Elder West's Favorite Scripture

And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the work of truth and righteousness (Alma 38:9)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

4 convert baptisms 2/28/2012





Hey Guys!

We had 4 baptisms! Sweet. WE baptized Flor, kimberly, karen, and stefanie. They are great converts. We are still working on the husband. I got to baptize kimberly. When we were in the baptismal font, she was grabbing on to my arm sooooo hard I thought she was going to rip it off. As I said the baptism prayer she was shaking and I tried not to smile as I was saying it. But afterwards I think that she was just fine. Kimberly is 15, flor is the mom, karen is 10, and stefanie is 13.


I cannot believe all of the things that are happening back home. That is great to hear that shay´s husband is going to get baptized! I think that Talan gunnel is going to go to the Guatemala city central mission! Thats cool that kevin is auditioning for wind ansemble, I remember Mr. Koreski he is really good at playing the trombone.


This past week I tried a realy good food called Mole, it was awesome. The only thing is that it literally looks like poop (for lack of a better word). It is basically Platano (looks like a really big banana) with a special chocolate sauce.


Here in guatemala you can buy movies for really cheap like 5 or 10 quetzales (one dollar). I asked president brough if I could buy a whole bunch to bring home to you guys...but he said no. Mainly because all of the movies here are all pirated and that is against the law.


There is a recent convert in my area that cooks lunch for us on sundays. Last sunday she told me that I am a fresita (fres means strawberry, but when someone calls you that in guatemala that means that they think that you are femenine). Darn. When She told me that it made me turn really red, which made things worse because fresa´s (strawberrys) are red. That is the first time that anyone has ever told me that I am femenine. I asked her porque (why) and she just said, " i dont know, you just look like one of those guys that washes his face with special face wash everynight" That made me turn even more red because, I actually do do that, but I didnt think that it was a femenine thing to do! Mom! you said that all men do this! Just by the fact that I turned red they all knew that it was true, and they were all dying of laughter. She thought it was hilarious and know she wont stop calling me Elder Fresita. Thanks mom.


I cool experience this week is that a less active member came to church on sunday for the first time in 20 years, and she brought her. 12 year old son. After all of the meetings we asked her son if he liked the church and the first words that came out of his mouth were "Yah! I loved it and I want to get baptized". Sweet!

Well I love you guys and I hope that you continue to have success in your studying and work.

Happy birhday Dad!

Love,

Elder West


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"The Best 19 Months!" 2-21-2012

Hola Familia!

As always this week was great! A couple of interesting things happened this week. First of all my companion got a case of Denge (bonebreak fever), haha poor guy. I think I might have gotten denge as well. You basically have fever and your whole body just hurts, even when you are laying in bed. He was out for a good 3 days. IT gave a good opportunity to clean the apartment. I found a can of bug killer and I decided to go to work at the cockroach nest that lives underneath our sink. There is a little whole in the wood work that was the target of my attack. When I sprayed inside the whole hundreds of little bugs started to squirm out. It was a bit unsettling.

We have been preparing Hermana Flor and her daughters to get baptized this saturday. Her husband, Geraldo, listens to us but he doesnt want anything to do with religion ¡Chambon! (that means lazy bum in guatemala). We had a lesson with them a couple of days ago and he told his family, "thank goodness that you guys are going to get baptized because that means that these two kids dont have to come any more." ¡MALA ONDA! (that means: that was mean) But then we told him that baptism was just the beginning and that they are going to be recieving visits from members of the church for the rest of their lives. He will eventually get baptized but not right now. God can do anything.

Elder Turcios and I are really stressed out right now because in the Zone we only have 8 baptismal dates! last month we had 20 baptisms. The pattern in the mission is that we baptize a ton everyother month. President Brough wants us to overcome that.

As I look back on the experiences I can clearly see that God has given me the experiences that I need to become a good person, a good preisthood holder, a good son, a good brother, and a good husband. As of right now these 19 months have been the best 19 months in my entire life. It is 10000 times better than winning big rowing races, or becoming a spartan veteran in Halo. I have about 4 and a half more months to prepare my self for the challenge that lies before me after i come home.

That is good to hear that Kevins voice is starting to change, that means that he is right on track...atta boy.

I have been hearing rumors from my fellow BYU alumi that I need to register for classes in march! I dont remember my password to get into my route y account. I think that they can email it to my other email adress. But the problem is that I forgot my email adress, and I forgot the password to get into my email account. Soo it would be great if you guys could give me some more info abour registering for classes and stuff.

Love,

Elder West

P.S The homeade jam almost made me cry when I took it out of the box. and I am sorry that I havent been taking pictures because I am in the city again and I dont want my camera to get robbed right before i go home... that would be Chafa (that means horrible/sucky/bad)


21 Years Old! 2-15-2012

Hola Familia!

What a great week. It is really awesome to hear that Kristen has a companion from Guatemala! Here are some Guatemalan slang that she could use:

Pilas! = awesome
Chapin = guatemalan
Puchika = darn it
que Calidad! = sweeeeet!
que Chilero = really cool
si mon = ya man
hey mucha! = hey guys!

That is also good to hear that Grandma is doing well, I was praying for her. Thats also sweet that kevin was able to recieve some revelation for his deacons quorum!

This week was full of miracles. First of all, 4 of our investigadors accepted baptismal dates! hermana flor, and her 3 hijas kimberly, stephanie, and karen. Flors husband didnt want to but, he did pray for the first time ever! He refused to pray to god, even personaly but he finally did it. And when he did it he prayed perfectly like a mormon.

The other miracle is that in the mission we set a new record for new investigadors found! we found 1, 273 new investigadors in just one week! Our faith is going up, and as a result god is blessing us.

I got to go on divisiont this week with two elders and they are both called Elder Cruz. It was really fun, because we just worked our butts off. With the first Elder Cruz, I knew that he is kind of Quiet so I thought that it would be good for him to contact a bus, hahaha. It was funny, When I stood up infront of the bus and preached I told everyone that there was another Elder on the bus who was going to go seat by seat to write down their directions, haha, I have never seen anyone slunk down in his chair faster then him. He was probably thinking, "I dont know him, i dont know him." But I think that helped him because this week him and his companion found 34 new investigadors.

There is also a family in our ward that is really pilas. They took us around their neigborhood and introduced us to all of their friends and neighboors. They live in a gated community, gated communities in guatemala look like high security prisons from the outside, but on the inside I felt like I was back in the states. Nice green lawns, kids playing in the street, lawn mowing people. middle aged men washing cars. There was no loud music playing. In these areas we are not alowed to enter unless we are invited by someone who lives there. And if you contact inside of the gated community, the security guards will kick you out. But they cant kick us out if we contact with people that live there. That family helped us alot this week.

I also completly forgot that yesterday was my birthday, and I am now 21 years old. Witch means that my intermediate drivers licence has expired.

Love,
Elder West

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"It's Free!" 2-7-2012

Hola Familia!

This week was great! I was able to learn alot! I made the decision to startcontacting entire buses again, and I made that decision for severalreasons. One I knew that satan would hate it, and God would love me evenmore and bless me with families to teach. Second, We have a goal as amission to baptize more than 600 people in the next 4 months and I realizedthat I needed to up my game alittle bit. Third, I want to set a goodexample for my zone.

I had a really funny experience contacting a bus on wednesday night. Iyelled at the top of my lungs the message of the restoration and thenafterword I held up a bunch of restoration pamphlets in my hand and yelled"WHO WANTS ONE!" and it was just dead silent, hahaha. Then I yelled "ANDITS FREE!" and saw almost everyhand on the bus shoot upward, hahaha, Iactually didnt have enough pamphlets for everyone. I got a couple of goodreferences from that bus. President Brough has been teaching us thedoctrine about opening our mouths, and I believe that this is the way thatwe will be able to accomplish our goals.

This week I also talked with a man that really inspired me. It was a doorcontact we did on the way to another appointment. A man let us in, and wefelt prompted to stay even though we were on our way to differentappointment. We told him we were going to be brief and we jsut started totalk with him. He told us that when he was little he grew up on the streetsbecause he doesnt have parents, he said that he had a goal to find work andstart a family, so he did. He said that his family brought him more peaceand happiness than anything else. However his wife past away after 25 yearsof marriage, and one of his two chidren was murdered, leaving behind anorphaned child. He lives alone with his grandson, works all day, washes hisown clothes, cooks, and does everything. oh yah, and he is also blind inone eye. When we arrived he was stripping wire in order to sell the copper.Inspite of everything he told us that he feels like the richest man in theworld with all of the blessings that he has. We testified to him that hecan see his family togather again. WE were unable to get a returnappointment with him because he works so much, His story really touched my heart.

Right now I am on divisions with another elder in my Zone he is calledelder Cruz. little does he know that we are going to go contact a bus assoon as we are done wrighting. Waaahhaaahahaha. President Brough Told usthat when we go on division with the elders we have to leave themexhausted. This is going to be fun, sorry elder cruz but its for your own good buddy.

This week we were able to find 21 new investigadors, and I think it isbecause we have increased our efforts to open our Bocas (that means mouths).

So whats this news about Shay frenzel and Samathna peterson getting marriedall about, when did that happen? I guess I have been out here alittle bitlonger than I thought. We are all growing up so fast. Thats also cool tohear that Kevin is deacon's qourum president, looks like he's right ontrack. Oh yah, today I passed the 19 month mark just incase you werewondering. I have 5 more months left to work my but off.

Well I love you guys and I will write next week.