Monday, October 25, 2010

New area...Chimaltenango!

Hey Everybody!
Sorry no pictures this week I forgot my chord... Bad week to do that huh? Anyways I´m was so excited to hear about and see Will and I pray that I won´t be thinking about him in all my lessons today haha but no promises... Brad and Michelle are going to great parents, you two just ahve to promise me that you won´t have anymore until I get back okay?

Okay so I was transferred which I sad about. I really wanted to see what happened with our investigators and adjusting to a new area is never fun, but at the same time it can be exciting. The area is Chimaltenango, and it´s a really amazing mix of city and mountain life, or as my friend Elder Davis says the fake mountains. In that he means there are stores shops and normal life but within this huge city there is people wearing the traditional clothes (called corte) people riding horses with cowboy hats and a machete at their belt alongside the cars, etc. Its an amazing mixture of old culture and a westernized city. It´s cool because I have everything I need readily available, but if I walk twenty minutes one direction in my area I´m next to a field where strong old latino ladies are hacking at their crops with a machete. Wow my life is nuts. This is the areas that are poor with a lot of widows and dirt floors but down in the city everyone is pretty normal like is Guatemala City. Except for the fact that I saw a man dip is bread in his sprite and eat it the other day, and then his daughter followed in suite. Gross

My apartment is way nicer than my old one except for the fact that our shower is broken so a solid stream of freezing cold mountain water coming out of the wall is all we have. Mornings are a sight to behold with a lot of girlish screams coming from the bathroom at about 7 o clock every morning. Also it´s a bit cooler up here so the freezing cold showers don´t contribute to that. But other than that I´m really enjoying the new apartment with tile floors (yes! I can actually clean the dirt off) and more space.

The area is huge which is a bit overwhelming considering I´m probably going to be leading the area next change because my companion has been here forever, but who knows. That doesn´t mean senior companion, just showing a new companion the area, but we´ll see. We have to plan smart so that we aren´t taking a bus in between every lesson from one side of town to the other. It´s way different compared to my last area which was tiny. It´s really cool to be surrounded by the mountains though with peaks of volcanoes in the distance etc. Guatemala is awesome.

My companion is the most difficult adjustment. With Elder Tarax when we had differences we could simply talk about them, but Elder Alberto is someone who likes to work out a lot, look at himself in the mirror, and doesn´t have the best attitude. He does like to work which is good, but his intentions with baptisms are very numbers driven leading to a lot of his past baptisms being people who haven´t stayed active. He is a good worker though, and he has listened to me when I suggest something which is good, but I don´t feel anywhere near comfortable making suggestions. So maybe I just need to be more bold and not worry about what he thinks, we´ll see. Part of the reason that he is numbers driven could be the zone. Our zone is extremely numbers driven, and don´t get me wrong numbers are important and have their purpose, but when the focus is on the numbers and not the people there in lies the problem. I don´t leave district meeting feeling inspired, I just leave feeling awful about not achieving our goals. So we´ll see what I can do to contribute to the focus of the area in my lowly position as a greenie haha.

Anyways I hope that wasn´t overly negative, I lov ethe area, and am learning a lot from my new situation with my companion. I need to take initiative in different ways and I know there is a reason I´ve been sent to this area with this companion. There is always something we can learn, we just need to look for it. Sorry I don´t have much to write about investigators or anything, it´s all so new to me, so maybe next week, and I promise pictures. Also I´m sending another DVD with pictures, hopefully this time it will work. Try it on a PC mom maybe that will work.

I love you all, am learning a lot, trying not to get down in the difficult times, and really enjoying the good times. A mission is hard but it can be gratifying, I love you all and Mom email me about any details I forgot, I can add them next week. Also ask Anne for the note I made to you in her email.
I´m excited to hear about the first week of Wills life!

-Ben

Ben is a brand new uncle...had to post some pictures of his cute little nephew...William Peter Pearson!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Parenting Styles in Guatemala

Hey Everybody,
Sounds like everyone is doing great and anxiously awaiting the birth of Will as am I. I'm of course bummed I won't be there but the Lord will bless me as Will's favorite Uncle because of my service. Wait a second…
Anyway this week was really good! Especially with the O. family with Telma. I thought you would like to know that last Monday night she shared with us that during our Family Home Evening she felt a unity and peace with here family that she had never felt before. I had no idea the impact it had on her, and we were ecstatic to find out. She was so set in her Church before, but due to that experience with the Spirit she is now doubting that her church is the true church because she has never tried anything different. The whole family is reading and praying to know its true, so please please pray for them. We had a few more lessons with them, one of them we showed them how to make rice krispy treats, which they love, and shared a message about church and invited them to church. They had reasons why they couldn’t attend but I think if we extend the invitation a little earlier in the week and really show them why its important they will attend with us. I keep wanting to write assist with us because to attend is asistir in Spanish. My English will be awful when I return I can feel it. Anyway we also watched the restoration with them and the spirit was very strong. I started to ask them how they felt after the video and they said really good. They said they could see that he was just a boy that wanted to know the truth not some guy who started a church for money. I forgot to mention we brought a member with us to this lesson, who then went on to ruin the lesson. He thinks he is very smart and at this moment where the spirit was very strong, he went on to talk about the 3 pillars of the gospel and how we have what other churches don’t. We were very frustrated, so my point is, if you are ever helping the missionaries just help them how they want you to. The family is still going strong though and we have high hopes for them. Sorry that was extremely ADD Im rushing and my emails come out jumbled and confusing so I hope you can piece that together.
Anyways we have another family, the Ignacio Family, that is progressing as well, and the thing is they attended church! This felt really good because getting people to attend church has been so hard for us. They really liked church and the primary program, and are really praying to know this is true. The fact that they are keeping commitments shows their desire and we are hoping to talk about baptism this week and set a goal for baptism with them because they are really good people. They have a kid though who is literally insane. Parents here don’t discipline their kids, they just give them what they want and smack them on the head when they misbehave, as a result the kids are spoiled. Our biggest problem with the Ignacio Family right now is their kid Josue. He walks up to his parents while we are talking and tells them to stop talking and starts yelling, making it impossible for the spirit to be there. We are going to start bringing candy and stuff for drawing to keep him occupied. Speaking of kids, our cook Moroni fed his one year old Coke out of the bottle the other day, needless to say, parenting is a tad different here.
Anyways it was a good week, I'm sad that I might leave tomorrow, I will find out tonight if I will be emailing you in another place next Monday. I really want to see my investigators progress and be baptized but chances are that I will leave just with how the training zones work here. Anyways Hector I need your address could someone send that to me via email? I have a letter for you big guy.
I miss you all and love you!
-Ben



Mormon - Mormons

Mormon - Mormons

Monday, October 11, 2010

October 11, 2010

Hey everybody!
The title is my companions new favorite phrase in english. Its hilarious.
First off to answer Moms questions, The rainy season seems as if it's over but technically it stops when November starts. The weather is beautiful right now though. Also Elder Tarax is from Guatemala, just another City and has 9 months in his mission. He's easy to get along with but of course gets frustrated as everyone does sometimes, so some random times he just acts weird and I don’t why and he doesn’t like to tell me, but always within a little bit hes back to his happy self. Sometimes we have a difference in opinion on how to execute our schedule and that can be awkward but its never been a big problem.
So this week was great. We taught a lot which was good and felt good. I would say the coolest thing that happened was that the date was 10/10/10. I was thinking about the days when I used to celebrate stuff like that in elementary school, and thought that’s how life should be. We should be able to find any excuse to party and make a huge cake in the shape of the number 10. After that thought, I wanted that exact cake and a fork. Also in that moment I realized I was in a road with a starving ugly dog sniffing my shoes. I think he wanted that cake as well.
Just kidding that wasn’t the coolest thing. The most amazing thing hands down was that we were able to have a family home evening with the family of Jose O.. His wife has been stubbornly opposed to hearing our message so we thought we would invite her to have a family home evening with us in a more casual setting. To our surprise she accepted and we had a family home evening with the ENTIRE family. This was huge step. We shared a short message about the importance of families, played a game, and had rice krispy treats (which I happened to make, yes I have become a pro at those, do they have a profession for that?). They have a great tight knit family and we made great strides in gaining the trust of the wife of Jose (Telma). She has now agreed to hear more (tonight) and we have high hopes for their family. Something not so good happened with the Florez Chavez family. We had a lesson with him where he talked for 20 minutes about how the Book of Mormon was true, but that the Koran was also true, and Buddah was also a prophet. The family is great but theyre not going anywhere so we decided to drop them. I was bummed but they have their agency so there is no use in continuing to sit through his lectures on our dogma of faith (his favorite phrase). Maybe he will come around one day. Rubi as well is not progressing, she wont keep commitments and is starting to be flaky about lessons. We really have hope for her and her family though so were going to continue to pray and work with here because she has a sincere desire for the truth.
Another item of interest is that we have our first changes next week and everyone tells me that Im going to leave just because we opened a new area, and they need my trainer to stay and that a lot of new missionaries are coming in so I will probably leave. Im going to be bummed to leave this area for sure. A missions weird. Youre asked to work with and get close to a certain people and right when you feel as if you are accomplishing that goal many times you are asked to leave. But, at the same time a new area is exciting, so well see what happens. I might know by next email I might not.
Anyway we have some new investigators I'm excited about but Ive decided I'll just write you about my progressing ones because a lot of them have potential until the second lesson that doesn’t happen because they don’t want anymore to do with it. Im learning more every week and miss everyone! I love you all, but would love you all more if you were latinos and had mustaches.
Love,
-Ben

Some random pictures out tracting...enjoying the great weather!


Friday, October 8, 2010

Elder Pearson is green, but happy!


Elder Pearson with President and Sister Baldwin...his mission President and mission mother

Ben and his Provo MTC companion, Elder Morgan...he loves this man!

Ben with all of the new missionaries with their trainers ready to head out to their new areas!

All of the new missionaries after meeting with President Baldwin

Rice, Beans, meat and tortillas....yummm!

Ben lives somewhere in this area...where I don't really know!

Elder Pearson and Elder Tarax in front of the baptismal font

Elder Pearson, Elder Tarax, and newly baptized Susie with her children...she looks so happy!