8 Months - Is your refrigerator running??

We were able to visit with Joseph over Google Hangouts this afternoon. He pointed out that he has been gone 8 months as of today! That has gone by fast. We didn't use the video during our call, and there are no pictures in today's email, but that's ok, we know he's doing the best he can. For example, today he's been experiencing the "who knows what the day will bring" life that Latin America brings, cause the power is out in the whole city! So Joseph and Elder Aquino had to go to a internet cafe in a different city to call and the computer there didn't have video, so that's ok. I gotta say it is so great being able to talk to him! BEST IDEA EVER! Way to go Pres Nelson! And he gets his instructions from the Savior, so thank you Lord! Here's Joseph's email - I usually go through these and correct his spelling and capitalize proper nouns (he never capitalizes the months or days of the week) but in this letter Joseph misspelled GRINGO twice, but the spelling he used made me laugh so I left it.
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      Subject: Is your refrigerator running??              

Well ours isn't! Hahahah I crack myself up sometimes. Our refrigerator actually stopped working though, and then it started working but they still wanted to replace it so today we got a new fridge! Also the power is out in Jutiapa so even though we got a new fridge it isn't running either! Also because the power was out I was really not looking forward to taking a cold shower but the water isn't working either so that got me out of a cold shower! All the power is out in Jutiapa today so all the internet cafes are closed. So we had to take a bus to Progreso where the Zone Leaders are. Which is weird because Jutiapa is super developed but the power was just out today so that's fun.

Sorry my email last week was super short and boring. To be honest I started to write it but then started video chatting with the fam and then our computer time was up so it ended up being a super lame email but this week is good I promise!

This week was super awesome and we have really seen a lot of miracles! The biggest miracle of all has been with Jonathan!! So we are teaching two people named Jonathan and they have almost the same age. One of them everyone calls canche. We have had the goal for his baptism as this Saturday March 2nd. He has really been proressing a lot and we're super excited for him. Then there is another guy named Jonathan (except it's spelled Jhonattan) who I think I'v mentioned before. He is more pillas than most members and is a really good example for me. He has been going to church since November and would have been baptized already but his mom wouldn't give permission for him to be baptized. To even come to church he has to wake up at 4 in the morning and do a bunch of chores to get permission to come. Super cool kid and he has a green shirt that he wears a lot that says "so an Irish man walked out of a bar... no really, it can happen" hahah. Anyways he has been trying to get permission to get baptized forever but has been denied so many times that he got to the point where he just thought he would have to wait until he turned 18 in a couple years. But a few weeks ago we made him a promise that if he reads the Book of Mormon and fasted that his mom would give him permission. Even though it seemed totally impossible we really felt like we needed to make him that promise. Well his mom gave him permission!!! We have the signed baptismal record and he is also set to be baptized this Saturday!! Both Jonathans on the same day! He showed a lot of faith and along with coming to (and participating a lot in) church and seminary he has been reading the Book of Mormon and tried to fast. I say tried because his mom forced him to eat haha but he wanted to and attempted to! And Sunday we got a call saying she had given permission and went over a couple hours later to get the signature and make it official. Elder Aquino is going to baptize him and so now we are super excited for both Jonathans to get baptized this Saturday. Huge miracle and answer to a lot of prayers here in Jutiapa. When our ward mission leader found out he started tearing up.

Elder Aquino and I are what here in Guatemala they call canche. A canche is someone who doesn't have dark black hair. Elder Aquino is just a little bit canche. I am more canche. And someone with blonde hair is more canche. Elder Aquino also looks kinda like a greengo (greengo meaning from the US) and a lot of times people ask him what part of the US he is from. We get called canche at least once a day I think just walking through the street and saying hello to people. Actually we don't say hola we just say "buenas" which means good translated literally but that's just what people say. I say buenas probably about 100 times a day.

Also we found this inactive guy who was baptized in Salt Lake City!! He lived there for like 3 years and went to church the whole time but since he came to Guatemala hasn't gone. Saber por que.

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He usually ends his emails with a proper farewell or closing, but today's just seemed to be cut off, so maybe he was out of time. I was able to ask him during our call about how long he gets for phone calls, and he said that now they have 90 minutes for emailing and any calls. So it used to be 60 minutes to write, so it's nice they have more time! But we'll try to make sure it doesn't mean he doesn't have time to write, cause I think his written letters will be more important in the future as they can be preserved and our phone calls can't as easily. So, anyway, good to hear from him.