7 months - Ayarza

I got an email from Joseph at 10:45 but then didn't get his mass email. Around 12:15 I figured his hour was up and something happened, so I logged onto his account and sure enough, it was there in his drafts. He mentions a few pictures in his email, but they were not attached, so maybe that's where he got hung up. I edited his email and sent it out and then sent Joseph an email letting him know. Hopefully we'll get the pictures next week
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      Subject: Ayarza                

This week was really good! It had its ups and downs but the ups outnumbered the downs.

The zone leaders sent us a reference last Thursday about someone who was MUY INTERESADA (very interested) and lived in this place called Ayarza. I stil don't have much time in Jutiapa and had no idea where that was and Elder Aquino didn't know either. We called the lady and set up an appointment and asked where her house was. By the way in a lot of places here they don't have addresses so what we usually do is get the color of the house and ask if it's close by a tienda of a bank or something and then we show up and ask around until we find the house. So with her we knew it was a yellow house next to the only banrural in this place called Ayarza that we had no idea where it was. I asked the Assistants to look it up to make sure it was in our area and he told me "yeah it's in your area,  but it's out there." He was not kidding. On Friday was when we had set up the appointment to go visit them, and Friday also happened to be the day I was on divisions with Elder Grant. From asking around we learned that buses left to go to Ayarza from Jutiapa every once in a while and we learned where the buses passed by so we went and waited there for a bus. Super detailed plan right? Ask every minibus that passes if they're going to Ayarza and if it is then we'll get in, go to Ayarza and then look for a yellow house by a bank. Well that is exactly what we did. It took a lot longer than we thought to get there though but they are a super awesome and receptive family! The mom Roxanna had a ton of really good questions and we taught the restoration and it was such a great lesson! The hardest thing for them is gonna be that they already go this other church and have leadership positions in it and they also live over an hour away from the church building. And by the way the road is not a good road. Most of it is a dirt road up and down a mountain. In a bad rain storm it woule be just about the last place you'd want to be. It didn't rain though don't worry. They are super nice though and said they'd try to make it to church this next week. After the lesson we wanted to hurry and get out since the last bus left at 5:10 and it was almost 5 but the dad, Mark, told us they could give us a ride back and they also gave us some lunch since at the time when we normally have lunch we were in a bus on the way up. So they gave us a ride back and we are going to visit them tomorrow hopefully. If they don't progress though we won't be able to go all the way out there to visit them but we'll visit them again and then call them and if they come to church and look like they'll progress then we'll teach them more so hopefully they make it to church! It took us about an hour and 10 minutes to get from Ayarza to Jutiapa and I realized how blessed we are in Utah that in the same time it takes them to get to the church building from their house, I could get to at least 8 temples from my house in Utah. That is insane! So if you're reading this and you aren't a missionary and it's been a while since you've gone to the temple please go! I promise that you'll be happier and more in tune with the spirit and your whole week will go better.

I also wanted to share a little bit about our ward mission leader because he's got a pretty cool story. His name is Gesler and he is super pillas. He gives us tons of references all the time and really loves his calling and magnifies it. Him and his family got baptized about 8 years ago and before that he was super evangelical. Here in Guatemala the majority of people are Catholic, or go to one of the many evangelical churches you find on almost every street. Churches like "The Open Bible", "Noah's Ark Church", you name it. So Gesler used be super evangelical but after some trial their family had they decided they weren't going to go to church that much and around then was when the missionaries knocked on their door. They let them in, liked what they heard and for about 2 months they visited with them. It surprised me a little bit when Gesler said that at 2 months they brought out the Book of Mormon. I usually bring out the Book of Mormon in the first or second lesson. Anyways they talked about the Book of Mormon and Gesler was like "no no no I don't want any of that" and told them to just use the bible. I'm sure there is more to the story obviously and I'm not sure if he was going to church with the missionaries or not but they visited with Gesler and his family for a couple more months, explaining the authority for baptism and all that and one day, about 4 months since the missionaries found them Gesler kicked them out of the house and told them to never come back. He told us that the same day he kicked them out what when he realized that what they had been teaching was true. About a week later he told his wife that if the missionaries didn't come before 5:00 he was going to go out there and find them. Well 5:00 came so he got ready and then right before he left there was a knock on the door and it was the missionaries! They didn't have an appointment set up but the Elders just felt like they should come and they came with the Sister missionaries as backup. Gesler said that he committed to be baptized that same day. God works in mysterious ways but as a missionary we get to see the Lords hand in this work every single day in many different ways. Miracles really do happen and Jesus Christ directs this church and this work. This week we found someone who I think is the next Gesler, except his name is Elmer. He situation sounds pretty similar to what Geslers was before meeting with the missionaries and he lives with an inactive lady named Sara and Saras mom named Dora who is also inactive. People out there just waiting for the restored gospel and it is such a privileged to be a missionary and to be able to be involved in helping them learn about the restored gospel. If you are thinking about going on a mission DO IT and if you are on a mission or about to go live it to the fullest because it is the best way to serve the Savior and His children here on the earth.

(ELDER WRIDE'S MOM HERE... I think his hour of internet time was up before he had a chance to upload his pictures, and so he never sent his email, so I logged on and found this in his drafts - so there are no pictures but I'll send this along anyway, maybe he'll send these pics next week, but here is what they were supposed to be of...)

Here are Elder Grant and I on divisions.

He is from Henderson, or Henderton. Whatever that place is that is like a suburb of Las Vegas. He is also from Elder Eriksons group and has a little over 16 months in the mission.

Also I don't think I've ever sent picture of Guatemalan money. They are called Quetzals or in spanish Quetzales but we say Quetz most of the time.

5 Quetz

100 Quetz

1 Quetzal coin

The green bird that is on the bills is the same bird that is on the coin and is the national bird of Guatemala and is also called a Quetzal.

Oh also good news about Jonotan is that he wants to get baptized!! He is going to seminary and is really progressing. His older brother, who is active and super awesome, called us on saturday night and told us that we have a baptism next saturday. Well it won't be able to happen until march because Jonotan still hasn't made it to sacrament meeting. He came late 2 weeks ago and this past week he wasn't able to make it either but we're working hard and praying hard that he'll be able to come the next 3 sundays to get baptized.

That's it for this week! Love you all!