The Gives and Takes of Missionary Service

I hope your week was good and everything even though it sounds like it was really busy.

Hitchhiking with the Police

So lets see. Of course as always this week was really good but hard at the same time. At the beginning of this week we had four baptism dates. One with _________ and the three others with _______ and his twin brothers. As of yesterday we have a total of...0. None came to church and it`s sad cause we`re almost positive they won`t progress anymore. ___________ told us that she can`t come to church. We tried to figure out why but she wouldn`t tell us. We`re thinking it`s because of what we found out about the last time. The last lesson with her we found out that her aunt and uncle are pastors in the evangelical church. So yeah we`re almost positive the Mom talked to them and they talked to her. I`m positive _________ wants to be baptized but I guess in her aunt and uncle`s church something called agency doesn`t exist. And ________ and his brothers just don`t want to listen or go to church anymore. We literally have no idea what happened with them but something changed. Definitely tough cause we`ll go over there and they`ll just leave or pretend to sleep. But I made them promise they would come to church next week. We`ll see what happens.

Service Project

Let`s see what else happened this week...Yesterday was pretty good. We got to church and we were thinking that no one was going to be there. A member showed up though with her friend! We talked to the friend and we have an appointment tomorrow with her. Want to know what else? Apparently she wants to be baptized. Hey that`s just what she said. Haha so yeah that would be cool. Also halfway through sacrament meeting guess who showed up with her kids? Hna. ___________! How cool is that? She loves church too. She always takes notes during sacrament meeting and looks up the scriptures and marks the one she likes. Later that night we had an appointment with her. We ended up bringing 5 members with us cause right now we`re just trying to get her friends with as many people as possible. We had an awesome lesson about the "Restoration". It started out as the Restoration but ended up being about faith. She loved the lesson and started to cry. I definitely can see her change every time we talk to her. Hopefully we can help her progress towards baptism. She knows it`s the thing to do, she just has a hard time believing in things she can`t see.

They built that

So lets see what else this week. Oh yeah I went on divisions with the ZL`s this week. It was super fun. We were heading to his area and he realized he didn`t have 3 quets for the bus. So what do you think he does? Yeah he gave a nice thumbs up to a police car who nicely stopped by the side of the road and let us ride with them until the area. Fun right? I must say it really freaked me out when he did it but I was laughing the whole way after. I have a nice video too. Also this week we did a ton of service. We built an entire wall for a catholic investigator. It took awhile but it was actually pretty fun.It turned out really good too and she was happy. But hey she still didn`t come to church...As for the clown Mom yes I`ve seen him as a clown many times. Also we couldn`t do service for him this week cause he has to wait 15 days to move all the dirt. 

So yeah no more time. I love you guys and hope you have a splendid week. Curtis good luck tomorrow and don`t mess up! BYE!!! 

Blessings Through Service

Well hello there once again my family! How is everything with you guys? Here in Guatemala it is pretty good.

So lets see. I got all the pictures which were cool. Bien hecho Curtis with the project and with doing all your scouts. As boring as it is sometimes it really pays off...Well I think it pays off. I haven`t really seen the benefits yet but hey maybe some day I will. Also glad to here everyone is doing alright there in the States. So on to the week, let`s see.

This week was hard but also awesome at the same time. To start no one could come to church this week. We didn't have anyone there. How lame is that? We definitely passed by a lot of houses but everyone was either sleeping or had an excuse. I was super disappointed yesterday. 

So what else. Yesterday we had another lesson with Hna. __________! We got there and first off we help her and her husband with a ton of things. She`s turning her house into a Pre-School so we helped her move a ton of stuff and the member we had with us took apart her washing machine and fixed it. So yeah she was super happy for the help. After we had a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation. I think she really liked it. I can honestly say yesterday I saw a little change in her. She told us she always tries to rationalize everything we teach and doesn't really look at it Spiritually but she told us she`s trying to look at it more spiritually and she knows that`s what she has to do. She also told us one reason she hasn't been baptized is because this is a really hard part in her life. She said she doesn't want to be baptized right now and then regret it later. She wants to do it cause she wants to but she's soooo ready to be baptized...seriously. 

Besides that this week was pretty normal. I don't know if I mentioned to you guys we're teaching the family of a clown. It`s funny. every time we go over there he gives us a magic show. He`s really good too. I get so confused sometimes. They also love when we come visit them cause they live kinda out of the way and they were super surprised when we bothered to go out there just for them. But they're a super cool family. They just haven't been able to come to church but hey maybe we can get them to come this Sunday. Tomorrow we're going over there to do a ton of service so that should be good. 

What more? We had our interviews! I have to say our Mission President is awesome. He taught me a ton of cool things. I asked him a question I've been wondering about for awhile and he gave me a really interesting answer that I've never thought about before. 

(Note: The remainder of Eric's letter contains some personal experiences. We've chosen not to include it here.)

So Want to Know a Little More Why I Was Late to Call You Guys?

So I`m thinking just now that this e-mail won`t probably be the longest considering we talked yesterday and I told you guys everything already. It`s been another tough week but not like the last one I guess.

The sign reads "Evangelical Church Fount (or Spring) of Salvation"

So lets see...Good news first always right? So we went by to see why ______ couldn`t come to church last week because we heard her Mom wouldn`t let her. What happened is the Mom fought with her a lot this week and so didn`t let her go to church. She still has no problem with her daughter being baptized as long as she doesn`t fight with her Mom as much haha. So yeah we taught them a little lesson and after we found out they speak Keksheek (Noooo idea how to spell that). It`s some language here that they only speak in a few places. I made them promise to teach it to me if I teach them English haha. So that`s going to be cool. 

So what else? Oh we were contacting somewhere and we entered the house of someone named ________. We found out that he had already talked to missionaries not a very long time ago. We taught him The Restoration and I think he liked it. He`s super Catholic though. We ended up explaining the Book of Mormon and he had a ton of questions. He asked for the name of the angel that appeared to Joesph Smith and a ton of other questions and then told us he`s going to go on internet to research it more and find out more stuff. We definitely warned him to be careful and he could easily find things that aren`t true. After that we invited him to go to Mormon.org and to study there and he said he would so that`s good.

Here I am in the miracle with you

So want to know a little more why I was late to call you guys? We had a lesson with Hna. ________ and it went actually really good. If you guys don`t remember she`s the one who has a super strong testimony and always reads and everything but doesn`t want to get baptized. But when we knocked on her door we didn`t plan on going in. We just wanted to put an appointment with her. But we ended up going in and teaching. She likes to talk to so I knew we were going to be awhile. We taught an awesome lesson though about the Holy Ghost and D&C 6:22-23. She has had doubts about how she can receive an answer and in what ways. But she told us stories when she felt the Spirit super strong so we shared those scriptures with her and we told her "what bigger testimony can we recieve than from God?" She definitely liked that and especially when we explained that she`s already felt the Holy Ghost. The problem is she`s just a super smart lady and I think she over-analyzes some things. Hopefully we can clear up the rest of her doubts.

To answer your questions Mom. I almost never ever speak English. Only Mondays when there are Gringos here. During the week though almost never. So yeah just spanish. As for my clothes a different lady washes them then our Comedor. She uses a machine too so that`s cool. All my clothes are holding up perfecting fine. The hem in a few of my pants has come out which is annoying but it`s suuuper cheap here to repair that so whatever. Shoes are good and everything else. As for my comp Mothers Day in Nicaragua I guess is the 30th so he`ll call then.  

Elder Layton says that they do the cake in the face thing there too

Anything else? I think not. I`m super happy we got to talk and everything. It was great even though Curtis slept through it all. Only 7 more months to go until we talk again. Hey that`s nothing. I`ll have 15 months by then though...Crazy fast the mission...

Ok goodbye family and enjoy the carpet for me. Also have fun doing Curtis`s Eagle project. Sorry I can`t be there to help but hey I`m doing something more important...sorry Curtis but hey it`s true. So yeah with that I shall bid thee farewell. Until Monday comes again my family.

A Challenging Week

Looking over the ruins from last week's visit

Well hey guys. I`m going to warn you now I`m not going to be writing a lot this week. I don`t have a ton of time. This week would have to be one of the most stressful weeks of my mission, therefore my life as well. Like our investigator that was looking really good didn`t come to church this week. I usually wouldn`t be super worried about that but she didn`t come because her Mom didn`t want her to. So yeah I`ve been worried about that. Hopefully when we pass by it`s not what we`re thinking. And yeah she`s a little younger than 18 so her parents have to let her get baptized. 

So this week consisted of a lot of contacting and a lot of appointments that fell. That`s never happened before right? Yeah we did have a few good appointments I guess but up to now we have a total of only one progressing investigator. 

But hey this week they`re are going to completely change our area I guess. We`re going to find out about it and details on Sunday because we don`t know anything right now. Hopefully the area grows a bit and we gain some people. I would like that. I guess I`ll just tell you what happens on Sunday! Cool right? Last email until we talk. That should be good. 

A stela at the ruins - it says "Nephi was here"

So to update you on the people here. The baptism that fell was the girl in Familia ______. We`re going to go by today to find out what exactly happened. I`m freaking out. As for the boys in Familia _______ they didn`t come to church...again. As much as they love the messages something is keeping them from coming. So yeah pray for all them. The boyfriend of ______ didn`t come to church either which was tough. We also invited him to be baptized. He accepted to be baptized but not the date of the 25thof May. Maybe he will after he prays about it and everything. 

Oh funny story. We went into a house of a super Catholic lady named ______. We had a good lesson and everything and she said the closing prjayer which was super long and all about Mary...Right before she said amen she said, "ahora voy a cantar una estrofita." She started to sing forever. The member that was with us (a kid about 16 years old) only at this point woke up cause he had fallen asleep and was super confused. Haha so yeah kinda funny.

So cool to hear about everything there. Mom you ready to finish your last eagle project? Haha should be a good one. Good luck. Also I can almost call whenever on Sunday so I`ll talk to you saturday to figure it out. Only 40 minutes this time...Yeah how lame is that. Ok so that`s about it. No time left. Adios familia!