Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Umm hi, my name is Elder Call and sometimes it’s my birthday and sometimes I’m in Guatemala, it’s awesome. So first off I cursed myself by saying nothing happened last week, and so now this week EVERYTHING happened! It was a jam packed week with the goods and the bads and the just straight up weirds. So let me just start and go through the week starting with Tuesday EL TEMPLO!  first off I love the cap because the air there is so light and refreshing and I can actually breathe there, but I feel like I am going to get stabbed every two seconds or robbed (or both) but nothing happened so don’t worry. The temple was super chill and just what I needed it was a nice break. I saw elder Penfold, the temple is in his district, he is doing great, loves his comp and the people but hates his area, he says it’s on a hill and your always either walking up or down. Then we ate Wendy’s and I think I charged it on my card because we don’t have any money left!  but here is where the crazy story starts, we are on the bus back and a new company just started called litegua and it’s just nice busses, with ac and TVs so they were watching rush hour just finished it, and we were in traffic for one hour so we had tons of extra time when my comp started joking about lets watch the restoration or the testaments when Jesus Christ comes to the Americas. (I just bought me a second copy in the temple) then we joke with the Zone leaders and then next thing you know BAM we are watching the testaments on a bus FULL of people. It was awesome so we ended up watching it with everyone it was super sweet. One example of never be afraid to be bold or to ask, you can always be a missionary no matter where you are. So that was crazy story of Tuesday.

This week I don’t know why but we have been getting a lot of compliments about how we look? We call people like that snakes, and there are a lot of snakes here, and they are old women! Not even young, it’s weird every day we pass this paper store and the lady always yells a compliment to us. (ya idk) So while in the cap I bought me 2 cans of Dr. pepper! super stoked for that! and mom remember when I laughed at you when you said I hope someone would buy you lunch, IT HAPPED.... TWICE. we were walking home one night and this lady we contacted like 3 weeks ago ran into us and was super excited to see us, and invited us to dinner the next day, so we went and she bought us these steak burritos that are SUPER good! and we taught her about the restoration. it was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord. and the other time we have been meeting with this guy for 5 years every Wednesday to practice English, and we meet in a restaurant (one that I will take you to because it is super great!) well it turns out for these 5 years the missionaries have never taught him because he always says he has his believes and he respects ours, but this time we started talking about it, and then he just exploded with questions and we were answering them, (all this in English)(PS I LOVE teaching in English, for me it’s a blast) we ended by saying we don’t expect you to believe what we say, but you can pray and God will answer your prayers, then (best part) he says I’m going to challenge that and pray! WHAT?! first time we have ever had an investigator say that slash be willing to find out. it was definitely a good lesson and we are going to teaching him next Thursday. (we can’t Wednesday because we are going to the capital, to see the dentist for my comp, and maybe the doctor for my hand) his name is Walter, pray for us and wish us luck. 

so my hand is better, the compound w completely dried out and now I can’t use it, I don’t know if it was the heat or air but I used it for like a week. (yes I sealed it every time I used it) but my hand is getting better, I cut away the dead skin every day, and now I think I am going to let it rest for a while it has had a brutal attack)

Last night (Sunday) is where things got crazy and ya, we are meeting with a part member family and they aren’t married, have a ton of problems, and one little question "why won’t you be baptized" exploded into a 2 and a half hour conversation/argument/basically a family counsel but with just those 2. I kept quiet for the first part just soaking it all in, thinking things through trying to see everything from all angles and my comp is spittin good advice and then BAM it comes to me, so I then give my 2 sense (or cents?) and man I spit fire, I don’t want to be cocky but it is crazy how 2 20 (ok I was 19 then) can do this, here is a couple with serious problems not problems about feeling sad or offended, but real life problems that will have effect in this life and the next, it is literally tearing their family apart and the solution or people that will find the solution are 2 20 year olds who still feel like they are in 10th grade. but that is the beauty of this all, it’s not us! It’s HIM, the Lord is helping us, we are the mouthpiece of him here in Teculutan, it truly is amazing, I love it. This night things were super intense and didn’t look like it had a solution or end, but we have started (it is going to be a very long process) and we are going to put plans and goals with them to turn their lives around and save this family. I LOVE IT.

alright so it is SUPER hot here just thought you all needed to know that, also they eat fruit here because there is a lot of it. this week I ate melon, watermelon, pineapple, tamarinda (something like that, doesn’t exist in the states) and coco (coconut) you drink it then they split it open and give you a spoon made out of the coco you’re eating, its super chill and awesome.

I love it out here, it is super chill, the Lord shows us his tender mercies everyday (1 Nephi 1:20) (also see one of my favorite talks by elder Bednar "the tender mercies of the Lord") we have seen so many miracles out here, nothing big or crazy but the small miracles every day that happen. I love it, have a good week KEEP READING THE BOOK OF MORMON, OR START IT (dad) alright much love

-Elder Chad J Call

WE ARE IN A CROCK POT SLOWLY COOKING!!!

HOLA (that means hi)

So how is everyone going this week?!?! Honestly not much has happened this week. Except WE ARE IN A CROCK POT SLOWLY COOKING!!! It is so hot and humid and I just want to change my mission to the Alaska Spanish speaking mission, because it is so hot. And the natives tell me it is only going to get worse. Paco tells me Europe is dying of cold, and it is weird to think because it is honestly the exact opposite here. Well this week let me start with valentine’s day (we are such studs) we bought roses and gave them to our favorite grandmas in the ward in the SOC SOC (that is Relief Society in Spanish (but I spelled that wrong)) we hand delivered the roses to grandmas and just made their day and now they just love us even more.  Then the zone conference was also this week in Teculutan, and I learned a lot of valuable lessons. DONT LEAVE THE GATE OPEN TO THE CHURCH. I thought I would have learned that lesson in Zacapa with our baptism when the crazy lady entered the testimony meeting. But during the conference a lady wondered in and said some really crazy stuff, mainly about what the drug lords did to her family. It was CRAZY I won’t go into details…Guatemala is dangerous, but not for us :)  So the conference was just about having more enthusiasm and contacting better and finding more FAMILIES. Because that’s what it’s all about! The food yes we found a great hotel to cater it, and everything went very smoothly we ate roast and it was super good! AND I GOT MY PACKAGE! Super stoked about that and I was super happy! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING THE GREATEST FAMILY EVER! Mom DO NOT send me more pants or shirts I am going to go the 2 years with what I have, everything is still in GREAT condition! So do not worry!

Did I mention that it is hot? But I love it here they have so much fruits! A guy gave us a pineapple that we ate the other day it was so good! and there are so many mango trees here, we eat at least 3 a day, just walking and you can pick them off the trees because everyone has at least 2 GIANT mango trees (but first you have to ask permission or else they will shoot you). So tomorrow we are going to the temple! I am so stoked for that! I love the temple it will be a refreshing trip. We are going to try to go to Wal-Mart afterwards.

PICTURES! So the pictures I sent today are me with the valentine roses, our zone for zone conference with Pres. and the AP´s, and also we built a house this week, it is actually the same house we built last week just progressing more, ya that’s me sitting on a stick in the air. (Welcome to Guatemala)

So this week we have found a really awesome investigator it is a friend of a member here so we teach her always with this family (which is SO MUCH BETTER) she has a lot of problems so we want to help her realize that this gospel brings comfort when we have problems and really open up her eyes to the Atonement. Besides that we had a very serious talk with 2 of our other investigators that aren’t progressing and explained why we are here, and we probably will drop them for a little while because they just aren’t progressing. Our baptism date fell because she went back to the hospital! Grr!! But she is ready just super sick, she has surgery the 28th of this month to remove her kidney, and if she feels better we will baptize her before, but if not we will just wait until she is recovered. We are helping her husband still stop smoking, so that would be a FAMILY we are going to baptize! So stoked. Alright don’t know what else to ramble about I love you! I miss you won’t lie.. But I also love it here! Keep reading the Book of Mormon, keep doing what you should be doing! And I love you and see you soon!

Muhc (that means much but with the c and h switched) love!

-Elder Call

Happy V Day!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. Actually I don’t mean that, I can’t celebrate it so I’m not going to wish you guys a good one either. This week has been a great one, really chill which probably isn’t a good thing. Real quick before I forget next week we are going to EL TEMPLO!!! So I probably won’t write until Tuesday, just a heads up. This Friday we have a zone conference here in TECULUTAN! So we have been trying to get ready for that, finding someone to cater for it, and finding tables and all that jazz, stressful? No not really. Last week I got letters! So stoked when I get letters…SEND LETTERS THEY ARE THE FUEL TO THIS FIRE. That sounded weird, but I don’t have time to delete it. Also I bought peanut butter from the mission office, and oh my goodness how glorious was that!!! I have utterly forgotten how much I have missed peanut butter.

This week we helped a member build a house, but this is a Guatemalan house, not a normal house, basically he didn’t have enough money to pay rent so he is trying to hurry and build a shelter we could call it, and then he will save money and then build him a proper house. So we built a house out of branches and pallets, disassembled and some assembled, it was fun. I didn’t bring the camera but I will try to bring it next time. The guy is a total stud though. Ah man! I don’t know what happened but all our money disappeared. I think it got stolen, stolen by the stores! So these next couple days we are going to have to budget the money that we have left.

So just a really awful sad experience for this week. We have been teaching this couple, he is an inactive but his wife is not a member, so we have really been working and fighting for them to get married and she wanted to be baptized, one night late we are walking and we see him walking towards us just totally drunk, he stops us begging for our help, he is bawling, so we sit down and talk with him, and things are not good, he had a serious fight with his wife, he had gun, but luckily his mom took it away. So we just sat there and he just bawled, he wanted to go talk to her (she was at her parents’ house) but we said no and tried to get him to his house, after an hour we finally got him there, we had to stop him from buying more beer and more cigarettes, but finally we got him to his house. After I was just crushed, seeing him like that, he was not himself. Satan got a hold of him, and won the fight that night, I really hope everything turns around and that they can get everything back together. We were really pushing the atonement and repentance, so hopefully they can really use it and make the changes necessary.

On a brighter note we had 2 investigators go to a V-day dance, which was like a huge step for them, the missionaries have been teaching them for a year or so but they never made commitments with them, I don’t understand, so that was a huge step and they had a great time! The whole time we were so nervous if they would get along with the members (there is a problem with fellowshipping here). I honestly felt like a parent dropping my kid off at school for the first time, wondering how everything will turn out, if they had a good time, if they will get along with the other kids. We were really stressed out! But everything turned out great. Well I don’t know what else to write, this week was a very chill one, not much happened. Sorry I feel like I didn’t write much today, the clouds are gloomy today so it is a gloomy day so I am gloomy today as well. Sorry. If you have any questions let me know!

I feel like you guys got shafted this week for a crappy letter! Sorry! But just know everything is going great here, a lot of trials and challenges but that is normal and expected and we are trotting along, we might have a baptism this week!! If everything goes great (i.e. if she feels healthy enough) she is very sick and needs a kidney but we decided to press forward with her baptism! I am stoked. I miss you guys and love you! I have been studying the atonement a little, and also the plan of salvation. What great stuff that is! Oh man! I don’t know a lot but that is why I am studying it, I am learning so much about the two things. One thing that I have learned this week is that no matter what our Heavenly Father will always be there for us, rain or shine, we can always pray to him for guidance and for comfort. He will always be there, he is like our best friend, but with him, he will never betray us or abandon us. I want to just bear testimony of how great of a blessing this Gospel is to us. I have seen A LOT of different lifestyles here and beliefs and the comfort and knowledge that we have of the plan and the atonement are 2 things that I am grateful for that give us comfort in a world when we can’t find any. I got to go, but I love you all! Have a great week and don’t go too crazy tomorrow for V DAY! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Call out

Where to Start?

February 6, 2012

Hi I’m on, if you have any questions. I can’t remember if I told you last week but we have to travel an hour and a half now to use internet in the chapel in Guastatoya, so we are going to be using it a little earlier now probably. Dad is probably asleep and mom is probably running errands. No, I know dad is up it’s 9:15 in the morning…Where to start!?! This week has been CRAZY! And so much has changed. First off Mom the Christmas tree you sent me will probably stay in the house in Teculutan; I do not have space for it, in my suitcases, but do not send me another one! I can buy one here for way cheaper! Second I uploaded some photos today to Picasa I still have a bunch to load and I think I will do it a little every week, and I absolutely do not blame dad for being stressed out that Jeeping video of you and Cameron is crazy! I was stressed out and I’m watching it here in Guatemala! I don’t know if I have gotten boring or what but that just did not seen fun!  About picking me up, I agree with you about after the mission, if we return a couple months after, but before I forget Spanish, and we can get those 4 geocaches and just party! Maybe Dad can start to brainstorm now as to how he can come down with us, get a substitute for a couple days. It is still 2 years away so he can start thinking now. Also DO NOT take a family vacation next December, I repeat DO NOT take a family vacation next December, wait 6 months for me to return :)

So I sent a letter to Elder Spilker and also to Elder Jensen, I don’t know why looking back I probably sounded desperate, but my comp it was his turn to be sick this week so he bit the bullet and I just relaxed! No I didn’t, I studied and started reading Jesus the Christ, I am learning so much from that book! Also while he was in pain is when I wrote the 2 letters. So to start off with the crazy things that happened I ate donkey milk candy, they always tell you what it is AFTER, but I won’t lie it tasted like toffee, but I did not return for seconds. This week flew by and things are great with my comp, he is such a great guy and I am learning so much from him, last week I was a little down and a little frustrated but now things are amazing and we are ready to do miracles here! So a lot has happened event wise here in Tecu, it was the fair and oh my goodness this puts San Jorge to shame it was huge! And we had to pass through it every time to get to our commodore, so we spent a lot of time in the fair. There was this one game right outside our commodore where you throw coins and if they land on a plate you get a 1 and a half liters of Pepsi, so we started playing every now and then…just basically every time we went to eat we tried, and we got pretty good at it, I won’t lie, so basically by the end of the week we had like 6 liters of Pepsi and 4 small cans in our fridge. But we also talked with the guy in charge of it, and never have I wanted the best for an investigator, we gave him all the lessons and gave him a Bbook of Mormon the last day and he says he is praying and he feels something different, but he left Saturday night for his house in Mexico, I really hope he continues to study and read and search for the missionaries there. It was weird like I said before I have never wanted the best for an investigator!

Real quick you said you need to buy a new water heater next time, just do what we did last week! I bought a water heater that goes on the shower head, it sometimes sparks and you can feel electricity if you put your hand a foot above your head nothing dangerous or strong just a little pulse ha-ha but it is only like 20 dollars! 20 vs. 3000? Just throwing the option out there.

As part of the fair, it is closely related to the Catholic Church so they have this huge program and we went to check it out it’s called a procession or something like that, it was crazy and I will have to explain it better but they carry the virgin all throughout the streets and it was crazy! I have videos and pictures. Sorry this is so scattered the other missionaries want to use the computers, yes our whole district comes here to use internet and there is only 2 computers.

We are finding new investigator in this area to teach, that is always the hard part, but we are working hard, and we are starting to see our results.  One family they really want to be baptized but she has been sick for about 2 months now and needs a new kidney, but they want to be baptized which is awesome!

I love it here, I love this area and just life, life is amazing, this gospel is such a blessing for us in this life, as far as that talk “Dare To Stand Alone” that is one of my favorites, we actually used that with a girl that is scared to be baptized, she said that there is a member in the school and the other kids make fun of him, and so for this she doesn’t want to be baptized because she is scarred, so we shared this talk with her about how sometimes we will need to stand alone, or stand up for what we believe in. Also in the talk it talks about Lehi's dream and how people after they partook of the fruit some were ashamed because of the people in the grand and spacious building. We can never or should never be afraid or ashamed of this gospel. IT IS AMAZING, sometimes we don’t remember what we have, the commandments are not burdens they protect us and actually set us free. And we never have to stand alone, we can always pray to our Heavenly Father and he will always be there for us to comfort us. Alright well I am rambling a little about it I will study it and tell you about it next week. I love you guys and just know I am at so much peace now, thank you so much for the advice it really helped, I love it out here, and I am at such peace here, and stoked to be here! I’ve rededicated myself, and it’s not important who is my comp or what my status is in the mission, I am here to just help the people, and I love them! I have felt as I have cared less about status and also about everything else and just focus on the people, that is how I became such good friends with the guy at the fair, and I developed such a strong love for him and truly wanted the best for him (the gospel). I have a new fire in me and I am ready to tear this area apart! My comp to we are going to do work. I love you all, and tell people to write me, letters are awesome. I will even write back, but no promises if the Guatemalan mail service will deliver it.

Alright much love! Love you all and keep it up.

Elder Call

P.S. So sometimes we don’t always see the results of the actions or the results of what we are doing. This happen this week when Elder Velez wrote me (remember he finished his mission last week), just seeing how everything is but also thanking me for what I did for him, he told me I was his best comp in his whole mission and thank you for pushing him. It was a really cool humbling experience that mom you said one time even though it doesn’t seem like it people are always watching, so although I can’t see my results directly I at least know I helped one of my comps that has really helped me to just relax and not worry about baptisms and just to love the people and serve them. Dad read the email from Freddy Velez and see if you can understand it, I doubt it he used a lot of slang in there, but you probably can understand what I replied back to him it was a little more formal just because that is all I know! Alright well love you guys!

P.S.S. I uploaded 108 more photos to Picasa keep an eye out for then, I will up load more next week, it is from a memory card I found it is from a little of San Jorge the last 3 days, and Jutiapa, and next week will be of Teculutan that I found :)  love you!