Wow! That is awesome about the girls refusing to practice on Sunday’s and finding a better gym!! Blessings come from sacrifices.  :) 

So this week was perdy good. I’m getting to the point were I want to start standing up on the busses and contacting and sharing because the people here, in this area, are sooooo heard hearted. We are pressing forward, but I can honestly say this is the hardest area that I’ve ever worked in. We contact a whole bunch, more than I ever have in my life, and aren't seeing a whole lot of success. 

We are focusing a ton on the members and visit them every chance we get. We are helping them talk with their neighbors. Every family in our boundary has committed to the 5 contacts a week. One member (my teacher from the ccm hehe) did his 5 and a few more, and has given us a ton of references. We got one of them to come to church. :)

My companion is doing good. I can’t really tell if he is just quiet or if he feels really home sick, but he tells me he likes it out here and he loves the work. It’s a little stressful because he hardly knows any doctrine. I like to switch back and forth in the lessons and we do, but I’m always praying that he doesn't talk apostasy. I have to go back and recover a lot of things while the people just look at me like; Do you guys really know what you’re saying bro?? o.O  But we are doing a lot of practicing in the morning, so we should get past all that soon.

This week it has rained non stop and I’ve already went through all my shoes. I’m going to a paca (like a goodwill kinda) to look for rain boots. My camera is broke because in my last area my comp dropped it on dIvisions, so the screen doesn't work...:(( I got a camera without a battery or charger that looks like it might work if i can find a battery in the mall today. It’s a lumix dmc-fh2 14 mega pixel. Maybe you can find a battery on Ebay or something. Dad asked if I needed music but I have accumulated a good amount of music through a disk I got from another missionary. If he could send me all the odd-ball songs that the Motab does, like the Lion King or Somewhere Under the Rainbow, that would be awesome:)) 

This week we ate dinner with a family that has a ton of money and they bought us two huge pizzas. I was so excited when we sat down to eat. They opened the box as steam rolled out and my eyes began to water a tad. Then about 6 cockroaches scurried out all over the table haha........ didn't really matter though, I ate like half of the pizza! :P

I love you guys. I hope this next week is fantastical:) 

Sincerely, ELDER Dabel

Silva and her kids :)

Jared's first son (a new missionary he is training)

Tikal Futura, Mira Flores

October 12, 2015

Hey dad, 

Sounds like things are going good back home. The mudslide was in my mission area, but don't worry no missionaries were hurt. Although, a lot of people were killed. It’s really sad.  :(  I’m in the city, so I’m good.  

By the way, if you want to see my area just type in tikal futura or mira flores. I have the biggest mall here in my area and everything from the states. A lot of my area is owned by the richest people in Guatemala, and a ton are gringos or latinos that know English. I have 3 Taco Bells, Papa Johns, and Wendy's.  I have literally everything. Every one wants this area. Hahaha. 

I don't know if I told you guys, but my teacher from the Missionary Training Center is the Second Councilor in my ward. His wife is Donavan's teacher from the MTC. They just had a baby. :) Also my companion is from Coban, the north of Guatemala. Turns out that my teacher from the MTC, Hermano Noack, is his cousin. haha... Oh, so don't worry, I don't have to teach him Spanish, thank goodness... whoooo.. 

My Spanish has been getting pretty good. :)  All of my dreams are in Spanish. It’s crazy cool to be able to use the language so profoundly. I even do a lot of my thinking in Spanish! :) I can’t wait to see how I feel about it in another year.  :))

As for Michaela’s videos of backflips and back handsprings ---  What the heck?!?!  That’s my sister?  O.O Holly cowwwwwwwwwwwwwww.......... give her a huge congratulations! Wowwwww!!! 

The girls are que bonita. Escondala de los ladrones porfa....

October 5, 2015

Haha, Your conference sounds like it was awesome! :) I don't know why, but I can’t get enough of conference here in the mission. 

So this week has been sooo crazy. We arrived to our house and there wasn't anything... nothing.. They told me I was opening an area, but I didn't realize there is a difference between open and reopen... I guess there hasn't been elders here for a while, and it was a last minute decision to throw us in here. So, our leaders had to find a house suppperrrr fast. It also turns out we don't live in the area.. We have to walk to our area every day like a mile or two. haha Also they dropped us off without an area book or map so I was like ummmm... what to doo... they just told us that any colonia that is gated we can’t contact. We have to work through members. Turns out that the 5 of 6 residenciales here are closed -_________- so our first few days were pretty crazy. 

We live above some members and I was able to ask them where other members lived and then asked those members where others lived until we made a chain through the whole ward. We eventually found my mission leader, which is a super awesome returned missionary. Turns out we share the area with hermanas  (sister missionaries) so we had to have the bishop split the area in two. The hermanas chose their half first and left us have the side of the area that hasn't seen a baptism in 4 years.... Also it only has 4 member families of the 12 in the ward. 

The coolest thing is that I live in the richest area in mission sur. I feel like I’m in the US in some of the places here.  :) We have the biggest mall, a big market and a place called tikal futura, which is a place that every district wants to visit on district p-day. We aren’t allowed to have district p-day unless everyone baptizes 2 people. We always have one district that doesn't make the two so I haven’t ever had one. Now every p-day is district p-day B).

Thanks dad! I’m glad to hear that you have goals in your work. That will make you stand out in a good way. :) I’m glad that you guys are experiencing success. I hope your back gets better! I’ll pray that it does. This conference was so full of good stuff I was so glued to the TV.  :) I was praying for President Monson when he looked like he was going to fall and pass out. I love the idea of ponderize too and have found that it has worked well to pick one scripture and use it through out the week with every family that we visit. My understanding and familiarization with the scripture grows drastically every time I share it. I am going to challenge every one in my ward to contact 5 people throughout the week with a specific invitation such as go to church or listen the missionaries or come over for family home evening. Maybe you could do the challenge too with the ward because the missionaries need some help.  :)

I love you guys so much.  

Jared

September 28, 2015

This week was so awesome and my favorite moment would be when I was walking down the street and the spirit told me to go visit some old investigators and I was like umm, okay, I don't think they are ever going to progress but okay... We went there and they said come in, come in. Turns out their new born baby was really sick and the doctors said it was going to die. We talked about Gods plan for us and the lady cried and said she understood. Then the hospital called and said that her baby didn't make it. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I’m sad the baby died, but happy that Lord trusted us to help the family.  :)) 

Wow that’s crazzzyyy Moroni leaves so soon.  Moroni - ya se va:))) He’s gunna learn some weird spanish hehe:) That’s sad to hear about Jake and Heather and their house, but I agree that the Lord knows what he is doing.

I have prayed 3 or 4 times about asking you guys for some money to help Sister Silvi and her kids because they keep just barley slipping by on miracles. Every time I receive a big no. The Lord knows what he is doing when we receive trials. If he always helped us we would never progress in our journey to perfection. He wants to teach us how to fish, not just give us some fish.  :) I felt that the trials that she is passing through are going to only make her stronger and bring her closer to the Lord.

So it looks like this change I have a whole new trial of my own. I have changes tomorrow and I’m leaving to reopen a new area with my new hijo (son).  It looks like I’m going to be training a brand new missionary. I feel a little bit overwhelmed, but I trust the Lord knows what he’s doing :P  This change is gunna be really fun  :))  Once again I’m going to be leaving right before a baptism -_____- . 

Here’s a copy of my training call:

Dear Elders,

The highest honor and most sacred responsibility is that of a TRAINER. We depend on our trainers to teach new missionaries total obedience to the commandments and the mission rules, diligence, and enthusiasm for the work. You have displayed these and many other fine qualities which qualify you for this sacred trust to help set the stage for the rest of this new missionary's mission. Please remember to be PATIENT and what it was like to be new in the mission.

You will find this new calling as trainer to be challenging but very rewarding. As you train with dedication and with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be assisting in the hastening of the Lord's great latter-day work. EXACT OBEDIENCE IS REQUIRED AND OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE. I WANT TO GROW THE CULTURE OF OBEDIENCE FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP. YOU CAN HELP ME AS A TRAINER!

I am very confident that you will excel in fulfilling the duties of this important assignment. Thank you for your dedicated service to the Lord, to me, the missionaries and to the people of Guatemala. May the Lord bless you in this significant time of this young missionary’s life! 

Un fuerte abrazo y con amor!

President E.J. Caffaro

We found a lady named Jackaline that is soooo pilas (smart and chosen). She came to church the first Sunday we invited her with her her little kids.  :) She said in her prayer in her last lesson, “God I ask that you help me be ready to be baptized because I would really like to.”  :)   Also we found a new family two weeks ago, family Mejilla Higueros. We have been helping them pull there family back together. We have visited them a few times every week and we hadn't been able to figure out why they wanted us to come over so much until the mom and father told us straight out 2 lessons ago that they want to get a divorce. But they didn't know if they were going to be condemned for it, and they aren't sure what to do. (They have 3 daughters), so they decided it was best to listen to us because we are men of god they say.  :)  

We have shared a lot about the family proclamation to the world and the mom wants to save the marriage and come to church with us. I’m not sure about the dad, but if I had to guess he doesn't want to get a divorce either. We’ve become really close to the family and it’s kinda hard to leave them. Their daughter gave us pictures that she made yesterday, and said that my companion and I are her best friends, and she loves us so much. It was so cute.  :)

FYI, any missionary that’s chasing girls isn’t going to be faithful to his wife if he can’t be faithful to the Lord.  I think my comp has seen some changes.  :)  He told me that I have been his best companion and this has been his favorite change. He is even thinking of coming to the land of the gringos to come see me.  :))  Thanks for your prayers I can feel they help :) I love you guys!