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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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