Week 27: He was throwing us shoutouts left and right

Well this week flew by.

Tuesday I hit 6 months.

It was kinda a normal day but at the end of it I burned a tie, as tradition would have it.

Wednesday we went to Nenton. Ernesto was at the purisima and so we went to Samuel first.

He told us Avengers was amazing and that it was three hours and he cried and then I cried and its really sad.

After Ernesto came home and we talked with him. He said one day he had to go to Guate and he ran into a friend. She said she heard he was a mormon. He told us she was trying to get him to deny the faith but the man was strong. He told her about the book of mormon and she said we just told him we would take him to the states. He told her that all he wanted was peace and he found it. The best part was the thing he told her was that we're all super disciplined and Guatemalans have no discipline and basically he's just the best.

Later we had a lesson for noche de hermanamiento, which is pretty much like mutual but for the whole ward. We just showed the talk Elder Holland gave to the MTC called Feed My Sheep. Then we showed the Life of Christ video to go with it. It's a super good talk and everyone should watch it. It's like 50 minutes but the main part is the last like 13.

So we had to go to Xela this week for a training for Elder Hinckley. Also our rama went to the Temple on Saturday and our convert went so we had permission to go too. Thursday we had a normal day until 4 when we went to HueHue. We stayed with Elder Gibson and Mcbride which was super fun. They're super chill and its always a party when you have sleepovers with other missionaries.

Friday we went to Xela. There was a guy preaching on the bus for like an hour.

He was throwing us shoutouts left and right. Telling everyone to repent because we're out here preaching the palabra and they're just making tortillas. He actually said that. It was pretty funny.

Honestly Im really glad Im out of Xela, but its always fun to go back for a day. I'm pretty sure it was normal climate or maybe even hotter than when I was there, but it felt cold. At least fresco cause it felt good.

Anyway we went for the district leader training for Elder Hinckley. They gave us some rico food. Then I went on divisions with other comps of the people getting trained. So basically we studied the scriptures for 2.5 hours. Which isn't that bad honestly. Afterward it started to rain super hard. It was awesome and we walked to the Marbles house in it.

So the Marbles let us stay in their house and it was the best. Also their kids came to visit but apparently it wasn't a problem for them. They took us out to eat. Afterward we went to say Hi to the familia Valasquez. Robin and the oldest son weren't there so that was sad. But the mom and two younger sons were and it was nice.

As we were walking back to the Marbles house we called everyone to make sure they were coming to the temple the next day. Especially Ernesto because he lives so far from where they meet up. Literally, I just said 'are you still planning on coming' and he just said primero dios, 3Ñ30 am, and hung up. Legendary.

The Marbles house was amazing because it looks like an American apartment and their shower has decent water pressure and they made us breakfast.

Then we went to the Temple. It was super cool but at the same time it did not exceed expectations. We couldn't go in because we had to watch the kids of our convert. So literally the person we were going to do them with and who got us permission to go, made it so we couldn't do them with her. Also all the older people did like two sessions so we basically sat in the Visitors Center for the whole morning. But we met some nice people. Then it turned out that they didn't have room on their bus so we had to leave early to catch bus back. We left at 1:30 got to HueHue at 4:00, left at 5:30 and got home at 8:30. It was rough.

Sunday was kinda rough too. One of our positive investigators that never attended church before, promised us she would go. So we showed up to her house before the meeting and she said she had to leave somewhere. It was super sad because now we have to drop her.

The saddest thing is.. Really the only standing in the way of eternal life is three asistencias (attendences?). We have a rule that you can't get baptized unless you've gone to church three times. You also can't reach the Celestial Kingdom without a baptism. The thing is though, it doesn't matter how many times you say you believe or have faith. If you never do anything about it, you're faith is dead. So its really sad when people believe what you're teaching them, but they never get anywhere because they can't make and keep commitments.

Then we only had 18 people come to church so me and E.H. we kinda sad. But then the rest of the day was fine. We had to climb up this huge mountain though because there weren't any buses then we walked back town and to a different aldea. So the legs were a bit sore.

Also theres a few kids we've been teaching that play soccer every night and they always have us play with them. All the jovenes love us. We just started to do that like a week ago, but they always beg us to play. Probably because we're absolutely trash. All the kids are like insanely good too. I can only imagine how they are outside of tiny towns in Guatemala. But yeah thats been fun. Also Sunday we told them we couldn't play because it was the sabbath and they were tristes.

Monday kinda wasn't the best P-day. So there was another meeting for leaders in Xela so E.H and another guy in our zone had to meet up in Hue Hue. Also the other district in our zone decided to do their district activity at some ruins in Hue Hue. Which are super sick but, its' really the only thing to do in HueHue.  So I've heard you end up going like 10 times.

When you're in a zone as cool as mine you have to disfrutar the cool activities you can do. So we were kinda mad. But we got permission to do the activity with them. The bad thing is our bus was super slow and we got there as they were leaving so we literally got less than five minutes to see them. Its nothing like Tikal, but they're still really cool and it's so crazy that those people actually lived here and actually built them. 

After that we went and ate. We have two new old missionaries and I think I've talked about them before but the guy served here 40 years ago and learned mam and he started a whole bunch of branches out here that are now wards. He had some crazy stories because he was here during the Civil War. Also back then missions were cooler. 

After I went on divisions with a guy named Elder Boothe. And I'm gonna spend the next day and a half in the tiny mountain aldea of Ical. After we go to the multizona so basically counting this week and the time in Xela last week, I'll have spent almost a week out of my area. Not great for the obra. But we still keep keepin on.