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Monday, December 30, 2013

A Memorable Christmas

Hey mom! Sounds like you are doing well! Let me know how Jacob's birthday goes! What did he think of my letter?  I cant believe he is already 10! I feel like it was not that long ago when you were pregnant with him! It was way nice to talk to you guys! I called you back after to talk without everyone but know one answered! So I called Tori's and Jake answered and I talked to him for like 20 minutes.  Anyways I wasn't able to get my package yet.  I guess we have our mail come on the 8th and I know I have at least one package in there so maybe I will get it then. Yeah it is tough and frustrating at times! Sometimes I don't think I will ever learn the language but everyday I get a little better and before I know it I am sure I will be able to talk like a pro! 
So my Christmas was pretty good! We have a rule that we have to be in our house after 5 because it is a little dangerous! So we studied in the morning until 12 then went to lunch! Had lunch then we went and taught a lesson to a inactive family.  After that we went to get our clothes from one of our momittas.  On our way there we passed one of our mommittas and she asked us what we were doing for our Christmas and we told her that we had to be in our house and she started to cry!! haha she just loves us and felt bad for us! When we got back to our house Elder Bautista did what he loves the most and went to sleep so i just studied.  Got in some comfy clothes and my plan was to just study until bed time, but then we got a phone call at about 8 and this lady on her death bed needed a blessing. A member came and picked us up and we went to go give her a blessing.  When we got there she was in super bad shape! She did not really seem like she was going to make it through the night! All of the family was gathered around and when we walked in I could feel the sadness that they had and the hope they had in us! 

Well we went and gave her a blessing and and on the way back I was thinking to myself about the life after this life and all of that stuff and really death is just another part of Gods plan for us and it should almost be a happy time! We get to move on and become one step closer to living with our Heavenly Father. I was also thinking about how really, we are the exact same people after death. We will still have the same thoughts wants and desires! I like to compare it to how I felt during wrestling and how I always thought that if I could just be a state champ that some how I would be a different person and I would feel different and be different but when I won I didn't feel any different! But yet I was still a different person than the person I was when I started wrestling.  really I changed during the process. through all my matches and practices wins and loses is what made me the wrestler I was. And really it is the same with life! We have this time on earth to prepare ourselves to live with God and we cant expect to all the sudden be different or feel different after death or later.  We have to act now and be prepared now because we will be the same person with the same thoughts wants and desires!! So that was my Christmas! One that i will never forget. And btw the lady died the next day. Really I think she was in a lot of pain and I think it was for the best.  I know she is not experiencing that anymore.  
Well I have a new companion!! His name is Elder Aliaga! He is from Peru! He is 18 and he knows NO english! He is super cool and humble and I am excited to work with him! I think this is a good chance for me to really grow and I am excited! Elder Bautista is now the new zone leader and he was excited for that! I will let you know more about my new companion next week when I know more about him! He thinks it is crazy that I have ate buffalo and I eat the meat that I hunt! haha 
One other thing I wanted to write this week is that I love you mom!!! You are so awesome and I want you to know that I miss you too! I miss being able to call you and talking sometimes when I am bored and have nothing else to do! Im not sure what I would have done without you in my life! I honestly don't think that I would be here if it were not for you! Keep being awesome! You are like the coolest lady I know! And that is the truth! I love you mom! Cant wait to talk to you on mothers day! (We will have to talk without everyone else on that day)
Love Elder Guild

Monday, December 23, 2013

I am so blessed

I'm not sure how great this photo is but it was on the bus to quito.  and it is like this the whole 7 hour but ride! so at least we have a great view!


Thanks for the call mom! Next time I hope the video works.  Well I miss you guys but like I said in Dads email do not feel bad! I will be home before you know it! Be happy because really we only have reason to be happy! Really I just feel so blessed and my whole body just feels like overwhelmed with joy because I have been blessed with such a great family! I have the gospel in my life and I know Heavenly Father loves me! What more could I ask for! The funny thing is that even though I have been given so much even more than I deserve the Lord continues to bless me and I know that the mission is a blessing and that I am in the debt on my Heavenly Father and continue to grow more and more in the debt of him.  Remember that the only way to receive the mercy of the Lord is to  repent and use his atonement! Helamen 5:11 and D&C 18:10-13 love you guys! If you're not happy just stop and take a second to think about what is on your mind and it will probably be thinking about something of yourself.  If you are always thinking of others your lives will be happier! Love you! 

Christmas and Lots of Pics!!!

this is a family that we have been taught a few times.  really they are pretty much members.  they come to shurch every week and they have a testimony.  the only problem is they need to be married but he is from columbia and they need papers.  they are really awesome though!
this is the christmas dinner we had in quito
elder Bautista and his birthday cake! i ate so much food! 

More pictures of their Christmas!









Monday, December 16, 2013

Obedience and Elder Black

Hey mom!! 
I am doing really good! :) I love life here and everything is going well! This week was good! I always think we need to do better and Elder Bautista seems content with our numbers and everything but we are getting a long.  
So experiences for this week... well first of all I have to tell you of one of the days we had.  First of all I woke up and went through my daily routine and got to studying and everything and lets just say that things didn't go super awesome in companionship study! haha Nothing bad just didn't get the daily nourishment that we needed for that day.  Anyways we went out to work that day and everything seemed to go wrong! None of the people we went to visit were home and we didn't find anyone to teach and by the end of the day we found ourselves back at our house with nothing done.  I was a little frustrated but it just builds my testimony of how the Lord blesses us when are obedient! And when we are not obedient then we don't receive blessings that we would otherwise get! We didn't really have a study in the morning and among other things that didn't go well in the morning and then we had a bad day!
Also I want to tell you about Elder Black! haha He is our zone leader and he is from Utah, really big into video games and a little nerdy I guess you could say, but he is smart and a really good missionary.  Anyways I went on splits with his companion and I found out a lot more about him! It almost makes me feel a little awkward around him! Not really, but his companion told me how Elder Black talks about me all the time and how he is like trying to work out all the time so that he can get muscles like mine and just stuff like that.  haha It just makes me laugh.  
I am glad to here that Ammon is still doing well in the wrestling.  What weight is he at? I will have to see if I can get those videos to work.  Sounds like you guys will have a good Christmas break! I will most likely be calling on skype on the 24th!! So be ready for it! It is my next p-day but it is a Tuesday and I cant remember my user name so could you look that up for me? Thanks! ( for skype) you are the only one who wrote me so yell at the family for me! haha Thanks! Love you mom!
Elder Guild 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Bad Haircut!

Wow!! Dang that is so awesome Ammon took first at the Evanston invite!! haha I took third my junior year! Seriously when I read that I wanted to get up and cheer! haha That gets me so pumped! I told my companion and he didn't even make anything out of it! haha I need to calm down! That is way cool! Tell him I am proud of him! Sounds like Shalee is doing awesome too! I hate that I am missing all the action but you will have to save the video for me to watch! Yeah that gets me so pumped that they are both doing awesome! haha Yeah, I am glad I am not in that cold weather! It is really hot today and I have been sweating a ton!! I am glad that grandma is doing good too! Keep me updated on everything!
I am doing good this week! It is really crazy how much the Lord blesses us! Every night I write in my journal and every night I am amazed at how much we have been blessed! It is crazy! Our week this week was not quite as good as others but it was still good.  I got the worst hair cut i think i have ever had in my life last week... haha that is fun! I showed the guy a picture of me and told him I wanted my hair like that... well he did his best but lets just say it wasn't very close to the picture. Elder Bautista thinks it is pretty funny! I just am waiting for it to grow out! We didn't find as many people this week but we are really trying to figure out ways to use the members to help us and so we will see how that goes this week.  Talking to the members the Elders before us really were not that good and they had no confidence in the Elders so we have been working with them really hard and I think finally we are starting to get a good relationship with the members and think we can start getting some more support from them so that should be good. 
That scripture I couldn't remember last week it D&C 130:20-21.  Its great! Usually through the week I write down some scriptures if I come across them and think you guys would like them and this is what I got this week.  Moroni 8:3, true to the faith page 65,  happiness in true to the faith.  Those are all great! I loved them and thought of you guys as I come across them!
So I will be able to skype you guys on Christmas!! :) I will let you know more as far as times and everything next week but I want you guys to think of questions for me and things that you want to tell me! Stories just anything awesome! i will do the same and it will make our talking a lot more productive and fullfilling! So will you tell that to the family mom? Thank!s
So the relief society president wants me to teach her how to make some snacks and I thought blt bites would be perfect! So could you send me the recepe for that?

I love you mom! You are the best!
Elder Guild

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Challenge-Be more obedient.

Hey Mom!!

First of all, can I just say you are awesome? Haha I am really glad to hear that you bore your testimony in sacrament! Makes me smile really big! :) :)  I know you will be blessed for doing so and I'm sure other people gained from it so that is awesome! The power of a short sweet testimony is awesome! Sometimes, people think they need to have a big long story but really a short heartfelt testimony in my opinion is more powerful!

Another pic of the beach
It sounds like you guys had a good Thanksgiving! I am glad you guys got to see so many people! That is great! and I am glad to hear the dates went well! Dating is really fun when you do it right! Wow, I feel sorry for shalee! I hate puking! I hope she is better soon! Hmm.. maybe tell her to try and be patient! It is hard but I have found that it really helps me.  Patience is one of the attributes of Christ in preach my gospel and I have been trying to work on it because I need it soo bad! I am not patient with my companion and even more so myself a lot of time but I have found that I am a lot happier and feel the spirit stronger as I have been practicing patience!


This is the ward mission leader and his familyl! They are awesome! They are making corvishe! I think that is how you spell it! It is platanos mashed up with fish on the inside and then it is deep fried put some salad and sauce on it and bam! It is really good! I want to learn how to make it exactly! They told me they would teach me. The only thing is I don't know if they sell platanos in the U.S.
Okay, so  I make scrambled eggs a lot because I don't have veggies but I bought some veggies today.. I usually make french toast and I like that.  We have a little stove and that is it.  A blender and a microwave and a fridge and a toaster.  That is all our cooking supplies.  I just want something that is healthy that will give me a lot of energy for the day and is also good!  What some good breakfasts that I can make myself that are somewhat healthy and also filling and ya! thanks! Send me some breakfast recipes.

So this couple is not in our zone but the first night I was in Esmeraldas we went and taught these two the law of chastity! My very first real lesson! Haha.. all I really did was bare my testimony how my parents and family have been blessed by following the law of chastity and that they would receive the same blessings! They were finally able to get married and their missionaries were not able to make it so Elder Bautista and I went! They were baptized this last Saturday so that was cool! :)

My week was pretty good! Hmm.. I am having trouble remembering it! All the weeks seem the same! We had a better week this week.  We have been trying to be better with our studies and more or less just being more obedient and well, after lunch one day when Elder Bautista usually takes his afternoon nap instead he surprised me and came and studied with me and then after we went teaching and we found four new people that are new investigators and they are great! Every person we talked to was really awesome and I really think it was because we were being more obedient! So that was kinda cool! I can't remember where the scriptures is but it is in the Docrines and Convenents talking about how there is a law in heaven and whenever your are obedient to the law you receive blessings and all of our blessing are from when we show our obedients! So my challenge for you guys this week is to try and be more obedient to the commandments this week and I promise at the end of the week when you look back at the week you will see the blessing that the Lord has given you!!

Love you, Mom!

Elder Guild