2015-05-26: A Great Week With Lots of Work to be Done

Hey well we are writing today because yesterday we had interviews with President Crapo and a training meeting for the new missionaries. 

This past week has been great.  Just working hard and getting to know the area.  The members are good and willing to help and all.  The members are helping a lot and we are having fun.  We are finding and teaching and had a really good week.  We are preparing the baptism for A this week.  He is super excited and wants to change.  He leaves with us to visit every other day, and we can see that he is progressing and changing.  The branch has not had very much progress in the last year.  I was thinking about what was happening and I came across a verse in Ether I think in chapter 9:1-2 and it says that the Lord began to curse the land and that whenever the people would put their swords or things on a shelf or in its place, on the next morning it wouldn't be there.  The Lord can't bless us if we don't take care of what we have.  There are 1,100 members in total here, but only 80-100 come to church.  There is a lot of work to be done, and we are hoping to make an impact.

The meeting and interviews were great, we learned a lot and we have a goal as a mission to start the Book of Mormon over again and read it together, finishing before August 27th.  So we are all reading together trying to finish it over again and receive a stronger testimony of the book and be able to understand and appreciate it more.  Things with my companion are great and he is a good guy.  He is ready to work and learn, so we are getting things done.  

Today we went to the beach "Punta de Palma" and I am sun burnt!  Haha it was good.  We got to wade in the water and take a lot of pictures.  The beach is one of the attractions here in the zone.

Other than that everything is well, I love you guys and take care!

Sorry, no pictures today the computer is acting up maybe I will send next week.

2015-05-18: In Beautiful Puerto Barios

New area, my 3rd son, Filipinos; and mom... I guess your prayers were answered!‏

Note: We have been praying that he gets to see the rest of Guatemala not just the capital.  Hopefully he gets to see some ruins and many historic sites before he heads home.

I got changed on Tuesday to PUERTO BARRIOS!!!  Hahaha It is on the beach!  It’s the farthest area away from the capital. 

I am training my third son in the mission.  His name is Elder S from Bolivia.  I just turned 20 and my son is 23 years old.   He has been a member for only a year and two months now.  He just completed the year then came out.  He is good, kind of different, but good.

Monday night I said goodbye to all the people I met in Alameda.  It was so hard to say goodbye to the people that I have learned to love.  That one family again made me a cake!  But it was good.  I enjoyed my time there.  Now I have to focus on the work to come.

(Hasta Siempre - Until always/forever - literal translation)

Farewell, Until next time or I'll keep you in my thoughts

On Tuesday, I woke up at 5 in the morning to pack my bags.  Then at 8:00, the taxi came and we went to zone 6 for changes.  They gave me the changes, I met my companion and then we got on a bus to go outside the capital.  The bus ride was 6 HOURS!  Haha I have not sat that long since the flight to get here.  We left at 1:30 pm and got to Puerto Barrios at 8:15 because we took a 15-minute pit stop.  We had to find the house and get the keys from the branch president because we are opening the area.   The house we have is HUGE!  It has a carport, 3 bedrooms, a patio, a huge bathroom, a kitchen, and a huge living room. 

We got settled in and got ready for the next day.  The rest of the days of the week have blown by like the wind.  We are just working hard to get things up and running, and I know and testify that the Lord is blessing us with miracles.  We found a guy whose name is A that is just covered in tattoos that has just gotten out of jail a month ago.  His mom and brother are members and he went to church for the first time one week before we got there.  He wants to change and be a better person because he has not seen his mom in his whole life.  Because of problems at 9 months of age he was taken from the family, and since then has lived a rough life.  We have taught him 2 times so far and he has dropped smoking, drinking, and drugs since the time he left jail, and we have a baptismal date with him for the 30th of this month.  We also put another baptismal date for next month with another guy that seems promising, and we are just working hard. 

We found a lady from the Philippines.  She speaks Ilocano and we are teaching the family.  She is from Iloilo something like that.  I told her that my mom is Ilocano too.  I guess she came here on a ship.

The members here are good.  Only about 80-100 people go to church every week because it is a branch not a ward.  We also have a lot of reactivation to get done here.  There are a lot of inactive people in the branch here.  I am the district leader.  There are 5 hermanas in my district and not many elders here in the zone. 

Other than that, things are great and the weather here is suuuper, suuper HOT and HUMID!  I sit at my desk to study and I drip, drip, and drip with sweat.  I am just soaked and covered with sweat walking around the area and during our lessons.  I love it though.  I love the area.  A lot of work to be done, but we are ready to take on the area and see what we can do to bring it up.

Until next week!  Love you guys!

2014-05-11 Recent Emails from Hunter

Sorry for the delay, but here are the last 3 week's emails from Elder Vincent:

05/11/15

Hey guys not much to say here since we just talked yesterday.  This week has just been a blur and I found out that I have changes tomorrow to another area!

Looking back at these fast 6 months here, I realized that I have had the time of my life in this area.  I thought it would be hard to top my experiences in La Leyenda, but this is just about as good.  I have met a bunch of people that have changed my life and I am grateful for the Lord for giving me the chance to serve here in this area.  We may not have seen a ton of baptisms, but there were successes in other areas.

One of the biggest experiences that impacted me this week was a family that we are teaching, the father once in a while has problems with drinking and on Wednesday night he went a little over and was drunk.  (This is the family that made the cake).  They are a super nice family, and they treat us like their sons, and part of their family.  We were walking to the house at 9 at night, and usually the father of the family is silent and a calm person, but he was drunk and his tongue was loosed.  He stopped us and started to talk to me in English.  He said "You are my friend.  You always will be.  Don't forget me and my family, but more importantly my family.  Thank you for your friendship and you have my respect and love for what you do. Don't ever forget us, and ALL THAT YOU DID HERE."  It was in broken English, but I got the point.  I thanked him for it, gave him a hug and directed him home.  Before he went in his house he said "I am muy macho and you probably won't hear me say something like that again. But don't forget."  That was so nice hearing that from a non member family.  These experiences are here to stay.  I am so grateful for all that I learned here.  The people are so awesome, their love for me like their own son, all these experiences will stay in my heart. 

Well next week I will let you know where I am at, but until then I love you guys, Take care!

05/04/15

Hey guys well this past week has been one of the slowest, fastest, tide turning, weird, crazy weeks that I have had in the mission.  So on Monday after writing you guys, president called Elder S and told him that he would have to go home because they did not have machines and technology here in the country that could solve or find out the problem or relieve the pains that he is having.  So we were all sad and bummed about him leaving. 

We went and did a whole bunch of stuff, bought a cake and celebrated my birthday together with them in the night.  It was super fun and got his mind off of the imminent problem.  So we just celebrated and had fun on Monday.  Tuesday they had to clean the house and pack.  So we helped them clean their house and we cooked pancakes and eggs for breakfast together. 

Elder P and Elder S left Tuesday in the night.  That was one of the hardest feelings in the mission.  Haha I got suuuppper attached to those guys because they made being here in the mission much more fun.  I had so much fun with them.  I learned a lot from them and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to get to know them and spend time with them. 

Elder S went home to Idaho on Wednesday morning and Elder P went to an area called Campo Marti with another elder... Now we have double the area to cover because we have to catch their side now.  They just put together the 2 areas and the assistants came by, gave me the keys to their house and told me good luck and get at it!  And so that is what we did.  Right now we are just getting to know the other area, and it is HUGE!!!  Haha so many people, but so much potential.  I was kind of getting bored in my area but now that we are covering the other area too, I am getting excited and pumped up to work harder.  

Another thing that happened this week was we were with an Elder for one day, because president put him with us to see where he would put him.  He was returning to the mission, and so president at first did not know where to put him.  So we worked in the area for a day with him, and the next day the AP’s came by to take him to an area where he will be for a while. 

My birthday was good.  Kinda uneventful, but great.  We worked hard like normal, and I didn't tell anyone it was my birthday, but then they started to find out slowly as the word got around.  Actually we didn't celebrate my birthday until a day after.  On Sunday, a family invited us to eat lunch, and then in the night, another family invited us for dinner and surprised me with a huge birthday cake.    All in all, it was a great day!  I really like this area.  It would be fun, and I would be fine finishing my mission here.  The members are soo cool, and it is progressing little by little.

Oh well, thanks for all you do, and I love you guys!  Have a great week!  Looking forward to skype on Mother’s day.

04/27/15

Hey guys, hope the week is going great for you and that all is well over there. 

This week was great.  We had a lot of things that were going on.  On Wednesday, we had a multi-zone conference with the area president Elder Duncan.  He is a really cool guy and I learned a lot from him.  He taught us a lot and was fed spiritually. 

One thing that he instructed us is to work more on the reactivation of members.  That is one of the weaknesses that we have here in the mission.  Sometimes the newly baptized member stop coming to church after the missionary that baptized them moved and somehow that new member did not make close ties with the members. 

Elder Duncan talked a lot about how to work more effectively as missionaries and explained that every one of us needs to know the Savior and his Atonement.  The atonement is very important and we need to apply it in our lives and help others to realize that as well. 

He said that nothing is impossible with God.  Even those things that we seem to think that it is difficult to accomplish, but with God everything is possible.  We cannot let doubt come into our minds about anything.  Be unbreakable, and immoveable. 

It is a privilege to serve and walk among these people whom I have learned to love.  It has helped me appreciate the Book of Mormon even more.  This is the Promised Land.  The people here are the remnants of the Nephites and Lamanites that they talked about in the BOM.  We need to teach these people the gospel.  We must do all we can to help them.  We must act and live as such.  I have so many things to improve on... haha I can feel a great change from the first day I stepped off the plane onto Guatemala soil.  But I know that I have a long way to go.  Our duty as missionaries, members and sons and daughters of God is to seek perfection.  ELIMINATE THE GOOD, REPLACE WITH THE BEST!!! I loved the conference.  

Another highlight of my week was going on divisions with Elder F from Arizona.  He is a cool kid and we found a lot of success.  He has been out for 7 months in the mission and we learned a lot from each other.  Their area is cool and we had some good lessons, and we put a baptismal date.  It was a nice change from the normal routine in my area with my comp.  Elder F’s comp. has a violin and I played it in the night before going to sleep.  It felt good to play after a long time of not doing it... haha I am kinda rusty at it.  

We brought some new investigators to church, and things are going well in the area.  There are a lot to do and a lot to learn. 

I can't believe I will be turning 20 in a week... haha that sucks! I am getting old.  But it is progression.  Have a good week and take care!  I love you guys!

 

2015-04-20 Another Great Week.

Hey guys glad to hear that everything is going good on that side of the world.  Here, things are okay.  Just working like normal.

On Monday for P-day, we watched the movie “Meet the Mormons” in Spanish at the stake center.  And yes, I understood every thing in Spanish.  I guess my Spanish is coming along pretty good.  People usually say my companion is the gringo and not me.

Hmmm… I’m trying to think what else we did this week.  Sometimes I just forget about things we have done.  The weeks are just flying by.  I look back and just remember waking up and going to bed.  We had a good week otherwise and we have had some interesting lessons.

We were teaching this old guy that was a pastor in his day, and he came up with an interesting question "where in the bible does it talk about other worlds and planets that God created?" and he started going on about how he always questioned that and that he could never find the answer.  So I pulled out my triple and turned to Moses and explained things that talk about just that. 

Moses 1:3-4, 33-39

 3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless? 4 And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease.  . . . .  33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.  35 For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.  37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.  38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.  39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

This man just sat there reading the passage over and over again.  Then he turned to us and asked "why is this not in the bible?" and so we explained to him how some things were taken out of the bible and these were revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  At the end of the lesson he turned to us and said "You have the truth!  You have the truth!" I was super happy and we are trying to get him to come to church and hopefully he will continue to learn more.

  

Hahaha funny lesson was when we were talking to a family and asked why they could not come to church, and the mom of the family starts going off about how they have to go to the hospital, then she started to go too deep and explained that her daughter has some personal medical problems so she has gained weight and her voice has changed, etc.  Haha too much information lady! The daughter was just sitting there mad and silent.

Another highlight of my week was teaching this part member family and the man that is not a member in the family after watching the restoration and reading the history of Joseph Smith, turned to us and said "you are the first set of elders in 10 years to actually spark my interest and get me thinking about really asking God if this is true. I don't know what it is but I want to know."  So that was good.

So overall we really had great lessons and great people to teach.  I love teaching the gospel!

Also, we found a fat cat, definitely a house cat that look like Jazz (grandma’s Hawaiian cat).  He was walking on the street alone, so I picked him up and took him to one of my favorite member family here in the ward, and now my cat has a home.  Their cat recently got run over by a car and now they have a replacement for their dead cat.  They were happy to get another one.

Well, have a good week and take care.  I love you guys!

2015-04-13 Recent Emails

04/13/15

 Hey guys!  Well glad to hear everything is going great there and that you are all having fun.  People are starting to tease me now that I have only a little time left.  Whenever a plane passes by my companion always points up and says, "hey comp, 4 months left!  Haha it kind of gets on my nerves.  But okay.

The week was great.  We are working hard and one of the highlights of my week was going on divisions with the ZLs.  I went with Elder H from North Carolina/Arizona, and it was great.  I guess this past change I have been worried about things so much, that I forgot what it felt like to work hard with a companion that really knows what he is doing and wants to work hard too.  The division was great and we got a lot done.  I learned a lot and the next day back, we put 4 baptismal dates with a family we are teaching.

 

Another crazy story I forgot to tell you about is that before the Saturday session of conference, in the morning we went hiking in this hill near our area, we took pictures and we decided to go down the hill a different way, so we started our descent and it is beautiful in the forest.  So we get near the bottom of the hill and come out to a clearing where there is a warehouse and a house fenced in by an electric fence.  Then 4 dogs came running out and start barking like crazy and want to rip us apart, but then we start circling the perimeter looking for a way out, and we see this armed guard with a shotgun come walking toward us, and as he is walking toward us he loads the shotgun and cocks it and yells "who are you!?" and we put our hands up and yell "we're missionaries!" and then he starts going off about why we are trespassing in a private property, and because of that he has the right to shoot us, etc.   And we are just yelling "we are looking for a way out!"  Haha it was scary and funny at the same time.  Then finally the man showed us the way out.   We hurried home, got ready, studied and then went to conference.  I will always remember that incident when I watch conference now...

Well hope all is well.  I love you all and have a great week!

04/06/15

Hey guys, well all good and marching along in this part of the vineyard.  I really enjoyed conference and a lot of the talks stuck out to me.  I really liked the last 2 talks of the Sunday morning session by Jeffery R. Holland and President Uchtdorf.  They really were powerful.

The work is progressing and little by little we are becoming better as missionaries and as a ward here.  Holy week was really slow though. Everyone went on vacations and did not want to do anything with the missionaries and church.  We ate a lot though, and took a lot of the pictures of the Catholic ceremonies and parades.  On Friday, everyone go out and watch the parades where the Catholics decorate the streets with colored sawdust almost like a carpet that goes down the whole street.  Then in the night people carry this huge thing with a wooden carved Jesus Christ in a glass box down the street on this carpet.  Supposedly they pay 100Q to carry the big thing to be able to be forgiven from their sins. 

Cool story, 3 weeks ago we fasted together.  My companion and I with an investigator named EG that has been smoking for 50+ years so that he would be able to stop smoking.  We fasted and for the last 3 weeks he has not touched a cigarette and feels sick when he has the desire to do it.  How cool is that.  I know that the Lord works daily miracles and that his hand is in all of our lives.

We brought a new family to the conference yesterday and they liked it, so we will see how that goes and if they progress.  Other than that this week was great.  I love what I do, and I know that we are here doing the Lord's work.

I love you guys, take care!

Area Left to Right:

 

 

3/23/15

Hey guys, another week here in the area, and it has been great! 

On Wednesday we had a meeting of three missions where we were able to hear from an apostle.  The missions East, Central, and South missions all met up and we hung out for a while waiting for the meeting to start.  Then at 2 in the afternoon Elder Anderson and Elder Maynes from the presidency of the seventy came.  We all got to pass and shake their hands, and it was a good spiritual experience.  We were fasting as a mission and a lot of questions were answered about the work and how we can be better.

Elder Maynes talked first and something he said that really stuck out to me is that we are all connected and that our decisions and actions affect others in a chain.  He told us that we should ask ourselves every day "If every missionary in the world were like me, would the work move faster and the world be a better place?" and that is true.  If we would all strive to be the best missionaries and the best people that we could be, the world could be a better place.  We can apply it to our normal lives.  If we were all working and being the best that we can be, the church and its members would be having a bigger positive impact in the world.

Elder Anderson talked about the Atonement and how it is so important to use it and understand it to be able to help our own lives and the lives of others.  He also talked about how every mission is different and the duties of missionaries and way of work is different, and how our job as missionaries in Central America is to help the people realize that they are a part of the house of Israel and that the Book of Mormon is THEIR book.  That the past really calls out to them.  

Other than that the week was kind of normal.  But the work is going great.  Changes are in 1 week.  But oh well, working hard, playing hard.  I love the work.  I love it all.  Enjoy time while we have it.  I love you guys, have a good week!

 

2015-03-15 The Adventure in the Lord's Vinyard Continues

03/16/15

 Hey guys, well checking in after another week here in the area and this week went by fast (as usual).  It was great this week because we got to do a whole bunch of stuff.  On Tuesday we were called in the morning by the bishop of the ward and he told us about a service project that we were going to do in a school.  So we go to the school and for a Mormon helping hands project, we helped hand out school supplies to all the children in the school (about 460 of them).  It was fun to be able to see the children enjoying themselves and now whenever we are walking in the street we hear "hey gringos!" because all of the children know us now.

Another highlight of my week was talking to an investigator and his family named A.  His wife goes to the Christian church and her children too, but her husband A does not because he is an atheist.  The first time we talked to him it was shocking to hear that he did not believe in God.  Guatemala is a strong Christian country and it is really, really, really rare to be an atheist.  So we went back for the second time this week and we had a really deep and spiritual lesson.  He had a lot of questions.  We were able to relate science and the existence of God to him and helped him open his mind a little about God and how religion and science can work together.  At the end of the lesson he was saying that he will have a lot of thinking and evaluating to do.  We hope that  we helped him open up his understanding more.  I hope that we can continue to teach him.

Other than that the week was pretty normal.  This coming Wednesday, we have a mission meeting with the apostle Elder Anderson, so that should be good.  Looking forward to it.

Oh well, have fun I love you guys!

3/09/15

Hey guys another week has gone by and since last Wednesday we have been working really hard.  As a mission we had a goal to find at least 15 new investigators and put 2 baptismal dates for every companionship, and we did just that!

It was kind of funny working this week because I burned my companion out.  He doesn't really like to contact and walk up and down hills and stairs so I just took him to "hell and back" like coach Roland would say.  He is super tired, so tired that we did not go to the gym the whole week because he wanted to sleep.  But in the end we taught 30 lessons with member, found 25 new investigators, and put 2 baptismal dates with our investigators. 

It was kind of frustrating though because we are teaching this super good investigator named MF and her son.  She goes to church every week, and wants to get baptize, but she is not married and her husband for some reason does not want to get married.  I feel super frustrated with him when we talked to him because he always fights with her over her desires to search out God, but we are working on that.  I was reading in 2nd Nephi about how there is opposition in all things... and that is how it will be forever.  To learn and grow we need opposition, and through the problems our faith will grow.  We will continue to fight through the opposition and do all we can to help M and her son.

The rest of the week was great, we had another interview with president as a zone, and it was good.  We just talked about conversion, how I am doing, and the area.

On Friday, there was a gun down in our area and being typical nosy missionaries, we went back the next day and the blood was still on the sidewalk.  COOL!  Haha.  I found some of the crime scene tape and put it in my journal.

Yesterday, my companion had his patriarchal blessing given to him by the stake patriarch.  It was a great experience.  It is weird because when I try to remember what was said, I can't.  I guess that is how the Lord works to protect things.  I feel like bishops and stake presidents forget things that people confess too?  But I do remember the spirit in the room.  It was a good, charged feeling.

All in all I am loving what I am doing.  Just working hard and trying to enjoy time.  Well, have  a good week, I love you guys!

3/04/15

Hey guys, well this past week was great and we got a lot of things done.  We are working hard and things are getting a little better.  I have had to work and talk with my companion to get things rolling there, but it is all good.  We had 2 interviews in a week and a half, and the first interview was on Friday with President for the situation with my companion and yesterday we had our normal interviews. 

The leaders are focusing a lot on personal conversion, and how having a testimony is not enough, and it is true.  In these last days, having a testimony is not enough and we need to act and be converted upon what we know.  I think Elder David A. Bednar gave a talk named "when thou art converted" and it is really good.  He quotes Joseph Smith, and he said that "when a man comes closer to the perfection and true conversion, he loses all desire to sin".  I hope that all of us can come unto Christ and be perfected in him... little by little. 

Other than that we had a good week.   We went to the temple today that is why we are only writing you today.  So other than that we had a good week.  Working and studying hard.  We have some baptismal dates for this month and April, but we will see.

Love you guys and take care!

 

2015-02-23 Challenges and Blessings

Hey guys! This past week has been pretty crazy... actually one of the weirdest and frustrating weeks of my mission.

On Monday, we just went around saying goodbye to people with Elder R.  He is a great guy and I know that he will do better from now on out.  I was really touched because we had a good, long talk about how he turned it around with me.  Good guy, good missionary.

On Tuesday, we had changes and I received Elder G from El Salvador.  He has 7 months in the mission.   This past week has been the most challenging in the mission comp. wise... but we'll get to that later. 

After changes we went back to our area, and visited members and investigators, and as we were walking up this hill in the bottom of our area, these 2 cops stop us and say "drop your bags, and spread out on the wall."  They searched us and did a pat down, the cop even tapped my balls to make sure I wasn’t hiding a gun or something down there!  Haha I was laughing the whole time, and my comp was sooooo scared!  He says "we are missionaries!” and the cop says "I don't care if you have money!"  Haha and my comp looked like he was going to crap his pants.  They looked in our bags and books for stuff, and then took down our names. 

Wednesday, crazy stuff passed too, we went to an appointment at 2 in the afternoon and as we enter the house this old guy is having a seizure on the floor, so we pick him up and put him on the bed and he just keeps having these seizure attacks off and on, and he could barely breathe.  So we call the ambulance and like typical Guatemala emergency service, the ambulance did not come and we were waiting there with the guy practically dying there for about 45 minutes, and so we just went and got a taxi to take him to the hospital.  He is okay now.

Thursday, we saw a dead body on the street.  A group of people were surrounding the crime scene and I guess the guy was shot like 4 times and the cops were all running around looking for the bad guy.  We passed the scene on the way to an appointment and it was sad.  Then about an hour after we contacted a house and a guy let us in, all tattooed, and as we were teaching the lesson, he stopped us and talked about how he was an ex gang boss and how he had killed many guys, and how there are people from the other gang looking for him etc.  You could see death in his eyes... it was weird.  I felt bad and sick in the whole lesson.  I have only felt that way a few times in my mission in houses like that.

Hahaha oh well, we will see how things unfolds, time to crack the whip and straighten things out.  But other than that, I am loving the mission.  I love what I do and the people I meet!  Have a great week guys! Take Care!