Week 26

Hello family and friends!,

This week we worked hard and have had a lot of success and also a lot of let downs. So we had two fechas this week but the first one decided to go to an Evangelical Church and feels like he recieved reconciliation with God and doesn't want us to visit him constantly and also the other church prayed for him so he feels like he's found what he was looking for. Also, our other fecha decided not to go to church because her dad had to go do an errand and she can't go by herself because she is 10 years old.

But we are planning to get 2 or 3 fechas this week and hopefully they can keep their commitments and also pray and specifically ask if this is true. Because if they ask specifically, with a desire to know the truth, I know that they will recieve an answer. Also, some great news for in two weeks is that an apostle is coming to talk to us on March 18! It's going to be awesome because its in the capital so we will feel a little cool when we go to the capital!

So right now in Zacapa is starting the hot season and the summer! I cant wait! NOT. haha I'm kinda tired of feeling hot every day and every night. But it doesn't matter what I want, it's where the lord needs me and where I will make the biggest impact.

So this week we got to try star fruit which in Spanish is called carambola and we got another weird fruit from some investigators. So some funny stories from this week is that we talked to a member and I asked her if she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon and her responce was that she lost her head a few years back and so she doesn't have a testimony...haha but she attends church every week and says the church is true and the Book of Mormon is true too... haha oh well.

Also, we ran into another guy in the street who said that we promised him a watch the next time we saw him so my comp took out his half broken watch and the guy took it and gave him a hug and told us where he lives for us to visit him next week. Then on Saturday we had a lesson with some new investigators and the 10 year old boy had a question. So he asked us how old we were and we said, well, how old do you think we are? and he responded and said my comp was 32 years old, Brandon (a member, who's a preist) was 22 years old and I was 25 years old. haha I have never heard that I look like I'm 25 years old! I have only heard that I am 17 or 18, so it made me feel like I am growing up!;)

Ya so that was pretty much our week and also I was reading in Mosiah 3 and 4 today and in chapter 4 it essentially talks about charity and helping people and not judging. I invite you guys to read those chapters this week and see how you guys can apply those chapters in your lives. I know that we all can better ourselves in charity and in not judging people.

Well thank you guys for all your support and for your love! I love you guys too!

LOVE Elder Flygare

Week 25

Hey Family,

How are you guys doing? I'm sorry to hear that Grandma Salladay passed away but I want to let you know that you guys are all in my prayers and that she lived a long life. I hope grandpa out of all people is holding up alright and that everything is okay with him. The good thing is that she said she wanted to live to see us again and I know that that won't happen in this life but I know without a doubt that we will see her after this life and she will be in her perfected body to talk to us and hug us. I found out that she passed away from President Crapo on Friday night at like 9:40 and he told me about how he got and email from you guys and that he is sorry for the loss in our family. I know that he meant it with all of his heart just by the way he talked to me over the phone and that he really cared. He gave me the opportunity to call you guys but I thought that would be to hard for me to call you guys and talk to you but I do want you guys to know that you are in my prayers every day.

So this week I got a new companion and his name is Elder Sorensen. He is from Sandy, Utah and has almost 22 months in the field. He extended his mission so he has this change and next change and he will be home;) Also, some good news is that president wants me to be the senior companion! So I will be leading our area with him and we got two new missionaries in our ward and their names are Elder Hoffman and Elder Kesler.  They are from the states and Elder Hoffman has 15 months and Elder Kesler is new! Elder Dille and Elder Guymon are still my zone leaders and my last comp, Elder Merrill, is now a zone leader in Zona Atlantico! He's a stud! In about two weeks I will have 6 months in the mission and it has felt like it's gone by so fast.

Also, happy birthday to Jeff Stevens, Avery Porter, and Brayden Flygare! I hope you guys had a good week and an amazing birthday!

I hope the other Elder Flygare is doing great in his new area with his new companion!

Well I love you guys and can't wait to hear from you next week!

Elder Flygare

Week 24

Well changes are this week and it feels like this change has gone by to fast. I know that we have had a ton of ups and downs with my companion Elder Merrill with our investigators and our area, but now that changes have come, I will be going through more ups and downs with a different companion. I really didn't want one of us to have changes this time but the lord needs my companion's help in a different area. Ya thats right, I am staying here in Zacapa for another change! Too bad its without Elder Merrill.

I have loved spending time here with Elder Merrill and we have seen some pretty cool blessings and also have both learned to trust in the lord more. I definetly need to do that a lot more. I feel like I have already changed so much in these last 5 and a half months but there is always room to improve and always room to change. I know that I will become the missionary that he wants me to be and also I will develop the Christ like attributes that he needs me to improve on. Whoever my next companion is, I will make sure we will be working hard to help the people of Zacapa come unto Christ.

So this week was pretty awesome, we had a baptism! on the 14th! It was awesome to end the change with a BANG! and not only was their one baptism, there was 10 in the same day! We had a stake baptism day to start off the weekend of our stake conference! So also this week during stake conference we had such a good turn out at the church that we (6 missionaries) had to get out of our seats and let other people sit in them and then we had no more chairs in the building for people to sit down so their was about 40 people in the hall just listening AND we had our mission president there and his wife and also someone from the seventy! Elder Sangalvez! I dont know how to express how grateful I feel to be here in Guatemala and serve the Lord.

We have recieved so many blessings this last week with our work, we have been blessed to also have another person with a date! His name is Fernando! and he is awesome! He kinda got shot in the leg 3 times because people thought he was someone else...oops...but since then he felt like the Lord kept him here to change his life and become a new person. He has stopped doing drugs, smoking and drinking since the accident in December! He really wants to change his life and has accepted the date to be baptised on the 7th of March! Yay!

Also, just something funny that I saw this week was someone wearing this red shirt and on the front it had a small elephant and it said "keep calm and vote for Mitt" haha it was so funny because like 75 percent of these people dont know what their shirts say so members always ask me. Haha!

Well love you and thanks for your emails!

Elder Flygare

Week 23

So last Monday I didn't have a lot of time to talk so I will try to explain everything last week and this week. So last week we did a service project at a church in our zone and we bagged all the leaves and trash in the yard of the church and there was a ton. Also, there were coconut trees and we drank the milk from the coconuts and we had coke in a coconut shell! Haha, but we wanted more so we decided to climb a 20 to 22 foot coconut tree to get more coconuts! Haha, good think we had so many people lifting us up and making sure we wouldnt fall, but to bad we weren't high enough to get any that had really good milk or food inside it.

Also, the zone leaders stayed at our house one night and all four of us had to sleep on two beds. That sucked, but it was because a member in their ward kinda threatened them and so for precaution they came to our house to party all night! Haha jk, but everything is good now because the member isn't in Zacapa and he really isn't a person to do that kind of stuff. Thank goodness! haha!

Also, I received my calender today! Thanks you so much! It's awesome, it's definetly going to be hard to not think about you guys but I will be fine! haha.

So this Tuesday was the mark of my 5 months and in about 2 or 3 weeks I will have my 6th month in the field and I will be burning my first tie! I will choose an ugly one so I dont lose a good one. Like colton said in his email I am not sure if I will be here in Zacapa for another change because I have been here for 4 months and just the way changes have been I will most likely leave. But where ever God wants me I will know that there will be a reason for me to leave or a reason for me to stay!

This week has been such a fast week here because we had divisions with the assistants and also we had a multi zone meeting with three of the four zones outside the capital. It was amazing to recieve instruction from president and the assistants on how we can improve our teaching and helping our investigators. Me and Elder Merrill had Elder Gomez with us who can speak perfect English and is just an amazing teacher. We definetly learned so much from him. He's from Guatemala and is leaving this change though.

Also, this week I sent a pic of an iguana and its about 3 feet long...it's huge but the good thing is that it can't climb the walls anymore but they cut off one toe on each foot and with out those toes it cant climb. It's cool to think that just without one of the five toes it has, it can't climb walls anymore.

Also, we have an awesome story! Well it's good for us, but not good for the person...so we found out that some one was baptized and then confirmed like 9 months after he was baptized and you can't do that, so he has to get baptized again! and he has a date for this month! yay! Also, this week we had two investigators in church this week! What a great feeling that our prayers and our hard work has started to show!

Also, this girl that has always attended church but just turned 8 just got baptised this last week! And guess what? She wanted me to baptize her! I'm just super happy that we are starting to progress in the work and help others progress in their salvation.

Well thats it! Love you guys!

Elder Flygare

Week 22

Sorry, today I dont have much time to write. I only have about 15 min and I really wish I could read your emails but I took photos of them to read later.

I received a letter from you mom this week and recieved a letter from grandpa last week. I really love the letters and I'm sorry I haven't sent one in a while. I have been really busy praying for help in my area and trying to look through our area book for really good investigators and menos activos.

But this week was really good but then sunday went back to normal. This week we had a lot of really good lessons with our investigators but on sunday they didn't go to church. I feel frustrated and I know its not going to be easy but it's been like this for 5 or 6 weeks. It's been a long tough challenge.

Also, this week our president and the zone leaders changed a rule! we can have coke now! YAAAAAAY! It's amazing that we can have coke now!

I also found out this morning that the patriots won the super bowl! and they were replaying it in the place that we ate lunch, but to bad we can't watch television. So we moved to a different table where we couldn't watch tv. Also, this week we focused on a lesson that we call raise your sails. We used the photo in the ensign that had a pic of the ship and it says embark. We used the saying "that we can't move out of the way of the storms in our life unless we first raise our sails and obey the commandments and do all that is on the sails". Then we will move towards the places that the lord has prepared for us.

Bye, love you!

Elder Flygare