Jailine was baptized!

Alight here`s what I have for this week.... 

Jailine was baptized this Saturday!!! It was so awesome and everything went so well! We had lots of support from the two wards and the four of us Elders even sang a special musical number. Everyone was reverent and the spirit was so strong and WOW. I think that will be a day for them to remember forever. I thought it was awesome! We were running around like crazies all day getting everything together but it was so worth it!  It was such a great day.

And then the day after she was confirmed a member of the church but guess what—me and my companion had to talk in Sacrament Meeting. I was super nervous but I think that it all turned out well. Several people told us that we did a great job so that made me feel good! It`s getting easier and easier to talk in front of people because of how often we have to do it haha! 

Easter here is called Pascua but they celebrate way differently and they celebrate the whole week. It`s called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week" and school gets out and all the businesses shut down for like the whole week. Did we have some trouble finding some food this week? Ya, a little bit! We did get invited by some of the members to eat this week though so that was awesome :) It`s celebrated by the Catholics... All of the Catholics in the whole community get together to paint and decorate the streets and then later there are like parade floats of Jesus carrying the cross. It`s super different and quite interesting.

The holiday did help us share the gospel actually. Because of the holiday, nobody works during the week. Several people go to the beach or visit family far away and the streets were deserted but there were also several people that stayed in their houses and just spent some time with their families and that was where we had the opportunity to share the gospel with some of the families that we normally wouldn`t have the opportunity so that so super fun! 

We don`t hear a ton about world news but I have heard a little about the terrorist attack and also about the politics going on there in America. But really we don`t hear too much hear...everyone here just watches soccer hahaha! 

I email you guys from a little internet cafe that`s close to our stake center. It`s like kind of secluded but it has like 8 computers so the whole district can write at one time so that`s where we go. The computers work really well too so that`s always good! 

 

Here is the picture of me and Elder Uribe from the day we had divisions and I went with him. He is from Chile so we talked about Alan`s mission there and how cool Chile is and stuff and it was fun!

I miss you all and love you all tons!!

Elder Lott 

The Heart of the City

This week has been super good! Nothing really bad or ugly to report... Well not that I remember anyway but it`s because the good drowns it out. We had a super awesome lesson with Jailine yesterday and she is going to be baptized this Saturday if all goes well. We went through a practice interview and she has a strong testimony of the gospel so we were both super excited. The interview is scheduled for this Thursday and we`re hoping for the best :) 

We had a district meeting in one of the stake centers that`s like 15 minutes away and it had Wi-Fi :) so that`s where I ran into some luck to send you guys some pictures!  We also went on divisions this week. I went with Elder Uribe from Chile and I talked to him about Alan and his mission and all that stuff.  He`s super awesome and we had a fun day.

The city was fun... We went to celebrate my companion’s birthday and we had fun shopping and eating and what not. Of course we had to snag a couple pictures. That was like more in the heart of the city with traffic and cars and stuff because everywhere else is a little more different haha! The price of gas in the area is like 25 quetzales per gallon.. Which is about the equivalent of 3 dollars...a little more.

We made it to the mall. It was fun and always a new adventure to see each zone and how different they all are.

This is Elder Proby!! He`s from Provo, Utah even though he doesn`t look like it haha! I actually bought that sweater here! Every once in a while you can find something super awesome here. Most of the clothes stores are similar to the DI or Ross or stores like that so sometimes you can look for hours and not find anything or sometimes you can hit the jackpot. We noticed that we both had the same sweater and we had to grab a picture! He`s super awesome. I actually got to know him in Zacapa and then we met up again here in Alameda! 

All is well and we`re busy and working hard. 

Con amor,

Elder Lott

Ping Pong is back!

I love Mondays!!!  I love getting to write you guys, it just gives me that boost for the week :)  Sounds like the weather is changing in Utah!  It`s pretty normal here all the time... hot in the day a little bit chillier in the night; but we`re moving into the summer months so apparently it`s supposed to be hot all day... Yikes... Nothing compared to Zacapa though haha!

We have a ping pong table in our church and one of the elders has paddles and ping pong balls so we`ve been enjoying that on our pdays! We also play soccer a lot too so that`s my exercise for the week.... I wish I had a little more time to exercise throughout the week.

I am always looking for better foods but they eat a lot of rice and tortillas and I don`t have a ton of options haha! I`m doing good though!  I`m loving the missionaries in the zone here.  They`re all so fun and it`s awesome. There`s a newbie that just got in and it`s so fun to see him and remember being in his shoes haha.  I make an extra effort to try to help and teach him the best I can.

Yes, I am still filtering my water here in the city.  There are several people who don’t and never have any problems, but I`m never super sure so I filter everything or just buy purified water.  Don`t wanna take any chances ;) A water heater? I think it exists. It`s something called a calentador but I`ve only seen one when I slept in the assistants’ house the night of transfers. That was the greatest morning ever to shower in warm water... Not hot... But warm :)  So ya I just shower in cold water every day... I`ve gotten pretty used to it... It`s only the initial jumping into the water where you have to take a deep breath and then after that... All is well hahaha!

One of our investigators spent the week with his brother who is catholic and now he is a little aggressive with us... But we`re being patient and teaching the best we can... He`ll come around :) 

All is well here.  We`re working hard and life is good.  My companion turned 20 today.  I think we`re going to a big mall here to celebrate—a place called MetroNorte.  I’m off….

Happy Monday!

Love,

Elder Lott

Service Projects and Miracles

Alright, transfer details....there were only a couple of changes.... one of our zone leaders is leaving and like two other missionaries; but I´m staying with my companion and I´m pumped about that. Our little district of 4 is awesome and we´re all going to be staying another transfer together!

Well apparently here in Guatemala it´s starting to be cold and rain sooner than usual. We´ve had a couple of good rain storms in the past couple of days that have been kind of crazy but hey I can´t complain!

All seems to be going well.... Our same 3 investigators continue to progress and we are working super diligently with them. We know that the Lord is helping us and preparing them as well. Truly there are tons of miracles happening in our area and we continue to see the hand of the Lord every single day.  I am doing my best to share this wonderful gospel with all of these people.

  This was a service project we did for one of the members in our ward! It was like my first one here in Alameda! Anyway, he had all that dirt that he needed to move so we offered to help him. We went over there one morning at like 8 in the morning and worked ours buns off until 12 and we only made a dent in it!! The problem is the wheelbarrows that we have to work with are super hard to work with. They don´t haul a lot of dirt so we have to make several trips just to haul a little bit. It´s fun though....we have gone like several times to run over and help him and we finally have it all taken care of!

Miracle of the week..... I´m going to have to go with....we were trying to find somebody that we could invite to baptism and we decided to visit a less active family that someone had referred us to. When we got there we were talking about the church and everything and we found out that when the family was baptized the daughter was only 4 years old so she wasn´t baptized. But now she´s 10 years old and anxiously accepted the invitation to baptism with the support of her family and everything!! It was super awesome. We just have to work with the parents to make sure they´ll come to church again and support her :)

We just see tons of miracles every day and it´s super awesome to be part of the Lord´s work here on the earth.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lott

A View of Alameda

The work is going great. We just work and work and work and we are definitely seeing the fruits of our labor which is so fun to see. We have several investigators that are progressing. One is a younger girl, she´s 18 years old and has a boyfriend who returned from a mission a little while ago but is kind of inactive.... He supports her though and that helps us. She is super excited about the baptism and has a strong testimony so we are just helping her little by little. Another investigator is 19 years old and she has a boyfriend too but they are not married. That´s our biggest struggle with her. She has also been pregnant for like 7 months so we´re working on the marriage with them! Our third investigator is like 46 but he has had a rough time lately. He was into a lot of drugs and alcohol in his life and it has definitely destroyed his health. He has diabetes and he has to connect himself to a machine to take liquids out of his body.  It´s called like dialysis or something like that.  He is humble though and has been really receptive and open to the gospel which is helpful. He always jokes and tells us that if he makes it to his baptism date,  he´ll be baptized; but if not, he´ll be dead haha! No worries though, I know he will make it ;) 

Transfers didn´t happen because they made a change in the rules of the CCM where the Latinos are going to stay 3 weeks instead of only 2 so this transfer is going to be one extra week to be able to accommodate the change in rules... Next week!

I haven´t ridden in a car for quite some time... In Zacapa sometimes the bishop would take us around in his car but not too much and here in Alameda I haven´t ridden anything but a bus hahaha! The buses are always jam packed too and I´m always worrying about my wallet being stolen haha! 

P-Days are great. We get all ready and come and write you guys and then we usually go and play soccer for a few hours and then eat lunch. After that we go grocery shopping and then we have like 2 hours to just do whatever... Sleep, play more soccer... Hang out with the district... Whatever it might be. We only get to go to the temple every other transfer though which is like every 3 months about. It´s alright though... It beats never being able to go hahaha!

No, Mom…there is not a Walmart here for me to just run over and pick up a blanket. We shop at a department store called the Maxi Dispensa..... It´s the Spanish version of like a Walmart... It´s not nearly the same but it has the necessities and that´s all that matters haha! There is a WalMart in Guatemala City but it´s outside our area so we can´t go.... Maybe in the future haha!

I´ll try and grab some pictures of the apartment... it´s a lot bigger and cleaner than the other so that´s good. My companion is good about cleaning and keeping it clean so that helps a ton.

Until next week…

Love,

Elder Lott