Week 15

Hola!!!

This week has been good and bad. We had a lot of lessons fall but we had a lot of new investigators. Also, we had the biggest miracle on saturday that I will tell you about in a little bit. Also, we had such a great turn out at church yesterday!!! Last week was around 50 people and yesterday was 84! It was amazing how packed our church was. haha!  Our church isn't very big but its sufficient for only our ward! Also, one of my teachers in the CCM, his home ward is La Reforma which is my ward so he said he would come and visit sometimes and this week he came! He is awesome! His name is Hermano R. and he served in California long beach and so his English is perfect. I was so happy to see him.

So this week on saturday we had 3 lessons fall and so we decided to do some more contacting like usual when our lessons fall but this time felt different. I felt sad that we didn't have lessons with these people but at the same time I felt like we were going to have success. So we walked down a street that we hadn't contacted before and its not very long and doesn't have a lot of houses but I knocked on a door and some little girls came to the door and we asked if we could talk to their parents. We then asked if we could share a message about our redeemer Jesus Christ and they let us in. THIS FAMILY WAS A FAMILY OF 8! The mom, dad and two kids that are age for baptism and so we taught the first lesson about the restoration. After, we asked if they would be baptized when they recieve an answer of their own and that this church is true, they said yes and we then invited them to church which was the next day. The mom immediately said yes but the dad and the son who is about 13 said they had work on Sunday. So we then asked the wife and the daughter if they would like us to accompany them to church in the morning and they hesitated and only said that they would come. Then as we were leaving we were extremely happy with an answer to all of our prayers and after about 10 steps outside the house the mom sent the daughters to come ask us a question. We went back and they clarified with us that church was at 9 and that we could stop by for them. They then asked what time and we said at 8:15 we would stop by and they said okay they would come(the mother and daughter). So on Sunday we stopped by and the mother and daughter were almost completely ready by the time we knocked on the door. So we were so excited! Then in church we had another investigator show up with his two daughters and this investigator only has one arm. I dont understand the whole story so I wont try to explain it haha, but he attended church and we could have these three people baptized on the first Saturday of Enero! Which is the 3rd of January which is also my cumple mes!  Cumple mes is the day that you entered the CCM and you celebrate it every month! Also, that is our last week in this change! so we are hoping for three baptisms then!

So not much more happened. Today I recieved a letter from mom, from grandpa, and from Colton. I would like to thank you so much for the letters and for the support. Grandpa, keep reading the Book of Mormon. If you have any questions on any big words you can ask my mom and dad. I know you graduated from Miami! haha, jk! love you guys! Everything's going good here. The language is coming along and I really dont worry about it any more. I have already seen the help of the spirit in lessons when I teach and testify.

Also, I have read letters from the Bradford family, the Nilsen family, the Pacheco family, from Brie, Shelby, Emily and Sarah, and from the swim team! Thank you so much for the letters! Each letter means so much to me. Also, I dont know when my other package will arrive.

Love you guys,

Elder Flygare          

    

Week 14

Hola familia!!!

     How are you guys!? I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to email you guys every week and to be able to talk to you guys over SKYPE on either Christmas Eve or Christmas. I dont know what day yet or what time but I also got permission to call Colton for 10 min. for Christmas too! This week has been great since we had our second baptism and tonito is an awesome little kid! Also, we had some success with getting 3 new baptism dates for this month but no investigator showed up to church this week... it's hard to baptize people when they don't show up to church, but we will reset dates for them for January and they seem to be really sincere about changing their lives and everyone here in Guatemala knows about Jesus Christ. It's easy to relate to people's needs when they believe that Christ is our brother and redeemer and has suffered for everything for them.

          Yes I meet Elder Guymon, he is my zone leader and he's awesome! My favorite thing about my area is that it is easier to teach people than in the captial. It's easier to knock on a door and have some one let us share a 10 min lesson! My least favorite thing is that they dont like to attend church. I haven't gotten my other package yet and I will be sending my package tomorrow! I hope you like the wrapping paper! I get along with my comp really well. There are definetly times that I get irritated with him or he doesn't explain something well enough to me and tells me I did it wrong, but when I am mad I like to read my patriarchal blessing. Well a personal pizza is 37 quetzales but on Tuesdays and Thursdays it is buy one get one free! haha. The fast food restaurants are about the same when you convert it to dollares. We eat alot of rice and chicken and I will admit that I now eat broccoli and tomatoes. Oh and some cheap stuff here is baskeball shorts for 20 quetzales! Which is about 2 and a half bucks and also cologne is 50 quetzales. Only 50! It's about 6 or 7 dollars

Talk to you guys soon!

Love Elder Flygare

13th Week

Hey guys!

      How are you doing? Things have been great here and we have another baptism this Saturday! This person's name is Tonito and he is an amazing kid! He is ten and his mom is a member and his aunts family (who he lives with on the weekends) are members and he has been attending church for a long time. He is awesome and he has such a strong testimony of the gospel. The only things that he didn't really understand and why he wasn't baptized before was the law of chastity, the word of wisdom and tithing, but we have taught those now and he is ready to be baptized! Also with my Spanish, I didn't learn Spanish in three weeks but I have learned so much. I'm grateful for what I have learned and I know that the lord has blessed me with so much, with a great family and great support. I am so grateful for this gospel and for our savior. I know that he lives and I know that he died and suffered for our sins and that we can live with our families forever.

      This week was Thanksgiving but I didn't remember so it wasn't a special day for me, but to be honest it's because it doesn't even feel like it's December today, it feels like October which is great! Time is flying by and i'm grateful for the opportunity to serve and that I will make the most of it while I am out here! It's definitely hard but it's definitely worth it. Also, I sent more letters today for you guys for Christmas and I will be sending a package next week so hopefully it gets to you guys by Christmas. Also, this last week was changes and this is change number three! Can you believe it? I have already completed 2 of 16 changes! I'm already one eighth of the way done! I cant wait to hear from you guys next week and i love you guys so much! Also, go to this website and watch this video, our mission president sent this to us in our weekly emails and its really good. navidad.mormon.org

     I hope you guys are living life to the fullest and that you guys are asking for help from the Lord. I love you guys so much and I am grateful for you guys and the examples you guys are. You guys are the world to me and I would do anything for my family. Be safe and have fun! Chace, I hope you are doing good in baseball and you are always trying your best.

Elder Flygare

12th Week

My first baptism!!! I cant express how happy I was to be helping her come unto the fold! We have another baptismal date for December 6! The girl's name is Paty and she is awesome! Everything here is different, like the baptism was really small. The baptismal font is in the same room as you have sacrament meeting. Well since she got baptized on Saturday, she had the opportunity to be confirmed and she received the holy ghost!

Also, this week we have changes and I am keeping my comp for another change and I will be spending Christmas in Zacapa! Also, we will be getting a new zone leader this week along with Elder Huband who was the other zone leader. In our zone we are having 4 new people in our zone. 2 people have changes. I received the first package that you sent on Friday and its hard not to open all the letters right now. Haha! I sent a lot of photos and I hope you send the group message with photos too. It takes too long for me to do it with my email and its easier to send separately.

 Purple chicken Photos! How does that happen!‏ 

Week 11

Well out on the mission they say usually the 4, 5, and 6th week fly by of every change and they definetly have! I also have some good news for this week, I HAVE A BAPTISM!!!  This Saturday we have a baptism at 6 oclock at night and the very best part is that when we asked who she wanted to baptize her, she said that she wanted me to! I cant express how happy I am! I definetly see the lords hand in all the work I do. It's been extremely hard these last two weeks but this Saturday will remind me that all the work I do, pays off! Also I recieved dad's letter, so what happens with letters is that they send a box with all of our letters in it every Friday so I will get everything within 3 weeks or so. I did take out money. just in case i need some extra because our reimbursements don't come in time and the money I took out could last me a really long time...haha!

So of course I have been thinking of how far my Spanish has come and I cant believe that its been getting better every day.  It definitely is better but it's not perfect of course. I kinda wanted to be better by now but my zone has told me that my Spanish is really good for only being in the field for 5 weeks. I am grateful everyday for my Spanish and that I can speak better every day. When people ask questions it is really hard for me to understand but I hear that is one of the hardest parts and it will just come in time.  I dont stress to much about my Spanish but I do study alot in the streets with my comp and in my head. Tell chace that I am proud of how well he is doing and can't wait to hear about his first home run out of the park! Also tell Herman congrats on making the soccer team! I'm kinda sad that I wont get to see or meet him, he sounds like a great person.

So to answer the question about the bee sting, yes I have gotten stung before but these bees are different and it hurts alot more than a regular bee sting. I dont know why, but I am fine now. It only took three days for it to stop getting red and 4 days for the itching to stop.

    

Also, I cant belive that the bishop of my ward, has music that the singer is Freddie Ashby! What a small world and now my comp listens to his music about 8 times a day, only one specific song. But I was so happy to hear more music by Brother Ashby. It really made my day and along with that we had the toast with an egg in the middle... I forgot what that was called, but my bishop does that too. Just someof the smallest things remind me of home and it makes me feel more comfortable with being here and not being home sick. Don't get me wrong I still miss you guys but I have come to love these people and love the work.

Now questions that my mom had:

So how are you doing? 

        I'm doing great and love my comp and my area! I'm doing better every week.

How is the language coming along?

        The language is coming and from your letters it looks like yours is just as good as mine mom. I can't belive how fast you are learning and it shows me how hard you are working to learn this language.

What kind of foods do you eat? 

        foods, well we eat chicken and we have a dominos near by haha. but we always have tortillas with our food. not much beans which is weird but we eat alittle bit of everything. every morning i just have cereal or oatmeal and for lunch we usually have tortillas with rice or guatemole and chicken or some kind of meat.

Do the members feed you?

         The members dont feed us to much but its mostly because we arent suppose to eat at some members houses because of the way they prepare the food.

Do you get to bless the sacrament every week?

        I blessed the sacrament twice and gave another talk in church this week for 10 min. It's way easy to write the talk, but translating it is the hardest part haha.

Is it getting cold at all where you are at?

        No, its not getting cold. It's hot like our summer. I'm kinda disappointed because I want it to get cold.

Does it rain as much where you are at?

        This season is the season of no rain but when I first got here it did rain for the first two weeks and there was one big rain storm where we were drenched and had to get across the street and there was about 8 inches of water...

Are your showers cold water only?

        No, they are not. If you look back at the picture of my shower head. The top part is a heater and it pretty much shocks the water hot. It's kind of a little sketchy but I will explain more at christmas!

Elder Flygare