Rough week

     Mom your prayers have been answered and against all odds, I have gained weight. I got on a scale last week and it said I weighed 160 which is like 20 more pounds then when I left. I hope you're happy. Sounds like you guys had a pretty fun week what with park city and all. Mom, I would send more pictures but I can't take my camera out on the street because its dangerous for people to see that I have one. I'll work on taking more in my apartment and other times.   I don't have any this week, sorry but I should have a bunch next week. 

     This week was kind of rough. It seemed like every single thing we had planned would always fall through. We have a ton of first lessons but then we can never find anybody for a second lesson. Because of this, we don't really have a ton of progressing investigators. We have one guy who is hopefully going to be baptized this weekend but he has to stop smoking first. I got to go on splits with the zone leaders, which was fun because their area is much cooler than ours and the Elder I went with is an amazing missionary, Elder Wilcock.
     
      Sunday, was really good though church was normal but then after we worked hard and found some really good investigators that I'm really excited about. Daily schedule is  up at 6;30, exercise for 30 minutes then we shower and eat breakfast.   At 8 we start studies and study until 12 which is a long time but I don't mind it. Then we leave and work for an hour and a half then lunch at 1:30 for about 45 minutes, then we work the rest of the day contacting and teaching lessons until 8;30 when we go to dinner. We get home around 9:30, plan, then get ready for bed. We go to sleep at 10:30, of course.

      I love getting pictures.   No, I haven't done a ton of service. No mosquito netting, thank goodness but we might have to soon.   We have fans going all night and I'm good with out the quotes and stuff. I don't know if you would be able to send this but there are a few things I need and I could buy here but I would have to go to the capital which won't happen until February. I need soft back scriptures with tabs in Spanish and a mini preach my gospel also in Spanish. I have these massive scriptures right now that they gave us in the CCM and they weigh a ton.  I was thinking maybe you could send them with the Turners if they come and then have them drop them off in the mission office, but I don't know. Other than that everything is great  I forgot to answer your question about my ring.  I wear it on that finger because it fits best there, no other reason thank you very much. Love you guys and I wanted to tell you we're teaching an English teacher so that's fun. It seems like every other person we talk to has been to the U.S. but when they can make in an hour what people make in day, I don't blame them. 

Crazy Week

     This has been one crazy week. There wasn't one single day where I stayed in my Area. On Monday, we went and played soccer with a bunch of elders and members in Jutiapa and that was terrifying because I suck at soccer and those Latinos are really good. When they shoot the ball it goes at like a billion miles per hour. 

     On Tuesday, we had a zone conference where they told all of us that we're not doing good enough, which I think is true. The other districts and areas didn't have very good data so they told us to do better and gave us a list of goals and ways to accomplish them. They decided to have a competition between the two districts in our zone and who ever has better stats gets a trophy, which then goes to the companionship that did the best. We got it this week! I'll send you a picture. Also, we saw a rat in our apartment which made Elder Mann freak out and I think Its pretty funny but I'm still not happy about having a rat hiding somewhere. We haven't seen it since and hoping its left though.

     Wednesday, we had to go into the Capital to get my Visa taken care of which was lots of fun because I got to see a whole bunch of kids from my group and even some from my district that went to the other mission. It sucked because we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to make it to the capital on time and then didn't get back until like 6 so we didn't have anytime to work. I did get McDonalds though which made it totally worth it. 

     Thursday, we had Interviews with the President so we had to go to Jutiapa again and didn't get back until like 3 so another day where we didn't get to work very much. The President's wife gave us some homemade brownies so it was pretty awesome and it was good to see and talk to the president. 

     We thought Friday was going to be normal but then the District leader called and said he wanted to do divisions with us on Friday. So I had to go to Catocha and was there until Saturday morning. Then on Saturday we thought we had to go to stake conference meetings and would be gone the whole day but then we didn't go but we had nothing planned for the day so it was kind of rough on us. Sunday we did have Stake conference and that was really good and also in Jutiapa. On Sunday we got a text from a lady we had contacted and taught the day before asking what time our Church was at so we told her.  Then she sent a text that said Usted me gusta so obviously we won't be able to teach her ever again.

  The Language is coming good. I can understand pretty much everything that's said but I'm not very good at speaking. I know I need to try to talk more but its hard. The people are all super friendly here and always want to talk to us. Usually not about the gospel though. I've been healthy. I love the food we eat with the presidents family every lunch and dinner and pay them a 100 dollars a month for food. 

    So ya it was a pretty crazy week hope your all doing good.   Love you all anyway. Love Connor

This is a street view from our roof

                                                      Here's the awesome trophy we get for this week.

Conference in English, thank goodness

     Alright, so many questions where to start? Yes, I got to watch conference and it was in English which was really really good because if it wasn't I would have just had a lot of napping time. We went to a town called Jutiapa to watch all the day time sessions with all the other gringos form our district and Sunday we watched priesthood session w in the secretaries office here in Mita. The talks were all so good and I learned a ton of things. It was really cool that so many people got to speak in there native languages for the conference. We watched the ones in Spanish in Spanish and I didn't get very much form them but I'm sure they were good. Mom we were able to baptize so fast because Kevin was pretty much been taught everything by the other Elders. Right now we have a guy that's going to get baptized some time next week and he's probably my favorite because he's super ready. I'm so happy to hear the USU beat BYU because my comp is a BYU fan and has a year of college there. Okay I have a question for you guys. Are the trees really that green still? All the video from the conference center had showed all the trees super green and it blew my mind a little bit. 

Okay I have to tell you about my last P-day a little bit. We went to a little town called Catocha and played ultimate Frisbee. It was super fun but to get there you have to a 16 passenger van and there were 30 people crammed in there. We had to stand up in the trunk for like the first 15 minutes. 'its crazy how many people you can fit in a van when it means money. Also the average minivan here is actually a motorcycle. The record I've seen is 5 people on one motorcycle and its usually a family complete with a baby. We had a couple encounters with crazy drunk people this week which was fun and a little bit tricky to get out of but we managed. 

    Mom I got your package with the ring and all that other stuff which was great. The ring fits perfectly and all the food was amazing. I got another one of your letters and the package that Marianne sent me which was also super amazing. Loved the peanut butter.  I love you guys so much and love hearing from you. 

     District meeting is every week and we all have to go to a different town and talk about our goals and how our last week went, then we talk about how we can improve and then go home. It's lots of fun.  I love you guys so much and love hearing from you. Love Connor

Me after playing Ultimate Frisbee

                                                       View from the roof of our house

First Baptism

     Alrighty, this week has been pretty good. To answer some of your questions I'm walking all day and it's a ton of walking. It always seems like we'll have one appointment on one side of our area and then the next one is one the other side of the town so we walk all over the place. My feet were hurting me really bad a little bit earlier in the week but they're all good now. Mom, we got to the area on a bus and let me tell you those buses are scary as crap. They go crazy fast and the roads are pretty curvy here. But the worst part is that they do a lot of passing no matter where it is. We had the bus passing semi trucks right before a corner so you didn't even know if someone was coming the other way. It's the same with all the little vans that take us to other cities that are close by for district meetings and other things. I got to go in divisions this week with a Latino Elder.  He is 26 and not a super good missionary. We wasted a lot of time and I was so happy to get back to my comp. We get along really well and haven't had any problems with anything. He's a really good teacher and I'm learning a lot form him. So one thing that was a culture shock this week was seeing a ton of people breastfeeding. They just do it out in the open here and there are a lot of people doing it. We had two ladies breastfeeding while we were teaching a lesson which was so weird and then to top it off one of the kids was running around naked. So I figured out my companion is terrified of rats and so I'm already thinking about pulling some pranks and such on him. We have electricity most of the time but twice this week. It went out for a couple hours which made it really hard to study and get our planning done. We have plenty of running water but its all cold which is okay because its always super hot here. Mom my shirts just have really dirty collars everyday but the lady who does our laundry is really good and they come back super clean so no I don't need any new ones. It rained everyday this week and that sucks because they don't have any sort of drainage system so the roads turn into rivers when it rains. It also makes it really hard to find people to teach and get into houses when its raining. Fast Sunday was pretty good. I bore my testimony in the ward and didn't fall asleep which was a win because I'm always tired. I got to baptize Kevin this week which was really cool. I was a little bit nervous because as you can see he's a big kid and I was worried I wouldn't be able to lift him back up but turns out I didn't need to worry about that because the moment he went under water he totally freaked out and started flailing around. Swim lessons paid off right there because I was able to dunk him all the way under and not have to worry too much. Mom hand written letters are great and no I haven't got any since I entered the mission field. I love you guys a ton and Ill try to get pictures of the area for you next week.  We use a internet cafe to email, which is owned by a member which we didn't know but is nice because she doesn't make us pay. I mostly drink water out of a filtered water bottle they gave us in the CCM. Elder Mann was not in the area before, we were both new here. I haven't used the ointment yet but I have had a ton of bug bites. They really seem to love me. Yes we pay the branch president for our food. It's 800 quets a month and laundry is 100 a month. I got the sunglasses but I haven't worn them yet. Love to hear form you and I hope everything is going well. Thank you for your prayers and please keep them coming I can definitely use them  Love Connor


This is my first baptism.His name is Kevin and hes 13 years old.

First Week in the Field

      Alrighty, where do I even begin. My area is four hours hours outside the capital in an town called Asuncion Mita. Its a super laid back place, but it's crazy hot here. It's the hottest place in the mission, so at least I know it can't get any worse.My companion's name is Elder Mann and he's from Draper UT and he's been out in the mission for 16 months but this is his first time leaving the capital. So we've taught a whole bunch of lessons and we have two baptismal dates so far. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures for you but this is only my first 
p-day so I don't have any pictures yet. We did a service project one day where we built a fence for some member. The branch here is pretty strong but there are tons of less active members. The retention is one in eight so there like 120 people that go to church and 600 who don't. Our goal is to make the branch into a ward by the end of the year and I think we can do it. Mom you would be so proud of me. I've eaten a banana, a tomato and  guacamole so far and I'm sure I'll continue to eat foods I don't like. We eat at the branch presidents house for lunch and dinner and usually its eggs beans and rice for every dinner and a salad, rice and some sort of meat for lunch. Since we're opening an new area, we didn't have much money for food so breakfast has been bread everyday so far. We teach lots of lessons and get into almost half the houses we knock on. The ward members are super nice and are always willing to help us out. I was super happy to hear about Jayden's mission call and that you all had lots of fun at homecoming. Chase good job making sure mom and Shelby got plenty wet at the homecoming parade. I'm sure it was lots of fun to go up to Mackay and see the family.  The people here are crazy drivers too and there are dogs all over the street. So far none of them have been mean but I'm still pretty scared of them. I didn't have to speak in Sacrament but I'm sure its only a matter of time. Craziest culture thing is, I don't know probably just the way people live here. Best spiritual moment is when I was able to bear testimony in Spanish and feel the spirit there with me. The language is not what I learned in the MTC, I swear. Its super hard to communicate with anyone and so I don't do a whole lot of talking but I'm trying, I promise. I think we might be heading over to the border today because we're only like an hour away. Mom, my package came this week I haven't gotten it yet but I will tomorrow.  I love you all so much and hope you're having fun in school. I still have a tiny bit of time so here's some more.. It's so hot right now I'm dying. My shirts have all already been destroyed and I think I'm melting all the time but whatever. I can only take cold showers but that's okay because I don't think I would want anything else right now. I am covered in bug bites but they don't itch and they're not coming form my bed so that's some really good news. I got to eat some ice cream this week.  That's where I ate the banana and It was heaven. That's probably one of the things I miss most about the CCM, being able to have ice cream everyday. Like I said the language isn't coming super easy. I understand a lot more than I can say and I could probably do better, I just need to have more faith in myself and push myself to try more. I kind of wish my comp was a Latino so I would have no choice but to speak Spanish but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. I love you guys so much and really missed you this week. I got homesick again this morning but I,m doing okay now. Love you guys a ton. Love Connor

A little extra

We didn't get an email from Con this week, but we know he is in the mission.  We are anxiously waiting to hear where he is serving and who his comp is.  I did get a letter today so I thought I'd share that instead.

  Hey I forgot to tell you about fast Sunday.  It was pretty rough.  This was the first time I've ever fasted 24 hours and it was hard.  It didn't help at all that our meals times were replaced with personal study so all we could do was sit outside and read scriptures and think about the food we couldn't eat. My meals here at the CCM are numbered.  Only a couple more and then it's rice, beans, and eggs for the next two years.  I'll probably get really skinny by the time I get home.  President Cox was telling us all about kids on his mission in Mexico that lost a ton of weight.  Hope that happens to me because I've gotten pretty fat during my time in the CCM.  I want you guy to know that the first two weeks here were really hard.  I was really beating myself up about the language and just wondered if I was really  where the Lord needed me to be.  I wanted so bad to change to an English speaking mission those weeks, but now I know without a doubt this is where the Lord needs me to be and he's going to bless me.  I'm sure you guys are receiving blessings as well and I can't wait to hear about them.  I FINALLY GOT TO BE OUTSIDE WHEN IT RAINED!!!  It rains here all the time and I know I've told you all that like thousand times but today.  I was finally able to be outside when it happened.  I was completely soaked and probably one of the happiest missionaries in the world.  Love, Connor

Just got this with a short email, saying he was at the mission home yesterday. This is President and Sister Caffaro with Con.  

Surprise!

Suprise! I'm emailing on Monday because tomorrow we're going on a tour of the city and to the market all day so we won't have any time for emailing. I can't wait to get out of here even if it is only for one day. 

This week was pretty good. I'm able to teach pretty much all of the first three lessons in spanish on my own which is good because we're teaching people all the freaking time. We taught the latinos a lot this week.  It was not good for the moral of the class. The latinos this batch are not very nice and so some of them told the boys in our district that they suck at spanish and shouldn't be here. Needless to say that didn't make the missionaries feel very good and I think the Latino elders got a talking to for that one. But they leave this week and we'll never have to see them again. One of the Latinos is super amazing and has one of the strongest testimonies I've ever seen played a prank last night and told everyone that he was going home Sunday night. We were all freaking out and trying to figure out why he would want to leave and trying to talk him out of it. Then he just started laughing and laughing and told us all it was just a joke. Quite a few of the elders were not very happy with him after that. I played a little prank of my own this week. My roommates told me a guy in their district was a super health nut and freaked out about everything. They told me to tell him that I had heard that an Elder form west africa had been reassigned to his mission and he had brought the Ebola viris with him to Guatemala. The kid was freaking out and told everyone else that was going to his mission that the Ebola viris was there. It was hilarious but now the kid kind of hates me. Coolest thing that happened this week was that on Sunday President Cox was talking to us about what kind of missionary we want to be and he made us a promise that we will be fluent in the language by four months out in the mission field. It was so cool because you could feel the spirit there super strong verifying that his words were true. 

The food is here is a pretty good mix of American food and then some native food. We've had a couple different types of tacos but I don't think we've ever had enchiladas. We've had hamburgers and hot dogs twice now as well as some other american dishes. The elders in my room are doing okay, they were some of the elders I mentioned earlier with the language put down. Other than that though they've been okay. I do miss my music a lot. I havent heard any one republic but I have heard both Imagine Dragons and Maroon 5 so thats pretty good. Spanish is alright like I said I can teach a 20 minute lesson on my own so I guess I'm doing pretty good. For exercise I usually lift and every once in a while I play basketball. We have not really been out like I said that will be tomorrow and I can't wait. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you next week. We get to go to a Wendys while we're out and I've heard Its like going home. Love, Connor