Week 68...11/23/15...Happy Thanksgiving

Alrighty, y'all. How's it going. I'm doing good. Actually, I'm doing great! What a blessing it is to be here just talking to everyone about how they can be happier in their lives. It's such a blessing! Also, another thing that I'm grateful for is that we're actually going to celebrate Thanksgiving this year as a mission! I'll send photos next week! We're super excited. But I would like to send a message of just a few things that I'm grateful for in this life.

1. The Chapines or los Guatemalatecos. Man, they are just such lovable people. You've just got to love them. They are always smiling, unless you tell them that you're going to take a photo, and just very friendly.

2. Tortillas.  Right now I think I'm at 1783 for those that would like to know and I enjoy everyone of them.

3. My mom. For those that know my mom know that there isn't a better woman that has ever lived on this earth. She is so kind, loving, patient, and so quick to put the needs of others before her own. I love her so much.

4. This gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just fix this in your mind, if you aren't happy and still aren't a member of this church you should make a change. This is the secret. If you want to be happy, if you want to have a more united family, center it around the gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored church and you will see what blessings you've been missing. 

5. My amazing companions. They've all been great! I've learned so much from each and everyone of them! 

6. My converts. Actually, they're not mine. They're converts of the Spirit which I have been able to see become converted. I'm so happy to have been able to see the great blessing that they have been able to receive after they have made covenants with The Lord.

7. My Savior El Cristo Viviente. Do you realize what He did? Think about it. If you still can't comprehend read In the Book of Mormon Alma 7:11-16. He made it possible that we can go back and live with our Heavenly Father again. Without Him there would be no second chances, no chances at all.  There would be no forgiveness, no happiness or peace in this world. But He lived and died and lives once again to rescue the souls of all of the human generation. I hope that you can all develop a testimony of the Living Christ this Thanksgiving. Then Go and read the Living Christ and start memorizing it. It will build your testimony so much! 

Alma 7:11-16

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless, the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

 14 Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

 16 And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me.

8.My dad. You won't find a harder working on the planet. I'm so grateful for everything he has done. All of the support he has given me and the example of how to love those that matter most to us in this life.

9. My brothers and sisters. They are the greatest. They are so supportive and so loving and I'm so grateful for them. 

10. Nice drainage systems. I've got super cool fungus feet thanks to the lack of drainage systems here in Guatemala. But It will be a great recuerdo for the years to come. Also, my first day in coatepeque our toilets seemed to have a backed-up pipe so everything drained right to the top of our roof. We hosed it off with bleach and cleaner to get rid of it, but the person next door/on the lower level later told us to tell our landlord to stop sweeping her dog poop off her roof and on to his... haha yikes. hopefully, we don't have that issue again.

The list goes on and on, but basically, everything comes back to something on this list. My family, my Savior, and the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. There exist no other. This is the truth. I may be bold, that's good. Because the truth is bold as well. I Love this work.  I love you all thank you for all of the examples that you have been for me in my life.

This week... I can't think of anything crazy that happened, except we had a leaders meeting on Tuesday and we learned a bunch about faith. So that was awesome! I learned that faith is a combination of obedience, repentance, and dedicated service. Besides that, we kept working on helping the family Gonzales make steps toward baptism and find some awesome people to start teaching. One of them was today.  My companion wanted to take a photo in a coffin so we walked up to the nearest coffin store and made the request. And the guy didn't even bat an eye. He was just like, "sure!  "Just come into the back room so the people in the street don't think it's weird." Then after we snagged this photo. He started asking about the church! He has a family of 5 people that aren't going to any church (which a miracle in this country!) But we're going to go and visit him this week!

I didn't take a picture in the casket because I'm not going to ''die'' in the mission yet but maybe in the future;).  We still haven't taught that family but were making plans to do it. 

Besides, that Happy Thanksgiving go and tell someone you're thankful for them and make their week!

Love you all!

Elder Pugmire 

The best thing I've done has been giving myself pedicures. I've bought a brush and scrubbers and just scrub all of the fungi off.  It's stopped raining so my fungus should get better soon.  I'm asking the nurses for cream too so that should come. 

Sister Bustillo and Hermana Garcia. They're the Sisters opening area in Pajapita.

We met this super cool lady. She even was kind enough to leave us a note telling us she wasn't going to be able to meet with us that day.

Week 67...11/16/15..."One comp down and another one to go," JACKSON y LESLY, Elder Aceituno

What a fantastic week. So you may all be asking what does one do with their last day of the mission? I'm not sure how others spend theirs, but I'll have you know that for Elder Nielsen and me, it was one of the best days ever. 

We had a good meeting and then we went to get the baptism clothes already for Jackson y Lesley. We ironed them all and loaded them into the bag filled the font and headed to their house to have them try on clothes. That's when the surprise came. Jackson and his brother and cousin were cleaning a whole bunch of garbage out of their apartment complex.  So naturally, we decided to blow their minds that we would be willing to help even in all of our shirts and ties. The garbage truck came to lift a tarp of junk into the truck but they couldn't quite get it. So we helped them with that and they too were just stunned that two white kids in nice clothes would just jump in to help them lift a leaky tarp of smelly garbage into a broken-down pickup truck. 

Then after that was over we went to have them try on clothes. That's when we realized that Lesly had been crying and that something wasn't right. They told us they didn't want to be married or baptized anymore and were going to separate. We got there at like 3:00 and until 5:00 they told all of their story and their pasts. Considering their impressive stories we thought it might be a good idea to let them wait another week. But then me and my comp both got the impression that this was the day that could save their family. We played the therapist a bit, and I was really glad to have learned some techniques from my mom. Then we knelt down and we told them to both offer a silent prayer and ask Heavenly Father if they should get married and baptized. After like 5 minutes they both lifted up their heads and there was a different feeling in the room. No more was there a feeling of accusation or contention but a calm and peaceful feeling of a family that was ready to move forward. They both said they felt like they needed to go forward with the baptism and wedding. We left at 5:30 to buy the cake and get some other clothes. Then at 7:00, the lawyer was there and they got married. Their whole family came and they all were super excited for them. Lesly later bore her testimony that this was the best decision that she had ever made in her entire life. The next day Jackson gave us a reference of his friend and we went with him to contact them. We're hoping that we can help the rest of their family get baptized as well but we've just got to get past a few more challenges. 

Elder Nielsen, Jackson, and Lesly

This change meeting was incredible. My companion gave a powerful testimony about loving the people you serve and then the highlight was Elder Perieda. He's my ''grandpa'' in the mission because he trained my trainer. He's the only member of his family. But they came down from the capital to support him. In his testimony, he challenged every one of them to be baptized. It was so powerful. He's such an amazing missionary and I'm going to miss him a lot.

Elder Tucker at Change Meeting

My new companion is Elder Aceituno! He's my third Honduran Companion. He's from Sanpedro Sula. He's only got 3 weeks left till he gets home as well! So I'm killing off two companions in two changes! He's my number one fan of magic and just goes nuts whenever I do a trick for him. he loves it. He is super humble and knows the scriptures super well! We've had a ton of experiences this week just following little promptings to find prepared people! And we're hoping that they're going to be able to progress. 

Elder Aceituno and I braving the raging cornfields.

The downer of the week was with our Familia Feliz, just the happiest family ever. They were going to come to church this week but couldn't and they also told us that to get baptized the husband needs to get divorced from his ex-wife so that could take some time. 

This week there was a conference for all of Guatemala. I stood outside on the streets with Elder Elggren and Elder Johnson and we pulled like 12 people off the street to come and listen to David A. Bednar speak. It was awesome! 

Also, earlier in the week we were walking on the street and I got the impression to talk to this lady. All we did was invite her to conference and find out that she lives really far away. So I figured that maybe the Lord was just testing my ability to follow The Spirit but she actually came to the conference with her 2 young kids! It was awesome! 

The spirit has been a lot more present in my life recently and I love it! Hope that it's the same for you all at home as well!

Love you all! 

Elder Pugmire

Elder Wilcox is the type that would be a great writer and ya... that was his old house. Our house is super nice! Such a sad day for France... Hope everything is well. Keep me updated with all of that.

Week 66...11/9/15...Busy teaching, Sandy, Waterfall

I'm going to be short because we realized that my companion has less than like 48 hours of being here in Guatemala so we want to maximize his time teaching. 

Me and my comp about to leave to sing in the choir!

We just got the papers of a family that we are going to help get married and baptized tomorrow before my companion gets on his plane!

This week was all full of miracles, waiting outside the lawyer's office to get the wedding papers prepped.

On Tuesday my companion went to Xela to visit the temple for the last time! Luckily they sent someone that could go on divisions with me the whole day! It was awesome! Elder Wolfgramm and I worked super hard and as a result, left 5 people with a baptismal date! It was awesome.

Here's a summary of everyone

Felix, he was a reference of a member named Eduardo.  He's about 55 and knows a little of everything.  He's super awesome and has been through a lot. He used to be a heavy drinker and smoke 60 cigarettes a day! But now he's made some awesome changes in his life and hasn't been drinking at all and only smokes 1-2 a day. If you could all pray for him that he could quit completely so that he can make this important step in his life that would be awesome! He's so ready and knows a ton he just has to stop smoking so he can be baptized!

Mabe, another reference: She came last week to church and was the one that accepted to be baptized right on the spot! We went and we found out that Elder Wolfgramm had actually been teaching her 9 months ago! But now she was a lot more prepared and ready to make some other changes in her life. She should be getting baptized next week on Saturday! 

Then this has been one of my favorite stories yet. Her name is Sandy. Sandy is a girl that has been through A LOT. She has had a super hard life and has tried just about everything to fill the emptiness that she felt. The misioneras found her and she loved the church but just felt uncomfortable being baptized when she knows how her old life has been. But Elder Wolfsgramm and I went and first, we taught probably the coolest English class that this group of Guatemalans had ever had, and then we had the lesson with Sandy. We taught about the love of God and the power of forgiveness and about how baptism cleanses us of our sins. Then we challenged her to be baptized on Friday. She sat in silence for like 3 minutes with her shaking her head no, no, no. You could see the fight going on inside of her. but finally, she just took a breath and Said. ''Si.  What time?'' So we put a time and then I asked if she really believed if God loved her. She said she wanted to believe but wasn't sure. Because he had let her go through so much. I told her she was going to end with a prayer and then in her prayer ask if God really loved her. She did and when she asked the spirit just overwhelmed us all. She barely ended her prayer and started to cry and cry you could tell she had received an answer. Me and my comp just kinda slipped away and went to go teach another lesson to put two more fechas with Jackson and Lesley. They're the family that is going to get baptized tomorrow! I'll tell you more about them next week!

Today we went to some waterfalls and it was fun!

Photo Credit:  http://eldertdwilcox.blogspot.com/

Photo Credit:  http://eldertdwilcox.blogspot.com/

Elder Nielsen and I

Elder Wilcox, Grahm, Nielsen, and Camargo

Elder Camargo,  Elder Graham, Elder Wilcox, Elder Nielsen (my companion), and I

Elder Nielsen and I

A rock that just had the perfect ray of sun on it.

Photo Credit:  http://eldertdwilcox.blogspot.com/

Pugmire, Wilcox, Graham, ft: Nielsen

This week we had a stake conference and it was incredible! We had a member of the Seventy, The Temple President, and also President Ruiz there! It was so awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Pugmire

The plants that grow on the power lines here. Kinda weird!

Week 65...11/2/15...HAPPY HALLOWEEN FAM!!! ITZY

What up fam! Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Halloween. We tried our best to celebrate a bit. Here they don't really do anything.  There's no trick or treaters but I was sure to show a few tricks to the Jovenes. Probably made their day but I'm not sure. We survived the on slot of Fiambre. Fiambre is the typical Day of the Dead food. It's a mix of every vegetable and meat you could ever want, or maybe wouldn't ever want, to eat. It's got a strong taste of beets which I'll have you know I'm not a fan of. Actually, in hindsight, this is Satans food. Probably the worst thing I've ever eaten and even thinking about it now makes me nauseous. But I ate it all, (you can be proud of me mom, but please don't ever cook beets for anyone!) So ya!

FIAMBRE!!!! Yummmy…. ;P 

Oh, we also found some pretty dope costumes so we did some damage to the other Missionaries living in our house. We had a little cat come trick or treating at our door, we gave her some tuna and then promptly used her to wake up Elder Keck and Elder Wilcox. I don't know what surprised them more, the cat that they sent flying off their bed in terror or the fact that we were dressed up like Whinny the Pooh and a Lizard. Needless to say, it was pretty epic.

Me and my companion celebrating Halloween with our trick-or-treating cat.

But just a summary of how they celebrate the day of the dead here. Everyone goes to the cemetery and leaves food and flowers on all of the tombstones and eat fiambre.  Pretty exciting right? Right after I took this picture as the honey hit my tongue I remembered we were fasting and spit it out as fast as I could. I was just thinking about how Pooh would eat honey so I should too.

ITZZY! or Ilsi or Ilsa. She goes by a lot of different names. There was an area named Dalmacia that closed and she was an investigator of them so the other missionaries and we have all worked with her. She sells Mexican candies in Paiz (a big Mercado) so we always were teaching her as we passed by here. She's 28 but looks like 18 and always told us she was 18 until we saw her license. She has a daughter that we don't know very well because she's always working. 

We've been trying to get permission from her dad for like 7 weeks because she works for him and is a really big part of her life. One day she told us that the dad gave her permission! So she got baptized! 

Elder Keck, Elder Wilcox, Itzy, Elder Nielsen and Me

But proselyting wise. we had a great week! The family that we are teaching is progressing really well and 4 of them came to church this week! Just one of them named Jackson has a lot of doubts about the Church. On Tuesday we went and challenged all of them to Baptism. The mom said she'd give us the answer today but this joven named Estuardo said that he accepted and knew that it was what he needed to do! He's so Pilas! Such a cool kid! And he just barely came to church yesterday! 

Wednesday we had a meeting in Malacatan with 4 other zones. My comp and I gave a lesson about defending our areas. We talked about the need to study Preach my Gospel and from that we have been developing a test that we are going to do tomorrow with our Zone. But it was awesome! We learned about being ''consecrated missionaries". We've been trying to exhir(exact or encourage) more obedience in our zone. Thursday I went and interviewed a family in Colomba. They were so awesome! The missionaries prepared them all really well! They had a brother in the family that died in a car crash and in the middle of a prayer for help from the mom the missionaries knocked on their door. They're all going to get baptized on the 6th!

Elder Camargo, Elder Nielsen (my comp), Elder Graham,  Elder Wilcox, Elder Keck, and me.

Alberto and Gaby are some of our recent converts who are just the greatest and make such good food! They own the internet cafe we always write at and they just love the missionaries. 

Friday we talked with one of our investigators that we have been trying our very best to get permission from her dad to get her baptized. She's 28 but still very dependent on her parents. But Friday a miracle happened she talked to her dad and told him that this was something she really wanted to do! And the dad, even though he's a preacher in another church gave his ok! The only problem is she has a really tight work schedule so we had to do the baptism at like 5:00 on Saturday! But she was so happy! It was great!

We had some awesome experiences finding some awesome people this week. We were walking to a Cita(appointment) this week when we passed a family just sitting in their house they just looked like a really good family so I told my comp we should just pass by really quick. And we did. We just asked them ''Why are you guys so happy?'' They were like... "Well, we don't know! We just are." We set up another appointment to meet with them and they accepted! They don't go to any church and said they might come next week!

Then yesterday Elder Keck and I were on divisions in my area and we were looking for some news without any luck at all. I told him the best people are always in the very last house we contact. And cabal, the very last house that we found we had 2 super positive brothers come out and accept to get baptized and said they'd come to church as well! So it was awesome!

Elder Keck Elder Wilcox and I looking our best.

The miracles just keep coming.

We had a returned missionary bring her niece to church. Her name is Mabe.  She's like 32 and when we talked to her we invited her to be baptized the 10 and she accepted too! It's been crazy! So many miracles God has just placed in our hands!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Pugmire