One man´s trash is another man´s treasure

Hey, how´s it going?

This week was full of work. We talked to drunk people, got in a minor car crash, got a new bishop, and found lots of awesome people to teach. Overall I´d say it was a great time :).

We´re starting to go to a part of our area called the Periquera. It´s a little town that´s kinda far from Palin, and it´s the poorest place I´ve ever, ever seen. There´s muddy water and trash in the streets, and kids don´t have shoes. A lot of the people don´t even have enough money to make their houses out of rusty sheet metal, so they just use sticks and tarps. But the people there are the most humble people I´ve ever seen. They really are ready to hear the gospel, and always let us in and listen. We´re working on a way to help them to get to church right now, because they don´t have enough money for the bus ride. 

This morning we got a text from a number we didn´t know that said that they were the next door neighbors and they were really upset and tired of calling us every night to tell us to be quieter. They were honestly not happy, and if it happened again they were going to make us move out. "If you want to jump up and down and play and have really loud conversations, go to the soccer fields; that´s what they´re for." We were honestly kinda scared, because we really didn´t think we´d been making much noise. We were thinking like "sometimes when we go up the wooden stairs it makes a little bit of sound...?" So we asked if they were really talking about us. We quickly got a message back that said "oh oh sorry! We were trying to reach the Elders from Amatitlan! Not you guys, sorry." So we sent the messages to the zone leaders of those Elders. We were relieved for us, but those guys are really gonna get it...

Yesterday, my companion and I had to go to the capital so he could get his hurting knee checked out. It was all fine, and afterward we went to Oakland Mall to eat lunch. That place is the richest, nicest mall I´ve ever seen. I´ve been to some really nice ones in the states, but I´ve NEVER seen a place as nice as that one. Everyone was wearing weird expensive clothes and didn´t even look at me if I said hi passing by. There were a million types of clothes, makeups, creams, phones, pens, watches, and everything anyone could ever not want. I really felt out of place there. I didn´t really talk much to my companion in there, because I just felt uncomfortable and kinda confused. When we left, I was exhausted and just slept on the way back. 

Thinking about the week, I couldn´t help but think about the contrast I experienced. I went to the poorest place I´d ever seen, and then I went to the richest place ever. When I was in the rich place, nobody cared about who I was or what I was doing there. If they looked at me, it was probably to wonder why my shoes were dirty and I needed a haircut. But when I went to the poor place, everyone wanted to meet me, listen to me, and tell me about all the wonderful things in their lives. People shared, played, and just sat to talk about life. I couldn´t help thinking about how happy people can be when they aren´t focused on things. Walking through the mall, my companion gave a really profound insight. He said "I don´t think I really would be happier if I had all of this stuff..." And I think he was right. Material things are really attractive to the human eye, but distracting to the spirit. If we just stop for a little while and try to think about other people, we will see past the wall that so many people have in front of them. God doesn´t want robots who dye their hair green and wear window curtains that cost a thousand dollars. He wants servants. He wants people who love other people, and care about making them happy. He wants people who have faith that life is for our good, and that it will be better for us if we make it better for others. The poor people who live in the Periquera will die someday, and maybe sooner than the rich people in Oakland. But after they die, they´ll have a lot more than the richest of the rich, because they already found the most priceless things in the world. I hope we can all take some time this week to think about the most important things in life.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Changes!

¡Hola todos!

I am now in the same area as before...but with a new companion! I´m with Elder Rosas now, and he is super awesome. He´s from Mexico city, and he´s tall and super funny. He loves to play sports, joke around, and help people to be happy. I´ve only been with him for one day, and I´ve already had a great time. He hasn´t been a zone leader before so I´m "training" him, in a way. 

It´s been a crazy week. Elder Payan got the news that he is being sent to Sipacate, which is right on the beach in the southern coast of the country. It´s one of the hottest, hardest areas in the entire mission. It´s in the Siquinalá zone, and you might remember me talking about visiting there sometimes to cut down bushes with machetes and eat coconuts and stuffs. It´s a really cool place, but Elder Payan wasn´t too excited to go. We spent the week going around and saying goodbye to the people here, which was hard for him too. But he´s going to have an awesome time...just has to get used to the heat. 

Elder Payan is really, really good at cooking. One day, an Hermana invited him to cook, but he was going to be with the Elders in Pacaya, so it was my turn to cook! I made spaghetti the way my mom always does with the Hermanas from Palin 3 and Elder Delange, and it was super tasty!! We had a lot of fun making it with the limited materials that the Hermana had, but it was also really fun to eat :).

This change, EVERYONE in the zone is training. Every single companionship has a new missionary except mine, and I´m training Elder Rosas to be a zone leader. But the new missionaries are amazing, and they´re all super ready to work and be awesome. It´s exciting. New missionaries are great because they´re just thinking all about the real reason we´re here, to help people to come unto Christ. They always teach me a ton. I´ll send a picture of the zone new week if I can. Right now I have to run because we have a meeting with the stake president and the mission president to help the work move forward. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Us and the spaghetti :)

Elder Rosas (on the right) and I (the white guy) with Tony, who just barely got set apart to be a missionary, going to Peru! He´s super cool. 

My family sent me some kazoos in a package, and so we decided to put them to use. Hahaha

Christmas and New Years!

¡Hola todos!

I skipped a week of writing because on Christmas I talked a lot with my family. That was so fun, and I love all of them a ton. But today I get to talk about Christmas AND New Years. It´s been a great time, and even though there are always tricky things that happen, I´ve been having a really great time. 

It´s been pretty tricky to find people in their houses that want to listen, because lots of people are out celebrating for the holidays. But in the little time we´ve had, we´ve been able to find some really great people to teach that are really positive and want to learn and have a happier life, which is really awesome. 

On Christmas eve, we stayed with a family in a really super rich residential. We ate an awesome turkey dinner, with tamales and ponche. For Christmas here, everyone eats tamales and drinks ponche. The tamales that they make are wrapped in banana leaves and eaten with bread, and ponche is basically a mix of water and all of the fruits in existence, and little cinnamon and boiled together. It´s super tasty. And everyone burned fireworks like crazy the way they always do. Where I come from, it´s illegal to light fireworks. Here they blow up so many things that it´s just funny. They almost hit someone with a firework that fell down right when it launched too, and I´d imagine that there are lots of experiences where that actually does happen. 

On Christmas morning, we had a little party with the zone of missionaries where we made pancakes and hot chocolate, gave presents to everyone, and watched Coco! It´s a lot better in Spanish...sorry! It was a great time. 

For New Years, we spent the night with another family that has even more money. I mention that just because it feels super weird to be with people that have more Christmas decorations and fancy food and things than people in the states, because I´ve never been accustomed to living like that. We all had an awesome time together. We got back home at around 1 in the morning (with permission), and slept a lot today. But we´re all happy. 

One of my favorite things that happened this week was getting to see someone open her mission call. When I got my call, they all came by mail with a letter to open and papers to read to everyone. Now, they come in an email, and they come super fast. It´s a lot different. But the hermana read to everyone her letter from the prophet of the church, telling her that she is called to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ for the next 18 months of her life, in the mission of Cusco, Peru. I got really emotional hearing her read to all of us that she will find more blessings in this work than she would in anything else she could do. It reminded me of the day when I read my mission call, and now of the incredible blessing I have to be here and serve the Lord here in Guatemala. I´ve found so many miracles, and I´m learning so many things that I couldn´t have learned in any other way. I´m really happy to be here. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

They gave me presents too!

Chocolate pancakes, hot chocolate, and a silly peluche the Hermanas gave me.

Look at what they got for my companion! 

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 :)

The lonely mountain

¡Hola todos!

Today has been crazy. And yesterday. And pretty much everyday haha. We had to go to the capital on Monday night, because I had to go to migration to get some paperwork all good. And guess what! I´m a legal Guatemalan resident now! Yuh! Had to go to bed late and get up at 4 for that one. But I got to see all of the people that were in the MTC group with me in the very beginning, which was super cool. Most of them aren´t in my mission, and I didn´t really think I would ever get to see them again. 

The day after that, we went to sleep in San Vicente Pacaya. The next morning (today), we woke up at 3 in the morning to climb the volcano. We got our jackets and backpacks and headed up a steep trail up the side of the mountain. Soon the dirt turned into lava rock, and it got really, REALLY cold. We got to watch the sunrise from the top, and it was honestly beautiful. All of the sudden a ton of thick fog came in super fast, and we couldn´t see anything. When it finally cleared up and we could see from the sunlight, the view was really awesome. When we got back down, my companion and I took a really long nap, because we were exhausted from all the things we´ve been doing. But now we´re better. 

We got to go to church twice this past Sunday. We also got to make some really tasty food for some members of the church who were sad. I also learned a lot about prayer. When you´re struggling, you can just go talk to God, and He listens. You can talk out loud if you want to, and you can talk to Him as if He was right there, because He is. You don´t have to talk as if you´re reading someone else´s words, and you don´t have to talk as if He can´t respond. He is always listening, and a lot of the time He answers in the moment like a normal conversation. If you don´t believe me, try it! You´ll feel peace. You´ll know what you need to do. And if you do it, you´ll change people´s lives. It´s true; I´ve done it. Promise.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Me at 3 in the morning

Before the sunrise

Elder Payan and me. Volcan de fuego (the one behind me) is exploding

The sunrise :)

Me and Elder Osorio with Elder Cruz! We haven´t seen him in so long. In his mission (Antigua), they´re allowed to drink Coca Cola, but we aren´t in the central mission. So he bought one and drank it in front of us...

The volcano was blowing smoke rings. I didn´t know that was possible...?

You can see Palin (my area) in the very middle of this picture. It´s at the foot of the volcan de agua. Looks so far away from the volcan Pacaya!