October 22, 2012

Hey. The weather in Ventura sounds nice right now. Here we are just getting rain and drizzle and rain and drizzle then some sun, it’s like that everyday. 

Haha pioneer bed... I’ve never heard that one. 

The primary program sounds like it went well and I’m glad it worked out good for you. 

That’s crazy they put new stuff in at marina park. I remember when I used to catch the bus down at marina park and they were putting a new set in I guess that new set is old. Weird how playground gets fixed all the time but crappy skateparks never get touched.

Time for the questions.

What type of service have you been doing this last month?

service is a really hard thing in Yalijux because the people are so simple and they are used to doing everything them self. We wanted to help cut the corn down in corn fields but everybody was like nooooo my corn is to far I don’t want u to walk out there so we never go to do that. Sometimes we help haul wood but there really isn’t much of a chance.

How was the multi zone conference?

It was good, Elder Duncan talked and he had some interesting things to say like before June they have to make 3 more missions in Central America... wonder if that will effect my mission?

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Did you see Elder Gunnell and any other friends while you were at the Conference?

Yes I did, he’s happy we only have 4 changes left. He’s been dealing with a difficult situation for the last 2 changes and it’s hard for him.  I have talked with him and try to help him stay positive and make the situation a better experience. Gunnell has been going a good job. Gunnell looks great right now I’ll send a foto.

Elder Asdel and Elder Gunnell

Semuc Champey is like 3 hours from Senahu but the thing is we have to rent a truck to take us. We would go through the mountains and pass through a city called Cahbon which is kind like Senahu. I can see Cahbon on top of mountains in Yalijux from there idk where to go. Yeah, it seems cool. Going to Tikal is a Peten thing and Semuc is the Coban polochic thing. So hopefully I’ll get there soon. I feel like I’d be great at planning things like this but they tell you that leaders in the mission are the ones who need to learn the most so I guess I don’t have much leadership things I need to worry about. And I’m perfectly fine with that haha.

Are the girls that went to Conference sisters or separate investigators?

They are separate but from the same greater family I’m pretty sure.

This week was a pretty empty one. I was only in Yalijux Saturday and half of Sunday. But the good thing is we have a new baptismal date for J--n-, before she didn’t want to get baptized but she was coming to church a ton. So finally we were like "so why don’t you want to get baptized? You’ve gone to church a ton." And she’s like "I do." So now we have a baptism this Saturday but idk how its going to work cause the church might be dedicated this Sunday so we might push it back a week. 

Also my comp has a change but we basically knew he would cause he was there for 7 months. So we will see Wednesday where he is off to. There are alot of rumors about what’s happening these changes but I’m not going to waste my time explaining them. I will explain them if they actually happen. So get ready for next week haha. 

The conference in Coban was good but the trip sucked. First off we got up at 1:30 am to leave for Coban so you obviously know I didn’t sleep. We drove all thru the night and then we finally get to Coban at about 7am and we were about to pull into McDonalds to get breakfast and the APs call us and tell us we aren’t aloud to go to McDonalds... everyone was mad. McDonalds was the main thing evvvveryone was looking forward to. So we get to the church and the APs are like hey how was the trip and everybody was like "Really? We are hungry!" We ended up not being able to eat until like 2pm and then when the conference was over we had like 45 mins at a mall... It was hard to get anything done. I did buy a new lighter (zippo) some batteries and other stuff I cant get in the Chic and then got some dominos. So that was good. All in all everybody was upset. But the conference was good. So yeah, that is about my whole week. My highlight was our bus driver got out to --- and I got in the driver's seat and revved the engine at like 3am. And the worst was thinking I was gunna eat McDonalds for a month and then not getting to... but what ever. 

So Wednesday I will get my new comp. Lets see who it is. Love you all and have a good week!! Oh yeah I forgot in Coban I also got like 5 boxes of good cereal like lucky charms and things like that, and two 2 liters of canada dry! hehehe

The only pictures I have this week are my comp and I getting dominos and Gunnell and I. ok byeeee

October 15, 2012

Elder Asdel found a good tree to relax on

Well I’m running out of time so I will make this email quick. This week we went back up to Yalijux on Tuesday like always. On Tuesday we cleaned the house and basically by the time we were done it was dark and after dark we cant really do much. Wednesday was just a normal day visited some members, nothing to exciting. Thursday was our normal day to go out to San Antonio and we are on the brink of dropping our invs out there cause they aren’t doing anything and their pastor is getting involved and its basically going nowhere. So we are probably going to go once more to figure out what’s up. Friday we went with these little kids to help them chop wood and they took us to this forest we had never been to. The kids are crazy, they all walk out there with machetes and chop wood and take it home. It's like a 2 mile walk and they are all age 5ish to 10ish.... its crazy to see how hard they work. After that we just played with them out in the forest and took pictures. Saturday we had a normal work day again and just tried to get some people to go to church. Right now it's hard to get people to go to church cause we are still in the little shack. I’m pretty sure with the new church it will be alot better. Sunday we just went to church and had a few invs at church and then after we walked down to Senahu. We did a pedometer half the walk and it was around 11 miles haha. Just a random lil fact for you. 

This Monday we were supposed to go to Semuc Sempay or what ever idk how to spell it (google it its super cool) but the zone leaders blew it and didn’t plan good so all we did was play soccer... woooooooo ha always having dumb zone activities but what ever... 

This week I won't be going up to Yalijux till Saturday which is kind of lame cause I feel like I haven’t really been in my area but whatever it should be fun. I’ve just been gone a lot from my area with general conference and all. One zone leader is going to my area with my comp and I’m going to the zone leaders area with the other one. I’ll be with Elder Perez. After that we will be going to Coban for a conference, which I am super excited for. There will be a bunch of zones there and I will see Elder Gunnel my comp from the CCM so I’m happy about that. We also might get to go shopping in Coban and they have McDonalds there! woooooooooooo I cant wait to go to the grocery store and get some fooood! 

So today till Thursday I will be here in Senahu with Perez then Friday at like 2am I will leave for Coban and be there all day and come back at night then Saturday get on up to Yalijux! Time to answer some questions...

So when do they think the church building will be dedicated? The plan is the 28th of this month. I hope it happens.

Did Pres and Hermana Watts walk to Yalijux? Did they like it up there? No they didn’t walk they have a really nice Toyota truck called a hilux (I’m pretty sure the engine is to big to be allowed in the states) but their truck can make it to Yalijux.

Is your house close to the church? And that's why you can put a refrigerator there? We live on church grounds we live within the gates and yes that it why.

Are you getting lots of rain? Not really it normally rains about a hourish a day.

Is the climate colder in this area? It’s freeeezing! I had to get up at 4:30 am the other day and I was dying. It’s alot like Ventura winter weather. But I’m used to hot Peten weather so I’m freeeezing. But Hermana Watts brought us new blankets so I’m warm at night

How many hours of walking did you do this week? idk but I'll never beat my record of 13 hours in one day, I hope.

Any cool waterfalls or bridges found this week? No, we just went to a close one in my area that we’ve been to a bunch its only like 10 mins from the house, you’ve seen pictures its the one with 2 waterfalls

Alright let me explain my pictures

walking back from San Antonio in the fog

walking back from San Anonio

The kids that chop wood

the forest where the kids go to chop wood

Road to Yalijux is falling haha

 

Well that’s all for this week, love you all and have a good week!

October 8, 2012

XVIII

Well I have 18 months... I still feel new so it’s not that much of a milestone. I hear you feel new till you go home and I’m going to have to agree with that. This week was simple, I was only in xya'al li hux from Tuesday to Thursday so we didn’t really get much done. I feel like I’ve been in Senahu forever and I’d like to get back to my area. Senahu isn’t that great and my house here sucks haha. This week was normal for work and we were able to get to the Ch-cs so that was good. The highlight of my week was conference and I was happy to see all the Yalijux people. They rented a cattle truck and all came down. And we had four of our investigators at conference so we were happy. We had lix Olg-, lix G--d-l-pe, lix J--na, and one other I don’t remember her name. Lix is the title for girls in Kekchi. So we were happy to see them there. Conference was cool. My favorite talk was for sure Jeffery R Holland’s talk about how sometime we forget about how inexperienced Jesus’ apostles were.  I enjoyed his take on what he thinks happened that he made clear was not in the scriptures. Other than that I don’t really have much about my week. Ooooooh wait. Wednesday the Watts came to my area and it was the first time they had ever came to Yalijux so it was cool to see them there. They inspected the church and gave it the ok for the dedication so he should be back soon. Hermana Watts also made us really good food, which was amazing. Pres Watts was super busy so we didn’t really get to talk to him but we did get to visit with Hermana Watts. I think they uploaded a picture of my comp and I on facebook somewhere.

Sounds like you have a few investigators right now that are progressing well. How are you doing with being able to teach and communicate in Kekchi? Are you still teaching the new hymns?

I can talk and communicate I have most the basics down and its a simple language, not simple to learn but the sentences aren’t complex. And the hymns we know all of them basically. I really like the come thou fount and new kolab ones. Cause neither of those are in the Spanish hymnbook and ones not even in English! So that’s cool, when did they take come thou fount out of the English hymn book do you know?

Has the new building in Yalijux been dedicated yet? And are you using it?  

No, yes we use the bathroom cause its nicer than ours and we have a fridge in there that we brought up. It's nice having a fridge. Our solar panels couldn’t handle a fridge but the churches can.

I thought it was pretty interesting S-l- and her fiancé were getting a group together of other people who want to get married to get a better price for their marriage.

To marry here normally they just go sign a paper. The wedding they did a few months ago was more American style and not many do it like that.

It sounds like living in the Senahu district is quite the adventure. It seems like you are having a good time and liking this area of Guatemala. I can only imagine 4 of you trekking through farmer’s crops in the middle of the night… aye aye aye haha! 

 

 Senahu district is a great one. Zone Senahu has all the mountain areas (Yalijux, Serit Kiche, Sajomte, and Chulac) the craziest areas of the mission. I say Senahu zone is 2784236874 times better than polochik zone now that the zones are split. We got the good half haha. Zone polochik is just valley and its super hot.

Well have a good week. Love you all!

October 1, 2012

Heroooooooo. How are yoooooooou all doing? I’m doing good out here. First off yes, I was able to read the talks you sent me, thanks. This week was good, we have been working with this girl S-l-. I don’t remember if I ever have mentioned her before, but she has come to church a few times and we have been able to teach her a few times too. The only thing is she needs to get married before she can get baptized and the guy getting married to her told us that they are going to try to get a group of people together to get married so they can get a better price. And in the group of people there is another person that isn’t a member so we will get a new investigator when we find out who that is. That will all be happening in November. 

This week we went out to San Antonio to visit R-c-rd- Ch-c. But we didn’t make it out to their house. We only made it to the house of a member out there and had to come back. On Friday we planned to work in San Francisco and when we got there the Elders in Serit Kiche called us and told us that they couldn’t find the reference that we gave them and asked us to help them find it. So we went and found them in the mountains and took them to the house and then took them back to their house in Serit Kiche... and then from there we walked home. That day we walked 13 hours straight. I seriously couldn’t walk one more step after that. 

The next day we helped the Branch Pres fill out baby blessing papers cause they are in Spanish and he couldn’t figure them out, so we did that for him. Then Sunday was church and after that we walked to Senahu. This week I walked a good 21 hours within 3 days haha... sooooo much walking haha. 

Right now its a pain to get usbs and sd cards and I need some new stuff I was wondering if you could get me like 2 big usb drives like 64gb or 32gb and then I need like 2 sd cards for my camera that are 16gb or 32gb. Right now I think that’s all I need. 

That’s crazy who all is getting home. it we will be even crazier when Scott gets home. Also that’s awesome that ---- is getting ready to turn in papers or what ever step he is on. I know he has been dating a girl from my chemistry class for a really long time. and I know she started to go to church with him, I wonder if she ever got baptized.

Here’s the scoop on the photos - the group pictures are before and after pictures of from where we found the Elders of Serit Kiche. We found them supppper high up and took them to a house even higher. And then we went down a giant face of the mountain to get to their house and it wasn’t a path we were trekking though cardamomo fields in the night in the rain, it was crazy. Cardamomo is a huge cash crop here and we were scared the locals were going to think we were robbing their stuff so it was pretty sketchy. Then the other picture is the after picture, everyone got super muddy except me cause I never fell, but everyone else would fall and slide like 20 feet down the mountain haha.  Then one of a place were we drank fresh spring water in the middle of the night during our 13 hour walk with no water... good thing we know where the fresh water is hehehe. That’s all this week, have a good week love you all and happy 18 months of me being gone hehe.

September 24, 2012

Happy Birthday Elder Asdel

Hello, this week was obviously my birthday and it was fun out in Yalijux. I enjoyed my packages with my presents and yummy food!

This week we went everywhere and found some news (investigators). We were in San Antonio, San Jose, Chelemha, and Yalijux. We found news everywhere and some news in Yalijux. haha When we were walking back for Chelemha this guy yelled out to us asking if we knew what he was eating was called. And we were like yeah give us one and he said there was no more, but then the house next door was like we have food come eat... so we ate and taught them and they were going to come to church with us but the husband left early Sunday morning, so we are hoping next week forsure. 

Right now it's time to cut down and haul the corn that every body plants.... which is evvvverywhere. So this week my comp and I want to find some members who have corn and help them harvest. I think it will be fun. 

Lets see, also this week we had a fun activity where the branch pres made food for everybody and about 130 people showed up... that was the night before my b-day so that was a fun activity to go to. This week with my new lens I’ve taken a ton of pictures. Some aren’t the best quality cause I’m learning how to use them but they are super cool and fun! Thanks for all the b-day wishes, love you all. Now I’m going to find all the pictures I want to send and hopefully you get them! Have a good week.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

birthday package from home

Birthday presents

Elder Asdel with the children in Yalijux

Members gather in Yalijux

Fun night with members