The Book of Mormon contains the answers.

A paka is like a DI or Savers

Date:  December 1, 2014

Area:  Korral Pek, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder  Vargus

Week 50

So this week we have been focusing our efforts on getting Emilio ready for his upcoming baptism next week on the 6th of December. I think he´ll be ready, he´s been asking quite a bit of questions and have been bringing up passages of the Bible not to try and contradict us but something that seems like it contradicts and wants to know what we think about it and we´ve been able to explain really well. He has an interesting view about things and it´s been a really good learning experience for me as I find the answers he´s looking for and able to clarify passages of the Bible from our doctrine and with added light from the Book of Mormon. Emilio´s interview is set for Thursday and Elder Wilson will be coming to Korral Pek with me to carry out the interview.

We found a new family that may be able to progress, but they live about thirty minutes away from the chapel and they say that it´s a little too far, and thirty minutes of walking is a bit tough, but sacrifices have to be made. I´m still not the best at contacting people, but I´m getting better at it, being able to

bees

explain why we´re here and what we want and what we want them to do and why and how it can bless them. Contacting is complicated.... But you need to find new people to teach and that´s one of the biggest ways you do it.

I´ve also had some learning experiences as I help teach the little children in the branch, I help with the primary and each week the amount of kids in class multiplies, I don´t know whether there´s new kids or they think my classes are entertaining or something. I did usually just play games with them, but this week I decided that although we could play games for about half the time that I would feel better if I actually shared something with the little ones and I taught them how to pray. They are little children so I don´t think it´ll all stick, but with the spirit they will remember how to pray correctly and do so, and plus kids can be surprising when it comes to remembering things.

When you get close you can smell the honey

We did quite a lot of walking this week and for a day I was hit by a large case of Diarrhea, where my intestines pretty much wanted to explode and my stomach was making all sorts of whale mating calls all day, but I got though it and have returned to wonderful normal bowel movements.

I forgot to mention that we helped people sow their seeds of corn this week, it´s not that hard of work, but how they measured where to put the seeds proved to be a bit difficult.  Because it is this time of year people have a custom here, they sow their seeds and then they eat caldo, it´s a soup with chicken, so a lot of people have been inviting us. We had it three times last week and we already have planned for another go this week.

No mail this week, but Zone meeting is this week and we´re going to get mail then, I´m excited, mail is always exciting, although I havn´t been able to send mail myself for a long time, not because I don´t want to, but because I can´t ever seem to find the post office open in El Estor at any time in the day, I´ll see if I can correct that.

Beautiful Korral Pek

I hope you all are doing great! Remember to read your book of Mormon, or your Libro De Mormón

local pigs

, or your Lix Hu Laj Mormon, or read all three if you have them. LIKE ME! Ha..... But really, I recommend reading the book of Mormon, and for those who are learning languages it has been said that reading the book of Mormon really helps with learning said language. I´m learning two languages so it seems to be working.

Get out there and make some miracles happen. (Christmas spirit and all that.) Don´t ask me about thanksgiving, that doesn´t exist here.

Love you all,

Elder North

I understand why my area has rock in it´s name. (pek = rock)

Date:   November 24, 2014
Area:  Korral Pek
Companion:  Elder Vargus

About the title of this weeks email, I fell down on Monday while going back home, taking the hour hike from Chulac after the hour and a half bus ride from El Estor. Anyway, I fell down and I scratched my arm, we were halfway home so I walked some 25 minutes before I could really get my first aid kit onto the scratch, but some alcohol and cleaning it up and it was all good, but falling down isn´t fun.

We had what I would say is a pretty standard week, although something did happen that was different, we come home from P-day and then Tuesday we go to District meeting in Chulac, walking there one hour and then after walking back and then we stay in our area until the next P-day.

So we´re really working with our fantastic investigator Emilio, he is progressing well, although his drinking problem may be a bit closer to the surface than I first thought, but he´s a fighter and he believes that this church is true, we havn´t taught him all the lessons yet, we only are missing one of the lessons, which is called lesson 5, and in other missions you wouldn´t teach that lesson before baptism, but here we do teach it before and then after of course. He came to church and also came to our special activity on Saturday.

So on Saturday, my previously mentioned special activity, was a baptism! Now we were going to have four children of the ward be baptized, but as it turns out two of them were older than nine years old which means they need to be interviewed by our district leader and they count as our converts. The baptism was a little bit unorganized, but it all went well, and as I said Emilio was there!

We havn´t found many other people to teach, but we are looking, it´s really fun to find someone that is really ready to receive us and the message we bring, although they get taught and then they get baptized so quickly that we need to find another, but we´re working hard to get there.

That´s about it for this week.

How do the people treat you?  Generally the people call me angry because I´m not that talkative, it is not in a mean way and with the people here it doesn´t really matter what you say, but you have to say something, unless you don´t know the language, then you can´t really do anything, and then you probably don´t know if they´re calling you an angry person.

With no power do you still use your ipod and speaker?

I use my Ipod and speaker and my rain coat, sometimes I take it with me and it doesn´t rain.

Our house uses solar panels so we have power at night and enough to charge our items a couple times a week and have light during the dark hours.

Where do you do your shopping?  We have a few stores, they sell the usual, beans, rice, noodles, sardines, all good.

Where do the kids go to school?  There´s a school, they´re in summer break right now and won´t be going to school until January I believe.

No  mail this week, but looking forward to when I do get mail.

Love you all,

Elder Jered North

He loves to get mail so take a minute and write him.  It costs $1.15 to send a letter to Guatemala.

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

Badger head.

Date:  November 17, 2014
Area:  Korral Pek, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Vargus

I´m just going to go right into the second best part of our week, which is what the title is all about, a badger head, really more than just the head, but I had the wonderful opportunity to eat a badger head this week, was a good? Yes, what did it taste like? Badger. Who found it and fed it to us? Some member that hunted it with his dog. I got some pretty good pictures of it as well, they actually caught two. I hear there are also armadillos up here and they eat those as well, I need to try that.  Now there´s also another question that you all might or might not be asking. If you at the head, does that include the brain? Yes, the brain was kind of a paste, interesting to eat, but not bad.

This week actually went by really quickly, things just move along some times, we were able to eat a few times with members, they feed us caldo, a soup with chicken in it. We were invited to eat because the people here are sowing and planting their fields, so when they do that they celebrate when they finish, and they celebrate with food. Good plan that.

The best thing that happened this week was that we found a man named Emilio, he is what we would call a golden investigator, he is ready and willing to accept the gospel freely and all we have to do is guide him along the right path and just tell him what he needs to do. He actually used to drink about a year ago, but right now no, he´s realized that it wasn´t that good to drink, and not only that, it costs to drink. The best thing about it, was that we found him on Wednesday, I fasted that day, coincidence? No, those don´t exist. We put a baptismal date for the 6th of December, and we are very excited for it.

No mail this week, but that´s because we´re in the middle of the month.

I love you all, thanks for the prayers.

Elder North

He would love to hear from you.  If you want him to get something by Christmas you should probably mail it this week.  Thanks for your love and support.

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.

I AM PIG CHASER!

Date:  November 10, 2014

Area:  Korral Pek, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Vargus

Week 47

I AM PIG CHASER! I CHASE, PIG RUN, I CATCH, I WIN! (Spoken like a true cave man!.

So, yes, I chased a pig this week, I actually chase pigs on a general basis because your church yard has a short fence around it, but the pigs like to crawl in through holes or come in when one of the little kids leaves the gate open, so I chase them out. Yesterday I chased and the pig slipped in the mud and missed his exit and I caught him and him up to the sky as he squealled and such, and then I put him down and he bolted out of the church yard. He wasn´t too happy. Pigs are silly creatures.

I got some mail this week, yesterday in fact, we had district conference, it´s like stake confereance except when you´re in branches instead of wards, Presidente Curtiss went and we heard him speak while someone translated for him in Kekchi, his talk was great! He´s been really focusing on concecration for the members and especialy for his missionaries. I got handed mail after the meeting when we had to walk back to our area. 3 letters from Mom, 3 from Grandma Mary, 1 from Tayrn, 1 from Sister Barnson and 1 from Sister Regen and 1 more from Grandma Maxine. Thank you all for the mail! Now if only I was better at replying to all of you.

The investigators we are working on recently are people who have member in thier family, so, part member families, it´s fun to focus on them because we and they can have the support to church, although we had no investigators in church this week because it wasn´t in our area rather, it was a hour hike away or more for others, but we put higher goals for this week and are going to work hard to meet them. The goals seem to high for me, but my district leader, Elder Wilson convinced me to set them higher and have faith. Faith like that is a little difficult for me sometimes because I like thinking more logically, but we´re doing it and putting faith that we´ll be helped to meet these higher goals.

Things are going well here, nice and cool, I´m learning quickly more things in Kekchi with my companion Elder Vargas and it´s just a fun experience, chasing pigs and all that. No one has told me I couldn´t chase the pigs, but I think that if they´re in my yard I can chase them out to my hearts content.

No dates yet for baptisms, but we have a few that we´re preparing for a marriage and a baptism, we hope to be able to put dates this week, and find new people and just work.

The picture from last week of the church was taken from standing in my doorway.  Our house is straight across.  

We go to El Estor for P-days.

Elder Vargas only needed to have a blood test done, but he did some tests previously, something with his vision, I don´t really know the specifics.

We still go to Chulac to sleep in the chapel there on the pews, I need to bring a jacket or something because it gets pretty cold without a blanket.  We go to Chulac to give our numbers because our area has no service, and then it's already night and we sleep there.  We have a solar panel at both our house and the church.  We get some electricity at night if we use it but there is no signal for the phone that we do have.  It will be interesting how Christmas goes down.

I don´t know how you´ll be able to find it on a map, you could look it up in the church website where to the branch of Korral Pek is, that´ll probably be the biggest help, but the area is probably huge.

The people are about the same, just there´s a little less Spanish.

The best thing about the new area is probably the views all the time.

Thank you all for the support and especially the letters.

Remember,

¨Give em´ heaven!¨ - Sister Regen

Love,
Elder Norte

PLEASE write him.  It is getting to that time that if you want him to have anything for Christmas, even just a card that it is time to send it.  If you do send a package that you don't want him to open until Christmas if it happens to get there sooner then I would just wrap the gifts and inside write a note that says wait and open these on Christmas.  Don't put anything on the package saying it is a Christmas gift as theft is a problem.

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.

First week up in the mountains.

Date:  November 3, 2014
Area:  Correl Pek
Companion:  Elder Vargus from Nicaragua
Week 46

I'm now finally in what is called the mountain area of my mission.  I've been waiting for this time for quite some time, and boy is it what I expected!  Nice and cold!  Early spring weather back home, sure beats the blistering heat of the valley, although we're right in the middle of winter right now so it is actually a little bit colder than usual.  We we live in Korral Pek which means corral of rocks.  We have to go to another area on Sunday to sleep so that we can e-mail on Monday's, because the e-mail spot is so far away, but they are saying they don't want us to do that anymore so we might have to find a different way to do things.

Chalac is our district, it is the main area and our area is an hour hike away from it.  Our house is actually a bit nicer than in Canlun, although we have no fridge here.  We have plenty of COLD running water which means cold showers in a cold place.

My companion has 5 months in his mission and he is awesome.  He had his birthday recently and I used the stuff you sent me for my birthday to decorate our room while he was showering.

We do have a laundry lady again, she uses this cool iron to iron our clothes.  She puts hot coals in it to heat it up!

The views are amazing and hiking is not nearly as terrible as it is when you are sweating buckets all the time.  Even when you are not hiking, but now, an hour hike?  NO PROBLEMS!  Another hour to return after a half hour visit?  I'll deal with it.

We've been visiting a lot of members this week and not a lot of the investigators.  Getting to know the area and such.  Saturday was the day of the dead or Saints as they were calling it here.  Every member and their neighbor invited us to eat with them so we were up and out of the hosue form 7 to 6, 11 hours on Saturday visiting people and eating some food hourly.  It was a good day.  We were able to set some pretty great plans for the next week so that we can raise the numbers that were pretty low today.  We are going to work to improve and meet our goals.

One of the best things about my new area, there are pine trees!  I'm living with pine trees again!  Although they are a little different than back home and there's a lot more other plant life to go with it.

Pine trees!!!

Our big adventure this week was going to Coban because Elder Vargas needed to get a test done.  We only had four hours in Coban to do P-day things, in fact I'm there as I right this and we'll be going really soon to get something really good to eat and then go back home.  About 9 hours of travel in total in one day.  It's really not that fun though, hopefully if we can get here with more time then I can do more things, like looking for a certain Kekchi Dictionary that's out there.  O well, we're doing good, we're happy and we're pumped to work.

One final note.  I did get mail this week!  One package from Grandma Pam, THANK YOU, I loved the Pez...sadly they are all gone.  I did share though!

Many other letters saying happy birthday, from the Barnsons, Mom, Steve and Jennifer, Amy and a few others I can't quite remember.  I got them!

I love you all, keep up on being awesome!
Elder Jered Lamont North

Please take the time to write, he would love to hear from you.  It is time to mail Christmas Packages as mail can take a long time.  I would wrap the gifts inside and then write a note telling him not to open until Christmas.  :)  If you can send a card or a gift to his companion that is very nice also.  A lot of the native companions don't get much mail.

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

I`m ready for anything.

Date:  October 27, 2014

Area:  Canlun, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Santisteban

Week:  45

Alright, I`ll just start with the biggest event of this week, the most terrible event of all my mission that left me very sad that night and tired as I didn`t get to bed until midnight, I`m talking about `The Flood`.

We were having a normal day really and at about six in the evening we were having a lesson in the house of the family Cuc-ac, a combination of two families really living in the same house, the rain started to pour a lot, lightning and such and the family was telling us of a time when water entered their house, they live next to the river, a few minutes later a puddle started forming at the door as water began to enter as the river was rising a little, but the rain kept coming down and now the water began to rise higher so that it covered the whole floor, this isn`t normal, a little is fine considering the pounding rain, but more? No.

We started to save things that were on the ground, panic mode had not started yet as there did not seem to be much danger at the moment, but the water kept rising, a minute later the mentioned panic started set it. The water got high enough to enter my boots (very large boots) when we evacuated the house, the water kept rising steadily and we battled our way up the street right outside as it had converted into a river up to my thighs almost. The water was running hard and we got off of that street and heading away from the river where we saw that the water was still rising a little bit and found ourselves in the middle of Canlun in a shop, at this shop the water was only enough to enter the house and cover the floor, higher than any time that the residence knows.

People were already there as a sort of refuge, we stopped there to gather our wits and to pray, I was asking our God why this was happening and why we were not warned of it before hand, we had no warning, spiritual or not. I then made a decision, the decision to stop questioning God and to trust his judgement and help others and to learn and have faith. I shall never forget this night nor will I forget the crying of the family Cuc-ac and thier little child of 3 years old as I carried him crying in my arms as we walked the two more blocks to the church. Water still present, but not lowering instead of rising.

The church and our house were two of the few houses that were not affected by water entering in. After doing what we could to help that night we slept unsoundly and got up in the morning to provide service, After a nights rest and some good reflection on the events I realized that sometimes the Spirit will not warn us of danger, not that he likes to see us suffer, but that we are already in the place that we need to be. If we were not with the Cuc-ac family that night some of them may have lost their lives.

The damage was great, but many things were saved and only a few houses were affected majorly, but everyone had a whole lot of mud that we helped clear out, water damage isn`t as severe of a thing here and the houses are made of sticks and most of the things people use are made of wood or something actually easily rebuilt so right now Canlun is almost back to normal, but the effects and lessons we learned will not go away so easily.

So, a trial of faith, but my faith has increased from events this week and I have grown in ways that I probabl would not have if not going through something like that. Going through the `refiner`s fire` as we call it.

So... That`s the big news this week, in other news I am leaving Canlun, I have recieved a transfer and I am going to the mountains to an area called Coral Pek with Elder Vargus from Nicaragua. I`m very excited for this new chapter and adventure in my mission, and I will always keep in my heart Canlun.

No mail this week, I know, disappointing for those who want to hear that their letters have made it safely, but that`s how things are here, we don`t get mail often.

I love you all,

Elder North

Please write him, he loves mail.

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)

its Free to my mission. Just got to

dearelder.com, create an account

and it will track the letters you send

so you can go back and view them.

On the drop down menu just put in

Guatemala Cobán Mission and then

address it to Elder Jered North.

They get mailed out once a week.

This will be the best way to contact

me since I don't have that much

time on e-mail each week.

Last week mice, this week a spider.

Date:  October 20, 2014
Area:  Kanlun, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Santisteban
Week 44

Last week I told of my tales about my little mice friends (thought my mom would REALLY enjoy that), although they are not really my friends as I want them out of the house dead or alive.  This other guy is a different thing.  Alright, so this is how it goes...We were preparing to go out to work after church yesterday and Elder Santisteban needed to get something from his suitcase.  It was under the kitchen counter, upon movig it a tarantula of about medium size scurried out.  Surprisingly it didn't scare Elder Santisteban like the mice did.  So instead of doing a dance on it's head we used a broom and had it in the middle of the room and started taking pictures of it.  Then I caught it.  I plan to let him loose as missionaries are not supposed to have pets, and plus I dont' know how to feed him.

This week went really well, it went by quickly but at the same time very slow.  We have an investigator that is found in the little village called Kanlun 2, it is like Kanlun but it is a littler farther away.  Fancy naming it that!  So this investigators name is Ofelia.  I told a little about her last week I believe.  We have a baptismal date with her set for the 15th of November.  I am not sure I will be here for that, but I will work as if I will be.

We have been working with more less active members.  Some of which really annoy me because their children love getting on my nerves and making fun of me kind of, not nice, but trial of patience.

We have been able to find some new people as well through giving random service throughout the week.  Carrying some things or helping with some of their daily chores and all that.  Service to others
is service to God, remember that.

No mail, I thought I might have gotten some but I didn't.  The next time I will get mail is the first week of November I believe.  Which is kind of a bummer, but mail is always wonderful whenever I get it.  You all just need to keep writing and hope that I can find time to write back. (hehhe)

I love you all, until next week!
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)

its Free to my mission. Just got to

dearelder.com, create an account

and it will track the letters you send

so you can go back and view them.

On the drop down menu just put in

Guatemala Cobán Mission and then

address it to Elder Jered North.

They get mailed out once a week.

This will be the best way to contact

me since I don't have that much

time on e-mail each week.