Freezing cold, burning heat, and sandstorms

¡Hola todos!

We have been busy working and working and working. This week we finally got to do a lot in our own area, and it´s been nice to just go to work here. We found some really awesome people, and we´ve done a ton of family home evenings with the families in our area to teach about the birth of Christ. It´s really awesome. 

Yesterday we had an interesting experience. For some reason the whole day was insanely windy. There was SO much wind that the dirt all picked up and blew into our eyes. We had to walk with something in front of our eyes to not get blinded by the dirt. Sometimes the wind was so strong that it almost pushed us backwards when we tried to walk forwards. Because of all the wind, it got super, super cold. It really felt like Christmas. And the wind blew strong all night, and so the water tank on the roof got super cold too. We got to take the coldest shower yet today haha. 

Today as a zone we all went to the auto safari chapin. It´s a safari where we bring the vehicle, and it´s pretty cool. I have been before, but almost nobody else in the zone had so it was fun to be able to show them. We went to a really nice mall to eat lunch afterwards, and some really nice members of the church in Esquintla bought lunch for my companion and I!

Recently, the dad of one of our friends was killed. We went to the funeral and gave him lots of support. He said he really didn´t know how to explain what he was feeling, and he didn´t know what to do. We told him that we didn´t know how he felt, but there´s someone who did. Christ suffered everything that he was going through, and so He knows exactly how to help. I know that that´s true. Jesus didn´t just suffer for our sins, but also for our sorrows and our problems too. And if we feel like nobody understands, we can turn to Him and He will. And He´ll help us to feel peace again. I have felt that power in my life tons of times, and so I know that it´s real. And not only do we find peace in Him, but we can find peace in knowing that death is not the end. Everyone lives after death, and we will have the opportunity to reunite with them someday. I know that that is true.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Elder Garner and I as monkeys...

The best Ukulele ever. It´s only 800 Quetz. Maybe I´ll go back and buy it someday...

I found Bishop Morales in Escuintla! I haven´t seen him in a long time, but we ran into each other and it was super awesome. He´s a super great dude, and taught me a lot back in Siquinalá.

Holy Moly...

Hi!

This week was really, really crazy. Let me explain why.

We have been working all over the place, and this week we didn´t have very much time in our area. But when we were in our area, it was kinda rough because almost nobody was home in any part of our area. It was actually really funny, because pretty much every single house we went to, even with people who had told us to come at that time, didn´t answer or couldn´t receive us. We went everywhere and walked more than I have in my entire mission, but there wasn´t much luck with anyone. We really wore ourselves out just working and talking with people and trying everything we knew how to do, but sometimes God wants to teach you something. We had one day where we just walked and walked for hours, and finally just sat down to figure out what to do. The scriptures always tell us what to do, and so I opened my Book of Mormon up to a random page, and read what it said. The scripture was Alma 41:14, and it said this:

14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again. 

I bolded the parts that really spoke to me. The scripture told me that if I could keep working to do good and to be merciful to the people, God would be merciful unto me, and I would be rewarded with everything good. So we got up and went to work again. We then found a house with a really amazing woman who was ready to learn and hear more about the gospel. Later, we discovered the way that Alberto and Delia need to learn, which was huge for us because we know that they´re ready to learn and progress but they´re really simple people and struggle to understand the things that they hear. So the day ended really well. Obviously I needed to learn a lesson that day, and it took a lot of walking and working before I learned it. But God doesn´t leave us alone.

One of the missionaries in our zone got really, REALLY sick this week. After a few days of her being in the hospital, we learned that she has dengue demoragia, which is like the worst form of a really awful disease spread by mosquitos. It makes you just bleed and bleed, with a super high fever and an incredible pain in your bones and muscles, and this Hermana lost almost half of the blood in her entire body just in around four days of being in the hospital. The worst part is that she is going to finish her mission in less than a week. She is finally getting better though, and we got to see her yesterday and today. She´s one of the wisest missionaries I have ever met, so it´s sad that she´s struggling so much. But she´ll be better soon.

Yesterday we had the multi-zone conference for Christmas. It was super awesome. We got to hear musical numbers from people all over the mission (some super awesome and some kinda rough) and perform one too! We also had a white elephant gift exchange and learned a ton of things from the leaders in the mission. There is a really powerful spirit in this time of year because Christ really lived and died for us. He was born to save the world, and if we look to Him, we don´t have to be sad. I love Him so much!

Love you all too!

-Elder Cloward

I was so tired from all the work this week that I actually fell asleep while praying :/. My companion thought it was hilarious and took this picture. My neck STILL hurts from being in that position for so long! Never again...

Also, some cool dudes playing music across the street.

Changes!

Hey!

This week was super packed. We really didn´t do much at all in our own area, because we were just running around helping everyone in the zone to prepare for changes. I´ll talk more about the people we´re teaching next week. We knew that I was going to stay here in Palin, because I just got here. But we didn´t have any idea about my companion. The good news is, we´re both staying together for another change! I´m super happy, because we´ve learned a TON from each other, and now we´re doing fantastic. He´s so awesome, and we´re going to have even more time to learn together now. 

Aside from us, every other area in the zone had changes. We had some pretty big problems last change with a couple missionaries who really didn´t want to follow the mission rules and were getting into a lot of trouble, and we worked a ton with them to help out. But all of the missionaries who were struggling are now in other areas, and it feels like our zone is just full of super happy, obedient missionaries who want to do all they can to serve. It´s honestly super great. The zone was great last change, but this time it´s even more awesome! My companion and I are really excited to be with all of them. 

Today we got together with a ton of missionaries and some Mexican missionaries made us some really tasty tacos! The day before the changes, a lot of families thought that my companion was going to leave, and so they all invited us to dinner. We ended up eating three dinners, and ended up soooo full. Life is different when you´re not in the coast. 

We´ve been doing a lot of crazy things, but the best thing we get to do is celebrate the Christmas season. The way we do that on the mission is by talking about Jesus Christ with EVERYONE. We´ve been inviting everyone to invite people they know to their houses to have an evening where we all just learn about the birth of Jesus, and talk about how we can give gifts to Him this season. I love getting to do that, because everyone can feel the Christmas spirit, but they don´t always know where it comes from. Teaching about Christ is the best :)

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

The old zone

The new zone!

Tasty Guatemalan food :)