Giant Zone Baptism 4-3-2012

Hola Familia!

We had another baptism! As a zone we organized a giant baptismal service.
We had 8 baptisms as a zone and we held the baptisms after the second
session on sunday. It was the idea of President Brough for all of the zones
in the mission to have a combined baptismal service, our goal was to
baptized 100 people. Elder Turcios and I baptized Elvis and Jenny they are
our golden family that we found about 4 weeks ago. They are so pilas (that
means awesome). However they were going to get confirmed next week, but
Elvis just called us this morning and told us that they got in a bus
accident. They were going to go to the coast to visit their family but
their bus crashed with another bus. Jenny broke her knee, and stayed in the
coast because she needs to get operated. Elvis is running around trying to
get a whole bunch of paperwok our. There 2 year old son is fine. The bus
drivers here drive really crazily. We are hoping that they can get back
soon so that they can get confirmed. This week is semana santa (holy week)
during this week everyone is on vacation and they all go to the coast. It
is really ironic how many people die during this week. People tell me that
on the beaches there is standing room only.

On the sunday morning session 10 investigadors showed up to church! One of
our investigadors showed up to church with her 6 kids! I gave them a
coloring activity but that didnt last them the full two hours. Another
family also showed up all by themselves. Last week we were walking in the
street and we walked past a tienda (little store) and this guy waved us
down. (usually when a man standing infront of a tienda doing nothing it is
because he is drunk, and you usually dont stop and talk to them). At first
I thought to myself, oh no it would be better not to talk to him because he
is drunk. But the spiritualy prompting was really strong so I stopped and
walked back. It turned out that he wasnt drunk, and he is a less active
member who has a wife and children who arent members, and he told us that,
as a family, they are interested in going to church. And they came all by
themselves! When things like that happen it helps me to realize that the
lord knows who he wants in his church and he has only just asked us to
assist him. We dont take the credit for anything. On my mission I think the
greatest thing that I have been able to learn, is to trust in the lord and
not in myself.

I signed up for classes. I signed up for a doctrine and covenants 324,
spanish 321 (returned missionary spanish class), spanish 339 introduction
to spanish literature, a preview to dentistry class, and a global
leadership class. I decided that I forsure am going to have at least a
spanish minor. I also just learned that Elder Lontine who is sitting right
next to me right now signed up for the same leadership class at the same
time and with the same teacher! Que Casualidad!

Well, I am working hard and I am really happy. I hope you guys have a good
week.

Love,

Elder West

Elvis & Jenny 3-20-2012

Hola Familia!

Sorry I forgot my camera at home buy I do have pictures that I wanted to send you guys. We had a marriage and a baptism this week! we completed a family. We baptized hermana Dora we got her married to her husband (who was inactive for a long time) and we got her baptized.

I also have alot of really cool stories to tell.

The first cool one happened when I went on divisions with Elder Durfee from Utah. We were knocking doors and at this one door a man came out and before we could even say anything he told us "not now Im busy!". And tought him a little bit and were about to leave, but then we heard the voice of a women from inside the house yell "let them come in!". and we could tell that the husband was thinking What!, haha. So he hesitantly let us in and we found is wife sitting on the floor. She is blind and the day that we showed up she was also feeling really sick. She got up and we all took a seat. We then offered them a prayer and we asked them what we could do to help them. She told us about that she is suffering from diabetes, and she is always really sick because the dont have enough money for all of the medication. She then asked us if we could pray for her so that she could be healed. We explained that we have the priesthood and that we can bless people like the apostles did back in the day. We asked her if she had faith that god could heal her and she said yes. Then we gave her a blessing. After the blessing Elder Durfee asked her, "how do you feel sister?" and she just started to cry and said that she felt better. Through her tears she said that she felt a fire with in her. This completely changed the attitude of her husband, he went and got us a glass of water and he told us that we will always be welcome there. We then testified about the church and ended the visit. They promised us that they were going to come to church. And I think they did.

My second story is that we have a family that is preparing to get baptized and married in this month as well. Elvis and jenny. We had a combined family home evening in the church building, and tons of people showed up. Jenny showed up all by herself because Elvis went hometeaching with the elders qourum (yes, thats right he is not even baptized yet and he went home teaching). About 50 people showed up to the activity, the bishop gave a message and Elder Turcios and I were incharge of the activity. We tought them all how to play ninja. It was hilarious, how much the got into it. There was a 60 year old women that really got into it and was karate chopping everyone. But anyways while we were playing jenny slipped out to talk in private with the bishops wife. The only thing we saw was jenny crying her eyes out. So after ward we asked the bishops wife what was going on and she told us that jenny was suffering from phyiscal and verbal abuse from her husband. Something that they did not tell us. however she said that they were on the verge of getting seperated when we suddenly showed up at their door. They decided that that was an anwser to their prayers, and that they were going to stay togather and see if god could help them. During the time that we have been teaching them Elvis has not hit Jenny once. They have gotten into a few arguments but nothing big. yesterday we read the family a proclamation to the world with them and they loved it. When we got to the part that warns against abuse, we could see that elvis was starting to sweat alot. he came out and said that it was his problem and that he has a strong desire to change. We believe them, and they still want to get married. They have a 2 year old kid named Brayner, who will be blessed to raised in the gospel. maybe god knew that that brayner was going to grow up to be a great missionary and that is why god lead us there.

Another thing that happened is that my companion lost his voice, haha, and so I have pretty much been a one man show for the past 3 days. That was interesting.

Well, I am super happy. I am super tired but i am super tired. Today we talked with the whole zone and we motivated everyone to go out and contact everybus that they get on. On the way to internet hermana Treviño from arizona contacted the bus, it was awesome. Its true what kristen said I feel like there is so much to do but so little time to do it. I hope that You all have a good week, and I promise that next week I will send Fotos.

Love,

Elder West

Awesome Stake Conference 3-13-2012

Hola Familia!

This week was pretty cool.

The first cool thing that happened was that we had stake conferance and Elder Martino and the Temple President spoke to the stake, and they gave really really good talks. They talked about how all of the families need to pray and have family home evenings consistently. The sad part was that only one of our investigadors showed up. In the morning we called all of our investigadors and they all had sudden changes of plan (sickness, work, etc...). If only they had listened to the talk of elder martino I think that they all would have been instantly converted or something.

The other cool thing that happened is that I think that I have officially overcome my fear of contacting buses, its not scary any more. Alot of people say that it is not effective, which is kind of true. Considering that in one bus of 50 people maybe 1-2 people will give you their adress. But, if you think about it saying no to a stranger who is asking for you direction on a public bus in a dangerous city is easy. However saying yes, is harder, therefor the 1-2 references that we recieve are really good ones. So its kind of like finding the needle in the hay stack.

The other cool thing is that we my companion and I totally healed a kid who was sick. We have some really good investigadors that had a little 2 year old kid that was sick throwing up all week and he pretty much had not eaten anything all week because he couldnt keep anything down. They took him to the doctors office and the doctor told them that they had to take them to a special childrens doctor really far away in the coast. Me and My companion stopped by and just happend to find them right as they were walking out of the door. They asked us if we could pray for them and their sick son before the got on the bus. So we went inside, and we explained to them about the priesthood a little bit and told them how we perform blessings. A couple of days later, we talked to them and they told us that as they were on there way to the coast they said that there son suddenly just got better. They said he was playing and jumping around and stuff. When they got to the doctor he no longer had throwing up a dn diarhea problems. That really helped strenghten the faith of this family.

My companion got really sick again and so I had to go out and work with a member for the whole day. Poor guy, its the second time that hes gotten sick.

Another cool thing that happened is that yesterday for p-day my companion and I went to a members house to play board games. We played risk (but we gave up half way through), and we played a game of scrabble in spanish. It was really funny because I was playing against 3 latinos and I won! hahaha, it was hilarious they were all ashamed. Gift of Tounges baby!

i cannot believe that Kristen is going to be home in 2 weeks, that is awesome. I just passed the 20 month mark on the 7th.

I love you guys and I cant wait to hear from you next week.

Love,

Elder West

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

"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

"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.