"I look forward to all of the tomales" 12-20-2010

Hola Familia!

Feliz navidad! This week was very cool. Me and my companion did a ton of contacting. In our first three days of this week pretty much all of our appointments fell through so we did alot of walking. However because we were diligent in the last 3 days of this week we found 14 new investigadors, put another baptismal date and had several breakthroughs with our investigadors. My favorite experience this week was with Hermana Estela Xicay Xicon. They have had the missionaries teaching them for over 3 months. Her husband was a drunk and would sometimes be out on the street for weeks or even months at a time. She has been to several different churches and pretty much jsut gave up the the effort because none of the churches helped her or her husband at all to improve their lives. After 3 months, and several slip ups, her husband rolando has completely left drinking and is now a very sprirual and intelligent man. He told us that he never had anyone support him like the missionaries supported him, the missionaries never stopped coming`he said. We comitted him to be baptized the 26th of this month. However hermana Estela still did not want anything to do with this church. For the past 2 weeks me and my companion have been praying for her so that she would open her heart to this gospel. Last Wednesday she broke down to tears and apologized for not accepting us. She told us she had a dream that helped her to realize how much God loves her, and that she needs to listen to us. We comited her to be baptized the 26th of december with her husband and she accepted. This family is a miracle. When the other missionaries first found them neither of them had jobs, he was drunk, and they were just barely scraping by on life. Right now they are happy, they have both found work, there children have work, he has stopped drinking, and they are going to get baptized. This was my favorite spiritual experience this week.

I attached some action shots that I took jsut before coming to the computer lab, so that you can see what I look like when Im working really hard. I also put togather a list of some the songs that I hear everyday in teh street and on the bus and what not. I thought you guys would like to hear what I hear everyday.

• Cielo de estrellas - el trono de mexico
• Quein do los dos era - Diego Verdaguer
• panamericano- don omar
• Alejate de mi - camila
• estoy enamorado-
  
• cuando me enamoro- enrique iglesias
• stand by me - prince royce

Part of the culture here is that they like to have really big speakers and they like to turn them up really loud so that everycan here how big there speakers are. Right now the computer lab manager guy is listening to Cielo de esrellas, and it is really loud. Megan and kevin should put these songs on their ipods to give them alittle bit of culture experience.

I look forward to all of the tomales that I am going to eat this week for christmas. So you guys can call me this saturday, at 11 o clock guatemala time. So that is probably after you guys opened all of your presents and stuff. You just have to use this number exactly 011-502-4058-2698 this is with all of the special country codes and area codes and stuff so you just have to dial that. I can only talk for 30-40 minutes but not more than 40 minutes. I hope you guys have a really nice Christmas.

Love Elder West

Happy Christmas!

"I can actually speak spanish" 12-13-2010

Hola Familia!

Its Almost Christmas! Oh and Happy Birthday MOM! This week was pretty good. I came to the realization this week that I can actually speak spanish. I really cannot believe it, I can pretty much understand just about everything. There are still alot of words I dont know but it is just coming alot easier now. I can pretty much say what ever I want to say now. On christmas you guys can call me if you want. Here is my number 011-4058-2698. I will give you guys more details next week and we can set up a time or something when you can call.

Another thing I realized is that I am getting fatter. I think its because I get fed breakfast lunch and dinner FOR FREE! man I still cannot get over that. but yah I am getting fatter, so I am not going to buy a mcflurry when we go to mcdonalds today. I also heard that people are going to start breaking out the tamales pretty soon so I am pretty excited for that. this morning I did somepushups so I think that helped alittle bit.

I am starting to learn my area alot better now. The names are alot harder to learn here because they are in cak´chiquel. I learned some new words good means UTZ and very good is UTZ PEEN PEEN. IT is an awesome language. I want to learn more but there are no books that exist that teach it I pretty sure. ANother thing I have noticed here is that during lessons my investigodaors will talk ALOT! which is good but at the same time it is really annoying. FOr example the other day I asked Hermano Chiroy Why is it important that we have prophets? THe next thing I know he is telling me about how he had a vision about some lights coming out of the sky and circuling around him. Its a challenge to keep control of the lessons, but its a good growing oportunity to learn how to control lessons. This week we set 2 baptismal dates for the 26 of December happy birthday Megan.

ME and my companion are pretty much like best buds now we make sometimes I think that we have too much fun while preaching but thats ok. all in all, all is well, the weather is beatuful and sunny and my belly is full. And I we are having success. Happy birthday mom I dont remember how old you are turning but its ok.

Adios familia!

Elder West

Zone CHimaltenango 12-8-2010

Hola Familia!

Well I had changes this week. I recieved a new area and a new companion. I am now in the Zone CHimaltenango, area San Andres Itzapa and my new companion is Elder Otuafi, he is of Tongan decent. I think at this point in my mision I may have had just as many tongan companions as Elder Spencer Hoffman has who is serving in tonga. He is a really funny guy and I am a really funny guy so we have had some pretty funny times togather thus far. This area is in the mountains and it is also a bit cold, but I know that to Kristen it would be like paradise because its like below freezing there. My new companion has 7 months in the mission and I have 5. WE are both still learning spanish so teaching is sometimes a challenge. In my area there is a second language caxiquel and its like some kind of clicky mayan language where they like make cliky sounds and stuff. I dont have to learn it though because everyone can speak spanish as well. When I first got to my area I learned that there has only been 3 baptism here for the entire year! Also they currently did not have any investigadors. We are basicaly starting over fresh. Another challenge in this area is that there are no directions, no house numbers, street names, and no signs. WE have to work completly off of famous landmarks and stuff. Despite these challenges me and my comp found 11 new investigadors in the past 4 days, and committed 2 people to baptism. You have only to acheive what you wish to believe, that ryhmes unintentional.

Good news! in this area I eat for Freeeeeeeeee! There are some really really nice members that give us breakfast lunch and dinner. I nearly cried when I learned this. ITs mainly just beans and eggs but thats all I want anyways. THis also means that I now have more money leftover to eat at Mcdolnads and stuff on p'days. We live really close to Antigua which is like one of the best tourist destinations in guatemala so there are alot of good restaruants there, and alot of tourists as well that we can look at. Most of the tourists are dirty hippy people that walk around with huge backpacks.

Ahhhh I dont have much time because I want to put on some pictures talk to you guys later!

Elder WEst

November 2010 Pics

Marlen Garcia Lopez and Juan Manuel

Christmas Tomale's 11/29/2010

Hola Familia!

Ok I attached all of the photos I took this week as well as the photos I took last week. Sorry I didnt send a letter last week, the computer turned off while I was still writing and I didnt have enough money to pay for more time. Thank you so much for the packages! Merry Christmas! I got the packages from grandma as well. I also got a bunch halloween themed letters from grandma, thanks for the chololate bar! Im not sure which arrives faster pouch or normal mail. Sometimes it takes forevor tt get here and sometimes it gets here really fast. Me and my companion loved the food that was in those packages! especially the beef jerkey. My companion has never tried beef jerkey in his life and he likes it alot. I also really liked the salmon. Iam going to try and not open up the gifts until christmas but I cant make any promises.

This week was awesome, we found 14 new investigadors, three families, and we had 2 baptisms. We baptized a 19 year old kid named Juan Manuel, he is really cool. But he always laughs at me because of my spanish, hahah, he especially thinks its funny when I say prayers. hahah, but hes a good guy and he really wanted to get baptized. WE also baptized the sister of his girlfriend, her name is Marlen Garcia Lopez she has 3 kids and has tons of problems with her husband. After her baptism she gave a really emotional testimony about how the gospel has and will continue to help her through her problems.

WE also had interviews with our mission president on friday. We have interviews with our president every 3 months. The interview I had lasted about 5 minutes, I was expecting something alittle bit more but thats ok. I also had to turn in my Ipod because I just learned that President clark of the area authrority seventy made it a rule that no missinoary in central america can have an I pod. SO I turned it it. The wife also did cleaning inspections on all of the misionaries houses, except for mine because my house is the farthest away in the zone. I cleaned for like 3 hours on p-day, bummer. but thats ok. I completely forgot about thanksgiving this week, the only reason I remembered was because Sister Baldwin made us pumpkin pie at our interviews.

I tried my first tomale this week! during the christmas time people start breakin out the tomales. and I love it! THe food here is stuff that I love, maybe I ate alot of guatemalan food in the pre-earth life. Saber (who knows), that is a special guatemalan form of the verb saber (to know) but here it can also mean Who -knows. My spanish is getting better, iam starting to get better at small talk, I can actually have fun in spanish now. I can talk to just about everyone now, I just need to increase my vocabulary more.

Thanks for the thanksgiving pictures. I love seeing whats going on down there in visual form. I got really hungry when I saw those píctures. I am really hungry right now actually, for lunch we are going to eat churrasco which is another word for barbaque. This will be our last lunch as a district because tonight we find out who is going to have changes. I have a feeling that I am going to stay in the same area but , Saber (who knows). Thanks so much for the support and I encourage you to continue to send me stuff I like it alot.

Love

Elder West

Committed 6 people to baptism! 11/15/10

Hola Familia!


This week was interesting as usual. I had some really high points and some really low points. To start off with all of the good points, we comitted 6 people to baptism! I am really excited for that, that will mean that I will have 12 baptisms in my first 3 months in the field. These converts are going to be really good to. ONe of them is a 11 year old girl who has been coming to church with her uncle for the past month. We just recently realized that she wasnt a member so of course we had to baptize her. She is really intelligent, she understands better than the majority of the adults that we teach. WE are also going to baptize a nineteen year old kid and his friend who has two kids. We also have a family of three, and they polish and reapair shoes for a living. they have an eleven year old son who had to leave school so that he could help his dad polish shoes. It is really sad here because there are alot of people who just arent educated and cant progress at all in life. I realized that the reason why people werent understanding my spanish very much is because my spanish is grammatically correct and straight from the book. My companion told me that its not that my spanish is wrong, its that they never learned how to speak it properly. So I need to speak very simply.

THe low point I had this week was when a recently converted sister, of my old companion, told us that she wanted to leave the church because another member offended her. It was really sad for me. I think that I bore one of the strongest testimonies to her that I have ever bore. I cried during my testimony which really suprised me. I told her that whenever problems like this arise you jsut have to return back to your roots and rember the reason why you got baptized in the first place. Which is that the book of mormon is true. If the book of mormon is true that means that joseph smith was a prophet and that jesus christ is leading and guiding his saints on the earth as we speak. She could not deny the spirit. She came to church this sunday, but I am still worried about her. I learned an important lesson this week, never baptize anyone unless they have already obtained a testimony of the book of mormon and of this church. This is Sooo key.

On another note, I think that I am starting to get tired of beans a little bit. Which is really starting to worry me, because I Iove beans. I only bought one can of beans this week. Another interesting thing this week is that I got fed Chow Mein 3 times this week, hahaha, which I definetly did not expect. And what did I eat my chow mein with? tortillas. at everysingle meal here you have to have a tortilla in your hand. Its kind of like how dad told us that in england people always eat wit a knife in there hand so that they can scoop stuff onto their fork better. Its the same principle here except with tortillas. I think tortillas are better than knives because you cant eat knives when you are finished eating them.

It was really cool to hear about Kristens first day in Illinois, thats cool that she is in a spanish branch. She will learn fast there. I am so proud that my little bro is a deacon as well, I can just imagine him with his really cute deacon tie passing the sacrament. I attached a few pictures that I took this week. I only took three but I will try and take more this week.

Love Elder West

Missed the 5:30 bus 11/8/10

Hola Familia!

What a great week I have had, I dont even know where to start. This past sunday was awesome, we had testimony meeting and 2 of my recent converts shared their testimony. It was amazing. I also had one of my recent converts receive the melchezedic preisthood! on top of that 5 investigadors came to church. I just feel so good inside. On thursdy we got to listen to Elder Martino speak to my zone wich was really inspiring, I learned that the story about alma and amulek applies perfectly to reactivating inactive members and teaching lessons with a member present. Amulek was an inactive member who turned out to be a really good tag along missionary with a killer testimony.

This week it turned cold, and I mean Cold! I did not expect this at all. My area is seriously up there in the mountains. Dont worry mom my I am warm at night, and my jackets are perfectly satisfactory. But I am sick however. But its ok its just a little cold I can still work. I am trying out blowing my nose in my hankerchief which is something I have never done before. I feels weird putting my hankercheif back in my pocket after I have blown snot all over it. These next few months will be really really cold, unless I get moved to the coast next change, if thats the case I will be really hot.

On thursday me and my comp went on an excursion to our areas that really far away. It took us like 40 minutes to get there by bus and then 20 minutes of walking by foot to get to where we needed to go. I I think I must have like one of the largest areas in the mission because that is just insane. These areas are out in the country, we actually drive over the mountain that I live on and go down into the other valley part. It was really good because we ended up putting another baptismal date for the end of this month. However in the process of doing so we missed the last bus of the day that goes back to our house! hahaha. Apparently the last bus is at 5:30 pm. So me and my comp were stuck one hour away from our house it was completely dark, except for a few scattered street lights, no flashlight, no phone, and it was really cold. So what did we do? we started to walk, with fe. after walking for about 30 minutes we hitched a ride in the back of some guys truck, but he was only going half the distance that we needed. SO we walked some more. After about 15 minutes we hitchiked ourselves another ride in the back of some guys truck back to our home base. That was my really fun experience for the week. And now we know that the bus leaves at 5:30.

I think I am fully acustomed to the food here now, which is awesome. I ordered some peanut butter and jelly from the mission office as a little treat for my self. I didnt have any cool food stories this week, but I sohould have more because we are approaching the holiday season.

Anyways, It is good to here that kevin recieved my letter. Happy b-day brother! and its good to here that he is also developing some guns like his big bro. It really cool that Kristen is leaving tommorow for chicago, I cant wait to hear what her experience is. Oh and HI Grandma, I recieved a pile of letters from you today. Thanks for sending those I like them alot! It is amazing how time flies, in december I will have been on my mission for 6 months! there are a whole lot of people I need to baptize still. Thanks for writing to me. I love hearing about whats going on at home.

Love

Elder Barry Michael West