Week 18 Report - Lo De Coy with Elder Gadea

Two exciting things from this week - a girl they taught named Lorena was baptized. Also, they had transfers today. Joseph is still in the Lo De Coy area but he has a new companion - Elder Gadea from Nicaragua. Here is Joseph's letter and lots of good pictures of his smiling face.
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         Subject: Tan Solo Un Perro           

What a week!!

Well first off last wednesday I had to go to immigrations which was alright. I just signed some papers and they took a picture of me. But the best part was that I saw a bunch of the Elders from my district in the MTC who also had to go to immigrations! I got to catch up with Elder Amelang and Elder Chipman (who are in the east mission), Elder Gifford, Elder Montoya, Elder Money (from quetzaltenango), and I saw Elder Saxton and Elder Lowry who weren't in my district and are in my mission but we don't see each other ever. So that was awesome to catch up with them 11 weeks after we'd left the MTC. It was also super weird though because it felt like nothing had changed!

Here's a pic with me and Elder Amelang  and Elder Chipman

We took a taxi to immigrations with Elder Strong and Elder Sergovia. Well actually we met at the central american offices and then took a bus with missionaries from the other missions to the immigration offices. Ya know it might actually be migration offices but migracion and imigracion in Spanish with a Latino accent sound literally the same to me so who knows.

Super cool answer to prayer that happened this week! Actually a couple. One was on Thursday when we left the house I included in the prayer that we'd be able to find 2 news that day because we had been struggling to find news the past couple weeks. But in our schedule for that day we only had one person that could become a new. Well when we visited him, Luis, this kid was there who's 17 who also listened to us and they both became new investigators! In our mission to count as news they have to have said a prayer, have been invited to be baptize, and have a specific time to come back and visit them. So they both became new and Frank is super pillas! We taught the restoration and it really answered a lot of his questions about which church was true and he's reading the Book of Mormon! We're hoping he'll get baptized at the end of this month and he can really progress a lot. So that was really an answer to prayer because the week before we found 3 news from the whole week and when we started including our goals for the day, the week, and the month in our prayers we started reaching them and last week found 9 news! And most of them are super pillas!

On Friday is where the email title comes from. Tan Solo un Perro. So on Friday we went back to visit a family we found on Tuesday and on the way there there was a dog who had a lot of bark. I didn't think he had any bite though. Well he did. He bit Elder Aquino on the leg. Actually on both legs. Left then right then left again. His right leg was fine but he had a pretty nasty wound on his left leg. I do not have a picture of that but it caused him a lot of pain the past week with all the walking we did and until we know the dog didn't have rabies he has to take these pills called clavulin or something like that. Hermana Shumway told us to go back on Friday, after 7 days, to see if the dog got super sick or if it died and if it did then he probably had rabies. Then on Saturday morning we filled the font for Lorena's baptism and we invited Ronal to come over to watch the restoration movie in the church building while the font was filling up. We also watched the 15 minute video Only a Stonecutter about a stonecutter for the Salt Lake Temple who lived in alpine and walked every week from alpine Utah to Salt Lake and then one day he was milking his cow and the cow kicked his leg and it broke and he ended up having to get his leg amputated. After it healed over he made an artificial leg and with that started walking and kept making the trip to Salt Lake on foot to work on the temple. It is a super inspiring story and I highly recommend it. Only a Stonecutter in Spanish is Tan Solo un Cantero. And later that day Elder Aquino joked that his left was going to have to be amputated and that they'd make a video about him and call it Tan Solo un Perro hahah it was really funny.

Then on Sunday before church was Lorena's Baptism!! We woke up at 5:15 to go turn on the heater for the font. Well the water didn't get any hotter so the heater is broken but at least we tried. It wasn't cold for the baptism but it definitely wasn't warm either. Salvador, our ward mission leader who lives on top of a mountain (well really its just a giant hill but it's so cool), baptized Lorena because he and his wife had actually met before! And he also lives close to her so that was great. Here is Salvador and Lorena.

Here is us and Lorena

And here is us and Lorena and Salvador

Lorena was confirmed in sacrament meeting and she is gonna do great! I'm excited for her and hope that she will also have the opportunity to serve a mission. In that same sacrament meeting guess who passed the sacrament to me!! None other than the newest priest in the ward: RONAL!! He also offered the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. He is doing great but we need to help him become more involved with people his age in the ward to help with the transition of becoming a fully participating member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Also this week we had changes/transfers so I said goodbye to Elder Cornejo, Elder Strong, Elder Dustin, Hermana Martin, Hermana Escarate, and my dad Elder Aquino. I'll see most of them again in multi-zone conferences or who knows where I'll be going next change but it was werid to say bye. Yesterday morning, the morning of changes, Elder Aquino and I went on a run which I've wanted to do for a while but we didn't have the chance. And the night before Elder Aquino bought a pizza which is apparently a tradition. His dad bought him a pizza their last night so I'm gonna have to do that as well when I have a kid. Meaning when I train a new missionary.

Also here's a picture with me and Elder Cornejo from Chile.

Elder Aquino is now a Zone Leader with our old district leader Elder Benson! In an area called Boca del Monte. So I'm excited for him and I taught him a bunch of English phrases like "You've got to be kidding me" and "Stop this madness" hahah. He was a great dad and I'm excited for the October General conference of 2020 which I've already invited him to come stay with me and we'll go to conference exactly 2 years since we watched general conference in the mission field. He is going to try and work at the MTC in Peru when he gets home and hopefully he can figure out how to come to BYU. That would be so awesome!

So Tuesday, yesterday, we took a taxi to the stake center where a bus picked them up to take them and their bags to Utatlan where the mission offices are. And I waited with those who weren't transferring until our new companions arrived. And my new companion is ELDER GADEA!!

He is from Nicaragua and has 6 months in the mission! So he entered the field in may and has 2 changes more than me. So we're both pretty new but this change 26 new missionaries entered the mission! Last change there was 20 which makes 46 missionaries that are being trained right now! That is a ton so most people with a lot more time in the mission are training and thus we have missionaries who have 6 months as comps with missionaries who have 4 months. Elder Zwalhens step-dad has the same amount of time as Elder Gadea too.

And with less than 24 hours Elder Gadea and I have already been through a lot. Last night when we got home the bathroom was locked. There are a bunch of random keys in the house but none fo them worked so we tried the keys to the apartment and the front door too and...

So that wasn't good. Now we couldn't  leave the apartment because we didn't have a key to get back in and we couldn't use the bathroom. 

The keys Elder Aquino had he packed in his suitcase and we won't get those until Thursday. So we were super stressed about that but it worked out. We found out that one of the extra keys we have is the same as the one that broke and a member came over this morning to pick the lock to the bathroom. He owns a keystore so he's really good at it. haha but so that was an adventure and I think this change is gonna be really great!

Also here is a pic  of my new zone

We have top row left to right: Elder Erikson, Elder Gates (Elder Eriksons kid from St. George), Elder Gadea (MY COMP!!) Elder Stewart (behind) Elder Sanchez, Elder Quinonez, me, Elder Sergovia, Elder Nelson (from Canada and is Elder Sanchez's kid), and Elder Bywater.

Front frow left to right: Elder Zwahlen, Elder Fuentes (his step-dad), Hermana Osorio, and Hermana Avilez.

This is a great zone and I hope we have as awesome of a month in November as did in October. There were 12 baptisms in the zone in October and we really saw a lot of miracles.

Also I hope the pictures aren't super stretched out. When I load them in they aren't but Idk if that changes when I send it.

Invitation this week is to bear your testimony about the Restored Gospel to a non-member!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Wride

 MISIÓN GUATEMALA SUR

Week 17 Report - Lo De Coy - TAMALES

I've heard that the pouch mail to Guatemala doesn't work, but I tried it anyway and sent Joseph a letter about a month ago, then another the week after that. Today he got one, I'm not sure if it was the first letter or the second, but yay, I told him I'll start to send a weekly letter to that address for him, just for fun, and we'll see how many he gets.

"Hey Mom I got your letter!!!!

"I would LOVE to get pics in letters as well. It is preferable. I can download the pictures you send onto a USB but I haven't yet because I normally run out of time and the best I can do is take a picture of the email and the pictures in the email. The letter arrived at the mission offices (both yours and Annies!) and today during interviews Hermana Shumway gave them to me. They don't see that a whole lot and I know that pouch hasn't worked with other missionaries because Elder Dustin in my zone was like "WHAT?!"when she gave it to me but I'm super happy they got here. I like the physical copies a lot more too."

I did send some pics in one of the letters, I think the second, so maybe this was the first. I am going to write him again, you can write him too! I'm sure he'd love to hear from you, and if it actually goes through and gets to him, well even better, he'll have such a nice surprise! Here's Joseph's report for the week -
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         Subject: TAMALES           

This week was great!! Lots of miracles and lots of tamales. And one of those miracles happened because of some tamales.

First off though I hit an important milestone this week. I went through my first pair of shoelaces!!

Elder Erikson said it wasn't a milestone it just means I have bad shoelaces hahah because he has a year and is still on his first pair of shoelaces. He also leaves his tied all the time. Anyways so I was excited about that. 

Last thursday was basically p-day part 2 because we woke up early to go to THE TEMPLE! It was amazing as the temple always is and right after that we had our interviews with President Shumway. Sadly I didn't get a picture of either of those but I did get a picture when we went to krispy kreme.

Also I got stung by a wasp on my finger this past sunday and it hurt SO BAD for like 30 minutes and was really red but then it was fine. I felt something on my neck so I went to scratch it and then I touched the wasp and it stung me. 

Now a little bit about the miracles happening in this part of the Lords Vineyard.

So yesterday we had a TON of appointments and were running super behind. We had lunch 2 hours late and had to go twice that day to Campanero which is like the furthest part of our area. But all our appointments fell through so we went from super busy to not having up plans for that night so with an hour until we had to be home we had no idea where we should go. We were sitting on this piece of cement outside a little gated community. Not a bench necessarily but just this giant slab of cement that happened to be there haha who knows why. So were sitting there looking though our agendas and the phone for who we could visit. Then a lady, probabaly about 30 years old or so came out of the little gated community we had just been in and asked us if we wanted some tamales. Of course we said yes and she seemed super nice. Actually at first glance I would have guessed she was a member. Elder Aquino was kind of suspicious though because in his last area this happened to him and that lady was loca. But I felt good about it so we went she gave us some tamales. We met her dad and her husband and as she was finishing up the tamales she was asking us about who we were and what we do and so we talked about how we're missionaries and we talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she was SUPER interested in the message. Normally I only carry 1 Book of Mormon with me but that morning I felt like I should bring 2. One we gave to a guy named Luis earlier in the day and I now know why I was supposed to bring that extra Book of Mormon. We told her about what it was and about John 10:16 and 3 Nephi 15:21 and she wrote the reference down so she could find it later. She is evangelical christian or something like that and is called Jessica. She was also asking us about when we have church so that she could come! She has family that are members and that live in Utah but she's never really talked to the missionaries. The more we said though the more interested in the message she got. And we took the tamales home to eat and they were delicious.

Just to put it out there this kind of stuff literally never happens, ESPECIALLY in neighborhood with pisto (money) which this one was. When we contact in parts like this no one wants to let us in, let alone come up to us and ask if we want tamales and then ask for a Book of Mormon. The first chance Elder Aquino and I had when she wasn't looking we made eye contact with a look that said "what in the world is going on??". So we left a Book of Mormon with her and are going to visit again on Thursday. So yeah double miracle because we got a super pillas contact AND dinner.

That day we also found a super pillas family that will progress A LOT. So stay tuned to hear about them.

Also Lorena passed her baptismal interview this past Sunday! She's scheduled to get baptized this weekend. She's now come to church 3 times and I think it's a little soon and personally wish we could teach her a little more but the only days we can are Sundays and last Sunday she called us saying that she received an answer that she should be baptized so this past Sunday we taught all the lessons. Like I said I wish we had more time to teach her and I hope it sticks but she wants to be baptized before Elder Aquino leaves. This is Elder Aquino's last week with me by the way. Lorena has made a lot of friends in the ward though and every Sunday has come by herself. It's hard to believe that in the early days of the church people were baptized literally the same night the missionaries found them! And then left everything and moved to Utah. That is a lot of faith. Like the John Tanner movie and also the movie Only a Stonecutter.

The tamales we ate yesterday was the second time we ate tamales this week! Here are some pics of the first time haha

In total this week I ate like 5 tamales. Just getting ready for Christmas where apparently you eat un monton de tamales.

Anyways so the work here is going GREAT and next week I'll have a step dad.

Invitation this week is to listen to Ted R Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon. It is not only the keystone of our religion but can also be the keystone of our testimonies so make sure you really have a testimony of the Book of Mormon before you leave because people really try to rip it apart in the mission field.

Also here's a pic from weeks ago when we had lunch at our ward mission leaders house who lives on the top of a mountain.

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So I watched the John Tanner story several times, I showed it to Corey and the kids this past Monday - really neat. And I've started to read the Ricciardi letter, that's good too. Our homework for this week, I'll put the link here again, is Tad R. Callister's talk on the Book of Mormon given at the October 2017 General Conference. GREAT TALK, I love that one, it was just packed start with "it's true or it's not" from the beginning (and it's true!) so go listen to that one if you haven't. I'm grateful to know the Book of Mormon is true, which also lets me know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true and led by Christ today through is living prophet. It's all true, and no one has to take anyone else's word for it - we can each know for ourselves. God can and will and does speak to us, pray and ask and he will speak to you.

Week 16 Report - Lo De Coy - Bautismo de Ronal!!

The email this week from Joseph - two pictures of his cute face, hooray!
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    Subject: BAUTISMO DE RONAL!!!!              

Alrighty this week was FANTASTIC. Of course it has had its ups and downs but I'm really learning a lot and God really does hear our prayers.

First off, spiritual thought connected to that. Monday night was kinda rough. We had a bunch of visits planned and they all just kind of fell through one by one. So we went by some contacts and people we'd visited before. No luck either and so called one family we visited a while ago. They didn't seem that interested but could progress a lot. The guy mostly wasn't sure about Joseph Smith as a prophet and the Book of Mormon but all we'd left with him was the folleto "The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith". Anyways so we called them and asked when we could come back and visit them and he said "mejor munca"meaning better never haha because he doesn't want to be playing with religions and there was just generally a lot of rejection on monday. So when we got back to the house I was super discouraged plus Elder Aquino and I weren't super united as a companionship that day. So I went to my bed with my Book of Mormon and prayed to get confort and know what to do and I read EXACTLY the chapter I needed to read. Mosiah 14 which is Abninadi quoting Isaiah 53. I remember studying these verses in Seminary with Brother Totton Sophomore year and it just helped me so much. I invite you all to read that chapter, especially if you have had a rough day.

Ronal was also baptized this week!!!!!!

We were so excited for him and he was so ready and he also received the priesthood on Sunday. The baptism was originally planned for Saturday night but last minute Ronal called and asked if we could move it to Sunday because his sister wanted to come so we moved it so Sunday morning at 8. He didn't get there till about 8:30 though and we were way stressed but he came! And his mom and sister who are seventh day Adventists came and we're starting to teach them too. So we had to cut a bunch of stuff out of the program to have time for the most important part and the bishop baptized Ronal. It was amazing and Ronal is gonna do a lot of great things in the world.

This week I also went on divisions twice. Once was to Nueva Montserrat with Elder Zwahlen from my group! I didn't get a picture with him but we walked all over the place. His area is super super flat and looks all the same to me. A lot of citas fell through and so we were walking around/standing for about 6 hours straight until we finally got in to teach a recent convert. We watched the John Tanner movie which I've never seen before and I LOVED it. I would highly recommend it. It's about this guy named John Tanner in the early days of the church who's leg was healed and he literally gave up everything for the church. Then that night when we got back we ordered dominos and it was great. I really believe Dominos is better in Guate.

Then yesterday I was on divisions with Elder Erikson in his area Nueva Vida and his area is SO PRETTY!!

I want to go there. It is so so green. Nueva Montserrat is super flat and Nueva Vida has a TON of hills and part of the day we were in this little village called aguacate (avacado) and we could see the whole valley and it was gorgeous.

Also miracle this week is about a girl named Lorena. Well we'll see if its a miracle haha we found her the friday before general conference  and she came to conference. She also cem  to church this sunday and afterwards we had a lesson with her and she called us that night saying that when she got home she was really sad so she decided to pray and got an answer and that she wants to be baptized this week! This week wouldn't be possible because they need to come to church 3 times so she could get baptized next week and basically before Elder Aquino leaves on the 30th haha. She is 18 but has come to church twice so we left her a few chapters of the Book of Mormon to read to see if she's really serisous about this and not just a snake. We're also going  to ask president what he thinks in interviews tomorrow. But anyways she could be baptized on the 27th which would be totally a miracle.

Tomorrow we're going to the temple to do a session as a zone and then we have interviews with President Shumway and I am SO EXCITED! Today in the morning we went to a buffet place and they had this birthday thing where all the workers came over and put a sombrero on whoevers birthday it was and sang. We saw them to do it to a few people in the resteraunt and then the other Elders in my zone told them that it was my birthday even though its not and before I knew what was going on the workers put a sombrero on my head and a plate of ice cream in my hand and started singing super loud hahaha it was super embarrasing. Then went bowling as a zone before coming to the stake center here  in Montserrat to write.

Also I invite you all to find something called  the riccardi letter and read it. Especially if you're about to leave the MTC or are in your training. Elder Erikson showed it to me on divisions and it is amazing.

That's it for this week! Mucho amor!!

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Here's a link to the Church video about John Tanner, or here is the youtube version of it, although with Vietnamese subtitles.

I watched it tonight - it is really good. I'm surprised that the video has been around since 2010 and I haven't seen it or heard about it. Maybe that was at John's request - cause he really does want his treasure to be in heaven and not on earth. What a great example. I loved the prayer they show Joseph say - "...That a miracle might be performed, that thy holy purposes may come to pass, we petition for thy mercy and help in sending us one with means to pay the mortgage and save the temple..." I want to pray like that, I am going to.

Also, after some googling, I found the Ricciardi letter. Here is a link to the Ricciardi letter that I put on my "spiritual blog".  It's long, I have just started to read it, but it is good. Here is a link of Fabrizio Ricciardi's pictures and profile on Mormon.org.

Also the recap of a 2014 talk given at the MTC by Elder Uchtdorf where he mentions Elder Ricciardi. Very cool.

Week 15 Report - Lo De Coy - GENERAL CONFERENCE

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      Subject:  GENERAL CONFERENCE      

Well another great week here in Lo de Coy Guatemala! I wonder what Lo de Coy means. Also I'm officially 9 weeks into the field! Which means in 3 weeks I'll have completed my training and say hasta luego to my dad (Elder Aquino) and say hello to my step-dad. Some mission terms that you might not be familiar with: dad/mom - missionary companion who trains you during your first 12 weeks in the field; birthplace - place where you were born in the mission meaning your first area;step-mom/step-dad - your missionary companion directly after your first 12 weeks; daughter/son - missionary companion that you are training. So if I were to train this next change then that elder would be Elder Aquinos grandson, my son would also be my step-dad haha. Some missionaries, like Elder Strong and Hermana Martin in my zone, switch companions halfway through their training which means they have 2 moms/dads. It doesn't work perfectly.

So as you all know general conference was this past week and it was AMAZING!! We were really trying to get a lot of investigatoros to come to general conference and we really saw a lot of miracles over the weekend. First off Ronal came to ALL FOUR SESSIOS!! He is so so pillas! His baptism is this Saturday and he is so prepared. We were trying to get Christian, who we found last week, to come to general conference and he just kind of didn't want to haha even though he wasn't doing anything at all. That's not the miracle though. But so I was really praying we'd be able to get a lot of investigators to come to General Conference with us but for every session on Saturday it was just Ronal. We had about 16 in total that said they might be able to come so my hopes were high but Sunday morning it was still just Ronal who came with us. On the way to the stake center Sunday morning Elder Aquino was talking to someone on the bus and it happened to be someone we contacted that Friday named Lorena and she remembered us and that we had invited her to conference so he invited her again to come to the session that afternoon and she said she would come! Since we were on our way to the stake center it was really easy to show here where it was right before we got off. So when it came to Sunday afternoon we were exepecting Ronal, as well as Mario, and there were a few people that were up in the air. I went to go watch it in English not knowing how many investigators we had because they all came late haha. But we had Roanl, Mario, Lorena, Ingrid and Carlos!! Ingrid and Carlos came from work and Mario came late and left early but he said that one of his questions was answered which is awesome! He is progressing a lot and wants to be baptized but has yet to receive and answer. So we are going to go to the temple with him soon and have been teaching him the commandments, hoping that he'll get baptized the 27th, right before Elder Aquino leaves. 

We 6 baptisms in our zone this week! One is Ronal - the most pillas guy in the world, Nueva vida with Elder Erikson and Elder Cornejo have 2, and Elder Otoya and Elder Bywater, our zone leaders in la communidad, have 3! So lots of exciting things happening here in zona montserrat. Because of all the baptisms and the interviews all happen to be on thursday we are switching up the way we normally do divisions tomorrow and I'll be going over to Montserrat with Elder Zahlen which I'm way excited for. So lots happening and I'll be sure to send you some pictures of Ronals baptism.

I mentioned that last week we were going to go to la eskala to get the 5 Quetzal tacos at taco bell last p-day and that is exactly what we did. For some reason none of the latinos got tacos with us probably because the line was SO LONG!! But we waited patiently and here is a pic of Elder Zwahlen, Elder Dustin, Elder Erickson and Elder Bywater eating their tacos.

They super good. Here is the volcano taco.

Today we're going to panda express which is BRAND NEW in the mall haha so I'm excited for that too.

Also here's a pic of their veresion of top ramen here haha it tastes almost exactly the same if not a little better.

It's been getting a little colder here and has been drizzling almost constantly the past couple days so I broke out the sweater. There's also been a lot more fog. Here's a pic of the view from the stake center of the fog.

I am down to one kitkat and one twix from the candy my mom sent down. I am waiting to open them until the hardest day of my mission haha

That's it for this week but I invite you all to relisten to the talks from conference this week and really apply to your life what Jesus Christ is teaching us through our living prophets and apostles. Love you all!!

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Week 14 Report - Lo De Coy - Super Pillas

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    Subject: Super Pillas                 

Buenos Dias!!
Well this week has been pretty good.

First off funny story for the week. Monday October 1st was dîa de niño. Translated literally day of child haha. Kids day whatever you want to call it. So a bunch of restaurants had different kinds of promotions or deals. Actually today when we go to the mall we're going to get the 5 Quetz tacos at taco bell because they extended the deal a couple days. 5 QUETZ!! It's about 7-8 Quetzals in a dollar by the way so that is a screaming deal. So that's where we're going to for lunch today. Anyways so one of the things Dominos did was they had the pizza delivery guys deliver the pizza wearing superhero costumes. They deliver pizzas here on moto meaning motorcycle. During the day we saw flash (barry allen) whiz by on a dominos motorcycle and at about 6:30 Monday night superman flew by us, also on a motorcycle delivering pizza. So of course we decided to get pizza for dinner so we could take a picture with a superhero. At about 8:40 on our way home from the NDH we called dominos (by the way delivery here doesn't cost extra) and I asked for a tropical (hawaian) calzzone. Elder Aquino decided he actually wanted chinese food and ordered Lai Lai and the tropical calzzone was 35Q. They told me that to deliver we have to order more then 75Q but Elder Aquino was set on his Lai Lai. I wasn't that hungry but to get up to 75Q I decided to get 2 Nutella and stawberry calzzones (which are amazing) which are 20Q each so that I'd get up to 75Q. Well turns out the hawaiian calzone is only 32Q so I was 3Q short. But I really wanted to get the picture with the superhero on a dominos motorcycle. So I got the cinnamon sticks as well putting me at 87Q. I obviously did not eat all of that food Monday night but I did order it all Monday night in order to get the picture. Well when they got here we ran down the stairs with our cameras and HE WASN'T WEARING A COSTUME! Hahah it was a bit of a letdown. Still a good deal for the food I got though and it was delicious. Well at least in american money it's a good deal. Here it'd be kind of cara (expensive$$) but in US dollars that is 3 calzzones - 1 hawaiian and 2 nutella, and cinnamon sticks delivered to your door for about 12 bucks. That's a pretty great deal I'd say. The hawaiian calzzone itself is less than 5 dollars! Anyways it was sad though that we didn't get the picture we wanted but also really funny. Here are some pics of the 4 boxes of pizza I ordered haha.

I had already started to eat one of them when I took this picture.

Also I mentioned the mall, where we usually go for lunch on p-day, and last week I talked about the crepe place.

Elder Zwalhen, from my group, and Elder Erikson, my new district leader from springfield Utah, standing in front of my favorite restaurant in all of Guatemala. Look at all that Nutella!

Here is how the crepe maker works -

Then they put on the toppings

Last week my crepe was a m&m and peanuts crepe with strawberries and bananas and it was oh so good.

Anyways enough about food and now a little bit about how the work is going here in this part of the Lords vinyard. 

Ronal is going to get baptized on the 13th of October and I'm super excited for him. This week he'll be coming to General Conference with us which I am so excited for you have no idea!! It's going to be amazing as always. We also started teaching Ronal's sister Brenda. Only one lesson but if she decides to join the church as well Ronal could baptize her which would be amazing.

Mario has also been progressing a lot. We had a NDH (Noche de Hogar aka Family Home Evening) with him on Monday with a super awesome family in the ward - President and sister Abadillo. He used to be the stake president and works in the temple but right now they have a calling to teach in the MTC on Sundays so we don't see them at the ward really that much at all but they are awesome and we had a really great lesson with Mario at their house about keeping the sabbath day holy. Mario has a negocio (business) little restaurant place and he's said he's thinking about closing it on Sundays to come to church but he couldn't in September. But after the lesson he could see that is what he needs to do and is coming to conference with us on Sunday! I'm so excited for him also because before the NDH he told us that he wants to serve a mission!! He hasn't even come to sacrament meeting with us yet but he's growing the desire to serve a mission!! And he would be such a great missionary. He's only 20 so like he totally could go on a mission in a year and I really hope he does. I hope Ronal does too. I don't know if there will be anything to compare with the joy when at the end of my mission I could read emails from them starting their missions. That would be so amazing. We also found two other investigators this week that could be prospective missionaries! One is Christian who is 20 and the other is Youri (sounds like Yodi) who is 18. They're both pretty pillas and could progress a lot. Christian I could see getting baptized on the 27th of this month, but he'd have to come to general conference this week. Youri's family is super catholic so we can't really go visit him whenever we want but both Christian and Youri have a strong desire to learn. Oh by the way pillas basically means stud or cool. Elder Aquino described it like it's a little bit more than cool. Someone who is pillas is someone who learns really fast and keeps their commitments and reads right away and is there for appointments. Ronal and Mario are both super pillas and Christian and Youri seem pillas too. We'll have to give them a little more time to see how pillas they really are though. Everyone says pillas and I'm not sure if I've used it in an email or not but if I have now you know what it means. So the work is going good and I think we're going to see lots of miracles this month. The recipie for miracles is Faith, obedience and hard work. This church is the restored church of Jesus Christ here on the earth and I love this work so much.

Tonight we're going watch Meet the Mormons with a bunch of investigators in the capilla including Ronal and Mario and an investigator the hermanas before us were teaching named Griselda. We haven't had one lesson with her but she said she'd come tonight so we'll see. Also here is a picture of our bus ride to la eskala (mall) last week.

The buses are usually a lot more crowded than this. The thing is they're so crowded even if I carried my camera on me I wouldn't be able to take it out. Oh also I found a kid wearing BYU pajama pants this week. Not a member but I think his mom is less active. Have a great week and the invitation this week is to invite someone to church. You never know where a simple little invitation like that could go.

Have a great week!!

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