Hey Family!
It is a new year and that fact is crazy. As Dad said I´m already a fourth of the way done with my mission and that is crazy (a side note Dad thank you for making me worry about how I´ve served the first fourth of my mission haha just kidding). The mission is going fast, and I´m just trying to make the best of it. Mom´s questions- Tamales are very hard to explain... Ask Brother Benson? My companion comes from a member family but they are all inactive except for him, he worked at a club before his mission and I would say it´s a miracle he is here. Thanks to some good friends he made it on his mission and has 17 months. I asked President Baldwin for help and he sent me some good advice, but if nothing changes I have to give him a call. Also my 31st was weird and pretty normal just spent in the house. I asked my companion to wake me up to see the fireworks at 12 for a little bit and he did but after a minute of thinking about getting up I was already asleep haha.
Anyways this week was pretty good but difficult as well. We´ve pretty much all but dropped Jose because he has stopped showing up to lessons that we set. I really think Mariela is the real problem because she is says bad things about the church after we leave and now he is drinking just as much if not more than before. This devastates me mostly for the children. One day we passed by and Josselyn said her Dad wasn´t there. We said okay maybe we´ll pass by in another day, because we we´re done wasting time showing up with him. She asked in a sad voice what about tomorrow? We said maybe we´ll see, and she said in a very sad voice okay... I hope I see you tomorrow. She and her brother are incredible young kids that love to learn and love the church and I´m so sad the the decisions of their parents are going to affect their futures.
Other than that the struggle to find families has been incredibly difficult. We have contacted like crazy this week with a focus on families and no one is accepting anything. We have close to none lessons in the next few days, but we have hope that things will pick up. One bright ray of light in our week was Jorge, a teenager that has been attending church for 4 or 5 weeks now. He is good friends with all the Young Men and started coming in jeans and a t shirt but now wears a white shirt and dress pants. He´s busy so we have only had a few lessons, but he really understands well, and wants to do what is right. I really do think he´ll get baptized and since is is turning 18 next month I hope he can serve a mission. Friends of members really are the best way to find people to teach. It´s hard though because our friends sincerely don´t want to hear our message sometimes, but as long as we aren´t afraid to talk about it and try our best, we´ll see results eventually. I really have regrets about how I didn´t present the gospel to my friends more as I was younger, so to whoever is reading this never be scared to talk about the true church of Christ! That´s a lot coming from a full time missionary huh? haha.
Anyways, we´re working hard and I really hope that we will be able to find some families to teach in this week. We actually did find an inactive member and we are going to start teaching his wife and they have a kid, but again they are busy so we will see what happens. I´m trying to do my best and have faith has Dad told me, but as everyone knows the going gets rough when you don´t see results sometimes. I´m trying to have a little perspective and have been thinking a lot about how 15 years ago this Ward wasn´t a Ward and while things don´t operate perfectly what is in place is a miracle when you consider we are in Guatemala miles away from when Joseph Smith established the church. I love this Gospel and am happy to be a part of the work of bringing others to it. I love you all and enjoy the year of 2011
Love,
-Ben
P.S. That is nuts Robbie is home. Tell him I say hi!
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