1.18.16 Quick Email Before Changes

January 18, 2016

Hey everyone i've got some news, looks like i've got changes tomorrow!! I only have one change here in this area, haha honestly we aren't sure whats going on, maybe im going to train or something, but it looks like i'm packing up and moving out of Xela. I'm not sure exactly where i will be going, but i have a feeling that i will be going back to HueHue but in a different zone.

                Carlos didn't get baptized cuz he didnt pass president smith's interview...... but in 2 weeks they will be talking again and it looks like he will be baptized after that, so ill send you guys pics when he gets baptized.

                Selvin is getting baptized the 30th and it is 100% going to happen unless he doesn't pass the interview............ haha but he will.  pictures will be sent when it happens.

               This week was an amazing week for us, we had 8 people in church with us! 2 families and a couple of individuals, we were super stoked and so were the members! This area is so awesome, i already love it so much, it's too bad that i am going to be having changes tomorrow=( But hey at least my people are going to get baptized this month and in February.

              This is super short because we are running around like crazy, but this next week i will have a lot more to tell you guys, and more time write. Love you guys a ton, keep going to church, and get ready for the super bowl!!!!! Haha i don't even know who's going, but you do so you better get ready for it.

Love

Elder McLeod

1.11.16 A week of little miracles

January 11, 2016

Hey everyone how's it going, hope you guys had another great week down in AZ, and all over the place. This week was pretty cool, we had a bunch of tiny miracles that i'm going to explain right now.

                So about 3 weeks ago we were contacting and we found a less active guy, about 21 years old, that had been baptized at the end of 2014. He was baptized in another area, but lives here in our area (exactly what you are not supposed to do). So we have been teaching him for a little bit now and we play basketball with him every monday. This week was so cool though because this week he received the aaronic priesthood=) He is now active, and attends church here with us where he should have in the first place. He has been talking to us about serving a mission which is super exciting! His name is Joseph

               But Joseph didn't get the priesthood alone, Diego did also!!!! it was so cool, the both of them back to back got the priesthood, callings, and assignments to bless the sacrament this next week!! This week Diego and Joseph are going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, Diego is taking his member girlfriend to be baptized for his mom that died 10 years ago, he is super excited!

                This week Carlos completely changed his life, he said goodbye to his girlfriend's, stopped consuming things that are against the word of wisdom, he stopped talking with swear words, and he even acts and thinks differently! This week an evangelic pastor contacted Carlos in the street and invited him to his evangelic church, but carlos said, ¨¨sorry but no, I go to the Mormon Church.¨¨  his baptism is scheduled for this saturday, that is, if he passes the interview, we are pretty nervous about that because of his rough past, but he is super repented and wants to be a missionary, he even asked us for a white shirt and tie so that next week he can go to church looking good.

                The Sanchez family fame to church this week! They are progressing good, they are also going to come to our baptism this saturday so we are excited. they are reading the book of mormon and are going to church now so we will see what happens.

                 This week we had a ton of little miracles, honestly these past couple of weeks have been awesome! We have seen so many miracles it's crazy, the coolest thing is when someone gets to see the fruits of their labors as in baptisms, we hope to keep baptizing!! We have plans to keep baptizing but we will see what happens. I am growing and learning so much, i love the mission, it is such a blast!! I love you guys, i'll send pics next week when i have some to send to you. Thanks for your prayers and emails, keep the faith!!

Love

Elder McLeod

1.4.16 We Just Opened Up The City Of Alma.......... What

January 4, 2016

Hey family and everyone I love hows going, happy new years!!!!! Cant believe its already 2016, crazy how fast 2015 went by, loved every minute of it, but now it's time to focus on this upcoming year. This week was an awesome week filled with miracles and baptism hype, yes we had a baptism, first one our area has had in 7 months!!!! Super pumped, but we will talk more about that in a sec

              So as the title indicates, this week my comp and I opened up the city of alma for proselyting. No joke, so here in Xela pretty much every book of mormon historian has told us that the city of Xela has a TON to do with the book of mormon. About 8 months ago i told you guys about a city that was right next to zunil called Almalonga. This city is said to be the city of Alma the prophet from the book of mormon. It has always been called almalonga, it's a very very old word from the ancient languages of Guatemala, so ya Alma and his people lived right next to where I live right now. So, about 10 years ago, the people of almalonga burned 2 mormon missionaries alive............ so they closed the area for good. BUT, there are a lot of people and members who have been talking to us about opening the area again because of its new potential. So, my comp and I had a conference with the mission president this morning and we explained our case for an hour, and we debated the pros and cons for 30 minutes, and at the end of everything, we have decided to open up the city of alma for missionary work again............................ we opened up the city of alma baby. So starting this week, we will be discussing in ward council how we are going to be working in almalonga, we are all super excited!!

                 Another thing, we might be opening up the tiny branch that existed at the base of the volcano. IN our conference with president, we also brought up the topic of the closed branch in Yanos de pinal, the little branch by the base of the volcano, and president approved our plan!!!! Now we are going to have a conference with the stake president this sunday night, just us 2, president smith, and the stake president, and we are going to try and open up that branch again. It was closed down 3 years ago, but it had 60 active members assisting in a little rented house every sunday................ we will see what happens.

                Diego got baptized!!!!! His baptism was super spiritual, a ton of people came which was awesome including investigators, it was such a special day! The spirit was so strong that he cried, he is super excited to be a member of the church! pictures below!

                my family in huehue got baptized too, i'm super excited for them!!! fotos below

               This week carlos asked us to learn about the articles of faith and he loved them and how direct they are. This week the bishop in sacrament meeting said to the congregation, ´´if lehi were here right now with us, what would he tell us to do?¨¨  Carlos immediately responded, ¨¨he would tell us to keep the commandments and repent!!¨¨ haha Carlos is super awesome, love this guy, he always tell us when we are joking around, hey stop talking apostasy mucha! He is hilarious, he will be baptized in 2 weeks. Celica his cousin came to church too and she loved it.

                THis week we found a ton of new and very positive people to teach, he had a lot of little miracles happen this week to us. We were even blessed to reactivate a 21 year old guy! we brought him to the bishop who interviewed him, gave him a calling, and is helping him prepare his papers to serve a mission!!! We are so stoked.

                 New years eve was super normal, we had dinner with members, then went to the house. we obviously worked all day too haha, but the only thing out of the ordinary that we did was eat dinner with members......................and then we popped a sparkling cider in the house!!! Haha it was expensive, but no importa.

                 This week was awesome, honestly there isn't enough time to explain all of the miracles that we saw this week. We have been super blessed, we are in great health, and we are seeing the fruits of our labors. have a great start to january, love you guys a ton!! Have awesome weeks, keep the sabbath day holy.

Elder McLeod

12.28.15 Another Quick Email After Chrismas

December 28, 2015

Hey everyone Merry Christmas!!! and Happy New Year, this week was an awesome week for us, we saw some HUGE miracles up here, we are even going to have a baptism this saturday!! we are running cuz there is some stuff we have to do, so here are some highlights.

             Carlos and Celica are progressing well, the 2 are past 1 nephi chapter 10 and have only had the book of mormon for 1 week! Carlos is in chapter 18, they are progressing super well. This week he has left with us everyday to go teach, he actually teaches with us and testifies of the truth of what we teach............. and he isn't a member............... and he looks kinda rough like gangs, but doesn't matter, he is a stud. He even told us this week what we do good and bad when we teach people...... haha this kids got a big head

              Diego had some evangelical prophet lady give him a paper with apostasy lies about the mormons, one of them being that the missionaries at night turn into wolves.............. how did she know. So, our lesson with him was just answering questions and explaining the lies that she fed him, but everything is good cuz this saturday he said that he is ready to be baptized.... super excited cuz my area here has not baptized since june!!!!

                This week my comp followed the spirit to contact a house way up on the side of the mountain. Turns out, the guy is late 20s, not married, doesn't go to any church, had a mormon cousin who died in an accident, and has always wanted to go to the mormon church to see how it is and what we teach..................... it was an inspired contact. He accepted to go to church this sunday with us while we were contacting him, we are visiting him friday.

                On my birthday, we were running around teaching and visiting that we didn't have anything planned dinner wise, but at 8 a random member called us and said that she had had a feeling to invite us over for dinner, a steak dinner, but she didn't know why, she didn't know it was my birthday, best surprise birthday steak dinner ever. The spirit works for everything!!

                  We had a ton of miracles this week, and a lot more things that i want to tell you, but there is no time. I love you all, hope that christmas was awesome, and i hope that new year's is even better!! We are doing well and we are in good health, i feel old now that i am 20, but honestly i haven't been thinking about it that much. Love you all, study those scriptures, and keep the sabbath day holy!!!

picture of me with a drunk byu fan wandering in the street

Love

Elder McLeod

12.21.15 Already The Week Of Christmas

December 21, 2015

Hey guys, sorry we were running around last week, we only had 5 minutes to get on literally, so i didn't get to write a bunch, but right now I have a little more time so i'll write some more. I can't believe that it's already christmas, it's crazy how fast the time is going!!! It has gotten really cold here, my comp is super sick with the flu, I hope that I don't catch it too. the markets here are crazy right now with all kinds of cool stuff, next monday we are going to go to the huge market in the center of Xela to go look around and maybe buy some stuff.

                This week was another awesome week for us. First of all this week we were able to find 13 news which was awesome, last week was also a great week with 12 news, we are super excited and working really hard. Someone that we found who is super positive is Carlos, an 18 year old guy from Honduras who lives here with his aunt and his cousins, we contacted them all and they are all reading the book of mormon right now!!!! They are super interested, but only Carlos could come to church this week. He stayed all 3 hours and loved it, haha he even already has some friends in the young women's group!!=)

                  Another family we have consists of Dali, Anna, and Olga. Olga is the mom, dali and ana are 25 ish and are the daughters of olga. They are all super catholic, but this week dali and ana read from the beginning of 1st nephi until chapter 10 so they are progressing well!! They came to our ward christmas party this week which was awesome, they are really good at basketball which is awesome because today the young single adults are going to be playing a game of basketball with them. They will be coming to church this sunday.

                 Another family that we contacted in the street consists of 5 people, the dad which we don't know, the mom, and their 3 kids. This week we taught all of them but the dad because he was working until late, we taught the restoration, they were super interested in the book of mormon and reading it, they said that they are going to read this week as a family which would be awesome!!!

              This week we had our ward christmas party which was a huge hit!! We brought 3 families of investigators with us which was such a huge miracle, and the members got pretty excited about it too which was awesome! All of the acts were great, but when we did our act everyone was dying!! We did minute to win it on the stage, and we invited families up from the audience to participate, it was hilarious!!!!! At the end of our act, we brought a cake out for the new sister from New Zealand who is sharing the area with us!!! Haha in Guatemala we do something which is called the mordida, where the companion pushes the birthday person's face into the cake!!! Well sister Fale from new zealand had never heard of nor seen the mordida before, so what happened was super funny!=) pictures below

                 I am super excited for christmas, we are going to be caroling in the villages at the base of the volcano, and to a bunch of less actives! There is a lot of service to be done in this epoca of the year, a lot of people are going to hear the gospel of christ!!!! I love the people here so much, they really are the descendants of the lamanites, and as they hear this gospel, it's like 2000 years of dust is being wiped out of their eyes, it really is one of the coolest things ever. I love the people here, and I also love all of you guys a ton, i hope that you guys have an awesome christmas, but to have a great christmas you have to focussed on the meaning of christmas=) Eat well, have fun, and we will talk next week!

Love ya

Elder McLeod

12.16.15 Running

December, 16, 2015

Hey everyone we are running around preparing our ward christmas party act, we are going to do minute to win it guys versus girls (couples) it's going to be sick. This week was awesome with lots of miracles, but monday i will be able to sit down and write, love you guys, have a great weekend!!!!

Elder McLeod

12.7.15 Xela Here We Go Again!!

December 7, 2015

 Well friends and family I got the call this week and it looks like President wants me back in Xela!!! I will be in Xela Centro, it's the zone with the mission office in it,  i am excited because my comp is a stud! His name is elder Guzman and he is also from my group!!! Really I think that I am only going to be with Latinos but its whatever, I am pumped but at the same time super super super sad that I won't be here the 19 for the baptisms.................... they will send me pics, but it's not the same, at least they will be baptized.  But it's crazy that we are already 1 week into december, less that 3 weeks until christmas!! It's craziness, this week was crazy also

            This week we had a ton of meetings............ first we had the multi zone meeting with Elder ochoa from the seventy. It was so cool, he is such a spiritual guy!! I learned a lot from him, he got us all really pumped up to go out and be better  missionaries. That was thursday, then friday we had to go to Xela for the conference with Elder Ochoa and just the Zone leaders.................... we were sure that a huge machete was coming, but it wasn't like that at all, he really helped us narrow down what exactly we need to teach to our zones, especially in this upcoming zone meeting that we will be having this week (now in Xela centro). Those 2 days were all day meetings, so not much was accomplished those days.

            Paola is doing really good, we are going fine for her baptism scheduled for the 19th. She is progressing perfectly, too bad I won't be here to see her get dunked=( But I am pumped for it, she is getting baptized for sure!!!

            This week our sacrament meeting attendance got cut in half because everyone went on vacation, but not just the members went on vacation, almost all of the investigators also................ haha well can't really fight that, but we did have a few there with us sunday, just not a bunch. This week was an ok week, we did have about 3 huge meetings which was rough and we finished a huge service project, so there weren't as many lessons as usual, but we did find some news, new families which is good.

               There really isn't that much to report, all is well and we are in great health. I am nervous for the changes, for my area and companion, When I email you guys next week I will be in Xela. WE are short on time, I love you guys a bunch, I hope that you are all preparing for the christmas season, we are super excited up here because we are going to do a huge mission wide activity for christmas!! Love you guys a ton, have a great second week in december, we will talk next week

Love

Elder McLeod