Hola
Mi Familia!
First
off Mom, please do not worry about last week and not being able to email me. I
am just really glad that I was able to talk to you for a little bit. It would
have sucked if I couldn`t have even done that, but really don`t worry about it.
I am glad you sent one this week though!!! They honestly help more than you
could ever imagine with homesickness, so thank you. It also
helped to hear that Gunner is starting to feel better. It made me really happy
to hear! He honestly scared me to death for a little bit there. But I am so
glad he is feeling better. I hope he keeps heading that direction! I`m glad that all the kids were able to
finish off the trimester strong, especially after how much they all missed.
That`s really cool.
As
for how I`m feeling, everything is getting better. It was still pretty rough on
Thursday because it was pretty hard not being there with you guys, and we were
also in divisions on Thursday, so I was with a missionary that I don`t know too
well, so it wasn`t the same as being with Foster, but it`s all good. We ate the
Thanksgiving dinner that Foster’s family sent.
We ate on Friday night, and it was awesome! We had turkey, mashed
potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, and then M&M`s for dessert. It was really
cool. I`m glad that we were able to at least celebrate it in some way. On
Wednesday morning we had pie, because I guess it`s a tradition in Foster’s
family to have pie day the day before Thanksgiving, so we had some pies too. It
was really cool. And don`t worry, I have pictures to send home that I will be
sending soon today. Oh, and by the way. I really like that quote haha! I`ve
felt that way a few times :)
"I'm in one of those moods where I just want to throw a book at
someone's face and be like... "I just facebooked you!" :)
I`m glad that you guys
were able to have a good Thanksgiving too. I really want to see that movie.
Moana! I have only seen one trailer for it but it looks really good. Even
though it`s the same thing every year it`s always nice to be there with family
and just have fun together and chill. That`s one of the biggest things I missed
this Thanksgiving, but it`s all good.
I honestly already miss
snow!!!! I can`t believe it, but I really do. It`s so weird to have it be
December, and see no snow... at all. It hasn`t even dropped below like 60
degrees during the day! Mom, you would love the weather here, but I`m not too
sure how you would like being here. It`s a pretty dirty place. At least in the
city. It`s a cool experience, but I can`t wait to get out and go see the small
villages that are like 6 hours away from where I am now. It will be awesome!
I`m so glad that
Peighton is finally seeing her potential. She is such a good player and just
needs to take the steps necesarry to get there. It might be scary at times, but
that`s when we grow the most, is when we step right out of our comfort zone and
go for it. If anything, that`s what being out here has done a whole lot of for
me, is growing, these past 3 months. I can`t believe how much this matures and
grows people out here. It`s really cool. But I am glad she could go to San
Diego and play good. She always seems to be pretty hard on herself if she
doesn`t play perfect, but I bet she did really good. I know it`s going to be
hard to tell Aaron that she`s leaving again, but she`s tough. I`m glad they
were able to do pretty good out there.
I`m really excited for
the package! I can`t wait to have pictures of all of you. Every missionary has
pictures of their family, and it`s cool to look at, so I can`t wait to see
pictures! Haha I can`t wait for the tree!!! I can`t wait to read the notes you
wrote for us! And don`t worry about the tape, because we have a ton in the
house, so that`s all taken care of! I think we are going to try and find a real
tree too somewhere to set up in the house. I don`t know where we will, but we
are going to try! I think I should be getting it by like the 13th of December or
a few days before, maybe. But sometime around then. I can`t wait!!!! As far as
skyping goes, it will be on Christmas day, LESS THAN A MONTH!!!! I can`t wait!
That will honestly be the best present I get ever, is being able to see and
talk to you all. I honestly think it`s really cool to have my first Christmas
here fall on a Sunday. That`s awesome to me! To remember why we really
celebrate Christmas. I`m excited! Christmas, in Guatemala, is HUGE!!!! They go
nuts for Christmas! Just 2 nights ago they had a firework show (weird right,
fireworks for Christmas?) We were able to see them from the roof of our house,
and they were nuts!!! Think of a grand finale for 4th of July, but have that
last for about 25 minutes, and that`s what it was like. Don`t worry, I got
pictures of those too and will be sending a few home :) But I guess it`s huge
come Christmas night, the fireworks are all over the place, and it`s really
cool because we are dead center in Xela, so there will be fireworks all over
the place, all around us. It`ll be really cool, I`m excited!!!
Oh man... Paty, Paty,
Paty. She is so ready... And yet, I don`t know what the deal is. Honestly, I
just think the whole thing is is that she is waiting until Indira comes back
from the States next week so that she can be there to see it. If that isn’t is
then we don`t know what to do with her? We have taught her every lesson,
multiple times, and now we just teach about certain questions she has. I mean
for goodness sake, we taught her about transfiguration and she understood it
all. She is amazing, she just needs to be baptized!!! It`s rough when they know
it`s true and won’t “bite the bullet” to make the decision to be baptized. It`s
hard sometimes, but it helps grow my patience.
With Indira and Edna,
I`m not 100% sure what to do. They know it`s true too, but they don`t want to
change their lives to live the gospel. That`s another hard thing. They know
it`s true but are pretty much too lazy to try and change. We will see though.
With God, anything is possible, right? New fechas? We found a new family 2
weeks ago with a mom and 3 kids who are all really positive, and we have a date
with them Christmas Eve, so that will be really cool if we can follow through
with them. The hardest thing with them seems like it will be trying to get them
to go to church. But they are great. But that`s it for Fechas.
When
I got my call here, everyone said that I was going to be having baptisms left
and right, and teaching people always, but it´s the exact opposite. I don´t
focus on baptisms, because I know that people choosing to be baptized is out of
my control. But it gets hard sometimes. Especially when instead of teaching new
people and baptizing our older investigators, we keep the same investigators
for months, and they never get baptized. It´s hard, but I really do love
teaching these people. The people we can get into to teach are amazing people
who are so humbled. They are great, but then you get people who literally just
slam the door in our faces, and that gets really hard sometimes too. I don´t
know, I just got to keep working for it. That´s always the case, a day full of
contacting, but no one seems to ever let us in to teach them. Our President
always wants us having 60 new investigators every month, and he sometimes makes
it seem so easy to just get into people´s houses to teach, but it´s really not.
It´s hard and sometimes, it gets frustrating. But, I´m just trying to dig my
head in and keep going. That´s the other weird thing.
Transfers are still the
27 of December, and we aren`t 100% sure what`s going to happen. It`s nearly
impossible that we will be together again, but with the time that Foster has
left in the mission, it could happen, at least that`s what we`ve been told by
people, we will see though. And yes, it`s almost positive that I will stay here
in Xela if we do have transfers, and honestly I`m ready, it`s just going to
suck saying goodbye to him. He has been a great trainer, someone who has helped
me with the language, homesickness, how to be a better teacher. He`s just been
awesome, and it`s going to be hard to say bye to him. But ya, I`m ready. I will
still be junior comp, most likely, unless I train, but I doubt that will
happen, and I will show the older comp around the area here. It should be
really good, and then I would be in Xela until February, and then I`m not sure
what might happen then.
The ward here is great.
There are a few people that I`m not a huge fan of, like the 2nd counselor and
his wife. They got so mad at us for baptizing Brenda because "she lives
outside of our area, and that is such a sin if you do." So they hate us,
and honestly, I don`t have very strong feelings for them either. But for the
most part they are awesome. There is a family called De Leon Castillo and they
are amazing. They have 3 kids, a daughter who is 19, a son who is 14 and
another son who is 7, and they are all amazing! I love them so much, and then
the 1st counselor in the bishopric, Byron, and his wife are really awesome. And
then Alex. He is a convert of 3 years, and just got home from serving a mission
in Chile. We are teaching his girlfriend, Karem, who is going to be baptized on
the 10th, and he is such an awesome guy! He speaks English and so that`s really
cool, but he`s awesome! But ya, the ward is really cool. As far as callings go,
I have none in the church. We have a pretty big ward, so they don`t need to
give us callings, but there are areas where you could even be branch president,
and that would just be nuts!!!!!
1.PEAK MOMENT: Having Thanksgiving dinner because I was
pretty homesick, and it was really cool to be able to at least somewhat
celebrate it. It was awesome! I have pictgures that I`m going to send home.
2.PIT MOMENT: Umm, probably not being home for
Thanksgiving. It was pretty hard not being there for one of my favorite
holidays with everybody.
3.WHAT ARE YOU
READING: I am reading in Alma 9 right
now, and those first few chapters of Alma are about Alma the younger going
around the land teaching people to come back to the commandments of God,
because they are becoming prideful and forgetting their duty to God. They are
amazing chapters with so much stuff in there that we can ask ourselves
personally to see how we are in living this gospel. It`s awesome. I love it!
4. SOMETHING I LEARNED:
It’s been the same every week I`ve been out here, to turn myself over to the
Lord, and truly turn everything over to Him, He works miracles through us. He
can strengthen our weaknesses and make our strengths even stronger. I am reminded of this in Luke
1:37 – For with God nothing shall be impossible.
5.A PERSON WHO STOOD OUT
TO YOU THIS WEEK: Probably my zone leader that I did divisions with this week.
He finishes his mission in February and yet he still goes hard on the work, and
I give him props because at that time in the mission, the last thing you want
to be doing is working, but he`s still going strong, so that was cool.
6. FAVORIT SCRIPTURE: My
favorite scripture of all time would be Ether
12:6 or Ether 12:27 but out of
the ones I have read this past week it would be Alma 5:27
27) Have ye walked, keeping
yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this
time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and
made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from
their sins?
I just really like this
scripture because if we ask ourselves this and we can answer yes, then that
means we are living the way we should. It was just a cool question check that I
really liked.
7. SOMEONE TO PRAY FOR: Pray
for a girl named Michelle and her father. I haven`t talked much about her, but
she is a 17-year old Girl who is best friends with Indira`s daughter, who is
really interested in the gospel, but her dad hates us and forbids her from
taking lessons, so we can`t do anything about it because she isn`t 18 yet. It`s
really sad. So ask to have her father`s heart softened to at least allow her to
take lessons.
8. SOMETHING WEIRD I
SAW: A lady walking down the street and then she just pulled her shirt down and
started breastfeeding her baby. It happens all the time, but I don`t think I
will ever get used to it.
9.Pictures are coming, I promise!!!!!!!
I really like that
quote, and it`s so true!!! I have come to love the scriptures so much while
I`ve been out here, and if we just follow their teachings, we will be able to
return with Him! They are amazing.
As you joyfully use the map your loving Father has provided for your
journey, it will lead you to holy places and you will rise to your supernal
potential.
I honestly miss the snow
already!!! It´s pretty much December here, and during the days, it doesn´t drop
below like 60 degrees. I love the weather, but I really miss the snow! I want
to go skiing so bad right now!!!! Just shredding down the slopes sounds so
good; 2 years and I will be there!! That´s cool that Gunner wants to go to
Whistler for his senior trip. He is going to love it. I am so jealous I won´t
be there to be able to go with you guys!!!!! Haha, Mom was telling me last week
that she was already hating the cold and was doing her yearly threatening to
either have you change jobs, or she was just going to move out and leave until
Winter is over. I just don´t get how she can´t get used to the cold after
living there for 8-9 years haha!
Ya, for the Halloween
pictures I saw that you were growing a beird out. Is it pretty big? I
definitely want to see some pictures!!! I really wish I could start growing a
beird, because it´s getting to the point that I have to shave every day to keep
it looking good. If I were to grow it out for a while, I bet it would come in
pretty nice! But I have to wait 2 years for that too.
I´m glad to hear that Gunner
is pretty much back to normal. The kid´s a fighter. Tougher than anyone thinks
he is. Honestly, he is tougher than I think he thinks he is. But that makes me
really happy to hear! So, Cassidey got another dog? How did she see it, or did
you just find it and decide to buy it for her? How old is it? Is it big or
smaller? With dogs on the brain, how is Koda? I honestly miss her so much!!!!
Has she grown at all, or just pretty much stayed the same size? That´s awesome
that Peity did good in San Diego!!! And even better that the team wants to keep
her. She deserves to play on a team that will help her keep growing! Ya, I
really hope Gunner makes the team this year. That would be so awesome! I just
hate that I won’t be there to see him play. Haha it’s so funny to hear that
Brody has started hitting puberty!! And even funnier is he thinks it´s so
awesome that he finally grew some pubic hair!!!! Hahah but that´s how all boys
are at first!
Also... HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
DAD!!!!!!!!! I wish I could be there to tell you in person, but I hope you have
a great day!!!! Go do something with the family tonight. I don´t know just go
have fun! Whatever you do, I hope it´s great!!! Thanks for being the best dad
in the world. For always being there for me no matter what I might need. Thank
you for all the life lessons you have taught me in my life. You are my best
friend, and I can´t wait to be back home and have you by my side again! Happy
birthday dad!!!!!!!!!
I love you all so much!!!!
I hope you have an amazing week!! I miss you and can`t wait to talk to you guys
over Skype!!!! Love you!!
Elder Harward
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