Hey everybody, hope that you are all having the time of your lives wherever you are at! I know that the Kid and I are, we are loving it out here in the mountains of Guatemala! This past week honestly went by so fast, it was a blur, haha sometimes it's hard to remember exactly what we did because it goes by so fast. I guess I'll just start will some of my favorite stuff that happened.
We've got this friend who we see pretty much every single day walking the streets. His name is carlos and he is this super awesome homeless guy that reminds us a little of Moses, he was a coyote for about 20 years back in the good old days, but now after spending years and years in prison in the states, he has nothing else to do but walk the streets in Cantel and beg for food and money. We felt pretty bad, and we figured that being a member would really help him, so we've started inviting him to church every week. This last week he came but sat outside because he was super dirty and felt bad. So............ this week we changed that=) He is a new man!!!! Look at the pictures and you will see what i am talking about! This week he actually came for the last hour!!! We ended up just teaching him word of wisdom and other fundamentals of the church and he said that he is going to come back this next week but at 9! We were super stoked, he is a new man, now he just needs to change the non physical side of his life, that's where we come in again!
Johnson got baptized this last week but I couldn't attach the picture, so here it is! He is super happy, and his mom is on the left, his grandma on the right. His mom told me something that happened this last week that was super awesome, On Saturday she told Johnson that on Sunday they were going to miss church because they had to go to Xela, but Johnson instead of saying ok said, but mom, now that I am baptized I have to be perfect or it is a sin!!! He ended up coming to church with just his grandma, what a stud!!! Haha kids are just the greatest, and this kid is the best!
Since we have begun doing our mini family home evenings every monday night at the church, we have been having pretty good assistance, usually of about 12 people. This last time one of the young women brought a friend named Noemi, she is 18 and is a basketball star!! She really liked our FHE and decided to come to church this week! She stayed the first 2 hours which was awesome, she said that next week she was going to stay for all 3 hours! We are now teaching her and she is super positive, she just needs to read the book of mormon and pray every night to receive her answer.
This week we also had the chance to go and visit references with the Quiem family up in Estancia which is a little village up in the mountains. They brought us to a little 4 person family, 2 parents, an 11 year old daughter, and a little 2 year old baby. When we got there and sat down, the husband began bawling and telling us how he wanted to change his life and how he had been chastised by God so much, the wife too. I just explained to them our purpose and that what he have to offer really can do that, change lives, and they both started crying, they are super humble people which is such a huge blessing. We taught them a little about the sabbath day and how important it is that we keep it holy. They were super excited to take their first ´´steps in changing their lives´´ they said, it was great. They couldn't come to church because of a wedding this week but they swore to us that they are going to come with us this next week so we are stoked!
This week the rains really started up, haha and we forgot our umbrellas............ we didn't have a camera to take a picture, but we were walking the streets of Estancia one day for about 20 minutes in the POURING RAIN!! Haha there were people lining the streets hiding under little shelters or in their doorways out of the rain, and then the mormons walked right on by completely soaked in the POURING RAIN happy as can be on to their next lesson, haha I am sure that we gave some people a good laugh=) The rain here is different than in Arizona, here it is cold, in AZ it was a warm rain and it felt really good. Here it is super refreshing, but it is cold, haha but I love it compared to the heat during the day.
The kid and I are doing really well. Surprisingly I get along with him better than any of my comps before, this guy is super cool. He is progressing really fast, when we did divisions with the zone leaders this last week they told me that he is super super smart and knows what he is doing in the lessons, that made dad pretty happy=) Haha we are loving it up here, we are working harder than ever and I have a feeling that amazing things are about to happen these next couple of weeks with a number of investigators! All we can do is keep on working hard and praying praying praying every day for help, good things are going to keep happening.
This week we went with some of the youth on a hike (Monday of course) to see some sweet mayan statues!!! It was so cool, there were 3 different mayan carved faces and tables, it was so cool to actually see some mayan cultural stuff from way back when! I put a picture below of us with one of the statues with some tables, coolest pday morning ever.
Well this week was crazy quick, cant believe it's already almost mother's day dang time flies when you are having fun. Things are going really good out here, I hope and pray that all is well back in good ole AZ. Love you all, have an awesome mother's day this week, write me if you've got a sec!
Hasta ver,
Elder McLeod
