Surprises!

Date:  May 5, 2014

Area:  La Tinta, Guatemala

Companion:  Elder Cummings from Idaho

Week 20

In looking at the title of today's weekly report, well, I got only a couple of surprises today that I will be listing later. 

First off, letters I recieved:

Bethany Blackham,
Caice South 

Mom

So a bit about this week, we have all these new people we found in the last week that we`re pretty excited to start teaching, some as it turns out are not going to progress faster than others, but that`s how it is, and we as missionaries can`t just say, ¨We`ll that problem is something we don`t want to deal with.¨ Never give up, Never surrender. God has not and will not give up trying to help every one of us progress in this life so we as missionaries should not give up on any of the investigators, although there are times where dropping an investigator is valid.

I believe it was Wednesday, but regardless, we had the biggest rainstorm I have ever experienced here, it lasted for probably 4 hours and it rained HARD! The very good news about this is that our roof is fixed and we were not swimming, besides, swimming is against the rules of the mission.

For the next two days we experienced very cloudy days where we didn`t get to see blue sky, one of these days was the day I finally think I found out what 100 percent humidity is, and let`s say that it`s not that pleasant. I was thinking, well it`s cloudy so it`s not going to be too hot. Nope, very hot, lots of sweat. The next day was just as cloudy, but not as humid. I came to the realization that most of the humidity is in cause of not a lot of wind here. The best weather for me here is before a storm, where there`s a lot of wind and it makes the air better. More brisk and crisp I would say.

An update on some of our investigators, we were able to finally meet with Wilson, and he had questions for us, surprisingly for me his questions weren`t directed at the restoration, but more about the second coming, so I`ve been studying that lately to better answer his questions more, and it`s a very interesting topic that at times you find out that it`s one of those events too grand for our mortal minds to even manage.

Another one of our investigators Aroldo, has been great for me, because I have seen how much the

spirit has worked on this man, although he is still being stubborn about coming to church. His demeanor has softened and he is understanding and accepting doctrines and concepts so much faster and willingly. He is progressing, and we hope to get him to church this coming week.

So, I know I`m writing a bit later than usual, and this is because today we went to Tactic, which is a fantastic place to visit, it`s not as big as Cobàn, but it is deffinately bigger than La Tinta, and upon visiting I wouldn`t mind staying in one of the hotels there, where as the Hotel here in La Tinta I would think there would be better places to abide. In this trip several pictures were taken. Uploading is hit or miss sometimes though, I`m almost ready to just send a memory card home though, that should be fun for those at home to see.

On to the surprises. 

Surprise Number 1: Our investigator Estefany has accepted to be baptized at last, we found this out yesterday and she will be getting baptized the following Saturday, which is to say the 10th. I`ve heard that a Sister Barnson has had a similar experience. Estefany has chosen me to do the baptism which will be the first baptism I will be the performer of. This has been an awesome experience that I look forward to with anticipation, and a bit of worry as there are things to do and not too much time to do them, but we shall get it done!

Surprise Number 2: I got a call from my Zone Leader, Elder Hill to see what`s up and just how I`m doing, because he`s just an awesome guy! He told about how my mother, whom most of you know well, has been sending letters to more than just me. Honestly not too big of a surprise but I liked it.

This week we will get the opportunity to listen to Elder Ochoa of the Seventy on Thursday at about noon if you really want specifics on what I`m doing. We`re all to prepare a short talk as he`s going to choose a few people to share them before giving his talk, it`s going to be awesome, also I will be receiving my Banuu li us ring, which is, choose the right, in Q`eqchi`, so pictures of that will come next week.

I was able to get money out of my account, I just do it slightly differently than with my mission card with how the account is set up. I took out a total of 500 quetzales, which I will probably be using throughout a period of months or more.

I use my backpack, the shoulder bag is fine, it dosen`t hold as much, but it is terrible for this part of

the mission where you`re in the mountains and such, if I was in a place like Tactic I would probably be using the shoulder bag, but really all of the Elders (at least in my area) Use backpacks.
The smaller bathroom items and such I did use, because it contains all the essentials I need all put together already and I can put it into the backpack by simply picking it up and putting it in. All in all what we packed was great, although maybe hold back on a few of the snacks, those take space, although still very much appreciated and perhaps not worry about having twenty four hangers.

If you can remember the razor you got me for shaving, the one with the extra heads and such, that`s perfect and will probably last a missionary the whole mission unless his hair destroys the razors very quickly.

For mother`s day the times that Elder Cummings parents will be able to call him are from 2-5 p.m and the time that you can call me are from 6-9 p.m. The calls we expect to last a little over an hour, but we`re planning for a little bit more time so that unexpected technical difficulties won`t be too much of a problem.

Investigators are progressing, new investigators are being found, Elders are getting tired but then they sleep and get up to work again, and Elders are happy.

Thank you all for your prayers and your testimonies in your letters to me and for sharing what`s going on back at home.

LOVE,
Elder Jered Norte

Elder North loves getting mail and you can send him mail for free by using dearelder.  So pick a way and send him something today!

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 sendso you can go back and view them.  On the drop down menu just put inGuatemala Cobán Mission and thenaddress it to Elder Jered North. They get mailed out once a week. This will be the best way to contactme since I don't have that much time on e-mail each week.