Week 71...12/14/15....ELDER HUESCA, preparing for floating lanterns

So this week was ridiculously fast! Time is going by way too quickly! So Tuesday we did the change meeting where we hid all of the changes in envelopes all over the chapel and had everyone go and look for them! Then we spent the rest of the day visiting our investigatores and also saying good by for my companion. He was pretty sad to be finishing the mission. We spent the night packing bags and such and then headed out bright and early the next morning to the Change meeting in Reu.

My new companion is Elder Huesca! He's from Mexico and a pretty fun guy! He's from the same group as my Dad who finishes his mission this next change! I thought I was going to be killing another companion 3 changes in a row but he extended a little so I'm probably going to get changed out before then but still... It'd be crazy!

This week we honestly didn't get much missionary work done. Actually, I guess we kinda did but it didn't feel like it. On Thursday we did divisions and I stayed here in Coatepeque with an elder named Elder Flores. He's from Nicaragua and super funny too! We basically ran errands because we are going to be holding an activity in the central park of Coatepeque and we had to go through the formal process of asking permission from the Governor and all of that stuff. . .writing letters of solicitud and everything. . . But all is turning out great! We're going to launch 100 floating lanterns. I'm pretty sure all of the mega paca is going to be there because they all were like, ''Are you gonna launch all of those at the same time?! How many did you buy!? Where are you gonna launch them off.!?'' And we were like, " Well as a matter of fact we are going to have an activity at 6 on Friday to launch all of them off. And you are all invited!" They are all super pumped! We assigned Elders to get interviewed and announce it on TV.  We have a radio ad going. I've got a feeling it's gonna be a huge event. We're just working on a way so that we can contact everyone that comes. But we're super pumped for it! So we're basically just making preparations for that. We're running crazy!

We did have some awesome new people that we found to teach and we had 8 people come to the church! We're working with a Joven named Denis.  He's come to church a few times and was hoping that he's going to get baptized this week! Not much new happened this week just spent the week getting permission for the central!

Hope all is well!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

These birds line these wires every night. I’m not sure why, but they’re a problem for everyone that passes under them.

Me and Elder Keck.

Your standard Guatemalan road.

Me and Elder Sanchez

I and Elder Elggren right after this crazy looking bug flew right by us.

That crazy bug….

Me, Elder Johnson, and Elder Keck

We wrapped a ton of copies of the Book of Mormon to give away during the activities that we are doing.

Me and my comp.

Me and Elder Graham

Me and Elder Aceituno.

Week 69...11/30/15...Miracles of Mashed Potatoes and Turkey

I good I'm writing my weekly letter but I think I'm going to have to wait to send it. The power just went out. I might just write next week if it doesn't come back!

Elder Johnson, and the pila water of Pajapita. It's pretty clean. You could drink it whenever you want and be sick for the rest of your entire life.

Me and Elder Elggren and Elder Johnson.

Hot and Knots

Walking through the grove of trees.

I'm not sure what the sap is used for but it could be rubber.

This place was just the perfect place for one of these photos.

Well, that’s what I thought until I had that thorn embedded in my knee.

Alrighty. Sorry I didn't write last week. There honestly isn't time anymore to write. But I told myself that I would write a good email to let you all know what happened last month. This month certainly was a month of miracles, we have so much to be grateful for I just want to list 3 of the miracle that happened this week. 

One of them was this Thursday for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was actually fantastic this year! Presidente paid for all of our Zones to have lunch! it was fantastic!

The Thanksgiving with the Zone. I didn’t get too many photos because I was getting all of the food organized. But in this photo is Hna Acosta, Hna Gunderson, hna Bustillo, Elder Perez, Elder Sanchez, Elder Wolfgramm, Elder Peralta and Elder Johnson.

Editor's note:  Looks like Scotty at the end of this table

We also had a miracle pass. So this is what happened. We were in charge of paying and bringing the mashed potatoes and so we did it. But the place that we were paying to do it didn't make as much as they had told us they were going to make. So we were going to end up really short. We decided to make the most of what we had. We started dividing it all up and we took like 5 solid minutes dividing it all so that we could all have exactly 1 portion. We cut up the 24 squares and then started serving on all of the plates. But then when we got to the last plate we found that there was still a bunch of servings left. We were so confused until we realized that a miracle had passed! Elder Elggren and I started jumping around looking like little 6-year-old girls when they realize that Tinkerbell came to their birthday party. We were so pumped. We prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for the miracle and then we started pulling the turkey. I was doing one half and Elder Elggren was pulling the other. We filled every plate and then I finished my half. Then I came back and it was like my half of the turkey had doubled! I lifted it up to inspect it and Elder Elggren started freaking out asking me where I got all of the meat from because he told me that he was sure that my half had run out! So many miracles! It was like a reenactment of the Bible but not of Bread and Fishes but Mashed Potatoes and Turkey! It was great!

Elder Johnson, Elder Graham, and Elder Alfaro.

That's what happened Thursday! Then Sunday came along. This is a day I will never forget. It was tough Saturday because we had 6 fechas fall, or people lined up ready to be baptized but something had happened when they decided they weren't going to do it. But instead of just letting them fall to next week we decided to do everything we could to rescue them. So Saturday we tried to help Coatepeque with their family that was going to get baptized but they weren't home. That's when I and Elder Wolfgramm decided to just invite a girl to church the next day. She said she'd think about it and surprise surprise when we called her on Sunday she said she was coming! We only got to stay one hour in our church because we had to go help, Genova. So Belen (our investigator that we just invited) came and we decided to just pass her off to the members. She ended up loving church and we went to teach her and had a great lesson!  She's so cool! 

Then we took off to Genova. Which is like a good hour and a half away. We got there to analyze the situation. We talked with the Branch President and he told us he really wanted that the two youth that the missionaries are teaching to be baptized. So we went to their house which was also really far away. We got there and they decided that they really did want to be baptized they just thought the baptismal font in the church was really deep. But they decided they wanted to do it in the pond they had dug outback. We got the permission of the Branch President and they were baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Elders Retana and Diaz with Angel and Carlos

Me and My companion with the Kids

Me, Elder Diaz, Elder Retana, and Elder Aceituno

Then Elder Diaz and I had to run to Reu because he had to get to Guate to sign his Visa papers. We booked it over there but got there a little late and missed our bus. But we sat in the office packing up all of the Cards of ''ha Nacido un Salvador,'' the new initiative the church is doing. It's a great video! you should all look at it and then share it with everyone! Here's the link. https://www.mormon.org/christmas 

Then we were all super tense trying to figure out if we had broken the record as a zone of the mission. The Record for the most ever baptized in a month of any zone is 40 people with 6 families. At that point, we had 39 people with 4 families. But the Elders in Colomba were supposed to have had two more baptisms. 

I had the chance to interview the two of them. Their family consisted of a son who was already a member and had the priesthood, another son who goes to another church, the dad who is active in his church but had gone to church with us various times, and another kid whose name is Angel. The Mom and Angel were the two baptisms that had been planned. You can imagine our surprise when they said they had had three baptisms with one family! The dad who almost didn't let the rest of his family get baptized had a miraculous change of heart and after being explained that his son had the real authority of God and was going to do a valid baptism in the Eyes of God, decided that he too would be baptized! What a miracle! We finished the Month with 42 and 5 families! A new mission record. We were so pumped! and more than anything so grateful for all of the miracles that The Lord had blessed us with this month!

 I testify that God lives, and this is His work. It never stops. It never will. And the miracles will continue to come into our lives as long as we look for them with all diligence and believing fully that God can do them. I love you all. Thanks for all of the support!

Elder Pugmire

Me and One of my favorite dogs I’ve ever seen! It's rare in Guatemala where you can find a dog you even 

chancing petting.

My comp tried to teach me to shave with a straight razor. It didn’t go too well. But I'm getting better at it!

Me and elder Wolfgramm, chocobananos in a romantic candlelight dinner because se fue la luz!

This is what you drink. . .bags of water. I go through like 8 a day minimum.

The capital buses!

Some cool capital photos!

And Me and Elder Diaz in las Brasas! A super good restaurant!

Week 70...12/11/15...Elder Aceituno's last week, Temple, The BUS

Happy birthday, Grant! You're the man! All of my friends love seeing you in my photos I always carry around! Keep being a great kid and an example for all of your friends. Don't ever be afraid to do what's right. Pray every morning as soon as you get out of bed. Unless you have to go to the bathroom really bad. Then you should probably do that first but then hurry back to pray before you start the day. Read your scriptures so you can be a great missionary too someday! Hope you had a great birthday! Love your biggest brother Elder Pugmire

Cute little member girls

Me and my companion with the record board of the mission

So it feels like yesterday that I was thinking that I wasn't going to be able to write home but it was actually a week ago! We did a lot of traveling this week trying to help my companion prepare to end his mission. I got back from the capital super late Monday night! The normally 3-hour trip took 7 hours due to the traffic so we had to stay in the office house again. Then on Tuesday, we went back for the Zone Meeting the next day. We looked pretty raggedy walking in after being traveling for so long. But then we went to work. Mostly we worked on my companion's English books. His comps have never pushed him to get it done so we had to finish his entire book in a few days. That was rough. I'm honestly so tired of learning English. Entonces ya voy a hablar solomente Espanol. JAJA syke! But ya on Wednesday we went to visit the girl that came to church named Belen! She's super cool and her brother's dope too! 

I had a crazy experience on the bus. I'm not going to go into detail but let's just say that I have a testimony of the Autoridad de Jesucristo being in this church. And I am so grateful to have the same authority that Jesus gave to his Apostles in Mark 3:15. It was crazy. But we ended up going like 30 minutes past her house but we got to know what La Reforma was like and then went back to teach her! She couldn't come to church this week but next week she should be able to!

Here's a summary of the story. We were headed on a long bus ride up to La Reforma. Apparently, there used to be a bunch of members up there but something happened and they all went inactive. On the way up my companion fell asleep, and then this lady next to me started shaking, drooling, and falling out of her seat. It was so uncomfortably quiet, my companion was asleep, and some people glanced at the lad but either didn't realize something was wrong or didn't want to acknowledge that there was. I felt like I was the only one watching and realizing what was going on. I tried to wake up my companion but he was out. So I said a prayer that I would be blessed to know what to do, and then put my hands on her head to give her a blessing. I remember feeling awkward in my words, my heart was racing and in a mix of Spanish and English, I blessed her to recover or have whatever was afflicting her removed. I just kept praying until I felt her stop shaking. I opened my eyes, she stopped shuttering hers, and then sat up. I looked around but no one seemed to know what happened, no one said a word. A few stops later the lady got off the bus at her stop and went on her way. Miracles.

Thursday we had to book it to Reu for my companion's Spanish test and then the left for the temple on Friday. I went with Elder Saxton for the morning (he's our financial secretary and lives the closest to Minnesota!)  It was super cool! He's a great missionary! Then we've just been sharing the video of ha Nacido un Salvador! It's been awesome! 

On Saturday we got to go with our converts to the temple! We brought a few and we got to go in with a guy named Pablo to do baptisms for the first time. He loved it, especially since just on Friday he baptized his mom! he's a super cool guy!

On the way to the temple, our bus broke so we went out helping the nearby people until they sent us another one!

Elder Aceituno and I 

It was cold that day. I decided to try the scarf I found. 

It was super warm and might be my new style…;) haha just kidding!

Then I headed to Pajapita to organized some of the activities they wanted to do with their ward. On Sunday we got to go watch the Devocional Navideno! It was incredible! It called my attention a lot about how Jesus is the Light. The light of our lives and our world. I love it! I also heard the coolest talk the other day about the scriptures by Todd B. Parker called "true doctrine understood changes attitude and behavior. You should all look it up! It blew my mind! 

Have a great week everyone! When I talk to you next week I'll have a new companion again! Hopefully, he's not too close to finishing his mission as my last two have been but it's gonna be awesome!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

I got the Christmas package last week! It's great! I'll save the presents to open them with you guys on the 23! Thanks so much, Mom! Just the speaker I'm going to have to wait to find something to connect to it. Since I haven't had my iPods.  But no worries thank you so much!

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.