Conference and Adventure!

Date:  March 31, 2014

Area:  Lat Tinta, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Aguero from Peru

Week:  15

Now I`m sure your wondering, conference? What conference? Well the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, or as I like to call it, lix igless li Jesukristo reheb` li santil paab`anel sa` roso`jikeb` li kutan, but whatever the language this is an important time.

One member of our District, Elder Santizo, got a wonderful idea to make and the print off these little invitations that we could hand out to anyone and everyone we see and invite them to this special event where they get to hear the prophet. So we did this, it`s actually a great help because the people love it when they receive things, even a little paper, but in contacting random people it`s been a huge help as we hand someone a paper and say, ¨We`re missionaries of the church (etc) and we`re going to be holding a conference next Sunday and you`re invited, in this conference we will be able to listen to the prophet,¨ Here`s the kicker, ¨Perhaps later in the week we could come by and have a short lesson about who a prophet is and why he`s so important and what exactly this conference is.¨ So, through this we have about seven potential new investigators and we will be visiting them tomorrow and Wednesday.

Our district making the trek to the falls

In regards to letters, I have not recieved more since last Monday, but there is going to be a Zone conference this week on Thursday and therefore I`m going to recieve letters then, now the question with that is who I receive them from this time, because it could be any of the wonderful people that write me on a regular basis and it could also be from someone who hasn`t written in a while, and also someone new. It`s a fun time for me receiving mail is, and I do love hearing when my letters sent to you guys make it safely.

A special notice, happy birthday Deven North, it`s almost the day of the innocent, so beware. (That`s what April fool`s day, or it`s equivalent is called, ask Dad, he probably knows.)

Elder North and Elder Perez

Any other notices about the work week, not really, all pretty normal, although one of the investigators we have we went to visit and he was drunk.... Yeah, but not to worry, he`s one of our investigators and we don`t give up on people that easily. 

ON TO THE ADVENTURE PART!

The adventure we had was today, in fact, this very P-day, which was a little unlike a normal P-day here in La Tinta where we wake up, do a bit of studying and morning stuff and then go play some futbol, eat lunch, go use internet, maybe a couple of appointments and then resting in the house.

Today we woke up a little early to go to Tucuru to see a waterfall, so off we go on a hour bus ride and we get off at a bridge and walk two hours to this waterfall of which we got some pretty awesome photos and I got to see a lot of very beautiful land. Although I sweated so much, and as for today I miss my dry climate.

The first little waterfall. Elder Glover, Elder North, and Elder Santizo.

We did not walk back all the way, but found a bus to ride, and for the first time in my mission I`m pretty sun-burnt, but all to get that tan.... Right?


So, with conference, prepare yourselves, I`ve been thinking about it and do you realize how important he is and how incredible it is that we have someone who can communicate to God face to face. Pretty cool stuff.
So, get your notebooks ready, have some of those `burning` questions as I like to call them, written down and ready to be answered and then review those talks when you can read them.

Thank you all for your prayers, they are being answered daily and it`s a large protection for all of us out in the field.

Love,
Elder Norte

P.S. Write more letters, I know my mother puts the little note at the bottom that says ¨Write him¨ But I`ll give my own two quetz, a missionary can NEVER receive too many letters.

Guatemala countryside

pondering

Meow

small waterfall

Ghost Elder North

Elder Jered North
Guatemala Cobán Mission
Apartado Postal #34
3ra Calle 2-02, Zona 3
Cobán AV 16001
Guatemala, Central America

It costs $1.15 to mail a letter to him. You can use regular envelops and stamps just make sure they equal $1.15. If it weights more than a regular letter you should take it to the post office to have it weighed.

OR

Use Dear Elder (www.dearelder.com)

More happenings from Gwatemaal

Date:  March 24, 2014

Area:  Lat Tinta, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Aguero from peru

Week:  14

So, when I left you guys last I was in Cobân, well, I`m back and having a normal P-day in La Tinta again, and it actually feels pretty great, a bit more relaxing than last week was. 

While I was in Cobàn I did get a sweet looking grey trench coat, how? Well, in the assistant`s house they had some stuff under a table that other missionaries had left or something and was free to grab, so that coat was there and I grabbed it.

We got back to La Tinta at 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday and got ready to have Zone conference the next hour. Zone conference was awesome, we got taught on the importance of praying with sincerity and with true intent, this was taught by the Assistants

and we then heard a talk from our mission president. President Curtiss. He talked to us about teaching the basics and the importance of just the basics of the gospel. It`s what we`re here to teach. I took my notes in my Preach My Gospel because I forgot my notebook.

The next day we had interviews with the President and his wife and with the Assistants. The first one was with the assistants, which we have intereviews as a companionship and we talk about our area and some of the difficulties we are having in it right now. Next up was with Sister Curtiss and she reviewed just how we were doing, feeling, our health and stuff and she gave an assignment to me and to every other missionary. This assignment is to find out everything about Grace, the simple explanations are great and such, but I feel like there`s more.

Then came the interview with President. Honestly I could probably talk to that guy for hours on end, he told me the importance of using language and our duty as representatives of Jesus Christ, which is something that I`ve always remembered being a missionary. The bit about langauge is that there is some slang used here, not really bad slang, but there are words here that you wouldn`t hear everywhere else and missionaries have adopted them into their Spanish vocabulary, so this is more of a way to increase my vocabulary and since then I have been learning 2 to 4 new words for Spanish every day. Every day words like puddle, or pebble, or stuff like that that will simply increase my vocabulary. We then talked about other things and I brought up how I would love to go to an all Kekchi area. So we`ll see what comes up with changes in three weeks.

Elder Glover took my camera and had some fun

Now we go to Thursday and we start our work for the week, yeah.... Just a little bit later than usual, anyway in the three days we had to work this week we found some new people to teach and Maribel went to church with us this week. Yeah! That was really exciting for me.

Made some letter pancakes this time

 Other happenings this week, so one of the new people we found because we were walking and we looked to our left after coming to a crossroad and we saw a burning rock, apparently that`s a thing. You burn the rock and it makes it easy to break apart and then you move the pieces, thus clearing the rock from the house, so I guess I should call it a boulder, because it`s a big rock. So we talked to some people around it asking what the burning boulder was all about and we got into a long conversation with this guy and then asked if we could come back and share a message, he agreed. so yeah, new investigators. I didn`t catch his name.

Yeah for mail, please keep them coming!

I have recieved some mail this week as well, two from Grandma Mary, two from Julie Barnson and Brenna, one from Grandma (although it said as the sender Terry North) and.... Yeah that`s it, but man, these letters keep coming, that`s just awesome. I`m planning on stepping up my sending letters out a bit, so prepare yourselves.

So... That`s whats up and I`ll talk to all of you next week with more adventures and stuff.
Love you all and THANK YOU all for the support.

--
Elder Norte

My awesome trench coat

Learning English

An old computer a member has.  It still works.

YUM PB&J double decker

Tortilla Man

Keep the letters coming he really appreciates it and loves that he can reread them when he is feeling down.  E-mails he only has access to once a week and for a limited time so snail mail letter rock!

Elder Jered North
Guatemala Cobán Mission
Apartado Postal #34
3ra Calle 2-02, Zona 3
Cobán AV 16001
Guatemala, Central America

Remember it costs a total of $1.15 to send him a letter.  It can be three regular stamps or you can buy airmail stamps at the post office.

An unexpected Journey: An Elder´s tale

On my way to Cobán

Date:  March 17, 2014
Area:  La Tinta, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Aguero from Peru
Week:  13

Some of you might be wondering, woah! Jered is on really late, but.... Why? More to be said later. On to stuff about this week.

It kind of sucked. Reasons, all of our investigators we want to put baptism dates for are not accepting a date and are still kind of thinking about it, hardly any of our investigators went to church this week and we´re having trouble finding new investigators. That and many an appointment fell through. But are we mad? Are we sad? NO! Maybe a little dissapointed though, but hey, we look forward to next week, which now we can quite possibly without a doubt say was better than last week.

Not too much exciting other than that really, so I´ll be answering more questions today, but before that I did receive mail!

From Karoline, Mom, Grandma Mary and the Stake. It was a very happy moment as the mail from Mom was a little big, I opened it up and what did I find inside. The North yearly calender! WHOO! This calander has reminded me of things like Saint Patrick´s day and the like, so I am wearing green. I also did not forget that it was pie day and thus also Mikel´s birthday. This was even before I received the calender.

In other news I was called to go to The Capital of the country, yup, Guatemala City, why? Well, only to sign a paper of course, nothing else. So that means me and Elder Aguero packed up some stuff in our backpacks to live out of the house for two days and left Sunday evening to go to Cobán where we spent the night at the Assistants to the President´s house, which is awesome, here are pictures of all the fabulous things they have.

So we stayed there, woke up really early this morning to go to The Capital, four hour bus ride, an hour wait in a bus station, going to the offices and then to the Government building to sign the thing then back to the offices, driving around a bit then taking a four hour bus ride back to Cobán. Yeah... It was kind of short lived and I´m kind of tired of riding in buses, but I´ll need to wake up early tomorrow morning for the three hour ride back to La Tinta, busy, busy, busy.

Pictures from Guatemala City are below.

The best thing that happened though is that once back in Cobán I got to enjoy a nice burger from McDonald´s.... Oh yeah.  It tasted like at home, except better, because.... Gwatemaal

About my house, the gap in the cieling isn´t a gap, no rain or anything enters from there, the tin panels are overlapped and it let´s in light.

The people don´t marry because they don´t really feel much a need for it, it´s not that expensive to get married. Maybe less than ten dollars.

I miss a lot from the states, but who cares, I´m experiencing new things and things back in the states will be there when I get back.

I cut coconuts open with the machete in our house, it´s all good, milk, meat, everything. Coconuts are genius, a drink and a meal.

Strangest thing that happened this week, They said I needed to go to the Captial to sign a paper. Seven hours or more riding in busses to sign a paper, but if it means to stay here and serve, I´m pretty fine about it. I did get to see the city again, not sure I´ll get that again soon.

Now, while in Cobán I got to pick up an additional letter from Mom, which included an SD card. This will be useful.

That´s it for this week, it went by quickly and a new week starts, thanks for the support, encourage more people to send letters and send them yourself.

I love all of you,
Elder Norte

So yes although it does take time for letters and packages to get to him they do arrive.  I have been given a new address that is good for both letters and packages.  He would love it if you would drop him a line.  You can use regular stamps and regular envelopes just have them total $1.10.  You can also use dearelder.com and that is free.  All missionaries love letters and stuff but missionaries serving in foreign lands need extra support and love as they are missing their language, their culture, their surrounds everything.   

Elder Jered North

Guatemala Cobán Mission
Apartado Postal #34
3ra Calle 2-02, Zona 3
Cobán AV 16001
Guatemala, Central America

A P-day away from La Tinta

Five of my tags on, 2 Spanish, 2 Kekchi and 1 English.

Date:  March 10, 2014

Area:  La Tinta, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Aguero from Peru
Week: 12

So, it´s earlier than when I usually write, by about six hours, so in truth I didn´t have too many emails to read, probably because fellow missionaries that I replied to last week have not yet had the opportunity to write me back, kind of sucks because I will probably have to wait for another week to even reply to things. Oh well, life goes on and such.

Let´s start with some prominent happenings that have happened during this week, first off, changes went into effect Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Landlord fixing the leak.

It rained a lot more than usual this week, enough that some water got into our house by dripping off a beam on the wall all the way to the floor, we
woke up to a great big puddle, my stuff is far against the wall so it didn´t get wet and I have a towel I use as a little carpet when I´m at home, so that helped protect my stuff, but some of Elder Aguero´s stuff got wet. It can rain hard here, I´m kind of excited to see how I handle the rainy season.

Some of the water from the leak.

Not too much more happened outside of regular lessons and such, investigators of note right now, Amairani, Maribel and Hector and a new one Stephanie. These are investigators in line for a baptism date and hopefully we can get them set.

 

Amairani is not set for any date anymore, she´s not reading and therefore I think that she´s not praying either so she´s not progressing as quickly, but I know if she does the steps she´ll get there.

 

A normal house with it's gate and fence of barbed wire and bushes

Maribel is a fine lady with two children with her ´spouse´ Julio, they´re not married, but we had an awesome lesson and she accepted the baptism date for the 12th of April, but we can´t count it until we get a marriage date. Maribel is praying and stuff and she is awesome, but with the question of marriage Julio is being hesitant for some reason.

 

Hector and Stephanie are a little younger than I am and both are smart and are on their way to baptism, not much to report but that.

Elder Glover with some chicks.

So, yeah, I´m not in La Tinta at the moment, we´re having this P-day in Cobán, it is quite a bit different from my little mountain town, more stuff, first off, there´s McDonald´s and stuff. It was the breakfast menu which was a bit of a bummer because I really wanted a cheeseburger, some beef, different then the chicken that is always in La Tinta.  It was still good.  Good living, a bit on the expensive side though.

 

To get to Cobán we wake up really early in the morning and take a bus thing, it wasn´t a chicken bus, so that´s why I´m emailing so early as well.

No mail this week, that´s a bummer, but the time soon cometh that I receive some. I know it. I can feel it.

To answer questions that I have been given.

I do not make pancakes that much, probably about once a week, and I didn´t make any this week.

Chapel in La Tinta that is under construction

Elder Aguero and I just clean stuff as needed, not much too it and home checks are not often and are usually done by the Sykes. They´re our doctors out here.

 

I do not know how far Téleman is.

In my district there are three English speakers, Elder Glover, Elder Perez and I.

We divide about once a week because Elder Aguero as District leader needs to conduct the baptismal interviews for the people in our district, things aren´t too much different with him as District Leader.

------

Spiritual stuff, because I feel the need to share more spiritual things.

bvans we usually use to get to the other areas in Polochic

So, in one of our lessons we were talking about how God wants us to return to him with bodies and such, that´s pretty common knowledge for people in this church and some outside, but I say this to the parents who have missionaries out. Look how you feel about your missionaries and how you want them to experience all there is out on their mission, but you want them to return to you safely. Now reflect on the love of our heavenly father and reflect your feelings with his.

A lovely pair of coconuts

Another one. I have the fantastic opportunity to sweat a lot here. I don´t like it that much, Cobán is great because it is nice and cool here, anyway. I had a moment of reflection during sacrament thinking about the Atonement and how he bled from every pore. I know a bit better how that would look and feel like, but of course that experience is still way out of human comprehension. So I ask, have you thought about how great that sacrifice was for us? If not, take the time to study it and reflect on it and come to know the love he has for us.

Elder North and a coconut

----

Thank you all for your support, letters, prayers and everything else you do for me and the other missionaries out in the field, it´s not easy, but as I like to say, we weren´t called to do something easy, but we weren´t called to do something too hard for us to do. Keep heads up, look forward, make plans and goals, strive to achieve them.

And read a couple scriptures while your at it.

--
Elder Norte 

 

 

 

We have a shower head but not enough water pressure so we let the bucket fill up and then take a bucket shower.  No we do not have hot water.  Not sure I will know what a hot shower is when I get back.

Our sink

Bathroom

 

 

Marshmallow man?

writing in his journal

At his desk

Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers.  Jered really appreciates it.  Please if you have time he would love to hear from you.  He doesn't get mail often and so when it does come he really appreciates it.  He enjoys hearing how things are going with everyone and getting to read his language as he is submersed in learning two others.  It costs $1.10 to send a letter to him.  That can be done with just a regular envelope and stamps to equal that amount.  Just a card saying your thinking about him would bring a tremendous smile to his face.  If you would rather type then please use the dear elder service.  It is free!!!  All you have to do is type a letter and hit submit and they will do the rest.  Just go to dearelder.com.

Elder Jered North

Guatemala Cobán Mission

6a Avenida 2-36 zona 1

Cobán

Alta Verapaz

Guatemala