2013-11-26, What a week.

Well my week was good and after Elder Trupp left we only had about 2 real progressing investigators, but now we have about 11 or 12.

But the highlight of my week was playing the violin in stake conference with the ward choir.  I practiced 2 songs with them: 1) I know that My Reedeemer Lives and 2) Oh My Father.  So we played the first song and we went to go sit down in the congregation.  Then we were supposed to play the closing song Oh My Father.  So me and Elder Farr were chilling in the congregation, kind of dozing off, but the president of the stake during his closing remarks, said in front of everyone, "Can the elder that played the violin come up to the stand."  I was shocked.  I was so scared, but I walked up and stood at the stand with him.  He whispered in my ear, to go get the violin and get ready to play.  Stunned, I walked over, picked up the violin, and came over ready to play.  He said to the whole stake, “this elder is going to play a song on the violin and all of you will close your eyes and after he finishes the song, every adult would have to write down a reference for the missionaries on a sheet of paper.”  He then looks at me and says to play when I am ready.  At this time I am shaking in my skin because it is so out of the blue, but I just flip open the Spanish hymn book and it opens to the hymn “Love at Home.”  I feel it is right and as soon as my bow touches those strings all my fear dissipates and before I know it, I finished the song.  When I lift the bow off of the final note it is dead silent, I mean dead, dead, dead silent.  There were a million babies in that room, but not one of them were moving or making a sound.  Then, the president turns to me, smiles, and tells everyone to write their references down.  During that song every missionary pair in our stake received about 10 references.  I played the closing song “Oh My Father” with the choir.  I had to thank Heavenly Father because I know that in the past I would not have the courage to do that kind of thing in front of even 10 people. I really like that quote that you sent me, " courage is fear that has said it's prayers" and it is true.  Now I don't really care what anyone thinks about me or how my appearance is or if it is scary because you just need to trust in your Father in Heaven.  For some reason even though I haven't played the violin consistently since the last week of high school I played better than I have ever played before.

To answer your questions, the most recent mail I got was the talk from Elder Jefferey R. Holland.  So yeah mail is kind of slow.  Hermana Jackie is going to invite us over for dinner on Thanksgiving, I think.  

I will send more pictures and concerning the package, we have a Wal-Mart in our area so no need for food, so if you can the church has a set of missionary approved reading and they are small sized books.  I believe that they are blue with a red trim on the top or bottom of the covers.  They include Jesus the Christ, True to the Faith, Our Heritage, etc.  If you guys can send me Jesus the Christ, I would really, really appreciate it.  I love reading and there is a guy that got me hooked onto some deep doctrine reading that goes to our ward, etc.  Haha but if you can send me the book, Jesus the Christ that would be great.  If you need space take out some of the paracord or something.

Sorry I didn't write yesterday.  We just got back from the temple and the new experience is really Great!  Compared to the old, the new one is really, really much better.

The area is going great and I love the work and I love my companion.  I am trying my best here and I will talk to you guys next week. I Love You guys!

Oh yeah I saw my first dead body today.  A lady was gunned down and she was in one of the lanes of the main road.  There was a huge pool of blood and people were all crowded around.  They had a sheet over her face though, and the cops were directing traffic.  We saw this on the way to the temple.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Haha hopefully the box gets here in time...haha I hope it isn't all candy we got a Wal-Mart here!  Nutella is so expensive, and they have to lock it up in the Wal-Mart under lock and key because it costs more than 100Q.

Hey, I gotta go I love you and I will talk to you next week.

 Elder Farr and Elder Vincent in front  of the Guatemala Temple.

Stake Conference, November 24, 2013.

This is breakfast cada dia.  That is beans man, frijoles and pan my breakfast everyday is either this or bread with peanut butter and jam.  Eat beans daily!