Week 45...6/15/15...Hmn Gloria, Kimberly, Manuel and the Beach

Buenos Tardes Familia! How is everything going? This week was awesome for us! It was crazy for sure. . .but amazing. . .so many blessings and miracles. To start things off we went to the office Tuesday to take a picture since we broke the record that has been there for  5 YEARS! Then we were on our way to the bus stop in a Tuc Tuc when the oficina called and told us they wanted to come work with us in our area. So we just told the Tuc tucqurero to drop us off on the corner and we hitched a ride with the oficina back to El Codo. I went and worked with Elder Perez which was awesome and then we finished up with a lesson with Hna Gloria and her Family. Hna Gloria accepted to be baptized and so did Manuel! So that was awesome! 

Hno Keka and a guy who we always love to talk to.

Then Wednesday we had interviews with Presidente as a Zone. So we all met in the office building and had a bunch of teaching workshops and then an awesome message From Presidente Ruiz. He is such an amazing man. I love him so much. The oficina asked us to give a taller(workshop) on the Book of Mormon. It actually turned out super well and sounds like a few learned from it. Then we ended super late so we couldn't get back to our area. So we did divisions with the ZL's in their area. I went with Elder Berrios and once again just learned a ton from him. He really is a fantastic missionary. 

Then on Friday we called Elder Hill to see if he could come do divisions in our area to interview Kimberly, one of Hna Glorias daughters, because we felt like she was super close to accepting baptism but just had a little doubt she wouldn't tell us. So I went to Champe and worked all day with Elder Jimenez which was awesome! We had an activity playing Futbol in the cancha out side the church and brought like 20 investigators to come play. The people here love futbol! Then we got word from Elder Hill that Kimberly accepted to be baptized as well! Her problem was she just wanted something to remember her baptism and wanted her dad to send her a dress or something. We showed her the pictures we would be taking and she ended up being super excited for it! So we planned to be back in El Codo the next morning. However, the bus never passed or passed by early or late or something. The thing was we didn't get on a bus to get to El Codo. We made it there with a mixture of Jalons and walking and finally got to El Codo with 2 hours until the baptism. 

The problem is... El Codo almost never has light and without light there is also no water. So my comp and Elder Hill left in the morning without light to go 2 houses away to the church. And by the time they reached the church there was electricity! SUCH A MIRACLE! However the facet in the church takes like a good 6 hours or so to fill and we really didn't have time for that. So we talked with the neighbors to configure some sort of hose from their pump to go pass the fence, into the church, down the hallway and into the font. Needless to say with some crazy engineering the font filled in like 20 minutes. It was awesome. We might have to do that from now on! 

The hose we put together, ran from the pump through the fence, down the hall and into the baptism font.

Also we had the ZL's come down to bring some more clothes because the others didn't fit. And still when they came we didn't have any for Kimberly. But we designed a coat and dress combo that I must say may have been the best baptism outfit ever. I might go into model design when I get back SI PUES!!! 

Elder Jimenez,Elder Fiftia, Elder Lagos, Kimberly, Hmn Gloria, Manuel, Elder Pugmire, Elder Hill and Elder Berrios

Manuel, Hmn Gloria and Kimberly with baptism clothing designed by the Elders

But the baptismal service was incredible. And after the confirmation Sunday Hna Gloria was talking on the phone with her relative and I over heard her say. ''Something marvelous has just happened. Yesterday I was baptized and today confirmed in the Church of Jesus Christ. It has been the happiest days of my life.'' It was a testimony to me that really the true Church and gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. It was an awesome blessing for me because it was me and Elder Lagos who first contacted their house. So we got to see all of the progress they made. Such an amazing Miracle.

So that was the week! For P'day we went to take photos on the beach.

Elder Hill and Elder Pugmire

  

Elder Lagos and Elder Pugmire

THIS CHURCH IS TRUE. I love this work. Its amazing. I love and miss you all. 

Love,

Elder Scotty Pugmire

Week 44...6/8/15...Maiz, Zone of the Month

Hey guys wow. Time is really flying by. I never thought it could move so fast! This week was full of craziness! 

My birthday package from Hna Ruiz. It's early but I wasn't complaining.

So. . . Wednesday was awesome! We've been teaching this family that speaks Mam (pronounced mom) its a crazy language that has almost nothing to do with Spanish, only the words that they have adopted into the language. Plus it's not very common that it's written down but just a language that's passed down by mouth from parents to children. We're learning a little bit at a time but luckily they all speak Spanish pretty well. Wednesday we decided to go help them with their cornfields. Here that's what everyone has. Now that it has started to rain that's what everyone does! So we decided to go help them out. We thought we were going to help them plant but apparently, everything was all planted. So we went on a long bike ride to get to their fields.

Then we started to help them carry water to their fields from this little hidden pool like half a mile away. We carried the water in little bucket things and then they put them into their sprayers to spray insecticide everywhere. It was pretty great though. 

I promise I spent more time serving than taking photos even though there's a lot of photos.  This guy next to me is 22 years old.

I really learned a lot about service this week. Why it's so important and how it really differentiates the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from other churches. For instance, here if anyone asked the pastors for help in their field, to help cut wood or any other thing like that they would just be sooo shocked they even asked them. It's just not something they do. That's why the people here are so taken away when we help chop wood, wash dishes or help in their fields. Because we act in the way Jesus would, serving others no matter who they are. So that was Wednesday. 

So for the Zone meeting Thursday we needed to have a video made that we are going to put on the website and everything so this is what we did. Yes, that is a table three tables high and it was epic.

On Thursday I went on divisions with Elder Berrios in Reu while Elder Fifita went with my comp. While in El Codo our companions managed to eat 25 chocolate bananas and left the night with a family deciding to be baptized! When I came back to talk to Hna Gloria she said she was sure with her decision so if all goes well we're gonna have another baptism this Saturday! While in Reu I got another taste of what it's like to be a Zone Leader. I don't like it. All we did was run around all day running errands. We ran left and right, to the office to pick up folletos, copies of the Book of Mormon, and popcorn for the Meet the Mormons movie that we are going to be showing in all of our areas. Then we went to help the areas set up the movie and everything and only ended up teaching a few people that day. But I still learned a ton. Elder Berrios is a fantastic Missionary from the capital of Guatemala who goes home this change. 

Me and Elder Berrios on divisions

Cooking popcorn and chaos may or may not be the same thing.

Then later, on Friday we finished divisions in El Codo and went to work. The problem in El Codo has been that it's been raining which has been a blessing and a curse. It's been a lot cooler in temperature but let me be the first to testify that dirt roads in a typically dry place mixed with a ton of water is not good for bicycles. We started down roads and ended up just not being able to move with so much mud and nastiness. Also... My bicycle really doesn't well. . .have any brakes left. . . so going down hills and having puddles at the bottom never turns out positive. It's actually kinda a cool magic trick.  I start off with a brand new white shirt and tie and all of a sudden on the other side of the puddle it all comes out with brown polka dots. But well. . .that's the mission life here in Reu.

This Monday was awesome! We started off playing basketball in the Stadium here and then we went and had a special dinner with President Ruiz for breaking the record and being Zone of the month. So that was fantastic. 

Photos of the special dinner with president Ruiz Today IT WAS SOOOO GOOOOOODDDDD!

Zone of the month, June 2015, Zone Reu
Hermanas: Layton, Mendoza, Lopez, Kantrow, Saenz, Campos, Santos, Estupe, Carcamo, Keltner, Canales,
Elders: Berrios, Amundsen, Arias (cutouts), Hill, Me, Dail, Perez, Lagos, Jimenez, Fifita

The Stadium

The Players. . .Zone Reu

But as of new news, we are still working super hard. We've got a bunch of investigators progressing, reading in the Book of Mormon and praying for answers. We even had 5 investigators come to church. The hard part is helping them make the baptismal commitment. But really with all of the faith and prayers, I know that sometimes they're going to receive all of the answers they need to make that decision.

I hope that all is well at home and everyone is doing fine! I miss you all a ton but I really am happy here and having the time of my life Serving The Lord and Spreading His Gospel.

I love and pray for you all,

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Iguana!

Tamale from straight maiz... It was actually super good!

I drank this little bottle of Fanta and then realized what I actually did to my self later.  LOOK HOW MANY GRAMS OF SUGAR IT HAS!!!

Week 43...6/1/15...Celeste, a new house and tarantulas

Hi everyone! Just a quick update from me! The light(electricity) has been coming and going so I'm not sure how much time I'll have. 

This week was changes and the last week of the month so it's been crazy! But it's been pretty sweet because I found out that I'm going to get to stay with my companion Elder Lagos for another month and a half to finish his training! 

Another fun thing was they finished our new house! So we got to move into it this morning. Elder Hill and his companion woke up early to come to help us so that was awesome! I'll send pictures of the before and after! 

This house later became known as the "Casa de Alacranes" or the Scorpion House. Every day we'd wake up and there would be spiders, scorpions, or some other bug crawling up the walls. We had the mission nurses use their funds to buy us some Guatemalan style raid. I'm not sure what's in the stuff but the scorpions don't like it. Especially when we use it like a flame thrower. Also, I'm not sure if I've told this story yet, but I got stung in my sleep by one of the scorpions. 

I woke up to a searing pain on my forehead and went to the pila(sink) to start putting cold water on it. My whole face was hot, and I was still in a sleepy daze to know what was going on. To make matters worse, the light had gone out (a very common occurrence) and, I couldn't see where to walk. It must have been a revelation, but I started to think what could happen and I had a vague impression of brushing something off my face while I was waking up that was hanging off of the mosquito net. I rummaged around my bed until I saw a scorpion! I thought I could probably die, because one, it was the middle of the night and no busses would be going to Reu, two there were no hospitals in El Codo, and I figured that this was a very serious sting since it was on my forehead. I woke up Elder Lagos and told him I needed a blessing to survive and told him to pray for a miracle. He assured me that there were actually two types of scorpions in central America, "alacranes" and "Escorpoines" the alacranes don't stand up on their legs but they go out and aren't nearly as poisonous as the other ones. He told me I didn't need a blessing and would be fine but I made him give me one anyway. I laid back down after that and then had the thought that the scorpion I had envisioned brushing off my head was much bigger than the one I had just found and killed. I bolted awake and turned my pillow over to reveal and found ANOTHER SCORPION! Crazy. The rest of the day my face was completely numb, and apparently, everyone was talked to thought it was hilarious that I got stung by a scorpion, my companion loved telling people that I thought I was gonna die.

This week we went to help an investigator clean up a bunch of their yard. The people here just throw trash on the ground and then sweep everything up and light it on fire so we help them all clean their yard and then my comp taught me how to find tarantulas. Definitely, something I wasn't too keen to know. Apparently, they live in little holes in the ground and I had been walking over them all along. But just pour a little water in them and they come right out. I'll be sure to send some photos. Uhhh I hate those things! 

I pulled out a Book of Mormon in the middle of a lesson and this bad boy was on it. I just took a picture of it and took it as a sign that we should teach a different lesson.

This week we went to go help at an orphanage but we ended up not going in because of something that came up and they scheduled us to come another day. But because we waited so long we had to spend the night in Reu.

For that, we didn't have much going on in our area except working on the Baptism of Celeste. 

This month our zone has been working really hard and guess what? We broke the baptism record for the zone that has been there for 2 years. That means that we helped 30 sons and daughters of God take the step of baptism to start on the path that leads to our Heavenly Father. Every single baptism was a miracle and we ended up being zone of the month so next week we're gonna do something special for pday.

But the baptism of Celeste was such a miracle. We have been teaching her forever! She's been hearing things from her grandma about how our church is horrible and everything.  I think I wrote about it in my last letter. But despite all of that she has stayed pretty firm on her decision. However the day of the baptism we were in Reu and came back a little late. When we went to pick her up nobody was going to go to the baptism from her family. She was obviously bummed out and almost decided to not do it. But we animated everyone.  (Is that a good use of the English language? In Spanish it makes perfect sense.) She ended up going with a bunch of her primos! I'll be sure to send pictures of that! But ya that was basically the week!

It's so been awesome! Our zone now is super young.  My Bud Elder Hill got moved up to District Leader and is training and now there are two more Hermanas training in our zone. So It's a super young zone! But were seeing a bunch of miracles.

I know that this is the Lords's work. The church is true. I know that Jesus is my Savior. And I invite everyone to come to know the same.

Love,

Elder Pugmire