Week 62...10/12/15...Zone Leader Service

View of our house from the roof.

I'm not sure if it's Graham or how you spell it! But there's a guy in our ward that told me that he knew a sister Pugmire that served in Honduras.  His name is Eddy Cifuentes! He told me that she's married with two kids and now has the last name Graham and the husband works in audio for the church! So it's basically a pretty small world here! But he says hi and sends his best wishes!

Alright, so this week was a blast! But man it went by fast! We started off the week by going to Reu for a Zone Leader Council. It was awesome! We got a bunch of new ideas to help our Zone out! We are hoping to have a lot of success this month! But someone has been working really hard against us, that common enemy.  Man, it's been tough! The thing that has been the hardest has been communication. In our Zone, something has happened to all of the missionaries' phones and we can barely contact anyone to know what's going on. But we're working through it. 

Me and Elder Ellsworth in the Consejo de lideres meeting.

We had a super good lesson after that with a guy named Jorge. He came to conference and during the lesson, he started crying and told us how grateful he was and gave us a hug, and accepted us to be baptized! So that was awesome! 

Typical Guatemala

Typical Guatemala

On Wednesday, I went on divisions with Elder Zuniga. It was pretty good.  We basically contacted the whole time, we set up 3 lessons for the next day but none of them seemed to be too positive. Then the next day we went to go contact the door of one of the lessons we had set up. The mom was obviously inside because we could hear them talking. But the little kid came out to tell us that no one was home. (It's kinda sad but that happens almost 3 times every day.) But we had the feeling not to walk away like we normally do. We shouted in to let the mom know we were there and we were bent on sharing a message to help her and her family. Long story short we got in the door and had an amazing lesson and now have an amazing family that we are teaching. The next day we brought them all tacos and we had dinner together and it was awesome! They couldn't come to church this week but they already took off work and made plans to come next week! So that will be awesome!

Elder Nielsen and I waiting to teach some members

Preaching the Gospel to every creature.

I did a few more interviews during the week and I'm so grateful for the Spirit helping us know what the needs of the people are.  The gift of discernment is a huge help for us!  I'm so grateful that I can be a part of helping these people come and repent and be cleansed for their sins. It is such a great and amazing responsibility and privilege.

Me and Elder Keck

View of our house from the roof.

View of our house from the roof.

We finally got the Magnolia Elders all moved out of their old house (after someone was shot outside of their house the week before) and into our new one together. It's pretty fun having 4 nortes in a house together. Somehow we've all started talking to each other in British accents and can't seem to stop. I kind of inherited a crazy situation as far as areas go. So there are three areas ( Jardin is mine, Magnolia is Elder Kecks Wilcox's, and Dalmacia). Dalmacia had to be shut down from some disobedient Elders last change, but right when I got to Coatepeque, Presidente was still trying to decide what to do with the area. Apparently, both sets of missionaries were locked in our house hiding from people who were unhappy with the other missionary who got sent home. They had just moved into this huge, beautiful, and probably nicest house/apartment I've ever seen in Guatemala. But it's also twice as expensive as most houses in the missions, even for 4 people living together. I'm not even sure how they got it approved in the first place. But apparently, they also signed a contract saying they'd be there for at least 6 months, which isn't normal in the mission. 

 However, when the Dalmacia Elders got taken out, we were left with an apartment that was twice as expensive for four people, and now only two people lived in it. So we were considering trying to find a way to move even though the house was awesome, then outside the Elder's house in Magnolia, someone was shot and killed. So we needed to move them anyway and it worked out. 

Me and my comp hard at planning.

Sunday we had a meeting with the Stake President and Presidente Ruiz to talk about how we could help with all of the work here in the stake to get ready for all of the activities this December! It's going to be awesome! We do a ton of planning as Zone Leaders and it's tough because I like to be out working all not running errands or making sure people are doing what they should but I'm adjusting to it and I know that I'm where I need to be! 

Love you all!

Elder Pugmire