bus by 5:45.  These workshops were relatively "tedious" as most review sessions tend to be, but they had their golden moments of spiritual insight like all things in the Church tend to have, when one is where they should be doing what they should be doing.

It all just kinda set in, this was our last moments with our new family, in a few short moments we would be leaving the CCM and each other and moving into a whole new world one that is vastly different then the one we were raised in or even the sheltered world  of the CCM.  As this day came to a close we had our final district meeting, a district meeting that will never be forgotten as each of us in district mateo shared parts of the deepest foundations of our testimonies, specs of our true love for this gospel. The testimonies shared here kept tears running throughout the hour and a half meeting and even sometime after.

Saying goodbye to each other and other people in the CCM seemed to be harder than saying goodbye to our families at home. I know this sounds a little bad, because I do love all my family and friends back home, but there is some logic behind this. We know for sure that we will see our families and friends again, we will see them when we come back home and they will all be waiting for us.  But our CCM family, this just simply is not the same. We are spread out, some of us in different countries and we don't know for sure if we will ever be able to see each other again. It's a hard thing to think about losing someone that you have become
so close to.

We ended that final district meeting and left to fulfill a CCM tradition of all departing missionaries. The biggest and most infamous of such goes as follows. We gather as many elders as we can into the room with the best view of the temple (we fit around 100 missionaries into that room that day), we then in spanish, sing 3 hymns; hymnos #161 Somos hoy llamados, #88 Placentero nos es trabajar y #89 Para siempre Dios este con vos.  ( I dont know if I can will all honesty call what we do there singing. in reality it is a bunch of Elders and Hermanas screaming as loud as they can these 3 hymns. I myself lost my voice after) this is followed by a closing prayer then we leave and head off to bed for our last night in the CCM.

We left the CCM this morning but of course not without our final goodbyes and our long desired cameras. The bus ride to Reu is around 4 hours and as we began our journey we were all filled with joy to finally be leaving the spiritual prison that is the CCM. It was a weird experience to leave. The sun seemed brighter the world seemed different.   As we drove through the city and into the country of Guatemala we watched as the buildings slowing turned to trees and the people into animals. It is humbling to see the the way people (and now I) live here.  The small little cinder block or scrapmetal houses, the dirt floors, the animals everywhere and stray dogs galore. Most of these houses barely have running water or electricity. The further we moved
from the city the more rural the world seemed to become.  We when reached the mission office,  President Ruiz was there along with all of the APs and other office working missionaries.  We scrambled to look presentable before getting out of the van. after unloading the shuttle bus we had a series of presentations about the mission. They fed us lunch and then sent us to work.  We were paired off with missionaries serving in the area and began working.

I was paired with Elder Goodman he is a 5'7" blonde haired fella who was a wrestler and has been in the area, Las Palmas - La Verde in Retalhuleu about 10 min from the Mission office, for 10 months. We tried our luck at contacting and found around 5 people one of them being an older gentleman who we talked with. He was very hesitate about anything that we taught him.  After the lesson Elder goodman told me that this area is something we call an area of faith, where people who don't know about the church aren't really to willing to listen.   After the lesson with the old man we headed back to the Mission office and over to Presidents Ruiz's home to have dinner then we went to a hotel for the night.

The next morning is change day. There is a lot of stuff that happens there, but I'll save that for another day for now I will only announce that I will be serving in the Las Palmas Zone in the area of La Verde. I will be Serving and being trained under Elder Goodman!  It seems to be a recurring theme on my mission to be serving with the people I have some kind of pre-existing connection with (remember Elder Virgin and I had gotten together on the flight down to Guatemala before being assigned as companions).

Elder Goodman and I have been getting along great!  He is patient with my spanish and has been taking me around and introducing me to all of the members as well as the investigators throughout this week. After seeing him teach my respect for him has grown.  He is very good at what he does and for a gringo his spanish is amazing and when he is next to me he looks like a native as he speaks. I don't know maybe thats good though because they get the baby (nursery) or primary form of the lessons through me and then they get the better and more clarified version through my companion. Whatever we are doing through seems to be working pretty well. We had a baptism on Saturday and I was the one to do the ordinance.  I don't think there is anything better then being able to do this kind of work or even to do these kind of things they joy you feel when you see them come out of the waters of baptism is amazing and I want to be able to feel their joy on many more occasions as I go throughout my mission.  At this moment it looks as though we will we have another 4 baptisms lined up this month. The joy in these peoples faces is amazing when we teach we can literally see the spirit come upon them and change their whole demeanor. I dont know if I will ever want to go home. I can't even understand half of what these people are saying most of the time but I know that this will come in time. After this week I figure I can pick up on around 40% of what they are saying if not more.

Well its pretty much time to go and I love all of you and hope that you will keep the people of La Verde in your prayers.

Elder Goodman and I trying to prove that you can have your cake and eat it too!

Deluxe Accommodations: Large garden view bay windows

Deluxe Accomodations: Notice the walk in extra large shower, and the triple sink/bathtub.

Week 6: Therefore, o ye that embark in the service of God...

Editor's Note:  There was no letter or email from Elder Wilcox this week.  We expected this as he was supposed to leave the MTC early Tuesday morning to go to the mission home in Retalhuleu, where on Tuesday/Wednesday he would receive some training, orientation, interview with the Mission President and be assigned his new area and companion. 

We know that Elder Wilcox is jumping for joy to get to work...

and he is somewhere in this vicinity...

Guatemala Retalhuleu Mission Boundaries in blue

Anxiously awaiting to hear from him next week.