November 19, 2012

Where I slept last night

Well this week was fast. First off was good ole p-day... ha. We had interviews then we were rushed off to Serit Kiche. Elder Trejo and I ended up walking there in the rain and didn’t get there till like 8pm. That night I shared a tiny bed with Trejo.  From there Trejo and I went to Yxaal Li Hux. We did 3 day divisions and it was good. Tuesday we went out to Sepalau it was a fun walk out there and a place that I had only been to once.  We were able to find some news out there. 

Wednesday we went to the end of Yalijux, we spent all day walking. Trejo had never been to Yalijux and I showed him around to all the cool stuff.  We took a ton of pictures and we only had one lesson that day haha. 

Thursday we were back with our comps. That day my comp and I just worked a normal day in the Hux teaching N-rm-, J--n-, and S-l-, it was an ok day. Friday we went back to Sepalau and visited the people Trejo and I found and some of them seem pretty good. Oh yeah. on Thursday we had our movie night again and it was fun. There was a bunch of people there. 

Saturday was another normal day just working in the Hux. Wednesday and Saturday are market day and some one has been making french fries the last few market days and that’s been cool, something new to eat! Haha 

Elder Asdel and Elder Trejo in San Pransiic

Also its been super cold out here. You can see your breath in the day when the sun is out. Sunday was church. We only had S-l- and N-rm- in church. I thought we were going to have more but we didn’t… bummer. 

After church we headed down to San Pransiic and set up our beds in the church wooooo! After that we worked in San Pran. We found out that the branch there is worse than I thought and I knew it was bad. There is only about 19 people going to church and I’m pretty sure its like 2 families. But the good thing is we were able to visit people in San Pransiic that hadn’t been visited in like 3 years haha. Also we got a few references which is always good. So this week we will see what’s up with that! Well I’m out of time and I need to get up to Serit Kiche like always haha. But I have pics for you guys to hopefully make my email less boring. Also about the fireworks, I think they will have good ones here in Senahu but I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to figure that one out hahahha well love you all and have a good week!

Elder Trejo, S-l-, kids and Elder Asdel

Elder Asdel and LDS family in San Pransiic

Elder Asdel and a duck

Swinging good time

Sepalau

Duck soup

Dope Ride

November 12, 2012

 Woooo! Tell Grandpa happy birthday from Guatemala!! 

And I laughed out loud when I heard she got her braces off. Were her teeth super stained from the brackets? (*she is referring to a friend that recently just got her braces off after several years) 

Well I basically have no time, like always. Today was ´´p-day´´. First I got up at 4:30am to walk to San Francisco and try to catch a ride to Senahu. Very luckily we got one (normally there isn’t).

Then we had our interviews with Pres and then we had to drop off our laundry and now we are at internet and next on the schedule is head up to Serit Kiche... woooooooo. The good thing about having no time is that my comp was sick 2 days this week so there isn’t really much to write...

first off:

How did your interview with Pres Watts go? It was good, everybody except me talked about our crappy p-days and they all got shut down, I knew they would.

One of the pictures you sent last week looked like the inside of a booklet. What was that from? Its a child’s learning book in Kekchi I thought it was cool with Mayan page numbers and what not.

What are the pics with your last comp and the sunglasses from? You are in p-day clothes. It looks like you were having a good time. Yeah last week we actually got to put on p-day clothes, today no. It isn’t my old comp its Elder Salazar from Chile and Reyes from Mexico just chillin

Elder Asdel Elder Salazar and Elder Reyes

The pic of the ladies with the plastic bags... is that soda in the bags? It’s the soda in the bags haha

Well this week started with Monday, we walked/hitchhiked to Serit Kiche from there we went to teach. We had time for one lesson (that was the whole reason Pres Watts wants us to go up Monday)  That night I shared a bed with Trejo and my comp shared with Barton. Barton was sick so my comp got sick and when we got back to Yalijux the next day my comp was dead so we lost more time from that then we would have by doing things the old way when we had a normal p-day.
So from there two sick days. My comp was oooooh so sick. He was dying and needed medicine and we hiked to the call spot. He just about died and called the mission doctor and they got him the medicine sent. Well the next day he was fine and didn’t need the meds... haha whatever.
Thursday we had a movie night. The people loved it. We had more there than go to church on Sunday.
After that was Friday, and we had a member take us around and show us where the less actives live. Saturday we had a normal day. We went out to an area called San Jose to see why this one member stopped coming and it was cause he was sick, but we made him come Sunday which was good. Sunday was a waste haha. We had church, we had all the people from the triple weddings, well the non members (all the husbands went to go work in some place), but the non-members were there.
We also had a few people’s kids that live close to the church at church. So we are hoping to be able to get in with the parents thru that.
After church we had branch counsel, I think it was the first one ever in Yalijux. Most of the people there didn’t even know they had callings hahahahah but it went... well you could say.
Here comes the waste... well our plan was go to San Francisco and sleep there, but we had to get a paper signed for J--n-'s baptism, but her mom was busy and we had to wait... (the picture with me in line with Kekchi ladies is where she was) so we never made it to San Fran.

after that we had to walk to the call spot and wait for the zls to call us and we didn’t leave there till like 8 and got home at nine and went to sleep. Then woke up today at about 4:30. That’s all there is this week! Now for the pictures

food that I eat everyday, very spicy very yummy.

  somewhere cloudy

my tiny tortilla and J--n-’s giant tortilla I can’t make big ones like them

 movie night!

Well that’s all for the week.

Love you all, have a good week.

November 5, 2012

So did J--n- get baptized this Saturday? Yes she did about 70 people showed up and it was a good baptism

How are things going with your new companion? Alright, things aren’t too bad with him, but my zone sucks. 

Any All Saints Day celebrations or Day of the Dead celebrations? For li kutan re kamik (day of the dead) everyone just ate alot and we got invited to eat with everyone

So you probably got to you use the new chapel this week! I bet the people are happy to have a new building especially such a nice one. Yeah its really weird but its nice and the people are happy

We had time change this weekend. I'm thinking you probably don't do that in Guatemala do you? Nope the time doesn’t change here

J--n-'s Baptism

This week was pretty good work wise. We put a fecha with G--d-l-p-, N-rm-, and S-l-. G--d-l-p- is for this month and N-rm- and S-l- are for next month. The thing with N-rm- and S-l- is that they need to get married before we can baptize them. So Sunday morning we had a little meeting with S-l-, H-ct-r, N-rm-, R-c-rd-, L--n-rd-, and his girlfriend (I forgot her name). But they are all not married and we are gunna do like a triple wedding with all of them in December. And then after N-rm- and S-l- can get baptized, all the others are already members. 

As you know this Saturday was J--n-’s baptism and everything went well. She didn’t want to get baptized in the river so we were going to go to Senahu. But I remembered there is a portable pila in the new church, so I was going to try to put it together. Everybody told me it's too hard and I wouldn’t be able to do it (other missionaries were saying that elders before couldn’t do it) but I told them I can... and of course I figured it, out super easy. So the pictures of the font you see I put together. About 70 people showed up, it was nice. After we served soda and something they call tacos that really aren’t tacos haha. 

That’s really all that happened this week. Lots of lessons with S-l-, N-rm-, J--n- and G--d-l-p-. 

This coming week we have planned to work in San Francisco, Tzalamila, San Antonio, and Yalijux so it will be nice to walk forever and enjoy walking. My comp gets tired fast and hates spicy food so he’s suffering a lil bit but its all good. I’m going to attach some pictures and head out. My p-days suck now cause I have to come down from Yalijux p-day and go back to Serit Quiche the same day since it's impossible to get back to Yalijux. So tonight I will be sleeping in Serit Kiches house and not Senahu...why idk...there’s no point...but I gotta get out and get off  and head out. 

This next coming Monday are interviews with Pres... So my next p-day I will only have time to do interviews then use internet and leave. Alot of stuff going on but what ever. Love you all and have a good week! I don’t have time to explain the pictures but I’m sure you can figure them out byeeeeeee

Yalijux chapel with the font Elder Asdel put together

Refreshments after the baptism

Getting refreshments ready

Yalijux members and Elder Asdel after J--n-'s baptism

October 29, 2012

Well well well as you know this week was changes. Which sucked. My comp went to a crappy area and was sad. I was sad he was leaving and basically everybody in the zone was bummed on their change. My new comp is Elder -sc-rc-- from Nicaragua. He has about 14 months in the mission. He likes to work really hard which is good and his kekchi is pretty good. He has been here in Polochic his whole mission. He wasn’t my first choice of comps but what can you do... but it will be fun. Not going to lie its pretty lame in Yalijux. I was so used to being with my last comp and it was super fun so now it just is kinda bleh but I'll get over it.   

On Tuesday M-rt-n-z and I went back up to Yalijux cause we didn’t want to wait for changes in Senahu and we just played with kids and had fun. We also played water balloons with the kids. Then when we did get back to Senahu (on time) the zone leader was mad at us... not zone leaders just zone leader but we didn’t care and just ignored him. Its not our fault there was no camion at 4:30 am and we had to walk ha. 

After that I got my new comp and we went up to Yalijux. This week I showed him the area and killed him a few times on long walks haha.   He doesn’t like spicy food, and he freaks out, its funny to watch. 

M-rt-n-z and I changed J--n-’s baptismal date to this coming weekend to make things a little easier. So my new comp and I taught her a few times this week and made sure she is ready... and she is! So we will be having a baptism this week. 

Well the dedication was this week. It was good a ton of people showed up. After church we walked down to San Francisco to sleep the night in the church there and then come to Senahu today. Which sucked! We slept in nasty hammocks in a dirt floor church without a door. 

Pres Watts wants us leaving Yalijux Monday morning instead of Sunday afternoon which I’m annoyed about cause its a pain and super tiring and now I don’t get any rest. And he also wants us going up to Serit Kiche Monday afternoon instead of staying in Senahu and in Serit Kiche I will be sleeping on the floor.  We will still not get back to Yalijux till the same time because there is only one truck up to Yalijux so we would still be hitching a ride on the same truck just from Serit Kiche not from Senahu... it makes no sense.  

My new comp wants to work hard and we should have alot of success.  I'm no longer part of Senahu district I’m now Yalijux district its just us and Serit Kiche. They opened up Senahu 2 and a few other areas in Polochic. That was all the rumors that were going around before changes and they happened. That’s about all I have for the week. And I have some new pictures! Enjoy

 

How are your investigators doing? Good J--n- had her baptismal interview this week and is getting baptized this Saturday

Where is Elder G-nn-ll serving? San Cristobal Verapaz

Where is Elder W-y serving? Flores Peten

Where did your companion go? to Panzos he was not happy at all

Do the Spr-dl-n's ever get transferred? Nope

Pictures are from the dedication, me swinging over Elder S-l-z-r from Chile, picture in the moonlight, the church I slept in last night, me standing on a cow, and my cereal haha

Dedication of Yalijux chapel

Elder Asdel at Yalijux chapel dedication

Elder Tarzan

Elder Asdel walking in the moonlight

Last nights lodging

surfing a bull

My cereal

Love you all have a good week!

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?

 *

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!