11 months - Jutiapa --> Santa Marta

Buenas tardes!!!

This week was a great one! I am now in a new area with a new comp! The area is called Santa Marta and my companion is Elder Chan from Mexico!

Santa Marta is in the Florida zone and  I was excited to go to Florida because Elder Erikson was one of the zone leaders and Elder Aquino was also in the zone. But they both got transferred out haha. I'm still super excited about the new zone though! It has 18 missionaries in it and is easily the biggest zone inside the capital.

I have some cool guys in my district and really the whole zone is stacked. Florida is also super close to Montserrat which is the stake where I was born in (Lo de Coy, where I started my mission). And on July 1st the Florida zone, along with others, will move from the Guatemala City South Mission to the Guatemala Antigua Mission! It will be hard to say goodbye to President and Hermana Shumway and all the other missionaries that are staying in the city mission or moving to the east or central mission but it's the Lord's work wherever we are.

We had a cool experience in Jutiapa on Thursday though! Our appointments fell through in the morning so we went to a back-up plan and on the way there we passed this house and the door was open and we said "buenas!"to the people inside as we passed by like we always do. And then it was a prompting so subtle it would have been SO EASY to just dismiss it but the prompting to go talk to them was there and we were SO grateful we followed it! They let us right in and turns out the mom has family members who have been members of the church for a long time in Jutiapa. And the dad has some nephews that just recently got baptized! It was so cool to find that connection and they came to church on Sunday! Well the dad and the son did who are both named Jairo. It was super cool and they want to keep coming and learning more. From things that have happened recently in the family I think Jairo has really been prepared and humbled to listen to us. I won't see their progress because I am now in the cap but hopefully I hear soon that they got baptized!

Also because of the mission change they had to close Jutiapa 3. So Elder Castillo is staying in Jutiapa 2 and Elder Cardona is going from Jutiapa 2 to 3 but will still have a lot of what was Jutiapa 3 in what is now Jutiapa 2 so that's good because they'll both know the area.

And I little over a day in Santa Martha now. The area is a lot smaller than Jutiapa but it seems like a great ward from the members I've met so far! I have a super runny nose and I think it's most from the change of climate but it also might be because the house is super humid. I think it's from mold in the walls and that it might have contributed to making me a little sick but I think I'm not that sick. Just little bit of gripe.

And I haven't met them yet but apparently there is a family that is super close to baptism and they are hoping for it to be in June but they are waiting for some paperwork to get through so they can get married. And there is another lady named Valesca who is also going to get married and baptized next week! So we're going to focus a lot on them and I'm excited for the rest of this change!

I didn't get a pic of the zone this week or of the house but I'll send those next week. Love you all!!

10 months - JUST READ IT

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Hola Amigos!

I have a joke are you ready?

Why were all the lamanites clothes wrinkled? Because the nephites had the plates!

Hahaha don't feel bad if you don't get it. It only works in Spanish. Plates in spanish is planchas and a plancha is also the same word for an iron. So the lamanites' clothes are wrinkled because the nephites had the planchas!

This week was really great! We have been working really hard on improving our teaching and have been getting a lot better and have a lot of people that we are visiting. Among some of the highlights this week were our visits with Carlos. He is pilas and has a ton of questions. Most of his questions had to do with the plan of salvation like what is the purpose of life and that sort of stuff. So we adjusted the teaching to meet his needs and have found a lot of needs but he is willing to put in the work to find out if all the stuff we are teaching him is true or not. So we are super excited about him and are also visiting this guy we street contacted last week named Luis. He knows the Bible reeallly well. A little too well and doesn't believe in another book like the Book of Mormon because we have everything we need in the Bible. But he did say that he is willing to read it and he also says that he totally agrees with us (like it says in Hechos/Acts 3:21) thethat there needs to be a restoration. We explained that the Book of Mormon is evidence of the restoration and that to know if it's true or now he really should just read it and he said he would! So hopefully he actually does. Also we found this super pilas guy named Antony. We don't usually contact but maybe two or three times a week if things fall through. We found this one lady named Aura and she didn't seems to receptive but was a little mroe receptive than most people. And we never went back. Until all of our appointments fell through the other night and it was dark and we don't contact after dark so we decided to go and visit her since we were close to her house we decided to stop by. Her son, Antony, answered the door and said that his mom was occupied but that he wasn't doing anything. He is about 22 years old and had some good questions and we taught the plan of salvation with him and are going back tomorrow. He understood really well what we were teaching and I think he'll really progress. Also today while we were shopping we had some stuff that normally doesn't happen. We ran in to the bishop, someone we started teaching on Sunday and we had two people ask us about the Book of Mormon! One went really well and the other one not so much but they were literally right after each other which was kinda funny. One lady asked us if we were the people who belived in Joseph Smith and if we had this other book. We explained a little bit about the restoration but she really isn't interested at all. She can't accept a book that isn't the Bible and doesn't see how it would be possible or necessary and we explained and answered her questions but she really doesn't want to know. Also she says that if the Book of Mormon is true, why doesn't the Bible talk about it. Well it actualyl does. She has a Book of Mormon and says she read part of it but that it didn't inspire her.  BUT she doesn't remember anything she read. We invited her to read it again but she said no I'm fine which was kind of sad but as we all know we all have our free agency. But then literally 2 minutes later a worker who we asked where the protox was, after showing us where it was, asked us if we were testigos de Jehova or Mormones. We said that we were neither but that when people say mormons that they really are trying to say the members/missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And then he asked us if we had a book. We said that we did and that it was the Book of Mormon. He was really interested because he saw a facebook post of a sister missoinary from here in Jutiapa who is in Honduras where she posted her testimony of the Book of Mormon and said that we need to Flood the Earth with it. And he was like what is this book if its so important. So we got his datos down and are going to pass the reference. He looks like he has a lot of potential!

That's it for the work. This is my last week in Jutiapa (probably) and we'll find out on Sunday night where I am going. It's been a great 3 changes here and I have really felt myself grow as a disciple of Christ and be more competent in my teaching abilities. 

Here is a picture of a typical guatemalan breakfast. Eggs, Beans, and fried bananas. It is SOOO GOOD!! I actually prefer it over milk and cereal. But we can hardly ever eat it because we dont normally go out to eat breakfast. 

And here is a picture of me and Elder Cardona on divisions!! He is a great missionary and we had a ton of really great appointments together that day and felt like we were on fire. Don't get cocky kid.

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I will update later with a screenshot of our call. Here's a bit of the hangout chat between Corey and Joseph today:

CW: Joseph, I love you! I'm not in a good spot to talk right now I hope everything is going well for you and that you're making progress on winning the hearts and minds of your district.

Joseph: Yeah there was a TON of progress this week And it helped the work a ton too

CW: yeah? what changed? if you're leading effectively, you not pulling, but trying to keep up

Joseph: I showed love and apologized for being too flechon and asked what I could do better

CW: how did that go over?

Joseph: They softened up and things are a lot better really

CW: well if you give specific (true) compliments to each person that will go along way. but they gotta be true/believable or it will back fire. Praise what you want more of

Joseph: i did that too

CW: great! Glad you've made some progress it's tough - everyone is coming from different places we love you!

Joseph: LOVE YOU!!

10 months - Volcán de Ipala

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       Subject: Volcán de Ipala                      
That is pronounced EE-PAH-LAH

This is totally off topic but you know how a lot of people debate about whether you should put the milk or the cereal in first? For those of you who don't know much about this subject it can lead to heated debates. I personally am of the opinion that you put the cereal in first and then the milk, otherwise you'll have too much milk. But I think it is a completely different argument when you're talking about "leche de polvo" translated literally meaning milk of dust.

It's basically just dehydrated milk so all you do is add water. Elder Castillo really likes it and if you buy it in bulk it ends up being cheaper too. Last night I used his milk dust for some cereal and I put the cereal in first (like always) and then put the milk dust in and then the water and it wasn't horrible but it definitely didn't work the way it was supposed to. So if you have dehydrated milk I think you should do the milk before the cereal, other than that the cereal should go first.

But this week was Super good! Although we didn't have anyone in church which was sad. BUT we have been teaching the Rebolorio (Revolorio) Family a lot this week and they are starting to accept the gospel! We have been reading the Book of Mormon with them and also read the Family Proclamation this week with them and it's been helping. We are gonna keep working with them and feel like they will continue to progress a lot! Also we have still been working with Oscar but we haven't found him recently in his house but have an appointment with him today. And the same thing with Mirla. Sometimes we set up appointments and then she is still working and isn't home yet but she did say that she is going to be quitting soon so we'll be able to pass by more during the week.

Also on divisions with Elder Maldonado (the new zone leader) we found this awesome guy named Carlos. We found him outside his house and offered to help him and he accepted and went inside and got a couple machetes and we whacked at the grass in front of his house for 20 minutes! It was fun haha and we stopped by again yesterday and he had a TON of questions. Like too many actually haha but they were good questions and we have another appointment tomorrow! Here is a picture of divisions!

Also we hiked a volcano today! It is called Volcán de Ipala. It is also a Laguna so it doesn't look like a volcano when you're in the crater because it's filled with water but it was super cool!!

It was sooooo humid on the way up and we got drenched just hiking up. It was super cloudy today which was good so I didn't put on sunblock. But somehow I still got a little burned so I don't know how or when that happened.

Volcanos are also pretty common here so it's not that big of a deal but I do admit that "I hiked a volcano" is a lot cooler than "I hiked a mountain".

And here is a picture of the Jutiapa Zone!

I have been studying a lot about charity and would encourage you all to read in Moroni 7:44-48 and also study the charity part in Preach My Gospel chapter 6 about Christ-like attributes. I've been really trying to develop more charity recently and know that it is essential if we are really going to meet our Heavenly Fathers high expectations. Love you all!!

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10 months - Mayo Sin Numeros

Good to hear from Joseph today, as always. I was busy cleaning with Iveth, so I talked a little bit, listened a little bit, but missed most of it. He had a good talk with Corey though.

I'll try to ask Corey for any take aways... Here is Joseph's email for today
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             Subject:    Mayo Sin Numeros                                  

Buenas tardes!!

So this week was super great! On thursday we had a multi-zone conference and there are a lot of big changes in the mission! President Shumway had a meeting with the area presidency this past week along with all the other mission presidents in central america and they talked about a lof of stuff that we're doing really well and stuff we can be doing better. And the biggest thing we need to imrove on as a mission is how we are teaching. President also showed us the results from this missionary survery we took a couple months ago and the survery shows that in the mission we can improve a lot in the way we teach. More specifically how we start teaching, if we are listening and adapting the teaching to meet thepeoples needs, if we ask them to share thier feelings and thoughts, if we ask other inspired questions and are teaching with the spirit and helping them to recognize it. Basically chapter 10 of Prech My Gospel. So in the month of May the big focus in the mission is on the quality of the teaching to help us do all those things better. So after each lesson we have we need to evaluate ourselves. Find where we did well and where we can improve.

This is the little card they gave us to use as we evaluate ourselves.

And I know this sounds weird but President also doesn't want us trying to reach our goals interfere with the teaching. Let me explain. A lot of times, and it's a sad truth, we are working more to meet our goals and less for the love we have for the people. Goals are important and we all know that but sometimes it interferes with the teaching and the conversion process because we are trying to get them baptized before the end of the month. So because of our focus in May President doesn't want it to interfere with improving our teaching abilities so this month of May will have NO NUMBERS. Mayo sin Numeros!

Now May without numbers doesn't mean we don't have goals. It means we don't talk about numbers in district council or in the calls at night but talk instead about how the quality of the teaching was. In the calls we ask about the experiences they had opening the heavens through prayer with the people and feasting upon/savoring the scriptures with them. The only time in the week where we do anything with the key indicator numbers is when we send them on Monday to salt lake through the missionary portal. 5 minutes from 10:00-10:05 on Monday and other than that we don't worry about our numbers at all but rather focus on the teaching. This obviously isn't a permanent change and I'm not sure how much we'll be using numbers in the future but in May we aren't worrying about them at all and just focused on improving our teaching skills!

So lots of big changes for this month but I think it'll be really good and we are already seeing a big difference in our teaching! Another change is what we counted as a new investigator. Before we had to set up another appointment to visit them, they had to offer a prayer, and we also had to invite them (and they had to accept) to be baptized on a specific date. It was always more of a goal for them to help them prepare for that date as a goal to get an answer but they almost never actually get baptized on that day. But now we have to Open the heavens with them through prayer, savor part of the scriptures of a principle of the gospel, set up the next visit, an extend appropriate invitations. But not necessarily baptism. We always talk about baptism and the important step it is so that they understand it but will invite them if the spirit indicates that we should. And we also invite them to be baptized on a specific date when the spirit indicates. Rather than what we usually did before which was invite them for in about a month (even though the date would probably fall) so that we could count them as a new. So it's a super great change! I'm happy about it and I know that as we teach better repentance we will really help more people become converted and show their conversion through baptism.

We found some super cool people this week too! One is this mom named Jessica and her family the other is this girl named Alejandra. They are both super solid and we feel like they'll progress a lot. We found both of them looking for someone else but then they said they'd like to hear our message and they are really receptive! I'll keep you updated about them!

Also stake conference was this week in Estaca Japala Barrio Jutiapa. The stake center in Jalapa is about an hour away from Jutiapa and so they did something cool that I've never seen before and split the stake conference. At 9 was the Jalapa Area and at 2 in the afernoon was the Jutiapa area of the stake. And the meeting was super full! An area seventy named Elder Pineda was presiding and he shared a super powerful message about repentance.

Also on Monday Elder Castillo got pretty sick with a high fever and a head ache and body pain and some stomach problems. We went to one visit but it got worse so we had to stay in the house the rest of the day, and almost all of Tuesday until he got better. He's doing a lot better now though. And yesterday the other missionaries helped us out a ton by bringing us lunch and the other Elders also helped us with divisions so we could go to an important appointment we had. Other than that it was really boring. We have also been trying to visit Mirla and Oscar but haven't been able to get a hold of them. We were expecting both of them in the stake conference but then last minute neither could come. But we think they'll really be able to progress, even if it's not as fast as we hope. That was another thing President shared in the multi-zone that the Area Presidency shared with them in that meeting. They compared the stories of conversion of Parley P. Pratt and Brigham Young. Parley P. Pratt found the Book of Mormon "coincidentally", read it and was converted in less then 24 hours. While Brigham Young studied the Book of Mormon and the church for 2 years before joining the church! TWO YEARS! Elder Uceda, the area president, says that in Central America there are a lot more Brighams than Parleys and that a lot of times we drop a Brigham after just 3 weeks because he hasn't progressed that much. And what would the world and the church be like if Brigham Young never got baptized?! Well for one thing we wouldn't have Brigham Young University! And we wouldn't have the University of Utah either! And the second prophet would have been someone else. So don't give up on someone if they don't progress in just 3 week! Try to evaluate your teaching because if we teach repentance better more people will be converted and be baptized! And better than that they will really be converted and stay firm and maybe even become the prophet! Also there will still be "Parleys"that progress super fast and are just golden from the start. Don't forget about them, but there are also Brighams that will take a little more time.

And here is a picture of the Jutiapa zone at the multi-zone conference!

 

Sorry this email was a little long but my mom puts them all on a blog and sometimes I don't write in my journal everyday so I try to include experiences here in the email and then it'll be put on the blog and I'll at least have a record on the blog of those experiences if I didn't get it in my journal so these emails are also kind of journal entries. So if you read all the way to the end thanks for bearing with me!

Les amo mucho!

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Joseph also sent me a really nice note for mother's day - just the kind of email that you hope to get that is so rewarding to read - so we'll end the post today with this email, we sure love him!
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Well mothers day here is on Friday, and there it is Sunday, and since we call every week we aren't going to be calling on Sunday.

Soooo I thought I'd wish you happy mother's day today!!

I didn't realize how great of a mom you were until I got out teaching families that live in broken homes. People that, for one reason or another, live in family circumstances that are just really hard. We're trying to help them with the Gospel, but it has also made so grateful for the gospel centered home I grew up in. Haha that's kind of weird to say "the home I grew up in" as if I finished growing up because it doesn't feel like I have even though I kind of have. I think if I'm lucky I'll be able to live at the house for a few months until school states at the Y before I'll be completely on my own. Or I'll be on my own the same day I get home. We'll see what happens I guess. But I really do appreciate all you guys have done to bring us up in a home where you and dad taught us what we should and shouldn't do and helped us learn so that we can choose for ourselves. Being a parent, I am starting to darme cuenta, is probably a lot harder than I used to think it was. And the fact that you do it with so many kids! As Iveth said in her whatsapp message you are incredible mom. People don't believe me that I have 11 siblings until I show them the photo. Then they count, ask if Daniel and Owen are twins, and ask where the 12th one is and I explain that he was just barely born so I haven't even met him yet. They are really super amazed and I am also super amazed. I don't know how you do it but you do. Kind of like the printing of the Book of Mormon.

So keep teaching the rest of the kids and using come follow me and helping them develop Christlike attributes and read the Book of Mormon every day and they'll all turn out great!

Thanks for all you've done and continue to do for me!! Remember that your number one fan is preaching the Gospel in the Promised Land!

LOVE YOU MOM!!

10 months - La Restauauración

Joseph's mom here, I've been a bit behind with all things on the computer. Trying to catch up on the family blog and Joseph's here. When we talk to Joseph each week now, it seems I'm usually apologizing that I didn't write him. I'm going to repent and do better next week! Cause I know I like reading his letters in addition to seeing his face, I'm sure he does too. The audio still isn't great on the video calls and it's usually hard to hear him, so the conversation usually hasn't gone very deep since he has to keep repeating things.

Joseph's MTC teacher, Junior, is staying with us here in Utah for a week or two. (Junior in pic 5 here)

(And the guy behind Joseph that was a little distracting) So one example of things that you need letters for and not phone calls - I don't know if Joseph mentioned this, cause if he did we didn't catch it, but Junior told us later tonight that Joseph told him in an email that another companion went home.

Joseph didn't mention it in his letter to everyone, so we'll have to be sure to write him and find out about that. I feel bad if we missed it in the conversation, cause that's gotta be hard/frustrating to send another comp home.

He did say last week that he has had more companions than he has had months in the mission - 11 comps in 10 months. But if he did send another one home, that might mean now it's been 12 companions. We did get to let him say hi to our friend from Mexico, Iveth, who was here helping me clean when Joseph called.
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         Subject: La Restauauración                   
Hola everyone!!

This was a great week! We have been working hard and were super happy that Mirla (I think I told you about that last week) came to church with her aunt and loved it! She is reading the Book of Mormon and  is progressing a lot! She is the cousin of a priest in the ward named Eduardo and we found her because Eduardo had invited a bunch of his friends over that day to talk about the Book of Mormon and the restoration but they didn't come and that's how we found Mirla. Well last pday after writing we played soccer (futbol) with Eduardo and those same friends and had a good little soccer match and set up to visit with some of them this past Monday and we watched the Restoration movie with them. It was super great and helped them learn a lot of stuff they didn't know before. After the movie we were talking a little bit about the Book of Mormon and they all said they would pray to know if it's true. We only had one copy though so we didn't want to just give one of them a copy and not the rest so we just planned to give them all copies in the next visit but then after the prayer the oldest one there named Carlos asked us for a copy because he likes to study all the other churches and compare them from an outside perspective. So we gave it to him and saw his brother yesterday who said that he was reading it so we're hoping it's not to long before he gains a testimony of it and through that, the restoration.

Also this week we went on divisions with Jutiapa 3 and I went with Elder Calero. He is a convert of a year and a half from Nicaragua!

The Jutiapa 3 house is super big. Like probably at least 4 times bigger than ours haha so it was kinda fun to be on divisions in their house and this morning we made crepes for breakfast.

And that's about it for this week! I just wanted to bear my testimony to you all once again of the restoration of the gospel. I know with all of my very soul and being that Christ lives and He directs His church, the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. The restoration has commenced and is continuing and we can play a VERY important part in it in bringing our brothers and sisters here on earth to the knowledge of the restored gospel. ONWARD, EVER ONWARD!

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