Looking forward to Conference

This week has been a fun week! We have been working hard and we´ve been able to help several families come closer to Christ. It´s our last week in this transfer so we are wanting to leave on a good note because I´m almost positive that one of the two of us is going to have changes.

My favorite teaching appointment I think is with Oscar. I love teaching him because of the difference that I see in him and the change that the gospel has caused in his life. I remember in the beginning he didn´t really like to talk to us and did whatever he could to avoid us but with a little of time and lots of work... I´ve finally become like a friend to him where he will come up to me and shake my hand and ask me how I´m doing and when we have our lessons and he pays attention and answers questions and it´s so cool to see the gospel work in other´s lives. Anyways this week will be a fun week because in seminary we´re going to be making guest appearances to teach the lessons to the kids that are taking seminary but mostly for Oscar and he will be baptized on my birthday which is basically the coolest thing ever. 

CONFERENCE!!!! I´m so stoked!! I love conference weekend and this week we have plans to invite and bring all our investigators to conference because if we can get them to conference their testimony is going to be strengthened tons so those are our biggest plans. We have to get them all the way to the stake center though which is a little farther away but if I have to pay the bus fees for all of us I´ll do what it takes ;) 

The weather here is getting colder and colder and there´s a breeze that doesn´t seem to go away and it gets pretty darn cold here in the night time. I think from here on out it gets colder and colder until about February. Then it starts to warm up a little. We have been using jackets and umbrellas more and more and luckily my shoes are holding out strong because otherwise I would be miserable hahaha!

They celebrate Independence Day differently here…really all they do are like these huge groups of people storm the streets and play instruments and carry torches and flags and everything is kind of nuts but it was a fun experience!! Super different that´s for sure.

(We told him about our incredible ward primary program.) We have our primary program coming up like the last Sunday in October and I´m hoping that it will be similar with all the little kids singing with that incredible spirit they have. I miss our ward though and all the young ones and all the youth and all the adults. It´s so different out here in Guatemala but it´s wonderful just the same :)

Love, 

Elder Lott

President Crapo Visit

Can you believe another week has passed and it’s email day again. I can´t believe how fast the weeks fly by. Every Sunday I’m like wait... tomorrow is Monday already?? YES!!!  I´m doing super good actually. I´m working hard and staying busy and it´s true the counsel that President Hinckley received from his dad when he said "lose yourself and go to work." That´s honestly the best thing a missionary can do!!

My cold is mostly gone. Not all the way but most of the way. I´m not coughing anymore. I think I´ve almost gotten rid of it. There is still a tiny bit of pressure in my head but like I said, not anywhere near where it was before. I´m feeling tons better and I think within the next couple of days I will be back to 100% :) 

Our reference visits went well and we even had divisions with our district leader and we were able to divide and conquer and we had lots of success this week. We were able to invite several people to come unto Christ :) You wanna know what was SUPER cool though? This last Thursday we were able to work with President Crapo all day!!! He called us after lunch on Thursday and was like hey Elder Lott I´ve been thinking about you guys and I wanted to come work with you guys in your area for a few hours would that be alright? I was super super nervous at first just because I didn´t know what to expect but once he showed up and we started working it became one of my favorite memories of the mission. It was so much fun to learn and work with President Crapo. He teaches so well and we were able to have some super powerful lessons that left our investigators with the spirit. It was such a good day. 

Alright, as for Oscar and Jessica, well Jessica had to travel a little bit this last weekend so she wasn´t able to make it to church but Oscar came to church and he is learning and growing and changing so much. He will be baptized the day after my birthday if everything goes well :) Jessica could be the same day or the week after. Everything is going great though and we are seeing tons of blessings every day. 

We did have divisions but I already talked a little about that.... The difference between divisions and splits... Well divisions is when we do like a swap. For example, the district leader comes here to my area and my companion goes with the district leader´s companion to his area and they spend the night in the other area. Splits is when the district leader and his companion come to our area and then we divide and conquer but the four of us in our area... Does that make sense? That´s kind of hard to describe but I did my best ;) 

 

I have some fun pictures of Independence Day here in Guatemala (September 15th when we got to work with President Crapo all day) with David and Janet!!

Love,

Elder Lott

Super Good Week!

My week was super good! We actually had lots of success. We were able to visit tons of members and get lots of references of neighbors and other people to visit so this week it will be a lot of looking for these neighbors and these friends and then inviting them to come unto Christ.

This week we actually had our multizone conference with President Crapo and we learned a lot about how to teach our investigators clearly so they can understand and have a desire to keep the commandments and read the scriptures and it was such an awesome conference. I even got to see Elder Vasquez and talk to him and see how he has been and it is always so fun to see other missionaries from other zones.

Oscar is doing great. There is a family that is helping us a ton with him. They always invite him to their family home evenings and activities in the church like mutual or like soccer scrimmages and he is coming to church almost every single Sunday. YES!

Another investigator for this week. It´s a younger girl named Jessica. She lives super far away but came here to work babysitting little kids for a family here and she is going to live here for a long time and the family that she is living with just happens to be members. The Lord is truly at the head of this work and places people in our paths and prepares them for us to come and teach them and it is truly a blessing. Anyway, she has come to church several times and is super interested. She always has questions for us and she has a real desire to learn more. So there we are working with her too :) 

My highlight of this week was definitely the multizone conference. I learned so much. I am learning so much always but in the conferences it´s just like tons of information jammed into your head and then we just like go and do everything that they told us in our areas. This week I have just been motivated. I have just found a new motivation to talk with everyone and just share at LEAST my testimony with everyone. I love running around talking to everyone and it has been fun for me to get to know all these new people. This week I think we´ll be having divisions but we´ll see what happens. 

I don´t know what else to say.... Ohhhhhhh actually I do but I´ll send that to you in another email.  (What…Wait….there was no other email.  Maybe next week???)

All is well. I´m loving every minute and I´m so grateful for all the encouragement and support that you guys give me. 

Love, 

Elder Lott

Learning and Learning and Learning

Well as for me... I have been learning and learning and learning these last couple of weeks and I feel like I have been really sensitive to promptings of the spirit. I have been enjoying it a lot actually. I think I have found an actual love for these people and a desire to talk with and help and serve each one. I think in the beginning I was scared and didn´t want to teach by myself without any help from my companion because I wasn´t used to it and it scared me but recently I have just found a love for the work and a strong desire to just share it with everyone that I talk to whether they´re going to accept the message or not you know? I have just learned to take control of the situation and to make all of the decisions by myself without waiting for Elder Flores to give his opinion. There is so much to learn here in the mission. I can´t even describe it but I´m so grateful for the challenges and experiences that I´m having.

We do have several investigators that I can tell you about but it would take up a bunch of time. I´ll try to tell you about like one every week. We have one whose name is Oscar and he loves to play soccer. We have invited him to play with us a couple of times and he has showed up and told us after that he loves playing with us. He lives super close to a family of members that always invite him to their family home evenings and things like that and he is progressing rather quickly. Tonight we´re going to have a family home evening with him and that family and see how that goes :) 

I did grab this photo mostly for the huge volcano in the background. We are miles and miles and miles away from the volcano and it´s still gigantic. I think you could see that volcano from anywhere in Guatemala. The drop off in the road is a pretty good depiction but there are other places where we are literally walking up a mountain hahaha! It´s a fun little picture though with the volcano nothing else really significant. 

Can you believe we´re already here in September?? I can´t believe how fast the time is flying and that we already have the first few days of September behind us. I can only imagine how the leaves are changing and how pretty everything is over there on those ends. We just continue to get buckets and buckets of rain and the temperatures have really cooled off. I´m enjoying it. It´s a nice little break from the blazing sun!

Love you all!

Elder Lott