Quetzaltenango Guatemala

Quetzaltenango Guatemala

5.30.16 CHANGES!!!

May 30, 2016

Hey everyone how's it going! I have changes!!!! It's always a little bit sad to leave an area/comp/investigators/favorite members, but for the most part i'm super excited! My health has been pretty bad here, haha just here I've lost about 18 pounds, but now I think I will be in a Xela or Toto, but I guess we will see tomorrow. This week was an awesome week for us, it was a great way to end the change, a lot of cool things happened.


             We had 2 people in church!!! 2 of our friends, Betsaida, and Seleny. Betsaida came for the first time, and she liked it! It was different for her, there were only 23 people in church, but over all I think she really liked it. Seleny came for the 2nd time, but sadly the atmosphere in the church of Ixta is very different from the atmosphere of a normal mormon church. If she lived in A large city where the church is big and the spirit is strong, she would already be a member, but here it's just a little bit harder to feel the spirit sometimes, so she still hasn't felt anything special in church. But that's ok, if she is supposed to be a member, she will be a member=)


            This week we went up to the wistas for the last time to have district meeting. We ate a big district lunch up there in our favorite little chinese food restaurant, it was a ton of fun, practically every companionship in our district is having changes, so it was the last time we were all together having fun.


              This week was the first time in the mission that I've had strep throat, I still can't really talk, haha but it's going away finally. We don't know what happened, but all of the sudden I just got the flu really badly, then my throat was just dead, but luckily it's finally going away. Haha it was pretty touch teaching/praying/talking in church with strep throat and no voice=) I'm sure I sounded pretty funny.


              One of our favorite investigator families made us a steak dinner last night to say goodbye to me=) It is a family of 4, there names are Billy and Dania, and their two kids are Billy and Christian. It was super fun, we ate steak, grilled chicken, and chorizos which are super good. It was fun, I love that family, hopefully one day they will have more desire to know if the church is true or not. I will send you pics next week.


              This week was a pretty good week for us, I'm definitely going to miss the humble people of San Idelfonso Ixtahuacan, I can't believe that my 5 months here will come to a close tonight. Well, I love all of you guys and hope that you have a great week of SUMMER BREAK! Haha well next week I'll let you know where I'll be ending my mission!=)

Elder McLeod

5.23.16 Some New Friends, But Not Enough Time To Baptize Them

May 23, 2016


Hey everyone how's it going!!!! This week was a pretty exciting week for us up here in the jungle by the border of mexico. Our area is taking big strides, things are getting  better. this week we had some pretty cool experiences that I  am going to share with all you! Oh ya, I hope you are all doing good too=)


            This week we had our multi zone conference with President Smith. It was actually pretty cool, we talked about making special plans with our branch presidents. We made business type plans, President Smith worked his whole life with Meyrell Lynch on Wall Street as an executive director, so he knows how to make good business plans!!! On sunday we put those plans that we had made into action with our branch, we made some pretty sweet plans, and the members promised that they were going to promise God to go their parts!




           So my comp and I got the great Idea to contact the store directly in front of the church. We found a new family of 2, they immediately accepted books of mormon and baptism dates. Haha, why didn't we contact their 3 months ago!?!?!?! we are so dumb but oh well. The 20 year old daughter told us that she had received her answer the first night! She explained how the first 7 chapters of 1st nephi have changed her life!!!!! Haha it was awesome, they didn't come to church cuz they are super poor and run a small thrift clothing store in front of the church, and the person that was supposed to come and take over for them on sunday didn't show up, but they were actually more bummed out than us! We talked to them after church and they told us how sad they were and how they promise that next week they're going to come to church with us=) We have been searching for the chosen people all over ixta, but they were literally just sitting 10 outside of the front door of the church. they are scheduled to be baptized the 25th of June, so if I have changes this next week I obviously won't be here for the baptisms which would be sad, but at least they would be getting baptized.
              
                By the way changes are next tuesday, so sunday night, the 29th of May, we will know if i'll be having changes or not. I've got 4.5 months here, 3 changes, so it's a 70 percent shot that i'll be having changes to go to my last area!! How crazy.


                Selene is still reading the book of mormon, this week they were traveling a little bit so we only got to see her once, but she is doing good, still reading and praying!


               This week we found out that Gaspar and his wife's new baby boy is all better. We gave him a blessing last week cuz he had been sick for a while and apparently by the next day he was all healed up 100%, another miracles by the power of the priesthood!


             This week was a good week for my comp and I, we are working hard and have been blessed to be able to find some of the chosen people who were waiting for us. I hope and pray that this week God will help us find some more of the chosen people who are waiting for us. This week I was thinking, I trust God, but does God trust me? Does he trust me enough to give me perfect references/his chosen children who are waiting to find the truth? I have to keep doing my part so that he will confide in me his most chosen children. I know the gospel is true and I love seeing how it answers every question that we could possibly have. God is perfect and so is his church, we the members are the only imperfect things in his church! I love you all so much, this week I challenge you all to earn God's confidence so that he will bless you with the things you need but don't know you need=)


love you all, have a great week


Elder McLeod

5.16.16 Skype Week!

May 16, 2016

Hey everybody how's it going! This week was pretty interesting, a lot of cool stuff happened that i can't wait to tell you about. We are still here in Ixta, but changes are in 2 weeks, we will see what happens.


              So because my comps mom passed away, president gave us special permission to go to the temple for a day, so on tuesday we did that. It was super fun, we went down and did a session in the temple. Afterwards we went to Subway.............. wow it was so good, i had totally forgotten how
subway was, but it's way too good. we then spent the rest of the day in xela, and riding back up to ixta. We got home at 8. 30 that day, it was a good chance for my comp to realize why he is in the mission, he got his personal confirmation that he needs to stay in the mission and fight it out till the end, i'm proud of him and i know that he will be blessed for his decision.


             On wednesday we went down to colo for the open house activity. They had meet the mormons going, but first all of the visitors had to pass through a classroom to learn more about the church and who we are. It was awesome cuz the church formally invited 3 high schools to come and participate, and they all came!! There were so many young people there. We even saw one of our investigators from ixta there who works in a high school in colo. After the movie we were giving out books of mormon and pamphlets.
After everything was over, we were able to talk to our investigator that works as a teacher in colo, she told us that more than 20 young ladies from the high school had asked her for the mormon boys numbers=) Haha luckily she didn't give it out, but she did tell her students a little about us and
about what we teach which is good.


              On friday all of the members went to huehue for a talent show activity in the stake center, the assistants did not give us permission to go because we would have gotten home at 10.30, so we were super bummed, All the other missionaries in the zone went, except 6 of us, so we decided to do our own activity=) We got together with some investigator families and had a soccer game and ate food afterwards. It was super fun and we made some good new friends out of it.


            On sunday we had a new investigator in church, her name is Seleny,she is 20 years old, we are teaching her mom too, but ixtas market day is sunday, and her mom is a single mom who supports her whole family with what she makes on sunday, so her mom didn't come, but seleny did. She loved it, even though she could only stay 1 hour. she asked us for a hymn book, and she had a ton of questions for us during the sacrament meeting which was awesome. She is super pilas, she is reading the book of mormon every day and praying, she will be receiving her answer shortly.


           This week we werent able to find any new families, but we were able to help a lot of the existing people that we have progress, we gave out a ton of books of mormon, and have a good handful of people that are reading, we just need to get them to church. that is the problem, getting them to go to church. But we will keep working and see what happens this week.


        This week was a good week, it also went by super fast. We are seeing the little miracles every day, i know that this work is true, i feel like this week we are going to see many more miracles here in our area. We are doing good and are improving everyday. i love you guys and am always thinking about/praying for you. Have an awesome week and don't forget to email the missionaries cuz we love emails!!

Love


Elder McLeod

5.9.16 An Off Week

May 9, 2016


Hey everyone happy 1 day late mother's day! Hope it was great and relaxing for all the moms out there, and even if it wasn't that amazing, just know that here they don't really even celebrate it, so you've all got it gooooooooooooood over there in the states=)


                 Ya so we don't have a ton of time because we are with the zone leaders in HueHue, tomorrow we are going to go to the temple in Xela, my comps mom passed away in an accident the day before mother's day, (saturday morning), so under special permission from president smith we are going to go to the temple tomorrow. All thoughts and prayers for the Yabarrena Bravo family would be greatly appreciated.


                This week was a really off week, and when I say that it was an off week, I mean it. It just seemed like there was not a single person in Ixta that wanted to talk to us, I'm not sure why cuz everyone was home, it was just a really off week. We had some visits and found some news, but besides that, nothing else happened. I know that this is going to be the worst letter ever, but ya we have to go.......... so i'm sorry but I love you all a ton, the church is true, everything is true, please help the missionaries when you are at even though they are eating american food and are not living in small villages up in the jungle, they need some love and help also. Just know that i am doing good and that I am pretty healthy, the work here is moving along slowly but surely. Have an awesome week you guys, keep the faith.


Love


Elder McLeod

5.2.16 The Priesthood Is Real

May 2, 2016



Hey everyone how's it goin, crazy to think that we are already in May........ the time is flying. Well we don't have a ton of time today, but there are some cool things that i wanted to fill you in on.


             We are teaching a family of 5, the parents names are juana and Luis. Now, Luis doesn't have hands, but he sadly still finds a way to drink a lot of alcohol. Juana is very humble, the first time we visited with her and she felt the love we have for her she cried in our arms practically, she is suffering a lot of different things right now. This week we visited this family, but quickly we realized that we weren't going to be able to teach, Juana had a bad infection in one of her molars, and the pain was excruciating. She didn't have money for medicine, so she was just bearing the pain. It was a great opportunity to be able to give her a blessing. The blessing was simple and powerful. 2 days later when we returned, she thanked us for the blessing and for healing her. She had received the blessing, then she had gone to bed. When she woke up the next day she was completely pain free and her tooth hasn't hurt her since!! IT was a miracle, they are very receptive to us, we love them a ton.


           Dionicio, one of our investigators who is 20 years old is doing really well. He is the youth leader in the catholic church here, but that doesn't matter, he is reading the book of mormon and praying, he even told us last night that this next domingo he is going to come with us to church=).


          We are visiting with a small family of 2 that we found knocking doors, a lady named griselda and her 19 year old daughter celeny. We taught them part of lesson 1 and left them the pamphlet and invited them to read it. When we returned 2 days later, to our surprise we found that they had read the whole thing!! And they had a ton of questions! THen after they asked us about the pamphlet, they began to ask us about all the rumors that had heard about the mormon church ahaha, but there was no problem, they deserved to know the truth!! They are super interested, tonight we have a lesson with them at 6 and we are going to be putting baptism dates with them!


             We found some other people this week too. IT rained a ton up here, I'm not sure if it rained in Gilbert or not, but here it poured, haha the night before it rained we did all of our laundry, then when we woke up we found that the clothe line broke, so our of our sopping wet clothes had fallen in the dirt.................... we washed again in the morning and got it all set up again. But, to our horror, it rained again in the afternoon, and again, all of our clothes fell to the dirt! We were so ticked... haha oh well.


             The church is true, my testimony is growing with every miracle or trial that we have. I love the gospel and the commandments, because the commandments are what gives us happiness! I love studying the gospel and learning more about God's great plan, he honestly is a perfect God and everyday there is something new that we can learn about him, if we aren't learning a little bit more about him everyday, we are progressing, and that is the purpose of life. I love you guys a ton, please write me cuz I love hearing from all of you guys!!! its honestly the best thing, reading letters/emails from family and friends. Keep the faith, until next week.

Elder McLeod