4/22/2013

HEY FAMILY!!! well well well... the last two weeks have been nuts!!!! hahah first off ill explain why i missed last monday!!!
ok so like saturday night they call and are like hey you need to go to the captital monday to sign imagration papers!!! so we are like ´´ok!?´´ so we had to leave suday at like 5 and take an hour bus to Coban! there we spent the night! there was me, elder brindle, (my comp from the mtc), one elder from my district, and one hermana from coban, (the hermana stayed in a different house,) but ya so the four of us had to take a bus to the capital- and the bus left at 2 am!!!!!! freak!!! ya so we got our 2 hours of sleep the went to the bus station! from there it was about a 5 hour bus ride to the cap!!! from there a taxi picked us up and took us to the church office building!! we watied there till about 9 am, they let us in, and made sure all the people where there, then they loaded us all (about 50 elders y hermans from all different missions in Guat.) in a bus, and took us to the imigration office! there we got in line, went up to the desk, took a picture and signed two papers, then we waited out side for about half an hour for all the other missionaries to do the same! few! then they bused us back to the church office building, gave us some breakfast, (its about 11:30) then from there the 4 of us that came from coban had to got to the mission north office, (other side of the city) so we went there and some of the elders did... something idk what, but then then we took a taxi to the bus station, and loaded on a bus about 1:30 and another 5 hour bus ride back to coban!! (this time it was way worse though, because it was soooo HOT!!!!! its summer here and ya there is this one area that the bus passes through called ´´rancho´´ HOLY POOP!! it is a desert, and really really hot!! but ya so a long hot sweaty 5 hour bus ride back to coban! got there about 6:30 then grabbed elder gutierres and we took the hour bus ride back to san cristobal!!! got home about 8:30 and crashed!!!! TIRED!!!! haha

 

Elder Brindle (MTC Comp.)

Ok now ABOUT TRANSFERS!!!!!! so sunday night when we where in coban they called!!!! when they call for transferes they don´t tell you exactly where your going, just if it is an ´´external change, or internal! external change means you are going to an area out side of the capital! and internal means your going to the cap!) if you are in the cap and have a change, whether internal, or external you go to a change conference wed morning, and there you find out what area exactly your going to! when you are outside the cap and have transfer internal(to the cap) you have to leave and be at change conf. wed morning, but if you are out side the cap and have a external change(outside the cap.) then you go to coban tuesday night, and get called wed morning with your new area, (this is so that the elders out side the cap dont have to travel to the cap then back way far out in the jungle. saves $$!! but ya they called sunday night when we where in Coban!!! - Elder Gutierrez! transfer external!! so he will be going to an area out side of the cap! Elder kumpf... you are staying in you area, AND YOU ARE TRAINING!!!!!!! WHATTTTTT!!!!!! hahahaha so ya
when we got back to our house monday night, E. Gutierrez started packing, and then tuesday in the moring he finished packing, and we went around visting members, and he gave them pictures and said his good byes, then we left about 5 to go up to coban, he is staying the night there and will find out his area wed in the morning! but i left on divisions with an elder ´´Muñiz´´ he is an elder in my distric and his comp was getting changed too, so our compañions stayed, we said our goodbyes! and then me and elder muñiz left to San cristobal (my area) to do work wed! we worked all day wed! (its way different working with a different person! but it was good) then thursday in the moring we left to go get our companions from Coban!

 

Elder Gutierrez (Trainer)

My new companions name is Elder Irías!! he is from Honduras!! he just got out of the mtc and ya!!! he is a good kid! i have only gotten to klnow him a little bit so far but from what i can tell he will be good! hes nice, friendly, likes to talk! (alot!) hes a little forgetful! haha bu he will be awesome!!!! so ya! we have just been working the past few days and all has been good!

 

Elder Irias (Greenie)

-being the señor comp!!! well.. its hard!!! haha but i have been praying for alot of help! and i know i have recived it!! haha i think the hardest part for me, is planning at night! i try real hard to think and pray about where we need to go and who we need to teach the next day! but its hard! but ya im am working into well haven´t really had any problems yet! but we will see how it goes! haha

another thing is that as a trainer you are almost always with your comp for 2 transfers! So that means i will be in san cristobal when the mission splits!!! so ill most likly be in ´´mission Coban´´! so that will be cool!!!

another thing when we where coban on sunday, i was with elder brindle! he got called about his transfer! he is also training! but in the capital!!! so he was pretty shocked with that, he thought he would be training in his area! but nope he got sent to the capital!!!!

elder gutierrez called thursday - he got transfered to ´´pop tum´´ Peten!!!! something like that... hahah but ya hes excited! Peten is where all the cool stuff is like Myan temples, monkeys, jaguars, aligators, Quetazales!(the bird) ya so its real pretty up there! so he will love it!!!

anyway about the mission work!!!! well we have two ´´fechas´´ (dates for baptism) one for hno. roberto for the saturday the 4th and another hno. Oscar for the 11th!!! we are really really excited!!! we have been working with Hna Alicia and her daughter, but she just wasnt ready, but this week we did something so that we could find out where here ´´duda´´ (doubt) is, we went through the baptism interview questions with her! found out she doenst really have a testimony of Joseph smith! so well we know know where we have to focus our lessons, so we have been focusing them on the book of mormon and the restoration! and she is getting a little bit more comfortable, but we are working with her hard!!

ya idk what else has happend these past two weeks have been a blur!!! but dont worrie, i keep a journal everyday, so my whole mission wont just turn into a blur! ill have all my memories written down!!!

i got your first package the other day!!! it was real real beat up hahaha (ill send a picture) thanks for all the candy and everything!!! really appreciate it!!! one thing you could do diffent in the more packages you send it maybe some hand written letters from the family! and so photos! cus i cant print off the photos you sent by email, so with the next package if you would throw in a couple of picturs of you guys, or just whatever, it would be awesome!!!

 

 

It started out as a Box :)
 

ya i haven't heard much about new areas opening up, but with the mission split i know there will be alot of changes in area bondries, new areas, different zones, and so ya ill let you guys know as i find out about the changes! but for now not much new!

my stomach is doing a little better! still upset alot, but whatever! no big deal!!
with your sugestion about a joint fast, im good! its acually a rule in the White bible, that we are not suposed to ask our families to do joint fasts with us, but don´t worry we are fasting ourselves, and things are changing, litttle by little! but things are changing!!! i just wanna make a difference here! thats my goal!! i feel like this area is so cloce to success, but it is just out of our reach!!! but we are working hard hard hard to get the success we want, and the success we know the Lord wants!!!

i have no idea how its gonna work for mothers day! but ill let you know when i find out!! but i think ill end up calling you guys!

Love you all so so so so much!!! it was way hard to not write you guys or hear from you for two weeks! but here i am again! and its all good!

LOVE YOU!!!
ELDER KUMPF!!!!

4/8/2013

haha hello how are you!!! well this week was another good one here in guatemala!!!! man oh man conferance was soo good!!!!! we had to go to Coban to watch it in the stake center! they had the main chapel and a few other rooms for the spanish translation! but they also gave us a little classroom where we could watch it in english!! so all the ´´norte´´ missionarys where in there! it was a tiny little tv and we stacked it on two tables so everyone could see, and the picture was real fussy! but it was General Conferance just the same!! i loved it!!!!! so we left early saturday and stayed there for all three sessions! most of the missionarys were staying the night at the ZLs house in coban! but we wanted to go back home so that we could bring some investigators to the sunday mornign session!! so we left the stake center about 8:15 and had to walk like 45 min to get to the road that leaves cuz after 8 there is no buses to San cristobal, so we get there are are are trying to ´´jalon´´ but nobody stops!! so finally about 9:15 a micro bus comes that is headed for San crist. so we pile in! and man there was seriously like 30 peopl in this tiny freaking little bus!!!! but we made it home!!! then sunday morning we ran around to pick up the investigators we had invited! but like none could come!!!! Hno. Oscar, (he is the one who just showed up to church one time! we still havent even had a lesson with him but he has come to church 2 times and said he would come with us to conf too) but when we called him he said he had to do something but would meet us there! :/ we where a little unsure cuz coban is like really far, like hour bus ride, and he had never been to the church there, but we explained where it was, and he said he would be there!! (we where praying hard he was telling the truth!!) anyway so none of our other investigators could come! but ´´hermanita´´ said she wanted to come! (she is the lady we live with!) so she and her two kids went. we went in the back of her pickup! she droped us of in front of the church and said she just had to run to the mall real quick and then would be back! so my comp went into the spanish and i watched in english!!! AGIAN, CONFERANCE WAS SOOOO GOOD!! ah! but ya, then after i met up with my comp, and he said he didnt see any of out Inv.! so we decided to wait at the door as everybody was leaving to look to see if any came! sure enough Hno judy (member) and his wife(Alicia) and daughter(investigators) came out!! WOO!! so we talked with them and they loved it! the Hno Oscar came out!!! woooo!!! talked with him and he also loved it alot!!! ya but hermanita didt come back!!! haha but ya it was a good session! then after the afternoon session we came back home and worked a little bit!

the work is coming along! we are working real real hard, but not seeing very many results yet :/ but i know they will come! Hna Alicia still does not feel like she has recived an answer that this is the right church, she has the desire to get baptised, she is just waiting to recive her answer!!! but we are praying hard for her! and also we explained to her to pay close attention to the other ways the spirit can give her an answer! not just a dream, but it can be through feelings, thought, peace of mind! so we explained that to her and she said she would keep praying and waiting! also this thursday me and my comp printed a picture of the two of them on their wedding day and gave it to the as a gift, along with a big picture of the Guatemala temple! with a picture of there family in the corner! reminding them what their big goal is!!! they were really happy with the gifts! and ya
we are working hard hard hard! and the results will come!!!
but ya other than that not too much going on,
my stomach has been bothering me alot! but im trying to figure it out and eat better or something idk! haha its not bad, just just a little nerver racking when you got an emergency and got no where ´´´to go!´´ haha :)
i haven´t gotten the package you sent yet, but ill let you know when i get it!!
i don´t need anything really! haha but ya! keep being awesome!!

man idk if you guys saw it but for me this conferance had a huge focus on ´´MISSIONARY WORK!!!´´ and so ya you guys need to work harder!! BE MEMBER MISSIONARIES!! invite your friends to activities! and invite them to hear the missionaries with your!!! this gospel is the greatest thing we have!! and we need to share it with everyone!!!! have no fear!!! share the gospel!!!

LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
Elder Kumpf!

 

 

 

4/1/2013

hello there!! haha well this week was a pretty good one!! it was ´´semana santa´´ so like everyone was on vacations! and also a cool/weird thing they do here is they take saw dust and they creat these ´´alfambros´´ they dye the say dust differant colors then like sprinkle it in disigns, or use cut outs to make designs! but they are cool! ya they make them durring the day, andthen that night the priests and prossesion with the big saints statue float thing pass over the areas with the alfombros. very catholic thing, but they have been doing it here as long as anyone can remember! but ya ill put a couple of pictures of the saw dust things!! but ya im not sure if it is just something they do here or if it is like a central america thing, idk! but it sure is differant! anyway!! the work with our investigators is going good!! we are working hard to keep them progressing!! didn´t have any baptisms, but we have a date with Hna Alicia and her daughter! for this week end!!! we are praying real real hard for her! she want to be baptised she just doens´t feel like she has recived her answer that this is the one true church!!! but we have a FHE with them tonight and we are gonna see how she is doing and if she has got it yet!!! other than that,
we had 51 for attendance this sunday and 8 were our investigators!! one is this guy named oscar!! he is super awesome! a real gift from god!! he showed up last sunday and i had never seen him befor but i went and talked to him and he was like ´´ya i live here and am investigator!´´ we were like ´´WHATTT´´!!! so ya but he works late during the week so we couldn{t have a lesson with him, but he came again this sunday!!!!! so ya we are gonna try hard hard to meet with him this week! aperantly he has a GF in the capital that is a member or something! but ya we are real real excited for him!!! he is GOLDEN!!!
we also had a family! the kids have come with us a bunch of times with us to church but the mom works 24 days away and only has like a 4 day break, then back to work!! so they are usually with their grandma! they assited with their grandma the first time, then solo the next couple times, then with their mom this sunday! the big problem we have with them is they dont speek or understand very much castillaño (spanish) they speek Poqomchi´ and so they have a hard time understanding, and the teaching them is going slow!! but we are working hard and teaching them at their needs!
Hna Milna didnt come and we were really sad!!! we have been working with her for like two months and she has still not come to church! it is like the only thing that is keeping her from being baptised!!! :/ ah! but she is so awesome! one day this week we went by at random to visit with her and she was sitting in her doorway reading the BOM! man i was like WOOOOOOO!!! ya she is super awesome! she just needs to come to church!!!
anyway besides that, we had a 2 zone conferance friday! it was the zones coban, and verapaz! it was a real real good meeting! it lasted a long time! from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon! but it was soooo good! president and his wife spoke and we did some practices! and ya just learned alot about little things that i can do alot better!! but it was in coban and coban has a mcdonalds! so we went there in the morning!! other then that not to much new, just working real hard her!! and excited for changes in 2 weeks idk if i will get changed, but i have a feeling i might!! we find out like saturday the 13th and then if i do ill be shipping out tuesday mornig usualy! will see what happens!

dad had a question about other churches! well sancritobal has two big catolic churches! one up the mountain, and one in the center park! and other then that there is litterly a church on every corner!!! from eveangelico theo 7th day adventist to jehovas witnesses to penticostal!! there are so so many churches! and so its a big problem cuz everybody already goes to a church! and like everyone here belives that ´´if its talking about god, then its good!´´ witch is good and bad, good cuz they will here our message, but bad cuz they just can´t seem to grasp the idea that there is only one true church!! but its ok we are working hard, and trying to find the people that the lord has prepared for us!

the weather here is random!! haha its never just one weather! its either hot hot or ´´chipi chipi´´ cold! and it usualy goes in about 3 day cycles! 3 days hot -sweating! and three days cold! -sweater and rain jacket! but ya its interesting! haha

thanks for the calender it is so so perfct!! and thanks for forwrding the letter from kenny! ill send him a little note!

 oh and last week i sent a picture of these two kids i saw in the street! but the little one was dressed in all cammo! and it looked just like noah did when he has a little kid! thought it was so simalar!!!

love you all!!! hope your doing well!!! ill talk to you agian next week!!!
LOVE YOU!!
ELDER KUMPF!!

 

3/25/2013

 

well well another week flying by here in guatemala!!! this week was ok, although i felt like we didn´t get alot done :/ i feel like idk we are missing something, or like we are failing a little bit! :( we had 74 in attendace this sunday, pretty good, but we only had 6 investigators, 4 of them were kids, (the brothers and 1 sister of Mario) but mario himself didn´t come... sad... :( and we had Hno. roberto! which was real real good he is an old, kinda eternal investigator! he is a super awesome guy but just doesn´t want to take the step further to be baptized! :/ but we are working hard with him and it is showing, in that he came to church! and the other onvestigator at church was a guy named Oscar! he was there during sacrament, and i thought he was a member, but after i went to talk to him cuz i didn´t recognize him, and he said he was an investigator! i guess he has a girlfriend in the capital thats a member or something like that, but ya he came all on his own, i have never seen him befor! but now we are gonna work real hard with him!!!
as far as our plans with alicia, we had a lesson with her like tuesday, and we couldnt get her alone to talk to her about a ´´birthday presnt´´ for her husband Judy, but we had a lesson with the two of them together, and talked about eternal fameilies, and ya it was good! and she keeps saying ´´i want to get baptiozed, im just not ready´´ but i know she is ready! so we set a plan with her we told her that we had prayed, and we know she could be ready for her baptism the 30th of march, and she was like ´´wooo no way´´ and we told her to pray and ask if she was ready for her baptism this date, she said she would, so, will see!!! we are praying hard!!! but i feel like she isn{t gonna pray and ask cuz she ´´already thinks she knows´´ she is not ready... so we will see, but that was tuesday, and we tryed to have another visit with them, but couldnt untill friday, their wedding! (ill send a picture of them) they got married and it was good and they had a party and stuff and we went for a little bit! but could talk to her about if she had prayed and how she felt... then saturday they had their honeymoon, and we called saturday night to see if we could visit them but they said they were busy, but they said they would be at church the next day for sure!! THEY DIDNT SHOW UP:( :( sad! then we called and they said we could visit them at 6 sunday night, we went waited, nada!!! so ya that was a big bummer!
other buig bummer was with Hna Milna! she is an investigator that we have been teaching for a while! she is super awesome in reading the bom but has never comee to church, she always says she can on like tuesday, but then by friday she has someother thing she has to do, usualy in another town! :/ but this wee on tuesday she said she coulnt come, then when we visited her on thursday she said she had changed her plans so that she could go!!!! we hwere so so excited!!! but then on saturady, we went by and she said she could go. :( but i think there is a more serious problem, i think her husband is super against us! he is ot usualy there, and so we always have lessons outside, so its not awkward or anything, but ya he was at home on saturday, and so i think she was afraid of him and thats why she changed her mind about going!!! so ya pray hard for her to have courage, and for her husband to not be a jerk , or bully or whatever he is. but just pray for her, cuz i know she wans to fallow this gospel, and i feel like he might be the only thing stopping her...

but ya thats that kinda bummer week we had here, but we are not leetting it get us down, just letting it make us work harder!!!!!

we also did a ton of service this week!!! one moring we helped Hna Milna haul a bunch on huge rocks up the mountain to her house! we loaded a wheel barrow and tied a rope to the front of it, so one of us pushed and one pulled! we worked for about 2 hours, and barly made a dent in the huge pile that she had bought and still needed to be hauled to her house.

then two other morings we went up two the house of Hna Angelina (less active) and we were helping her re-do her roof! this exmiossionary came, he was the one who baptized her, he served her in 94, and ya he bought all the stuff for her to red do her roof, ned wood beams and nedd tin roofing, so we heped them replace the bords and stuff, and is was fun hard work! the gringo x mish was only her for like 3 days but he was a nice guys,

the member and investigators are a mix, alot are in the city and alot are on the outskirts, in the jungle! but ya its awesomely gorgeous here!!!!!!!
but there are not any ruins here, kinda a bummer but ill get my chance to see them in other areas!
we have zone conf about once a month, but the president does not come. but this friday we have a multi zone conf. in coban and he will be there, so im excited for that!!!

anyway out of time! man i need to learn to type faster! but ya!!! love you all so so so so much!!!
be safe ans share the gospel with people!!! members are real missionarys!!!
Love
Elder kumpf!