Elder Scotty Pugmire's Guatemala Postings: Week 39...5/4/15...Missionary/Seminary Teacher

Alright, friends. . .Welcome back to another update of my adventures here in El Codo!

Thanks again for all of your prayers love, support, and everything! I love you guys!

We had a lot of bike problems this week and spent a lot of time fixing them

Also thanks to the family for the package. I'll have you know there were absolutely no bugs in it when I got it! I got it and instantly had the smell of peppermint and another smell I couldn't place. As I opened it up I saw that the bug spray bottle you had mixed up had become loose and the liquid of the bug repellent, basil, and peppermint leaked everywhere. The heat inside the package baked it into almost everything. So everything has got a hint of basil and peppermint flavor. But all are edible except the missionary Twinkies. Those were sooooo cool! But definitely did not have the same taste that I remember Twinkies having basil, and peppermint... but maybe I have been away for too long. ;) But really thanks for the package my comp loves all of the candy!

So this week was crazy! We really got cut short on our time to work in our area because we had a meeting for all of the trainers and people being trained Wednesday and didn't get back till 5 and then a Multi-Zone Conference on Thursday that resulted in the same thing!

A bunch of the guys from our group from the CCM that we saw in the conference.

But the Conference was super cool! We were supposed to go to the one on Wednesday but because of the training meeting we couldn't. But on Wednesday night we got a call from the Zone leaders telling us that we had the best stats in all of the mission and that we earned a special reward and announced it at the conference. So we were way surprised about that. Then in the meeting Thursday we were going to have the meeting in one building but the light went out so like 100 missionaries were walking in a line to go to the other building.

Here's the line of missionaries. Elders Pereida, Meyer, and Damas
I don't know if you can see them as well but there were about 25 in front as well.

We talked about the sacrament and how important it is. The most interesting thing I learned is the bread, which represents the body of Christ, represents his sacrifice and because of that, he conquered physical death. Then the water which represents the blood that Christ shed represents purifying and how each one of us can overcome spiritual death by repenting. So that was awesome!

We've been focusing on teaching a lot of recent converts and fewer actives about the sacrament and we were really happy to see that 2 of the people we taught came to church! Also, I was super happy to hear from my Mom that Adolphus came back to church this last Sunday!

This week we've been teaching a bunch of people and had 4 people come to church and have 6 people that have a date to be baptized so we are beyond stoked for that. We met these two ladies at this family home evening a member's family had. They wanted to learn about the church. We went and taught them and they accepted to be baptized and said they want to go see the baptism at the church this Sunday! So that was super awesome and really we are seeing so many miracles in our lives it's impossible to count them all.

We decided to start teaching seminary this week. I was up all night just preparing for this lesson. I am convinced was the best lesson I have ever prepared. Then we woke up at 4:30 to get to the Church by 5:00 and guess how many people showed up.... just us! So that was kinda a letdown but now we're going to try a different time and hopefully more of the youth show up!

But that's about all the big updates for the week! I've just got a ton of photos to send so that takes up a little time to write! Love you all and I'm so excited to talk to all of the family on Mothers Day!!!!