5 Months in Guatemala - Caminamos un monton

On Sunday we got this video from Hermano Sazo of Joseph having dinner with them, and trying cow stomach. He handled that better than I did on my mission...

He remembered that I had it once: "It was really goey and weird but not horrible. Didn't you say you ate cow stomach on your mission and that it was disgusting??"
My reply: "Yeah, they called it 'menudo' and it was like in a soup. I thing I mostly could't get over the visual look of it, with all the little follicle thingys" So maybe it wasn't really that bad, I just didn't give it a chance based on outward appearances.

So today, we had a few emails like that back and forth around 11:30, I was still waiting for the big email update to everyone, and 2 hours later it still wasn't in my inbox. I know they only have an hour to do stuff, so I was a little sad if we were going to have to wait another week to hear from him - so I logged onto his account to see if somehow he missed sending it to us. I looked through all his sent mail and there was nothing. So I started to compile the emails he'd sent individually to people and figured I could post that here for this week, and then I remembered to look in his drafts. Sure enough, there was an email all composed with greeting, pictures and a closing, but not sent. So, since I assumed he would not be getting back online later, I hit send. I wrote him and let him know I was snooping around his mailbox. So here's his letter (I'm glad I have his password!)
_______________________________
     Subject: Caminamos un monton     

Hola familia y amigos!!

So this week was awesome! We have worked really hard and walked a ton! The best part of this week was sunday where we finally saw some fruits in church. Mario came to church and even though he got there way late he stayed for the whole 3 hours! He finally came to church with us which we were super excited about. By a miracle he got sunday as his day off at his second job instead of monday which meant he could come to church! And the familia Martinez also came to church!! They are super awesome. They only stayed for sacrament meeting because they had to go to their grandmas birthday or something like that but we were super happy they came and are going to keep working with them, hoping they can get baptized on the 22nd of December but we'll see. We're also going to try to take them to the temple before changes.

Also about changes, it looks like I will be here in Lo de Coy one more change making my first 6 months in the same area! Hey also speaking about months in the mission, 5 months ago yesterday I arrived at the Guatmalan CCM! It feels like it's been way shorter than that and also way longer than that at the same time. I've forgotten a lot of things about what I used to spend my time doing and now that I think of it probably could have spent my time a little wiser because I did not sleep well before the mission. Also I wish I'd kept a steady journal.

But anyways back to changes. And by changes I means tranfers. Everyone refers to transfers as cambios (which translates to changes) even though there is a word for transfers which is traslados. But that's just the term everyone uses here so when I say changes or cambios I mean transfers. We are in the 5th week of the change which means that in 2 weeks I will have a different companion. Elder Gadea has been going to physical therapy for his knees and he has 10 sessions to do. We are going to the 5th one today. He is going monday, wednesday, and friday so that he will be done with all 10 sessions before changes. And depending on how it all goes he could stay here but what is more likely is that he will go to an area super plano (flat), likely outside the capital. In which case would mean that I would have to quedar (stay) in the area. Which I am fine with because we have the Familia Martinez and Mario who are super probable baptisms in December. So if that's what happens I'll be here until January 22 meaning I'll hit my first birthday and Christmas in my first area! So that is probably what's going to happen but we'll know for sure by Sunday December 9th.

Funny story is that Elder Stewart, our newest zone leader, has an infected toe and it got operated on and cleaned out last thursday but he couldn't go out and walk on it all day. So he and Elder Bywater had to stay in their house a few days but when monday came and we had consejo de zona they asked one of us to go stay with Elder Stweart so that we could have at least 1 of our zone leaders in the meeting. Elder Gadea was going to stay with Elder Stewart but then he asked me if I could stay so I was ready to just read and study and get to know Elder Stewart better. But about 30 minutes after they left Elder Bywater called us because he forgot the key to the family history center so Elder Stweart just wrapped his toe us nice and good and we went to the stake center too. We set the goal of baptisms in december for 14 which is high but totally doable. There are a ton of families we are teaching and if just in our area the martinez family and mario get baptized in december that will be 7. So we're gonna be working super hard and be exactly obedient and are exercising a lot of faith and I believe we'll see a lot of miracles in December!

Also this week we switched our bedroom to what used to be the exercise room. 

It's a little smaller but it's not right next to the street like our old one used to be so it's quieter in the morning and less light gets in before 6:30. There are people that set off these fire cracker things (they call then cuetes) in the middle of the street at like 4 in the morning so now we hear less of those when we're trying to sleep so that's nice.

Something else super fun was that yesterday was Elder Bywaters birthday and the hermanas in Misco made a cake for him and Elder Erikson and Elder Gates bought a cake.

So we sang to him this morning and ate cake and it was great!

That's it for this week!!
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Of the sent emails I complied, I'll just share these two:

1) His friend Talmage (who is in Kansas waiting for his passport to Ecuador) asked him: "So what's your strategy for not getting discouraged? It's tough not to especially when you don't hit your goals." He also said there in Kansas there's a whole little corner of town full of people from Guatemala, they call it Guateville.

Joseph's reply: " hahaha yeah Guateville!! That language is whack quekchi or somthing like that. Tell them you have a friend who is in Guatemala and wishes that he was chapin.

Ya know just like keep working and really try your hardest to meet your goals but if you don't meet them don't let it get to you and make you think your a bad missionary. Just do better next week. And if you still suck the next week do better the next week. It's crazy to do things the same and expect different results is something Elder Bywater says a lot. So do some inventory and make sure you're doing the best you can and are guided by the spirit and keep working. I don't really know haha but just try and stay positive. If you have 12 people that are going to come to church and none of them come don't let it get you down just see the good and keep working and you'll see the fruits eventually. It really is tough especially when you have high hopes though.

Do you have a copy of the fouth missionary? It's another talk about missionary work that is so so so awesome."

2) Joseph wrote an email to thank a neighbor who has donated to his mission. And Joseph also asked him: "I hope all is well back there in the states and just wanted to write you and say thanks for helping to donate to my mission fund!! I really appreciate it and am working as hard as I can, really trying to make the most of the time I have here in the mission.  Do you have any advice about how to get someone who is really close to baptism but doesn't quite want to make the commitment to agree to a date?" Our neighbors reply was really great. He referenced this seminar talk by Elder Oaks:
"Much has been said about the purpose of missionary work: to teach repentance and baptize converts. “But,” he asked, “converts to what? “To Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer, to His doctrine, to His restored gospel, to His authority, and to His name. Conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel should precede conversion to and membership in His Church. Teach that to your missionaries,” he counseled. “Teach them to seek conversion to Jesus Christ and His gospel. Conversion to membership in His Church will follow, and if it does not, we will still have blessed their lives.”
(Love it 💓)