Bumped up to Zone Leader 1-31-2012

Hola family!

Well I got transfered. President Brough decided to bumb me up to a Zone Leader, I wasnt really expecting that. I know that the lord wants me to learn something with this new responsibility that he gave me. My companion is Elder Turcios he is from Honduras (he is my 3rd honduranion companion). My area is called El Frutal 1, and I am in my last area. I tell ya, that after training for 6 months it is really really nice having a companion who knows what he is doing. Its not that I dont love training but its alot of work. This is the first time in my mission that I am in a ward that is actually big, and good. (one of the benefits of being a zone leader). I also have a cellphone! (other benefit of being a Z.L). However, because of all of the calls we have to do in the night we usually go to sleep after 11 oclock at night (which is not a benefit), and as a result we are always really tired. My area is also really really small, but thats ok because I was in a small area before so I already know how to work with it. I am also officially in my last area! I feel sad and happy at the same time!

In our mission we had a goal to baptize 204 people in the month of January, and we actually got 221 confirmations and 227 baptisms. That is an all time record for this month, and I also think that it was the first time that we were the most succesfull mission in guatemala. our mission is the smallest one in guatemala, it is probably the same size as Kristens Zone in chicago.

This week Elder Turcios and I have been trying to work really hard with the members (having a cell phone makes it 1,000 times easier). Elder Martino from the area presidency tought us that we should literally drag members out of their houses and have them present us to their neighboors. It actually works really well. That is something that I have had a hard time doing because it makes me feel really bad. But Elder Turcios is one of those people who isnt afraid of anything. On thursday we contacted a 7th day adventist, who was having a small worship service in his house, and he invited us in to participate with them. (that is an invitation that I probably would have turned down) but Elder Turcios accepted without thinking twice and told them that he was going to teach them exactly why the sabbath is no longer saturday. on the inside I was crying, because we were outnumbered, by about 4 people who know the bible better than both of us. It didnt turn out as bad as I thought, we talked about the book of mormon and how by knowing that it is true they could come to know that this chruch is also true and that the sabbath day is not saturday. I am going to be able to learn alot from elder turcios, because he is really bold. President Brough wants us to be bolder.

anyways, I am doing great. I am sorry to hear about Grandma´s sickness I will be praying for her alot so that her operation will go smoothly. I remember the Klondike derby, it was a good experience, I also learned that sock trick as well. That picture you guys sent me blew my mind! You all look really different! This week I am going to have 19 months in the mission.

Love,

Elder West

Transfer - Last Area? 1-24-2012

Hola Familia!

So this week we had 4 more baptisms! We baptized hermana Irma (aunt of the lady we baptized 2 weeks ago), hermana Madgalena (sister of the lady we baptized 2 weeks ago), Hermana Magdalena Mother of the lady we baptized 2 weeks ago) and Hermana Bella (the cousin of the lady we baptized 2 weeks ago). Woohoo! When we first got to this area there was only one investigador family that the elders before us were teaching. It turned out that all of our baptisms this month are all related in some way to that one family. It is a very efficient way to work. All 7 of them live in poverty. There houses are made up of tin, and corn stalks roped togather. I kind of got a suprise when I walked into Magdalenas house for the first time because despite the fact that they live in a house made our of cornstalks and tin, they still have a pretty nice t.v with cable, haha.

Yesterday I found out that I have changes again tommorow. I will most likely be going to my last area. I hope I get a good one. My companion Elder Corrigan is going to have to lead this area, he is kind of nervous because he is still learning spanish and he will most likely be getting a latino companion. But he is ready, his spanish has improved a ton! Last night we had a family home evening with our branch president, and he said that he wanted to call our mission president to tell him to keep me here longer. He is really sad that I am leaving because we are the first missionaries in about a year who have come here and actually worked. He is worried that another Chambon (that means lazy bum) will come to the area. This branch is really small and I totally understand what Kristen said about how branches can be really hard to work with. They are still learning, Yesterday I told the teacher in our branch that it isnt necesarry to burn the left over sacrament cups and bread after the meeting.

Well, I am really excited for this week to go to my last area and to meet one of my last companion.

Love,

Elder West

Familia Arana Guzman Baptized 1-10-2011

Hola Family!

We had Baptisms! yay! The Familia Arana Guzman (the really poor family thathas a small daughter with sun allergies) finally got baptized. I let mycompanion Elder Corrigan do the honors in baptizing Margarita (the wife)and another kid (a priest called efrain) from our branch baptized HermanoCesar (the husband). We told Hermano Cesar he could pick any worthypreisthood holder over the age of 16 years to baptize him including us. Hewas quiet for a little bit and the decided that this priest should do it.It was kind of random, haha, but It was a good experience for the priest.He was really nervous, He didnt dunk him all the way the first time, andthen after that he messed up on the prayer about 10 more times at least,haha but in the end he was able to baptize Brother Cesar just fine.We didnt cast out any demons this week, but this morning one of ourbaptismal candidates got really sick and had to go to the hospital. Rightas me and my companion were on our way to district meeting some of herfamily members (margarita our recent baptism, who is her daughter) found usand they wanted us to go and convince her to go to the hospital because forsome reason she didnt want to go to the hospital. It was pretty dramatic ,everyone was crying and begging her to go to the hospital but everytime shejust said "Just let me die here, I dont want to die in the hospital". Theyasked us to give her a blessing, and so we did. But she got out fo her bedand knealed down on the floor, and me and my companion were like "umm itsokay hermana you can stay lying down if you want" but her family was like"just let her be". And during the blessing she fainted (I wonder why?) andthen I told them "you should probably lie her down" (because they were justsupporting her in their arms), and they were like "no! if she lies down shewont ever get back up (as if she was going to die if they layed her down).It was pretty dramatic, and as a result we were late for district meeting.But I hope she is okay because, she really wants to get baptized.Anyways, Those were the highlights of this week I guess. I attachedpictures. One of them is of the baptism. And the other one is a picture ofmy on my 18 month mark. I love you guys and I hope you have a good week.

Love,

Elder West

30 minute talks 1-3-2011

I accidentaly sent it before I was done writing it.

but anyways I have alot of really interesting stories to tell.

First of all we have 7 baptismal dates! and we are going to have more I think!

Second cool thing. Me and ELder Corrigan finally found one of our investigadors called Giovani. WE couldnt find him for like 3 weeks. We verysoon realized that he had relapsed into his alcohol addiction and was very drunk when we got there. So we decided that we werent going to stay long because there is not mubh you can teach with drunk guy. At first he was tranquil enough but then he started getting really anxious and had a bunch of anger flashes, and we would cry and then he would be fine again, then he would get mad at us then he would start joking around. We were honestly starting to get really scared and we were trying to leave but everytime we would try and leave he would bear hug us and keep us there. He asked us to put some oil on his head (because a couple weeks ago we gave him a blessing to help him stop drinking). IT took us about a minute or two to get him to lie down and calm down a bit so that we could actually put our hands on his head. I started the blessings and the first thing that popped into my head to say was to command any evil spirit in the room to leave. After I said that Giovani started to spaz out as if he were having a seizure or something he was convulging really violently. (so at this point I was about to pee my pants I did not know what was going on) So I assumed that he was possesed or something so I commanded the evil spirit to leave in the name of jesus christ, just in case it actually was an evil spirit. After I said that he stopped to thrash. He was still drunk but at least he wasnt convulging. HE then left and did some normal drunk stuff out in the street. He helped his neighboor move a huge pile of corn stalks. So I guess I might have cast out a demon of some sort. That really freaked me out.

NExt cool story. We have an investigador called Brenda. We found her about a week ago. we decided to go by and set up another appointment with here. When we got there she invited us in (but we couldnt because he uncle wasnt home) so we just had a little front porch chat. She told us that she was praying and pondering and she told us that she wants to get baptized. (On the inside my spirit was doind an Irish jig with joy) ON the outside I tried to contain my smile the best I could. I love it when that happens. It goes to show that The holy ghost really does all the work. We are just the messenger. She has some kind of diseas and is going to have an operation in 2 weeks.

We also tought another guy we found in the street a few weeks ago, his name is carlos. He was also drunk when we found him. apparently he has a wife and a kid in texas but he got deported because his visa ran out. he also told us that he wants to get baptized. Wohoooooo! He said he was reading 3 nefi 11 and he said that the whole time he was reading he just felt like this was true. THis chapter really called his attention, he said he didnt want to stop reading when he got to the end of the chapter. This is another example of how the spirit is really what does all the work. there are alot of prepared people here. We just have to find them.

The tradition for new years eve here in Zaragoza is that they have alot of little mascot dances in the street. IT is excellent. I took a picture of one from our apartment. They also light off a ton of fireworks at midnight, and at noon the next day.

In church 11 investigadors showed up! ME and my companion were also assigned 30 minute talks 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started. I blessed the sacrament, directed the hymns and gave a talk. My companion was only able to squeek out a 10 minute talk (he is still learning spanish) So I basically just stood up there and winged it for the rest of the hour.

O yah and we also found another golden family who makes homade pork rinds and sells them. They have gone to alot of churches and have never been able to find the right church. And they really want to investigate this one. Yes!

Elder Corrigan and I feel really blessed!

Love,

Elder West

Taught Donkey Family 12-27-2011

HOla Family!

It was soo good talking too you guys on sunday. Emailing everyweek is alright but, hearing real voices is way better. It sounds to me that the west family has advanced a ton in technology usage. It also sounds to me that kevin´s voice has lowered a bit... atta boy!

Well, in the 2 days since I have talked to you guys I guess some pretty cool stuff has happened. Do you remember the Donkey man family. Well we tought them in the night and we had a really good lesson with them. WE tought them about the first vision and the book of mormon and everything. Afterwards we were bombarding them with a whole bunch of really good "inspired quesions" (kristen should know what that means) and the wife of the donkey man told us something pretty neat. She said that she had a dream, and she wanted us to give our opinion about it. At first I was kind of worried, because alot of people believe alot in revelation through dream form and they arent always very good at determining if it is from god our not (people have told me some really weird dreams and then talked about them as true doctrine). So anyways, she told us that in her dream she saw a giant mansion of trees and that there was wind blowing through it. I told her that I had know clue what it meant and I asked her what she thought and felt about it. She told us that me and my companion were the tree mansion and that we were full of the spirit (the wind). I honestly dont know how she got that out of that dream, but that is perfectly ok because she is taking that as somekind of sign from god. It was a very spiritual lesson.

Me and my companion have figured out that if we sing before each lesson it is a great way to invite the spirit. During comp. study on christmas morning we practiced singing christmas songs in harmony, plus a bunch of other pretty ones. It worked soo well! The donkey family really really loves the hymns. We always sing 2 with them.

So I am doing great! next week I will have more to write about. I sent pictures of me cutting a cake with my machete, a picture of my sunburnt face, a picture of my yellowish shirt(experience) next to my new white one, and a picture of myself in el baño with my new tie on(the poster behind is of helaman)

Love,

Elder West

"Man with a Donkey" 12-21-2011

Merry Navidad!

I cant believe its navidad already!

This week was pretty good I guess. It seemed like everysingle one of our appointments fell through this week, it was kind of amazing how that kind of worked out but we managed it alright. There were somedays when we would only have 1 lesson, and we would just walk around contacting and trying to find other people the rest of the day. It is easy to get discouraged sometimes, but whenever hard weeks like this one go by, I just think about the savior and how much he suffered while he was preaching the gospel. As well as many of the pioneers. And it helps me to know that I am not the only one, and that my suffering is nothing in comparison to others. So I cant complain.

On the bright side we managed to find some very good new investigadors this week. About 2 weeks ago me and my companion were walking along (in a bit of a hurry) because we were late for an appointment. And a man with a donkey stopped us. The first thought that popped into my head was "sweet, one of the 3 nephites". but it turned out that he wasnt one of the 3 nephites he was just a normal guy with problems who wanted to listen to the gospel. He told us that he had always seen gringos with ties walking around and he has always thought that we must have something very special to share because we have traveled so far just to share it with people. He said he finally got the guts to talk to us. It made me feel bad because, we should have been the ones to find him, but we were in such a hurry we werent listening to the spirit. I am just grateful that the spirit prompted this man to talk to us. He told us to pass by his house. We couldnt find him! we passed by his house everyday until we found him 2 weeks later. He is very prepared to recieve this gospel. He is very humble and listens and applies everything that we teach. His name is Giraldo Geronimo. hopefully we will baptize him.

I also found some awesome shoes for 40 quetz (5 dollars) that are the shoes of my dreams. It was such a good find I cannot even contain myself. I know that it is only just a worldy item but it was too good to be true. They are a pair of kenneth cole reaction dress shoes that are brown. and they are brand new! Sweet.

Anyways I gotta go. I will talk to you guys sunday! I am going to call at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon guatemala time. Hopefully you will not be in church. My number is 4040-6378 just incase.

Love Elder West

"Thats Almost a Girl Mission" 12-6-2011

HOLA GUYS

I forgot to tell you that they switched our p-days to mondays and internet day to tuesday, so that is why I have been writing you a day late.

This past week was a bit rough. It has been getting cold down here as well, it probably gets down in the low 40s, haha, but I bet that is nothing compared to chicago cold. This past week we only found 9 new investigadors, but they were pretty good ones. We found one family who recently moved from El Salvador, and we were really suprised when they took our their Hymn books and asked what hymn we should start off with, haha. Apparently the missionaries were teaching them in El Salvador and they were super close to getting baptized but they couldnt because they arent married. They couldnt get married because the husband (who is also a baker which is really cool) is from guatemala, but his wife/partner is from El Salvador. With all of the experience that I have marrying people I already know that it will be literally impossible to get them married. Because they probably his wife/partner is probably living here illegaly. (in my last area I tought a family where the mom was from peru and wanted to get married but couldnt because she had 75,000 quetzales worth of legal fines). And judging by the very small, house made our of cinder blocks and tin sheets we can very well assume that this family that we found could not afford to become legal citezens, let alone get married. It is really sad because this family is great! They already know that this is the true church of Jesus christ but it will be very very difficult for them to be able to repent in order to be baptized. The three most commonly commandments broken here in guatemala is first, killing people, second the law of chastity, and third the word of wisdom. And I think that more the 50 % if not100% of the poverty in this country is related to at least one of these 3 very big commandments.

Yesterday and today we had a Super p-day activity for our christmas treat! It was great. It started off yesterday with a bunch of service projects helping to fix members houses and stuff. Then we played games and ate free food. Then we watched a new church movie called the 17 miracles which was incredibly amazing. I nearly cried 17 times during this movies I think, haha. It is about the martin and willie handcart companies. you guys have got to watch it. It made me realize that the sacrifice that I have made to serve a mission is not a big sacrifice at all. In fact it is the least I can do to. Plus it strenghtened my faith about how god continues to be a god of miracle. In the movie in focuses on all of the miracles that happened along the journey. It is a must see, it would be a good sabbath day movie to watch with the family. Then we stayed the night at the mission bunk house (thats where all of the newbies stay the day before they enter into the field) and then woke up at 3 oclock to go to the temple. Oh and I forgot to mention that we started a fast after dinner to baptize 204 people in the month of january. And so I am still fasting and I am absolutely wiped. But it was a very spiritually edifying experience. The area authority presidency was also in the same temple session as us which was kind of cool.

Well I gotta go, but I love you guys one million. (i got grandmas letter that she sent, Thanks Grandma J)

Love

Elder West

P.S I complete 17 months on thursday! thats almost a girl mission!