Hello my dear Family,
I am happy to report that
Week 2 is WAY better than Week 1. I am better accustomed to everything: the
companion, the schedule, the food, weather, teaching, not knowing the language,
its all better! I am learning to enjoy this time, all of it. My trainer has
taught me to enjoy my mistakes, because I literally fail all day long and I
might as well enjoy it! I love Elder Raudales. He is the best. Find him a
girlfriend (he made me write this). Elder R and I are getting along a lot better
and have gotten used to being with each other. We have a funny relationship; we
bag on each other a lot but respect and love each other a lot. He is teaching
me SO much. He is a master teacher, speed walker, contactor, and missionary. He
can get into literally any door and make anyone listen to him. He has taught me
how to teach a lesson to people that don’t even want to look at you. You knock
on their door (which has a little opening in the middle to speak to people),
shake their hand through the opening, tell them that we are missionaries of
Jesus Christ and testify that he lives, then you say we are going to pray for
you, you pray, then teach the Restoration in 10 minutes, invite them to be
baptize, and if they accept we return the next day and teach them more. We had
69 lessons in total this week and contacted 317 people in the street and 78
families. As a companionship, we have to have at least 35 contacts and at least
10 of them have to be families. I thought that was crazy at first but we always
get way more than that. Anyways the work is progressing here and we have one
baptism set for this Saturday. His name is X and he is 14 and his grandma hates
the church with a passion but we have faith that he will overcome that and be
baptized this Sunday. Please pray for him. We have a couple other investigators
that are progressing but the huge problem here is getting people to come to
church. All the men work in the Safra (cutting sugar cane) and they work every
single day and no one can come to church. It is interesting but we know that
there are blessings that come to people that keep the Sabbath day holy and we
promise a lot of blessings to people about this.
Mom here’s a little nugget
you will enjoy. This past Sunday was the primary program in the Rio Santiago
branch! It was comical to see the difference between the orchestrated
performance in GB2 that you put together and then seeing theirs! There are like
7 kids but 5 of them got stage fright. So only 2 of them participated and it
was hilarious. It took a whole 15 minutes to complete and this one little child
was screaming at the top of his lungs the entire time. But I thought of you the
whole time mother and how much you do!
Church is cool because I
can understand almost everything that’s going on because we are talking about
the gospel. I don’t know if I said this last week but in lessons and things I
am pretty good at understanding and speaking. The street and talking in other
normal things is a completely different story. I say random things that don’t
make sense and Elder R is always very kind and points them out. For example,
saying ''Hola'' in the street is really, really creepy for some reason and
Elder R didn’t tell me for like 5 days. He is so sweet. Everyone just says ''Buenos!’’
I like saying Buenos. There are other
stupid things I would say but I am repressing them I can’t remember...
Guatemala aint Spanish class with our old Teacher Dona Julia, Matt!
I experienced my first
real Guatemalan rain this week. The first week it rained pretty hard but Elder
R said that that was nothing and I didn’t really believe him. But then last
Friday or something the Heavens opened! It was incredible. We were doing some
service for some family and carrying bags of rocks from their street to the
house and while we were doing it, it started to POUR. Like pour. We blew that
taco joint and went to another lesson and the road was a literal river and past
our ankles. It was so cool. Elder R told me that this was a real rain and that
from May to September in the coast it rains like that from 2 in the afternoon
to 10 at night every single day. Pumped! I tried using those little feet drier
thingies and they kinda worked.
My shoes have been
awesome. I wear the Eccos everyday. Not the boot ones but the others that are a
little smaller. For this weather and place they are perfect. So comfy and
really durable and everything. I don’t know what shoes I will need in the
future. We will see as the weather and my areas change.
One thing I have thought
about and experienced this week is the connection between testifying and our
testimonies. There’s some quote, I think its from Brigham Young that goes along
the lines of ''We more often find our testimonies on our feet than on our
knees'' that is, we will receive light when we share than when we just ask. I
have felt that this week. I have probably shared the first vision 100 times
already and as I have been doing so, I have received an increasingly solid
testimony that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have established their gospel and
church upon this earth with a living Prophet. How awesome is that and what a
thing to proclaim! We are so blessed to have that knowledge. ''And after all
that has been said, the most important duty is to preach the gospel'' - Joseph
Smith.
I hope all is well.
Kathryn I heard you are starting tennis! Give it your all sister and get good
at it! You’ll probably be able to beat me when I get back. Matt, stay away from the girls! Mom, I love you so much, you letters always
make me miss you so much and tear up a little bit. Thank you for getting me a
Christmas package! That will be awesome. BTW, ask the Roses if Elder Rose (Michael?)
served in Rio Santiago. I have heard his name a couple times and Elder R said
he served here. Pretty cool. Have a good week everyone and know that I can
always feel your prayers.
Love
Elder S
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