6/10/13

Hahaha well this last few days were nuts!! after we wrote you guys thursday we had a zone mtg. our district and the zls. man it was real good, but they talked to us about how they were sad that really our zone has been failing in baptisms.last month, for all the 10 pairs of missionaries in our zone, there was only 5 baptisms! the goal for the mission is 4 per pair per month, so that number should have been 40! so ya we are sucking alot! but they right then gave us 5 minuets to think and pray and give them a goal of how many we are gonna have in the month of june! we thought and our goal for me and my companion is 6!!! they are all close we just need to work real hard!!!

as far as these 6 people! they are our main focus and reall the ones that we are gonna put 100 percent of our effort into!

first is Alicen - she is the 9 year old daughter of a less active family, the family hasn´t come to church in two years as a result their youngest daughter alicen is not baptised! and she is 9! so she is one of our investigators! we have been working hard with her for the past month or so, she is smart and has all the gosple knoledge so we are mostly focusing on the mom and getting her back to church! cuz if the mom doesnt come back to church the familty is just gonna fall away again and the baptism wont really matter! but we have given lesson after lesson and ya she is changing bit by bit, but thursday after our zone meeting, we were like alright! we are putting a baptism date with her! so we went and it was just her dad and her, and we asked her if she wanted to be baptised and she said yes! so we asked her why and explained about baptism and stuff, then we brought out a callender, and asked her to pick a date of when she thinks she will be ready! she said the 20 of july!!! so thats her fecha for right now, we think it will happen sooner, but will see, Then we talked with her about the things she need to do before, and about coming to church and reading, and she promised she would, also the dad promes that he would keep bringing her to church! he and the two daughters came 2 sundays ago, but the mom no... but this sunday a mirical happened!! we were sitting in church about to start, and they walk in!!! the WHOLE FAMILY! mom and all! man we were so freaking happy!!! and she had a good time, and I think her and the other hermana made up!!! so we are praying that she keeps coming! and keeps being an example for her daughter!!

 

Anyway, sunday was a huge blessing after a couple weeks of hard hard work without results!!! we had alicen (the daughter) hno roberto, and this investigator couple, juan and his wife!!! (they finaly came! after 2 months of trying to get them at church!!!!) so ya it was a very happy day for me!!! so we had 4 invesitgators at church, and the attendance was 67!!! moving up!!!!!!

so ya right now our focus is on Alicen, Roberto, Juan and his wife, and Alicia and karla, they are the 6 baptisms we are planning on having this month! but for right now only Alicen has a date... and its for next month... but hey its a date!

anyway we are working real real hard! and seeing a few results!!! :)

As far as my comp!! his spanish is good! he has like perfect grammer, he just has pretty bad pronuciacion... sp (spanish) but i'm helping him with that and he is hepling me with my grmmer, so we understand each other pretty well and everyone normaly gets what we are saying! haha

well well i love you guys so so so much!! youur always in my prayers!!!

I LOVE YOU!!

 

Elder Kumpf!

6/6/2013

• Well its not Monday... but here´s the news just the same! :)‏

Well well pretty nuts week!!! First off last Monday night my comp. packed up all his stuff and then Tuesday we went around to say good bye and stuff then about 4 we got on a bus to Coban! we passed by Santa Cruz and I got off there and we switched with one of the elders from Santa Cruz that was also going to the cap for changes, so  those two left in the bus and I stayed in Santa Cruz with an elder from Idaho elder Suiter! He’s cool and we are pretty good buds cuz they are part of our same branch! 

Anyway so I stayed with him in Santa Cruz Tuesday night and we worked hard! Then we worked all day Wednesday in his area again! It’s cool to change and work with different people gives you new perspective and new ideas! Anyway then we slept there Wed night too, and Thursday morning we went to pick up our new comps from Coban! My new comps name is Elder Lomeu!!!! He is from Sáu Paulo Brazil! Crazy!!! But he is awesome! He has like 4 months in the mission, he was in the MTC in Brazil for 6 weeks learning Spanish, and then he had to wait in a mission there in Brazil for a few weeks till he got his papers to come here, then he was in the cap! So ya he is awesome! Has a big heart and super nice, But he is cool so! Anyway so ya he came Thursday and we have been working sense then...

As far as our investigators come! Well we are working hard but we obviously need to work harder, this Sunday we again had 0 inv. at church! so sad!!! But it’s not like we didn´t try!! We had like 10 that said they were gonna come! and we passed by for a ton of them in the morning! 4 were like oh ya we just need to get ready and will be there at 9!, then others we went by were like oh ya sorry I can´t, and then like other were like ya sorry my husband just left and so maybe will come later! ugh!!! So frustrating!!! I decided we need to work on finding more investigators, hahaha but no we are gonna look for more, and keep working hard with the ones we have too, as far as baptism dates... we don’t have any!!! haha like I said we have 6 people that we have plans with to put dates in this week!! But we are also trying hard to get them to church!! cuz really they need to come to church before they can get baptized! :/ but ya! haha working HARDDDD... I’m so tired all the time!!! I think the biggest temptation in a rule to break, is not like watch tv, or listen to music or swim, the biggest temptation I have is to just go home and take a nap!!!! hahaha I’m not gonna lie there has been times that I have prayed that me or my comp will get sick so we can have a day in the house to rest!!! haha but ya the lord is helping me keep going! 

About the mission split, well ya I’m officially in mission Coban! but idk when the name will change or when the new prez will come... but there is some word that prez Watts is gonna came around and give us one last good bye, and I’m sure we are gonna have a big meeting with the whole mission and our new president, but as far as when... no idea!!!

Elder Vestal I did not ever get to see haha, he called one time and we talked for a little, but just that one time... but I heard he was awesome! He was born (first area) in San Cristobal just like me! Anyway, oh also found out that the other 3 guys from my MTC district, including Elder Brindle are in mission Este!!! :( I’m out here all alone!

haha but that’s ok! Anyway I’m excited for all the changes and to keep working hard!!!

Love you guys!!! Hope all is well and you’re not doing anything too crazy fun without me!!! hahah

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Kumpf!

Well haha the first is a picture the day elder Irias left! with this investigator famly we have! we are teaching the man and his wife! the kids are just there grand kids! they are awesome! and working hard hard to get them to church! right now they are having a hard time understanding that they need to be baptized again... no matter how many times we explain the authority or things like that... ya its hard to get it across.. but we are working hard!!! and they are awesome!

 

 

 

the second pic is us coming back from p-day in tactic! and ya... we are in the rainy season!!! oh dang we got soooooo wet!!! haha but we get real wet every day, cus about 3 everyday, it just starts pouring!!!! buckets!!! and then just keeps sprinky the rest of the day! no more chipi chipi, just hard rain!!! haha but you know, i like it!!!

 

 

the third pic is us helping rebuild a dog house for a member... the saw didn´t want to cut like at all, so we went PURO GUATEMALA on the wood! Machete and a hammer!! hammering the machete through the board! haha actually worked pretty well and pretty fast!!! they use machetes for EVERYTHING HERE!!!!

 

dyed chics in the market! 1 quetzal each!(wanted one but it was sunday :(

me checking out a catolic church last p-day! they still freak me out!!



me with the meca-pal i bought, and im meca-pal-ing my comp!!! hahah

(and yes he is very dark!!! i thought he was black at first... nope just a dark latino!)

 

 

5/27/2013

Well hey there family that is 2,000 miles away!!!!! How are you doing!!! Wow thats cool, haha im great!!!!!!

Well this week was a good hard crazy one!! haha but they all are like that in the mission! We have been teaching a lot! This week we had a good amount of lessons and the Lord really blessed us to be able to find our investigators when we were looking for them, and that they were willing to hear us! But the only thing we didn´t do very well was have lessons with members! It is so so important to have members at the lessons so that when we leave they still have friends in the ward and stay active! The goal of the mission every week: have 15 lessons with members, and this week we only had 6... And 3 of them were this Sunday after church!! But we did have a lot of other lesson with just us and the investigators... which is good, cuz we are teaching, but bad cuz there is no friendships! The goal of the mission is to have only 5 lessons per week with just the missionaries and inv. and this week we had 11! :/ so ya good but I wanna have alot more with members!!!

One day we went up to Chiyuc! and Aldea about 30 minutes away to contact a reference of a member! Then we stayed through and contacted the rest of the day!! It’s cool there and the people are friendly so I think we will be going back soon! 

Anyway Sunday was another sad one! no investigators at church!!:(:( :( And man we tried so so so hard to get people there! But it just didn´t happen!!! The assistance was only 45 too :/ but it’s ok we will change things!!!

Then Sunday night we got calls about changes! I wasn’t even thinking about it, cuz trainers like always always have the full 12 weeks (2 transfers) with their ´´kid´´ but guess what!!!! They called and my kid Elder Irías is going to the cap!!!!  :O   what!!!!! We where real real surprised!!! But this is the last transfer before the mission split! So I guess the lord really needed him in the mission Este! :/ so weird and I was real surprised! But I know the Lord needs him where he needs him! I was thinking it must have been one of two things, Either 1 I did such a good job training, that my comp only needed 6 weeks, OR haha 2, I did such a bad job that he needs to get someone else better to help him before I permanently mess him up! haha!! But I’ll keep thinking it was the first!!! HAHAH but ya ill miss the little kid,  I think I was just starting to get used to him!!!

Anyway speaking of the mission split, no I haven’t heard anything really... so we will see what happens in the next couple weeks! But I’m like 95 percent sure that this is that last change before the splits, so where we are is where we are!!! and in terms of the box, id just send it! i know they will get it worked out!

Anyway!! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!!

Be safe and don´t do anything too crazy!!!

love you!

Elder kumpf!!

Today some elder heard about this coll caves, that were suposed to be pretty newly found! so we got on a bus and went to check them out after a 45 min bus ride it was suposed to be an hour and a half of slow walking... well that was a lie! it was totaly 2 hours of good missionary walking! and like super high up this mountain!!! like super super high!!! witch i didn{t get why there would be caves at the top of a mountain... anyway we get there and they were cool, but tiny!! the hardly went anywhere, but they were like a fresh water spring! so there was like water just gushing out of holes and super cool! but i guess the governer and the people built like centent tanks and tubes so they could capture the water... idk, but there was still a ton of water going down the side of this mountain leaving these caves! and yes i did take the risk and i drank so of the water! :/ haha we will see if i die! but i don´t think so cuz it was litterly gushing out of the rocks! like talk about fresh mountain spring water!!! ya thats whats up! and we did find this little part where the cave contiued, but just to another small room! but it was full of BATS!!! totaly got hit in the face by a bat like 6 times!!! hope i don´t have rabbies! haha but it was a good adventure!!!

 

5/20/2013

Well well hi there :) this week was good!!! First off, WE BAPTIZED OSCAR!!!!!! Woo! haha it was Friday night and ya it was really good, the Elder from Santa Cruz with is a different city but the same branch, they also had a baptism! And so we did them at the same time!!! I was the one who baptized Oscar!! It was real cool! haha and I only messed up saying the ordinance like 6 times!!!!! haha like the fifth time I just looked up and told everybody I’m still learning Spanish! They all laughed, and then I finally got it right! haha, but I only had to put him in the water once, so that was good! And Elder Suiter (the huge other gringo) was the one from Santa Cruz to baptize the Hermana from his area. It was a real good service! Then Sunday we had the confirmation! All good in the hood!! He is so so pilas! I know he is gonna be a great leader in the church!

 

 

We had 50 people at church! And 2 investigators! Oscar doesn’t count now! We had hno Roberto! (he is awesome coming to church on his own and all, but he always has to leave right after sacrament to go work, cuz he is the only mechanic at the hospital and I guess a lot of stuff always breaks that he has to go fix, so he is always having to go there, and can hardly ever stay for second and third hour, but he almost always comes to sacrament so that’s awesome! we are just waiting  for him to tell us when he gets his vacation time so we can do the baptism! he really wants to, and we keep asking and asking! I know it will happen soon! and the other investigator we had was this daughter of this less active family! she has 9 years so she is our baptism! they stopped coming to church about 2 years ago, cuz the wife had a problem with another sister, but we have been working hard hard with them and the dad and his 2 daughters came this Sunday! one is 12 and already baptized and the other is the one we are working with! but ya the mom still didn´t want to come! she is real real stubborn! but we are more stubborn so don´t you worry about it!!!

This week we also had a 3 zone conference in Coban Thursday, with Elder Martino of the 70! Man oh man we got some good ´´sincho´´ (spanking) haha he told us that our mission will be the only mission in the world with only 1 stake!  The rest have 3 or 4 at least! But ours will have only 1! So he talked about how we really need to work on baptizing priesthood so we can have leaders in the church! And more than just baptizing them, making sure they get the Melchezidek priesthood! He gave the stats from all the areas and all the wards from the past two years, and the most part of them only had 0 or 1 or 2 ordinations of recent converts in the past two years!!! So ya he was like bam! You guys need to step it up!!!!!! But it was a real real good meeting!!! He also talked about the vision that one of the prophets had (idk who) who said in Guatemala there would be 3 temples 1 in Guatemala City, 1  in Quetzaltenango - and 1 in Coban!!!!!!! So ya we have a lot of work to do before we have the members sufficient enough to sustain a temple!! So ya, so good crazy interesting news!! And so good drive to change the work here!!!

Well well the work is hard hard! But oh so good! haha I’m really really loving it!!!

We will have changes again next week! (how fast was that 6 weeks!) But me and my comp are not gonna change cuz we are training!  But we will see who from the district will leave! And I think this is the last change before the mission split!!

Oh and the ties were awesome!!! I have given a bunch away already!!! And I kept a couple of the cool ones for myself!!! In the pacas (mini thrift stores) you can find cool ties pretty cheap like 5 quet s! So I have bought a bunch of those haha so ya I have a lot of ties!!! But there is always room for more!!!

Anyways i love you guys so so much!!! I really miss you guys! but I’ll see you in a year and a half! and that’s cool with me!!! hahah anyway!

be safe! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

ELDER KUMPF!!!

After this ward activity there was this giant frog or toad idk but i pout it in a bag!!! look how huge it is!!!!! (want to kiss it, but they said i might die... so i didn´t haha)

Well check this out! ok the first is a giant map we made on the wall so we can mark where inv. members and less actives live so you can know easy! cuz here, there is no such thing as an address, just ´´over there by that tienda in the blue house´´ oh gee thanks thats real spacific! haha so this will help the next elders that come in know where everyone is at! but its just of the city,,, and alot of the members and investiogators live like on the outskirts of the city.... so ya, we will see if it actualy helps... but as for know its like half done... but i did use a scripute to decsribe one of the big building in the center of the town! in the block i just wrote 1 nephi 13:6 look it up and you will laugh!
and the other pic is a map in the area book of our area!!!! all of it is ours!! and you can see the tiny section that is the town! the rest is corn fields mountains and little ´´aldeas´´ the other day we went to chiyuc to do some contacting, it went well so i think we will go back! and i think it will work too, cuz its not so far away that people can´t come to church, its only 2 quets and like a 20 min bus ride! pretty close!! so we hope to get some people from there!!!

cool huh!!!!

5/13/2013

Hey hey! Seems like I was just talking to you guys!!! Man they sure don’t give us enough time to talk with you all!!! Miss you guys a ton and could have talked for hours and hours!!! But it’s all good!

Any way this week was a good one except that hno Roberto didn´t get baptized!!! :/  but we are gonna find a day and dunk him!!! But this week we are gonna have a baptism for sure with Oscar! It will be Friday at 5!!! woo I’m so excited!!! He is super awesome!! His girlfriend (member in the capital) is gonna come here and everything!!! Its gonna be super sweet!!! and ya we are working real real hard and being obedient and loving the people, so now we are just waiting to see the blessings of the Lord!!! haha :) but ya, we also got a few new investigators this week and they seem like real good prospects! gonna work hard hard hard with them!!!!  Man the time is flying by so so fast! tomorrow is my 6 month mark!!! Say what!!!! But ya I’m excited for the year and a half I have left!!!

Anyway! Not to much more to say! and not much more time!!! Here are some pictures of the turkey that Hermanita cooked for us! and ´´sac- ick´´ and ´´kak-ick´´ sac-ick is the white creamy one! and that is the turkey who’s brain I totally ate a piece of!! hahaha

I got a hair cut again! it’s pretty short haha but I like it short! and it cost like 10 qts to cut hair!! haha

I’ll send you a pic of the whole area that we have next week! The town we have been working is just the smallest part!!!! But we probably won’t get to the far out villages ever! But we might visit them some time!!

Ya well I love you guys so much!!! Hope all is well! and I’ll talk to you again next week!!!

Love love love you all!!!! 

ELDER KUMPF!!

Also a pic of me and a cow brain i a bag that hermanita is gonna cook this week! im excited to try it!!!

Well  haha the mothers day here was fun!! friday we celebrated it with hermanita friday! we bought her some flowers and suprised her with some fire crackers!!!

haha she like it! then on saturday night we had the mothers day activity at the church! it was really good! but a little long! haha the young men and young woman did like skits and little things with the moms, and the primary sang them a song! and they made us elders do an activity! so we had 4 moms come up, to se how good they were at putting on make up! so they had to put make up on us!!!!! but they were blind folded with our ties!!! haha it was real real funny!!!! ya one elder got this lady that was real native, .like i don´t think she had ever seen makeup! haha so she just started doing big circles and drwing all over the face of one of the elders from santa cruz!!! oh man it was do funny!!!!! here are some pics!!!

 

 

 

5/6/2013

Well well hahaha this week was a little crazy again!! but this week we could see some results!!!! first of we had 51 at church and we had two investigators! Oscar and Roberto!!! the two of them have fechas para bautismo!!! Roberto for this week end the 11th and Oscar for next week on Friday the 17th!!!

It was also pretty awesome Sunday, we got to church and the meeting started and only Oscar was there! and this Sunday was fast Sunday, in our fast we asked specifically that Roberto and Oscar could come to church and could be ready for their baptisms! So when only Oscar was there I was real said, cuz basically we would have to push back the baptism or Roberto another week! :/ so after sacrament I was just praying talk hard with God, you know trying to figure out why Roberto couldn´t come, and how we were gonna have to push back his date, and all these sad thoughts, just triste in over all, but I ended my silent prayer and look up... and there was Roberto!!! Sitting with my comp!!! It was a real miracle and such an answer to my prayers!!!

with Roberto we had planes to baptize him the 4th this week end, but he didn´t show up last Sunday, and then we couldn’t{t find him all this week!! so frustrating!! but finally Friday we got with him, and put a new fecha for the 11th! he is excited!! we also met with him after church Sunday and just talked details of the baptism, and  answered a few questions that he had and ya, he is ready!! the only thing that could stop him is if he can´t get off work!! but he is asking and will find out wed!! so we are praying real real hard for him that it can happen this weekend and not get pushed back again! but i have faith it will happen! so be looking for bautismo pictures next week!!!

With Oscar! he is awesome! he always comes to church and ya he is just awesome!!! I can´t even describe how perfect he is haha golden investigator! originally we had his date for Friday the 10th cuz he is in university Saturdays, but he asked if we could do it the 17th because he wants his GF (who is a member in the capital) to be there, and the 10th is mother’s day, so she could come out, but we pushed it back so he can have her there, and it all be super awesome!!! man we are excited!!!
 

 

As for our other investigators, we have quite a few, we are just trying to find the ones that are gonna progress and focus on them! We have a mission goal of 11 new investigators every week! its alot! beacuse alot are not gonna want to progress! So we need to keep looking and find the ones that the lord has prepared! So we can use our time with them! Sounds bad a little, but we need to focus on those who the lord has really prepared to hear us!!

Anyway, thats where we are at in the work!!!

We’re working hard!! and seeing a few results!! :)

First of ya the cave was sweet! and it was just an actividad de disricto, our district has 10 elders 2 in San Cristobal (us) 2 in Santa Cruz (part of our branch) 2 in Valparaiso (they have a branch of their own) and 4 in Tactic (branch there also) but part of the area on Tactic goes down to a town called Purulah! and that is kinda where the cave was! This week we did an actividad de zona! and the other district in our zone is in Salaman which is in Baja Vera Paz, but ya,

Most people in SanCristobal work in this factory that makes shoes! haha or a lot sell food in that market! or some go to Coban to work!

love you all so so much!!! be safe talk to you soon!! LITERALY!!! hahaha woo!!!

 Elder Kumpf!

Today p-day we went to chulasco! ¡sp? it is the biggest water fall in central america!! it was sweet it was like a 2 hour bus ride then like 1.5 hours of hiking!!! and like troping throu jungle hiking, like dang you could hardly call it a trail! and there was this one point where we had to like cross this sketchy steep part where a mud slide had gone through!! it not a tourist area, infact we where the only ones there!! but it was sweet! (actually didn´t seem that big! i think the ones in yosemate are bigger!)

but it was awesome none the less! and ya i just love being out troping through the jungle and mountains!! fun day!!! good pics!! it was with the whole zone too,