Who needs hearing anyway?

¡Buenos días todos!

This week was super strange, but made us laugh a lot. We both finally got better from being sick. And then the next day I woke up in the middle of the night with an ear infection. I ran around trying all kinds of things, but nothing really fixed it, and my companion found me the next day sleeping on the floor in a different room. He said he really freaked out. It was all good though, because the next day I got some actual medicine which helped it to feel a bit better. I still can´t really hear out of my right ear, but it´s all good. My companion also got sick again, and he´s been coughing a bunch. We weren´t very fortunate getting sick again, and some of the week we felt like we were running on fumes the whole day. But, we´re getting a lot better and we´re happy to not be quite as bad anymore. 

Jeremy

We did help a lot of people too this week. We did a lot more work building the well, and I found myself digging in a hole that went over my head, which was actually really hard. But it was really fun to do with everyone. We did have to do something sad though. When we teach people, we invite them to act. To change and to do things to bring them closer to God. But when they don´t follow the invitations, we can´t really help them very much. It´s like when a kindergarten teacher explains how to read, but the student doesn´t want to. The teacher is limited to teaching and inviting, but the real learning is up to the student. And for us, when the people don´t decide to do things, we can´t keep visiting them. We had to do that with a family this week, and it was really hard to do. We´ve been visiting them since I got to this area, and they always listen and love having us there, but they just haven´t really progressed and chosen to follow the things we teach. So we had to tell them that we couldn´t keep visiting them. It was kind of sad, but I know that as we spend our time with people who do want to change their lives, we will bring a lot more happiness to the people in this country. The mission can be hard, but the things I´m learning are incredible. Even though there are sad things that happen, being here is worth every minute.

The conference invitations we made.
Lots of people came to watch because of these!

This week we got to watch the general conference! We were super excited, and we enjoyed it a ton. I´ve watched it twice a year my entire life, but I´ve never been able to focus this well and learn quite so much from the things that the prophet and apostles have said. It was really fantastic, and it really helped me to feel that God is really watching over us and guiding us through everything we do. One of the things that stood out to me most is that we need to focus on the simple things that will help us to be happy. Prayer, the scriptures, going to church, and serving people can make a huge difference in our lives. Also, Christ brings peace. He suffered everything we did, and so He knows how to help us to feel better if we ask Him for help. And when we ask Him to help us in our times of stress and sadness, He helps us immediately. He gives us peace, and helps us to feel loved. And sometimes the full blessings He has for us take longer, but there are always blessings He gives us instantly. I know that God loves us, and that He will always help us if we look to Him.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Oh yeah, also today marks 6 months of being in Guatemala! I can´t believe I´m already a FOURTH of the way done with my entire mission! I literally feel like I just got here still, and I like it that way. This is my life right now, and I´m gonna try and not think about how fast the time is going by.

Our little house

April fools isn´t funny

¡Buenos días hermanos y hermanas!

We had a rough week. We got poured on, and then we got really sick, so we were just kinda dragging ourselves around for half of the week. But it was really funny for some reason, and we still visited a lot of really great people and did some really cool service. And we got pranked really, really hard by the zone leaders. 

So our friend William wanted to make a wall in his house this week, so we helped him out. We made cement on the ground with a bunch of dirt we found in his back yard mixed with pebbles and a bit of cement powder, and then we built a wall out of cinder blocks. He taught us how to cut a cinder block in half with a machete, which is actually really hard. But we did it, and the wall is pretty nice. Almost all of the houses here are made out of cinder blocks and then smoothed and painted with an interesting color, and we now know how to do it. We also went to Rio Santiago to build a well for some friends over there. Her house is in a complete jungle, and she showed us some really cool Mayan inscriptions she found on some boulders back there. It was really fun actually, and we´ll have to finish it next week because we got rained out halfway through. But it´s all good.

So April Fools happened this week, and my companion and I completely forgot that it existed...but our zone leaders didn´t. They called us that day and sounded really serious and concerned. They said that someone in our branch had called them with a complaint, because he had seen us sitting on the curb drinking alcohol. He apparently took a video and sent it to them, and they said it definitely looked like we were drunk. They told us they had called the mission assistants to see what to do, and they were giving us both emergency changes immediately. I told him I wasn´t sure what he could´ve seen, but we didn´t do that. But he told me that I couldn´t really deny what was clearly in the video, and maybe we didn´t remember it because we were drunk. And we were like ¡¿WHAT?! So finally they told us it was all just an April Fools joke, and we got really mad. it was actually super funny though, and we were completely and totally fooled.

I am really excited this week. The General Conference of the church is coming up this Saturday and Sunday, and we get to listen to the prophet and the 12 apostles on a live video broadcast that goes to the entire world. If that doesn´t sound like a big deal, imagine Moses and the original twelve apostles in the Bible coming back to talk to us about what we need to do to live better lives and be happier. The general authorities today have been called of God and given the exact same authority that Jesus gave them in the Bible, and we get to hear them give us modern revelation for God. The scriptures tell us really great things, but there are a lot of things that are around today that the scriptures couldn´t have talked about, like modern technology and world news. The world is changing, and so God is still telling us what He wants us to do to come closer to Him and stay on the path that leads to eternal life. So we are super excited to hear what He wants from us, and we made really cool invitations to invite everyone to come and listen too. It´s awesome, and I know we´re going to learn a lot of really awesome things. Not to mention that we have a couple hunches about changes to the mission that they may announce. ;)

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Swimming down the street

¡Oi!

So we had changes. And we´re both staying! We were right, and we´re excited to get to be together here for at least another 6 weeks. This week was super full, but really fun. The people here don´t agree on much when it comes to the seasons, but one thing they all do agree on is that April is the hottest month of the year, and May is when the rain starts. And I think they´re right. We´re getting tastes of the heat and the rain, and it´s crazy. This week has brought some really loco weather. One day it poured so hard that the streets were just rivers of water (apparently that´ll happen everyday in May), and we were waiting under someone´s roof for it to stop...but it didn´t stop. So we just decided to go out and teach. So we walked through the rain straight to the next appointment. We were completely soaked, and everyone was looking out at us like we were crazy. But that´s what you do when you´re a missionary. Clothes are less important than people, so people get the first priority. It was fun.

One of our friends taught us how to weld this week, which was super cool. We also walked by this house one day and heard someone yell "¡Buenaaas! ¿Que tal?" Basically "hey, how´s it going?" And my companion told me that it wasn´t a person. And so I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me that it was a parrot. I told him he was crazy, and that birds can get trained, but they still sound like birds. And he said "no no, I´m serious!" And so we took a step back, and he pointed to this green and blue bird sitting on a tire. And the bird looked at us and said "¡quiero comida!" This parrot was literally talking to us, and asking us for food. Apparently that´s really not uncommon here. And this guy came over and the bird yelled his name and told him to get over there and give it some food. It was really funny. He told us it was his bird, and it always starts talking when it gets hungry. I could not believe how good its Spanish was. And when we left, it said "nos vemos, ¡va pues!" One of the strangest things I´ve ever seen.

We also found this really cool road in our area that we explored one day, because it takes you straight through the jungle, right by the river. It was soooo green, and there were tons of exotic birds and trees all over the place. Guatemala is such an amazing country, I honestly can´t believe it sometimes. It´s so cool. 

But the best thing that happened this week was the baptism of Keneth., He´s a little boy that´s only 8 years old, and we´ve been teaching him for a really long time. He finally got permission to get baptized, and he and his mom were both really excited for it.

The baptismal service was simple, but one of the happiest things in the world. You can really feel the joy of the people, and the joy that comes from doing the things of God every time you go to a baptism. It´s a calm joy, but one of the happiest feelings I´ve ever had. It´s so clear to me that we´re hear because God wants us to be, and we´re getting so much help from Him that it´s just incredible. I´m really happy to be serving the creator of the universe, and I hope I can always help people to change their lives and become truly happy as they come to Him.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

We also live in a fortress.

The fridge froze my juice

And McDonald's here is actually kinda good.

"Donas" is not correct

¡Hola todos! 

This week went by really super fast. I´m not sure what we actually did this week, but I know we did a ton. I´ll try to give a good summary. 

We got to go to the temple this week with the branch in El Palmar, and it was a really amazing trip. I really felt strongly the presence of God there. The temple is one of the happiest places on Earth. And afterwards my companion and I found some of the missionaries from the CCM! The CCM is right by the temple, and these guys were out in the street learning how to meet people and invite them to church. But they´re just like I was when I was there, and it was really funny to see them and realize how much I´ve learned in just four months of being in the field. They struggled so much with Spanish and didn´t know what the people were saying, and had so much excitement to teach and help the people, but they didn´t know quite how to use their desires to do good. It was really crazy to realize that they really don´t know almost anything about the mission, but they´re about to get slammed into the same thing that happened to me. And hopefully they´ll end up better that I ever will, because I still have so much to learn. They looked all unsure and nervous, but determined. And we probably looked like these giants to them. But that´s how life works, and sometimes you just need to look back to see how far you´ve come. It´s amazing. And we also went to one of the only Dunkin Donut (they say "dona") shops in all of Guatemala. Tasty.

We also went to a multi zone conference in the capital, and I got to see a lot of my old friends, which was super awesome. It´s waaay less hot over there, and sometimes I forget that there are places that aren´t humid and sunny. It´s all good though. 

We also taught a ton of people and did a lot of really good stuff this week. We´re really seeing people change their lives, and that´s the reason I´m here, so it makes me super happy. But next week, we have changes. Already! They go by faster and faster every time. My companion and I think that we´ll stay together, but we don´t know yet. It´s an interesting anticipation, not knowing whether or not you´ll keep the same everything...or leave everything you know, move to another side of the country and live with completely different people. It´s kind of exciting though, in a strange way. New is exciting, even if you don´t know at all what to expect. But! I think it´ll all stay the same for us. :)

Always love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Haircut!

Uno, dos, cinco, trece, catorce, veintiuno, veinticinco, treinta! ¡Ya lo hice!

¡Hola todos!

This week was actually really fun. We ate duck, got an awesome investigator to come to church for the first time, held these adorable 10-day-old cats, ate cooked roadkill, showered with a tarantula (I was halfway through when I noticed he was there), listened to a kid try to count to ten, picked mango verde with a stick, and I got medical permission to drink Coca Cola, which is highly against the rules in the mission. 

We´re teaching this guy named William, and he is super awesome. His life is literally changing from what he´s learning. His family says he´s a happier, brighter person since he´s started learning more about Jesus. He finally got to come to church this week, and he liked it a lot. 

One day, William saw a possum on the side of the road and so he ran it over with his motorcycle and brought it home. He was super excited and cooked it on the grill he made. Apparently taquacín is really expensive here, but he was really happy to invite us over to eat it with him. I´m not gonna lie, it was actually really good. And his puppy got to eat all the bones so it was really happy too. Guatemala..

William with his cooked Taquacín. Don´t worry, he mixed it with a tasty tomato sauce.

This week we did a ton of stuff, and talked to literally hundreds of people. A lot of them are interested in learning more about how they can come closer to Christ, which is awesome. We worked a ton, and I might not have gotten enough sleep, because I got a pretty bad migraine half way through. We had to go home and stay in the house for a couple hours while I slept with a wet cloth over my eyes. The mission nurse sent us a text for a couple things to do, including to drink Coca Cola. As missionaries, we have super strict rules against drinking caffeinated drinks, because we´re walking all day and have to be in shape. But this time I had permission. That probably doesn´t sound like a very big deal, but on the mission it´s as if I got permission from the police to rob the bank. Super funny.  

We´re doing a lot of really great work here, and I love it a lot. Every day we get to testify to people of the things that we know are true, and see the light in people´s eyes when they feel it too. I´m starting to forget that I´m speaking Spanish the whole time, which is kind of strange because I feel like I just got here. I am not smart enough to speak this language. But God is, and He´s teaching me. I´m also not smart enough to use it to convince people that are three times my age to follow someone they can´t see. But they knew Him before they were born, and they recognize the feeling of His love. I don´t have any other way to explain it, just that God works miracles when you do what He asks. It´s amazing.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Pollo Campero, which is probably the biggest fast food restaurant here. It´s pretty tasty, but I think I like chicken, beans, eggs, and tortillas (and possum) better though.

La ciudad de sueños...y turistas

¡Hola cuates!

This week was super fun. We´re meeting sooo many people every single day, and a lot of them have some really cool stories to share. We ate some really tasty fruits that I´ve never seen before. We also took a bus on a road that goes uphill, but by some gravitational or atmospherical anomoly, things roll upwards. Today we went to Santiago Atitlan, which is this really cool tourist city next to a really beautiful lake. 

The city is full of tourists and shops that sell tons of really cool Guatemalan style things. Lots of cultural wooden carvings, colorful paintings, but corte more than anything. Corte is a guatemalan cultural type of fabric with lots of really bright colors woven in fancy patterns. Lots of the women here wear corte blouses and skirts every day, and even a lot of the men wear shirts with corte woven in. It´s made with these huge wooden looms, and it looks super cool. The Guatemalan artisan shops are totally stuffed with things that these people just make by hand, and we all bought some cool jackets and things. The funny thing about buying from these shops though is that they really try to take advantage of white people. A TON of people come here from Europe and the states (we met some really cool people from Spain and other European countries. Spain Spanish is sooo much different, and it´t really cool to talk to people from there.), and a lot of them get kinda ripped off. The shope owners notice that we´re not from here, and assume that we don´t know the language or the money system very well...so they raise all of the prices to double or triple of what they would be when they see us. But as missionaries who live in this country, we have more of a feel for what these things should cost, and we learn from an early mission age how to bargain things down to cheap prices. And if the people won´t bargain, we find other people who will. One lady tried to sell us a jacket for Q450. It was a nice jacket...but not that nice. I got her to take it down to Q125, but that still wasn´t where I wanted it. I got a different really nice jacket for Q50 instead. Elder Wilde, a super outoging and energetic guy, managed to get a Q1,500 painting for Q450.00. The things you can do when you speak spanish. The shop owners are really cool though, because they also speak other Mayan languages that are indigenous to Guatemala, like Quekchi, Quiché, and Pocomon. They all talk to eachother in these other languages, and us in Spanish. It´s really fancy. And the things they make are beauutiful, so it was just cool all around. 

This week we had a ton of people come to church. Most of the people we´re teaching couldn´t this time, but I have a lot of confidence that they´ll be able to come next week. We´re learning a lot about something my brother Matthew told me about right before I left. On the mission, you talk to everyone. Everyone on the street, in their houses, in buses, and everywhere. And we invite every single one of them to change. To come closer to Christ and to find more happiness in their lives. And it´s kinda tricky. Naturally it´s hard to just go out and talk to everyone you see. But as we do it, we find so many blessings of energy, happiness, and people who really need our help. I love these people so much, and I´m really just here to help them. And so when I get to help people and see the shine in their eyes, it makes everything worth it. 

Love you guys too!

-Elder Cloward

Starting over again

Buenas!

This week has been very very full. We´re teaching a lot of people who need a ton of help. William is an investigator who has been without work for an entire year. He volunteers as a firefighter because he wants to help people. But he really needs an actual job. He finally found one, but he needed to pay to get some documents for it, and he couldn´t even afford that, so he couldn´t get the job. We aren´t allowed to give money, which is really hard. But we are representatives of Christ, and we get to promise them what they need if they do the things that bring them closer to Him. And that´s the most important. He´s super great and I know that he will find work soon.

We are also teaching Franklin and his family. They are really sad right now because Franklin is really sick, and isn´t really getting better. They can´t afford the medicine he needs, and so they´re really just hoping and praying. We visit them all the time, and we are doing all we can to help him with the little medicine we have. But we are also teaching them the gospel. They have a ton of faith, and I really can tell that Franklin is going to get better too. 

The biggest thing that happened this week was that we had emergency changes again. Elder Vargas had to go to Amatitlan. I was really sad to see him go, because we are already super good friends, and we were both learning a ton. I did give him a parting gift though. I noticed a while ago that he really likes Tortrix, which are these 1Q bags of chips that are suuuper tasty that they sell at all the tiendas here. And so I´ve been making a secret stash of them without him noticing, and I gave it to him on his last day here. It was something simple, but I think the idea really hit him deeply somehow. He was really happy. Elder Myler from Idaho is my companion now. He was struggling a lot with his old companion, and felt super sad. So the mission president sent him to be with me, in hopes that I can help him to feel happy again. He´s a really great guy, and he really wants to do good. I´m trying to show him a lot of love, and he seems like he´s already opening up a little bit. Now I just have to show him around this area that I´ve only been in for two weeks. That´s a little tricky, because I feel like I really don´t know enough to be able to teach him and help all the people here...but allí vamos. I´m sure we´ll be all good and know a ton in a week or two. 

The kids here play this game called Chamusca, and they´re super good at it. It´s basically two on two streed soccer with a couple twists. They almost always beat me. My comp and I only won once, and that was a great victory. But I think he worked too hard, because the next day he could barely move his back. Somehow he still went the entire day though, just stumbling along with really painful looking posture. I felt really bad for him, but he did it. He really wants to work hard, which is awesome. I´m really excited to put my all into helping him and the people here to change their lives and be happy. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Dry cereal is good stuff.