10 months (in 2 days) - Más Nuevos

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              Subject: Más Nuevos                                    

Hola Amigos!

This week was super great!!

Elder Castillo and I have been working hard and have a pretty solid pool of new inestigators. Or at least we hope they'll be solid haha they look like they'll be. So we're hoping for the best! Since they added a third companionship to Jutiapa we lost the part of our area that we worked in the most. Our area is still pretty big though and there are still plently of people to teach the gospel to that are just waiting to find it. But last week it kinda felt like we were starting from almost nothing. There were a few people we were teaching before that want to get baptized but they don't come to church (even though they say they'll come!) and at most of the appointments we set up they aren't there so we've been trying to find lots more new people and have really seen some success. And the best part is the majority of them are references!

First I'll talk about Mirla. Mirla is the cousin of a super awesome young man in the ward named Eduardo. Eduardo is active and super strong but only him and his mom are members in the house that they live in. We had set up an appointment to visit Eduardo a bunch of his non-member freinds that were interested in the Book of Mormon but his friends never showed up. We waited for a little bit talking to Eduardo and then right when we were about to leave his cousin Mirla walked into theh room and said she wanted to listen and had a TON of questions. So we responded her questions and ended up reading 3 Nephi 11 with them and invited her to be baptized if she received an answer and she accepted! And she said she'd come to church with Eduardo and his mom on Sunday. So we're hoping all goes as planned and she'll be able to get baptized next month.

Also the bishops nephew, this guy named Oscar, came to church on Sunday! We had read Ether 12 with him and his grandma and talked about faith and invited him to come to church and he said he was actually already going to come because a member friend had invited him and he came with white shirt and tie and everything! We haven't invited him to be baptized yet but are definitely going to be working with him a lot more to help him accept and live the Restored Gospel.

Also yesterday we taught this young couple that we met in a Noche de Hogar (Night of Home meaning Family Home Evening) named Erika and Jefry and we honestly didn't think they would progress that much but we decided to stop by yesterday because all of our other appointments fell through and they were home and they listed and Erika had even read the pamphlet! When we asked about what they knew about prophets she said "yeah like William Smith was a prophet and those three guys put their hands on his head" haha so we explained that his name was Jose Smith but it was cool because she actually read what we had left with them! They also are really excited about learning more and accepted baptismal invitations as well. A lot of people will accept commitments and invitations but I've noticed that it's harder to get them to keep their commitments. But they're gonna need to do that to stay active in the Church and more importantly to become who Heavenly Father wants them to become through His plan.

That's about it for this week but I just wanted to finish showing how I've been marking my scriptures in now the almost 10 months in the field.

So chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel has 5 lessons, each with a different color . The Restoration (blue), The Plan of Salvation (orange), The Gospel of Jesus Christ (green), Commandments (purple), and Laws and Ordinances (yellow). So it's taken a while and I'm not all the way done yet but I've been marking and tabbing scriptures for each of these lessons according to their colors. Each lesson also has priniples and so I have a primary scripture for each principle. So if I want a scripture for the Restoration, priniple 7 which is the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, in my head I would think R-7 or Blue 7 and go to the seventh blue tab.

Which takes me to John 10:16

And up top I have written down other scriptures that have to do with the Book of Mormon to use (but that don't have tabs because I don't use them as much) with a little key word so I know what it talks about. for instance Isaiah 29:4 - polvo (which means dust) if I want to talk about how the Book of Mormon speaks from the dust after talking about the "other sheep". So I have one or two tabs with principle sciptures for each principle of each lesson in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible. I haven't tabbed all the principle scriptures yet but I have all the scriptures maked for all the lessons and just started for lesson 5.

It was my MTC teacher Juinor who actually showed us this, which is what he used on his mission and I thought it was pretty genius so I copied it and it has helped a lot to get to my scriptures better and to learn the gospel better through the scriptures.

There is no doubt in my mind thar Christ lives and that He directs His restored Church. He brought forth the Book of Mormon through His prophet Joseph Smith as an evidence of the Restoration so we could learn of our divine potential and realize that through His gospel. For one who takes the time they can know it to and so I invite all of you to put in the time and after you have a testimony don't let it die! Keep feeding and bearing your testimony because if you don't you'll loose it!

Con mucho Amor - Elder Wride

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9 months - Semana Santa

We didn't hear from Joseph on Wednesday, didn't know why, but weren't worried. I should have known it was because of Easter!
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           Subject: Semana Santa                             

Semana Santa

Hey everybody! Well this week is a very special week because as you all know coming up is easter weekend. Well here in Latin America they go all out. This whole week is known as Holy Week (Semana Santa) and almost everyone gets work and school off and goes on vacation. I wasn't here last year during Semana Santa but everyone said it was one of the hardest and hottest weekends in the mission. Not even the members are home and apparently it was super hard and improductive. So this year they changed our p-day from wednesday to friday and yesterday we watched all of those safety zone videos. Also transfers were on tuesday and President really threw a curveball. He took both of the sisters in Jutiapa 1 out and sent Hermana Mosqueda back, who went to the cap 3 weeks ago for some hospital stuff, and also sent two Elders to open up Jutiapa 3! So now there are 3 companionships in the ward! Aaand we had to split the boundaries into 3 areas, which means we are handing our closest investigator Jahaira to the new Elders but I think I'll be doing the interview for her in a couple weeks here. And we here in Jutiapa 2 are looking for more new people to teach.

There is a pic below of the new zone when we went out to lunch yesterday at a place called Pollo Campero!

Elder Cardona is taking the picture is here from Guatemala, from the capitol! He's a super good guy and is opening Jutiapa 3 training! His kid is Elder Calero from Nicaragua who is the closest on the left. Behind him is one of our new zone leaders named Elder Maldonado who is from Retalhuleu Guatemala which is on the other side of the count. Behind him is Hermana Mendez also from Reu. Then are two sisters from Peru, Hermana Modesto and Hermana Huaranca, Then the girl Hermana Mendez is training named Hermana Quiñonez and the new sister training leaders in Jutiapa, Hermana Mosqueda (who left for the cap 3 weeks ago and is back now) and Hermana Samaniego who Hermana Mosqueda trained like a long time ago and now they're sister training leaders together so that's cool! Then there's me and Elder Gomez who is from Idaho and is going to stay in the zone as a zone leader. It's a good zone and a little bit bigger now with 14 missionaries now instead of 12.

And my new companion is Elder Castillo from Mexico!

Also fun fact he is exactly 2 weeks older than I am. We've only had a couple days together but he seems like a super great guy and I'm excited to keep working with him! The area that he is coming from is the area that Elder Bingham went to in the capitol. So Elder Castillo is now my 11th companion! And I've learned a lot from all of them. And it's kinda funny that I have more companion than months in the mission (10 months in a week). 

As far as the work goes like I said it's super exciting that Jutiapa has 3 pairs of missionaries now and the goal is that pretty soon Jutiapa and the surrounding branches can turn into it's own stake! Don't know how soon that will happen but that is the goal. A lot of it will be determined by the stake conference in a couple weeks with a seventy general authority so we'll see what happens! Jutiapa, a department of Guatemala (which is like a state) is part of the same stake as a another department of Japala, which is like a little over an hour north so it would be really good if Jutiapa was it's own stake!

We have been working a lot with Jahaira especially in helping her get to know the youth leaders and were super happy because she came to a mutual activity on tuesday which was really good because we introduced her to Elder Cardona and Elder Castillo who are the missionaries for her area now. Another person we've been trying to work with a lot is named Carlos who is married to a less-active lady. We were disappointed that he didn't come to conference and then we could never find them in their house but when we stopped by last night he was there and we had a really good lesson! The biggest thing that's stopping him from getting baptized is that he doesn't come to church which is because he doesn't have a set job and so sometimes he's doing stuff on sundays and can't come but we promised him that if he makes the time to come to church and read the Book of Mormon every day then the Lord will help him find a good job. And he said he would come this Sunday which is especially good because it's Easter Sunday!

Which leads into what I wanted to end with this week. This is easter weekend and I'd like to invite you all to share "The Living Christ" with someone not of our faith! The most important day in the history of the world was when Jesus Christ was resurrected. THAT is when he conquered death (spiritual and physical death) and allowed us to go back to our Heavenly Father's presence. It is the most importnat event in the history of mankind and because of its importance I invite you all to make this Easter Sunday special and also help someone else learn about Him by sharing "The Living Christ" with them.

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9 months - Conferencia General

Joseph called later in the day again, so it was cray at home cause I was trying to get dinner ready and kids were all around and Peter wanted to be fed, but it was fun for the kids to be able to talk to Joseph. I took a break to try and listen -

It was hard to hear him again, even though he just bought new headphones and a mic.

We had to concentrate to hear, which was hard with all the kids home. We went from Google hangouts to Skype, but the quality didn't improve much.

I told him to smile for the camera -

There's our happy missionary!

We told him to tell everyone else in the cafe to shut up, but he didn't think he should do that.

We were able to talk about Conference a little, but mostly we were trying to figure out how to hear him. This is what I heard Ethan say during their conversation: "What?" pause "WHAT?" pause "WHAT?!" pause "WHAT?!" so yeah, I'm going send some headphones in the next package, but I think it's mostly the cafe, it needs less chatty people in it and it needs carpet. It will be better when/if he goes back to the city and can call from a stake center like he did at Christmas. Here's his letter this week!

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        Subject: Conferencia Genearl              

Hey Hey everybody!!

Another great week here in Jutiapa!! It rained super hard on Friday and yesterday and is raining right now! I think we are getting into the rainy season in Guatemala but in Jutiapa is a lot drier than in other parts of Guatemala so the lot of rain is unexpected but welcomed.

Conference was SO good! I hope you all watched it and whether you watched it or didn't watch it you should watch it again! We were focusing a lot on trying to get people to come to general conference and had a lot of people who said they were going to come and were just inviting EVERYONE and then Saturday and no one came. And two people came on Sunday and that was it. But the good news is that one of the guys that came was that bus contact from last week who lives in a far out little village (not the preacher guy) and he loved it! He has been reading the Book of Mormon and said he will come next week too! So that was a super awesome miracle. As far as in between conference sessions we were passing by people to remind them to come or to see why they didn't come. They had a ton of different excuses ranging from making cheese to last minute family reunions to visiting sick family or to getting sick themselves but we are working hard here and really trying to be exactly obedient and I know we are going to see a lot more miracles here in Jutiapa. I know that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God and that if we follow him and the other church leaders they will lead us to Jesus Christ.

We also had interviews with President Shumway this past week which are always awesome. This is the last week before changes. I doubt I'll go anywhere and I don't think anyone in the district will leave either. But if it does I'll send a pic with the new district!

Here in Guatemala there are a lot of people that carry stuff like pots and furniture and really anything you could think of through the street selling them. And this morning there was a guy selling hammocks and he was having a hard time selling any so he gave me a super good deal which was nice since I was thinking about getting a hammock anyways.

Also there is a crepe place here that we went to and ate as a district after district meeting on Monday and it is sooo good. This looks like a stock photo but it's not. The crepe just looks that perfect.

I am so happy to be a missionary for the true and living church of Jesus Christ and know that He lives and that He directs this latter-day work. I am so blessed to be a small part of it. Love you all!!

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9 months - Cascadas de Urlanta

Two pics of our cute missionary. Still a bit hard to hear him, the internet cafe he goes to is pretty echo-y. They need carpet.

I asked for a little follow up on his thoughts last weeks email regarding Mosiah 18:30. He told me to study the phrase "Come to a Knowledge of Their Redeemer" from that verse and/or "come to a knowledge of the glory of God" from Mosiah 4:11. He's been reading and cross referencing from those verses and phrases and he said it's awesome. He got me excited! I'm glad to have some homework! Here is his email for this week:
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        Subject: Cascadas de Urlanta                     

Cascadas means waterfalls. I don't know what Urlanta means. But anyways today we woke up early and went to this waterfall place as a zone!! Except that the zone leaders couldn't come so it was even more a zone of the Relief Society! La Zona Soc Soc! But the sisters work really hard and we are grateful for them.

There wasn't a ton of water falling but it was still super cool!!

It took a long time to get there but I love nature so much!! Gods creations are really amazing and really just strengthen my testimony that He does exist and that He loves us because we are His children. This week I also wanted to share with you guys what I've learned about opening our mouth and preaching, being witnesses of God in all times, in all things, and in all places.

This week we went to visit the super pillas references we got like a long time ago that live in a place called Ayarza because they haven't been home and we haven't had time to go al the way out there. So anyways needless to say it was a long, yet slow, bus ride on a bumpy dusty rode climbing up a mountain in Guatemala. On the way up I stuck up a conversation with the guy sitting next to me and turned into a really amazing conversation! We are supposed to talk with someone on every bus ride we take. Most of the time they are 10 minutes or less and so it's just a quick contact usually. And then on the longer bus rides we usually have a little more time to talk which is great if they are actually interested and if they aren't interested then it's a long and quiet bus ride. Well so with this guy he asked where we were from and I said the United States from Utah and then I showed him a picture of the Salt Lake Temple and then started talking about the Book of Mormon and he said that it answered a TON of these questions he has. Such as where the Mayans came from and just a bunch of stuff! The Mayans by the way are the ancient Americans that lived here in Guatemala way back when. Well anyways basically all the questions he had are answered in the Book of Mormon and he asked me if we sold copies of the book and then I gave it to him for free and he promised he would read it and come to conference this weekend to listened to living prophets and apostles. It was so cool!! And then today on the way back from the waterfall place an evangelical guy got on the bus and started preaching. This is normal and actually happens almost every day. People get on and preach to the whole bus. And most of the stuff they share is really good except that they don't have the restored fullness of the gospel to give the needed context. Anyways so today after he preached he sat at the back of the bus and I just really felt like I had to talk to him. I had already contacted someone but it was an undeniable feeling that I needed to go talk to this evangelical guy at the back of the bus. So I picked up my stuff and we talked for the rest of the bus ride (more than 30 minutes) about the "other sheep" in John 10:16 because in his preaching he had read verse 15 and so it was a really good tie in. And anyways we got into a great conversation and gave him a Book of Mormon and got his contact and are gonna visit him and it was awesome! So moral of the story is that we need to open our mouth and help people come to the knowledge of the gospel because we don't know who is out there just waiting to hear what we have been sent to say.

I know that Christ directs His church and that He called Joseph Smith as a prophet to restore His church in these latter-days, that the Book of Mormon is our most powerful conversion tool (for us and for others) because it is TRUE!! Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God and to get ready for this weekend I'd like to end with a quote by Elder Utchdorf that relates to truth.

"The thing about TRUTH is that it exists beyond belief. It is TRUE even if nobody believes it."

Happy conference weekend!!

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