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

Week 74...1/4/2016...Christmas and New Year's

Walking through the forest with my companion.

Alright. Not gonna lie. I haven't had the desire to write at all these past weeks. There's just not enough time in the day! There's just so much more to be doing but I know that you all want to hear what's up with life and all so I'll let you know. The good thing is that I took a lot of photos these last few weeks so you can see all those.

Basically, last week all we did was run around looking for the photographer from the Coro Navideño. We need all of the photos so that we can contact everyone that went there. But, we never found him.

Thursday, was Christmas Eve and it was crazy! Here are a few of the traditions that they do here.  

A tradition here is to throw a ton of pine needles in on the ground to make it smell like pine trees.

They love to eat grapes and tamales. They even put grapes inside tamales sometimes! They also love the fireworks! There is a store to buy fireworks on any corner! They are sooooo ridiculously cheap it was torture not to just buy the entire store not to mention not buying at all.

Your typical firework stand with 100 shot roman candles 2 for 15 quetzals, like 2 bucks.

The difference between a fake and real bill here in Guatemala}

But all the kids love them and right at 12 the sky lights up! Right as the clock strikes 12 everyone in the town puts on their personal firework show! It's insane! The whole sky lights up and it's so loud you have to shout to hear someone!

We ate Christmas dinner with Gaby y Alberto. Usually, they eat it right before midnight but they were nice enough to change it for our schedule. We passed la Navidad con Elder Keck, Elder Toala, Elder Sanchez, and Elder Thomas. It was a blast!  We got onto the roof of our house to be able to see the entire town light up! 

Elder Keck Elder Thomas Elder Toala Elder Huesca Elder Sanchez, and I

Some fun photos from Christmas Eve with Elder Keck and me (laser gun presents).

Then Christmas Day we had some trouble getting the wifi all set up but eventually, we did get to talk with our families! That was the best Christmas present ever! Even though the Yo'yo Grant sent me is a highlight for me and my comp! The portable fans are awesome here! It started getting a lot hotter here so we definitely count them as a blessing! 

In our Reunion de Zona, we did a gift exchange and la Hermana Cabrera gave me an American flag tie and a wallet and candy! It was awesome! 

The presents and Christmas tree.

Hermana Cabrera

We've been having some problems with punctuality in our zone so as a solution we started charging for every minute people come late! We were able to have a super good snack thanks to the generosity and lateness of the zone but you'll all be happy to know that this week not a single person was late. In fact, they were all there 5 minutes early to see if we would get there late.  (We didn't.) 

Elder Peralta with La MULTA!!!! For being late!

P'day was a blast! Presidente Ruiz organized an activity with zona Malacatan and Tecun Uman where we watched The Christmas Carol and then played soccer and AMERICAN FOOTBALL!!!!! Man, it was such a blast!  I haven't thrown a football in so long! But it was a bast! They provided pizza and hot dogs for everyone! And then announced that everyone that had over a year in the mission would get an extra gift! We were all so pumped and went running into the room where the mission nurse was waiting with Brand new flu shots... Uhhh we were pretty bummed not gonna lie.  But after that, I and my companion headed to Reu to have a meeting with the Assistants and prepare goals for the next year. We played soccer afterward and it was a blast but that's why I didn't write last week.

This week we finally got in contact with the photographer and we had to organize all of the references to give them to all of the different areas. There were over 100 so that took some time!
Hampster and my companion!

Hamster and my companion!

My companion is ready to go home. It's not that he doesn't work he's just kinda done.  He's actually a fantastic missionary! He teaches super well and I've learned a ton from him! He's just super baggy.

Tuesday was such a blessing. From meeting a goal I and my companion got to go to the temple for the nighttime session. One of the last sessions of 2015. It was so amazing to see the temple at night!

I received so much revelation for my life. We were just waiting in the waiting room when I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing. I just read one line and it jumped out to me in a way it never had before. I'd read that thing thousands of times and never had understood what that part really meant. But I realized that I needed to come home in August when my mission ended and not extend. I don't know why. But I know that it's what I need to do. 

Me elder Wilcox and Elder Call

Me and Elder Cancino

We've found so many super positive people this week! One guy named Luis came to church 3 weeks ago with his girlfriend. I talked to him a little and then the next week his girlfriend came again and told us he wanted to meet with us. We set up the appointment and now he's preparing to be baptized this week or next week! He's so awesome!

A crazy type of fruit that I tried. I think it's called maracuya.

We also have an awesome family of 6 that we found. Here's their story. We were at the Christmas choir, me and Elder Keck, Elder Johnson, and Elder Thomas went nuts inviting every single person we could to go to the choir. A lot of other missionaries were just chatting it up but these kids work hard running alongside cars and everything! Then a family of 6 got a little red card that one of the missionaries passed out and decided to listen. They loved the choir, They took a photo and we went to contact them. They live soooooooo far away! There's no way we would have ever found them if they hadn't have taken this photo. But they were super positive and should come to church next Sunday! It was pretty funny! One of the daughters named Sandy was super excited to see us. We were lost looking for their house with Direciones chapinas when I saw her and recognized her from the photo. She and her brothers ran out of the store to say hi to us. I was quick enough to put my hand out for the handshake but my comp got the traditional kiss on the cheek greeting. I tried to hold back from laughing. He tried to escape but it just happened super quick. It was pretty funny and we had to explain our standards as missionaries.

We've been having our correlation with our new mission leader which has been awesome! 

Our trip to Reu.  Everyone carries everything on their heads.

If you’re in the center and need a restroom this is what you use. . . 3 quetzales with toilet paper 2 without.

Busses from a first-person view

The new year was crazy but not as crazy as Christmas. 

HAPPY 2016!

The next day nothing was going on. Everyone sleeps so that's pretty tough. We walked through the Centro Market and no one was there which was pretty crazy because usually, it's super busy! 

Meta Mercado empty on the 1st

Today we played soccer which was a blast.  Life is great! Thanks for all of your support!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Brownies that I made. My companion was super happy with me.

Tamales!

Me and elder Thomas in the rain!

This is in the house of the Elders In Gardenias. It's pretty cute I guess.

Week 73...12/31/15...I will write next week

I'm alive and good.  We've just got some work to do. They said we could write today because we had a meeting Monday but there's no time. Anyways... I went to the temple Mom. I won't be extending. And I talked to Elder Cook about rooming.  I don't know if his mom has talked to you. He said she was going to contact you. Anyway. Happy New Year's Eve!

Love,

Elder Pugmire