Oct 26, 2015

     This week was pretty insane to be honest with you. We had a lot going on but it was a week full of blessings and miracles. Okay so on Monday we went and made Baliadas as a distict in Nueva Santa Rosa. We were going to play soccer with the youth of the branch but it rained all day and when I say all day I'm not joking. It didn't stop raining at all which sucked because I got super wet and it was pretty stinkin cold as well so I was really cold.  Tuesday was when the fun began. As I'm sure you already know, this week we got signed up as translators for this medical group that came from New York. We started working with them Tuesday and it was amazing. It was so much fun to be there with them blessing the lives of hundreds of people using the gifts God has given me. We were there all day,  even though we were only planning on being there until noon, but Amy Balog showed up and started crying and convinced us to stay. She even convinced President to let us stay all day every day of the week. Wednesday we were only there half day becuase we had to go to on couple of visits in the afternoon. But both those days we started working super late but still had a really good day. Thursday we had interviews with President Caffaro, which went really well. He told us we were the best organized zone and everything went really smoothly. All the missionaries showed up on time and everything was great. The interviews did go super long and we didn't finish until like 4:00 and that day we had to do divisions, so it was a lot of sitting around and some more translating but this time for Hermana Caffaro, but hey I got extra brownies. President gave us his camera during the interviews and told us to take a bunch of pictures to go in the Christmas slideshow and my comp went crazy with the camera. He took a ton of pictures and President was super happy about that. That day we got to work really late as well and then we had a crazy lesson with Daniel but I'm not going to go into details about that one. Friday was the last day of the Clinic which was really sad.  It was pretty hard to say goodbye to all those people knowing I'll probably never see them again, and they gave us a ton of peanut butter so I love them to death. Friday we did divisions again which was interesting. I was with a greenie that has daddy issues so we had to sort through all that and ya. Saturday  we didn't do much because it was raining and my comp was sick. Sunday  was amazing we had 10 investigators in Sacrament meeting which was a huge blessing since we didn't work at all this week. 

     This week I've been ponderizing Mosiah 23:10, which is a great scripture. It really taught me about the importance of our trials and the ways they can help us change and grow if you read the verse you also have to read D&C 58:3 and 4 because they really add onto it. 

Sounds like you had a pretty packed week getting ready for Halloween and all that jazz. Everyone in Guatemala hates Halloween because they say in a Satanic holiday and a bunch of crap like that.  Hope you have a great week and love you all . Love Connor

There are so many pictures this week and per the usual, Con didn't tell me who anyone was.  I put them on here mostly for him when he gets home. 

                                                            Medical Group

Elder Call Elder Ortiz Elder Gudiel Elder Wright Elder Martinez

                                                               Interviews with Presi

Elder Simoni Elder Larimar 

Elder Gudiel Elder Wright Elder Daly Elder ortiz Elder Call Elder Martinez

Elder Gudiel Sister Caffaro Elder Call Elder Martinez

Elder Gudiel Elder and Sister Daly

Elder Gudiel Elder Baloy

Elder Baloy Elder Gudiel 

Elder Gudiel Sister Caffaro 

Zona Cuilapa 

Zona Cuilapa 

The one person that celebrates Halloween in Guatemala

Bonus

Hello everyone,

I wanted to send a long some wonderful words and a picture of your amazing missionary sons.

I am a member of the church from New York. I am a volunteer with the Glens Falls Hospital Medical mission. Twice a year our group goes to Santa Rosa and provides a clinic for the community. We offer a woman's, pediatric, general health, and a dentist clinic. We bring in thousands of dollars of medicines as well as medical care. The medical mission has been going to Santa Rosa for almost 15 years. Our team goes down to Santa Rosa twice a year.

For all of these years, missionaries have been coming to the clinic to be translators. The missionaries have been helping to provide service for those in the area who cannot and so not have the ability to receive medical care.

Your sons this week came to our clinic and provided priceless service to the community. The medical providers in our team were in awe of your sons. They were amazing and great examples. Many of the team members in the clinic were amazed at  how obedient and hard working your sons were.

You all have amazing and wonderful sons. They blessed us all this week and provided priceless service to a group of people whose lives depend on the care and medicine they received this week.

I am sending a picture in an email to follow because I forgot to attach it to this email after I typed it all up!!

Sincerely,
Amy Balog

Oct 19 2015

     Well this week has been pretty crazy and super fast. But we saw a ton of blessings this week in new investigators and fechas, so it was also a fantastic week. To answer your question mom, we are the only two that live in our house. I have no clue why we have more beds. As for the crazy sister its all taken care of now and she's doing a lot better but there were some serious problems there. 

     I already told you about last Monday so I don't need to go over that again. At night we headed out and did all that missionary stuff like teach and contact. Tuesday we woke up really early and headed out for Guazacapan to do a little workshop in their district meeting, which went really well. We pretty much went and told them they needed to repent and work harder. After we gave the talk, we realized it was probably a little bit hard and that maybe we should have tuned it down a little bit but I think it worked really well. After that, we had a little talk with the sisters  about their plans to fix their relationship with the members and as a companionship. It went really well and the sisters made us lunch, so I guess they don't hate us. After that, we worked super hard and had a couple of lessons but Tuesday we were in our hardest sector and so its always kind of a rough day. Wednesday we went to the other two districts and did the same thing we did in Guazacapan only this time we did tone it down a bit so it wasn't so hard. That day we did divisions too. I was with Elder Austin in our area and Elder Austin is crazy and loves to talk so it was a pretty fun day. We put two fechas for the 31 of this month with the investigator that had the accident like two months ago. He's going to get baptized the 31 with his girlfriend and his 3 kids, so its going to be a pretty great day. They are our miracle baptisms this month because for awhile we thought we weren't going to baptize anybody but then they came back out of nowhere and are going to get baptized. Thursday we had divisions too but this time it was with the assistants so it was a pretty big deal. I was with Elder Zuleta in my area yet again. We had a pretty rough day, all the visits we had planned fell and we had to contact all day but we did find some super awesome investigators and had a super spiritual lesson with Marco Antonio and Jessica. The hermana was crying at the end of the lesson and we put fechas with them too. Friday we were working in the hard section again but we still had a pretty good day. Saturday was amazing. My comp had some converts that were getting sealed in the temple and so we got to go. We got to the capital super early because there was no traffic and so we waited around for awhile and then went into the sealing. It was such a cool experience. The spirit in the sealing room was so strong and you just knew you were in the house of the Lord. The joy on the faces of the family after they got sealed was so amazing. You could just feel the spirit so strong. After the sealing they took us to papa jons and we ate some really good pizza. When we got back to the area we had a pretty rough day because we had to go to branch council and wasted a ton of time there but still. Sunday it rained all day so almost nobody came to church which was pretty depressing, but we still saw miracles. We put a fecha with another person and then found a bunch of really amazing people. I was so tired all day though there were only like 2 days I actually slept until 630 so my body was just done.

                                                                    Lasts P-day and the Sealing

Elder Gudiel Elder Call Elder Martinez Elder Ortiz Elder Wright. 

Elder Austin

           Peanut butter and Jelly!!!!!! Ive eaten like 20 sandwiches this week. they're soooooo good!

                                     Super awesome pics of me and my comp. Love this kid so much.

Oct 12, 2015

     Okay first off why is Chase always and I mean always wearing my super man shirt in the pictures you send me. Are you guys like "This pic is going to Connor, Chase go put on the super man shirt," or what. Anyway today's been pretty crazy. We had to go into the cap in the morning to get a new telephone for the sisters in an area but that's a really long story that I'll tell you later. But it has been a super good day. We went to the office and got to talk to all the Elders there about all the stuff that's happening in the mission which is always fun. After that we went to Carl's Jr which was really good. We got to go because our district earned a district p-day which means we completed  the vision of the mission which is two baptisms in every area every month. After Carls Jr. we went to price mart which is Gutaemalas version of Sam Club. Well I guess its more like Cosco. I only bought some peanut butter and jam and bread and my comp bought frozen burritos so we're pretty much set for the next couple weeks. But anyway this week has been pretty fun. Monday we went and played soccer with the elders in Cuilapa, Elder Simoni, my old comp and elder Curi. It was fun but I sweated a ton. Tuesday we had a zone council that went really well.  We shared an amazingly inspirational message and then did divisions with Guazacapan. Wednesday,  we had a study with the sisters in Chiquimulia and did divis with Taxisco, the hottest area in the mission, and I got to go there! Sweated my guts out again but we had a really good day and I was able to buy pizza which was awesome. Thursday was divisi again and I got to be with Elder Simoni, which was fun but kind of weird. He's changes a ton since I was with him, hes going to finish his mission soon.  I honestly can't remember what we did Friday so I guess nothing great happened.  Saturday was pretty crazy. We were only able to work from two to five and only got one lesson in. It was with that investigator that was in the hospital, he's doing great now and he's going to get baptized soon. At 5 we had a meeting with the second councilor in the branch which was pretty much a waste of time because we didn't get anything done. After that we spent the last two hours of the day passing by for everyone we wanted to go to church. While we were doing that we got a call about one of the sisters in C, where there district leader told us the all the members hate this one sister and are saying they won't go to church until she leaves. He told us a whole bunch of stories about how she'd hit a member and she was always fighting with her comp and a bunch of other stuff and to add to it the sisters phone was broken so we couldn't talk to them about it. We called president and he sent his councilor to talk to them and we're going to see whats up tomorrow.  Sunday was pretty rough. My comp was really frustrated and grumpy but I was feeling really good and happy and eventually it infected him too so now all is well.  Love you guys a ton and think about you always. Love Connor

This is our house but it was really dirty, don't worry we've cleaned it since the picture was taken.

Oct 5 2015

   Well sounds like y'all had a pretty interesting week. My week was pretty crazy to be honest with ya but it was still fantastic. Monday  was pretty sweet, in the morning we wrote and did the normal stuff and then for lunch we hooked up with a bunch of other missionaries and went to Pollo Campero and ate a ton of food. My comp and I had a little bit of extra money left over at the end of the month so we went big and bought 4 wings for the two of us and a member. We decided to buy spicy wings and they were pretty good, I mean they don't stack up to any wings I've had at home but they were alright. After that I don't think we did anything. Tuesday was when things got crazy. Like I told you last week we did changes without a change meeting and they just sent the missionaries to their new areas. But our zone is super huge so we had to go wait on the side of the road and get all the missionaries off their buses in our area so that we could make sure they got on the right bus to their new area.We only lost one missionary and it was only for a second and apart from that everything went really smooth. Two of the new Elders are opening and area for the first time ever, which is pretty much every missionaries dream, the lucky suckers.  We had to go and show them were their house is and all that jazz. When we went to drop them off we figured out that there weren't any buses back to our area so we had to spend the night with them. It was probably one of the worst nights of my mission  Wednesday we had district council and that was pretty normal I guess. We got to work like normal that day which was a huge blessing because we didn't work hardly at all in our area. Thursday was a normal day as well, but I got to take these pictures of this super fat dog that lives where we eat. Its easily the fattest dog I've ever seen and it makes me laugh ever time it walks. Friday we had the mission council which was really good. Presidnet Caffaro is a little frustrated about the mission because we're not completing the goals we've set so he yelled at a little bit but I left inspired so that is all that really matters. We did divisions that day too. I got to be with a gringo which hasn't happened for quite a while. I was with Elder Call from California who is dying. He only has 5 weeks left in the mission.  Saturday and Sunday  were General Conference and as always it was fantastic. I had to watch two sessions in Spanish and I really didn't get as much out of them so that was too bad but I still learned a ton. 

These are picts of the really fat dog and then of the gringo group for general conference but two Latinos sneaked in...

Elder Call Elder Gudiel Elder Wright Elder Austin Elder Ortiz