4-15-2013

What's up everyone!!

This week we were really busy.  Every second of everyday we were doing something.  The majority of the week was spent visiting inactive members, and it paid off. This week we had 35 people at church.  That is a pretty big improvement on our 22.  We also had two people that have been inactive for 13 years that live in Cubulco come, which was pretty awesome.  They are Mother-in-law and sister-in-law of our only baptismal date.  Her name is Ingrid and once again she did not make it to church. She is very prepared, and even told us that she has a testimony, and that The Book of Mormon has to be true, but her inactive member husband drinks on his only day off, which happens to be Sundays.  He doesn´t let her leave the house, which means she can´t come to church.  I really hope that she can find a way to make it this week or else her date will drop again.  

As of our other Investigators...  The firefighter was in the Cap all week for work so we didn´t have the chance to visit with him.  Our other investigator that was really progressing, Martina, was out of town most of the week as well.  We visited with her last night, and she had not read in prayed since our last visit.  I hope she can start progressing again soon or else we cant keep teaching her.  We also found someone new this week.  We met her last Sunday because she was at conference with a friend.  She has three kids that are of baptismal age, and has family that are members.  I believe that they are going to progress really quickly.  Other than finding her, we haven´t really found many new people in my time here.  

We bought ground beef the other day and we are going to make tacos this week with the stuff that Mom sent me!  I´m excited to eat some "real" Mexican food.  At the grocery store we went to even had flour tortillas!  We can only go to the grocery store like once a week because we never have time.  This week I should eat pretty good. 

To answer Moms question, Transfers are every 6 weeks.  My training is two transfers long, so I'm going to be here for at least 6 more weeks.  My companion will have six months in this area after my training is done, so he will probably leave and I will stay.  That means that I will probably be here in Rabinal for the next three- four and a half months.  Ill let you know when I get the package! I cant wait!  I just got a letter from my bud Parker!  Thanks for writing me man!! Congratulations to everyone who is getting your calls!! The mission is awesome!  Some advice I have is that no one will ever regret serving a mission, but they will regret not serving.  

Love you all!

Elder Bashaw

 

 

 

4-8-2013

Querido familia y amigos,

The best part of my week was conference!  I have never been this excited to listen to the Prophet speak!  I have decided that conference weekend is my new favorite holiday, and the best part is that it comes twice a year.  For conference we went to a town like 45 minutes away from my area to watch it in the nearest Chapel.  All of our branch had to travel and almost all of them were there on Sunday!  I got to watch it in English in a different room.  I don't think I would have learned as much if I had to listen in Spanish.  My favorite session of my life was the Priesthood session on Saturday!  Uchtdorf´s talk was especially good.  I think he is my favorite (other than the prophet of course).  He is just so sure about everything he is talking about, and he is powerful in a different language from his first.  I hope to bring the same spirit to my investigators and teach with such conviction.  I don't know how I am going to wait 6 months for the next session!

Something else awesome from this week was on Tuesday.  We had divisions with the Assistant to the President.  He came to Rabinal to work with us all day Tuesday and I learned a ton!! He is a very powerful teacher and he taught me a ton about following the promptings of the spirit.  He went with us to visit the Firefighter also and he is starting to progress again.  The way he teaches is pretty awesome.  The majority of the talking is the investigators, and the majority of what he uses are questions.  I am starting to realize that when us as missionaries are asking inspired questions, the spirit is doing most of the teaching.  That is exactly what we need to be doing to have true conversion.  I can be the most eloquent teacher, but without the spirit I am just saying words.  

The other 3 days went normally.  We went to Cobulco twice and both times our progressing investigator wasn't there.  She got a new job and is almost never home when we can teach her.  We are constantly looking for new people there to teach and we are trying to find all the inactive members there.  We are still working with our other investigator Martina also.  She finally started reading, and we hope that we can get a baptismal date with her this week.  She still has a lot she has to overcome before she can be baptized though.  

That is all for this week.  I hope all is going well at home.  I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch conference, and if not find it on line somewhere.  We have the great opportunity to listen to a living prophet and we have to take advantage of it!  Love you all!

 

Elder Bashaw

Yeah Pictures!

 

 

 

 

Me and my comp Elder Trujillo

 

 

On the way to one of the members houses right outside of the city

 

 

Well Its someone to teach right?

3-25-2013

What's up!!

This week was probably one of the fastest of my life.  Time really flies when your on a mission.  I feel like I am learning and growing a lot everyday.  My area is still tough, but maybe thats why Im there.  The President must trust me enough to be here.  To answer a few questions, I am not in the Jungle.  I guess it usually never rains here. Until this week that is.  I have never seen rain like this in my entire life.  It surpassed raining cats and dogs and went straight to waterfall status.  I swear there was more water than air. (that is probably not true haha).  I guess the real rainy season will start in about a month and last for about 2 or 3 months after that.  Its pretty exciting.

About our investigators.  As of right now we have 2 progressing investigators.  First is Ingrid.  We have a baptismal date with her, but she has a lot of challenges.  She lives like 30 minutes and 10 Quetzales away from the church.  And on top of that her husband drinks on Sundays and wont let her leave the house.  We are working really hard to help her out, and she has a real desire to learn and change her life.  Our other one is Martina.  We are going to try and get a date with her this week, but she needs to fix a lot before she can get baptized.  She is separated from a guy and right now is living with another guy who isn't the best guy.  She tells us she really wants to change and she understands that the way she is living is not right.  We are working really hard with her too.  We had to stop teaching the pastor this week because he wasn't progressing.  We will probably try again in a few weeks.  We have a few others we are teaching periodically but those are the main ones. 

The majority of our time this week will be finding new people to teach.  That is the hardest part about this area, so if anyone has any ideas let us know!!!  It is really hard to get references from the members.  That is the best way to find new people because they will already have a friend in the church.  So in saying that anyone that reads this needs to help out the missionaries!!  With the members help, so many lives can be helped.  Its a cool experience to work with the missionaries, so DO IT!!! 

Anyways all is going well here.  The lord is blessing me everyday.  I have soo much to be thankful for.  Oh ya I got both your packages today Mom!! as well as letters from Madeline, Alexis, and Sam.  To everyone else, You´re Slackin!! Thank you everyone for your support. 

I miss and Love you!!!

Elder Bashaw

3-18-2013

Hola Familia!!

The beginning of this week was really tough for me.  We weren't finding much success, our branch is hard to work with, and in general it was just really hard.  I learned a really good lesson through the middle of this.  When I was Emailing last week, Dad responded telling me to remember the tender mercies and to be grateful for the small things.  I've decided that in every situation you choose how you respond.  You can look at a situation and say this is really hard and only look at the bad things, or you can try and find the good things and concentrate on those.  After that day, I feel a lot better about my self, and I love my area.  I know this is where I am supposed to be! It still is really hard, but I'm loving it.

Anyways, things are going great.  Me and my comp get along really well, and I am learning a ton!  It is really tough to find new investigators.  None of the members will give us references and almost everyone we talk to on the streets doesn't want anything to do with the Mormons.  It really is a pretty cool place.  Right now we have about five investigators that are really progressing, and we should have a baptismal date with almost all of them by the end of the week.  The challenge is finding people to teach.  We only had three new investigators this week.  To be a new investigator, we need to teach them and they have to agree to have us return.  Three is not very many considering the mission goal is 11.  When we find the right people, they are great.  

Right now we are teaching a firefighter.  He is the one that had a baptismal date that dropped.  He is reading and praying and finally this week he went to church!! The mission rule is that they have to go to church three times in a row to be baptized.  We are going to ask if he wants to be baptized on the 13th of April.  We have an Hermana the lives in a town called Cobulco, which is about 30 minutes away by bus, that we now have a baptismal date for the 13th of April. She has a lot of challenges in front of her, so I pray that we can keep that date.  We are teaching a pastor of the second biggest church here in Rabinal.  We spent about 4 lessons this week teaching about the restoration.  It would be pretty cool if we could help him be baptized, then maybe we could baptize the other half of Rabinal. Those are the people we are really focusing on right now.  It is kind of weird getting so invested in someone else's testimony.  I want them to believe sooo bad, but all we can really do is invite and testify.  

This week at church we had exactly the same amount of people, 22, but we had one of our investigators come which means it was better than last week.  To answer your question Mom we teach a lot in church.  This week I gave a talk on Relief Society, passed the sacrament, lead the music, and me and my comp taught priesthood.  We are working really hard with the inactive members to help them come back.  If we had a bunch of them return, we wont have to do as much.  We hope that they can be pretty self sufficient. 

Something kind of funny, I found out that the mission address in my packet is wrong.  I guess they changed in like November, so it changed just a little after I got my call.  The New address is

Mission Guatemala Norte

Apartado postal 951-A

Guatemala, Guatemala C.A. 

I guess that that happened to just about everyone.  The people in my District told me they still got their packages, but it took like 3 months to get here.  so I will probably get them in about June.  Things I would like in the next package are an IPod cord so I can get some music from my comp, and a canteen( just one of those clear ones with the screw on lids.)

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! NATHAN!!!!!!  

I Miss you all and think about you everyday.  

Elder Bashaw

3-11-2013

What's up everyone!!!!
So first thing is first.  I have my new area.  I am in a place called Rabinal.  It is outside of the capital. It took me a day and a half to get here. In all it was about nine hours of riding. I have been told by a lot of people that it is probably the hardest area in the mission.  We only had 22 people at church on Sunday.  That is a little different from what I am used to.  My trainer just finished getting trained.  He only has one more month of mission time than me, and I am actually older than him.  He is only 18.  We get along great.  He is a really good guy.  His name is Elder Trujillo and he is from Ecuador.  He is really short and speaks almost perfect English.  When we are out of the house we only speak Spanish and in the house we speak English so that he can practice.  I am learning a lot and hope that I can be 100% fluent by the time I am done with my training.

This week I am really learning patience. I don't know what it is, but things here are really hard.  No one is willing to take a minute to sit down and listen to us.  We have one person with a baptismal date.  His name is Ruben.  We haven't even gotten the chance to teach him yet this week.  He is a volunteer fire fighter and is always super busy.  Actually he is too busy.  His date just dropped because he didn't go to church on Sunday.  We have three or four other possibilities but, other than that we are nocking on a lot of doors and talking to a lot of people on the street.  That is a really hard way to work though.  It gets a little discouraging after a little while. All I can do is work hard and trust in the lord.  I know that this area is where I am supposed to be.  I just need to find the reason why. 

A little bit about my area... It is really hot here.  It kind of reminds me of Vegas a little bit. It is pretty dry and desert looking.  It is known for their witches.  Half the town believes in witchcraft and the other half are Catholic.  I told someone that I was from sin city and they said, so you came from one sin city to a different one.  One thing that I can say for sure is that I am going to have a lot of stories from this area.  I am learning tons everyday here.  There are some interesting people we have taught, and I am sure that I am only going to find more. 

To answer your question mom, everything has to be sent to the mission home.  I haven't gotten a single letter yet.  Get on it People!!! haha.  It is going to take a while for me to get any mail now that I am so far a way from everything.  There is a lot that I can not get now that I am outside the Capital.  If you could send me Peanut Butter that would be heavenly.  There aren't many places to buy a quick bite here so we make all our food now. 

That is awesome that Ryan got his call!! Tell him congrats for me!  Oh ya and Elder and Sister Bashaw(Grandma and Grandpa).  The MTC is awesome.  They are going to love it!  Anyways, things here are good.  I am working really hard and hope that I can see the fruits of my labor.  I know that the Lord is guiding the work and there is a reason I am here.  Miss and love you all!!!


Elder Bashaw

3-4-2013

Hola Familia!!!

 

Things here are going great! We only have one family with a baptismal date, but we going to try and get three more this week.  The person we are teaching who is deaf, Saira, we decided that we cant baptize her right now.  Her only support at church is us which means after we leave, she would more than likely go inactive.  All we can do is pray and hope that someone moves into the ward that knows Guatemalan sign language.  The Perez family is the family  that we have a date for.  They have a few things to work out before they get baptized but they are doing well.  

We met a family this week that I believe are the definition of prepared to meet the missionaries.  The father is a member but has been inactive for fourteen years, and the whole family is eating up everything we are teaching.  Everything we tell them to do, they are doing. We will see how they progress over time. The only problem is that I am leaving this area on Wednesday. :(  There are a few people here that I am going to miss a lot.  The members here are a lot closer to the missionaries than they are in the states.  Most of the time, I did not even know who ours was.  Here every member knows us, and we know basically every member.  

Also this week, I got the opportunity to help out with a bunch of Zone leader work.  Two of the seven days this week we were searching for new apartments for the missionaries for two different areas.  With all the missionaries coming in we need a lot more areas.  This week there are 41 new missionaries coming into the field with only 11 leaving.  At this point half of the mission will be either training or have a trainer.  I'm pretty sure that this is to get ready for the split.

Today, my comp got two of his wisdom teeth out, which means, that we haven't been able to do anything today for p-day.  It ended up working out because I need to pack for Wednesday.  I really hope I get to go up north out of the city, but I know that wherever I go is where I am supposed to be.  The church is true!! Do all you can to help out the missionaries.  It makes our life a lot easier when the members are willing to help out.  Here we can get just about everything, even candy bars and stuff.  The only thing is they are expensive.  One thing they don't have at all is reeses.  Anyways, thanks for all your prayers. Have a good week!!!

 

 

Elder Bashaw