Week 15...11/19/14...800 Tamales!

Well, here we are again on a Wednesday. We had some more crazy circumstances (Lyzandro had to move to Mexico so he shut his computer shop down worried about the gangs) that have pushed us back to writing on Wednesday so that's why I'm a bit late for the update. On Monday we had to travel to a zone wayyyy up in the mountains where I actually felt cold which really is a strange feeling after being so warm for so long! I don't know how I'm supposed to go back to Minnesota right before the winter starts. We got back at 5 and Hermano Lysandro still had not opened his shop and the other shop was full so we just went to work early. Then on Tuesday, we had the opportunity to work with one of the sets of Assistants to the President so we were running around all day trying to confirm baptismal dates for our investigators. So that has us writing today.

Man, this week was insane food-wise. The food here makes me want to cry most of the time. But I've learned how to enjoy it these last couple of weeks. We usually have chicken, rice, and beans for lunch which is the biggest meal of the day and then if we have dinner it's an egg with beans and platanos which are amazing! (Unlike the fried bananas I attempted to cook one time for Spanish extra credit.) This week we went to give service for one of our converts. her daughter turned 15 the other day so we went to help her get ready for the party. Their family is super poor but everyone was helping so that they could have a big party. Us elders gave 400Q to cover the cost of the food. It's a ton of money here but really only like 50 bucks in the states. It makes me feel terrible knowing how privileged I've been all my life. When here people have a family and only earn 40Q a day. Anyways... We went to make tamales for Hermana Amelia and ended up making over 800!

Here's the quick process of tamales. They had this HUGE pot of Masa or dough, then raw chicken, and a giant pot of beans, peppers, and raisins. You put a scoop of masa in a banana leaf and then put a piece of chicken in the middle with the raisin and pepper. Then you fold it up nicely and put it in another giant pot to cook 400 at a time over a small fire. I've got a ton of pictures you can analyze.

Also food wise I made these amazing omelets!!!! I was so full afterward.

I've obviously still got the gift!

This week I had the chance to work with a ton of leaders. One of the best ones was with Elder Berrios who is one of our zone leaders. He is such an amazing teacher! I learned a ton from him in just a few visits we had together. 

Monday was super cool! We went up to San Pedro to spend some time with the zone up there. We bought some super good Pan and then went to play soccer with them. It was a blast! A bunch of the elders stocked up on corte which is the fabric made here in Guatemala which is super cool, but pretty expensive. 

This week we ran into a bunch of new investigators. We seemed to have run into the group of Alcoholics Anonymous because right now we are teaching 3 people who are all friends through the AA. We're teaching them a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how they can lean on His atonement to give up their addiction. So hopefully we can continue to help them!

Changes are coming up really quick and I'm kinda nervous because either my companion or I probably will get changed. Most likely it will be Elder Lagos but you never really know!

 Also this week in my personal study and also later in a district meeting we learned about prayer. Man, I've really been slacking and recently my prayers have been so different! I learned that prayer should be a conversation. giving comments to the Lord about your day and always seeking revelation on what you should be doing the next day. Also, it should be lead by the Spirit not only praying for the Spirit but you should seek to listen to know what to pray for. So that was super interesting!

My heart aches for the Schoonover family and all that they are going through. It's a blessing for me to know that through the plan of salvation, after this life there is more and that they will once again get to see Patrick. But surely they will constantly be in my thoughts and prayers.

That's all for this week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Week 14...11/11/14...Testimony sharing magician, Wilson and the dog dazer

Alright kind of a crazy week. Especially since I'm writing Tuesday. The reason is that the brother of the owner of the Internet shop passed away and his funeral was yesterday. We attended the funeral since they are both members. But we couldn't write because the shop wasn't going to be opened up. And there isn't another place that was open that would let us four elders write for the time we needed. They only gave us a little time to write today so here's a quick update of the week.

Ok, here's the real story, I didn't include it in my original letter because I didn't want anyone worrying. But on Sunday I and Elder Lagos were headed to a dinner appointment around 6 where we were supposed to meet up with the other missionaries. We were thinking that we should stop by and pick up our USB drives that were being fixed by the shop owner. However, we both had a feeling that we should just do it the next day, we saw Wilson (Lysandro's brother) sitting on the curb of the street and we said hi to him, and continued on our way a few blocks away to the place where we were going to eat dinner. We sat there waiting for the elders and we called and called, but no answer, we both had a sickening feeling about it. By then the people we were eating with got a call with the news that there had been a shooting right outside of Lysandro's Cybershop. Not even 10 minutes from the time that we had passed it. We waited for a bit till we felt like we could go look for the other Elders there. We found them there trying to comfort Lysandro and Marisol who saw the whole thing, there were tons of people all over the street with Wilson just laying there dead. The cyber shop was a mess with broken glass from stray bullets but luckily no one else was hit. Wilson supposedly had been a mix-up with some bad stuff and that week 3 more people were shot and killed that were "linked with Wilson". Lorenzo was terrified that he'd be targeted because he was his brother, and ended up leaving for Mexico. So ya, there's the whole story I guess. 

One thing that is very common here are the earthquakes. We usually have 2-3 tremors every week but I rarely feel them. My companion always is like ''Elder, Elder, did you feel that?  Esta temblando!'' I just look at him confused and tell him that he's crazy. But this week we had one while we were teaching this guy who is a recent convert. It shook the whole house for like 5 seconds! Man, it was crazy! Luckily nothing happened but it certainly was an experience.

Also another crazy thing. On Wednesday we went to bring our clothes to get washed by the lady who washes our clothes. When we got back the other elders told us that one of our investigators asked if we could come to do magic for some elderly people at the new market. (And by us I mean me). We thought it could be a good opportunity for service so we went up. I was expecting some little breakfast get together of  15 people or so. But obviously, they were expecting us and about 30 elderly people were sitting in chairs looking at a little table. Around them were about 30 more people curious about what was happening. As soon as we got there they directed me to the table and gave me a microphone.

I tried to take on the stage confidence I usually have when doing magic but it was a lot harder in Spanish. After I introduced myself the lady took away the microphone claiming she spoke ingles and would be interpreted for me. (I continued speaking Spanish and she just repeated everything. Everything went really well and I think that everyone really enjoyed it.

Then in the end, the lady asked me if we wanted to say anything. I looked to my companion and he just gave me the thumbs up and continued sitting in the crowd. So I took my microphone back and told everyone why we were here. I told them about our message of Jesus Christ and how it could bless their lives. I invited everyone to hear our message and told them it was true. I don't really remember much because I think all of it was a different voice saying it. Definitely the Spirit in another manifestation of the Gift of Tongues.

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We continued cutting wood this week and I've got some sweet blisters. But the Guatemaltecos really enjoy watching the Gringos work. I got the Halloween package! Thank you so much it was perfect! All of my housemates say thanks too! They loved all of the candy and Carne Seca (jerky)! Speaking of food. I made the most delicious pancakes the other day. We don't usually eat breakfast but the other day I made pancakes with Nesquick mix mixed into it along with chopped up bananas. Oh my goodness they were sooooo good.

OH one other thing that was super helpful this week. I bought the battery to put into my dog repeller. Holy Moly that thing works wonders. We have this one investigator whose dogs always attack us. But the day I brought the dog repeller they ran up even more aggressive and mad than normal with no owner in sight. But then I pressed the button and they ran right back the way they came and we haven't had problems with them since. We got the chance to work with the AP's this week which was super awesome!

Also we had this one recent convert named Genaro. He is an alcoholic and very rarely is sober. But he is probably the most diligent reader of the scriptures. He always shares what he learned the last time he read. I don't know how he understands or remembers but he does. I really like him. If we could get him to stop drinking he would be so strong in the church. But the other day we showed up to teach him and he had invited a fellow alcoholic to listen to us. He said he had been sober for 2 days and was looking for some more help so Genaro introduced him to us. Now he is one of our top investigators and we have a baptism set up for him in a couple weeks.

Anyway, that's about it!  Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers! It all really helps every day! Hope all is well with everyone! Thanks again!
Love,
Elder Pugmire 

Tell Grant I'm way proud of him! He's such a good kid and man it seems like he's gonna be even better when I get back! It sounds like your doctor visits are tough but hopefully,  everything will get better! You're always in my prayers. That's funny to hear about Zac on his date! Just email as much as you want I'll have time to read it either this week or the next. Thanks again for the package! Everyone seemed to enjoy it! I've gone through a bag of jerky and vanilla tootsie rolls already which were super awesome! The peanut butter I'm savoring though. The status of the package was pretty good though. The sugar cubes, except for a few, all held together. The plastic bags of the gummy worms and caramels have ripped in a few places but for the most part, it was all really good!

Week 13...11/3/14 ...Holy Cow! Sunset and lumberjack

Holy cow. This week was insane! So many things happened it could have been just a month! First of all, on Tuesday we had our changes meeting to find out that a ton of people in our zone were leaving. Including our district leader Elder Vences and one of the other companions in our house, Elder Gavarrette. However, we also got news that we were going to get new elders to train. We got two new Latinos and one norte from the CCM. Elder Toala is the new elder living with us and he's from Ecuador and only has 4 days in the mission now. He's super cool though just a little quiet.

Elder Gavarrette, Vences, Fickes, Lagos, Me, Kanahele, Keck, and Gonzales

Kind of a crazy thing that happened the other day. We were contacting in the streets and had just turned down this street when this drunk guy ran up to us and said. ''Elderes! I want you to come and teach me and my kids about your church because I want to learn about Jesus and get baptized into your church.'' It was such a perfect thing that we went with him even though he was drunk hoping that we could meet his family. We had a lesson with him and his wife but his two kids were not there. Apparently, he had already had some lessons with the missionaries because he had a Book of Mormon and he remembered this scene from the testaments video. The part where Jesus is on the cross and says ''Father forgive them for they know not what they do.'' It was so funny because he quoted that part to us almost 10 times. It was all we could do to keep from laughing. He had the head bob down and everything. 

On Wednesday Elder Gonzalez went to get his new companion in Reu and so we went to Tocache in their area to go to a tarde de hermanamiento. Here the times a little different. It was supposed to start at 4 but people didn't start to show up until 5. So we got out super late and ended up missing some appointments. On the way home one of the members went to find us a pickup truck to drive all of the members back. Unfortunately, I think the driver was drunk. We ran into a van right as we were starting to leave the town. Luckily we were both going really slow and just the front of the truck hit the van going the opposite direction. Both of the drivers got out looked at the damage and just continued on their way completely different than how it would have been if we were in America. We got home safely thankfully, even with all of his swerving. We got off at the very first stop we could and then walked the rest of the way home. That was pretty exciting.

Right now I'm known as a magician, missionary, and professional lumberjack. We were with some less active members helping them cut wood. But here they cut it with the wood laying parallel to the ground. It's sooooo hard to cut even a little bit. But somehow even the old guys just go to town. But when it was my turn I just set up the wood how we would cut it in the states and just blazed through the pile of wood. So now everyone asks us to help cut wood.

Elder Meyer is our new leader de districto and he is super cool! I got to spend a day on divisions with him. This was during the day of the dead. We don't have Halloween here but everyone goes crazy for the day of the dead. Everyone goes to the cemetery to decorate every little square inch of gravestone and ground with flowers, food, and plastic decorations. There is also a substantial increase in the drunks passed out on the ground. We have started a new thing in San Pablo. We say HOYYYYYYYY really loud to greet people, and all of our neighbors answer back and the drunks too. They are usually just laying in the middle of the sidewalk or side of the street they actually look really comfortable... Not really... So flashback to the MTC we asked Hermano Mendez (MTC teacher) how he'd recommend teaching the law of chastity to someone who was homosexual. He said, don't worry we don't have that in Guatemala, which I no know is not true. San Pablo, it's known for its several gay men. It isn't a problem, but they are very open about it and we receive catcalls from them almost every day, especially if you're white (that's me). It's usually the only time I'm happy I don't really understand what the people are saying. It also is interesting because when we tell people we live on the "Callejon de Manfred" we get a lot of raised eyebrows. Manfred is a gay bar owner, so we have to make the clarification we live UP the street from him.

Some more crazy things that happened this week we were in lessons and there was this little green chile sitting on the table. It's smaller than a pea and I was just playing with it rolling it around in my fingers. But suddenly my eyebrow started to burn like crazy. It felt like I was all of sudden bleeding and I thought I had been bitten by some crazy spider. I felt it with my finger and it got worse. Then I licked it to see if it was blood because I couldn't tell in the dark. Then I realized what had happened because the tip of my tongue got burnt off. Holy cow that thing was sooooo hot! My tongue and eyebrow and then even the back of my neck was on fire for like 20 minutes but I didn't want to disrupt the lesson. Holy cow it was bad.....

Speaking of cow, we had this cow stew the other day. But it was like a soup of the rawhide of the cow. And most of the pieces of meat still had hair on them. Nasty. But it actually tasted pretty good.

photos of my first district huge toad bigger than my shoe...

Amazing sunset ...

Oh funny story about the sunset. We hiked to go see this sunset in the middle of the cornfield but then we were greeted by these two ladies with machetes. They thought we were trying to steal some corn and then told us that there were people that were really bad and would hurt us for being in their field.... so we left really fast.

But ya what a week!