Week 48: October 7, 2019. Changes!

So last monday after I got done writing I had to say goodbye to a lot of people which is always sad. The saddest was the family we live with. They made us dinner and there were a few tears shed. Then we had to pack and clean up the house because we still hadn't done it. We went to bed at 1230. Which is not a very fun thing to do on the mission. 

Monday we had the changes meeting at 730 I got put in the only area that I actually wanted to go to. I was pretty happy. It's called Zunil. Its a pueblo in the mountains of Xelaju and its super awesome. I was expecting like an aldea but it's almost like a city. An actual concrete jungle. Theres just a million houses and they're just right next to each other, on top of eachother and they're all just made out of concrete. Its like that in all of Guatemala but here it doesn't look ugly. Idk why. Its' also just tucked in between the mountains and its so pretty. My comps Elder Mendoza. Hes from nicaragua and has 24 years old and is gonna complete 25 here in october. I think he's the oldest missionary here but he only has 4 months in the mission. He's a pretty good guy. We get along alright.

When we got there we just got to know the members and what not. Theres not a lot of them. We don't have a church here so we have to go to a place called cantel about 20 min away so all the members are less active and the majority are super inactive.

Wednesday we went to an aldea called Estancia de la Cruz. We took a flete there and I couldn't stop looking around me. It rained almost the whole day every day since Ive been here and when it doesn't rain theres always low hanging clouds covering the mountains which makes it look cooler. Were also right under the Volcano santa maria so it just adds for dramatic effect. When we were driving in to this place you could see in the canyon below going down the river a bunch of columns of steam. Theres a lot of natural hot water because of the volcano. The whole town is covered in bath houses or banos. Everywhere. We live right under one and its' a huge temptation for me.

Anyways we went to this place and we met a convert whos 17 and lives in a family of like 10 but she's the only member. Her whole family is super catholic but the love the missionaries even the dad even though he's the most catholic. So they pretty much aren't getting baptized but they invite us to dinner. I have a lot of investigators like that. Pretty much all of them have been being taught for like 4 to 6 months but haven't progressed. Not a lot of them are super positive. After that cita we met with a recent convert. Her sisters not baptized so were working with her even though she's one of the eternal investigadores. But ojo de la fe.

Friday we met with a family that said they no the book of mormon is true but they don't think the church is true. I tried explaining the logic behind that about how it doesnt work. Because if the books true, joseph smith was a prophet that restored the only true church, if its false, you get the point. The thing is they didn't understand. The people here speak quiche and a lot of them speak spanish and most understand spanish too mas o menos. But they just can't understand deep complex conversations. A lot of the times they'll answer something super wrong to the question we ask and then the kids will just laugh and then translate it then we know the didn't understand anything we said for the last 5 minutes. So there's definitely some challenges here but nothing too bad.

Saturday was super calidad. We met up as a zone to watch conference. We had it going on in english in another room. It was pretty lit. Almost a party but with the spirit present. Sunday was also pretty good. But kinda lame too. The meeting was held in a place called las rosas but all the gringos were at bosque. We brought an investigator so we couldn't go over there. So I had to watch it in spanish. Not lit. I mean I was able to understand it all but its just not the same. You cant hear their real voices, the translations are super delayed and sometimes they just don't say whole sentences and there's a million little kids running around. Pretty much everyone only stayed for the morning session. Which allowed us to go over to bosque and rejoined the party. The 2nd afternoon session was awesome and probably my fav. 

A few things I learned:

We have to make Christ the center of all that we do.

True joy comes from God's acceptance of our efforts. Go home with a broken jaw.

We need to be spiritually nourished and not just fed and help others around us receive this nourishment.

Throw old bad habits into great, churning waterfalls instead of shallow, calm water.

No matter when we received a testimony, we need to apply the converting power of the Book of Mormon every day.

Ven Sigueme is like the blood of the lamb painted on the doors of the israelitas.

Keep our word-promises always.

Don't let satan deceive you with disguises.

Increasing in holiness qualifies us to increase in happiness.

Repentance every day.

Slow down.

Count your blessings.

Tell people you love them.

The flesh is the enemy of the spirit, yield to the spirit.

Know who you are. Don't let anyone make you think otherwise.

We have to be ready to answer questions people have about the temple.

Strive to be holy so you can enter into the house of the lord. 

God is a God of revelation and will never cease to be.

Trust in the Lord in everything.

Something's going down in april

I hope everyone was able to receive the revelation the need to guide their lives. Go back and study the talks and live them. 

Whether by my own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same.

Elder Severe