Elder Chandler Kahl - Guatemala Retalhuleu Mission: Casi 2015!!!!!

Púchica! (Shoot!) Fue muy divertido hablar con casi toda de mi familia sobre Navidad por medio Skype! Yo les extraño mucho arrita! Pero, yo siento un poco mas motivado después hablando con ustedes, especialmente trabajar mas duro con mi español y ensenar nuestras investigadores también. Gracias por todo de tu apoyo cuando estoy aquí en mi misión y siento tu amor hacia me.

English Translation

Shoot! It was fun talking to almost all of my family on Christmas through Skype! I miss them a lot! But, I feel a little more motivated after talking to you, especially work harder with my Spanish and to teach our investigators too. Thanks for all your support while I'm here on my mission and I feel your love for me.

So for Christmas just about every single house made tamales for the holidays. It was cool but was kinda awful at the same time because every house that we went to they all brought out a nice tamale for us to have. Oh man I got so sick of them after about 2! Then for the next few days for lunch we have like rice or chicken or soup with a nice plate of tamales on the side! On the plus side though Christmas was pretty great! For Christmas Eve and Christmas day there were fireworks going off just about every second and I took some videos so I will see if I can send one but it was crazy. Everyone was out and about on Christmas Eve then the next day there was absolutely no one in the houses and no one in the streets when there usually is a lot of people so that was weird for us to see.

Christmas morning I opened my packages I received and I just have to say thank you for them all! I pretty much have a candy store in our house now and I got so much candy that I don’t know what to do with it all. I literally have it all in a box and take one bag out at a time and eat it with the help of other elders and take it slow that way! Because dang there is a lot! All the gifts were fun though too! But there is one gift most important of all that I had the opportunity to recognize and share with everyone around me. This gift is Jesus Christ. Our Savior. I loved sharing about the birth of Jesus Christ with everyone and seeing what Christ means in their lives. I hope that all of you had the opportunity to do the same, but if not, then you have the opportunity to recognize and remember Christ every single day of your life. Its easy!

So this week was kinda weird and not too great for us with our investigators. Both families that are progressing very well were almost never in their houses during this week, one was in Malacatan the entire week so we couldn’t work with them at all and they are not home yet but we took this opportunity to try to find new investigators and to ask for references from the members and others that we are teaching. The thing that bugs me though is that a lot of people are so scared to accept a change in their lives. Whether it is to pray, read the scriptures, baptism, or even to come to church. There are a lot that are scared to do these things because I think they may seem it is different from their normal routine. However, the people that do these things are taking the first steps to be truly converted unto Christ and to follow in his footsteps and be his disciples.

I feel like there is not much to say because I almost said everything over skype to you all! I know that you all said that my Spanish was really good and progressing really well. However, yes I think the same but not to the extent of you all because it has been progressing but it’s still really hard and even harder to understand just what other people are saying to me because some speak so fast and mumble so usually I have no idea what they say. However, little by little I will be able to improve this and understand what they are saying.... I hope.

This morning with our zone for P-day we went to Tecun and we played soccer in the blazing heat and holy moly I thought I was going to die because it was just so hot outside today! Then after the others were done, me and 2 other American Elders played a little bit of football with the football that I got for Christmas so that was pretty fun but this was only like the second day that we played soccer here which kinda surprises me because soccer is huge down here.

Love,

Elder Kahl

P.S. I can not believe that CSU basketball is doing that good! Crazy and I am missing it! Hearing all about basketball and Poudre basketball makes me miss playing with all those guys and being on that court practicing and playing in games. Those are moments I wish I could go back and relive in an instant! Freak and I am also missing the Broncos kicking butt this year as well! I hope they go all the way and win the Super Bowl! Also hopefully the pictures you took mom of me on the computer look decent of me and are not horrible! haha.