Como va a tener este corbata?

Hey everybody! Hope all is well. This week was nice. Monday was my birthday so we had some celebrations with the district and got some good food and ice cream. It is weird to be 20, but really there is not anything different, I am just older. It was a good time. After that, nothing interesting really happened until Thursday. We had a zone conference thing, which I have some pictures from, hopefully this week they can upload. That was good, two people from our zone are going to finish this transfer, which is awesome but also sad because I probably won{t see either of them again for the rest of life. Also on Thursday, we had divisions, and I lead Monterrico, which I thought was a disaster. I got a little lost at one point in the night, but somehow it worked out ok, by the grace of God haha. But yeah it was me and Elder Vavrinek, he is a gringo too. Oh we did give a blessing to the grandma of an investigator in the hospital on Thursday too. It is the grandma of Juan Pablo, so it is kind of a rough time for them right now. Giving blessings to people who are dying is an interesting thing and I think that is all I will say about that because it was a nice little experience, but also sad. Other than that we did some contacting and taught the Class of English, it was a nice little day. On Friday, divisions ended and the dark knight returned to Monterrico. We then had to go to El Carmen that night for Batman to do baptism interviews for two kids. While we were there, the members of El Carmen invited us to their activity, so we stayed for that. It was like a birthday celebration thing, so we got to play a little soccer. Both of the sisters of El Carmen have birthdays in September and also a member has his birthday on the same day as me. He is a nice old man, so they sang to the three of them and then Hermana Daldegan and my old man friend wanted me to do the whole birthday thing with blowing out candles and stuff, so I did, and it was really nice. That was a nice day too. Saturday we visited a member that has 13 years and his name is Alejandro. He made a bet with us earlier that he would have the Book of Mormon read all the way through in two days or he would do 100 push ups, so obviously we accepted this bet because that is not a smart bet. So on Saturday, it had been like two weeks since we had seen him, and at the end of the visit we asked him if he had done it, and then we got to make him do 100 pushups. If you are going to make bets, make smart bets! And Sunday was a pretty good day, we got stopped on the way to church by two drunk guys. One of them stopped us while the other one was like hunched over on their van peeing into the street, and I was thinking [Oh here we go again[ but they were nice drunk people. One of them thought we worshipped Joseph Smith, which I think Batman thoroughly explained 6 times that he was a prophet and not a god. The one guy still did not get it, which is fine because he did not remember our names or if he believed in God or science either. The other one just kept asking about how to say things in English, but he did give me a pack of peanuts. After we were finishing up, the really really drunk guy asked Elder Batman, [Como va a tener esta corbata_[ and he pointed at my tie and said [Esta corbata es de diez.[ And me and Batman were both just laughing because it was pretty funny. So that was a pretty fun little time before-during church. We had one investigator come to church, and after that we did some visits and stuff. Oh at lunch, the branch mission leader gave us a cake and found out it had been my birthday, so he put some matches in the cake and they sang and at the end he was like [Tiene que morder la torta[ which translated is you have to bite the cake, which confused me but hey I went to do it, and got my face slammed into the cake haha. It is a tradition here I guess, which is funny, but there is still cake in my nose. But it was nice. As for Monday, today, I am kind of sick, but we played basketball and hung out with some elders from our zone. 

Se que a veces tenemos problemas, asi es la vida pero estar feliz sin cargas no existe. Tenemos que encontrar felicidad con cargas y problemas porque si no podemos hacerlo, va a ser una vida largisima. Tengo mucha fe en Jesucristo. Testifico de el es nuestro hermano mayor y el puede ayudarnos con todas las problemas. Espero que sus vidas son de diez ahora! Hasta luego, el Elder Gueller

Yesterday I was 19/RIP Old Blue

I feel a lot older now, even though I just turned 20. Life really flies by. Yeah so that is weird. Also it has been like almost 4 months in the mission, which is weird. I still have a long time to go though, and that is ok too. Let's see, this week was pretty good for the most part. We had a conference in Salta with an elder from the 70. It was pretty cool, and it was really a testament to me that God gives his disciples the gift of tongues because he spoke very clearly the whole time. I don't know, I liked it. We stayed at the zone leaders apartment the night before. There were six missionaries in total, so it got pretty crazy. We did not sleep at all before the conference, well a little on the bus ride there haha. It was a good time though. We also went to Palpala to help other missionaries with an open chapel event. It was like a 5 minute tour to see and learn what the church is all about. I was lucky enough to get the street contacting job with some members. Talking to random people used to really be something I didn't like to do. I still don't like to do it. But hey, I try. The members were pretty cool. I got three different ones because they all had to do different stuff at different times. One was about to have his last interview to put in his mission papers. Pretty cool how the world just keeps going.

As for investigators, no one came to church and we did not have a ton of time this week to visit anybody, we tried a few people, but not much happened. So yeah, sometimes in the mission the work is just slow. Our district is pretty cool. It is me, Batman, and the rest are sister missionaries. We have a good time together. They are all pretty chill and fun. After the thing in Palpala, we were waiting for a bus ride back with the 4 sisters in our district, which took forever because sometimes that is just how it goes. But yeah we hung out and had a fun time together waiting for the bus. Ohh a fun story from Sunday, not really fun, but it was different. We were on our way to church, when someone waved us over to talk to them in the plaza. We went over and talked to him/her, because he/she was a transvestite. He/she was kind of mean to me about my Spanish and all. But also told us a lot about his/her past and stuff. It was interesting. At the end he/she asked us for our ties to remember how we helped him/her this day. So we reluctantly signed our ties and gave them away. So that was an interesting story of how we gave two ties away to a drunk transvestite that was making fun of my language and called me a bad missionary. Good times. I will miss you my blue tie. We fought the good fight. RIP. Anyways that is about it for the week. It sure was an interesting one.

As for today, it has been pretty good. Umm not all that much happened. I won't be able to upload pictures because something is up with this computer. We hung out with the sisters in our district and had some food and stuff. I don't care that much about my birthday to be honest, but it was nice to get so many emails for my birthday, Elder Batman could not believe it haha. It has been a pretty good day. Oh one of the sisters borrowed a guitar and brought it with her, so I got to play a little. I did not think I would miss it that much. But yeah today will be good through and through I think.

You really learn a lot of crazy stuff when you leave your house to try and bring the gospel to other people. Sometimes it feels like you can barely save yourself. It is really interesting. These two transfers have been filled with some crazy situations. I am really trying to find out what Heavenly Father wants from me, and it is not easy. But then, salvation never was easy. 

No se lo que va a pasar en las proximas semanas. Honestamente, tengo un pocito de miedo seguir porque aca es tan loco. Me gustaria sentir mejor con todo, quizas un dia lo sentire. Vamos a ver. Pero por ahora, Tengo mi testimonio muy fuerte de nuestro hermano mayor, Jesucristo. Es loco que paso con el. El dio su vida lleno de sufriendo para nosotros tener una chanca ser salvado. Una chanca. Se que Jesucristo es mi salvador y que el esta ayudandome porque yo soy nada solo. Amo Jesucristo con todo my corazon y por eso voy a quedar en este loco lugar y voy a sentir perdido cada dia porque amo Jesucristo. El hizo anos de cosas que yo estoy haciendo ahora. No puedo imaginarlo. Testifico de Jesucristo, de la paz que hay en el. En el Nombre de Jesucristo amen.

1 Transfer Down

Hey everybody! The world sounds like it is pretty crazy out there right now, but most things here are pretty much the same. We are working with Juan Pablo, from before, two young girls named Melodi and Marilyn, and a family that runs a moto shop. None of them came to church yesterday, so ya fue! haha well we will keep working but we might not have baptisms this week either, but that is ok. We are doing a lot of reactivating which is good. We probably have maybe fifty people in our little branch somewhat consistently. It is kind of nice to have such a little branch because it makes it easier to meet all the people haha. Also last week I finished my first transfer in the field. We don´t change because I am being trained, so it is still me and Batman in Monterrico. Also, whoever memed the name badges, nice. 

Hmmm Highlights of this week, we taught Maxi Sanchez twice, he is the father and the boss of the moto shop. He is pretty great, and the most interested of the family. We met them passing out flyers for our class of English, which no one really attends. But they are cool. They needed help on some business calls in the beginning so we went and Batman translated between them and a guy from China. It was interesting. We have gone and done that for them a few more times since then. It is pretty cool. But yeah we taught him the Restoration and he said that he could read the bible four times and not understand anything, but when he reads the Book of Mormon it makes sense. So that was awesome to hear. Also we gave him a blessing of health, Batman did the second part and we know he felt the Spirit because he was almost crying. But he did not come to church, so bummer. Also he smokes a ton. A ton. Like packs a day. It is crazy. But we love him. Also his moto shop is pretty busy and they just fired a bunch of people that wanted raises they did not deserve, so that did not help. But hey pray for Maxi and fam. 

Juan Pablo invited us for lunch on like wednesday. It was good, we taught the word of wisdom. He understood pretty well. He has said he wants to be baptized, we think he is kind of scared. But I think that that is good because then he understands the importance of baptism. And he did not go to church because his grandma was in the hospital, so that is something. Hopefully it all comes full circle. 

Marilyn and Melodi are sisters. 11 and 8 years old, so they are really young. They have no foundation of Jesus of religion. They have a cousin that is a member though, and they like to go to church when their cousin can bring them. This week he could not bring them or come, so bummer. We have asked them to be baptized a few times and they pretty much always say no. So that is those two.

Other than them, we are finding new people. We found a women that we usually buy cookies from, and she wants us to return. We have not really had time to yet, but what are you gonna do? And we found a 22 year old named Nico who plays goalie in like the 3rd division here, so hopefully we can find him some more. He seemed pretty interested in what we were saying. I think it shocked him a little when I was talking to him about soccer and how I might have been able to play in college but did not even consider it. So I think that is about everybody that we have. 

Everybody in my district and in my zone is pretty awesome. There is a picture of our district in church clothes and some people from our zone in street clothes because today we played basketball and football. It was fun. Also the other two photos are of a planner case that Elder Batman got me as an early birthday present. It is pretty frickin cool. And Spanish is pretty good too. I am not the newest person in our zone anymore, so that was a relief for me. I felt better to not be that new anymore. It is pretty interesting how real the Gift of Tongues is. Somehow I know a lot of Spanish now. Maybe I will send a recording soon, but I always feel weird when talking into a recorder haha. Elder Batman is great. We get along pretty great. I think we are pretty good friends. He still single moms a lot of the lessons, but I am working on it haha. So I think that that is about it for the week. It has been pretty good. Our area is progressing, but I would love to have a baptism to feel like we really are helping. I mean, I know we are helping since there are only like two members who have the Melchezidek Priesthood here, we give tons of blessings, but I would love to just have like that reassurrance of a baptism. But that aside, I do get to wear whatever socks I want here! So that is good. And I have lots of friends here. It is pretty great. 

Realmente yo testifico que estoy en el camino correcto para mi. Es algo que nunca pense seria algo que dije, pero hay esta. Me gusta la mision mucho sin las veces que estoy ensenando y no puedo hacerlo. Estoy aprendiendo mucho de vida aca y mucho del Evangelio de Jesucristo. El esta con nostros cada dia. Lo se. Yo se que el vive y el nos ama y que el nos da esta vida para aprender y crecer y encontrar mas felicidad mediante confiando en nuestro Salvador. Me encanta español y estoy agradecido por la oportunidad que tengo estar aqui. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen. 

I only have four pictures because two of them were the same and one did not want to load so....

Hey Everybody!

Hey everybody! This week was actually pretty great. Elder Batman and I did a lot of work. We found some more new people and taught a lot of lessons. We are making some good progress with our investigator, Juan Pablo Caile. He wants to be baptized but wants to attend church first and learn more, but he told us that he would always remember us and how we helped him and his family. His dad is the guy who we gave a blessing to that first day in Monterrico. It has been cool to actually be a source of comfort for people, and especially to see that the gospel really does help people out when they have hard stuff happen. So that was cool. We are also teaching a lot of people that live pretty close to us now, which is nice because before we had to travel more. 

Spanish is coming along pretty well, I think. I can sometimes get the gist of what is going on, so that is good. It is going pretty well. I hope we play some more soccer soon, we have not played that much except like a little passing and stuff in the street, so hopefully more of that will happen. Elder Batman and I are getting along pretty great. He has taught me a lot, and helps me with learning the language. There is a way they talk here when they can’t roll their r’s, like me, that Elder Batman taught me. I like it, but it’d be weird for any other Spanish place haha. Anyways, he is pretty great. We have a lot of fun together, probably because we have similar sarcastic humor. It is pretty fun. It has been a transfer in the field and it has not felt that long at all. It goes fast and slow at the same time. It is all good. Hope everything back home is great. I am all good. 

Let’s see, what is something fun I learned to share… Well I read pretty much all the time in Spanish now, with help of the dictionary, but I was reading in 2 Nephi about when it talks about the vineyard and the master and servant of the vineyard and there is a scripture that says something like, what more could we have done for this vineyard? And that touched me because there is great concern about the souls of men, and that is just true. Yo se que Jesucristo y Dios nos tienen en Sus mentes siempre. Yo se que nos aman. Y yo se que este evangelio realmente puede ayudar con dificultades en la vida. Este es mi testimonio. En el nombre de Jesucristo Amen.

Also the pics are not great this week sorry fam. Not all that sorry tho.