New times in the Chic!

Turtle

Date:  March 16, 2015

Area:  Sacshua, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Menjivar

Week:  64

Everyday brings new times and new experiences, but I`m actually specifically referring to the changes, I`m staying with my companion in Sacsuha like I predicted and my district is having two missionaries changed in it. Elder Wilson is going to be my district leader again and that`s actually pretty exciting for me because I love the guy. The other new Elder in my district is Elder Ellis, I don`t know anything about him but I hear good things about him. Good things indeed.

About the work this week, a little interesting we found some people that seemed to be interested at first but after teaching them a few times they suddenly turned on us and said that were not at all interested in changing religions or having us come over and teach again. That`s interesting, I wonder why they suddenly changed like that.

Elder North, Hyberson Salvador Hernandez Ortega, and Elder Menijvar

Serious Elder North and Hyberson Salvador Hernandez Ortega

Happy Day!

Good news, my good friend Caice South has received her mission call to Florida! It`s exciting and something I`ve been waiting to hear from her for a while, I`m sure she will be a wonderful missionary.

In other news that`s good my brother Mikel is now 18, I was pretty busy on his birthday with the baptism of Hyberson Salvador Hernandez Ortega, he surprised me actually by telling me that he wanted me to do the baptism and like a good missionary I told him that I would be honored to do it.

The baptism went by smoothly although it took way longer than we originally planned because people arrived late... Not actually something surprising, but they thought that it was at 3 and not 2 which meant that everyone started arriving at 3.30 and we didn`t really start at about 4. (What we call the hora chapin)

Besides that we had a really normal week, visiting members and having meetings with our branch president to get the missionary work more with members and us on the same page, progress is being made and it`s awesome.

I hope to hear more good news next week, have a good week.

Elder North

WRITE ME!

Beautiful Guatemala

Elder Jered North

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

Coming to a close of yet another change.

Date:  March 9, 2015

Area:  Sacshua, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Menjivar

As my title says I come to a close of another transfer and that`s always exciting news because it`s just an interesting time for us missionaries wondering what the changes are going to be, so if you want to know what I think, I`m staying with my current companion Elder Menjivar in Sacsuha, but transfers can be wild sometimes and unpredictable. I`ll let you know next Mo
nday.

We had our Zone meeting this week and that means awesome learning with everyone in the Zone and it means that I get mail, so I got mail from Mom and from Grandma and from Sister Barnson. They were all very enjoyable.

This week we had our focus set on Hyberson and building the ward, this week had a very awesome branch council which started us on the right track to get things more organized and moving forward in the branch.

Hyberson is doing really well, he`s progressing incredibly quickly and will be ready for his baptism this coming week on the very important Pi day, which happens to be my brother Mikel`s birthday.

Speaking of my brother I would like to congratulate him and to tell all those that read my weakly emails that he has received his mission call to the South Africa Durban mission. Unfortunately it`s an English speaking mission but he may be a ble to puck up on some other languages there. It promises to be a hot place and humid as well, 98 percent as I`m informed. I remember thinking how can a place be 100 percent humid? I learned how to describe it, it`s like walking in a cloud.

We look foreward to another week filled with heat and adventure and more people to teach about this wonderful gospel that we have and enjoy and the many truths that it brings.

I love you all.

Elder Norte

Flipped like a coin.

Date:  March 2, 2015

Area:  Sacshua, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Menjivar

This week was a little bit more exciting than the last week, we found more people and we really put more time into going out to the farther areas and getting to know the members that live a little farther from home base, (our house) through these efforts we were able to find a couple of investigators and a couple of potential investigators in an area called the parcelas. It`s pretty much cornfields over there.

As we were walking back home from the parcelas we were called by three guys chilling on their porch having a conversation, as we went over and had a conversation with them we found out that they were interesting guys named Juan, Julio and Sergio. We didn`t talk about the gospel in detail in this occasion as we got to know them and they got to know more about us, because they asked a couple of questions about our rules, apparently Juan`s son was attending he church when he was here in Sacsuha, now he`s in the capital doing stuff there. We`ll meet with them soon and see how interested they are in making commitments to come to church and learn more about it. As we were walking that day we burned our buns off as well it was so hot.

The rest of the week went by fairly quickly, Hyberson is preparing for his baptism on Mikel`s birthday in two weeks and he is learning quickly that we`ve just had a few lessons just reviewing what he`s already been taught.

We were not able to meet with Marcos and his friends because they were either busy studying or working, but we`ll get them next week and challenge them to baptism again and see if they accept.

This P-day, or... Today! Was a very interesting day for me, we had the opportunity to go to a giant waterfall, the one that I visited near the start of my mission and got attacked by lamanites, except this time I didn`t get attacked by lamanites because we brought with us a member and he was our pass key.

Now I also got bad news today, the North family is lamenting the loss of Adam Johnson of the Johnson family, close family friends and cousins to us. I was informed of his passing by a phone call from my mission presidente who counciled me on the power of prayer for me and for the Johnson`s and any others affected by the loss of such a wonderful boy.

This was like flipping a coin to the news I received last week about my older brother Deven`s engagement, but as we in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints know. there is a life after this life, that there is hope, that Adam is happy and that through the power of the Atonement wounds will be healed, and weaknesses will become strengths.

I`ve been assigned to study more about the Atonement of Christ and I realized something this week. I finally understand the `enabling power` of the Atonement, or `perfecting power` as I call it. We find ourselves in a fallen state and a fallen world due to Adam`s fall and through Christ we a redeemed from this fallen state and we are able to repent of our wrongs, but not only that, the atonement makes it possible for our fallen bodies, our fallen minds, our weaknesses and so forth to return to perfection. Through that one act of the Atonement Christ made it possible for us to become perfect as we follow him and his commandments, if it weren`t for the atonement we would not only be fallen in sin, but we would be stuck in a fallen state of mind and body and so on. It`s still a study in progress.

I love you all, and I give a special love this week to the Johnson family as they go through this trial. I give a special thanks to Adam Johnson, I know he`s there with his family helping them and comforting them and when they are stronger and need comfort less he will still be there helping them in any way he can or helping others.

Elder North

Week of.... Nothing really.

Date:  February 23, 2015
Area: Sacshua, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Menjivar
Week 61

I kind of feel like this week doesn`t really have any great and wonderful new things or adventures to tell all you folks back home, but maybe I`m just getting used to things that are more amazing, I have also learned that there are great little things everywhere!

We spent this week visiting people and getting less actives to progress, finding some new investigators but didn`t find many and other such things that missionaries do on a daily basis.

We did have a wonderful experience with a family this past week, we had a family home evening with hermana Nuri because the last lesson that Elder Menjivar and I gave the family was a smack in the face. go and read in Alma 5:37-41 where it says that if you`re not of the fold of Jesus you are of the fold of Satan. We hit them with it hard yet with love as we all need sometimes and then we had a wonderfully spiritual family home evening with them on Monday and they are truly changing their hearts and it`s wonderful to see. There is little that gives missionaries more joy than seeing someone change for the better. Truly miracles happen everywhere.

I also gave a talk in church yesterday about repentance, I gave it in Kekchi and I hope that there were people in the congregation that learned from it. I`m not worried that they didn`t understand what I was saying I`m just worried that they weren`t paying attention. I still don`t like giving talks, but I`m kind of used to talking to people, at least, more than I was before.

The weather here is starting to heat up and that means a lot of sweat and a little bit of complaining about how hot it is outside and telling everyone we see that it`s hot. Because that`s something that, even though is common knowledge, everyone comments about.

To answer a few questions that I got from my Mom.

It`s great having electricity in the house again at all times, before in my last area we had a solar panel that gave us light only when we had to use it or else we would spend it all.

I`m back to having P-Days in La Tinta and it gives me flashbacks.

I eat with members a lot and they give a variety of things, beans, eggs and caldo.

Certainly the news coming from home is amazing. Congratulations to my brother Deven on his engagement!

I love you all!

Drunks Beware!

Date:  February 16, 2015
Area: Sacsuha, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Menjivar
Week 60

I`ll just tell you all what the title of my email is all about first so that you don`t have to wait. We were walking back home for the night and in front of us we saw a drunk guy walking in his drunky kind of stumble-walk and Elder Menjivar thought that he recognized him so we walked faster so that we could walk past him and see who it was. It turns out it was the brother of one of our investigators which makes us really sad, but as we were passing by he seemed to take an interest in us and amazingly walked a little faster to keep pace with us as we tried to ignore him. He reached out and grabbed the back of my bag.

 Now I don`t like it when people grab me from behind so I reacted and turned and pushed him away, the push was effective as he stumbled back and fell down due to his drunken state.

I`m not really proud of this `mighty achievement of strength` because it was a bad reaction and he could have been hurt more than he was, but drinking is bad, it causes you to look silly and perhaps a missionary will push you down.

Anyway, a very happy event happened this weak as well, we had a baptism! Elder Menjivar had the privileged of doing the ordinance for two young girls age 10 and 9 named Maria and Vilma. They are just really awesome and were ready, they both have people to support them and they were really anxious to get baptized even when the baptism got delayed for two hours because the president of the branch was delayed, but it was done and it went well and they got confirmed the next day.

We have one more young boy up for baptism and we may be possibly putting another date for another young girl, we are also working on a couple of young men, ages 18 and such, we meet with all of them together every Wednesday and teach them together so that they can build off of each other, the sad thing is they didn`t come to church yesterday, but hope is not lost, they`re just starting to really search for the truth and they will come around.

Brand New Puppies

This week was really good although we didn`t find many new people to teach because we were busy preparing people for baptism and preparing the baptism itself, but next week we will be more focused on finding those that are ready. Prayers help.

Sorry I didn`t answer any of your questions, I got caught up in other things. I`ll answer them next week. But it`s awesome to have a fridge again!

Thank you all, I love you!

Elder North

First week in a new area

Date:  February 9, 2015
Area:  Sacsuha, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Menjivar from El Salvador
Week 59

My first week in Sacsuha has been really great, my new companion Elder Menjivar from El Salvador is awesome.  I never really got to know him before, but he's a good worker and has gotten me to workout in the mornings.  I have been doing my daily workouts but now I am doing more intense and better focused workouts and that has been pretty fun, even if it does hurt a little.

This week was filled with getting to know the area, asking peoples names and then forgetting the names and asking them again the next day.  They think it's pretty funny.  Sacsuha is a great place, it's a large area and there are plenty of members.  We have two baptisms coming up and we know we're going to place another baptisms next week.  So exciting things are happening.  It's fun to be able to tell these people that I know Kekchi.  Before I told people I was still learning or I knew a little, but now I realized that I have hit the point whee I can say I know it.  That doesn't mean that I don't have much more to learn though.

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to send pictures for the last two weeks, the computers I have been at have been being really weird and won't let me send them.  I'll be getting those out as soon as possible.

I got one thing of mail this week.  The family calendar with choose and another Kekchi dictionary.

My companion is going how in about ten weeks, which is always an interesting thing to see because as a missionary you get to a point where you never really believe you're going to go home even though you know you are.

I'm doing really awesome!
Elder North

Unexpected news

Date:  February 2, 2015
Area:  Korral Pek, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Sierra

The unexpected happened this week when we received the call for changes (transfers) Elder Sierra and I both are leaving Korral Pek to go to different áreas. So, my new área is Sacsuha which is right by La Tinta my first área. Sacsuha is mostly Q´eqchi´ if not all. Elder Sierra is going to El Estor where there is Little Q´eqchi´.  My new companion will be Elder Menjivar from El Salvador I think. I´ll be able to give you more exact details after being with my new companion. It feels wierd leaving Korral Pek because I never thought I would be leaving it so early but it was a really good time being up in the mountains, and now I return to the valley.... The unfortanate part is that we´re entering into summer again, and the summer in the valley is very hot. I have a month or so of cooler weather left though.

 

We only worked in our área for two days this week because while we were going back home Monday afternoon we got a call from our Zone Leaders to tell us that we needed to go drop by the capital to fill out some visa stuff for Elder Sierra so Tuesday in the morning we started our journey there. We slept in the house of the Assistants and then Wednesday at 3 in the morning we got on a bus to go to the capital, during the four hour ride we got delayed by an accident in the road for two hours which wasn´t that enjoyable.

 

Once in the capital we went to the imigration office got the paper signed and then returned to the bus stop where we ate lunch and had the opprotunity to talk to some other missionaries and I got the opprotunity to show of my Qeqchi badge to someone. Hehe.

 

On the way back to Cobán we got delayed two hours again which made for another very long ride, we then had to get up really early in the morning again to go back to Chulac and we made it in time to have our interviews with President Curtiss, tired, but we made it and the interviews were really great!

 

The days we worked were very unexciting, plenty of service though and that is always an awesome thing to do, even if it´s something Little. We said farewell to our friends and family in Korral Pek and went to Chulac for what may be my last time as a missionary there. We´ll see, I may go back up to the mountains some day but for now I´m returning back into the valley.

 

We got mail as well, I got one from Sister Barnson, 2 from the stake and 2 from Grandma Mary and one from the Larsens. Good time Reading those.

 

Well, onward.

Elder North