April 15, 2013

Well my last work is done and now just gotta work my way back to the USA.
This week was great I was able to work hard, put baptism dates, plant corn, and who knows what else haha. I was very happy with the work I was able to do this week and the dates I was able to put for 4 baptisms and a wedding. So who ever goes there has some work to do! We almost had a baptism this Sunday but I didn’t want to rush it and I figured it would be better to do next week even though it would have been cool to have another baptism but that’s not really important.
So yeah, I left Yalijux after church and then got all my stuff packed up in Senahu. And at 3am I hopped on the bus by myself to Coban. It was a very long dusty horrible ride, but when I got here I took a taxi to Elder Somers house and then we went and got McDonalds breakfast!
After that we just walked around here Coban and now we are using internet. We are going to a big mall after this.
So yeah going home sucks and at the same time its great. Leaving Yalijux yesterday wasn’t too hard because I knew I would be coming back to visit soon.  I also know I worked hard this last change and did all I could do.
I’m very thankful for the time I have had as a missionary and all the people I was able to help and have fun with. I know this work is true and I also know that my Heavenly Father has helped me with a ton of things here in Guatemala. I’ve learned so many things I would have never learned if I were not here at this time and I’m happy with the choice I made to be here.
Elder Somers and I were talking today... and he and I baptized 2 kids who are preparing to go on their missions.  We are super excited to see the work that they will do.
I’m sure you guys want to know what is going on these next few days. Today I left at 3am from Senahu to Coban. Tomorrow I will just be here in Coban getting ready to go to the capital. I’m going to repack my bags and get them airport ready...50 pounds each.
Wednesday at about 2am I will head off to the capital with Somers and other people going to the cap. And when I get there, there will be change conference and after that my group will go to lunch and the temple with the Watts. Then we will spend the night in the capital and then taxi off to the airport Thursday morning. So yeah there it is. I’ll see you soon and I’ll be able to do alot more explaining of things in person than over email.
Well I gotta get out of here I’m out of time at internet! Love you all and I'll see you guys Thursday!!

Pictures: 

bracelets for a couple of little girls in Yalijux

  Er-k- is there with the Santa Claus you sent me for the Christmas count down(she’s been asking for it for ever haha)

Leaving for the 2am bus ride to Coban

McDonalds Breakfast

Planting Corn

Working in the fields planting corn

A long day of planting

Mario the guy I gave my total pillow to

Hanging out with Elder Sommers haha

April 8, 2013

No time to rest... haha

So yeah my mission is basically over and if I wanted to slack off and do nothing this week I seriously couldn’t even if I wanted to. First off I still need to teach my comp the other branch we cover and where everybody lives. And we also have a ton of people to teach and put baptismal dates with. 

Ok so here (actually only in the mountains) the normal is that when you want a wife you kinda just pick one and ask her to come to your house with you and she never goes back to her house. The old way was you bought her a bunch of nice stuff and whatnot and a cow for her parents, but the teens these days decided screw that I’m just gunna sneak her out. So this week, 1 member girl (14) was taken, and two member boys (18 and 19) grabbed their girls. And yes they go on their own free will so it is something they want. The girl was grabbed by a non member and the two guys grabbed non members. So now they are all living with their soon to be wives and husbands but they aren’t married yet. That’s where we come in... they probably wont get married for like 5 or 6 years unless we plan it... but... we don’t plan weddings unless some one is getting baptized out of the two. So we have the perfect opportunity to plan 3 weddings and 3 baptisms. So this week that will be my main focus. 

Other than that we have another investigator that has been sick, and we have helped her out a ton. And she wants to come to church really bad when she isn’t sick. She can't leave her bed but I think this week she should recover by Sunday. I jokingly said just take your bed to general conference and ride down the mountain to Senahu with it and she said ok I’ll take my blanket too! She obviously wasn’t able to make it to general conference but we did have a ton of members there (105 from Yalijux). 

This week was crazy with all the wedding stuff and also nobody knew that general conference was this Sunday. So I asked the Branch Pres for a list of all the families and he gave me a list of 30. My comp and I went and told everybody including a family that lives about 2 hours walking from Yalijux and everybody except one family I told came! It was super awesome seeing all of them at conference. So yeah that was basically my week. We were busy all week and this week looks to be just as busy! Haha this week I have no time to send pictures but I’ll get you some next week, maybe...

Yes, I was able to teach some of the wedding people.

I also enjoyed the area 70 from Guatemala, Elder Enrique R Falabella. Yeah I have met him a few times from before he was a 70, he came and did zone conferences with us.

Love you all and have a great week

April 1, 2013

Hey how’s it going? Right know everybody is sick with some cold. I didn’t really get it but I have no energy and sun is killing me and its soo hot in this internet place so I’m going to write  quickly and get out of here. 

But this week was good. I have been taking pictures with everybody before I leave so I can leave a picture with all the people here. Saturday we had a really good day we found a ton of new people to teach and they all don’t go to any church so that is like golden. I obviously won't be here for much of their progress but at least I can start teaching them before I leave. So yeah that was for sure the highlight of my week. uhhhhhhhhhhhh I feel like crappppppppppppp I’m gunna explain my pictures now.

Me with a family out in Yalijux. I’ve been taking pictures with everybody

                  

Er-k- holding up kib. Its a plant that I had for the first time this week. It was really good.

  Up in the mountains of my area in a lil place called Se Campania.

                        

  Drinking from the pure water that comes out of the mountain.

                           

 With the members that live the farthest from the church (about 2 hours) the girl that is on the farthest left is the one who makes the bags.

  On the top of the top of the highest mountain, it was crazy up there.

                    

The thick jungle required some chopping.

                                         

Dead money I found in the jungle (I’m pretty sure it fell from the tree)

                   

  Dead monkey and my name tag

                                                 

 I’ve been seeing snakes everywhere lately I think its cause the sun is out and they are warming up.

A bunch of my favorite kids doing my pose

                                        

Er-k- with my backpack.

                                                         

Well that’s all I got I’m gunna end this up and get out of here soon cause I feeel like crapppppp

Love you all and have a great week

I forgot the questions mom asked so here they are

So is Easter celebrated in your area? Not really, in Guatemala the celebrate holy week and they just go to the lakes and swim and party kinda like 4th of July. In my area nothing happened.

How is this change going for you and Elder Mendez? Good!  All is good.

Are you getting any opportunities to teach? Yes we found a ton of news this week!

How are you feeling about things finishing up? Bittersweet but I am ready to come home.

Pictures from March 25th letter (resent on 4/1/13)

                             

Elder Paulsen and Elder Asdel

Elder Morberly and Elder Asdel

Elder Asdel and Elder Morberly

Elder Salazar and Elder Asdel

Elder Asdel and Elder Salazar

Navajo and Elder Asdel

Preparing corn

Catching a ride

Little girl from local branch

toofless

Little girl from local branch

March 25, 2013

Hey! Happy Birthday Dad and I’m glad all went well with birthday stuff! 

So this week was zone conference... so I basically did nothing! 

We were in our area Wednesday Saturday and Sunday. So yeah that’s basically all we did this week which was kinda lame but whatever. 

So lets see, Wednesday, we got to the area and just went out and had some regular visits and then the branch invited us to play soccer with them so we went and played soccer for a few hours, so that was fun. Thursday we went down to Serit Kiche and I went to one lesson with Morris and Munn (Morris is one of the Elders in Serit Kiche and Munn is in Chijolom) In that lesson I put a baptismal date for the 6th of April (to bad its not in my area haha) but yeah so that was cool. 

After that we headed down to Senahu and then we slept there and went to zone conference in the valley. It was cool to see everybody there. Then we made our way back and I got to my area Saturday, had a half day and then Sunday... church was good I’m still teaching the young mens and womens class so that’s fun. 

Now I’m here in Senahu for p-day which was fun because a homie from California came here (they are district Chulak and came to say bye to me) but it was fun to have them here and also play soccer with the kid from California. He played for Pegasus the San Diego team. His name is Elder Morberly. Also Elder Salazar from Chile was here. So yeah that’s basically all. Oh yeah and to answer your questions

Sis Watts put a photo up on facebook from your Senahu district. You must have had a meeting recently with them. Zone conference combined with zone Polochic

So how are things going with training your comp and teaching him Kekchi? eh its ok, I’m scared for what happens when I leave

I thought your story of the hot chilies was funny. We ate more chili this week like always and it was just as fun haha

Too bad you didn't get him the change before last so you could have had more time preparing him for the area. Yes that would have been very nice.

We all got a really good chuckle out of you in the kekchi dress... this week I bought the hair pieces to so now you are full on set up for the kekchi style

Maybe my pictures will make my letter more bulky haha.

pictures:

Chili

chili!...this is the chili i eat all the time, it is more spicy then the green chilies they give us, this stuff makes my hands go numb, yes I ate all that is in that picture. 

Funny thing about that chili is we went to the branch pres´ house and he said hey we don’t have any food but we can offer chili but you don’t have to eat it cause it makes me cry and I said gimmie I’m gunna eat it all!

Elder Asdel and Elder Hansen

all the pictures with names are just us at zone conference

*About 6 picture titles were posted with out pictures. Hopefully he can resend them next week.

note: the internet was too crappy to send pics so I'll get them to you later.

love you all and have a great week!

March 18, 2013

Hey how are you guys doing? haha first off I can’t believe Brenton is putting in his papers, he still seems like 10 years old to me. Alright now to update you on your questions...

So tell me how hard you made your companion work this week. Well I took him to the end of the area to get the juice and he survived, I was able to get 4 bottles of concentrate!

Have you found any new people to teach? Not really just kinda working with what we have but its going slow

How are those cute little kids you always have great photos of? They are good, always running around and doing whatever

Are you getting enough to eat and have you been back to get more naranjilla juice? Yes and yes

I looked that fruit up online and saw one cut crossed section. Its a pretty fruit and looks yummy

Are mangoes coming into season? Mangoes are in season but nobody sells them pre cut and it’s not fun to cut them yourself

Will your little branches have a way to listen or watch general conference?

Yes the church gets cattle trucks and takes all the people down to Senahu where we get it through satellite

 Do they translate that into Kekchi? Yes they do

So yeah this was my second week with my comp out in Yalijux, it went pretty good. My comp is trying to learn Kekchi but its hard obviously. Your first change out here you normally don’t get anything, not until your second change. So yeah it’s weird being the one doing all the talking. 

Lets see... Tuesday a member moved his house to a different place and we tried to help but by the time we got there they were almost done. But the next day we went out to get the juice and also when we made it back there was a party at the members new house so we went and ate and left. 

Also when we were out getting the juice there was a returned missionary at the hotel with his wife and he told me he was here at the same time as Logan Henderson. I forgot his name but his Kekchi name was laj hix (lock hish) the tiger. 

This week I did alot of showing the area to my comp so he knows all the members houses and different paths that I know so when I leave he isn’t completely screwed. The members LOVE visits from the missionaries so they all liked that. Haha speaking of visiting members there is one family that we always get along well with and my comp really wanted to try caldo from Yalijux... but people had only been giving us tortilla and chili. So I told him how to say I’m hungry is there caldo and when we got to the house that’s all he said cause he couldn’t say anything else and there was caldo so we ate caldo. Caldo is basically meat (cow, pig, duck, or chicken) boiled in water and the broth is like a soup with meat, normally very spicy. Haha now that we are talking about food, also at another house the members asked me if I eat chili and I said yes and they were like are you sure its a very spicy kind and I still said yes. Then I asked my comp and he said no so only I had some, about a cereal bowl half full. And it was super spicy even for me and then I convinced my comp to take a bite and he was dieing and the members though it was funny and so did I haha.

Well I got all the corte dresses and shirts bought and everything, do you want them shipped home or should I bring them in my bags?

So yeah everything is good. I can’t believe I only have 4 weeks left. It’s awesome but sucks at the same time.

So here are my pictures

my driving socks for when I get home ha

just sitting at my desk, cold night

my comp washing his face in the river

at the lil party eating tortilla with bean in it

me making a tortilla

a lil snack at a members

crossing over the barbwire

Well that’s all I got for the week and I love you all, have a great week!

March 11, 2013

Hey! okokokok here we go in my last change! (hoping it goes slow).

Here’s the update, I’m still in Yalijux and here I will die, 6 changes. My new comp is from Peru and I’m his Kekchi trainer, which I’m very happy about. Its been awesome so far. I am happy with my comp that will be killing me. His name is Elder Mendiz and he has like 16 months in the mission.

Good night sleep

So Monday till Thursday I was here in Senahu. I was sick of sitting around so I went and working with Elder Salguero and his comp in Seamay which was fun. Then I slept at Elder Reyes and Sparacinos house (good night sleep pic). Then the next day my comp got here and we headed up to Yalijux.

Elder Mendiz is happy to be here and learning Kekchi. He has had his whole mission in the Cap and was happy to leave. I was scared I was gunna get someone that didn’t want to learn.(yes there are lots)

So yeah this week I was just taking my comp around Yalijux and having him meet everybody. So we did alot of visiting members. This next week I’m hoping to get some references from members to kick start Yalijux back up.

Also I hope all is well with Grandpa Hay!

Did you get a chance to email Zach? Yes and he emailed me back and invited me to Hawaii before he leaves!

What's your new companions name and where is he from? Mendiz from Peru

Have you ruined his feet this last week? nahhhhh

Is that family coming to church now? Yes they are!

How is your district? Good!

 Do you like the guys in it? Yeah it’s a good one

What about the zone leaders? the new one here is Stone and he’s a cool kid (he was in Seamay when I came to Yalijux)

So yeah all is good and I’m out of internet time and I gotta get off of here I love you all and have a great week!

Sorry I have no time to explain the pics!!

haha

good people

San Jose river pass

Lix Vampira

Dinner

this morning

this morning

this morning