Week 19 Report - Lo De Coy - Dia de los Santos

We got a special treat from Joseph this week - a letter just to our family. He said he's going to start writing us a letter apart from the mass email. He was a little more open and gave some details of the hard part. I'm not sure if he'd be okay with that posted here, but I asked him and will wait to hear from him next week yay or nay. If he's okay with is, I'll update with that letter. Part of Corey's reply to him was that he's had "little nagging feeling that this was a hard part of your mission, and I told your brothers and sisters so - and to pray extra for you. Does it give any comfort to know that I've had a little feeling that things were probably pretty hard?" Corey also said he was glad to hear some of the rough details, saying that it's okay to not be "all sunny/positive all the time - missions just aren't that way."  But Joseph is in a good spot and doing his best to continue to learn and carry on with faith. Here's Joseph's report for the week -
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         Subject:  Dia de los Santos          

Buenos Dias!!

So this last week was kinda hard but it's been getting a lot better. The hardest part was that Cristian, who had a set date to be baptized on the 24th, no longer wants to receive us. He's got some personal challenges but we're gonna try to give him a little space and then see where he's at but that was super disappointing. Also we only had one investigator at church this week which the bishop brought. But in our hardest times are when we can learn the most but it all depends on how we respond to those challenges. So since Sunday we've really been focusing on finding people and inviting them to church early in the week. And these past few days have been really good! We're also working more with Frank so that he can come to church on Sundays instead of work. He's a great kid and can really progress a lot.

Also this past thursday, November 1st was dia de los santos, day of the saints. I don't know exactly who the saints are for this holliday but I don't think they're refering the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hahaha it's basically a day where everyone visits cemetaries to remember their ancestors and families. So because of this there is a program right now called Merecen Ser Recordados (Translated to They deserve to be remembered) that the JAS (jovenes adultos solteros or in english the YSA meaning young single adults) went and visited a bunch of the cemetaries in Guatemala and got references for people that are interested in family history! Super cool! So everyone was hoping to have a reference from the JAS because it would mean that it's actually a pillas reference! We got one for a guy named Jorge. So we called him first thing and set an appointment for monday. Monday we went and visited him to talk more about family history and he wasn't there but his family was! He got there after 20-30 minutes but it was a great conversation and they're super pillas!! Super receptive and said they'll come to church not this week but the next so we can introduce them to the family history consultants. So I'm super excited about that and we're going to visit them again tomorrow.

Also this week was stake conference so we got to see President and Hermana Shumway! And a 70 named Elder Cordón came and spoke and it was amazing! He talked about the difference between a job and a profession. I took good notes and will be sure to apply them after the mission.

Little update on the dog that bit Elder Aquino last Friday. Per Hermana Shumways instructions we went back a week later to see if the dog was alive still (because if it was dead or super sick then Elder Aquino needs to start rabies shots) and the dog had completely disappeared. So that's not good. We talked to the owners and they didn't know where the dog went. But we got the number of the mom and dad and sent that to Elder Aquino in his new area (boca del monte) and they called the mom and the mom said she found the vaccine papers. So then Elder Aquino called us and asked us to go back to get a picture of the vaccine papers but at that point we were already kinda far away from the place where the dog bit him (which is in campanero, the furthest part of our area) so we ended up taking a taxi back because if we walked we would've been late to our other appointments. So we got the pictures (on the little dinky phone we have), sent them via bluetooth to a member who emailed then the Hermana Shumway. So Elder Aquino is all good! And he doesn't need to get rabies shots. As we were getting out of the taxi though my bag caught on my agenda and pen in my shirt pocket and totally ripped it. SO I tried to resew it and I think I did a pretty good job! It's not perfect but I was happy with myself.

Over on the right was where it ripped but I sewed it up myself!! It took like an hour actually. I did 30 minutes one night and finished it a couple days later.

Also something exciting that happened this week was we got to go to the hospital!! Elder Gadea has some knee problems so we went to the hospital to get those checked out and he's gonna live! And he'll be able to stay in the mission. We were pretty worried that he'd have to go home because of it but he'll be able to stay so that's great. While he was with the doctor I read more of Jesus the Christ. That is a huge book and some of the words he uses I've never heard before but it's super awesome and I'd encourage you all to read it. Or at least attempt to read it.

And the invitation for you all this week is to work on your family history!! When we work on our family history we find out more about who we are and we offer a great service to our ancestors who are on the other side of the veil. Even if it's just making an account I'd encourage you all to get started and pretty soon you'll be able to find and take  your own names to the temple!

Well I don't have any more pictures this week but there is a lot that's going to happen this next week. We're going to try and put Mario on date for baptism and get Ingrid to come to church again. Mario has everything but just needs his answer that he needs to get baptized.