Week 16 - Zacapa

¿Que pasò al tiempo??? Honestamente...

Pues, Hola, familia y amigos!!

Este semana fue interesante. Elder Franco y yo hemos trabajado duro para encontrar y enseñar investigadores, pero ahorita es dificil. Muchas personas no quieren escuchar a nosotros- solamente quieren que les visitamos. Tambien, tenemos que dejar personas que nos piden dinero- y esto pasa mas o menos frecuentemente.

[Translation:  This week was very interesting.  Elder Franco and I worked very hard to find and teach investigators, but it’s difficult right now.  Many people don’t want to listen to us, they only want us to visit them socially.  Also, we have to drop investigators who ask us for money, and this happens more or less frequently.]

Other than that the week's been fairly good! Thanksgiving is this Thursday, right? I've made a lot of plans to celebrate with Elder Franco. The only problem is that turkeys here are too expensive, but we managed to get ahold of 2 pounds of beef and a pineapple. We're gonna have steak for Thanksgiving!

Dengue, the local deadly disease, is breaking out down here. We have three pretty nasty diseases in Guatemala: Dengue, Chikingunya, and Zica. I’m not sure what they all do, and I don't want to find out.

I don’t have much time to write, but I love all of you guys!! Please keep writing and I can’t wait to receive more letters! Thank you all for all of your support, and I'll see you all soon!

--

Elder Jeffrey Reed

Week 15 - Zacapa

Hi guys!!!

So Elder Franco and I are pretty excited for the end of the month. Why? Because our contract with the lady who owns our house end, and we can move! We pay wayyy too much for the house we live in right now, so every so often, we'll write down the number of an apartment that we see while going about our daily lives.

We've had somewhat of a duller week, but the good news is that some of the members are opening up to us more! We recently reactivated a less active member named Cristofer, and now he's been helping us with the proselyting! Every so often, he'll come proselyte with us, so that's cool. 

The zone's getting a little restless. Something big is gonna happen with the next change that we have, but we don’t know what. The scariest thing for me is that I finish my missionary training when the next change rolls around. I could stay with Elder Franco, I could have a new companion, I might have to train a new elder, or they might move me from Zacapa. We won't know until December, though.

My Spanish has definitely progressed from when I left. I feel like I can basically understand most of what people say here, but there's still a lot I lack. I feel like I’m really close to understanding everything, like there's some little thing that I haven’t learned yet. But I know I’ll get it eventually.

Here are some day in the life details for you:

Basic life is good! We eat eggs, pancakes, a LOT of bananas, sausages, chicken, rice, sandwiches.   Every day I have a cold shower and exercise in the morning, wash dishes and clothes at the pila, cereal for breakfast, study for 4 hours (normal missionaries study for 2 hours, but I’m still in training so it’s 4 hours), make lunch, leave to proselyte, return at nine PM, plan for 30 minutes, make dinner while Elder Franco counts the numbers every night, and sleep.  I get to sing quite a bit! I’m actually supposed to sing at the next zone conference, so Ill send you a video of that if I can.

I miss all of you guys! Something I've learned while I've been out here is that when you need to do something difficult or if something seems a little uncomfortable to do, don’t be afraid to do it. I love you!!!!!

--

Elder Jeffrey Reed

Week 14 - Zecapa

A la gran... Semana 14??!!

Wow, it's been forever. ANYWAYS...

HEY GUYS! How's it going? This week was absolutely insane, and it hasn't stopped getting any busier, even on P-Day.

Remember the divisions I wrote about last week? This week I had divisions with a new elder from the Dominican Republic named Elder Vasquez. We basically clicked instantly when we started divisions. He's super pilas(which is basically a combination of fast, smart, and cool) and he LOVES to work. For a day, Elder Vasquez and I, the newest elders in the area, ran around, talking to people, and teaching as best as we knew how.

At least he could speak fluent Spanish...

Also, apparently Latinos don't have French Toast. For both Elder Franco and Elder Vasquez now, I've gotten the same reaction when I made them French Toast. They look at it, a little confused, and say, "What is this?" and then when they try it, they love it.

We also had interviews with the president. Every three months, the president of the mission has a personal interview with each one of the missionaries, which is a little scary for some elders, but for me, it was a blessing to be able to talk about how I feel about the work in English. There's a lot of different kinds of missionaries out here. We spent time just talking about the language, the work, and my obedience to the rules. I’m still not used to all of the mission rules yet, but I'm doing my best to be as obedient as I can. It really does bring blessings.

This week, I want to send you guys two scriptures that have affected my mission so far: Alma 5:45-46 and Omni 1:26. IF you have the time, read them, and I know that they can bless your lives as well. 

Thank you all!! I love all of you! Y por favor, continúen escribir! Me encanta sus historias, sus cartas, y todas las otras cosas!

For the Family:

I’m gonna expand a little bit on the story of the missionary with the cold, that Scorpion tells us.

There were 2 missionaries that had a cold. One didn’t think that he had a cold, and no matter what the other missionaries or his companion told him, he denied it. One day, though, during a lesson, he sneezed more than twenty times in a row. This is when he realized, of course he had a cold! Immediately, all the doubt left his heart, and he was blessed with the knowledge of what to do.

The other missionary knew he had a cold, but he didn’t want to do anything about it. His cold lingered and eventually, his companion caught it.

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

Love, Elder Jeffrey Reed