Three letters in one post!

Muy bueños tardes mis amigos,

I will procede to answer the questions of my dear mother. Yes, I am writing in my journal almost everyday, but it is hard sometimes, because we always come back exhausted. I´ve been waking up early because there is always a million things to do. And YES! I got my valentines day package (finally) I think it was in the office for awhile and they didn´t have an excuse to come to Amatitlan. So just know that I´ve already eaten all the candy and it was incredibly delicious. Now I just want more. But, it´s better that I don´t have it and that I drink more of my vegetable juice (the best way I have found to get my daily dose of vegetables). Am I going to start getting the old man jokes that Dad always gets? I don´t even care, that stuff is good. Also, we always watch conference live here in our mission so, I am extremely excited for that. Also Brad and Michelle, I was able to send your small little envelope, so be excited.

So I have a lot to cover in a very short period of time, so here I go. This week was very good. We were able to have a conference with Elder Falabella of the 70. He was born here in Guatemala (¡puro chapin! as they say) and is incredible. He taught us about agency and said something very interesting. The only way we can ever hope to become like our Father in Heaven is to get to the point where have the same amount of freedom that he has, and the only way to get this amount of freedom, is by choosing to be obedient to his commandments. Interesting thought. Anyways, at one point he was telling us his advice for baptizing more families, because as we all know this is the best way to grow the church in any given area. He asked everyone who was going to baptize a fmaily this month. My companion and I raised our hands. He called us up (of course). He began to interrogate me in front of a third of the mission what it was that I had planned for the baptism and how I was going to find more families through the baptismal service. This was my first baptismal service as a senior companion mind you. So after being officially intimidated (don´t worry I passed the evaluation okay, I´m not being sent home) he gave me some advice and committed me to do it. Then, he gave me a side hug, making it all worth it. So yes I recieved a side hug from one of the 70.

Anyways in the week we were printing invitations, making a million calls, and running around doing everything we could think of to make sure the baptism went well after being verbally committed by one of the seventy. We thought everything was well prepared but learned a little bit about the Guatemalan culture as we arrived at the chruch building for the baptism. What I learned is that those who come, come about 30 minutes late (including the bishopric) and the majority don´t come at all. This was disappointing, but what was worse is that Marcos (the father of the family) couldn´t come due to work and told about 10 mintues after the baptism had started over the phone. The family got there about 20 minutes later and they still wanted to go through with the baptisms. He will get baptized this Saturday but it was sad that he couldn´t be there.

Anyways after all was said and done the baptismal service was great with an incredible spirit there. The Olivares family is made up of the parents, Marcos and Blanca, and 2 children, Marvin (who is married to Gloria with 3 children of their own) and Karla. Marvin and Gloria and their family were baptized last year, so Marvin already has the priesthood. The spirit was so strong as he gave thanks to his mom with tears in his eyes for all those years that she took him to church, and told of how grateful he was for the opportunity he had to baptize her and finally give something back. The baptism afterwards was something very special for the family and everyone that was present. Elder Cruz then baptized Karla, and I will be baptizing Marcos this Saturday. They both bore testimony afterwards and although Blanca doesn´t understand everything perfectly, she has a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and it could be felt as she told about her conviction and belief in these truths. I hope all goes well this Saturday and that the family can be completed and in a year sealed together. They all come from pretty rough backgrounds and it always impresses me to see the change that happens in peoples lives.

So to finish I want to tell you about something that happened last night that will make Mom proud. I have never been so tired in a lesson. I was sitting there teaching and it hit me hard. I was fighting the whole lesson to stay awake and was doing very well. I asked if we could end with a prayer and he asked me to offer it. I thought, ¨good I can just pray and we can leave which will wake me up.¨ Nope. In the very middle of the prayer I fell asleep. I only fell asleep for about 5 seconds but it was long enough to make me forget absolutely everyhting that was going on. I realized shortly after that we were praying but didn´t know who was praying. I opened my eyes and saw everyone folding their arms. No one was talking so I assumed I was praying. I thought ¨What in the world was I just saying?¨ Nothing came to my mind. So what I did, which is very embarrassing, was I muttered ¨sorry¨ and started over. It´s funny now but very uncomfortable in the moment.

Anyways I´m still loving life here in this area and will let you know how everyhting went next week. I love you guys!

-Ben

Hello!
Mom´s questions: Yes Mom, we only speak english at nights. Maybe I should do it in the morning too. My companion actually knows quite a bit of English, but he doesn´t like to ask me about what is right he just talks back to me. Asking questions is crucial when learning a language but I think it really does help him talking. Whenever we are walking I quiz him about his english by asking him what he would do if he was Superman and stuff like that. I laughed when he said in his latino accent ¨I would punch many faces.¨ Correct, and when translated actually sounds fine, but when said in english is very funny. So he´s a good sport about that.

So this week was incredible. I´ve never worked so hard, but it was all worth it because we had a great week. It was nuts. We were running from lesson to lesson and sprinting up 132 steps (my companion counted) at one point. The members are really helping us out and I really feel as if the Lord is blessing us here in this area. They were able to give us a couple of references this week, with one of them being a complete family (let´s hope that goes well). Unity in a companionship makes all the difference. We have been able to maintain the baptismal dates with the Olivares family, and I think everything will go according to plan. Hopefully in the next weeks email I will be able to write you about the baptisms. To answer your other question Mom, they can only meet on the weekends so we had to FLY through 2 of the lessons yesterday and saturday which I don´t like to do, but the family is set on being baptized this saturday. Their other daughter as well is going to be baptized. Let´s hope all goes well.

So I´ll let you know a little bit about the random stuff that is going on here. First off I think I´m getting a nice layer of tortilla fat over my otherwise 8 pack set of abs (who am I kidding I never had an 8 pack). Considering all they eat here is tortillas rice and some form of meat, it is hard to keep off weight due to the sheer amout of carbs we eat. Also the cream they always put on the eggs and beans doesn´t help either. The good news is that it is mango season and I´m taking advantage of it. I LOVE mangos and a large mango is about 36 cents. Guatemala is great. I also have really become a fan of fried platanos (is it plantains in english? that sounds vaguely familiar) as well and cook those every once an awhile.

So did anyone get Ryan Bogg´s adress? I would love to get that.

Anyways everything is going very well. We have been able to work hard and are really seeing the results of our work which is very gratifying. We have a member who holds free english classes and then just gives us references. We went one day this week and I taught a lesson in english just to ¨help them hear it for real¨ when really he is just trying to spark interest in the church. I realized I was saying some things very wrong due to the fact that I have only taught in spanish for the past 8 months. So much for that English minor I was thinking about... I felt very cool because they were all extremely impressed with my english. I´m glad they didn´t realize that some of the things I said were absolutely terrible english. I´ll just let them go on thinking that this good looking gringo (anyone who is white here is beautiful) was speaking perfectly.

I love this work and I´m trying to do my best. I´m not perfect, but I hope that I´m doing a good job here in this ward and we will see what happens in the rest of this change. Elder Cruz is very patient with me even though I´m sure I make mistakes considering this is my first time doing this, so that helps. This church is true never forget that. God has given us the opportunity to have what everyone in the world needs, and the means to become someone we never otherwise could become. I love this gospel and know it is the truth. I love you all and will write again next week!

-Ben

Hey everybody!
To start off I will do the weekly question session. To Michelle: My companion is from Honduras and is awesome. I will talk a little more about what´s going in in this email. Mom: I´m not really craving anything... just american candy bars are always incredible. Also in the next ¨big¨package that you send, whenever it will be (don´t make another package just due these requests please haha) I would love that bleach pen, CD´s (Ipod´s aren´t allowed here), and socks. Good socks like I have. If you could only send gray that would be good. My shoes are good and so are my clothes I´ll let you know if I need anything else. Thanks Mom! You are great.

Also, JADEN CONGRATS ON THE CALL! You´ll be a good missionary man, just ask Dan on how to speak in French. He gave us some good lessons on the Snowbird lift one day. It was hilarious. Also to everyone that hasn´t recieved a letter from me please notify my Mom, I´ve been really bad about writing becfuase it is really hard to find time and I would like to get that organized. Sorry!

Now I have to fly. This week has been amazing. It is still weird being Senior Comp and I´m learning a lot, but my life has just been so much more happy with someone who is willing to work and wants to improve and do better, not just stick with what we are doing and blame everything on good or bad luck. Elder Cruz is very shy, but has a good sense of humor and he is really coming out of his shell with me. I really think we´re going to have a great one or two changes together (let´s hope two). We´re working hard and we have a lot to improve of course, but I´m very happy right now with the way things are going. It´s incredible how much different the work is when there is a compnanionship with the same goals. There´s always differences of course, but he´s willing to work with that, and it really has been a great change.

What´s even better is that we we´re able to set two baptismal dates! It´s with two parents of some recent converts, and with these baptisms the family will be complete. It´s the Olivares Family and they are great. They are an couple and both of them are probably in their 50´s and they come from a evangelist church background (like 80% of Guatemala). When I first met them I was a little worried because they have a hard time understanding the basic doctrine of the church. Because of this we decided to review Joseph Smith and the Restoration and the line of authority. We went through this and whether it is because of their background or lack of education, not much sticks that we teach. It was going like this until we got to the end and asked them if they had prayed about these things. What they told us surprised me (and taught me a lot about not assuming based on knowledge). They wife told me that around the time she started with the missionaries she had prayed and specifically asked for a dream. Not the usual approach but what happend after was incredible. She said that in that night she had a dream, where a person dressed in all white was telling her to come. She said no that she couldn´t, but he continued to tell her to come. She said that she woke up knowing this was her answer, and even though she might not understand everything that we teach she knows this is true, and this is the church that she will stay in till the end of her life. Her husband said he had felt this was true as well. It taught me a lot about not judging and making sure that they are praying to know for themselves, and no matter who it is, intelligent, unintelligent, rich or poor, they can recieve a testimony of this gospel. Anyways I don´t really have time, but they will be baptized the 19th we are hoping. It´s been a great week and I´m really happy here. I love you guys and will hear from you soon!

.Ben

New companion, New Area!

Group Picture...I assume his district along with the stray dogs!

Ben with Elder Martinez, Jorge and Dorian on the day

of their baptisms! (I don't know which boy

is which because Ben didn't specify)

Hey Piercing Family,

If I was a Guatemalan right now I would be chuckling at the seeming similarity between the last name of Pearson and the word piercing. But I´m not so I´m not. But seriously, I get that all the time haha. It´s funny to me that they find it so funny. I love this place.

So anyway, the news is in. I had changes and am now in Linda Vista in the area of Amatitlan with a new companion from Honduras, Elder Cruz. I was made Senior Companion which I wasn´t expecting and am slightly nervous about haha, but I´m learning as always. I´m very excited to be with Elder Cruz. He is the complete opposite of Elder Martinez. He is very humble and very quiet, but wants to work hard. It´s cool because he entered with me, so there is the cool mix of two people figuring things out instead of an older missionary just making all of the decisions.

So for the area. The ward here is very strong and I had the strangest feeling of deja vu entering the ward. I felt as if I was coming from Ohio and coming to Grandma and Grandpa´s ward in Utah because everyone was a returned missionary, there´s many generational families, and everyone is just a big mormon family. It´s such a different dynamic compared to my old ward so I have some adjusting to do. I´m used to having more of the responsibilty in the ward because many people don´t follow through, but now I just feel unrelied on haha. Anyways I hope I adjust quickly.

Being senior companion is weird. It is more of a learn how to do missionary work on your own thing, instead of just giving suggestions to your older companion. It´s a good learning experience though and I´m trying to do what I can to learn the area quickly and start applying some of the things I would have loved to do in my other area. The investigators here don´t have great potential so we´ll see.

I was mostly sad to leave the other area because of Beatriz. She was crying when I told her I was leaving which actually surprised me a lot, but it made me sad that I wasn´t going to be able to see her baptism.

Well I will write more next week of course but I love you!

-Ben

Hey family, friends, and friends of my mom,

This week was alright, pretty uneventful. One moment that was really incredible was with our investigator Beatriz. Last night as we were discussing some doubts about the plan of salvation, it just felt right to avoid the doubts she was having and change the topic to baptism. She has been hearing us for some time now and always has questions, not questions to fight, but she is sincerely concerned about what the true doctrine is. She´s awesome. Anyways, I told her that we could answer her questions a little later, but that I wanted to ask her something. I asked her if she believed this was the only true and living church of Christ on the earth today. She told us yes. I asked her to explain what the true church of Christ means for her. She went on to tell us that it was like she was in a neighborhood into which had moved her family, but she didn´t know in which house they lived. She said that in this neighborhood there were many good houses which had a lot of good people, but none of them were her family. She told us that it is as if she has finally found the house with her family, and she can now know how it is that she can have salvation.

Salvation is something incredibly important for her, and she reminds me that it is incredibly true that many are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. It´s frustrating that she can´t attend church because her mom tells her she needs to watch the little store in the market because SHE is attending church at that time. We told her that we can talk with her mom, and she said she will do the same, but her parents are very opposed to their daughter being in another church. The other thing is that she and Alsidez aren´t married, but with how she reads and prays, I really don´t think any of this will be a problem. It might take a little more time, but I really believe she will be baptized sooner or later.

Something that you might find interesting, or something that I´ve been thinking about lately is the culture here in Guatemala. They are an extremely god-fearing people. Some missionaries take that and they use the extremely strong scriptures that say you will go to hell if you don´t do this, or that you´ll be cast out if you do this, etc. I´m not saying that we should never use strong scriptures, but scaring people into go to church is not the way I feel it should be done (see the verses about the sabbath in Numbers, many missionaries LOVE this scripture). I feel as if this is part of the reason retention can be a problem here. This is all my opinion mind you, maybe there has been an incredible conversion due to one of these scriptures, but from my experience I´ve seen that those who act out of their own desire to find the truth and do what is right are those who stay in the church. This goes for those who are baptized because the missionaries are their good buddies, they have a girlfriend in the church, etc. I´ve been thinking a lot lately about how important it is that these people have a desire to know, and then act because of that desire instead of coming in for social reasons. Just a thought and something that can be found often in Guatemala for anyone who is interested.

Anyway, changes are Wednesday, and they will let us know tonight. I´m trying not to guess, but we will see what happens and you will obviously know next week. I love you all! Thanks for the love and support you always give me, and I hope you got your little envelope Mom!

-Ben

No time!

So.... I was preoccupied with other emails so I have almost no time but I have the best keyboard that I have had yet in Guatemala here at this internet cafe so I´m going to fly. This also means my english will be even worse then usual. You have permission to make fun of me.

So this week was a bit strange. While I´m not going to say anymore about my companion because that doesn´t help anything just know that he is trying to completely leave me out of the work at this point. Very frustrating but I´m trying to deal with it without getting frustrated or mad, because I´m really trying to do everything I can. So I´m happy and hanging in there! Changes are next week so we´ll see what happens. Anyways the reason this week was weird was because there were 3 church records that were lost from about 10 years ago so we need to teach and baptize 3 teenagers again in the ward. We have new investigators with baptismal dates, and so it looks like we are having a lot success right now but in reality we´re just doing administrative business. The truth is we have been left with very little after the baptisms but have found a lot of potential investigators this week, with a few of them being families, so I hope that some of them progress.

The family of Beatriz and Alsidez (I think I told you about them if not let me know and I will tell you how we found them) told us this whole week that they were going to attend church. We went to their house in the morning and they had ¨gone to the market¨ in the morning which means they were in the house and didn´t want to come. I don´t understand because Beatriz has said that she knows this is true and wants to be a part of the true church, but doesn´t want to go to chruch. Alsidez is already a member if I didn´t mention that and has been inactive for years, but has said he wants to return so we´ll see. I think it might have to do with the fact that they are both very logical people and she said this was true before having prayed. She has yet to pray and just tells us when we ask her about her prayers that she already knows its true and tries to avoid the question. There is such a difference between knowing the church is true logically, and really feeling it, because a deep understanding of these things only comes from a witness, and this is when behavior changes.

Anyways, it was pretty uneventful, although Jorge is so amazing. He has been going out with us and always talks about a mission. He reads every day and has shared what he thought about the Joseph Smith History and the chapter he is in at the time. He really is a special person that was prepared for this gospel and I am so grateful to have been involved with his baoptism. I have to go but I love you all and will talk to you soon!

Hello friends and family,

So this week was mas o menos as said in Spanish (the topic of combining languages in fresh on my mind as I just has a very long conversation with my friend Elder Tebbs about how we dislike the mixing of 2 languages, lets keep spanish spanish and english english) and I don´t have many notable things to write. First off I want to say that I laughed out loud at the mic-check that I heard as I passed by an evangelical church yesterday. He wasn't saying ¨check 1 2¨ or anything even close, what he was saying as he was tuning his electric guitar was ¨ Aleluya, aleluya, Dios poderoso, Dios poderoso¨ poderoso means powerful. The thing is though he was saying as casually as any other mic check in a concert. Churches here are nuts. Before singing a hymn with a new investigator the other day he asked us, ¨Oh you sing hymns sitting down?¨ As he lowered himself back down into the chair (yes he had started to get up when we said we were going to sing a hymn). People trust their pastors so much it´s crazy. Some people say, ¨I would like to read your Book but I have to ask my pastor first.¨ Generally I´m almost positive that the pastor won´t have anything good to say about it.

Anyways I promised a little of Dorian´s conversion story. He was what they call an ayudante (helper) for the buses which is the person who hangs out the bus door yelling the destination when the bus is traveling down the road at 50 miles an hour. I love to think about how many laws the buses here would break in America. Anyways in his job as an ayudante, he met his current girlfriend Ledy Gonzalez, who little by little introduced him to the church. He had always read and loved the bible but had never joined with any church, and become very interested in the church, very unusual for someone in his job and his lifestyle (the schedule of an aydante is crazy and it´s not a very good atmosphere). He started to want to go to church but couldn´t because of his job. At this time he also lived with some people very strong in their evangelical church which made it hard to be openely interested in our church. He started to pray to find a new job and be able to find a new house to live in. This is all before we started talking to him.

The grandpa of Ledy soon after offered Dorian a job, and he was able to find a better house for less money. This is where we entered and within 3 lessons he had committed to baptism. He quickly caught interest with the temple and baptisms for the dead, because as we later found out, both his parents in Nicaragua had died and he came to Guatemala just to get away from everything. He wants as soon as possible to do the work for his parents in the temple and is really becoming quickly an impressive member of the church. It really is interesting to see how he has changed from the life he had before and always reminds me of why were here. It also reminds me that most the success we have happens with people have experience with the church before they talk to the missionaries. The Lord works in incredible ways and stories like this always motivate me to keep going.

Other than that, I´m doing well. Things with my companion are still hard, he has told me he refuses to change and that he is just waiting for a new companion at this point, but I´ve really been able to get to the point of feeling a peace in all of this, knowing that I´m trying my hardest, and I obviously I can always improve, but I really feel as if I´m trying my best. He just has a hard time trusting or listening to anybody, and decides for himself what is right instead of listening to the counsel of our leaders. He´s a good kid that comes from a rough background, and so I´m trying, but I´m not seeing progress. We´ll see what happens.

I love you all and I´m trying to do my best. Thank you for all your prayers and support. It was so good to hear from the Finks and Katie. You guys rock and will be recieving letters soon.

-Ben