The Power of Prayer Never Fails!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! We didn't do anything special for Thanksgiving. We didn't get to eat anything super special or anything.... just had a lot of people ask me about it haha!  We did get a new companion and now we're in a trio. I guess that was our thanksgiving surprise!!  He’s from Chile and has been out about 5 months.  It's always a challenge to have three but we're doing the best we can.  Me and Elder Martinez are doing super good!! We get along really well!!

The baptisms were fantastic! We got to the chapel at 2 to fill up the baptismal font and there wasn't any water. It was the biggest predicament I've ever been in!  So, what did we do?? We started making phone calls to a million people and we had to do this and that and finally we turned on like the backup water reserve...but, it didn't work and we didn't have keys to get into the little bunker and turn it on from the inside.  We didn’t know what to do…so I got down on my knees right in front of the big water tank outside and prayed and BOOM, when I finished my prayer you could hear it kick right on and my companions just looked at me like that was so awesome. It was super cool!  The power of prayer never fails! It was the greatest experience ever!!!

We had a great meeting last week and we’re going to another one tomorrow for new leaders and everything with president again.  We get to be in contact with the president like always and it's kinda fun!  Last week we talked about the mission's plans for December... what service we're going to do and everything.... it's a meeting called concilo and it's where we talk about how to help the mission and things like that.  It’s super fun and I really enjoy it.

The overall message last week was how are we going to serve like Christ in December.  It’s worldwide starting December 1^st.  You should all participate too!

We're going to be painting and constructing a house as a zone... 12 of us!

Each zone has the responsibility of finding their own big service projects.  Some are going to old folks’ homes, others will be serving in hospitals, some will be cleaning in the community and everything.  We're going to be serving as a mission it's super fun!!

I'm excited for our project! It's for a member that's getting married this Saturday!!

We're going to make additions to an existing house and paint and stuff like that.  We will be moving in furniture and all that jazz.  It’s all about service and I’m excited!

I gotta jet.... We have to go help some missionaries in another area....until next week.

Love, 

Elder Lott

Here is the URL for the Light the World initiative he mentions:
https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_FR_25-11-2016_dMIS_fmorg_xLIDyL1-A_

Elder Brubaker is back!

The greatest thing ever happened in transfers... I get to stay here with Elder Martinez and guess who arrived as one of the new district leaders??

ELDER BRUBAKER!!!

I can´t even tell you how excited I was.  I was so happy to have him here in our zone especially as a district leader because I get to work super close with him!!  It is the absolute best!  Now I have someone to speak English with again.  I´ll be able to catch up a little bit on my practice hahaha!!

There were tons of transfers in our zone though... Almost every single area had transfers and we have like 3 new elders that are just starting their mission!

Investigators…We have tonnnnsssss and some live far away some live close some live in between and we have to plan our days super well so that we can catch everyone throughout the week.  It´s craziness and I love it!  I can´t even tell you how many new experiences the mission brings!

We are going to be having two baptisms this coming Saturday!  It´s a super special family and we´re super excited that the rest of the family is getting baptized!  I´m going to be baptizing one of them and then the son of the mom is going to baptize her... It´s super awesome! 

It´s that time of the year where I have to wear like 3 layers of clothes and wrap up like a taco in my blanket to go to sleep because it´s freezing cold in the night...Yikes!  Luckily it´s only like 2 months here though ;)  Our house gets super cold at night. I´m not sure why…must be because it´s in a little alley thing and the wind passes by all night and makes everything super cold.  I’m really hoping not to get sick! With the cold mornings,  we haven´t been quite as good at going for a run but we still do weights and pull ups in the house and it´s still good.  

We still haven’t found someone as amazing as Janet to cook for us but we do the best we can!! There are several members that help us out…it´s just every once in a while that we are stuck and have to make a good sandwich.  We usually have something small to eat for breakfast and then a big lunch and then something small for dinner again.  Sometimes we have a feast and everything but it just depends.

I don’t have anything super great to share this week.  I love working with all of the missionaries.  Next week, I’ll have lots to share.  We have a big meeting with all the zone leaders and the assistants and President Crapo tomorrow.  On Wednesday we´re going to have our baptismal interviews and on Saturday we’re having baptisms!   It will be a great week!

You guys have a great week too! 

Love,

Elder Lott

Elder Brubaker is back!

The greatest thing ever happened in transfers... I get to stay here with Elder Martinez and guess who arrived as one of the new district leaders??

ELDER BRUBAKER!!!

I can´t even tell you how excited I was.  I was so happy to have him here in our zone especially as a district leader because I get to work super close with him!!  It is the absolute best!  Now I have someone to speak English with again.  I´ll be able to catch up a little bit on my practice hahaha!!

There were tons of transfers in our zone though... Almost every single area had transfers and we have like 3 new elders that are just starting their mission!

Investigators…We have tonnnnsssss and some live far away some live close some live in between and we have to plan our days super well so that we can catch everyone throughout the week.  It´s craziness and I love it!  I can´t even tell you how many new experiences the mission brings!

We are going to be having two baptisms this coming Saturday!  It´s a super special family and we´re super excited that the rest of the family is getting baptized!  I´m going to be baptizing one of them and then the son of the mom is going to baptize her... It´s super awesome! 

It´s that time of the year where I have to wear like 3 layers of clothes to go to sleep in because It´s freezing cold in the night!  I wear like three layers and wrap up like a taco in the night in my blanket.... Yikes!  Luckily it´s only like 2 months here though ;)  Our house gets super cold at night. I´m not sure why…must be because it´s in a little alley thing and the wind passes by all night and makes everything super cold.  I’m really hoping not to get sick!

With the cold mornings,  we haven´t been quite as good at going for a run but we still do weights and pull ups in the house and it´s still good.  

We still haven’t found someone as amazing as Janet to cook for us but we do the best we can!! There are several members that help us out…it´s just every once in a while that we are stuck and have to make a good sandwich.  We usually have something small to eat for breakfast and then a big lunch and then something small for dinner again.  Sometimes we have a feast and everything but it just depends.

I don’t have anything super great to share this week.  I love working with all of the missionaries.  Next week, I’ll have lots to share.  We have a big meeting with all the zone leaders and the assistants and President Crapo tomorrow.  On Wednesday we´re going to have our baptismal interviews and on Saturday we’re having baptisms!   It will be a great week!

You guys have a great week too!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING             !

Love,

Elder Lott

My Birthday Package Arrived!

How is everyone?  Guess what?  My birthday package arrived!!!  Can I just tell you that I was so incredibly excited when I got the package that I almost cried actually and then when I opened it I definitely cried.  Now I can see all of those great pictures whenever I want! And, my jeans still fit…a tiny bit different but it might just be because I´m not used to wearing jeans anymore.... Yikes!  They still zip up and there´s actually room around the waist still. I opened all my presents in like 5 minutes because I was so excited…except for the little gift for after Thanksgiving... I haven´t opened that yet.  The chocolate was not melted.  Everything was in good condition and the package had not been opened.  I'm a happy missionary!

 

This has definitely been a good week!  Our Zone earned the title of “Zona Celestiales” and enjoyed a celebration with President Crapo.  It´s where each of our areas in our zone baptized and we completed as a zone the goal of 12 baptisms in the month of October which is like 2 baptisms per companionship. It was super awesome and then the president invited us over for breakfast and it was a party. We´re hoping to do the same thing this month!

The celebration was at the President´s house outside in the garden.  He lives on like the 5th floor of a nice hotel and outside there´s a super nice garden and that´s where we ate.  It was definitely different than what we are used to.  We had to travel like an hour to get there!  It was awesome!!!

 

This is Elder Gaibor. He’s from El Salvador. I´ve been with him in another zone and he´s finishing his mission so we took a fun picture together.  We had lots of good experiences together in divisions and stuff.

We had the funnest experience yesterday actually!! We went to dedicate a house that a new family had moved into and some members asked us to go over and this new family invited like all of their family that lived there close and we had like a huge gathering and we taught about the atonement and then we dedicated the house and there were tons of people there that believe in Christ but don´t really do anything more than believe. But last night everyone was listening so intently and the spirit was so strong. I honestly love talking about the atonement and how it blesses us in our lives.

Everytime I share my testimony it gets stronger.  Just imagine sharing your testimony every single day!  When you work your biceps every day, you just get super strong right?  It’s the same with the testimony.  It´s even better when the investigators realize that these things are true and have the desire to change and grow closer to Christ.

We are going to have 2 baptisms not this Saturday but the next…a sister named Sandra and her niece Marleni.  YAY!!!! I’m so excited!!! Baptisms coming up... miracles.... tons of experiences... Everything is so wonderful honestly I love the mission and this gospel!

Sometimes we don´t know what do to or where to go and all of a sudden someone calls us and they´re like hey come help us with this or hey we have a couple here that we want you guys to teach or things like that or when people make super big choices like not smoking or drinking anymore because of an answer to prayers and everything it´s just so fun to see the Lord´s hand in all of this!!

Everyone here, regardless of age, loves to play soccer. It doesn´t matter where or how or if they don´t have a ball they use a water bottle or something but EVERYONE plays soccer and we always play with the kids in the streets and it´s so fun. Something else that I see a ton is marbles. They´re always flicking marbles but I´m not very good at that.  It´s pretty crazy the little games that these kids come up with it.... Just whatever is there handy they use to play with.  I love it!

Have a great week!

Sending lots of hugs and all my love,

Elder Lott

Mom’s question:  Do you see sunsets very often in Guatemala?

Elder Lott’s answer:  sunsets... uhhhh.... Nah not really. Well to be honest, I´ve never really paid attention.

Not as crazy as last week...

This week wasn´t a super crazy week like the week we had before... But the funnest part is that we just got back from a place that´s called Sixth Avenue and it´s basically just a huge street with ALLLL types of stores. We even went to the central market and I was scoping out the souvenirs but made no purchases.

Updates…There is a good possibility we will have a baptism this Saturday…a little guy that´s 11.  He´s super awesome!  Service projects.... nothing too crazy like last week haha!

Favorite teaching moment this week... We went to a recent convert’s house for a lesson and her little sister was visiting. We start asking her about the gospel and everything and she has grown up in the Evangelist church and knows a lot about the Bible. As we started talking about the Restoration the message just kind of clicked for her and she has been interested ever since. I don´t know how much more time we´ll have with her because she´s only visiting but hopefully we planted the seed and others will be able to come and water it.

The weather is getting colder and colder.  Not anything cold compared to Utah this time of year but definitely super cold for here in Guatemala. I´ve started to sleep with double layers again and a thick blanket that was here in this house. We still get up and run in the morning though so the cold doesn´t stop us ;)

We are definitely doing tons and tons of walking. We never stop!  Sometimes people ask us if we´re just walking to walk hahaha!

In our zone… (Dang it! I have a picture of our zone but I forgot my camera today.) There are only 4 gringos in our zone..4 out of 13!  One is from Utah (plus me), another from Oregon and another from Arizona.

The most tradition food here in Guatemala is rice with beans and tortillas. It´s actually super good and I´ve grown to love it haha!

My new responsibilities are getting easier and easier. I´ve learned that to be a good leader, first I need to be a good friend and I feel like our zone is growing more and more united and we´re seeing lots of success thanks to that.  I´m loving it...I pray for help every single day but I feel like I´m definitely receiving the help that I need because we´re having a great time. I´m learning so many lessons that I don´t even know if there´s enough room in my head for all these experiences.

Honestly, I know this work is the Lord´s work and this gospel is so true. I have seen it change so many lives and it continues to change my life each and every single day. We just have to apply its principles little by little each day and we will see all the blessings that the Lord has prepared for us. Read the Book of Mormon a little each day!! It brings more comfort and peace than you can imagine!!!

Alright, well, I love you all more than you can ever imagine but I gotta head... I hope you all have a great week and I´ll be looking forward to next Monday!!!

Love,

Elder Lott

Here is his response to my “Do missionaries get flu shots?” inquiry:

Well I´m not really sure... Last Christmas we got a vaccination. Elder Yama gave me the shot actually. He was studying medicine before the mission though and he actually did a great job hahaha! I´m not sure if it was for the flu though!! Maybe this coming month we´ll get flu shots?? I doubt it.

An Awesome Week of Service and Baptisms!

Oh my goodness this week has been FULL of service projects.  First we helped a member who is going to put a water tank up there so we had to dig some deep holes so he can put cement pillars.... Rough :)

 

Next, we participated in a helping hands project and it was super fun. The whole stake got together to help paint the curbs all over the neighborhood!  We painted all the curbs white!! You can't really tell though.

 

 

 

 

So remember when I told you guys about the Gomez family? Well only one of the three got baptized (Noemi) and her husband wasn't going to be able to make it to her baptism because of work but we weren't going to let that happen so we went over and hauled ALL the dirt that he had to haul.  Like 2 hours before the baptism we were just hauling dirt over our backs.  We got it done just in time but here was no time to change before the baptism.  We were BEAT but it’s a super fun memory that I will NEVER forget :)

 

The rest of the Gomez family are receiving visits from a couple of our elders here in our zone and hopefully will be baptized soon too.

Oh and add clean the church in there too.  On Monday we started filling up the font and while it was filling up we cleaned the rest of the church but then tons of time passed by and when we went to check on it, it was flooding…oops! We had a small flood on our hands but we got it taken care of ;)

I told you about Max last week.  He was baptized on Monday.  Max is 18 and he has become like a best friend to us.  It's awesome!!

Edgar and his little one, Willy, were baptized this week and it was a super special day!  Edgar’s older son, Douglas, was already a member and he was able to baptize his father and brother.  We just have a little more work to do with the Mom :)

 

 

We haven’t found anyone who wants to cook for us so we have to look for a place to eat every single day. We have been looking but most people in this area are busy.  Sometimes we just eat cereal. I miss David and Janet so much!  We do have someone that washes our clothes though :)

Elder Martinez and I are exercising every day and I feel great!  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we go for a nice run and the other days we do weights and push-ups and we have a pull up bar and its crazy.

All is well in Guatemala!

Thank you for your love, support and prayers!

With love,

Elder Lott

Mom, I just sent the shoe pictures so you would see how great they have been.  I wore the first pair my first year and now I`m onto my second pair.  It`s super awesome.  I was pumped when I had worn my other shoes right out. They could have lasted longer but I decided to leave them behind because they were weighing me down, you know? ;)  These shoes are troopers that’s for sure… these will probably last Riley's mission too :)

Apparently he missed the instruction to rotate them every day.  Oh well, this works too!