Week 21 & 22...1/5/15...Holiday Food, Food, Food and Rat Killer

Translation:  "I will share the gift by filling Christmas with magic!``

Holy cow time has gone by soooo fast!  I'm almost to the 1/4 way mark! Sorry, I didn't write last week! The internet place hadn't paid for the internet so it was closed ;( dang it. But the good news was I got to talk with my family! And that was amazing! I really don't remember too well what happened three weeks ago or two weeks or this week so I'm just gonna try to lump everything together.

So first of all, once again my pictures have been lost.  I lent the memory card to our District leader and he seems to have misplaced it. I'm trying not to make him feel too bad about it because he feels pretty bad. But the good news is most of the photos are already sent home and I have more cards to use! But still, it's kind of a bummer.

Christmas here was insane.  I don't remember what happened when.  But basically, all we did was eat. Members, investigators, less actives, drunks on the street... everyone was inviting us to come and eat food at their house. But not just any food. . . TAMALES!!!! They are delicious but I'm pretty sure I've eaten enough to hold off for another year. We visited almost every member in over 3 days and ate at least one tamale at almost everyone. Then they would send us home with like 12 more. Our fridge was sooooo full! The other thing they serve a lot here kinda like the states are Cookies! But they all come in packages and they just eat a ton of them! That and sweets!

Christmas Eve Sweets and Food

My Comapero Loco

More food from our Presidente de Rama.
 It was soooooo good!

Man, I was soooo full! The cool thing was on New Year's  Eve we had dinner with our Branch President and his family! We had turkey which was soooooo good! But I was so full it was kinda hard to enjoy it. Right at 12 is when everyone lights off all of their fireworks so it's basically impossible to sleep!  Then we got to talk
to our families on Christmas Day and continued eating food. OH! I also was helping Hna Suceli set up skype so they could talk with their brother who is on his mission and guess who his companion is!!!??? ELDER COE!!! One of the coolest kids from the CCM! I was so pumped to say hi to him but that was all.

I got my package from Aunt CaMee and Uncle Travis and my Grandparents and it was awesome!!!! My comps loved it too! 

Some of my comps using the portable ping pong table Uncle Travis and Aunt CaMee and Grandma and Grandpa sent. They love it!


I made an incredible unhealthy invention from all of the food. . . my fantastic invention with all of the stuff that got sent in the packages. Featuring the all-powerful holiday oreo, Nutella, peanut butter cup, more Nutella, and a rolo. Yes yes, it is unhealthy but you better believe it tasted fantastic.

We've continued to teach a bunch of people and we should have some baptisms next week! But we've been praying really hard for them for a couple months so well see what the Lord has in mind!  Our Branch Christmas Activity was a huge hit!!!! We just were a little low on room.  

Wonderful New Year's Eve Meal w/ Presidente & Family

This week was pretty interesting. On New Year's Eve Day (is that a thing or did I just make that up?) We went to eat lunch and we got 3 things of meat about the size of marbles, rice and a ton of what's called herbas. Basically herbs but I think it was some spinach and other stuff other herbs.  It tasted terrible.  I almost died eating it. I'm super proud of myself because I ate all of it! Then I realized I had a problem. None of my companions had eaten it. Or at least all of it. I guess I was so busy choking it down I didn't realize no one else was going to eat it.  I had expected everyone else to eat it.  As soon as we left I started to feel sick.  We taught all afternoon and then about 7 o'clock we went to ask Hermano Daniel if he had something that could help my stomach. I drank some vitamin water and Alka seltzer but then threw up. We went home and for the rest of the night I was throwing up.  I didn't sleep at all. Finally, I got it all out of me but I still felt awful.  We left the next morning to go to work. But we returned to go pick up something.  I laid on my comps bed for like 2 seconds and passed out for 3 hours. The next thing I knew my comp was waking me up to go eat lunch.  I couldn't even bear the thought of eating.  Unfortunately, it was New Year's and so everyone once again invited us to eat. I ate a little bit and by the end of the night when we went to eat with Presidente I was feeling a lot better and right now I feel great! 

Sometimes in these weeks, we've had a great zone lunch.  So we had a great lunch as a zone someday after Christmas! Here's what it looked like from the second level of the church in Malacatan.  I took a photo but no one really was looking so I took another but I decided it was best to close my eyes for it. ;)

Here's our zone today.  We played volleyball and my team won the Tourney!
(Elder Bagley, Elder Heyrend, Elder Jensen, Elder Moreno? Elder Fickes, Me, Elder Goldsberry, Elder Arias, Elder Lagos, Elder Toala. Font: Elder Lovett, Elder Walton, Hermana? Hermana Cabrera, Elder?

OH! Today we played volleyball and our team of 4 elders, Jensen, Godinez, Heyrend and I won the championship!  I went on divisions with Elder Fickes the other day and it was awwwwsoooommmeee! The highlight happened in the morning. Elder Fickes'` house has a rat problem and in the night he said he heard them all night. (I slept like a normally do and didn't hear a thing.) Then right as we were about to leave for the day he saw a rat.  He called me over and I ran into the room with my slingshot and some pebbles and shut the door.  By then there was no escape and I felt like a Viking, Cave Man Warrior (or whoever uses slingshots to hunt) when I killed the rat with one shot from my slingshot.  Actually, I hit it twice but I think the thing that killed it was when it ran towards me and I drop kicked it across the room... But anyway we both were pretty pumped with our conquering.

The rat I killed with my slingshot. Ya, I'm pretty proud of it.

That's basically a quick or not so quick summary of these two weeks! I'm doing great and excited for this new year! I'm learning a ton and Spanish is coming so quick!  As long as I am doing my part of studying and praying the days come easy. There's such a difference between the days when I study and the days I miss.  I hope that everyone had a fantastic Holiday season and that this new year is the best one yet! Love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder (the rat killer) Pugmire

Week 20...12/22/14...Feliz Navidad

Hey friends and family! I'm super happy right now because as of right now BYU is winning in their bowl game! So that's always great! Thanks, mom for the updates! I also have some bad news for today. I don't have my camera because today we went on a zone scavenger hunt and I took a bunch of pictures. But the zone leaders wanted them to put them into a presentation. So that's where my photos are, well kinda, the SD card I gave to Elder Lovett also got misplaced, so I lost all those photos. Thankfully I've sent most of them home. Also Today we don't have too much time to write because I get to talk to my family soon!!! I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!! 

This week was pretty great though! We had a multi zona meeting in San Marcos this Tuesday. Man, it was amazing! First of all, it was such an amazing temperature. Since it was in San Marcos which is in the mountains it was the perfect temperature to be wearing my long sleeve shirt and suit... Which is usually just the combination of sweltering heat and slow death. The conference was fantastic! But also kind of sad because it was the AP´s last day on the mission. I was really good friends with both of them who both only have a few hours drive home to different parts of Guatemala! Also one of the greatest lunches ever was at the conference! PIZZA!!! With WINGS!!! I ate almost a whole pizza because there was so much! I think it was one of the first times I've had pizza in the whole mission. Also, I enjoyed showing all the missionaries how to eat wings. Special thanks to Montrell Moore for teaching me. On the way home, it was super exciting because all of our zone was in a little van, and right as we stopped to drop off the first companionship one of our tires melted and popped. So we were on the side of the road for a while while the driver let the brakes cool down and could put on the spare. It was clearly a miracle that the tire popped as we were stopped and not as we were driving!

But we got home safely and went to work! UHHHHH!!!! Memphis tied not good! Still praying hard for BYU!) Alright, so some other things that happened this week was we did a toooonnn of service! We moved out our best investigatores that were moving to San Marcos so that was tough. Then another day we helped a member move houses. The next day we went and degrained a costal de Maize (just know that a costal is a toooonnnn!!!! My fingers were hurting for a few days after.) We're still teaching a lot of people and looking always for others. It's tough because it seems like everyone we teach ends up leaving for a different part of the country. 

Yesterday was crazy! There was a parade in all of San Pablo that was full of pickup trucks with boards in the back to make them floats. They were full of Christmas lights and lots of decorations. We basically got stuck in a member's house to avoid getting stuck in the middle of it. But finally, it passed. We did some other stuff for like 45 minutes more and then headed to go home. But unfortunately, the parade was super slow-moving and we ended up getting caught in the middle of it. But we decided to make the best of it because the streets were lined with people. We waved and gave out a few El es La Dadiva cards. So that was pretty great!

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up the week! Speaking of Wraps I'm super excited for Christmas! Hope that everyone is doing well and that everyone has the best Christmas ever! Feliz Navidad Y que le vaya Bien! 

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Week 19...12/15/14...Choir Concert

Holy cow this week was amazingly crazy! I've also realized that my letters are pretty boring and I apologize. I'm gonna try to make things a little more interesting. ANYWAY... This week was crazy!!!

Tuc Tuc. . . what we use to get around in.

This Tuesday we had our meetings for changes! WOW! Our zone had a ton! Elder Cook is headed out! Yes, Mom the same Elder Cook whose parents you talked with. He's probably my best friend that I had in the zone and a straight-up beast.

Elder Cook

G

Elder Keck and Elder Cook. . .  Some of my best friends in the zone that are headed out to another area. Doing the ''KECK''

On Wednesday we got a bunch of new people! Elder Gonzalez left and we got Elder Solorio to come and finish training Elder Toala! 

                                              Here's the last photo of the boys in San Pablo.

Elder Solorio speaks really English really well. He really didn't have any special classes to learn he just would always listen to English music and movies. He got the MTC and realized he could understand the Nortes!  He's really cool and from Mexico and was the trainer of one of the guys in my CCM District, Elder Mattson. In our district, we got 2 new Elders that are gonna be training! Our zone is sooooo new! We also got a brand new District Leader, Elder Lovett! He's super cool! 

The Zone Board

This week we had some crazy things happen. First of all, we gave this service where you get all of the corn off the cob. But you don't use a knife. Just your fingers. MAN If got the worst blisters ever! They were all dried out but man it hurts to type. 

But the crazy thing is that we were with this 12-year-old girl that filled up probably double the amount of corn we did in less than an hour. That in its self was definitely a lesson of humility. I am just happy that I don't have to degrain corn all of the time because every time I touch the space bar with my thumb I'm sure my blister is about to pop. ;(

This week we ran into some incredible investigators. We got them as references from some of the only members in our area. All of the other ones are in the other San Pablo area near Santa Domingo and Tocache. It's this lady named Gladys whose husband died 3 years ago and she has 6 kids. They're super poor but they are super Pilas in going to church (pilas is like the word for.... well I don't know it doesn't really have meaning... basically smart, awesome, cool its a good thing to be pilas.) Hermana Gladys and her hermana have shown up to a church activity the baptism that the other Elders had and the Choir activity last night all on their own. We just have to teach them and I'm sure they will be baptized in the next couple of weeks. It really is an answer to our prayers for miracles this month. Our other 2 baptisms fell through and got postponed so were hoping that eventually they will get baptized this month.

We had this activity this week where we were gonna show some videos including ''El es La Dadiva'' But right as we were about to start with over 70 people in the chapel the lights went out. But instead of canceling, we decided just to start. We ran and grabbed all of our candles from our house and we just had the activity in the dark.

They keep cutting off the lights almost every night which makes it super hot to sleep without a fan because the people don't pay their electricity bill. And there's this guy who puts up the electricity for free that the police are looking for so that's exciting I guess.

Yesterday we had a great choir come! They were made up of 3 stakes in our mission and had a ton of decorations.

The Choir Concert

We had over 400 investigators come in our stake!!! We rented a bus and just filled it up! We brought 3 families that are doing really well! We had lights all outside and then inside the door was a place where the investigators could take their pictures in the stable with the wise men and shepherds and Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Then we got all of their information to then bring their pictures to them so we could contact them later. It was a great program and they even had some songs in English that made me feel right at home!

Choir Decorations for Christmas Concert

Elder Fickes

Anyway, that's about all! Hope everything is well, miss you all! Hope BYU is winning and that everyone is cheering for them. If not... You should probably repent but I won't judge. ;)

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Week 18...12/8/14...Guatemala Experiences and Xetulul

Entrance of Xetulul

Hey guys sorry, this email is gonna be quick! This week was awesome! I have a ton of pictures but I don't know if I'll get to send them all because the place where we are writing is super slow and kinda sketchy. But this week was a blast! We had the chance to go to Xetulul which is an amusement park here in Guatemala! It was actually decent and had tons of decorations for Christmas! We spent almost the whole day there and then had a fantastic Christmas lunch and then Presidente bought us all ice cream!  
I got to see almost everyone from my old CCM District! So that was way cool! 

MY DISTRICT IN THE CCM MISSING A FEW PEOPLE
Huasupoma, Evans, Sherwood, Ellsworth, Elggren, and Mattson.

My Zone on the Water Ride doing the Keck

Elder Woods!!! 

Elder Meyer 

The best ride which is actually a pretty good roller coaster

Our zone on the log ride (Elder Berrios, Elder Cook, and Elder Jensen)

Xetulul Main Entrance

Elder Jensen 

Me, Elder Meyer, and Elder Cook

This week was definitely a show of Guatemala. We didn't have electricity for 3 days this week because some people didn't pay their bills. So they just cut it off for the whole town. So I've got a sweet picture of our house in the candle lights.

NO LIGHTS ALMOST EVERY NIGHT IN SAN PABLO

On Wednesday we went to give some more service and cut a bunch more wood for Hermana Amelia. While we were doing it we ran into a scorpion and a snake. Both were probably poisonous. But we didn't kill them. We put them in a bottle and then put them in our freezer. I don't really know why but that's where they are now. They look pretty sweet but I'm looking for the chance to throw them as far away as possible. Those things creep me out.

The Scorpion we found while giving service.

The snake we found while doing service. 

Something funny here is the little chicks. The people color all of the chicks different colors and you can buy one for one quetzal each.

The chickens here are sweet!

Yesterday was awesome we all rode down to the first presidency devotional. I could understand almost everything but I don't think I remember anything. So that's about where I'm at with my Spanish. After the activity, we had all of the people that are investigating the church light off floating lanterns like in tangled! It was super awesome although we were super close to catching something and someone on fire. But everything ended up going well and safe.

Lanterns at the Christmas devotional!

Today was awesome. We had an activity as a zone where we all went to buy cereal and everyone brought their pajamas. Then we had a cereal buffet and pajama party which was super fun! Our zone is super fun and I get along well with everyone.

Cereal banquet

The people that feed us gave us Christmas cards. They almost got my name right...

Elder Keck! at Cambios!

Tomorrow is changes and it's gonna be crazy. Rumors are flying around that in our area there's gonna be a lot of changes so that will be really interesting. I'm excited though and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

The final thing is the initiative the church is holding called HE is the Gift. If you haven't seen it look it up. christmas.mormon.org It's a short video and the church is doing a ton to have this video be promoted all over the world. Be sure to watch and then share it! That's what we have spent the last week doing!

Hope everything is well and that you are all having a great time in the cold!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

I got the package on Monday it was a little beat up but intact thanks for the stuff to cook and the presents which I will open soon! Also, the tree was awesome! My companions are super excited! (Editors Note:  It was sent 11/10/14 International Express)

Address for Elder Pugmire

1.  Letters Through the Pouch System

Elder Scott Pugmire
Guatemala Retalhuleu mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City Ut 84130-0150
(These letters need to be regular envelope size with one stamp, no lined paper, and no pictures unless they are printed on the letter page.)

I also use Dear Elder.Com

You can put in his name.  His Mission name: Guatemala Retalhuleu and then you can just type a letter and they will print and send it through Pouch.  It's fast and FREE!

2.  Packages and other letters can be sent to:

Elder Scott Kayson Pugmire
Mision Guatemala Retalhuleu
Boulevard Centenario, Zona 2, Salida
a Coatepeque
Apartado Postal No. 26
Retalhuleu Guatemala
C.A. 11001

Some packages will require you to have the mission office phone number 502 7771-2325

When you send a package you have to use a customs declaration.  I sent one that mailed for $70, large box.  Then I sent one International Priority which was smaller and cost $80.  They both arrived.  Both were beaten up but everything was packed well so nothing broke.  They took the same amount of time.  

Week 17...12/1/14...Miracle of Leticia's Baptism

Hey Family and friends! This week was awesome but we only get a short time to write and have P day today because on Friday or Saturday we get to go to Xetalul! Which is the amusement park that we have here in the misión! It's gonna be soooo much fun! Were going to go there to celebrate Navidad and have a super nice dinner! So I'm super pumped for that!

This week was way good though! This Tuesday we had a MultiZone conference! Holy cow it was super good! I learned so much and it was so spiritually uplifting! We got some awesome news about this event the church is having this December called "He Is The Gift."   It's this video the church is making and producing everywhere. They are supposed to have a ton of views with this video and it's gonna be the main way we get new contacts this month! The church has bought out a video screen in times square and the main page of YouTube for all of December! So check it out and be sure to share the real gift of Christmas!

This week was super cool too because in the stake we are in they had anyone who was 17-19 that wanted to serve a misión could! They all got their calls to somewhere else in the stake and they were on their own to find new people and then give the references to us. We got to work with them a little bit and it was super awesome!

We had a miracle happen this week with Leticia. A few weeks ago she told us she didn't want to get visits anymore from us but then the last Sunday she showed up at church and said she had a feeling and got an answer to her question if the Church was true. She was baptized this Saturday and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesús Christ of Latter-day Saints yesterday! I'm super happy for her and so grateful for the opportunity we had to see someone change like that.

 Leticia and Leandro who is another convert of San Pablo 2

Anyway, that's about it just lots of pictures! I got my pictures recovered on my camera!!!! But I'm still working on getting them to share them.

This week as part of the conference we had a talk about mosquitoes and they gave every missionary a mosquito net. I hung mine up with a nail and an old super skinny tie that no one used. The problema is that the thing is super hot. So I had this ingenious idea to put my fan inside my net. Now I sleep in this wind tunnel which is just about the closest thing to heaven in our house.

My Mission Issued Net and my addition . . .the fan inside!

Thanks for all of the letters MOM! And also thanks to Brooklyn for the letter!

Editors Note:  These are letters I send him from his friends who are also serving missions.

Love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Go Cougs!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

PS
Thanks for the email mom! Tell Natalie congrats! That's so awesome for her!
Mom's question:  "Did the mission give you filtered water bottles?"  His answer, "Yes they did! But usually, we just use old plastic ones and buy agua pura."

Something one of the Little member girls wanted to tell me but decided it was best just to write it on the back of my shirt. 

Thanksgiving dinner of tortas. These are probably my favorite food of the mission.

Members Hermana Marisol's nephew and daughter

Members

Hermana Marisol's daughters and Elder Toala

French toast apparently I still have the gift!

Week 16...11/24/14...Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!  It's almost Thanksgiving which obviously isn't celebrated here in Guatemala. But that's ok because we eat chicken every day for lunch anyway. And I guess that's pretty close to Turkey... This week was crazy!

My comp and I have started to run in the mornings! We take a 10 minute run down to La Vega and then make the return which is basically death itself.  The slope is sooo steep!  But I've actually started to enjoy the run! Which is something I never thought would happen! I enjoyed it so much that the first time running up from La Vega I got to the top and I thought my 3 companions were right behind me, when I turned around they were nowhere in sight. Was super surprised and kinda worried that I had lost my 3 companions. Thankfully after a few minutes, they all walked around the corner, apparently, I was in a little better shape from lacrosse than the 2 soccer stars.

This week was interesting with all of our investigators. All of our investigators fell through so we're starting on a clean slate except for Leticia who called us on Thursday to tell us that she was going to go to church on Sunday! And She did! Later she accepted to be baptized this Saturday! So that is super exciting! 

My word of the Week is Chapin. Chapin is what the people call themselves here. They are the Guatemalatecos and Chapines. So all of the Gringo missionaries are on the quest of the mission to become the most Chapin as possible. This week I was doing pretty good for the list!

We went out and cut wood on Thursday for Hermana Amelia for like 3 hours. We Cut a ton! Like 2 tareas which I'm not sure if it's the same thing as a cord of wood or not. We took some awesome pictures that I'm going to send once I get a different computer.

Then on Saturday, we went to cut/pick cafe. I know I probably should repent for that. But it was so crazy! We took this super long hike down this super steep slope where we got to this place where Hermano Daniel wanted us to cut coffee.

 It grows on these huge trees where we just pull a branch and then strip off all of the coffee into the baskets that we carry. My hands hurt sooooo bad and I don't think that they ever will be clean again.

But man it was such a crazy experience. We filled two HUGE costales of cafe and then This little Guatemalan Hermano Daniel carried both of them up the hill! It was insane! I don't think I could even lift those things off the ground if I wanted to!  But he carried one, two times up this insane hill for like a mile!

Life is going good though and the Spanish is coming so much better! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I'll try my best to form some sort of Thanksgiving dinner. 

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love,

Elder Pugmire