Wow another week has gone by already, seriously things are happening so fast down here in Guatemala. This week was such an awesome week, it actually was probably the best week that I have had so far in the mission!!! That means thank you to those who were praying for me, honestly you make such a difference!
I first want to start by saying that we taught Kevin again this week, the 17 year old jehovas witness who has been progressing more and more. We taught him the word of wisdom and following the council of the prophets. Luckily because of his religious background, he already observes the word of wisdom perfectly, he doesnt drink any soda at all because he fears that he could become addicted......... haha he knows what he is doing=) Prophets was an easy topic to teach him about, he is already looking into what is general conference and also the manuels that we use to teach from on sundays. He accepted the 31st of this month for his baptism!!!! I am so stoked for him!! He came to church on sunday too, and he stayed for all 3 hours becuase he wanted to, and he loved it! He asked a lot of good questions during class, and he was very attentive and soaking in everything during sacrament, l was so happy!!=) Kevin is progressing a ton and loves the church, in 3 more pdays he will be baptized!
Ingrid also came to church with us this week, and she loved it also. She came and stayed for all 3 hours, voluntarily, and she also asked a ton of questions and seemed very comfortable with our class and with the members. I saw a ton of members come up to her after sacrament meeting and give her side hugs and handshakes and talk to her, the members are finally starting to embrace our investigators! Ingrid also agreed to the 31st, so as of right now we have a double baptism scheduled for the 31st of this month!! They will be my first and second baptisms! Obviously super stoked.
Ok so the craziest thing happened this week, a guy in our ward called us early in the morning one day and sayed that his friend who lives on top of the mountain needs a blessing. So we went up to the top of the mountain and actually ended up giving the guys wife and child blessings, they were sick with high fevers, they were pretty scared too because the baby only has like 8 months. After the blessing we ended up taking a different route down the mountain, one that we had never taken before. As we were walking down, Juan Carlos, an investigator of ours that we can never get a hold of and is never home, practically walked right into us!! It was such a miracle because we NEVER can get a hold of him and he is NEVER home! But he was super excited to see us, we talked with him for 20 minutes and scheduled a lesson with him for later on in the week.
Later On In The Week................
So we went to go and teach Juan Carlos the restoration. As we began to teach him the restoration, i noticed that he was super attentive and interested, he was soaking in every word and looked as though he was in deep thought. He told us that his sister in law is a mormon, and that she has told him a little bit about the church and he is actually interested. When we reached the part about the book of mormon and we gave him one, this was his response, ´´Ok ya ill read this and pray about it tonight, but only if you boys come back tomorrow and ask me what I read and answer my questions.´´ um............. ya i think we can fit you into our schedule somewhere! Needless to say we were pretty excited, but that wasnt all. After we finished the restoration, he began to ask questions about the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, prophets, tithing, and even about the church welfare programs! Our 30 minute lesson turned into an hour and 15 minutes of life changing. He even asked us if he could accompany us to church on sunday. He actually didnt end up going because he had to go to Xela for work, but he called us a couple of times apologizing and telling us that next week would be perfect for him. He is a super nice guy, a little timid and shy, but super interested in the gospel. I feel that our next lesson we will be able to invite him for baptism, sometime this week.
This week we had changes, luckily I didnt get changed, but Elder Saldana went home and Elder Lui replaced him. Elder Lui is the elder that I met in the MTC in Provo my first stinkin day!!! We are the only two here in the mission who went to the Provo MTC, and what do you know, he just switched into my area! He is a really cool guy, 6 foot 6 and tongan, but super skinny. He is a cool guy, i am sure we will do exchanges here somtime with him in the near future.
We also had a new investigator of ours come to church with us, her name is Amalia. We havent taught her a lesson yet, but hey this week we will. She only stayed for sacrament, but she seemed like she liked it, and she knows a lot of the women here in the branch so that is awesome. So Since Juan Carlos invited us back the next day, we did visit his house, but as the norm, he wasnt there. So, we decided to go into the libreria next door to get out of the freezing cold wind. While we were in there we started talking with the family that owns and runs the shop. The moms name is Haiti, and her oldest daughters name is Argentina. They are a family of 6 girls!!! We have a lesson scheduled with them all this week, i am pretty excited because they responded really well to our ´´lesson´´ that we gave when we first met them, they could be our first family!
This week we had the festival of the kings! It is another catholic holiday, but they have some pretty interesting/cool holidays not gonna lie! In this holiday, they make a huge silver parade float on the back of a flat bed semi, then they build a huge silver star and put it on top of the cab of the semi. They then have someone dress in white robes and sit at the base of the star and ride throughout the city all day long. A HUGE procession of people on horses and just following on foot follow this float around the city with a marching band for hours and hours. Eventually they end up at the huge catholic chapel that is 500 years old and have a huge party. But, While the float parades throughout the city, 3 guys decked out in crazy awesome/ different king constumes eventually one by one join the parade at the front, directly behind the star float. It was actually pretty cool looking, and the chocolate covered churros that we bought were AMAZING! Haha we werent just out celebrating this catholic holiday, we were out contacting every single one of our investigators, and on the way we practically saw all of the active members in our branch! It was an awesome missionary opportunity, we contacted pretty much every single one and scheduled appointments, it was perfect!
Alright so this is really random, but my comp just told me that he is getting changed to Huehuetenango tomorrow morning as an emergency!!! What the heck, they need him i guess, the president just called him and told him, wow. Very unexpected and kind of rare, but I am going to have a stepdad in the mission!! The missionary who finishes my training will come tomorrow, holy cow that is so weird!! He definitely needs some prayers right now, thank you to anything that prays for him.
This week was an awesome week!! it definitely was the best week that we have had here in Salcaja, things are starting to happen!=) I love what we are doing, it really is the work that God wants. I love that my job is to wake up and study the scriptures, and then spend my day telling random people how the scriptures/this gospel has changed my life. It really is super cool to see Kevin and Ingrid beginning to know for themselves that this church is true, not just true, but the only true church, and they are committing themselves to it, it makes me so happy!! The work is slow, but we are working, and things are happening. I love all of you and I want to thank you all for all that you do. I love hearing from you guys, if you want to shoot me an email go ahead, i would love it! Thanks again for everything, i hope that all of you guys have an awesome week, I know I did!
