2/25/2013

Hey hey!!! Another week flying by here dang!!!! This week was pretty good!! We are working with our investigators hard!!! We had a pretty cool experience this week we were knocking doors trying to find people to teach, we knocked this one and introduced our selves, then we asked the lady if she lived here with her husband, and she was like "Yes he is right here, come in!" so we came in and introduced ourselves to him, the he like left to another room, and I was like "ok he doesn’t want to hear our message..." then he came back with two chairs!!! Ha ha and we gave them a lesson about the restoration!!!  It was sweet!!!! Just shows the lord really does have people prepared to accept the gospel!!!
Other then that we are just teaching and finding!!! I do think we need to work a little harder though, cuz like we have investigators... but they just are not progressing... so that is my goal for this week, to have/see some good progress in them this week!!!!

Monday night we went over to a member’s house to have dinner and have FHE, she made "papusas"!!!!! Dang son they were so tasty!!!!! I "tried" to help make a few ha ha it was fun!!!! They are like fat tortillas with meat and beans and cheese inside!!! Man they were so good I had 7!! Ha ha

Also this week we did a ton of service... I think 3 days we did service for about 2 hours each day.  We were basically moving dirt, and like carving a flat spot out of a hill.  So I was on the pick axe all three days. After the first day my hands were destroyed!! Haha I think I counted 9 blisters on my left hand and 4 on my right!! Haha but they healed real fast and today, they are fine!!

The church is ok, we have a few members, who are the heads of the primary, youth, relief society and stuff, and they are super Pilas, but over all, it at times lacks a little, everyone could and needs to put a little more effort in!!!  We don’t really have to much help in the mission work as far as the branch goes... but we are trying to change that and get more of their help!! cuz it will really make a huge difference if we can get then to work hard with us!! And idk if you know but President Watts put a rule over the mission that we are not allowed to be out of the house after 5:30 without a member!! This is to help the branch members be a bigger part of the work! So converts have a friend in the church when we leave!

About scary things.... not much it’s pretty safe here, but you do hear gun shots every so often! But I hear in the capital it’s like loco how much you hear gun shots and stuff like I hear in the capital, you will see guys go out in the street and shoot the dogs in the street for fun!! :/ Haha but here not any of that, but... Thursday night about 8:00 I guess some guy got killed in his car right in front of our church building!!! :/ There are bullet marks in the wall of a house, in front of the church!! Ya that is a little sketchy!! Haha but it’s not common so no worries...

The food is good!! It hasn’t been bothering me too much! And I like most of it!!! We pay Hermanita (they lady who we live with) 10Q a day for lunch!! It’s real real good! And for breakfast I usually have oatmeal or cereal! And we don’t really have diner, we will just eat some food when we get back to the house at about 8...

Yeah we found out about the mission split last Thursday I think!!! How nuts!!!!  From what I hear the part of our mission that is in the city will become Guatemala City East, and the part that is out of the city up to and including Peten will become the Coban mission!  But I’m not for certain!!! I don’t really care either way!!! The change becomes effective end of June! So like whatever part of the country we are in at that time becomes our new mission!!! I’m excited!!!

Things i might like I my package, sour patch kids!!! Skittles!!! Haha um idk what else maybe some chunky peanut butter!!! And apple cider!!
 I’ll think of other things this week and put them in my letter next week, and you can send them with the ties... 
But thanks for sending a package it will mean so so much!!!!

Anyway I’m doing good!! I miss you all a ton!!! And love you so so so much!!!!!

Elder Kumpf!

2/18/2013

Hey hey!  Man this week flew by!!!!! ah curumba! But ya it was... good and bad, well like Monday night me and my comp had it out a little! haha :) Nothing bad just a long talk!  I felt better after, but a little awkward and we both went to bed a little pretty quiet. But I prayed hard that I would have more patience with him and he would have more patience with me! And that we could just work together at least so the work could progress!!! And ya one great thing about a mission the lord answers your prayers like freaky fast!!!! We woke up the next day, and we like started talking and just being friends!!! I know he changed a lot, and it probably took a lot of effort for him! but I’m so so so grateful cuz now we talk and share plans and are just more unified, like we will talk about random stuff, and our plans. We are like good friends now, and it has helped the spirit be with us so so much more!! Ya so we are all good on the companion situation.  As far as the 3 baptisms.... :( well they kind of fell through, the one "C." who was like super pilas (pilas is a word here for like a person or something that is just like awesome! and works hard, and is super good at something. idk it has a lot of uses, and you use it a lot) but ya he was super pilas, and we tried to get with him like all this week, but he was never home, and we couldn't get in contact with his mom either to have her sign the forms and stuff for baptism. So we couldn’t do his this Saturday, and the other 2 are brothers, and we just didn't feel like they were ready either, we got the signature from their mom, (she is an investigator too, but she doesn't come to church, or keep commitments) but didn't get to have any lessons with them, and they just were not ready! But we are hoping to be able to get with them this week and put a new date with them!!
The attendance at church this week was awful :( it was 45, but there was like chipi chipi and it was super freezing cold! and ya we only had 3 investigators there... (Bummer!!) But we are working on it!!
We have a few families that we are working with, there is the family of Hermano J. (he is member) - his wife (A.) and daughter (K.) are not members, we have had a few lessons with them, we tried to put a date for baptism with them last night, she said yes to baptism but no to a specific date, she want to get her answer first, so we are working with her, and praying for her, and I know she will get her answer!! Another problem is they are not married! So we need to work on that problem with them to, but they want to, so we just need to help them get it done!! And they have been attending church for the past 3 weeks straight, but they missed this Sunday! cuz of the cold/rain
- Hermana F. - she has 3 boys, she is so so accepting, and her kids love to study and read and have been reading the Book of Mormon and ya, we have only had two lessons with her, but we are working on it, the thing we are focusing on is explaining to her that this is the Only true church! not just another good message of Christ! And we want her to attend church, she said she needs to discuss it with her boys... and she didn't come this Sunday either:/ she has a husband, we have not had a chance to meet with him yet, (we are trying) but she says he does NOT like the things of God! So we will see how that goes! But we are praying for all of them!!
- the family of Hermano M.-  there is his wife Hna M., and a bunch of kids idk if they are nieces or friends, but he has for sure two kids a boy G. (11), and a daughter (idk her name about 14) and the grandma lives there two Hna M., we found about two weeks ago! We had a lesson with the whole family last Sunday, and this Sunday we went by there house to invite them to church, the dad said he had to leave for work right then, but the son (G.) and his cousin came to church!!
Hermano L. - he was a street contact last Saturday! and this Saturday we went and visited him and his wife (M.)(I think) and it went good! I think they have a little girl maybe 6, but they had a bunch of questions about missionaries, and random gospel points, so we didn't get to teach them a lesson, but we gave them answers to their questions, and taught and testified of doctrine! It went well, but they didn't come to church yesterday! :/ but will keep working with them!! They are great!

Ya those are our families right now we will work hard with them and see how it goes!!!
Thursday we had interviews with President Watts! They were good! But we had to leave about 6.30 take a 2.5 hour bus ride in a cramped little micro bus to Salaman!! (Luckily I had a seat!)  and ya they were good! i love President Watts! and especially his wife!! She has so much energy and just the biggest smile all the time!! I love it!! Then a 2.5 hour bus ride back to San Cristobal!! This time no seat!! (It sucked!!) One thing you learn is there is always room for more! They never ever pass anyone up! No matter how crammed it gets there is always room for more!! :/ not fun haha. But we got back about 4:30 and worked the rest of the day!!
 Ya it was an ok week! we worked hard but didn’t have a ton of success with our investigators! :/ but we will keep working hard and praying harder!!!

the language is good! I can understand probably 90 % and I can get my point across!! haha I need to do more serious language study so I can improve my conjugations! But I’m grateful to the Lord cuz really the language has not been a problem!!

ya Elder Brindle is in my zone! So it was fun so see him and talk with him last Monday, and I got to see him at the interviews Thursday too! So that’s fun! He is doing great and working hard too! His area is part of a city called san Jeronnimo sits in Baja Verapaz! Our zone is long and skinny and I’m kind of at one end and he is at the other!! But same zone!

Ok so yup! Oh ya mom and Dad! I can print letters and stuff so if you wanna send you diary put it  in one email, then send another shorter email with questions you want me to answer, or short notes that I can read during my hour on the computer. This way I can easily answer your questions, and take you diary, or longer letters, home to read!!

Oh got my first Guatemalan hair cut, (not bad! but no mom hair cut.  ;) )

Anyway love you so so so much!! Talk to you in a week!!

Elder Kumpf!!

2/11/2013

Hey hey hey!!! Man I love you all so much!! Hahaha this week was pretty good! We had the baptism and confirmation of little "élder Alexander" but we also found out that the baptism counts for the Branch not us, cuz his mom is reactive (due to us!) and he is only 8 years old! So it’s a little bummer but I don’t care I’ll always remember him as one of my Baptisms. He picked my comp to baptize him, it was a good service!  

But ya like dad put in one of his letters I’m really looking forward to having one of those "I get it and I want to be baptized moments" not just kind of they get baptized cuz its right and what they should do... but I know it will come, but me helping anyone into the waters of baptism is good, whether they have the desire, and "want it" or they just do it cuz they know its "right" they will be grateful later. 

Thanks for your prayers for me to find a family! I hope you continue praying it helps so much I can tell!!   We have found two families! Kind of, one is the wife (well not wife but basically) and daughter of this less active guy! But she and the daughter really want to be baptized! So we are helping them work on the marriage thing (I think its just they haven`t had the money/time) but ya then we will unite a family in the church! And it will be great!! They are awesome! And we are really excited to keep helping them. And the husband and they have come to church the past two Sundays so they are progressing awesome!! Ya and the other is an actually family!! We door contacted the wife 2 kids and grandma last Monday, and had a lesson about the restoration with them!! And we invited then to church! but we didn’t have time to revisit them during the week, so we went to their house before church Sunday to see if they could come, but they were busy, so we told them we would come back later, so we came back at about 2:00 after church, and they let us in! They are real accepting! The dad works all week but is home on the weekends 7pm Sat. night to 6am Monday morning! So he was there, we gave the first lesson again!! they were real accepting and it was a great lesson, the only hard thing, (and it happens a lot here, is working on teaching people that this is THE ONLY CHURCH, everyone here kind of just believes that anything of god is good.... but we will work on teaching them more and more! but we are excited to have a big family!!! there was like 10 there Sunday afternoon! all listened to the lesson, but I think some were cousins and friends, but idk its all good!!! we are super super excited!! I’ll keep you up to date on them!!!

Other than that we just have been working hard!! We have a lot of investigators,

I think like 15, and that only including 5 out of the big family. And we have a bunch more potential investigators!! It’s exciting but hard to keep them all progressing! But we are putting the focus where we need to so it is good. 

My comp is ok... haha let’s just say, I have grown a lot because of him. (not necessarily because of his help) but ya  I’m just trying to be the best I can for him. Honestly he would be a fantastic solo missionary!... I say this because he doesn’t exactly like to share his plans, or thoughts or mind with me, like we will go through planning and put names with times, and then we get to the lesson, and I wait for him to start, cuz he has his little plan of what we are going to teach! and then I share my part of what ever lesson he planned. It’s ok, but I have told him like several time, lets plan better, what we are going to teach and how to apply it, and he will be like ok we are going to teach lesson 2 to them. And ok done, idk I just want more unity! More talking about what we are going to teach and how we can apply it to them, and how we can help them.  And every time I ask him for more, like sharing in our decisions and more discussion, idk he gets really impatient. and ya idk its hard to explain, but basically he has no patience... and it has helped my patience grow a lot!! And he does not take advice very well. But I love him and will keep trying to better our companionship. it’s just hard, I feel real, kind of alone in things, but it’s all good!

Today we had a zone activity and went to this sweet place call "Samau chimpe" its natural cascading pools of water and waterfalls,(or something like that I probably butchered it), but I’ll send and pictures.  Like it added to my companions frustration with me, cuz he didn't want to go, cuz it cost a lot of money, like 150 quets, which is about a third of the money we have weekly for food, and we had to use our mission money (the money we use for food, other things we need,) and it also took most of the day, we had to leave at 3 in the morning and it was like 5 hours in the bus then we spent a couple hours there and then came back! Anyway I made him go cuz I really wanted to not miss this opportunity, and more, it was a zone activity and no one else was skipping. but ya I thought it was one of the most gorgeous places ever!! But he was grumpy and angry the whole time... ya. But I know he is glad I made him go. So that added more to his frustration at me! :) Oh well he will live!!

Anyway, dad asked about our area! It’s about the size of the meadows, maybe more, I have no idea where our boundaries end haha but that’s ok. ,I’ll add a picture of a map of the city I found! Our area goes outside the map a lot but I labeled our house and stuff on it. We are zone Verapaz not Coban. 

The Zone leaders directed the zone meeting, no president; I probably won’t see him much really but that’s ok, I got like 10 dear elder letters from you guys!! Thanks they were great!! You can keep sending them that way, (but i didn’t get any other letters (snail mail), idk if you have sent any, if not, it’s all good) but ya, I’ll get dear elder and cards only about once a month! :(

Love you all so so so so so much!!!!

Be safe!

2/4/2013

                                                                            Jungle!

                                                                   

                                                                      First baptism!

Getting Ready

Machete....Mission issue .

Patojos (Kids)

Transportation?

Hey hey hey, well I’m still alive here!!! ha-ha this week was a lot better, we worked hard and Saturday we had our first baptism!! her name is Brenda, it was awesome except, well here is the story, so we told everyone that the baptism was at 3:00 and so we went early like 10:00 and cleaned the font, then filled it, then we went home had lunch and then did a little bit of trackting, till about 2:30 at 2:30 we went to the church and cleaned a little bit more and made sure everything was perfect for the baptism! At about 3:15 people started showing up! (typical Guatemala time!) And so ya, then we waited and by about 3:30 there was a good little crowd there. But we were lacking a member of the branch presidency, so we couldn't start till someone in the presidency came, and my comp had done his part of calling the ward mission leader on wed.  He said he would have someone in the presidency there for us, but apparently he didn’t do his part, so we tried calling him a couple times, then the members of the presidency, and finally we got a hold of the president, and he was like ya I’ll jump on my motorcycle and be there in an hour!(he lives in a different city) So ya then we waited! for like a whole hour! and at about 5:00pm we finally started!!! But it all went awesome! Her cousin who she lives with baptized her, (‘ill put a picture of me and them) then ya on Sunday she was confirmed. We had 14 investigators at church on Sunday!!!! mostly younger kids (but we have had at least one lesson with everyone of them. and two of them are a wife and daughter of this less active member! we are super pumped for her and her daughter, they are real intested! and they are a big focus of ours, and we have another baptism this saturday! his name is Elder haha funny right! but he is 9 and the kid of this less active lady, but she is not less active anymore she and Elder have come the past 3 Sundays in a row! 

ya and we have 4 little "Patojos" all about 12yrs old, who are set to be baptized on the 16th! they are awesome! Sunday they wanted ties, so we found some for them, they all had white shirts and there little BOM's and then after church they wanted to go visit people with us! so we took them with us, and taught a lesson to "elder" and his mom, and we taught another lesson with them, they each would like find a scripture and share about it, and bear testimony, and ya they are awesome!!! 

also a bunch of people this week have asked for blessings of health, so me and my comp have seriously given like 3 or 4! its way hard in Spanish! ha-ha and I need more practice! but it is awesome!
ya we have been working real hard, and this week hasn't been near as hard, (but it is still real hard!!) but thanks for the emails! I loved them! i don’t think I can print them off, but it’s ok if you send a couple, it will just be a little less time that I get to write!! But you can send picture by email, they don’t take like anytime to download! This week Thursday we have Zone meeting, so hopefully I’ll get the stuff you have sent!!! 
so ya this week to I have been getting all sorts of bug bites at night!!!! :( I don’t think its bed bugs, my comp thinks it’s some sort of mosquito thing but idk what he is saying really haha... but ya the past 5 days or so I have woken up with 6 or so new bites on my arms and legs... and they are real itchy!!! but I washed all my sheets and everything yesterday and used some pesticide, and I don’t think i had any new ones this morning, haha but we will see! I’m praying it will stop cuz its annoying!!

My comp Elder Gutierrez is from Nicaragua! He has only been out about 5 months, he is pretty chill, but we have had a few little disagreements, like when I plan, I like to go over everything and talk about every point, even if we talked about it 5 times during the day, I feel like we should reaffirm everything during planning. And he is more of a wel,l you should know that, (not rude, ) but just like ya idk, and I tried to explain what I would like it to be more like, but then there is the language barrier, and he didn't really understand me, but we will get it worked out, I just pray that he will have a little more patience with me!!! I bought a jump rope today, (he has one and loves to do that for exercise in the morning, and I wanted one cuz I like it too.) So now we can do that together in the morning.

P-day is not my favorite, cuz we have it together as a district!  So we have to take about a half hour bus ride, and then we usually play soccer for an hour, and then write you guys, but it’s a rule that we have to have p-day as a district every time... I feel like I could use my time a lot better if we didn’t have to, but oh well.
Anyways, this week has been a lot better, but I’m praying that it will get better, cuz it is still super hard, Anyway, love you all so so much! Be safe!
Elder Kumpf!