Rain and new Soles

Hey everybody!

   

It decided to rain all this week. The good thing is that I'm back to having two pairs of shoes.  I don't know if I had mentioned this but the brown shoes I bought before I left were worn down a ton from so many days of walking in Guatemalan wildernesses.  The left shoe had a big hole in it.  Then one day we were contacting, and we contacted a guy who turns out fixes shoes.  He put new soles and everything and it turned out great.

   

We've been teaching a family that lives pretty close to our house.  They have a date to be baptized, but it's been really hard for them to come to church.  In part it's because they don't want to go all the way to the stake center, and the last two weeks have been conferences.  This week it was a special conference that they broadcast to all the stakes in Guatemala.  I think it was 44 or something like that. But it was really cool.

   

We've also been teaching a little with Marvin's brother, Esbin.  Like half the people in their family are members already.  He's been coming to church.  In the picture with the kites I sent you last week he is the one with the shirt that has an oldschool video game or something like that.

   

In a box you sent me, I think Rick's family was who sent them, I'm not sure.  Anyway, they sent scripture stickers.  They are pretty cool.  But it turns out you can make them with masking tape and Liahona magazines.  So I learned something new.  We did that for a lesson with Angel, Marvin, and Esbin.  It was pretty cool. Esbin figured it out really fast.

   

For the first time here in Guatemala it's gotten cold, mostly because we are up in the mountain, and for all the rain.  I almost always wear a sweater in the morning.

   

Sometimes I feel like my English isn't as good as it used to be.  I've been speaking Spanish for so long that I forget words in English or how to spell them.

 
Things for Christmas... a few people have said that they want the scripture stickers, so if you can find some that would be cool.  Ties are always welcome.  I need a few new shirts.  I really like the Lee ones we bought online if you can find them again.  If you send candy, jolly ranchers are still my favorite, and I haven't seen anyone selling them here.  Socks.  If you can find a legit thin sweater that is missionary appropriate. They aren't too strict with the clothes here. Other than that who knows.

  
Anyway, that's my time. Love you all, and I'll talk to you next week.

Bye!!
-Elder Jarvie

Stake Conference

Hey everybody!

 

So things here have been going great. I'm still getting along good with my new companion and everything is going really good.

   

This Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference.  It was one of the best I've been to.  I think he was from the area presidency, Elder Maravilla.  The way he talked was really interesting.  He is a funny guy, but still gave really good points, and made you think, laughing and thinking you should probably repent at the same time.  Saturday he talked about ward council and Sunday he talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy.

   

The notebook I use for meetings is almost full, it's going to be the 2nd one.  I think I pay attention and understand a lot more if I take notes.  I started writing smaller because sometimes it fills up a lot of space.

   

Speaking of note books, my drawing books have been the same for the  last couple of months.  There is very little time to do anything.  I miss having time to draw, though I guess when I come back if I'm in art classes I'll be drawing all day long. But still I need to find some time to do it.

   

I started writing a letter so I should get one sent home Wednesday, so we will see when it gets there.

   

Honestly, I hope they leave me in this area for another change. I really like it here, and my companion is one of the best I've had. (answer to your question: he is one month older than me and has nine months in the mission.  I think those are the only two questions you asked.)

   

Now that you mentioned holiday traditions it reminds me, there are holidays they celebrate here and not there and ones we celebrate that they don't here.  For example, Halloween and Thanksgiving.  And here they have the day where they all fly kites and visit the cemetery, and a day where everyone makes devil piñatas and burns them and lights off fireworks. And sometimes the traditions or foods are different too.  Like Christmas, everyone eats tamales.

   

I really can't think of anything else to say. I didn't take too many pictures this week but I have a few that I don't think I've sent, so I'll send those.

   

I love you guys, bye.

-Elder Jarvie

Changes

So this week was changes and I can honestly say I'm really happy with them.  I'm still here in the durazno and my companion is Elder Ramirez from Honduras.  So far I've had one from Brazil, 2 from Momostenango Guatemala, and 2 from Honduras.  So far I get along really well with him.  The problem I had with my last companion was that he was kind of lazy and didn't want to do much.  My new comanion isn't lazy at all, so I'm super happy,

   

Sunday was a holiday where everyone goes and visits their relatives in the cemetery and flies kites too.  I tried taking a picture of the kites but it didn't come out.  You could see a ton of kites from the hill by the cemetery,  It looked like a beehive.  Around five thirty we started contacting the people who were on their way back.  Usually, it's hard to contact a lot of people here but it was like a river of people that day.

   

I'm going to try to get a hand written letter sent too (the old fashioned way) because there were a lot of fun stories this week.  Also I'll make sure to take a picture with my new companion this week to send you guys.

   

Pobrecitos, suffering from heat in HAWAII.  There isn't air conditioning here either.  Luckily, the weather in Guatemala is always perfect.  I just want hot water.

   

Ask Remington if he is going to bring me presents before he shaves the beard.  Speaking of Santa, Christmas is coming up.  Man, I love Skype calls!  Make sure you have a laptop, I want to see the house.

   

Sorry I don't have pictures this time around, this computer doesn't want to read my camera anyway. But next week for sure I'll get some sent. 

   

All in all, things are going really good here.  I get along great with my new companion, and everything is a lot better.

   

So that's what happened this week. I'll talk to y'all next week.

-Elder Jarvie

Marvin talked in church!!!

So we do have changes.  I'm not really surprised.  The other thing is that they are going to put another district here so I won't have to call as many people at night. and writing won't be such a pain. Finding a place for nine missionaries to write isn't a lot of fun.  It will be interesting to see who the new missionaries are.

   

The people that I was taking about that came to church are the recent converts. 1t would be a lot of investigators.  We visit everyone that's been baptized in the last year and keep track of who came to church.  So almost all of the new members came last week.  Speaking of new members, Marvin spoke in church and crushed it like a freaking boss!  He gave a really good talk about the way we dress and our appearance.  So that was super cool.  Also, Erick, another recent convert gave a talk too.  He talked about keeping the sabath day holy.

   

When Grandpa Walker wrote that Gordon's mission president's name is Lam it made me laugh. There is a guy in our ward who is Hermano (brother)  Lam.  His grandpa is from Hong Kong.  We always call him Chinito Taiwan.  Chino is like Chinese and in word they put it before the O to make it something smaller.  It's kind of funny, he is a realy dorky guy.

   

Hey, well I'm out of time.  Thanks for the pictures.

I love you all and I'll talk to you all next week.

-Elder Jarvie

Beans & Pigs

 Sorting beans with the Pineda family in Los Pinos

 

 A place in our area called Nacahuil.  There are a lot of pigs there.

Hey everybody!

 

So this week was fun.  One day we went to Nacahuil.  It's part of our area but it's like half an hour in bus to get there.  A lot of the people there speak Kekchi, one of the Mayan languages, so that's neat. Luckily, everyone speaks Spanish too.  There are a lot of animals and people wear different clothes.

   

On the way back we stopped by a place called Los Pinos.  Pinos are pine trees.  They told me it's named that for the Pineda family, who were the first people who lived there.  Like 70% of the people there have the last name Pineda, including the family we visited.  They do a lot of farming stuff so when we got there they were separating beans from some of the plant that came with it.  They gave us food too.  The fun thing there is that they always say if you want peppers there are some on the bush over there.  One thing I've gotten used to is eating peppers.

   

One really cool thing is that almost all the recent converts came to church this Sunday.  One of ten didn't come and only because he was sick.  So that was legit.

   

Reading your letter I thought of two things.  I've never had a companion that speaks English, and I've never had one younger than me.  Also I've never trained, so those are a few new things that could happen.

   

This time around there will definitely be changes because I already have three with Elder Barrera.

    

The house is looking amazing.  Make sure you guys have a laptop for Christmas so I can see it all. Y'all have a rich people house.  Well I guess you are grandparents now.

 

Well I'm pretty much out of time.  I love you all and I'll talk to you next week.

 

-Elder Jarvie

Baptism Interview

It sounds like you guys had a fun week.....mixed with a boat load of traveling... lucky dogs! I want to go to the coast. I miss swiming, though I don't miss cold water.  I get that every morning when I shower.  The beach is a ton of fun.  We will have to go there one day when I get back.

   

It's fun to hear that Moroni and Gordon are in the MTC now, or CCM and who knows how to say MTC in Cantonese.  Throwing in wrong words for me is mostly if I pray out loud in English.  The MTC is a struggle sometimes.  Though I guess there are struggles everywhere you go (they are just a little worse there).  Right now I would say my biggest struggle has been my companion.  My companion is the devil.  The good thing is that we have changes in two weeks.  I've been with him four and a half months already so we will definitely have changes.  That and I've learned a lot of patience.

   

This week we had divisions with the zone leaders.  We did it after weekly planing, and it ended really late so it was a short division, but it was good.  I got to interview someone for their baptism, so that was neat.  It was the first time I had done it. 

   

Things here are honestly going alright - there are a few things that drive me crazy sometimes, but there are good things too.  I really like the area I'm in right now.  It's really big and sometimes we take buses to visit people, but it is a great place.  And our house is good too.  The only down side is the shower.  Saturday I got to take a hot shower when we had divisions with the zone leaders.

   

Anyway, that's what's up over here.  I love you guys!  And I'll talk to you next week.

-Elder Jarvie

Conference & UNO

The last four days have been some of the most legit ever.

  

Number one:

Conference, I enjoyed it a lot.  There are a few ideas that I liked, and plan to apply.  The talk about ponderizing really stuck out for me.  I like the idea.

   

There is an elder in my district called Elder Hocket and when the guy started talking about the super long dark tunnel he started yelling that his family goes there every year. (When we watch conference there is a separate room for the people who speak English, so there were only like three of us there. So it's not like he was talking in the main room with everybody.)  But he told us a lot about it and it sounds like a really cool place.  Definitely somewhere I want to go when I get back.  Maybe I'll convince him to come with me.

   

That is super cool that you guys got to go there to see the conference.  It was a really good one. The weird thing is that this time around people only talked in English.

   

As missionaries we pretty much stayed in the stake center all day.  We would watch two hours.  Eat something and play UNO for two hours and repeat until the end when we went home right when the day ended.  Us especially, because we live far away.

 

Number two:

We went to the temple today!  That was great though there isn't too much to describe about it.  We also bought a few things at the distribution center there.  And we ate Taco Bell before coming back to write.  I bought a Book of Mormon en English, because I wanted to mark scriptures and mine is pretty well marked.  We also bought scriptures for some of the members here who don't have them.

   

Things 3 and 4 could be getting emails today and not dying in a mud slide.

 

We were talking with a one of our investigators who mentioned that where the slide happened was a mountain that was mostly mud or sand, which isn't the ideal place to build.  It's a better idea to build in a stony place.  Which made me think of the wise man and the foolish man.  And that in some choices we make you can loose a lot more than your house.

   

It's also exiting to hear that Moroni is on his way.  There are now a ton of missionaries from our ward.  And a lot of us are speaking Spanish too, though Moroni is going to come home speaking a Spanish a lot different then Jared´s and mine.  From what I've heard they talk in vosotros which is like using thou.  So that will be fun.

   

So I'm pretty much out of time.  This week I had a little more time to write. Thanks for the letters and pictures. I love you guys!

bye!

-Elder Jarvie