Zarahemla Week 35

Exchanges with Elder Torres 

 Another week has gone by here in Zarahemla! We have transfer calls this Saturday, so I'm anxious to see what happens. I don't know what to expect, but if I leave it'll probably be the last change I have in the mission field which is kind of crazy! We'll see what happens! Anyway, we had an amazing week, here are some highlights.

Leonardo's baptism!

Leonardo's baptism went very well! He was so happy and excited to be baptized. He was one of the readiest people I've ever met! He bore testimony after, and he just seemed like a seasoned member already... But he's only been going to church for about 2 months! How crazy! Another cool thing, he was baptized on Saturday, confirmed on Sunday, and then he went teaching with us yesterday! He was so good! He testified, shared personal expériences, taught doctrine; he was basically a missionary! It was so cool to be able to see, easily something I will never forget. We're preparing him to receive the Priesthood and go to the temple soon, so we hope that that works out!

Celebrating Leonardo's baptism with a traditional
Guetemalteca meal at the Family De Leon's house

We have been teaching these two young people named Francisco and Moisés, who are doing so well. They love the Book of Mormon! We just started teaching them last week, and they are great. When we talked about the Book of Mormon, it was just so crazy how they understood the purpose and need for it SO fast and SO well! They love it! We were able to give both of them baptismal dates for the 18th of May. They have a while to go until that point, but if they keep up at this pace, they will be doing great! The Lord has really just been blessing us with so many people who are prepared, humble, and are honestly seeking the truth. It's been so humbling!

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders again, and I got to have another exchange with Elder Torres! It was awesome! We were able to get a lot of work done, and see some cool miracles together. I introduced him to Shwarma which he loved. It was a lot of fun!

Things are great here, and we are having fun! Again, anxious to see what happens with transfers, but I know that whatever happens it is what the Lord needs to happen! I love you all so much, have an amazing week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 27

I got to go on exchanges again with Elder Torres!
We went on exchanges in Zarahemla over one year ago.
It was super cool to recap how we've changed over that past year!

We had an amazingly interesting week! After last P day we got hit with a MASSIVE snow storm. About half a meter of snow fell in less than 6 hours! It was absolutely insane! 

The snow was crazy! The picture doesn't give it justice,
but it was super bad. The busses were so slow!

Besides that, we saw many, many miracles, and the Lord taught us some unexpected lessons. We had lots of success!

About one of the unexpected lessons we learned this week… Last week we found 4 new people to teach, which was pretty good, but we knew that we could find much more this week. So, we set the goal at the beginning of the week to find 10 people. We had lots of faith that we could see miracles and find each one of those 10 people to teach, and we started out working very hard. And, in the first 4 days of the week, we found 1 person. We still knew it was possible, and we still had faith and were working hard to see those miracles, but it just didn't come for some reason. And then, on Friday, I got really sick. I felt so bad, and I just had to rest for a little bit, so I napped for about 2 hours in the middle of the day on Friday, and then on Saturday I napped for another 3 hours. I couldn't talk to anyone on the bus or metros since I felt so out of it, we just had to take it very easy. They were probably the least effective days of my whole mission. But, despite that, we saw SO many miracles. A Mexican couple (we didn't know) invited us over to eat Mole (A Mexican chicken dish), and we were able to teach both of them and a friend that they invited. We also went to pass by someone, and there were 5 Mexican people we had never met before, and they all sat down and accepted us to teach them for 40 minutes. Another Mexican family (I have no idea why we're finding so many Mexicans, but I'm not complaining!) essentially dropped out of the sky and we were able to teach them on Saturday as well. It was crazy, we were able to find 11 people. It was clear to me that the Lord was trying to teach us something. It was easy to see that this work is not ours. Although we are required to work for it, the success we see comes directly from God. He decides to bless us with success. We worked hard at the beginning of the week, and we saw nothing. We didn't work at all at the end of the week, and we saw countless miracles. Sometimes we don't understand His ways, but that's where the faith comes in. We are to work hard, regardless of what results we see. It's the Lord's harvest, not ours. (and I am feeling much better though now!)

Joji was baptized!

Other than that, we are doing great! Daniel is still progressing well, although it's hard to see him often since he works a lot. But he has lots of desire to improve, and is keeping all of the commitments we are leaving him. He's very humble! Luis, who we found a few weeks ago, is also progressing well. We were also able to visit him (when I was sick as well!) and we had an awesome lesson with him! He accepted a baptismal date! He came to church again and loved it, and is progressing very fast. Although we can only see him once a week due to his work and studies, he's progressing very fast! We're seeing so much success and lots of people are progressing toward baptism. It's harvest time in Zarahemla!

Also, I forgot to mention last week, Joji got baptized! I was able to go which was fun, he was really happy. I'll attach the picture from the baptism!

Things are going well again, as always. Missionary work is the best. It's been awesome being able to see all these miracles; the Lord is constantly reminding us to be humble and know that it's His work and that He is in control. It's awesome to be able to be a part of it!

I love you each a ton. Have a great week!

Elder James