Dear Family,
My attempt to send fotos failed once again, because the the computer is not being very nice. I really wanted to send pictures this week to because we had a baptism! It was really good. His name is Kevyn (thats right he spells is with a Y) and he is 16 years old. My old companion Elder Lopez rode all the way back from his house in a bus to baptize him which was awesome. His aunt gave us his reference and he turned out to be a really really good one. His parents are both Jehovas witness so it was a bit hard trying to get permission from them, but in the end his dad signed the baptismal record. He is currently going to seminary and reading the scriptures daily. I made a challenge with him that we would start the book of mormon togather and read 2 chapter everyday until we finished. right now he is in 2 nefi 20 and I am in 2 nefi 15. he is beating me, but its only because I am reading it in spanish and it is way harder, especially considering the fact that Nephi always likes to make references to Isaiah which I have trouble understanding in English. i am also looking up everysingle word in spanish that I don´t know which also makes it take alot longer. Right now I have 250 new words, yay, but I only remember like 50 of them.
I am loving my new companion Elder Cruz. Before his misison he was a huge gamer and played video games almost 24/7. Therefore his vocabulary in english is hilarious, i love it. Everyday before we leave the house he says "lets move out!" and he cocks his little plastic toy gun and twirls it on his finger. I have to tell him to leave it in the house. My umbrella is a shotgun and his umbrella is a sniper rifle. Last night we were runnin back to the house because it was really late, and we were pretending that we were soldiers the whole time. It was fun. He is also really humble and patient and we have basically the exact same personality. He also no longer has chicken pox so he is alot happier now. We are hoping to have 4 more baptisms this month as well. The guy that we married a couple of weeks ago has stopped coming to church and we are trying to get him to come back so that we can baptize him. We also need to marry another family in order to baptize them as well. I hope this time it will be alot easier. I am basically like an expert on marrying people now, I know exactly what papers they need and how much it costs, and I know a lawyer who can do it really cheap. in fact in guatemala you can go to City hall and do it for free but people dont like that becuase its not a very exciting party.
I completely forgot that the 4th of july was last week. Here in guatemala people light off fireworks everyday. One of the traditions they have here in Guatemala is that on peoples birthdays they light off firecrackers at like 4 oclock in the morning. Not everyone does that but, i have been woken up several times by that. When it actually is a holiday, people just light off more fireworks, and they like to throw them at us and yell "Gringo" ( especially the little kids). Next christmas i am going to record how incredibly loud it is at midnight it is insane. But yes it is also true, I have been on my mission for an entire year. Exactly one year ago I was on my mission. And In one year I will still be on my mission because I don´t come home until the 12th or 13th of July. thats like 5 days more. I still feel like I am a new missionary though, and I bet my bottom dollar that when I am sitting at home on the couch with no socks on, no tie on, no shirt tucked-in, and no name tag on i will still be in denial that i was actually a real live missionary. I have really changed alot in this past in this past year. I bet I can grow a really good mustache right now as well, because I have alot more coverage on my upper lip. I also think that I have become more patient and my knowledge of the gospel has grown significantly, giving me a new perspective on life. I also have alot more control over myself. So far on my mission I have recorded a video log of my self in the MTC in guatemala, my first area, and at my one year mark. I will also make a video log when I hit 18 months in january, and I will also record one while I am in the airport walking towards baggage claim. it has been interesting to see my evolucion on the mission so far. I tried to send them but I dont know how.
anyways I gotta go but I hope you guys have a good week and that you will be able to enjoy summer break. The church is true!
Love Elder West
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