"Your Joy Will Be Great" 5-8-2012

Hola Family!

First of all i just wanted to correct something that i wrote in my last email. I reread what I wrote last week, haha, and i notest a sentance of apostacy. I accidentally said that the "will of god is exactly what i what" but i meant to say that I learned that the will of god is not exactly what i want. haha, I just wanted to correct that. 

But this week was pretty good as well. Right now me and my companion have 5 baptismal dates for the 19 of may. We are going to baptize the family that didnt get baptized last week, and we are also going to baptize 3 patojos (kids), that are really pilas (awesome). Their mom also has a testimony of the book of mormon but she cant get baptized because her husband isnt married to her, and it just so happens that her "husband" is married to someone else. So the process of divorce and marriage will take a little bit longer with her. It is kind of sad, but i know that someday she will get baptized. She told us that the book of mormon was the most "complete" and perfect book about the gospel of jesus christ she has ever read. She is really smart, she is studying to be a judge right now. 

Me and my companion this week showed up to an appointment, and the guy wasnt there. our back up plan had also fallen through. So we were just standing there thinking about what we could do, when this guys neighboor came out. So we contacted him and he let us in. He told us that he has a addiction to alcohol, and because of his addiction his wife and son left him. He told us alot of other really sad stuff as well, he basically has been humbled down to the dust of the earth. He really wants to change, and he has never really gone to any church before. On sunday he showed up all by himself. That showed us that he is very serious about his commitment to change. We are going to try and baptize him this month as well. Yesterday I passed the 22 month mark on my mission, and up to this point I have helped 40 souls be baptized (not counting the investigadors that I tought that got baptized after I left the area) But that number really isnt that important to me. But its like what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 18 that your joy will be great even if you bring just one soul unto repentance. I have worked my butt off in my mission, but I wish that I could start the 2 years over with the knowledge and experience that I have obtained, to help even more people to be saved.

In district meeting I gave my testimony in english and it was really hard, haha, i kept saying words in spanish without realizing it. I dont know what I am going to do when i get home. 

We cleaned the apartment for like 4 hours yesterday because tommorow we have house inspections, and Sister Brough promised the zone with the cleanest apartments a barbaque rib dinner! So i got down on my knees and scrubbed my heart out.

Tommorow we also have interviews with President Brough. 

I was talking with my companion and we decided that it would be better to call in the afternoon, maybe at like 8pm my time. Because in the morning we have to bring our investigadors to church and go to PEC meeting. Hopefully that will work out ok with you guys. 

Well, I hope you guys have a good week. I cant believe how different you guys look. Well actually everyone looks about the same except for dad (who is a little bit skinnier) and (kevbot who is a little bit taller.)

Big Papaya and a bag of Bread 5-1-2012

hola familia,

this week was pretty good as well. we had alot of really good experiences.
the first one was a good experience but also kind of sad. the family that
we were going to baptize on sunday couldnt get baptized. right now hermano
emilio hasnt had work and at 6am on the day of his baptism some dude called
him and was like, hey i have work for ya, im going to come by and pick you
up in 20 minutes. i felt really confused because i was doing everything
possible to get this family baptized and i knew that god wanted me to
baptize them so i asked my self why would god let that happen. very soon
afterward i realized that the will of god is always going to be exactly
what i want. emilio has been praying for work for the past month and a half
and for him it was a huge blessing. and in the end i was able to realize
why god let that happen. but they are going to get baptized in 2 weeks. and
if you are wondering why i am typing in all undercase letters it is because
the shift key on this keyboard doesnt work.

on sunday, in 2 lessons people gave us free food. a big papaya and a bag of
bread. in the street we found viviana, the wife of emilio, and she was
carrying a pot. we asked her what are you going to do with that pot? and so
she told us that she was going to her moms house to see if she could heat
up some atol (corn based drink that you heat up, the government gives it
out for free to everybody) because they dont have money to heat it up her
self. i then realized that i had a bag full of bread in my back pack, and
elder flores had a big papaya in his backpack, so we gave it to her. she
started to cry, and told us thatshe had no idea what she was going to give
her children to eat, but she knew that god would provide.

i tried to attach fotos right now but i cant. i think that computers are
from the devil.

my companion just got his plane ticket emailed to him and that made him a
little bit baggy.

my church starts at 10am and ends at 1pm. so i could call at 8am my time,
or satuday at at night at 8pm my time. sunday is hard because i could call
at 6pm but that is the best hour to work and so that wouldnt be ideal.  let
me know if you guys are willing to wake up at 6 am on sunday or if it would
be better saturday at night.

love,

elder west

Zone Meeting T-shirts 4-17-2012

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Bus Accident Miracle! 4-10-2012

Dear Famila,

This week I have alot of great stories. First of all my companion and i were able to witness a miracle. Last week I mentioned to you guys that our recent converts who got baptized last sunday got in a bus crash, but I still didnt know the details. Elvis the husband told us that his wife and 2 year old son were sitting in the first row (the most dangerous row because there is nothing in front of them to prevent them from flying through the windhshield) and Elvis was sitting in the las row, with their bags. Elvis said that their bus was racing with another bus to pick up more passengers than the other (that is normal in guatemala). The bus went into the opposite lane to pass when it ran into the back of a semi trailer. Elvis said that he felt the bus brake which gave him just enough time to brace him self grabbing on to the luggage rack above his head (which ultimately saved him) After he recovered he immediately moved forward to find his wife and son. He said that as he was walking forward he was seing the injuries getting worse and worse, and he was just imagining his wife and son completly mutilated. There were people with their legs bent back over their heads, a lady with her eyeball hanging out in her hand, people with head injuries. he got to the front and found his wife and son covered in blood. His wife said dont worry this blood isnt ours it was from the person sitting next to them. His son was completly unscratched, and he wasnt even crying. His wife didnt have a single scracth either. The only thing is that she broke her femur. It is truly a miracle that they are fine. And they still need to recieve the holy ghost. I remember praying for them to be protected in their journey, and god listened to our prayers. Elvis and his son were the only 2 people that left the accident unharmed. The other part of the miracle is that He has health insurance and they got married in the nick of time, so that his wife can also benefit from that. They wanted to wait more time to get married but they acted with faith.

As a zone we decided to get on a bus at the same time and sing a hymn, it was pretty cool. The bus was really bumby and so it sounded like I had really good vibrato when I was singing. We also got some good references from that.

Other random things that happened:

• I accidentally knocked my companions mouth wash into the toilet twice. :)
• Me and my companion designed a sweet t shirt for our zone
• we found a really good part member family that wants to come to church.
• I walked into the bathroom at the church and a guy in one of the stalls said Hola! and so I responded. But it turned out that he was just talking on the phone and not talking to me.
• We had a zone leader council with president brough and he tought us some really profound doctrine that blew my mind.
• Its really hot
• We went contacting in a gating community (gated communities dont let people contact in them). We got to be really good buds with the watchmen and they let us in without presenting ID or anything.

Well, anyways I am doing well. You guys can talk to me about kristen coming home dont worry it doesnt make me baggy. But it looks like my brigde is still holding up alright, that was 4 years ago, I cant believe that. I tried to attach some fotos right now but it didnt work. Time is going by really fast it is nuts.

Love,

Elder West

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