CAMBIOS......

Yo tengo un anuncio por cada uno de ustedes.... Todavía estoy en mi area de Catarina pero.... yo tengo un compañero nuevo! Este estaba un supreso por mi y Elder Tzub porque el tiene 3 semanas mas en su misión pero Pres. Ruiz hizo el cambio. Estaba un poco triste porque Elder Tzub me entrenó aquí en mi misión pero en el mismo tiempo es calidad tener un cambio en mi misión y algo diferente. Mi compañero nuevo se llama Elder Wight. Wight es de Colorado también! En Colorado Springs pero su familia viaje mucho porque su padre está en Air Force entonces el nació en los Springs pero arrita ellos viven en Idaho.

English Translation:

I have an announcement for each of you .... I am still in my area of Catarina but .... I have a new companion! This was a surprise for me and Elder Tzub,because he has three more weeks on his mission but Pres. Ruiz made the change. I was a little sad because Elder Tzub trained me here on my mission, but at the same time it is good to have a change in my mission and something different. My new companion is Elder Wight. Elder Wight is from Colorado too! He was from Colorado Springs but his family travels a lot because his father is in the Air Force.  He was born in the Springs but right now they live in Idaho.

So ya my new companion is Elder Wight and him and Elder Tzub practically switched areas and companions. My new companion is..... different from me. Although its mean to say that, he is still a good guy. He follows every single mission rule down exactly how they are so I am hoping that this will do some good for me. He has 20 months in his mission so not too much longer. This transfer half of our zone had changes and I was close to almost every one of them! It was sad to see them go but I will see a few of them later on in my mission. However this transfer (in 5 weeks) I think I will be getting transfered because every new missionary is in their new area for the first 6 months of their mission and after this I will have almost 6 months here. For right now though we are working pretty good. My companion knows a lot of spanish and can understand what the people are saying too so that is nice to have but the emotional and friendly connection is not really their so that is where I come in! My spanish is actually almost as good as his which is kinda cool for me haha. In our area I am pretty much leading it and setting up appointments with everything and all that jazz that we need to do. It is a lot more responsibility than I had thought but I am making the most of it and doing my best. This week our mission president has challenged each companionship to find 16 new investigators to teach. If we find 16 then we get to go to the temple sometime in February. We all got really excited and me and my companion found 16 new people to teach so we get to go to the temple next month! I am looking forward to it a lot!

Somthing happened to us that made our lives so much harder than they needed to be. Our electricity got cut in our house.... so we went without electrictiy for about 3 or 4 days and we were just using candles in our house during this time. That meant we had no fridge, no fans to use, no phone, and obviously no light. You never really realize how much you love that stuff until you don't have it for a while. It was cut because about 2 months before I came to this area 2 elders did not pay the light bill for a few months and this created a debt and we didn't know about it until the light got cut so now we are working to get it back. Hopefully today or tomorrow.

On Saturday we had 2 baptisms! They are named Henry and Fredy and are 12 and 8 years old. We were hoping the dad was going to have the opportunity to baptize them but the bishop talked to the dad and it turns out that I got the chance to baptize them instead. So that was a cool experience for me again. Haha kinda funny at the same time because when I immersed them in water and brought them back up they looked like fish out of water! They were kinda freaking out gasping for air and oh man it was so funny but really cool at the same time. Then in church I got to help with confirming them into the church and that was also a cool experience as well!

I can definitely tell that my Spanish is progressively getting better though so that is making me more and more positive! And progressively my english is getter worse and worse! Haha really just talking to the people has really helped me with my Spanish especially since I need to because my companion doesn't know the members or the area yet but slowly he will. Oh and I forgot to say that he is the new District Leader so for us we should be getting a cell phone really soon which is going to make life so much better for us!

Today for P-day we went to Coatepeque and played soccer with about 4 other districts and that was actually a lot of fun to do and to see a lot more elders! This week I also got the opportunity to eat chicken heart and to eat chicken lung as well so that was interesting! The chicken heart was actually not too bad but the lung was pretty nasty as it was a really soft meat that crumbled in my mouth as you chewed it. 

I am doing pretty good and still working my hardest! This is the true church and Guatemala is going great! Making the most of things and trying to be as obedient as I can to make the Lord proud of me and what I am doing here on His time! Thanks for all the love and support from you all and I am sorry that this letter is not the longest nor the best as we did not have much time to write this week but I made up for it in pictures!

Love you and miss you all! Stay Sweet!

Love,

Elder Kahl

Saying goodbye to a companion who trained you and that you became good friends with is hard.

Me and Elder Tzub

Me and Elder Virgin

Me and Elder Amador

Me and Elder Sevilla

Me and Hermana Page

My Zone: Me, Elder Tzub, Hermana Gonzales, Hermana Page, Elder Sevilla, Elder Damas

Elder Batian, Elder Virgin and Myself

Elder Batian, Elder Virgin and Myself

I ate chicken heart and lungs! The chicken heart was actually not too bad but the lung was pretty nasty as it was a really soft meat that crumbled in my mouth as you chewed it. 

This is how you pick up kids in Guatemala! LOL!

I’m past the first 12 weeks, do I still need this training book? Haha!

These are the two boys I baptized – Henry and Fredy who are brothers. They 12 and 8 years old.

This is my new companion, Elder Wight, Henry, Fredy and their parents.

P-day today we played soccer (futbol) in Coatepeque with 4 other districts.

4 MESES!!!

Estoy feliz que otra vez yo tengo la oportunidad a enviar un correo a cada uno de ustedes esta semana. Hace 2 días yo logré 4 meses en mi misión! Estaba feliz sobre este. haha. Yo averiguo esta semana si mi compañero y yo tenemos cambios o no. Un parte de mi quiere cambios pero el otro parte no quiere cambios. Entonces yo tengo una mixtura de emociones arrita, Pero, yo les diré que pasará en esta semana!

English Translation:

I'm happy again I have the opportunity to send an email to each of you this week. 2 days ago I got four months in my mission! I was happy about this. haha. I find out this week if my companion and I have changes or not. A part of me wants change but the other side does not want changes. Then I have a mixture of emotions right now, but I'll tell you what will happen this week!

This week has been good and bad in the same sense. First the bad part. So we had the family that I was talking about that was progressing with the mom and the 2 daughters. We went to go teach them the other day and we have also tried working with the dad but he works a lot. Anyways, they told us that the dad was actually mad at them and he thought about leaving them all because they are meeting with us and that they went to church on Sunday with us as well. So the dad was mad and we did not want to make any more contentions in the family so we told them that we appreciated their time and being so nice to us but as of right now we are not teaching them anymore. When this happened it felt like a dagger got stabbed into our hearts because we loved this family so much and they were so close to making covenants with the Lord but the dad was not agreeing with them. This was hard for us but I looked at it this way. Maybe since we taught them a lot and they were making right decisions, that they will continue on their own and in the future other missionaries will have the opportunity to baptize them because we have prepared them for the future!

Right now we have been doing a lot of contacting and going door to door to find new people to teach because we were kinda of running low on people to teach. We have found about 5 people who could definitely be positives for baptism so we are planning to work with them and continue to find people along the way as well. We have not had any other baptisms this week but the other 2 elders had a wedding of a couple and a baptism with 4 people getting baptized! It was really cool and glad I got to be there to support them in that!

This week is changes! There are a couple of possibilities that could happen with me and my companion but I am prepared for whatever will happen!

Something kinda gross this week was that one day for lunch we were eating at a member’s house and there was this weird meat that had a yellowish color to it. I asked my companion what type of meat it was and he said that he will tell me after we were done eating it. He was grossed out and could barely eat it but managed to push it down. I ate it without thinking of what it was going to be but when we were done I asked him again and he said that it was liver of cow. I was kinda grossed out by it but it actually wasn't too bad. Haha! It just had a weird texture and color to it. I know it is nothing extremely weird but I am hoping that soon I will have the opportunity to try iguana here! It is a delicacy in this area and people say that it is actually pretty good!

On Saturday we got the chance, us as missionaries and other people in the ward, to go and play soccer at the church and I got schooled! However we played a little of basketball and I was killing it too! Haha! Today for P-day we went to Tecun with our zone and we had a scavenger hunt around all Tecun and man was it tiring but pretty fun at the same time. My team won! No big deal. Something else that is no big deal is that the oldest man in the world who is 118 years old lives here in Guatemala and lives in Coatepeque which is only about 30 minutes away from my area! Dope! Maybe I need to go and visit him to get a picture of him! Haha.

Every single day here it seems like it is getting a little bit hotter.  People say that March and April are the hottest months which I am not looking forward too. We actually had a tiny bit of rain the other day and it was the first time that there has been rain here in almost 3 months! It was so nice to just get a little sprinkle of it! I have also had a few conversations with drunk guys because for some reason they always want to talk to me and I hate it. One guy stopped us and we was speaking a little bit of English and said that he has no one to take him home for the night and then he said he had money and told me to take it. I was so confused!!! Usually drunk guys want to take our money, not give us money! How strange! He told me to take his money but I was not going to take it and then he got really, really mad and said that I was with ''them'' and I had no idea who he was talking about! He then was swearing up a storm and so then we just walked away and he was yelling at us. It was little sketchy but man was he a crazy guy! I think that is a first though! A drunk guy trying to give us money! Haha. However the drunk guys are pretty funny when they try to get up and can’t walk or when someone else tries to help them up to walk. Or even better when 2 drunk guys try to help each other up and walk but they can’t! Oh man now that is funny! I know it’s kinda mean and not good for them but it’s our entertainment here as missionaries. I want to help them out but I will not do it because it’s dangerous. 

This week there has been a few times when we showed the video/movie to our investigators of the Restoration and the life of Joseph Smith. I have come to love it and it is so powerful as well as every time we watch it I feel the spirit and gain a stronger testimony about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon and this church as well! The same is in almost every lesson that we teach. However when we teach about the restoration of the gospel I always feel in my heart that the things we are teaching are true.  How can people not believe that these things are true?! Seeing in the eyes of other people as they are learning about how the chruch was restored through Joseph Smith is awesome. They either almost believe it instantly and seem that it could have happened or that they find it really weird but come to believe it a little more. It is definitely my favorite lesson to teach to others.

There has been many things that I have learned here on the misson already and I know that there will be so much more that I will learn as well. However something that I have learned and taken to heart is that..... getting up early is even harder on a mission. Oh man its hard! Especially for us because we get up at around 6am to go to the gym and I have realized that the nights seem so much shorter too. It is harder to get up on a mission then when I had to get up even earlier (5am) for seminary in high school. Haha.  Don’t know why but that is just the way it is I guess! 

This Saturday though we have about 2 baptisms lined up with these 2 kids who are named Henry and Fredy. They are 12 and 8 and their parents are less active members. However they have been coming to church for almost 1 month now so not less active anymore I guess haha. But this Saturday we have talked with them and they want to be baptized and the parents said yes and the dad is going to be the one who will have the opportunity to baptize his 2 sons. When he heard that he could do this he was incredibly excited and they knew that it was going to be something special for the family. We are all excited for their baptisms this Saturday.  Kinda funny how we have only had baptisms with little kids but we are planning to have baptisms with families and adults soon because the ward here needs it!

My favorite thing about the people here so far is how generous they all are (most of the time). Whenever we meet someone at their house for the first time, most of the time they will invite us in and will talk to us and we give them a lesson. Almost always as well they will give us something to drink. Whether it is water or some other kind of drink and most of the time it is good....I have also learned that if you say you want "Agua'' this means soda here. And if you want actual water you need to say that you want ''Agua Pura''. Kinda strange but its whatever! However I have also realized that people are really afraid to do anything new in their lives because almost always when we ask someone to pray at the beginning or end of lesson they smile and say oh one of you can. Sometimes too it takes like 5 minutes to get them to pray or if it is not worth it, it is my comp and I that pray but man I just want to say "Just Pray!" I guess I am not in their shoes though so I don't know how different it is.

Us as missionaries we are really cheap too. We will look for the cheapest cereal to buy and if a place is within walking distance we will walk if not, then we will try to walk anyways. To travel from city to city we try to hitch-hike and ask every single pickup for a ride. Usually every other 5 pickups will give us a ride, this way we don't have to pay for busses. If we ride busses, I like to ride on the door of the bus holding onto a rod and I am hanging out the door. This way I can get some fresh air and more wind because it’s so hot. That is Guatemala for you though!

Well just want to say that I love you all and I hope that everything is going great for every one of you! Life here is going good and still going strong! Love you and miss you all so much! Stay Sweet!

Love,

   Elder Kahl

Me and Elder Ramos before a baptism.

Me, Elder Tzub and Elder Ramos

Me and Elder Damas

Me, Elder Ramos and Elder Damas

The next two pictures are with other Elder’s and two guys who are members in our ward and they are incredibly funny. The one that is older with the white hair goes with us on visits to investigators and he is so fun and always carries a slingshot with him in his pocket so when we walk with him we play with it!

My Zone had a scavenger hunt for P-day. Hermana Page is the only other American on my team, she’s from California.

Sign on the bridge says Welcome to Mexico,

Escaping across the river to Mexico! Haha! Not really, but Mexico is just across the river.

These are the vans the drive people from city to city. Finding one was part of our scavenger hunt.

These are what the police drive here. All they have are trucks.

This is my bed – not too bad.

This is a picture of my desk. Our place is actually pretty nice compared to how a lot of missionaries here live!

The picture of the old man in the paper is about the oldest man in the world. He lives here is Guatemala and lives about 3 minutes away from me in Coatepeque.

Nuestra Salvador Vive!

Siempre estoy emocionado escribir todos de ustedes y darles un actualización en que pasó en la semana pasada! No puedo creer que esta semana yo tendré 4 meses en mi misión! Es bien loco como tiempo puede ser rápido en mi misión. También solamente tenemos una semana hasta cambios otra vez pero yo pienso estaré con Elder Tzub hasta él completa su misión 3 semanas después este cambio. Tendremos que ver pasará con mi distrito y mi zona también. Pero la semana pasada fue calidad porque teníamos muchos lecciones especialmente con miembros, Hermano Almengor, y 9 de nuestras investigadores asistieron la iglesia ayer en domingo! Bien calidad para nosotros porque usualmente tenemos 0 o 1 investigadores en iglesia, entonces esta semana fue un salto grande en este!

Translation

I am always excited to write all of you and give you an update on what happened in the past week! I cannot believe that this week I will have four months in my mission! It's pretty crazy how time can be quick on my mission. Also we only have one week to changes again but I think I will be with Elder Tzub until he completes his mission three weeks after this change. We will have to see what happens to my district and my area too. But last week was a quality week because we had many lessons especially with members, Brother Almengor, and 9 of our investigators attended Sunday church yesterday! It was excellent for us because we usually have either 0 or 1 investigator in church, therefore this week was a big jump in investigator attendance for us!

First off, I finally had my first baptism! This experience was really cool for me as I got the chance to baptize a kid named Pedro. He is 8 years old and was so excited for his baptism. His sisters were baptized in the church 1 year ago and he just turned 8 so we baptized the kid! His dad is not a member but he really, really wants to be baptized into the church because he believes everything in the church is true but the problem is that he and his “wife” are not married and they need to be married in order for him to be baptized. We are really pushing this but his ''wife'' does not want to get married and we tried talking to her but she has no interest and never wants to talk about it. So that kinda stinks but we got to baptize his son though!

Also on Sunday, as I mentioned above in Spanish, that we had 9 investigators in church on Sunday. This was big for us because usually we have only 1 or none at church but we showed our faith and put our trust in the Lord and he showed us an incredible miracle for us by giving them the desire to come to church. Just have to challenge them (well some have a date for this Saturday to be baptized) to baptism dates and help them find a desire to be baptized and to follow this example of Jesus Christ in their lives. I read something interesting in the Liahona (church magazine) about people and investigators coming to church. It said something along these lines. People who do not have the desire or do not want to attend church do not fully understand the Atonement Jesus Christ made for us because if they understood it they would go to church, remember the sacrifice of Christ, and partake of the sacrament every week. I thought this was really cool and is so true! If they fully understood the Atonement Christ made for us they would have this desire to remember him and act on their faith to come to church. My companion and I read this this week and we really focused on the Atonement and taught this to almost all of our investigators and give them a better understanding of the sacrifice He made for us. Through teaching this and reading about it and seeing the faces of people we were teaching, I found a greater love for my Savior and really took to heart this message to always remember Christ because his sacrifice is something we should never take for granted but to accept it in our lives.

This past week I also had divisions with my Zone Leader (Elder Amador) he is way awesome and we had a pretty good time. He wanted to visit with our investigators and to have a little interview as well. I look up to him and I always learn a lot from him too but sad that he only has 6 weeks left in his mission as he leaves after the next change. I learned that I can't be afraid to direct the needs of our investigators and to speak up and to not be afraid of my Spanish and to not be afraid as well to talk about the uncomfortable stuff that sometimes is awkward but necessary to talk about with them. He really helped me and helped our investigators progress a little bit more towards the desire for baptism in their lives.

Today we got to go to Coatepeque and to see a movie with other zones and our mission president in one of the church buildings. It was the movie ''Meet the Mormons''! However, we were like an hour late so we did not get to see too much of it which kinda sucked but the parts that we saw it was really cool and a really inspiring and moving movie that all should go and see!

Our mission president also announced that within the next month or 2 we are being visited by an Apostle! What?! It is awesome that this mission will get this amazing opportunity to get a special message and visit from an Apostle of the Lord. Me and all of the other missionaries are very excited for this and we can't wait. However, at the moment we are not sure who it is that will be coming but whoever it is, it will be great! 

Oh so this past week we have actually joined a gym. Every morning we drag ourselves out of bed and we walk over to the gym and the guy is like a personal trainer for us which is pretty cool. It is only Q65 monthly which is like $7 or $8. Since I haven't worked out in a while I am incredibly sore. Santa Vaca (holy cow) it is horrible! Sometimes I can barely move my arms but the guy is way cool and he actually lived in California for a good amount of time and knows English perfectly which is awesome so I talk to him in English every time we are in the gym. Every morning we don't want to go but once we are there we get motivated. They guy has a small cardio room and two other smaller rooms with weight machines that we use too. It is an extension to his house that he made into a gym. We have invited him to church already and if he is ever interested in learning about the church or we are always willing to meet with him. He has even invited us to go play basketball with him and some other guys some time so we will see if we can go. The guy is really nice and friendly and we found out that he was actually in prison in the states but he has changed and has a family and 2 daughters he loves a lot. Maybe he will be interested and take lessons from us and we will baptize him to shake those sins out of him! Haha! But ya that is something definitely different for us is going to a gym in the mornings and we actually wake up at 6am instead of 6:30am for it, so thats dedication right there!

Everything here is going good though in Guatemala. Tortillas everyday for lunch, announcements everyday about a new person that died. Oh ya, for this, a truck drives around with speakers and announces a new death like everyday to Catarina and the surrounding areas. Everytime I hear it I think, oh man not again!

Still blazing hot here every day, no rain yet, Spanish is..... Spanish (take that how you want it!) and still preaching the Gospel to the best of my abilities! This church is true. Our Savior lives and he died for all of us! Missionary work is hard but it is something very special to me and to the whole world as well! Love this mission! Miss you and love you all as well! 

Love,

Elder Kahl

I had my first baptism yesterday and I baptized this kid Pedro! He is 8 years old!

The baptism pic is right after we walked out of the font of his baptism! He looks clean and pure right?!

This is the family of the kid I baptized. The dad wants baptism so bad but he is not married to his “wife” and he can't get baptized unless they marry or they separate but we are pushing marriage but his ''wife'' does not want marriage but his sisters are both baptized as well.

This is me being a Guatemalan woman carrying wood on my head as we were helping our investigators carry this wood to their house.

Here is a picture of some food that we have sometimes here! This meal was really, really good! Some rice, beans, potatoes, meat, and of course we had tortillas too!

This is me trying to throw a kid into their well!  Haha!  The wells are how most people get their water here. 

A well in a member’s house and this is how they all get their water (but not to drink).  The water actually looks like pure water but in the photo it just looks dirty from the color of the bucket and it is splashing around. Haha!

This is Andre Almengor. He is a member and he comes and helps us visit a lot of people who are references from him and he is really awesome and funny! He’s wearing a Colorado hat!

This is Elder Ramos and he is from Peru.  He is in the other companionship that lives with us.

Just a picture of a street that we walk a lot in, in my area.

This is part of a colony that we teach at, and yes that is a freaking huge mountain in the background!!!! The mountains here are way, way big and they are a part of my mission and I hope I will get to go there in my mission!

My and my companion. Elder Tzub drew this

2015!!!... En Serio?!

Bienvenidos al año 2015! Ha sentido como mucho tiempo desde yo he hablado con ustedes! Pero solo era una semana! Ahorra estamos en este año nuevo y este es un gran oportunidad para hacer metas nuevas ustedes quieren lograr en este tiempo. También ahorra yo tengo la oportunidad decir, salgo mi misión en el próximo año en 2016. Haha, pero yo sé, tengo mucho tiempo mas en mi misión. Estoy bien aquí en mi área pero este cambio de el ultimo 6 semanas fueren muy rápido porque cambios están en una semana. Catarina todavía es excelente. Teníamos investigadores que vinieron hace 4 días porque ellos estaban en Malacatan por 2 semanas por Navidad y ano nuevo pero estamos muy enfocados enseñarles esta semana y especialmente estamos trabajando con el Padre porque si le ensenamos él permite su esposa y hijas ser bautizados. Tuvimos un lección consigo ayer y hablamos acerca de la Restauración del Evangelio y él estaba aceptando que le ensenamos también. Manana tenemos un otro lección consigo y yo espero este lección irá excelente para nosotros porque este familia necesita ser bautizado!. 

English Translation:

Welcome to 2015! It has felt like a long time since I've talked to you! But it was only a week! We're in this New Year and this is a great opportunity to make new goals you want to achieve at this time. It also gives the opportunity I have to say, I leave my mission in the next year in 2016. Haha, but I know I have much longer my mission. I'm fine here in my area but this change in the last six weeks WHATSOEVER very fast because changes are in a week. Catarina is still excellent. We had investigators that came four days ago because they were in Malacatán for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year but we are very focused to teach this week and are working especially with the dad because if we teach him we will allow his wife and daughters to be baptized. We had a lesson with him yesterday and talked about the Restoration of the gospel and he was accepting what we teach as well. Tomorrow we have another lesson with him and I hope this lesson will be great for us because this family needs to be baptized !

I can't believe that we are already in 2015! It seemed like it was so far away but here we are! Our New Year’s was pretty good! During the day every one eats tamales like no other (just like at Christmas) so we had tamales at about every single house that we visited. I like them but when I have them at like 6 houses they get pretty old! During the night it was awesome. There were fireworks everywhere and the people who live above us were setting off fireworks in the street right by our house (the ones like the 4th of July) and it was awesome! I took a video and I hope that I will be able to send it to you all next week.

Our teaching is going pretty well with our investigators as well. The ones who were gone for 2 weeks in Malacatan came back and right when they returned we went to their house they invited us in and we taught a lesson and we have visited them every day. We are trying so hard with this family though and the dad we are teaching because since he wasn't there on Sunday he didn't let his family go to church but after we went and visited with him and taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel and he was accepting to all of it and loves talking to us and we told him to pray about if Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw God, the Father, and the Son so we are going to see if he did tomorrow and how he felt. We are really focused on them because we feel that they are so close to baptism and they accepted baptism and know that they need to be baptized as well.

I have also learned so much from my companion about how to teach and how to use the scriptures effectively (especially the Bible) because most people want proof from the Bible of things that we are teaching and my companion knows where everything is in the Bible to teach them and show them as well. I think it is funny how people know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (as the scriptures tell us) and that the gospel of Christ had a prophet, apostles, priesthood, and revelation. But they do not put the 2 together and say what church today has a prophet, 12 apostles, priesthood authority, and revelation? Oh ya thats right, THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. Haha but I like to use the Bible to show people proof of things and we stump others and they don't have a response because we proved them wrong using their own book that we use too. Studying the Bible is just as important as studying The Book of Mormon.

Another family we are teaching is a bit difficult because the daughter who is so ready for baptism as well and loves learning these things, she moved to the complete other end of our area that is very far away but we plan to visit her soon and her sister loves learning too and learns it so fast and she is only 12 but the mom invites us and listens to us but doesn't come to church, isn't keeping commitments and seems less and less interested in learning but we are slowly working with her as well. She works on Sunday’s which makes it so she can't come to church, so what did we do about it? We started to teach her boss! Now her boss is an investigator of ours and we are teaching her the Gospel and how the keep the Sabbath Day holy and how she needs to go to church and not work. Haha. I hope that this will work. 

There are many times when my companion wants to visit people who I think we are wasting our time with or who we shouldn't visit. For example, there is a 17 year old kid who lives with his family and we have been teaching him since I've gotten here in this area and he can't be baptized yet because his dad says he needs to be older to make the decision or something like that. But, he is not keeping any commitments when he says he will, so that means he is not progressing, and we have done nothing about working with his parents who are not members. Also the mom is always laughing at me because of my Spanish and there was 2 times when I almost just walked out of the house because it made me so mad. She doesn't understand that I’m just learning the language and she is pretty rude about it. But there are those times when I feel like we are wasting our time. Just gotta stay patient I guess!

I know that I always talk about my Spanish but it is improving every week but definitely those times when I feel frustrated with it because sometimes Spanish is just rolling off my tongue and other moments when I stumble upon words and it is hard but practice makes perfect and I know I need to think that I only have 3 months in my mission as well!

So one day this week it was kinda crazy because the other companionship we live with they have had some problems between them and one of them couldn't take it anymore so he called the mission president and asked for emergency changes. As the circumstances were rough with them the Mission President said ok and the missionary (Elder Rivera) packed up that same day and left for another area with the assistants. So now there is another missionary (Latino) that is with Elder Ramos in the other area of Catarina. But this was pretty crazy for us and kinda weird how he couldn't just wait 2 weeks for changes but whatever. The new elder is a bit better anyways!

Also, seriously I won another award for my artwork? Haha. So my piece was selected 1 of the 20 most outstanding art in the country?? I never expected that to happen! Especially since I am out of high school! Thanks, really cool though! Thanks for sharing that with me mom and makes me miss drawing again! Also the snow in a can was a fail and didn't really do much. Probably because I didn't do it right but it was a little disappointing....

I know that this work is the work of our Savior and always I need to constantly serve him and to teach everyone because they are children of our Heavenly Father and they deserve to hear about the Restored Gospel. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us and how he gave us Jesus Christ to pay for our sins and through Him we can be perfected. I know that a mission is hard but this is where I need to be during this time to change the lives of the people here. Thank you so much for the support and love! Love and miss you all!

Love,

   Elder Kahl

P.S. Go Broncos! I hope they make it to the super bowl and win it this year. That is a bummer that CSU lost but they are still doing well! I am rooting for Poudre Basketball down here in Guatemala because I miss playing on that court in front of a huge crowd! It is such a great feeling!