Experience With a Pastor of Another Church

Well hi family! How`s everything going up there in The US of A? As always I`m glad to hear you guys are doing good and were able to see some of the family even though it wasn`t the best circumstances for them. I hope they`re doing ok now. Also Mom I`m glad to hear you were able to use my experience with the Pastor (good story coming up about him). Also glad to hear your lessons seem to be going good. The Apostasy and Restoration are some of the most interesting topics to me down here in the mission. So on to the week cause I don`t have a ton of time.

So anyway I`ll start by updating you about some investigators. __________, (the boyfriend of a member) is progressing really well. I think we`re planning to put a baptismal date with him this week and he`s already been to church three times so we don`t have to worry about that. He really likes everything and I`m almost positive he likes it for himself and not his girlfriend. 

Also we have __________ (the daughter in Familia ________) and she has a baptismal date for the 11th of May. I really think she`ll be ready and I`m super excited for her. Her family doesn`t want to progress so we`re thinking we`re only going to baptize her. 

Ok on to _________ and his family. This is where the story of the Pastor comes in. We had an appointment with them Jueves to clear up some of the doubts and watch the Joesph Smith movie in the Bishop`s house with them. We passed by his house to bring them and he same out of some other house and said he was ready. But he said first my friends want to talk to you. 

Me and my comp thought nothing of it so we went with him really quick. We came in the house and guess who we met there?? Yeah the Pastor of his church. He`s only about Sean`s age and so I didn`t realize it at first. Also there was a ton of young kids there because they were having their meeting...Uh Oh right? 

So yeah we sat down and he started off by saying stuff like thanks for coming by, this is our group, and you guys are greatly mistaken. He started by attacking Joesph Smith and everything he did. "How did the plates just appear in New York?" "If I could see the plates I would believe but the magically went up into heaven?" "No one can actually see God. Only Moses cause he was special." 

So yeah stuff like that and he started attacking the doctrine of the church with stuff directly out of anti-mormon web sites. We told him specifically we weren`t going to stay long but we sat down with everyone in his congregation and opened the Bible to answer all his questions. It seriously was great because we had him read the verses and he couldn`t say anything against them half the time. 

There was one point he denied something specifically and we read a verse. He realized the verse disagreed with him so he refused to read it haha. He skipped over it and read the next one but finally we got him to read it. It completely contradicted him. It was about a TON of different topics though everything that we talked about. We never said a single bad thing about his church but we invited everyone there to find out for themselves. We invited the Pastor to preach his own religion and stop lying. We bore our testimonies and left because we knew we probably shouldn`t stay a long time. 

The best part (well just funny) is we left with the two boys from his congregation to the Bishop`s house to watch the movie. We also found out later when we weren`t there they were using the Book of Mormon in that group and completely defending it! They left the Bishop`s house super excited too. They love the idea of prophets and everything. We`re hoping to get them baptized (for free) but they haven`t been able to come to church. They promised next week...we`ll see. I`m praying for that haha.

So that took all my time but I had to tell you guys cause it`s one of those experiences I`ll remember forever probably. 

We went to Mixco Viejo which was awesome Saturday. It`s cool, the ruins are preserved so nicely you can run around and climb all over them haha. I`ll try to send some pictures. Oh just found out I can`t send any. These computers have been dying and won`t read usb`s...so yeah. Hopefully soon maybe I can. 

Also if we have 20 baptisms this month in the zone we`re going to Antigua! It`s the best place for ruins in Guatemala and not even in our mission. The Stake President got permission already from President Stay so we`re all trying super hard.

Ok no time. I miss you guys a ton, the church is true, and good luck with everything. Goodbye until next week and as I said one more week closer to talking!!   

Fighting the Good Fight

Well hi there family.

So I`m just going to start by saying this week is going to be hard. Mostly because today we don`t have P-Day. We are just writing and then leaving to go work. The reason is that this Saturday we`re going to have a zone P-Day. We had to get special permission because we`re not allowed to have zone p-days anymore cause the zones are too big. But the Stake President invited all the missionaries to go with him to some ruins that apparently are super cool. He`s going to pay for us and buy us all lunch too so I`m super excited. It`s going to be awesome. But yeah it makes this week hard cause we won`t have any to day to rest. But hey this week coming we`ll have 2 P-Days in 3 days. How cool is that?? So yeah next week I can tell you all about that.

So on to this week. Hmmmm let`s see. I I should tell you on Saturday I got my awesome package! Yeah I`ve been eating jelly beans a ton. Also I got to say I`m glad you remembered I love robin eggs. Those are like my favorite. Also my comp says thanks you for his "Conejo de Chocolate". I ended up having to give mine away to our Comedor...long story haha but I still have everything else. Also I got a bunch of letters which of course I always love (even though they`re almost all from Dad).

So let`s see if I can remember everything that happened this week. Well that shouldn`t be too hard because literally EVERYTHING fell this week. It was definitely hard. We had two baptism dates, both with Familia Barras but they both fell. They haven`t been able to come to church. The daughter is 14 and I really think she`ll get baptized but with her parents I`m not so sure. We`re working with them though so hopefully we are able to do something. 

Also we are teaching a family named Familia _______. We were invited there by the 14 year old kid _______ in the street. Apparently he really likes going to churches and stuff but hasn`t been able to be baptized ever because apparently all the churches here charge around 200 quetales to be baptized! Psh me and my comp only charge about 100...Any more than that is unreasonable. Haha ok so maybe that parts not true but it IS true about the churches here. Definitely y lame. We left them all something to read from the BoM and I think they have been able to read it. 

We ran into a problem though yesterday. We passed by their house yesterday to invite them to Stake Conference because they promised to go, (everyone but the Mom who works on Sundays), and we were talking to them because they weren`t ready. They said they didn`t want to go cause the kid talked to his Evangelical pastor about us...Yeah that`s a good idea right? So now he has a ton of weird ideas about Mormons. We tried to explain some things (most of which were blatant lies) to him but we seriously had no time so we had to leave and we`re going to explain in more detail on Thursday. I think they`ll still be open to listen to us and I think we`ll be able to repair the damage and hopefully get them baptized. 

Some of the Pastors here have no shame to lie, scare, and misguide the people against the church. They know nothing they say is true but they don`t care. As long as they keep as many people in their congregation as possible. That`s one of the many things I love so much about this church. We are actually taught to never say anything bad about other church`s. Although we truly believe our church is true, everyone here has their agency and don`t have to be part of this church. I think that is one piece of evidence the church is true. It`s not founded from men, so it`s not just all about numbers and competition. We are just honestly here to bring people the Gospel. they can accept it or reject it and it`s sad if the reject it but hey what more can we do? We don`t have to lie to make our church look better than others. So yeah that`s been my thoughts this week. Seriously that`s pretty much all that happened. We just contacted (with no success) and walked all over the place to appointments that fell. Kinda sad but that`s life in such a small area I guess. Seriously it`s tough, but hey that`s not an excuse...well I guess it is in fact...an excuse to work harder haha.

Alright so nothing else really. this week things went a little better with me and my comp but still there are...desafios would be the word. I seriously loving the mission and the time is going so insanely fast. Seriously it`s crazy that Mothers day is coming up. Ok, well that`s my e-mail this week. The church is true and glad to hear everything is still good in Oregon. Ok Bye Bye.

PS - I feel like Grandma and a lot of other people have questions that I haven`t answered...So yeah Mom you should just send me an e-mail next week with some of them so I can answer them. They can write them on the Blog or something I don`t know...but yeah. Ok Bye.

Conference in Guatemala

Moving

Here I am again! Another week and a ton to go.

Glad to hear everything is still normal in Oregon. I just need to start by saying eewwwwww. Alright Curtis you are completely justified for not liking what they were doing to the cows. That`s pretty disgusting...but hilarious at the same time. Still you have no excuse to go vegetarian if the thought ever entered your mind alright? Ok good.

So that`s cool about the band concert. Good job Curtis rocking it up in the first Trumpet spot. Even though you're only in concert band at least you're the best there right? Man I actually miss band. Good times. Also yeah Mom Colton Brooks was with me his Freshman and Sophomore year. He`s pretty good but Curtis please tell Colton for me that I say FRESHMAN! Ha alright thanks. (Make sure that message gets to him buddy). 

Also glad you guys enjoyed conference  It seriously was awesome! We got to watch all of the five sessions. And the nice part was we were able to watch them all in.....ENGLISH!!! That made me pretty happy. I've had to watch some devotionals like that in Spanish and I hate to say it but it seriously isn't the same. Even if I can completely understand it it just is missing something. 

Remember the Old, Tiny Bathroom?

But seriously it was good this week. The testimonies of I think Boyd K. Packer and Henry B. Eyring were the most powerful I've ever heard. It was crazy. The church is true! It`s just things like that the translators just can never get quite right. But yeah so I've been studying my 13 pages of notes a lot lately haha.  Next conference I'll have more than a year! Only two left in my mission...weird. Ok but I'm not counting down the days until I come home or anything. It`s just crazy how fast two years really is. 

Alright so for the week. This week was alright. Are numbers weren't the absolute best but we worked. This area is definitely hard considering how small it is. I can walk the entire thing in about 15-20 minutes. So yeah definitely not the biggest in the mission. I seriously love it though. The temperature is always awesome and never too hot. And we seriously are starting to get somewhere with some people I think. 

We went to an investigator this week who I've met maybe once or twice before. She`s from missionaries before me and she has a super strong testimony. She knows the church is true and same with her daughter. She's prayed and she told us about this awesome experience when she got her answer. She`s just...scared maybe would be the word for it. She won`t get baptized! She knows all the lessons and has been to church but just doesn't want to get baptized. She`s married and everything too. But we visited her and had an awesome lesson about prophets and invited her to conference  Me and my comp are going to start going and teaching her again cause she seriously has a testimony. I want her to be baptized so bad. 

Well, Here's the New Bathroom - Much Better!

So who else. The husband of the member might have been there. We passed by early to bring him but his wife said they were going to go but just needed to finish something up. I looked for them but couldn't see them in the midst of all the people. I`m thinking they could`ve been there but we're going to stop by in order to find out. Also we met someone new there and the same night we had an FHE with him in the house of a member. It went awesome and we taught the Plan of salvation cause I guess someone in his family died pretty recently  I think he liked it and we have an appointment with him tomorrow. Ok so that`s the week I think. Well all the best parts. Still looking for more people!

Oh yeah so this was cool. Remember my house and how I didn't fit into the bathroom and everything? Well we moved!! Yeah the new house is nice. It`s actually smaller a little bit but has a huge bathroom. So that`s nice. Also it`s alot cheaper. Oh and it`s not connected to a bar so I don`t wake up at 3 every morning and listen to people puking right outside our door. So yeah it`s nice. If I have time I'll send a picture or two. So that`s pretty much it. I miss you guys but I'll see you in a bit. Seriously two years is nothing. It`s already April! Weird.

Alright so bye everyone. Have a good week and next week I'll tell you all about the ruins we're going to today. That should be fun. Ok bye again.

P.S. The General Authority that's from Guatemala that spoke on Sunday everyone here knows! He's from the last area of my zone leader. Cool right? His talk was awesome and hilarious too. 

Elder Romero from Nicaragua

Elders Romero and Layton at la Capilla

Hi there family!

So yeah as the subject of my e-mail says there`s a good surprise this week. (And no it`s not a lame April Fools Day joke like Briana`s). Remember my comp Elder Villacis? Yeah well he`s not here anymore. Luckily it wasn`t me that was changed but we had emergency changes. So yeah Elder Villacis was sent really far away from here in a huge area that`s really hot. It`s kinda by Cuilapa. But yeah so I`m here and I received Elder Romero. He has 13 and a half months in his mission and is from Nicaragua. We also are both Senior comp...So yeah that`s interesting. 

This week was actually really hard. It`s called Semana Santa and everyone....and yeah I mean EVERYONE leaves. So a ton of our members were gone so we couldn`t really work with a lot of them. Also contacting was a pain cause we had to knock like 5 doors for 1 contact. But hey this coming week will be awesome...I think. We taught some good lessons this week and found a lot more houses of members so now it will be easier to work with them. I`m really trying to work as hard as we can cause I want to have success here. We`re going to make Boulevard the best area in Milagro even though it`s by far the smallest.

Ok so what else this week? Oh yeah yesterday I spoke in church! I would actually have to say that it went really good! I think the people liked it and after people came up to us to give us references  So yeah that went good but right after was horrible. About 30 seconds before the next class I was told I had to teach it! It seriously didn`t go the best but hey maybe someone was able to enjoy it. So that`s everything that happened in iglesia. It was good. 

Afterwards we just visited some members (including the member whose husband isn`t a member). On the way there some drunk guys threw a huge water balloons at us and we got kinda wet. It was lame but hey the life of missionaries right? So yeah we got to the house there and to her husband we taught the Plan of Salvation. It was really interesting. It went awesome until we got to the resurrection  He told us that we were wrong and it is impossible to receive our bodies again after this life. He said the resurrection means the Spirit goes to live with God. And he said only Jesus could receive his body again cause he was perfect. It was interesting cause I`ve never heard that one before. We shared some scriptures with him and he ended up saying "Wow maybe you`re right. But I`ve always thought of it this way before." But we told him to pray about it and he said he would. Also he`s coming with us to General Conference with us which should be good. I`m sooooo excited for conference!! Weird it`s already here again. 

Ok so anyways enough rambling. I`m glad to hear you guys had a good week. That`s cool you guys went to the Ranch but just have the question of what is it they do to cows that Curtis doesn`t like? That`s kinda weird. Curtis if you ever turned vegetarian or anything like that just know I would disown you probably... Ok maybe not I would just enjoy meat in front of you mmmmmmm. Also Briana that`s crazy about the drug bust and explosion! At least you guys are all ok but that`s way cool. (I mean cool they caught the bad guys). 

Well thanks Mom for the photos and the package! I`m way excited to get it and eat all the candy. I mean they pretty much have the same candy everywhere here but it`s just waaayyy expensive. I could get a hersheys bar or three big watermelons...hmmmm which do you think I`m going to buy? So yeah. That`s the week and everything is going good. Hope you`re enjoying Oregon for me. Adios