4.25.16 Riding The Bus 9.5 Hours This Week

April 25, 2016

Hey everyone it's already monday!!! Ha, this week went by really really fast, and it's because we spent almost 10 hours in buses this week riding from ixta to mexico and back, then from ixta to xela,and back. It was a really short week,. at least it felt like it, but we were still able to accomplish a ton of good stuff.

             We had district meeting in the vistas again, 2 weeks in a row, because the new gringo here in our district who is is the huistas got sick and didn't want to ride down to colo on tuesday, so, everyone in the district had to head up to the huistas for the 2nd week in a row. we weren't too happy honestly, but we did get to eat really good chinese rice with real teriyaki sauce which made my life.

          On thursday we went down to Xela cuz they wanted to see what i did to my hand. NOBODY FREAK OUT, it's just slightly sprained, no big deal, but the missions doctor is in xela, so we got to go to xela, eat in a sweet steak house, get soaked in the rain, and contact random people on thursday. Friday, we got up after sleeping at the secretary's house and headed back up to ixta. They took xrays and saw that nothing was broken, just sprained. It's apparently from not doing exercise, my body is just all around getting really weak, so i promised myself that I am going to start in May and that I am going to be eating good (i am going to start preparing my meals the day before) so that I can gain some weight again. I weighed myself today, haha i weighed in at a staggering 160, all together so far ive lost 35 pounds........... hahahahaha it's bad, but i'm going to get serious about my health and exercise now.

            THis week we found a really positive family that was listening to the missionaries 3 years ago. The moms name is Fabiana, her daughter's name is Sharol, sharol is 16 years old. Fabiana lost her husband, so she is a single mom with 3 daughters. We found her cuz we contacted a SUPER evangelic lady who did not even want to look at us, when we contacted her and realized that she wanted ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, we asked her if she knew anyone that was spiritually lost and needed help, she then responded by pointing to her neighbors house, and said, ¨¨they are catholics, help them, teach them about christ!¨¨ Haha she was a little dramatic=) So we went and knocked on the door, Fabiana answered it and let us right on in! Thank you prideful evangelic lady.

           We also found out this week that Elsa, the girl i baptized with Elder Sims, is the Radio Host for Ixtahuacan!!! Haha this week she told us, she said that this week she is going to give us a shout out while she is on the air!!!!=) Maybe we could get some more investigators through the radio................

            Well i attached some pics, one of Maria, the cutest little girl ever, and one of when a member destroyed my hair this week by shaving the sides and giving me a mohawk...... don't worry, we got it all fixed up=)

            Pues i love you guys a ton, the church is true, the work is also true! The stake split because the lord's work is progressing, don't miss out! Be a part of it!! I pray for you guys always and hope that everything is going well with you. Keep the commandments and you will have all of the Lord's promised blessings!

Love

Elder McLeod

4.18.16 Changes Are Tomorrow

April 18, 2016

Hey everyone whats up! Another week has flown by, cant believe its already monday again. honestly i only feel mondays fridays and sundays, dont know why. well its raining hard up here in the jungle close to the border of Mexico, its the first time it rained since october of last year, so ya its nice to finally have a change from the constant heat. My comp and I are doing good, tomorrow are changes, and we will not be having changes. But, we will be going down to Xela this week, ill explain why.

            So this sunday we only had 22 people in church, the lowest it's been in 3 months! we don't know what happened, so  my comp and I have come up with a plan, how we are going to reactivate all these people. so we made individual callings for every active member in our branch, printed callings, and we assigned each active member to a less active/non active family to reactivate. We are stoked because after handing out a bunch of these callings we have realized that the members here want to help, they just don't know what to do or how to do it, so my comp and I are going to keep thinking of ideas on how to guide these members to participate in the work.

               This week was pretty normal, we contacted a million people, found a couple of new people, and worked hard. Its tough, but that doesn't matter, we are having fun doing what we are doing! I am definitely going to miss being a missionary when i am no longer here in Guatemala, the mission is probably one of the best decisions that I have made in my whole life. I've learned so much stuff that I can't wait to be able to use when I get home, honestly I feel like the Lord has blessed me so much and I can't wait to share this joy with people I know who need it.

             This week we are going to xela to get some tests done, my comp is super sick, so we are going down friday to get him tested. Hope everything turns out ok!

            So we are actually running like crazy cuz we have some stuff we still need to do, but  just know that I love you guys a ton and that I hope you are doing awesome. I'll write some more next week, don't worry the time goes by really fast! Thanks for all your love and support, love you guys a ton, please give food to the missionaries!!!!!=)

Elder McLeod

4.11.16 Lots Of New Families

April 11, 2016

Hey everyone how's it going! Looks like another week has gone by, again, it's crazy to realize that we are already in April!! Seems like just last week we were celebrating christmas, at least for me it feels that way. This week wasn't as awesome as last week, but we did have some cool experiences.

           First of all we did find a lot of new families which is always a blessing. We found a family of 5 that we put baptism dates with, they are excited and ready to learn. We also have been teaching Liqo who didn't come to church, but he is reading and praying and told us that next week for sure he is going to come.

           So about a month a go, Elder sims and I discovered a less active family of 4 that lives way up in the mountains, they dont have electricity, and they havent gone in a couple of years. So this week we were walking along the freeway around 6pm ish, (keep in mind that its already starting to get dark and we are in the middle of nowhere), we didnt have anything to do because our lessons had fallen, so we decided to pass by with this less active family of 4 that we had never really been able to visit before due to the distance of their house and their work schedules. So we went, and found 2 of them in their house! We sat down and started talking to them, when 10 minutes later the other 2 arrived! So we sat everyone down and started trying to figure out why they had innactivated. We discovered that they had stopped going becuase they had started doing some bad things and didnt feel ¨¨worthy enough¨¨ to be in the church, so they stopped going. We had a very spiritual talk bout the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance and why we go to church. It was awesome! this was saturday night, the next morning we were passing by to pick up some other less active family when one of the girls (23 years old) called us and said, hey come pick me up cuz today i want to go back to church!! So we went to her house and picked her up, It was so awesome seeing her come to church for the first time in years and seeing all of the native women swarm her and hug her and talk to her in Mam, I had a great feeling inside. The other 3 didnt come to church, but they promised us that next week they are going to come.

               This sunday was fast sunday, so it was also testimony meeting. Haha here in Ixta, testimony meeting is always an interesting experience. Usually fast sunday has the worst attendance cuz everyone is afraid to bear their testimonies................ so they just don't show up... haha its funny=) This week we only had 30 in church, but it actually was a good experience. This week Elsa and her whole family got up and they all bore their testimonies!!!! It was such an awesome experience cuz the spirit was there, and all the members could feel it. It was the first time that they have every born their testimonies in front of other members. The members who got up after them got up with tears in their eyes, they expressed their gratitude towards Elsa and her family for their testimonies and their faithfulness to the church. It was great, I think everyone had a great experience in church this fast sunday. We baptized else about a month and a half ago, but she has already gone to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, and her testimony keeps getting stronger!

               This week we were able to contct a lot of new people, we even found some new families which was nice. Oh ya, and we ate pizza for the first time in 3 months=) haha it was amazing. This week was a good week, but I feel like this next week is going to be more successfull. My testimony is growing always, The church is so true!! The work is true also, its incredible that Christ uses young and unexperienced youth to gather the tribes of Israel!!!! I love you guys a ton, have an awesome week!

Elder McLeod

4.4.16 Wow What An Amazing Week!!!

April 4, 2016

We had some huge miracles this week!! This week was such an awesome week for my comp and I, we are in high spirits and really excited for the future of this area!! Let's just jump into it

            So first of all conference was awesome, of course we did the gringo room again, just Elder Ward (a missionary from Utah that has 20 months in the mish) and I. We took some pics, but i'll get them to you guys  next week. So we went down to colotenango to watch conference, it was insane because the chapel had conference going in Mam (an ancient lamanite language), then downstairs we had two full rooms going in spanish, then in the secretary's office we had it going in english!!! The coolest part, was that Church leaders here in colo that know mam get the conference talks 3 days early, 3 days before conference, and they translate the conference talks into mam, then on conference day they read the talks in mam into the microphone while the prophet and the apostles are speaking simultaneously!!! It was super cool, we took a video, i'll send it next week! Conference was awesome, every talk was definitely inspired, they definitely talked a lot about the power of temples, reactivation, and children. and that God loves us a ton.

             So, what happens in Ixta is a lot of visits get canceled every single day, it's the norm, so on tuesday pretty much everything fell, so my comp and I sat on the corner and planned out where we were going to contact. He confessed to me that he has never really been good at feeling/following the promptings of the spirit, so he told me to let myself be guided and that he would follow me. ok, well I felt that we should contact in a random alley way, so we went. We contacted a few houses but found nothing. We got to the end of the alley and still we hadn't found anything. So as we were walking out, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny little dirt path between buildings, and i felt like we needed to take it. So i told my comp that this was the path we had needed to take all along, and that judging by the smallness of the path, the missionaries had never taken it. So we went. and we found a really humble abode house. We contacted the family of 3 that came out, a mom (50 years old) with her daughter who is married, and her son who is 17. As we contacted them, we realized a couple of things. 1 they didn't go to any church. 2 they had NEVER IN THEIR LIVES talked to missionaries before. and 3, they were the reason I had felt to contact that alley. We taught them lesson 1 and put baptism fechas with all of them! THey are super stoked to learn more and have a ton of awesome questions! It was a miracle, my comp was super shocked,, and so was I. we are visiting them tomorrow.

                This week we contacted a family at night, taught the mom, then put a return cita. We came back, her husband answered the door SUPER MAD to see us. He is catholic, and he sat us down and told us, now you've come to teach my wife, i want nothing to do with you 2, don't ask me anything, don't even talk to me, just talk to my wife, i will sit here and listen. He is a jiote. it means jerk in guatemalan spanish. So we taught lesson 1, and the spirit was there. I did the first vision, then my comp asked andrea the mom how she had felt. She cried and told us how she had felt a strong feeling in her heart and she wants to change. We talked a little bit more about families and the importance of love in the home........... that was when the dad spoke. He started by apologizing and telling us his name, he then called us prophets and said that we have a gift, he then told us something interesting. He said, I know that you have a gift, my daughter has been sick for months because a poisonous spider bit her, medicine won't help, we don't know what to do, will you bless her?  We said yes, so they walked down this super frail, pale looking 20 year old girl named virginia. Before the blessing, we went and washed our hands. If you don't know why we did that, go watch ephraim's rescue, i cry everytime i see it. So we blessed her and the spirit was strong. After the blessing virginia's facial expression was kinda weird, blank and lost. We ended with a prayer, put a return cita, and left.        

    

                    the day after, we happened to pass by their house on the way to a cita. Their house is 2 stories, when we walked by Virginia came out of the 2nd floor door, walking without difficulty!!!!! We were shocked................... she looked 100 times better, she almost looks normal. We are visiting with them tomorrow, we will see if she is completely healed or not. It was a miracle, my comp and I felt compelled to pray and ask the lord to help her. She looks healed.

                Then saturday rolled around

               Saturday night we were in colotenango for the priesthood session of general conference. We finished at 7.30 and were talking with some members when some sisters from Ixta called us freaking out that they had all been poisoned!!! So they asked us to come and give them all blessings, so we hopped on the back of a pickup truck(yes we are allowed to do that) and buzzed over to Ixta. We went to their house to find them all in bed not being able to walk. We had to help them sit up, they were super sick. So we took turns anointing and giving blessings, until we had blessed them all.

                Sunday afternoon, we passed by to go and check up on them to see how they were doing. The sister that was the most sick came and answered the door!! She was so happy to see us and thanked us for the blessing that we had given her. All 3 of the sisters were healed, they still had some minor stomach pains, but they were all up and walking and practically fine!! It was a huge miracle=)

               This week I completed 18 months. We went with an investigator family and made tacos and I burned my pants! HAha it was so much fun, pics below!=)

               This week we also had a ton of awesome lessons, cool corte tie trading, good health, good food, we went to buy food in hue hue and went to a cool sports place as a zone, and we found an AMERICAN FOOTBALL!!!!!! I'm so happy, so rare to find one of these, it's old and beat up, but it's leather, and we got it pumped up real nice!

                 This week was a really good week for us, we saw a ton of miracles and we were really blessed. We learned a ton from conference, I learned a ton from conference, and i am so glad that we have living prophets and apostles!!! I hope that this letter was sufficiently long, haha maybe it was too long, but this week was a miraculous week and I wanted to share as much of it as possible with you guys. I love all of you, thanks for the prayers and the letters/emails,, they really do help and get us missionaries excited. Have an awesome week you guys, love you all, keep the faith

Elder McLeod