2 Meses! - Week 9

Hola!!! 

Yo quiero usted saben, estoy haciendo mucho mejor este semana. Estoy mas feliz acerca de mi mision y acerca de mi companero y las otras misioneros tambien! Poco a poco estoy entendiendo las personas aqui. Puedo entender una palabra aqui y una palabra hay, pero muchas veces yo no puedo entender mucho. Especialmente una investigadora quien habla muy rapido y (mumbles)! Ella siempre quiere habla conmigo y cuanda ella quiere, yo peinso, ah no, no otra vez! Entonces (I nod) y dijo, oh si, o en serio? Ella se llama Marleni y me gusta mucho enseñar ella, su hija (Carmen), su hijo (Pedro) y su esposo (Fredy). Fredy está listo para bautizmo pero él no quiere porque Fredy piensa será un menos activo después su bautizmo. Especialmente durante lecciones con él, yo siento el Espiritu Santo muy fuerte y yo sentí mucho paz y felicidad para Fredy cuando ensenamos acerca de el Espiritu Santo y comó él puede sentir este en su vida. 

English Translation:

Hello !!! I want you all to know, I'm doing much better this week. I'm happier about my mission and about my companion and the other missionaries too! Little by little I am understanding the people here. I can understand a word here and a word there, but many times I cannot understand much.Especially an investigator we have who speaks very fast and (mumbles)! She always wants to talk to me and when she wants to, I think to myself, “Oh no, not again!” Then (I nod) and say, oh yeah, or serious? Her name is Marleni and I love to teach her, her daughter (Carmen), her son (Peter) and her husband (Freddy). Freddy is ready for baptism but he does not want to because Freddy thinks he will be less active after his baptism. Especially during lessons with him, I feel the Holy Spirit very strong and I feel so much peace and happiness for Freddy when we teach about the Holy Spirit and how we can feel this in our life.

Anyways... I really, really, really appreciate all of the positive and encouraging emails from everyone: Tanner, Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Hayden, Dillon, President McClure, Uncle Jon and whoever else! It really means a lot and I started to cry when I was reading them because it shows me how much you all appreciate me and care about me being out here on my mission and it shows me as well all the support I have from you all through the love that you all show me. So this week I was feeling a whole lot better about being here on a mission, It’s still really hard but I am enjoying it more and more.

Some fun and funny things that had happened the past week. I have seen a lot of guys laying on the sidewalks and I am not sure if they are either just taking a nap, passed out drunk, straight up passed out, or dead... I like to think that that are taking naps and I have had to step over a few of them to get by so that was interesting. Also during lessons that we have been teaching and just in general with everyones house that there are animals everywhere. Turkeys, ducks, lots of dogs, cats, chickens, hens, and random birds. However, it seems like all the time during lessons and we are teaching that all the animals love to walk around and come around my feet and just chill there. So because of this I can’t move my feet and after the lesson I have to carefully get up or lightly kick them to get them to move. One day we were walking to someones house and there was a little herd of probably 10 super tiny piglets and we walked past and they instantly came and followed us. They followed us down the road a little ways then stopped but I couldn't stop laughing and wish that I had my camera with me too! Maybe next time. 

Today during P (preparation) Day we got to go to the beach with our zone. Ya the beach! We are only like 30 minutes from it so that is really cool. We hung out, played some soccer on the beach, dipped out feet in the water (I wish we could go swimming but as missionaries we can't) but we had fun anyways and I will attach pictures for you guys. Ya I finally have pictures for you all! 

On Sunday we had Stake conference in Malacatán and there are about 12 wards in it and it is almost the size of our stake in Fort Collins which I was pretty surprised about but we ended up sitting in the very, very back because we got there and were talking to a lot of people before we got seats so that kinda sucked but it was still really good and I got a few things out of it. We all took a school bus for the ward to and from it and on the way back I talked to this older man about life and got to know him a bit better and I talked about my life a little bit as well (or as well as I could in my horrible Spanish) and we talked about spanish and english and I taught him some words so that was cool. Oh and I also get to teach the 3 other missionaries I live with English and they ask me a lot to help with pronunciation and what some words are and they help me as well. 

We finally cleaned our place out! I have a picture of our place and it’s not as nice and grand as it looks because the place was filthy. However, one morning we got up and cleaned the whole entire place out and now it looks brand new and there are no more spider webs, less bugs, less trash, and makes me feel more at home which I really like and I hope that we can just keep it that way.

We also went to a baptism who we had no idea that it was but we went and oh man it was crazy! The people here don’t know how to sing and it is pretty funny sometimes, there are kids playing nintendo DS with the music full blast and it was chaos. However, I laughed at the situation because I couldn't help it. Oh and the church building here, so at night they open the windows to get a breeze and air inside but this brings in a lot of bugs and on the walls there are so many bugs it is disgusting and bugs crawling everywhere on me. So mom, you don’t know gross when this happens while they are serving food to us as well. Haha it instantly made me think of mom and how she would be freaking out with the whole thing and just grossed out.

As far as the language goes, I am slowly making progress and understanding people. I am constantly thinking in my head of ways I can form sentences and phrases to say to others and to say during lessons. I also think a lot about how I can apply certain scriptures, apply them to me and my investigators, and describe them as well, this week especially I was in Jacob (I think, about scriptures and prayer and such) chapters 6 through 12 and Doctrine and Covenants  sections 8 and 9. I really like these scriptures a lot and I encourage all of you to read them and apply them to your lives because I have been trying to do that in mine with my time here. You can find the scriptures here if you would like to see what they are:  www.lds.org.

Slowly but surely I am improving and the language is slowly coming as well, however I am relying on the Lord through this hard time and when I am in a rough patch I get on my knees and council with the Lord to help me and what I should do because I need Him in my life. I don't know what I would do without my Heavenly Father and without Christ and his Atoning Sacrifice for us. I always remember a talk from President Holland to missionaries about how at some point on our mission we will feel only a small fraction of what the Savior went through which will make us appreciate the Atonement that much more. Or something like that but I am feeling it and will feel it even more when time on my mission goes on and I know that I need to stay patient and always council with the Lord in all my doings and I know that he will strengthen me and bless me and bless all of you while I am here. I love you all and can't wait to hear from all of you next week! Oh and today marks my 2 month mark being out here on my mission! It's crazy how fast time can fly here! Thanks again for all the emails and the love that you all show me when I am here! Miss you all and Stay Sweet!

                                       Love,

                                          Elder Kahl

P.S. Oh also tell Grandpa and Grandma, Hayden, President McClure, Uncle Jon, Dillon, Garrett and whoever else thanks a ton for the emails and all the words of encouragement it really helped me a lot!

P.S. For Family: I'm so happy to hear you are all doing great and that Connor is doing well in basketball, I know that the Lord wants you in that calling Dad and you will do great because the Lord knows what's best for us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Mom sounds like you and Tanner are the same as always I love you all very much! 

We went to the beach for P-Day.  You can barely see my name tag in the sand!

Me and my companion, Elder Tzub.

Elder Tzub and I at the beach on P-Day

Elder Tzub and I.

My District Leader, Elder Govea.  He looks like Obama and we call him Elder Govama or Elder Go(No)vama!

This is one of the roads we walk down in Catarina.

Elder Tzub and I fell asleep on the bus.

Segunda semana! - Week 8

HOOOLAAA!!!!

Como esta??? Yo espero ustedes estan haciendo bien! It is so nice to hear from you all again and kinda crazy to think that I have been out in the mission field for 2 weeks now and almost have 2 months under my belt as a missionary. It has been really, really hard so far being here but I am trying my best to speak Spanish and to understand what everyone is saying but I need an incredible amount more time.

So one day this week I went with a different Elder because another Elder had to go with my companion to interview someone because he is the District Leader so I did and this Elder is from California (Malibu) area and he is Latino and is fluent in Spanish and English so that is not fair... However this Elder was a little annoying and I don't know how I made it through the day with him.  Anyways, with him I had to cross 2 rivers to go to an investigator that we are teaching and the first time crossing I almost completely fell in but caught myself and the second time I made it across completely dry so that was a new experience all in itself. When I got back to my companion I almost literally jumped into his arms because I was happy to be with him and not the other Elder.

My companion and the other Elders we live with are not the most obedient, with things like waking up and going to bed on time, taking naps, not exercising in the mornings when we need to (which is really, really hard to do). During companionship study one morning I talked with my companion about it and I told him we need to be obedient to the rules and he agreed but sometimes go back to their old ways and I try to lead by example but it is really hard to tell them and to have them be obedient to the rules. 

Well I still like my area, it is pretty nice and really hot and we get rain probably every other day here but when it rains it downpours hard on us and the gutter part of the road is just flooded leaving only the center of the road manageable for cars to drive on. Sometimes the water from cars splash up on us like in the movies you know, and almost completely gets us wet. However, I am really glad that I have an umbrella with me because that thing keeps me from getting completely wet from when it rains.

We are still teaching the same families and people the lessons and they all seem pretty receptive to what we are teaching them but it is really hard for me to express myself in Spanish during lessons. I know what to say before lessons but once I get in them I feel like I freeze up and say the same things over and over and the other person is not really understanding my spanish. That is really, really frustrating but I am trying to express myself. Even though a lot I am really quiet when my companion is talking to other people I need to try to get involved in the lessons and talking to others in general.

There are 2 other Elders that live with us and one is Elder Rivera and there are times when he is hard to get along with.  He can be immature with some of the things he says and does! I just gotta stay patient... The other one Elder Ramos is pretty cool. He is more chill and he is pretty easy to talk to when I can but I really like my companion still. It is a blessing to have him as a companion.

So today for P Day we went up to Coatepeque and went on a ziplining course for a little bit and that was cool because it was pretty much in the forest and we were ziplining through trees and other small gullies and stuff like that. It was pretty fun and we did that with our zone so about 16 of us were there. Then we went to a restaurant and ate really good sandwiches and I had probably the best smoothie of my life there, it was so good! Nice to have those again.

It has been hard to take a lot of pictures because I forget a lot to take them, also I can’t send pictures this week because I left my cord in our house for my camera to upload pictures so hopefully next week I will be able to do this.

From our city in Catarina, it is one of the smaller cities around here, but I can see the huge mountains and volcanoes off in the distance so that is really sweet because they are some of the biggest mountains here in Guatemala. Hopefully soon I will be able to go and one of my areas will be up there.

My companion will finish his mission in the middle of February which is when I will get a new companion and by that time I will have been out on my mission for about 5 to 6 months so that is pretty crazy to think about! There are times when the time goes by fast but there are other times when it feels like it just drags on and on. I have been praying very fervently to God everyday about my challenges and what I need to do. I ask him to help me be obedient and help me and the other elders be obedient as well and what I can do to help. However, it is very hard to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost because I am still figuring out its promptings for me in my life but I try my best to see what the Holy Ghost and God are telling me to do. I always find new things in the scriptures everyday and try to find things that can help out the investigators that we are teaching. Still hanging in there. Love you all and miss you all too! Stay Sweet!

Elder Kahl

On P-day we went to Coatepeque and went ziplining with our district.

One of the rivers I had to cross to go teach an investigator!