Political Craziness

There is some political craziness here.... There have been a few riots that are a little intense and the policemen are often out and about right about now but we´re taken good care of by the Lord through members and everything. We haven´t been in any danger though so don´t you worry :)  We were in the church on Friday for a live conference from Elder Nelson! He didn´t visit Guatemala because of this protesting but we were able to watch a live stream of him from the stake center in Chiquimula! We´re safe at our house there´s only one area that´s really questionable and we avoid it. I think it´s a lot worse in the capital though so that´s why he couldn´t come.

Spanish is coming along. Definitely progressing. I have felt actually useful this week in contacting and teaching parts of the lessons so that is AWESOME! Families yes... We´re working on finding more because we only have a couple right now and they´re kind of unreliable but yes we do have a few. We have a family that we found and even challenged to baptism the other day. It´s incredible to see the Lord work through us. I see a bright future ahead with them though so I´m super excited about them! Service opportunities? Not really... We´ve only done one and it was ´putting chips in a bag to give to the kids in primary... But we keep looking!!

I didn´t really realize how much of a giant I was... In the new house we moved into the shower head doesn´t move and I´m taller than the shower head.  It´s actually super funny.

No time…I’m going to lunch with the zone leaders and possibly to do divisions but I will let you know all about it next week!!

Love, Elder Lott

Pictures are from a great pday!! I got super sunburnt but it was definitely awesome.

Missionary Life

It appears he’s busy and happy…couldn’t ask for anything more!  We tried asking a few specific questions and got a few answers.  If you have any questions you would like asked, just leave them in the comment section.

Tell us about your missionary experiences.

I bore my testimony to an investigator the other day about the atonement or something to that affect... It was good.

We didn’t get any pictures on Sunday, is everything okay?

There wasn´t anything wrong I just didn´t have any time... I had to give a talk in sacrament and then after we taught the next class and then left.... Gosh it was so stressful... I will upload all the pictures next week!! Check again next week!!

It’s starting to cool down here, how about there?

It’s so crazy to think that the climate is changing there where the climate here never changes... Oh I would give anything to feel like I needed to put a jacket on hahaha If I put a jacket on here I would probably die... But I guess I´m kinda getting used to it haha loving all this sweat ;)

Tell us about your routine.

My routine is wake up, get ready, study personal, companion, additional, and idioma (English translation: language), and then we eat lunch. After that we just contact and teach and talk to everyone and knock doors for the rest of the day! From about 1 to 9 that´s what we´re doing... Definitely exhausting.... Wow... I´m beat by the time we get back... But I can always feel the Savior´s help when I start to get tired.. It´s actually incredible. Missionary work is so cool.

How and what are you eating? *This is probably the fourth time I’ve asked this question*

For breakfast? We eat cereal usually... But sometimes we make some crazy concoctions with eggs and bacon and tortillas or we´ll make some pasta or mix it all together or make a sandwich with eggs.. I don´t really know... I just eat really anything... I can´t believe I haven´t gotten sick yet.. My companion told me I´m the first gringo that he´s ever met that hasn´t been sick in like the first couple weeks... He tells everyone that I have a strong stomach and they always look at me super impressed and I feel super good about myself hahaha

Meals we eat breakfast and lunch together... and then Dinner sometimes we eat with an Hermano in our ward but no usually it´s just us two! My companion is pretty good at cooking I guess! Really we just throw random stuff together and hope that it tastes good hahahaha But we´ve found some pretty good stuff actually!! Our ward mission leader´s wife does our laundry and that´s super nice. So we´re covered there :)

We have lots of water and then occasionally we get root beer and we always have a little supply of chocolate milk hahaha also we have yogurt that I eat lots of and it´s superrrr good. The fruit is good too. I didn´t believe it would be that different but man this stuff is rich. I love it.

Love you all!

Elder Lott

It's super HOT here!

I´m trying to take lots of pictures so you can really get a feel for everything about here.

 *AFTER*

The apartment was a mess.   I literally worked on it for the whole pday last week... It was rough but It´s worth it... It was disgusting... It still has some work to do but I´m working on it little by little... My companion helps! We´re a pretty good little team. 

Elder Yama is a very hard worker and super dedicated which helps the days go by as well which is super nice. Life is good here in Zacapa it´s just super hot hahaha

  

These are pictures of a hike we took with a half-member, half-investigator family.  They’re awesome!

The lizard the Family caught! They probably ate it by now but ya it was super weird and gross but cool hahaha but ya there´s always a new adventure in Zacapa... Lots and lots of stuff to see and crazy stuff that you would never see in United States hahaha

 

The living is just grand mom don´t worry about me.   I'm figuring it all out still but for now? All is superb! It´s just like living at home! Not really.... It´s a lot poorer and super gross but hey, like I said, I´m cleaning hahaha but ya the supermarket just has a lot of the stuff that I would eat at home... That´s our next stop actually! 

I miss just having long chats.... It´s hard to express all my feelings in Spanish. I´m trying to focus and just work hard... Some days it´s just a little hard. But I´m doing good and my testimony is growing. It´s going great though.  I love it here. The people are super nice and life is good.

Love,

Elder Lott

Zacapa

Brayden was able to upload some pictures but forgot to include him in them.  He has arrived in Zacapa :)

 

This week was insane; I left the CCM on Tuesday at about 7:30am. We drove to the mission home and we went through all the orientation stuff and learned all about missionary work and yada yada yada and then they said alright well we'll send an email to your family saying that you made it safe! I was like... Wait what?  But they shipped me off in a bus. 3 or 4 hours outside of the capital to Zacapa. Everyone was speaking Spanish to me and I'm honestly not quite sure how I made it here. Miracles. The church is true. I got here. My companion picked me up from the bus stop, his name is Elder Yama and he's from Mexico. Of course I get a native companion when I know next to zero Spanish right? ;) Luckily he actually knows quite a bit of English so we're able to communicate pretty well. I know enough Spanish and he knows enough English that we can like put sentences together ya know? Seriously though he picked me up from the bus stop, we went and put my bags down in the apartment and then we were off. I didn't even have time to get a drink of water. I was super overwhelmed on the first day here I'm not going to lie. But now it's good. I'm getting to know the area, I'm getting to know the bus system, I'm getting to know the language everything just happens so fast.

It’s hotter than the Sahara Desert here and I do feel like a giant hahaha but I keep a smile on my face and try to encourage and uplift everybody even though I don't really know Spanish. But it's alright. I'm hanging in there.

President and Sister Crapo

Elder Lott left the CCM (MTC) and entered the mission field this week.  We didn't hear from him because he missed the "write home" day in both areas.  We were so excited to get an email from his mission saying he safely arrvived and some new pictures!

MISIÓN GUATEMALA CIUDAD ESTE

LA IGLESIA DE JESUCRISTO DE LOS SANTOS DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS

Edificio Galerías Reforma 8-60, Torre II

Nivel 5, Oficina 505, Zona 9

Guatemala, Guatemala, C.A.

Teléfonos: (502) 2362-7887

January 8, 2015

Dear Lott Family,

We are very happy to inform you that Elder Lott has arrived safely in the Guatemala East Mission.  It is a great blessing to have him with us and we look forward to serving with him.
  

Monday is the preparation day in our mission and each missionary is encouraged to write his or her family each Monday.  If possible, e-mail is the best way to communicate.  Missionaries are only authorized to use their church e-mail account and should not use other web sites or services such as Facebook.  It is also important for our missionaries to receive word from home.  It seems that the most happy and productive missionaries are those who receive active support from their family and priesthood leaders with regular and positive letters.

The mission experience is one of great challenges and blessings.  It is also a time of significant change and development in the lives of the missionaries.  It is our desire that each one that comes to the mission will be able to reach their full potential as a disciple and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This will come through their faith, obedience, diligence and desire to bless the people they serve. 

We appreciate your love and prayers on behalf of Elder Lott, his companions, their investigators and the marvelous work he is doing here.  We pray and have confidence that the Lord will bless you and your loved ones.

With love and appreciation,

President and Sister Crapo