THE RAIN STOPPED! 10-24-2011

HOLA GUYS!

We had 2 baptisms this week! We baptized a guy called Raul, and a niño who has 9 years old as well. Raul is a great convert and his story is really awesome, i might of told you guys once before but I will tell you guys again. About 4 months ago me and elder Lopez we having alot of trouble finding new investigadors, and so we come up with the idea to look in our Area book and find all of old investigadors (there are a ton in this area book). we found one teaching record that was really positive, that was written about 2 years ago. It was the familiy of Raul. Except the teaching record was for his daughter Saada, who no longer lives there. She was going to get baptized but her parents (Raul) didnt give her permission and didnt want anything to do with the church. Elder Lopez and I found there house, and passed by several times but could never find them at home. about 2 months ago me and my current companion Elder Pineda passed by there house on the way back from an appointment that had fallen through and I recognized that house and I really felt like knocking on it. So we did and they let us come! And we baptized Raul yesterday! His wife is a workaholic and hasnt been able to come to church so thats why she didnt get baptized. His youngest daughter Yosselin will probably get baptized next week! We will also Baptize the family Tay Ramos next sunday as well. I also got to go to a baptism that the sister missionaries had because the family they baptized lives in my area sometimes and I was able to teach them as well!

We had a conferance with Elder Martino who is the 1st councilor in the area presidencia. And it was amazing! He talked to us about what it means to be a succesfull missionary. The spirit was really strong, he made alot of people cry. It was so good. He told us that for every 1,000 doors that we knock we will probably baptize 1 person, he said that we could work like that if we wanted to but there is really a better way. He told us that if we strive to have our lessons in the house of a member 2 of every 3 investigadors will get baptized. This was part of a study that was done in the nicaragua mission recently. That is an amazing difference. He talked alot about proseletismo inteligente (inteligent proselyting) to help us be more efficient with our time.

THE RAIN STOPPED! In Guatemala when the rain stops it stops for good. There are scattered clouds, a nice cool breeze, its probably about 75-80 degrees during the day, its perfect! This is perfect disc golf weather. If guatemala wasnt so dangerous I would totally live here to enjoy this fabulous climate.

I figured out how to send pictures again!

I was brave enough to take a few pictures in my area.

• The street that I took a picture of is an example of how everysingle street in my area is like (I took the picture half way up the hill, and you still cant see that top, and there are longer streets than this one)
• Baptism with the Hermanas
• Raul and my companion Elder Pineda (he thinks he tough, hahaha)
• and two pictures of me in my apartment

Love,

Elder West

IT RAINED EVERYSINGLE DAY! 10-17-2011

HOLA GUYS!

Let me just start out by saying that I got really wet this week! IT RAINED EVERYSINGLE DAY! and it is still raining as I speak. Apparently there was like a hurricane or tropical storm or something that passed by on the way to Mexico, but naturally as missionaries we always find stuff like that out after it has already happened. We are also running out of clean clothes because, the sister that washes our clothes drys our clothes outside on a clothes line, which is something that you can´t do when it is raining. I also figured out that those really cool boots that I got from missionary mall arent entirely waterproof either. But thats ok, it was a good experience to right in my journal.

On saturday it rained the hardest! and all of our appointments fell through as well. So we were knocking door after door in the rain hoping that someone would feel compassionate enough to let us in. After about 4 hours of doing that, when it was dark and raining harder than ever, a lady opened the door and I had one of the sweetest contacting moments ever. I put the biggest smile on that I could and said "its really rainging hard isnt it" ( I had to yell it because the rain was deafening) and then she said "si (yah)" and then Me and my companion just stood there smiling the best we could. And she made one of the most wonderfull observations in the world "it looks like your getting wet do you want to come inside?" How glorious were those words in my very wet ears! Fortunately her brother (who is older than 18 years) was home so we were able to enter. It was a pretty good lesson despite the fact that we couldnt hear anything because she has a tin roof and the rain was deafening. She doesnt have a church and is willing to listen. That was awesome. This past week we found 16 new investigadors!

Yesterday we also had a really good lesson with and investigador that we found last week. His name is Estuardo Soliz and he has about 24 years, yesterday we also found his Dad as well. It turns out that the missionaries tought them a couple of years ago. At the beggining of the lesson his dad told us that the other missionaries failed to convince him, and he told us that he was catholic and wasnt going to change. His son, estuardo, asked us about baptizing niños, and his dad asked us about hell and where it is located. We tought them bits and pieces of the plan of salvation and I really feel that we were being led by the spirit. The Spirit was really strong. At the end of the lesson, Estuardo´s dad said " well, it looks like you guys might just convince me after all." Victory! God wins! The spirit is so important in the lessons!

Well I have got to go but I love you guys and I hope you guys continue to stay dry up there in Washington. Could you guys said me the mission adresses to Peter and Nelson, I probably should send them a letter. This tuesday I am going to make a run at the post office, and I will try and send you guys a package.

I love you guys So much! and I love being a Missionary!

Elder West

Advice for Megan 10-10-2011

HI MUCHÁ!

(Muchá, is a slang term in guatemala for guys)This week I passed the 15th month mark, and am now in my seventh month herein peronia. I am going to be in this area about the same amount of time thatI had at BYU. Today everyone in the zone had our district meetings in thestake center because we are practicing a special musical number for zoneconferance. We are going to have 2 zone conferances in a row. We are goingto have one with President Brough on Wednesday and the following wednesdaywe are going to listen to Elder Martino (1st councilor in the areapresidency). On our way to the internet cafe we got really wet as we werewaiting outside for the bus to come. The rainDrops here are really reallyfat, they you can hear a small slapping sound when it smacks against yourskin. The spirit told me to put on my boots this morning but I didnt becausethere was not a cloud insight. I just finished drying out these shoes that Ihave on as well. My scriptures have gotten wet sooooooo much, they arereally wrinkly and they smell funny, and some of the pages have holes inthem, But I cant get rid of them because I have the whole book superhighlighted.

This week three of our baptismal date fell through, we still have 4baptismal date that are good however. One the dates that fell through is ayoung person called Esvin, he is 15 yearsold and has come to church forabout 2 months now. He really wants to get baptized but his parents wont lethim, because they want him to wait until he is bigger. The Other fecha waswith Brother Juan, the missionaries have been teaching him for about a yearand has been very close to baptism several times, we decided that we werentgoing to baptize him becauze he stopped reading, praying, and going tochurch. The other date was with Julia (the wife of Raul who is going to getbaptized in 2 weeks) but she didnt come to church, and we have rule that wecant baptize someone unless they have come to church 3 times.The other 4 fechas are awesome! Raul adn Yosselin, Alba and Caterine.

Some advice for Megan with her school friends. If someone asks you adoctrinal question that you dont know how to answer just say that you dontknow, you dont need to try and explain something you don´t know. Second tellthem about Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon becuase if the book of mormonis true it means that all of the commandments and "rules" that we have aretrue as well, and we dont have to ask why. And then just bear yourtestimony, nobody can deny the strong testimony that we have. Then givetheir phone number the missionaries and tell the missionaries what doubtsthey have, and go with them to teach your friends.

About 2 weeks ago we knocked on a door and a family let us in, after about 5minutes of talking we realized that it was the basement of another church!ooooppps! They started bombarding us with doctrinal questions, but because Ihave studied the scriptures i was able to answer, but they managed to stumpme on one question. They wanted me to define the word Terestial, I told themthat is was level of glory that we will recieve, but that wasnt enough. Soall that we could do was testify of the book of mormon, and it worked. Inthe end I dont think they changed, but I know that they could not deny thepower of our testimonies.Anyways I have got to go change my socks,

Love Elder West

General Conference 10-3-2011

HOlA GUYS!

I cannot believe that another general conferance has passed by! Its hard to say if I have a favorite talk because there were so many good ones. Two of them that really stood out to me, was Elder Hollands talk, and the talk given by Elder Richardsen. Both of them talked alot about topics that relate really well with missionaries. Elder Hollands talk was mainly focused on the future missionaries but i was able to learn alot about what kind of missionaries the lord expects us to be. I just love his talks becuase he is so direct and clear about things. He talked about how there are only two sides in life, the side of the devil and the side of god. If we are afraid to open our mouths to talk with someone, than that means that we are letting the side of satan take over. It is really brutal, but it is absoluty true, we are either obedient, or disobedient, there is no grey area. I liked the anology he used about the lines that are drawn in sporting events, and how we can not play out of bounds when we are on gods team.

Elder Richardson explained really really well, the role that the holy ghost has in the conversion. This is something that I have been trying to develop more in these past months. In the MTC one of the main focuses they teach to the missionaries now is to teach people not lessons. ç

This week we set 3 more baptismal dates! we set the date for the 23 of october. This is a family that we found in the Area book that was tought almost 2 years ago. On their teaching record it said that they were not positive at all and that is why the missionaries left them. 2 years later we found them again, and they are very prepared by god. Our first lesson we were prompted to talk about the anology in alma 32 about the how faith is like a little seed, and they really were able to relate to that. We felt the spirit very strongly on friday when we tought them about the plan of salvation and they understood everything perfectly and they accepted the invitation to be baptized.

This week we spent alot of time getting our investigadors ready for conferance. We were able to help one of our families get some shirts and ties and dresses to wear. THey were all very excited to go but, for various reasons they could not. There was car problems, sickness, job opportunities, and etc.. Satan really did not want them to go to general conferance and he succeeded. But in the long run satan will always lose so me and my companion arent discouraged.

Love ,

Elder West