Conference weekend #2

Date:  October 6, 2014
Area:  Kanlun, Guatemala
Companion:  Elder Santisteban

You sent cheese!  That's a little bit of a risk considering it's not a thing you only have to refrigerate after opening, but it's still good!  Unexpectedly I got mail at General Conference, two letters from Grandma Mary and a package from Mom and Grandpa North.  So I got to watch conference with some awesome scooby snacks, felt like home, except more Spnaishy and a little less comfortable chairs.

What he doesn't know is we did research and sent him Hickory Farms Cheese and so its all good.

A boy that was doing a model walk, I took video

My new companion is interesting I must say, he's very obedient and has been helping me with Spanish and all sorts of things.  He speaks about the same amount of Kekchi that I do, but he's a bit faster with it.  We're going to be learning that together through teaching, because that's the best way to learn a language, SPEAK IT.  My new companion is Peruvian so that makes my line up of companions come up to 2 North Americans and 3 Peruvians, and if we count the CCM, 1 Brazilian. Elder Santisteban has a really powerful testimony because he used to be part of the Evangelical church in his country and was preparing to be a pastor in it.  He knows the Bible really well and has been a great help in my studies.  Very neat and clean as well, something that's not too common here.  Not to say the others were not neat and clean, they were about as neat and clean as I am, but our house now is pretty much in perfect cleanliness condition, except for the mouse we can't seem to find.  He's there, the signs are everywhere, by way of mouse droppings.  Elusive little fellow.

I watched conference completely in Spanish, didn't have a choice in the matter.  Obviously every missionary is buzzing about general conference right now.  I just want to touch on some of the highlights which for me was that they had some of the speakers do their talks in their own language.  I was watching it in Spanish the whole time because the first day we didn't have power in the chapel in Sacsuha so we had to watch it in Teleman by internet in Spanish.  The second day we watched in Sacsuha but they didn't set up English for us...Oh well, I got Spanish skills.  I didn't get subtitles when they spoke in Spanish.  I was really cool to have them speak different languages.  Can you imagine how those people must have felt hearing the actual voice of a general authority instead of a translater?  I can imagine, I saw it, they were quite ecstatic about it.  Especially since TWO people spoke in Spanish, we win.

Bug

I'll try to take more pictures of my....well, it's not a city, it's a village.

The muck boots do not go over my shoes.  I use the insoles of my ecco's when I need to wear them to make them more comfortable, but other than that I had to get use to them.  If you want to send me anything in for Christmas send me a pair of Ecco insoles, size 42.

No blisters, and only sometimes I get sunburns.  The sun burns a little less when it's humid actually.  I did get a skin infection and my arm wasn't pretty.  I got medicine for it and such, but that's a long story actually and it wasn't fatal or anything.  I will have a scar on my arm for quite some time.

I have not learned how to make tortillas, I'll ask someone to teach me this week.

This week was terrible for the work in the sense that all our numbers were really low, except we did have quite a bit of people attending the conference on Sunday.  Why were our numbers really low?  Well, I have a new companion and I'm getting him to know the area and people.  We only really got to work for three days and during those three days we met more with the members and we couldn't get a member to leave with us.  The power went out one of those days, when the power is out and it's dark outside we need to return home.  Not to worry thought we found a new person and a few potential people.  We have a plan for next week that looks solid and all that stuff.

My companion with lots of kids.

Hope you all had a fantastic conference weekend!  Remember, follow the prophet.

Love,
Elder North

Elder North's birthday is on Saturday.  Guess he opened his presents early!  HEHEHHE

If you would like to know more about conference or listen to a session or talk you can go to the link below.

https://www.lds.org/church/events/181st-general-conference-of-the-church?lang=eng

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