his familiy tied him to a pole 2-14-2011

Hola Familia!

Well I guess I am 20 now. I totally didnt realize it was my birthday until about 2 o clock in the afternoon...that was kind of weird. But I dont really care because I have been telling people I am 20 for about the last month and a half. Nothin to special happened but it was a good day. I have some good stories from this past week.

So we have an investigating familiy that is progressing really good called the familia Oj Ajquiy. The husbands name is vergilio and he has a drinking problem. This past week he started drinking again and so he has been out in the street for about 5 days now. WE told his family to make sure that if he comes home to not let him leave. We past by on sunday morning to pick them up to go to church not excpecting to find hermano vergilio. To our suprise he was there... but he was a bit sad. The reason why he was sad was that when he wandered into their yard early that morning his familiy tied him to a pole on their front porch so that he wouldnt leave, hahahahahah. I could not even begin to tell you how hard it was for me and my comp to not laugh. He was still really drunk and he wanted us to untie him but we thought that it was best to jsut leave him there until he got better. AFter church we returned and he had escaped, haha but at least he knows that he cant come home drunk any more. That made my day.

This week me and my comp finally figured out the magical trick to sucess in the mision. The mission process revealed by president thomas s monson is the best way to work by far! before I really didnt understand it but now I am a true convert. It all starts out in ward council, in ward council we pick 15 active families (5 from elders, 5 from relief society, and 5 from high priests) and we assign them to 15 in active families. We give them the assignment to do a social visit to the inactive family and set up a time for the full time missionaries to come over, and invite over their non member friends and familiy. We then as the missionaries will teach the inactive members and their friends all of the lessons with the active member family present. At the end of it all we will have reactivated a family as well as baptized their friends, and we start the process over again. This is amazing and it works! You guys should totally make the missionaries at home start doing it. It is revalation giving by the prophet and it really does work.

So I really liked the stuff that happened this week I am very content. I am hoping to get more baptism by the end of this month as well. Oh and another interesting thing that happened, I contacted someone who has familiy living in chicago I asked them if they new the direction but they said no. But I thought that it would be really cool to send kristen a reference from all the way down here in guatemala.

Well all is good down here in the land of mormon. I will give you guys the update next week. Sorry I didnt send photos as well I just realized that there are no usb ports on this computer at all, next week I promise I will send some though.

Happy Valentines day!

Elder West

litle green pumpkins stuffed with meat 2/7/11

Cho´kier Familia!

That means good afternoon in cak´chiquel. Sorry my photos didnt get sent las week the computer was being dumb and couldnt handle it so I had to delete all of them before I sent the email. I also forgot the cord for my camera this week so there wont be any photos this week unfortunately as well. This past week was an interesting one as they always are. The weather around here is beautiful as always, I dont know what temperature it is but it is perfect I am not cold and I am not hot, There is lots of sun and my tan is coming along quite nicely. This past week we had 2 more baptisms Ana Xicay Xicon and her little brother David Xicay Xicon, they are children of a family we baptized last month. These two were particulary hard to find and teach. Ana is 15 and works alot becuase she doesnt go to school and david is just a spastic 8 year old awesome kid who has a lot of wiggles. But it was really nice to beable to complete this family that we baptized last month. The only sad thing is that their dad Rolando who used to be a drunk started being drunk again. He was going strong for about 4 months but this past month he didnt come to church once and I know for sure that this caused him to be spiritually weakened. He has been out in the street for about a week now and we havent been able to find him. Alcohol is destroying this country like you have no Idea. I run into drunks everyday lying in the streets leaving behind their poor families to fend for them selves. WE have tought countless families who are living in a state of hell because the husband is a drunk. But at the same time I know for a fact that the gospel of jesus christ heals people with addictions. I am confident in telling families that if they would only apply the things we teach them that there husbands overcome their addiction to alcohol. Our investigador Vergilio Oj AJquiy is the perfect example of this. He would sometime be out in the street for months drunk and he could hardly go a day without drinking. 2 weeks ago he started to senceraly listento us and apply what we tought, and he hasnt drank a drop of alcohol since, yesterday he come to church for the first time. the first time he walked into the chapel he fell to his knees and just began to cry, he said that it felt like some one pushed him into the chapel. Me and my comp are really happy about this family, we put a goal for them to be baptized on the 20th of february.

I didnt do anyting dangerous this week. We are enjoying our new apartment that we moved into on tuesday. It is SOOOO nice. I actually feel clean when I step out of the shower, and even better this apartment has windows without bars over them, I feel like I am back in america. Oh yah and the roof isnt made out of tin so we are actually warm! That improved our spirits alot. Plus our neighboors have brought us all kinds of cool gourmet foods that their cook cook s them. OUr neighboors are really weathly. The favorite thing they gave us is these litle green pumpkins stuffed with meat which was really good.

That is really awesome that Brother meltons seminary class got to be on MTV that is so funny you guys have got to show me the video when I get back. Well I dont have much time, in one hour I have an interview with President Baldwin.

Love you guys

Elder West