13 months - Nueva Casa

Hyrum and Joseph talked this morning, Hyrum was sharing how much he loved EFY this past week at BYU, so much that he's kinda depressed to be back. He wishes he could wake up and be back at EFY. Joseph said "Do you know what's even better than EFY? A mission!!" Hyrum's reply made me laugh "Yeah, but EFY was easy, and a mission is hard!" To quote Kip Dynamite "That's true, that's true..."
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      Subject: Nueva Casa          
Alright so we changed houses this week! It was actually pretty tiring but we are getting settled in now and our new house isn't humid like the last one which is nice. We have to climb up some stairs to leave everyday to leave the house though but it will give us some good exercise. After we finished moving Elder Tercero said that he is never going to change houses again in his mission.

Other than that in teaching this week it was super great! Salomon is reading the Book of Mormon and finished 1 Nephi this week. He said that if it he feels what he feels when he reads the bible then he will know it is true. We are praying hard for him. Also Rigoberto came to church again and hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon that much so we read with him and his son Junior. We won't be able to visit them this week though because they will be "de viaje". We had a lot of people not come to church this week though. Actually Rigoberto was the only one that came (in both wards) so it was pretty disappointing but we are working on being more direct with people and getting them to commit to come and help them follow through.

We also had a great visit with a guy named Luis this week. We found him while ago but he can only visit on Sundays and sometimes they leave on Sundays but we taught him and his wife again this week and I think there is a lot of potential. He really wants to keep all the commandments and so, in addition to teaching about the restoration, we taught about the 10 commandments, the 2 greatest commandments, and the higher law that Christ taught. They are a great family.

I wanted to talk a little bit about prayer. When we pray we can literally open the heavens. There is a part in Chapter 4 of Preach my gospel about praying with faith that you should all read. I know that if we knock, He will answer!

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12 months - Encontramos Oro

Joseph called this morning and we told him a little about out trip to Yellowstone this past weekend. The kids were passing around the phone but then he had to get off but said he'd get on later...

and when he called later, Corey and I were both away from our phones and we missed it! Sorry Joseph! But I didn't get his email, so then I logged on and sent his draft. But he got on again and said he was waiting to upload his pics cause the other computer had a virus, so he did send some. Yay, not of his face though, so I'm glad I got the screenshots. He really does seem like he's doing so good and is so happy. We really love seeing him each week.
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    Subject: Fuimos buscando cobre y encontramos oro    

Hola a todos!!

Well we have had a super great week here in Santa Marta, and in Florida.

Yesterday some stuff fell through so we went to go look for some members on the ward register list in Florida to get to know them better. And when we knocked on this one house a girl named Katherin answered and was like "hey mom the Elders are here". The member we were looking for wasn't there BUT apparently the other family that lives in that house are members but they are a little less active and moved to the ward a while ago but they don't know any members. The girl who answered the door told us that her whole family is baptized but she was rebellious and never wanted to. But now she wants to get baptized! We ended up teaching them and reading from the Book of Mormon about repentance and it was a great lesson. We also got to give a blessing to the grandma who is sick. It was exactly where we needed to be! So she is going to come to church this week and is gonna start reading the Book of Mormon and is actually super pilas. When we left Elder Tercero said "fuimos buscando cobre y encontramos oro" meaning we were looking for copper and we found gold! So true though.

Also good news about Rigoberto is that he came to church again this week and this time with his son Junior and they are reading from the Book of Mormon as well. We don't see any big challenges with them so far and are super excited about that. What happens a lot is that the pilas people we find have other defaios such as they need to get married or they need to get divorced from someone else and then get married. Or they don't want to leave their evangelical roots or read the Book of Mormon but so far we haven't found any problem like that and we are hoping it stays that way!

Juan is about 20-30 days from getting his papers completely done and figured out so he can get married and then they will be able to get baptized. Last night we had a great lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and watched "How rare a possession: The Book of Mormon" which is a quality church movie. I would recommend watching it to each of you. Basically it has the stories of how Parley P. Pratt and Francesco Di Vincenzo (or something like that) found the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of it. It's an oldie but a goodie. And we set a goal with them to finish reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days. We are hoping that they get baptized at about the same time as Rigoberto and this new Katherin girl we found yesterday. 

Elder Tercero hits a month on the 19th so we got pizza.

Also we have been practicing some English but we have stuff about the people we are teaching on the whiteboard so we have been using the fridge as a whiteboard to help him learn English.

We are going to be changing houses this week as well because our house right now is really humid and doesn't smell the greatest. I have actually gotten used to it by now but last week a member told us that they are renting the house next to them so the zone leaders checked it out and approved it and we are going to be moving in this week.

I have been studying more in Preach my Gospel this week, comparing the differences in the old version and the new version, and it is SO insightful you have no idea! There are some very cool and very interesting differences that I really love. If you haven't gotten the chance to study the new preach my gospel yet I would highly recommend it. 

That is about it for the work here in Guate but I am super happy right now and we are working hard here. Love you all!!!

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I read emails that Joseph and Ethan sent each other today - A funny part was this that Ethan wrote to Joseph and Joseph's reply -

Ethan: Owen and Daniel are in the phase where they like pointing at people and saying "You're fat!" or "You're stupid!". It's funny though because when they say "you're stupid" they say it more like "your're dupid". We're trynna get them to say compliments but we need to find words that sound like insults to them. Owen now will go "You're awesome! You're cool! You're fat!" all at once. It's pretty funny

Joseph: i approve of teaching Owen and Daniel good words. You should teach them "I know the Book of Mormon is true!"

Ethan read that and then said to me "He's such a missionary..." Haha

12 months - Fanta Mloridarta

Joseph sent these pictures today of him and missionaries from his zone in a touristy part of Antigua with a volcano in the background - 

Joseph is the last one on the right

All the pics mostly the same but slightly different...

When he called today he was able to talk with Wes and Natalie a little bit, Natalie asked him why he had to got to a mission with a volcano. We are going to Yellowstone tomorrow with my family and Corey showed the little girls a video about volcanos to teach them how Yellowstone was formed and now they are worried for all of our safety and Joseph's too. Natalie wants to go on a mission to Brazil where there are not volcanos. She's cute. She also asked him why he had to go on a mission. He said there are people who don't know about Jesus so he went to go teach them. It was cute to listen to them talk.
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     Subject: Santa Marta + Florida = Fanta Mloridarta   

Buenos días a todos!!

So this week has been really great and some of the highlights are all the people we have been finding. Yesterday we taught this guy who is 21 named Luis and he is SO PILAS!! He told us he had visited with the missionaries before and that he wanted to learn more about the prophet. So we taught lesson 1 and he understood everything and is going to read the Book of Mormon! He is s super bright kid and I'm excited to see his progress. The only thing that could be a problem is that he usually leaves on the weekends with his family but the good thing is that he doesn't work or study on the weekends and said that he will come to church soon. Also we finally got a lesson with this lady named Aura and her Daughter Madelin who are references from a member but the hard thing is that whenever we pass by them or set up an appointment something happens and we can't go but last night we taught them with some members and when we started to read from the Book of Mormon with them Madeline had already downloaded the gospel library! She actually said she did it "hace ratos"(meaning a while ago). So we are hoping she will read and start coming to church too.

Speaking of church we didn't have anyone in church this week which was sad. Things just came up and even though people said they would come they weren't there when we passed by before church or they just didn't show up. So we are going to focus on that a lot this week and are going to do all we can so that people will come to church!

And these past couple of days we have been especially busy because we now are going to cover 2 areas! The area we are in is Santa Marta but across the main street is another area called Florida. They go to church in our same building so it will be nice and like 9 months ago they were combined because they are both smaller areas. So our area is bigger now and we also have a lot more members to work with!

Also yesterday Elder Tercero had to go to the immigration offices and so we woke up suuuper early and I saw Elder Castillo there! He was in Jutiapa when we had the mission change so he ended up going to the east mission but now he is in the capital. We talked a little bit about how thing were in Jutiapa and he said that a guy we found in our last week there and came to church that sunday named Jairo (Jairo junior because his dad is also named Jairo) is progressing a lot and indexed a bunch of named for a family history activity and that he is preparing to be baptized. His dad is progressing too but hasn't come to church as much because he has been really sick. So we just chilled at the area offices while our comps were at immigrations and a member invited us to eat in a cafeteria nearby and then after Elder Tercero got back he was really hungry so we went back and as we were finishing up another guy there (probably a member) paid for our food. Haha so I got two free breakfasts!

And I also got this cool new scripture case for a small quad!

It has Tikal on the front (aka the temple in the land of bountiful) and Moroni burying the plates on the back with some typica material on the sides. And on the bottom it says Elder Wride Misión Guatemala Sur -> Antigua because we just switched missions!

I know that Christ lives and guides this, His restored church. I know that if we read and study and live what we learn from the Book of Mormon every day then we will be happier and have continual peace in our lives even though things might be hard.

Love you all!!

12 months - Third Time's the Charm!

Well we love Joseph!

On the phone call today he was able to wish Natalie a happy birthday.

Here's his letter:
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          Subject: Third Times the Charm                 

Well guess what! I am training again! So I guess the third times the charm! Also something kinda funny is that my new companions name is Elder Tercero meaning Elder Third! Coincidence? I think not. He is from Nicaragua and is super great!

Also happy fourth of July to all of you!

and on the 6th (a couple days late) the lady who makes our lunch made us hamburgers and they were soooo good.

This week I also went on divisions with Elder Anderton who is from Bountiul.

And we found 3 new people to teach that day and one of them who is named José didn't cancel on us when we went to visit him again and is really super receptive. He understands what we are teaching really well and is willing to read and learn more. We need him to come to church but hopefully I'll send a picture of him dressed in white soon!

Also there is a couple we are teaching named Sergio and Karen and they are very catholic but also very nice. They are references form their neighbor who used to be the bishop and he has been working with them for a long time actually just ministering to them and sharing the gospel is simple and natural ways. The sad thing is that every appointment we have set up with them for a little over a week has fallen though. Like last night when we went their light went out and so we will have to go back Thursday. BUT the good thing is that they have been reading the Book of Mormon and he didn't have that many questions because his neighbor has already answered most of them! The neighbor, Juan Carlos, went by the other day to ask him something that would have taken 5 minutes but saw that he was reading El Libro de Mormon and then they ended up talking about it for an hour and a half! It was sweet and we are super stoked and are gonna keep working with them.

Also Kimberly came to church!! Por FIN!! And she has been reading the Book of Mormon but doesn't want to go to any young womens activities. So any tips to help her go and get more involved in the ward? She says she doesn't want to go because she doesn't like big groups. So we will see what happens there.

Also something kinda weird is that the new offices are in the Montserrat stake where I started my mission and the financial secretary area for the Antigua mission is in Lo de Coy! So I've been asking how all those people have been but because they've had to open up a new mission and all that they haven't been in the area as much as normal.

That's about it for this week 

12 months - La Nueva Misión Antigua

We had a nice little chat with Joseph today. He is in his new mission as of Monday - a new mission but an old mission - cause Antigua is Spanish for ancient! ha, little joke there. I'm going to leave in the typo in Joseph's letter of his spelling of ancient. That's what happens on a foreign mission, you start to lose a little bit of your native tongue.

 And he said he was on splits with this Elder...

...who is going home next week, and Joseph has already arranged for him and Melodie to go on a date, haha. Also, he saw a sign that asked "Do you speak English" but it was spelled "duyus pikin gles" Funny. Here is his first week of his new mission!
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    Subject: La Nueva Misión Antigua      

Hey hey hey!!!

So a lot of big and exciting events this week!!! First off I hit a year on Thursday... so that's SUPER weird. And we are now officially part of the Guatemala Antigua Mission!!!!

We met our new Mission President and wife, President Barney and Hermana Barney, on Monday. Today we also went to ANTIGUA!!  

Antigua means anchient (which is funny because the antigua mission is new... but its also old). And the city Antigua is this super old and touristic city in Guatemala. It is about 30 minutes away from my first area (which was on the edge of the capital) and about 50 minutes away from my area right now. Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala until there was an earthquake and then they moved the captial to Guatemala Valley, where it is now. But there are a ton of tourists in Antigua. Like we saw so many canches there! Here are some sweet pictures in famous parts of Antigua!

And another big highlight of the week was when we went to the temple with Valeska (who just barely got baptized) to do baptisms for the dead.

It was super great and it was awesome! The spirit was really strong and she felt so much peace in the temple and was really just able to forget about things that are going on in her life. We also started some family history work with her! We are planning on watching the Restoration movie with them tonight.

Also this week I was on divisions with Elder Bludworth and Elder Snow who are both finishing their missions next week! They are both super great examples to me with obedience and working hard and I hope I can be like them by the time I finish my mission.

This week we had a lot of people at church too!! It was a great miracle!!

We had the Mendoza family, who are still waiting on their papers but they are closer and closer to get their papers so they can get married but are still waiting on the word from Mexico so he can go there and get it all worked out. We also had Galilea (who is super pilas and is reading Saints and the Book of Mormon) and her mom Elsa. They both really liked it but we haven't been able to visit them since Sunday. And we also had this kid named Luis come! We have been working with him for a couple weeks and he and a friend of his who is less active named Kevin have said that they will come to church a bunch of time and never come. And we even pass by to go get them and they aren't there. So this week we taught them again and they said, again, that they will come to church but I told them I wasn't convinced. So Elder Chan and I made them a deal that if they came to church this week then we would buy them a pizza and that if they didn't then they had to buy us a pizza hahaha well Luis came!! Kevin didn't but so last night we ate pizza with Luis and the best part is that he actually really liked church and how he felt! He said his favorite part was the sacrament and we are hoping he will keep coming!

That is about it for this week! And just to end with a spiritual thought, this is something our new Mission President shared with us.

In the Doctrine and Covenants 31:3, it says, ¨Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.” And in verse 5, “Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.”

The Lord gives us great promises if we serve Him and not just giving our time (2 years or 18 months) but if we give Him all we have He will make a lot more out of our life and mission than we can on our own.

Also my mom sent me the new Preach My Gospel in English (because it doesn't exist in Spanish yet) and I have been comparing it with the 2004 version and it there are a lot of little modifications that make for a TON of interesting spiritual insights. I invite you all to do it if you have not already.

Les amo mucho!!

12 months - ONE YEAR TODAY!!

Well we've reached a milestone... Joseph's been gone one year today! He flew out on June 26, 2018. Crazy, so today marks we're half way!
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     Subject: Adelante Nos Vamos     

Adelante nos vamos!!

Well this week was a great one! It is officially our last week in the Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission. On Friday President Barney and his wife get here making it the offical change. But even though the mission is changing the work stays the same! It's actually so awesome to be here in Guatemala (which is actually a pretty tiny country when you see it on a map) when the country gets it's 7th mission! Super exciting stuff!!

Because of the mission addition they are also changing the limits to a lot of missions and so President has let missionaries go and say goodbye to converts that are in areas that are changing missions on pday (something missionaries normally only do in their last transfer) with less time because after the mission change they wont be able to. And in interviews a little while ago with President he said I could take advantage of saying that to visit Mario who is in Lo de Coy and needed some animo. Lo de Coy is also going to the Antigua mission so I'm sure I'll pass by there a bunh more times but so this morning I went with an Elder Altamirano in the district to go visit Mario. The purpose of it is to strengthen the recent converts and help them to stay firm and faithful in the church. Mario has been going through a lot of stuff and it's been a hard past few months but he's doing better now and we had a great visit.

We were in the shade but the sun was still SUPER bright.

Also on the way back we were walking and this family in a car waved at us and yelled Ëlderes!"and we waved but didnt think much of it. But then they kept yelling and waving us over and then pulled over. And they gave us some KRISPY KREME DONUTS!!! It was Mana from heaven!! We were super hungry so I ate both donuts kind of fast. I should have savored them a little more but it TOTALLY made our day.

Galilea and her family is progressing a little bit. They didnt come to church (even though they said they would) but later that day we were able to read from the Book of Mormon with them and it was awesome! Except for Galilea, they havent been reading, so we really wanted to focus on that. Also every time we go there they give us food. Like literally every single time. And its great but what has happened a couple times is that we are eating and then we only have time to share a quick little thing but arent able to focus as much on them and their needs. So we are trying to focus more on teaching them and spend less time eating with them so that they can become converted to Jesus Christ.

And Juan is still waiting on the papers to get married. As soon as he gets the green light he is going to go to Mexico to get the papers all figured out and it will be super fast and then they'll be able to get married and baptized. They are super pilas though!! Like they participate in sunday school and everything and its awesome. And I probably mentioned this but they speak perfect english.

Other than that we have just been working hard here. Trying to find more people to teach and help them keep commitments. A lot of stuff fell through this week but we were able to find some people who we really think will progress. Two of them we found by accident looking for a reference that didnt live there. But they let us teach them and we're excited for our followup appointments.

The title of this week means basically forward we go and its something that President Shumway says a lot. Like at the end of every monday letter and at the end of interviews and its a phrase I really love. So the title is a tribute to President Shumway who is not ending his mission but he wont be my mission president anymore because we are going to the new antigua mission. For those who speak spanish you will notice the funny paradox there. Love you all!!

Also here is a picture of me with some RAID cuca (a cuca is short for cucaracha which means cockroach). Raid (pronounced with a spanish accent) is how you pronounce my last name and since it is usually hard for people I usually say "like the spray RAID MAX" and they get it.

Have a great week!!

11 months - Half Way

Today Joseph said that he did the math, and that according to his calculations, (and if he doesn't extend his missionary service and is released on June 10th as it is currently planned...) then today is his half way mark.

Say cheese for the phone!

I sent him a package today with a few things. I mainly needed to send the package to get something to one of Joseph's old companions, Elder Aquino (...not his trainer, but his comp from when he was changed to Jutiapa at the end of January.) Looking through my emails - Joseph has mentioned it in an email Feb 6th, that Elder Aquino was asking him how much they were. So I ordered one back in February. I didn't think I'd be so busy/lazy to take 4 months to send it to him! Anyway, I finally did it today - I sent the Alphasmart for Elder Aquino (Jospeh's pretty sure he'll see him, Elder Aquino is moving to the Antigua mission too) and for Jospeh: a webcam, an illustrated Book of Mormon stories in English, a small Preach My Gospel with the current 2018 revisions, and a black rain jacket that I ran and got at Scheels. So after we were done talking to Joseph, I hurried out to run errands and get him some requests before all my babysitters leave for Youth Conference at 5pm tonight.  So I went by Walmart first to get a webcam and an AUX adapter that they didn't have. Then to Deseret Book for a new Preach My Gospel book - he said the new 2018 ones have a few great revisions that President Shumway mentioned and Joseph really wanted it. Next I went to Best Buy to see if the Adapter cord, they didn't, the guy said I won't find it in stores. Walmart and Best Buy did both have the one I didn't need (crossed out below).

Sorry Joseph! It is mostly for older desktop PCs, which is probably what they have in Guatemala, but not something in high demand here in the US, hence my inability to find it. I emailed him to try and find one there or I can order it online and send another small package.

The CTR shipping lady texted me that it will be delivered to the mission office next Tuesday, so we'll see if he gets it by next week. It's nice to have a trusted way to send things to him. Here is Joseph's letter.
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            Subject: La Casa del Señor                    

Well this week was super great! In part because we got to go to the temple twice! Something that the mission has, since the temple is in the mission, is two sister missionaries who are assigned to the temple and the ward right next to it. Other missionaries in the mission will bring people they are teaching to the temple and the sisters give a little tour around the temple and explain a lot of things about the temple and then the people (and these are people that are preparing for baptism) have the chance to enter in the reception and pray. A lot of times it's a prayer to know if they should get baptized or if they should get baptized on a specific date and the spirit in the temple is so strong and for a lot of people that is how they get their answers. So this week we did that twice. The first one on Thursday with Valeska. She just got baptized and we had actually planned in last week before she got baptized but then our ride fell through. So we went on Thursday with the ward and she had a great experience! And she had her interview and got her recommend yesterday so I'm sure we'll be going again (but this time inside) soon. 

A neighbor of Valeska came to help with the 3 little kids and she's not a member so she got the tour too and another lady named Isol also was with us on the tour even though we hadn't planned for her. She is from Nicaragua and is staying with her sister-in-law right now who is a member and brought Isol on the temple trip. She had a lot of really good questions and came to church on Sunday as well! Today or tomorrow though she goes back to Nicaragua but we already sent the reference to them and she said the church is really close to her house so hopefully she keeps learning more and gets baptized!

The second time we went this week was Saturday in the madrugada which means the early morning. We left at 4. But it was super crazy actually because the day before on Friday I had to do a baptismal interview in Paraiso (an area in the district) and there were other appointments in my area they had to go to so we did divisions. But we had to end divisions at 3:45 in the morning. Friday on divisions was also just kind of a crazy day but it all worked out. I feel like things always work out even when they don't look like they will! Anyways we went to the temple super early in the morning with Galilea and her dad Lionel. And the spirit was there and Galilea got another answer and wants to get baptized but not quite yet but her dad did't even accept the invitation to pray and ask if he should get baptized because he has already been baptized. Galilea is super pilas though. They always give us food when we visit them and Galilea also goes to institute and just started reading Saints. Like I said she's super pilas. The dad is willing to learn more and has come to church and a bunch of ward activities but what he has not done is put in his part in reading the Book of Mormon. I bet what will happen is that he will get baptized someday but it will be after Galilea gets baptized and after he actually reads the Book of Mormon. Galilea wanted to get baptized in September to have more time to prepare and also because it's closer to her birthday. After the temple though she said she wants to get baptized sooner but not so soon as the 29th of June. So we're gonna keep working with her and it was really a great experience in the temple.

Also this week we said bye to President and Hermana Shumway.

They have been SO GOOD leading the mission in the way the Savior would. He is one of the most loving people I know and it was sad to say bye to them. I'm excited to meet President Barney though! He gets to Guatemala on the 28th I think but we meet him on the 1st or 2nd. Fun fact is that his job is like combining companies and now he has to combine 4 stakes from the central mission and 4 stakes from the south mission to make the Antigua mission. So it's super cool that he has had experiences in his job and life that have prepared him to be a mission president here.

And this week my shoe opened up!

But I fixed it

And if it falls apart again it's a good thing these things have a 2 year guarantee!

Also here is a pic of Elder Thompson and I eating Mcdonalds that we ordered the night we did divisions. They literally have NO food in their house haha and it's always the worst when you do divisions and the house that you go to doesn't have food. So we ordered Mcdonalds and I ate a McNifico.

It's a little sad that as a missionary we don't get to go to the temple that much. Except that it's not that sad because we don't go because we get to preach the gospel which is THE BEST!!! But for those of you who are not full time missionaries and are close to a temple I'd like to share a quote by President Nelson that I love. "Building and maintaining temples may not change your life, but spending your time in the temple surely will." And it is SO true. I encourage you all to spend a little more time in the House of the Lord and promise that as you do the Spirit will fill your life more and you'll be happier.

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