Week 46...6/22/15...Xela, Temple 2nd Trip

Alright! I'm late for writing so this letter is going to be short and sweet! 

Panorama of Temple Grounds

So this week was a little crazy! We had originally planned to go to the temple Tuesday, but the APs called and told us that we were going to have to go on Wednesday instead. That basically destroyed all of our plans and made us have to stay the entire day Tuesday in Reu to be able to leave in the morning for Xela. But we got to go out and help Elder Dial and Perez in their area so that was great! 

Then on Wednesday at 4 am we were supposed to get up and be at the church ready to go. I set my alarm for 3 to be able to shower and get over there. But, just a classic move by me, slept through all alarms and woke up at 3:45 am.  But thanks to the training I received from Seminary, ie: waking up 10 minutes till class started, I was able to shower, shave, get dressed, brush my teeth AND be at the church at 3:57. That's pretty impressive if I do say so myself! 

Xela Temple

Elders Pugmire and Lagos

But honestly, the temple was amazing. The peace, love, and presence of God is honestly so strong there. I love what Elder Hill told me. He said to me while we were in the Celestial room ''Man I can't wait to live here.'' He is so right. It is my greatest desire that everyone could reach the glory of the Celestial Kingdom to be able to always feel that joy of being so close to our Heavenly Father. We went to go buy some stuff at the Distribution Center and guess who I ran into!!! ELDER HICKEN! A friend of mine from Minnesota that was with me in the CCM! His area covers the temple and just by chance he was there! So that was awesome!

Elder Hicken and Elder Pugmire. . . friends from MN . . .Missionaries in Guatemala.

Then we headed back to the scorching heat of the Reu Mission. It's been so hot here! Even though it's the rainy season it hasn't rained in like a week or two. So that's been awful! Friday we showed the movie ''Meet the Mormons.'' We didn't have as great of a turn out as we had hoped for but it was perfect. We have one investigator named Marlin, the daughter of Gloria (who got baptized the other week) she went to the movie and told us after that she too wanted to be baptized and that she really was starting to realize the reality of the Joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So now we just need to work with her Husband Carlos so that they can get married so they can get baptized. So that's awesome! But ya! That's about life here! Sorry for the shortness of the email and thanks for all of the birthday wishes! I love and miss you all!

Some cool architecture in the city

Love,

Elder Pugmire

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!!!