Week 8...9/29/14...San Pablo, Baptism, Fish Falls

 Two weeks into the field! Man, this week was the longest and shortest week I've ever had!  It was super good though! It rains super hard here and the streets all turn into rivers! I wish we had a kayak or something to get around because we get soaked.

We usually just walk without umbrellas or raincoats. It seems like people are more willing to talk with us when we're soaking wet.  Right at 2 o'clock. It always rains at the exact same time! almost every single day.  The other day I saw the most intense lighting bolt I've ever seen. It was right outside the house we were eating at and the sound was at the exact same time we saw it! It was probably the loudest thing I've ever heard! I almost fell out of my chair! It was so loud and bright!

We had 3 Baptisms of Yonatan, Heidy and Haidy on Saturday! It was a complete miracle because they were gone all day and we had a baptism scheduled for 4 but they didn't get home till around 6:00. So when we went to visit them their mom was super happy. We asked her why she was so happy and she said it was because her kids were so happy that they were getting baptized! She was the one who was opposed to them getting baptized in the first place. But now that everyone was super excited we headed over to the church and had a great baptism session. I led the music and gave the talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

I've had some pretty good and interesting food here. We had some amazing Honduran style tacos (baleadas) on Saturday and today we had these fish that we went to get. Hermana Gladys cooked them for us,  Head, Tail, Insides, everything, but man they were so good! You can't refuse anything here. You eat everything on your plate and tell the cook that they are your favorite cook in the whole mission. The other day we were teaching a family and they gave us some water to drink. We weren't sure if it was clean or not so we just said a quick prayer and drank it. Then she offered my companion a different type of drink. He said he would like some because he liked the same thing in his home country. I said I'd try just a little. She promptly responded by filling my glass to the brim. Man,  that stuff was awful! Even my companion hated it. It was like a drink of corn with tons of corn in it, served cold. I almost threw up on the final gulp. My companion cleverly hid all of the corn seeds in his pockets. Then we thanked her for the incredible drink and went on our way. My favorite food here is the Pan or bread. They have panderias everywhere and everything is like .50 quetzales each so we usually buy like 5 Q of bread for a meal. It's so good!!!

Teaching wise, I've got the first vision down. I'm really glad I memorized it so well in the MTC because it seems no matter where or who we are teaching whenever it comes to the First Vision story something happens. A kid comes in crying, or lightning strikes, or a dog gets hit by a motorcycle. Just weird stuff. But I've been able to just keep going on what's next. That and bearing my testimony is the main thing I contribute for now but I'm learning and retaining stuff really quickly.

We went to the fishery which was like three ponds. The guy just uses his net to throw it in and catch the size of fish you want. IT'S SO HARD!! We tried and tried to get one by ourselves. Finally, on the last try, I caught a little tiny fish! I felt like a champion though!

Lt to Rt:  Elder Lagos, My Companion,  Elders Gavarette, and Gonzales

Then today we went on a hike with all of our zones to these incredible falls! I'll add some of the pictures.

uno de los calles

But everything is going really good! I can understand most of what everyone is talking about. Just not when they are talking to me. But I'm working on it! I try to keep a positive attitude all the time and try my best to always be on the move looking for new people to teach.

General conference is next week and I'm so pumped! Were trying to get 12 investigators for each companionship to attend so we're renting a bus to take down to Malacatan where the stake center is. I'm so sad that I won't be able to hear the actual voice of the prophet and apostles because everything is translated. But I know that the things they say are going to be amazing and that I´m going to learn a lot through the spirit as well.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng

I love it out here. Guatemala is such a beautiful country and the land of the Book of Mormon. You'll see it from the pictures.

Ancient Lamanite Carving

I'm learning really fast but always praying super hard for the help of the Lord. I keep you all in my prayers every day and hope all is well!

Love,

Elder Pugmire