Week 75...1/11/16...Carlos

Wow. A  lot has gone down this week. Like a lot a lot. To start off, you know how I had said that my comp Elder Huesca had extended and so it was almost certain that I would have changes and someone else would come in to ´´kill him´´ (mission slang for spending the last change with someone that is going home). Ya annnnnyyywayyyys..... That was the plan, including Presidente had told me that he planned to take me out of this change. But guess what!? Salt Lake called and canceled the extension! So now my companion is going home with his group on the 3 of February!!!! That will be my 3rd companion in a row that I will have killed! Everyone has started calling me ''Asesino'' because everyone that's been my companion here in Coatepeque has gone home! So that's been kinda crazy!

Elder Huesca, my third comp to finish his mission headed to cut some hair.

My crazy comp. . .yep. . . He's done!

Also, we've had some miracle happen recently.

We've been teaching a family that lives super far away but we got them as a reference and they told us that they would like to visit the church. They couldn't for the last two weeks but I think that they might come next week. We went and watched the Joseph Smith video with them and I think that it helped them understand the church a lot more.

We also did a bunch of divisions to go and visited Dalmacia. Dalmacia and Jardin are two wards that share the building. There aren't missionaries in Dalmacia right now so my companion and I have been taking over the two areas! It's been crazy especially for 2 zone leaders that are already pressed on time! But it's been awesome! We found 2 families in Dalmacia and one of the ladies came to church so we're going to go challenge them to get baptized this week! We've worked a lot better with members this week which has been something that we have been lacking. So that's been good.

On Tuesday we had a meeting with Presidente Ruiz in Reu with all of the District Leaders, Hermana Leaders, and the Zone Leaders. We talked about ´´changing the culture´´´We have a lot of things that we need to work on as a mission including the overall obedience. But Presidente Ruiz hit it hard, and I was super pumped! I looked back at my Journal of 2014 and saw that one of my goals was '' DO NOT ADAPT TO THE MISSION CULTURE´´ I thought it was a pretty inspired goal. One of my new goals is to '´change the mission culture´´ and it's been going pretty well. 

We´ve also been teaching a guy named Luis. He is a boyfriend of a lady that's a member but lives in San Marcos.  She gave us his number as a reference and we meet with him almost every day in the chapel. He's super positive but his work is a problem with time. But we were able to watch Meet the Mormons with him and he loved it! And now is even more positive than before! 

On Wednesday I went on divisions to La Blanca with Elder Peralta, he's got to be the missionary with the weirdest accent. He sounds like a Norte but he's from Peru, his family is from Spain and he speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and a little bit of English. So that's that. We had a really good day and put some fechas and founds some positive new people to teach!

Elder Sanchez, Elder Vides, and my companion in District Meeting

Me and Elder Peralta on Divisions en la Blanca

I thought I’d try on some Corte for a bit….

The lady buds even look deadly here.

Me and Jose Antonio y Victor on divisions.

Friday we had another reunion in Tecun with Tecun, Malacatan, and us! We talked about the culture again and it was awesome! I'm really hoping that we can make some changes for the better, to start off this new year.

Me and elder Diaz in Tecun on a tricycle

Sunday miracles. So this Sunday I was with Elder Thomas because we had done divisions to do as many interviews as we could to help people accept dates to be baptized. We were in our sacrament meeting when a guy came in and sat on the last bench. I told Elder Thomas that he needed to find out if he was a member because I had a feeling he could be baptized this week. I took care of taking our investigatores to the Principios class while he talked with CARLOS HUMBERTO. He came with a friend to church and has a sister who is a member. But lives far away, he got stranded in Coatepeque without money but his family is going to send it to him. He said he'd been Catholic all his life but really likes the Mormon church and our doctrine and standards. We invited him to join us in the next class and he accepted. HE LOVED IT! We talked a little bit about how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church that has the authority of God to baptize and that according to John 3:5 everyone needs to be baptized into this church to live with God again. He just lit up and said (he's kinda older and very proper so just picture how he said it) ´´After hearing all of what has been said, I believe that I will be baptized in a very short time.´´ Then he's started telling us about how he now wanted his whole family that is Catholic to get to know the church. I decided that we needed to interview him right away so after church I interviewed him and challenged him to get baptized this Saturday. He told me that he had previously planned to return to his home but now he said he knew he needed to be baptized and accepted. We finished the interview and Talked with the bishop and everything is good to go.

Such a miracle. I Love this work. No unhallowed hand can stop it. People learn and accept the truth any second of the day because it's TRUE!!!!! This is the true church. It's the only way we can go back to live with our families and our Father in  Heaven.

I love you all. Keep up the great cause and share the gospel with someone new this week!

Love,

Elder Pugmire