Elder Scotty Pugmire's Guatemala Postings

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Week 9...5/3/16...More interviews, San Felipe, Diligencia and Baptism miracles!

5/3/16

Hi Mom. I love you. We won't be able to write until Thursday the earliest. We have temple trips and some other stuff to do. We will be calling home this Sunday! I think it will be at around 2ish... but Thursday I'll give you the final details. Love you!

XELA PAN!!!!!!! BEST BREAD IN GUATEMALA!!!!

I know its tough for you mom to lose functions in your body. Sometimes we lose our physical capacities to gain better spiritual ones. The Lord uses the weak things of the world to accomplish great things. Every day I wonder how. how is it that so many extremely imperfect, insufficient , and young missionaries can bring even one person to the truth. And the answer is that its not us, but The Lord. He uses us how and when he wants to. Keep being the example that everyone sees you as. Everyone of my friends tells me that you are the greatest person they know. And it's true. You´re incredible. Thanks for everything. But now's not the time to get down! Keep your head up and keep moving forward! Even if its a little at a time! I'm going to have to go all high school sideline cheerleader again! But LETS GO!!!! You can do it! The Lord will give you enough strength for what He needs you to do!

All my love,

Elder Pugmire

Me Elder Kahl and Elder Elggren

Elder Wilcox, Elder Kahl, Elder Virgin and me with our gifts from President Ruiz!!!

Elder Kahl and Elder Wilcox.

Your average car wash in Guatemala.

Hi mom. I´m excited to talk to you all! I believe that we will be talking around 5ish on Sunday.. But that could be subject to change! This week was full of running around helping out all of the zones.

So on Monday we had our lesson with Estefani! She is so amazing! At this point in the week we didn´t know much about her but we knew she had been having a tough life. Just so you can picture this girl in your mine..She's 19 and she showed up to church in a tee shirt, jeans and a fedora (hat) just a few days before coming to Guatemala she shaved her head completely bald. She did it with the church she had been participating in for a number of years to support kids with cancer. She is honestly so prepared. We got to the lesson and we asked her if she had any questions and she asked ´´What does one have to do to be baptized?´´ We were blown away and taught her a bit about baptism and immediately challenged her to be baptized the next Saturday (WeTve been trying to be missionaries that testify and challenge more) and The Spirit was present and she accepted!!! So she is preparing for This SATURDAY TO BE BAPTIZED!!!! I´m really excited because it's been something that I have been asking the Lord for. We had literally maybe 5 hours maximum every week in our area but we really wanted to put forth the example and be missionaries that baptize. I´ve been praying really hard with my companion, Elder Kahl, for just one person for this month of May and The Lord blessed us! I know that based on our obedience and diligence The Lord's grace covers us after ALL that WE do. He will always, always make up the rest. So that was Monday.

Tuesday, we had to go deal with some thing in San Felipe and help their zone out so that they can shine this month of May! Then we had 3 missionaries that finished there missions Tuesday to get home in time for studies! They were all from San Felipe so that's why we had to do some changes so that none of the areas was left without missionaries. We´re going to use a lot of the mini missionaries again in these next weeks to double our efforts!

Wednesday we went to Mazate to finish up our round of Interviews with the whole mission. So I was in charge of sharing the message we had been sharing while Elder Kahl and Elder Gutierrez did house inspections. That inspired us to announce a desperately needed no activity p-day. So this Monday all the houses are BRILLANDO! SHINING! Then after the interview we went to pick up two mini missionaries from Cuyotengango and brought them to Reu.

Thursday, we headed back to San Felipe and shared a message with Presidente Ruiz about Diligencia. Then we visited the Zona Retalhuleu and ate lunch there to end our weekly fast.

Selfie with the Zona Reu

I remember how it used to be such a sacrifice to fast when we were in El Codo. With the intense 100 degree heat a 24 period of no food or water is tough. Especially while maintaining a full proselyting schedule. But it has given the mission and us as missionaries the Spiritual boost we need to be part of the miracles of The Lord.

Me and Elder Kahl with the suits we found cleaning the office.

We finished the day giving a complete clean to the office and then we went to interview Estefani with Elder Cancino. WOW!!!! She never ceases to amaze us! She has had one of the hardest life circumstances ever! Having family problems and being sent to Guatemala on her own at age 12 and then living in an orphanage until she could leave as well as many other problems. But she told us that she had been assisting a church in Honduras for along time and went almost every day. ´´However,´´ she said ´´the moment I walked into the Church door, I felt something I´ve never felt before in my life. I instantly knew that the church was true. Everything about it was going to bring me happiness in my life.´´ The first thing she told the bishop when we introduced her to him was ´´I do believe that I will be getting baptized very soon´´ (she came with the family of members who she´s living with).

Friday. we did a lot of driving around bringing Elders to where they needed to go. To put them with their new mini missionary companions.

Saturday, We had our weekly meeting with Presidente and made our plans for this week.

And then we planned for our meeting on Monday as well as make all the arrangements for the week to come.

Our original plan was to fill half of Elder Gutierrez´s room with balloons… But….. we decided to do it in the office.

Me in the balloons after Elder Gutierrez´s opened up the door holding the balloons back.

Elder Taylor, Hna Dzul (the mission nurse) Hna Romero, Me, Elder Gutierrez, Elder Rock, Hna Guzmao, and Hna Hernandez.

200 of the 600 balloons we blew up for Elder Gutierrez´s birthday!

Elder Gutierrez was pretty happy to be into the balloons. The Balloons are still running out of the room.

All of the office with their respective balloon color flags!

Elder Gutierrez´s cake.

I invented the new cup cake. Or better said cake in a cup.

Sunday, Estefani came to church and we had 2 others that we contacted that said they would come but didn't show up. At Zona Reu) saying that someone on the phone wanted to talk with me. IT WAS WAKIN! Wakin is the last of the brothers of the big family in Reu that wasn´t baptized. He told me that he had made his decision and decided to be baptized that very day at 3! And he asked me to be the one to baptize him! It was such an honor. They´re a great family full of 4 future missionaries! So that was great surprise of the day!

Hna Clifford at the Baptism of Huakin

Elder Ormsby (our District leader with me and Huakin in the back)

Me and Huakin at his baptism Hermanas From Peru, and With Brandon his brother

Me and Huakin at his baptism with the Hermanas from Peru

Me and Huakin at his baptism with the Hermanas from Peru, and With Brandon his brother

We finished the day planning for our Zone Leader Meeting which I´ll write about in my next email! The church is true and The Lord is blessing us!

Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Week 90...4/26/16...TEMPLE, SUN BURN AND SAN MARCOS!!!

Hi Everyone! I love you guys! Thanks for all you're love and support! Happy Birthday to all that are turning years this week or last! Especially to my Dad! I love my Dad so much! I don't know if I've written this before but it's an experience that I had with Elder Morataya. . .We were ridding home to our house just talking when my companion asked me, ''You talk a lot about your Mom, what's your Dad like?'' And I told him '' My mom is the one who taught me how to be a good kid, but my Dad taught me how to be a man, and I'm still learning from him'' So I thank my Dad for all of the hard work and for teaching me how to work hard, how to support others and how to put people before myself.

Elder Christofferson said ''Loving the mother of his children—and showing that love—are two of the best things a father can do for his children. This reaffirms and strengthens the marriage that is the foundation of their family life and security.'' My Dad has been an exceptional example of this and I thank him for that. I know that my Dad loves my mom and us, and he's taught me how to love them as well. I give thanks to God every night that I, like Nephi was born of goodly parents and an exceptionally good father.

This Monday was just a day of preparation and we went out to eat with Elder Taylor, then we planned out our meeting. So we started this week out with a meeting with all of the Zone Leaders. We planned for the first week of Mayo and what we can do to meet our goal. We talked about each person that all the Zone Leaders had in their Zone and what they could do to help them accept a baptism date. Then we played soccer with all of the Zone Leaders. I scored a pretty cool goal!

Then on Tuesday, we did divisions. I went with Elder Virgin to go and visit Zone Malacatan. I got to go with Elder Heyrend who is such a cool kid! While Elder Virgin went with Elder Lopez, who also is a fantastic missionary. We went and interviewed an amazing family that the Zone Leaders had been teaching! They are so awesome! They are super excited to be getting baptized this next week and they just love the missionaries. They were sure to let me try every possible thing you could ever want to eat out of mangos; Mango Juice, Mango IceCream, and Mango Punch. I LOVE MANGOS!!!!! They're literally the best thing ever!

On Monday we shared a message about just Testifying and Challenging. There is a talk about ''the missionary who testifies and challenges'' and we based our message off of that talk. Our basic message was we need to be missionaries that testify more and challenge more, and not worry so much about teaching: CHALLENGE, TESTIFY and let the spirit teach. That's what we talked about in a nutshell. So I and Elder Heyrend decided to try it out. We went to interview another Lady they had but she was busy so we talked to her mom. But mostly we just Testified of the Church and Challenged her AND SHE ACCEPTED! She told us she would come to church and prepare to be baptized! Something else we taught was that every future convert needs three things.
1. Someone to Challenge them to do something
2. A testimony to awake the knowledge they once had, and urge them to do what's right.
3. The Testimony of the Spirit to convert them.

Then we came home that night and Wednesday we had a District Leader meeting in Reu and took some time to get organized for the next day.

Thursday, I headed out with elder Wilcox to Mazate Las Flores. We went to do some more interviews with the Zone Leaders. The family we interviewed was super cool! The Lord has sooooo many people prepared for us to find and teach. Then we went with Elder Johnson and Elder Heath to Samayac where we taught a guy who had just lost his wife. He was super receptive and they're going to teach him some more. We read the Book of Mormon in Alma 40 with him and he said '' this book spoke to my soul. I didn't know any of this. I'm going to read more'' Basically...... there's a slight difference in the Spanish to English translation. Then we talked to another family and made the drive home. Fun fact Samayac is the "tierra de brujas" or land of witches. There's always weird stuff going on there because there's a big population of witches that still practice out there.

Friday, we headed up to San Marcos and I went to work with Elder Garboza, We went to work in Palo Gordo with Elder Villegas and Elder Hansen. We went to teach a family and we were going to challenge them with a fecha for baptism when all of a sudden a whole group of people from the Evangelico church showed up and decided to have a culto in the families' home. So they kinda crashed our message. But it was cool. They wanted us to stay and listen to their whole meeting (But having been in the middle of one before I knew better than to accept.) So we decided to say goodbye by Singing ''I Believe in Christ'' To just testify of Christ. The Spirit was super strong,
I know that they felt the Spirit.

Me and Christopher in Palo Gordo

We asked this guy if we could help him with anything and he actually said yes! So we washed his moto! Photo creds to Christopher

We then put a baptismal date with a guy I had gone to teach a month earlier named Edwin, He accepted to be baptized!!! It was awesome!

Then we ate dinner at a little gas station store that ended up being super good and we came home.

Me, Elder Wilcox, Elder Kahl, and Elder Virgin coming back from San Marcos.

We ate at a gas station that was actually a super good restaurant! You can tell we were all pretty happy with our food! BEST SMOOTHIES EVER!!!!

Saturday we went to the temple and we went to support the Hermanas' de Peru in a baptism they had.

Standard Guatemala Transportation. Level Pick up truck. Notice the only thing keeping that kid in the truck over the tumulos is that woman’s arm.

We listened to Elder Cruz play and sing the ukulele. He is a prodigy!

Me, Elder Kahl, and Elder Cruz (Elder Cruz is just a wizard on any instrument you give him!)

The temple was great! It's so nice just to go and feel the peace that the Spirit Brings there.

THE TEMPLE!!!!

Me and Elder Kahl

Sunday was full of miracles! We had this one girl named Stephanie to come to church with some members. She's from Honduras but we have a cita with her on Monday so that's going to be amazing!!!! She Seems super positive! Life is great I love being a mission missionary!

Love,
Elder Pugmire