January 26 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

I am super happy to be able to be here to be able to write yall. I hope and pray that everything is going great. I am absolutely loving Guatemala and my area of Ixtahuacan. The work is always great! My comp is feeling a lot better than he was last week. And don´t worry mother, I am feeling fantastic. I haven´t been feeling sick lately. So this week there was a HUGE fair/festival in the area. It was celebrating el patron, "the boss" of this area. So there were SO MANY stands and just about a billion people. It was nearly impossible to walk through the park. And we have to pass through there each day. People were pushing and shoving. It was so fun to go through there. I wanted to take a video as I walked through but then I thought that probably wasn´t a great idea. So I just wrote down so many details in my journal jajaj. So as we tried to go and visit people we just found out that they were in the park. Like no one was home this whole week. We walked so much this week. So I had my boots on jajaj. We went up a mountain a few times just to find out that the family we wanted to visit was, of course, at the park jajaj. But it was still fun to hike up and down the mountain. This is one week that I will never forget of my mission. But if for some reason I do forget, I have it all written down in my journal. So in this week of very few lesson, we had a great Sunday. Yesterday we had Stake Conference. The stake center is a little over an hour away from our area. The church rented 2 buses to take us to Huehuetenengo. So it was a great ride. We talked and joked around with the members. Then when we got to the stake center and got out of the buses. There were a lot of people there. We got there about 15 minutes before the meeting started. Next time I think we need to get there about 1.5 hours before the meeting starts because it was full. It was really great to see all the members in the Zaculeu Stake. We had some really great talks. We heard from the Stake President and then from a member of the Seventy. I can´t remember his name though. Ahh! But he gave a really good talk of how we as members can work harder to improve. Even if we are the most pilas members, there is something that we can always improve on. So then after Stake Conference we got back on the bus and came back to Ixtahuacan. Then Elder Winward and I went to the house to drop off some things. Then we went with an awesome member to play a little game with her family. We played a dice game where you try to roll a 1. Then when you roll a 1 you get a pen and start writing 1-150. But if someone else rolls a 1 then they SNATCH the pen from you and start writing 1-150. It is a really fun game. First person to 150 wins the game. So we had a super great time with them. SO yeah that was my week. It was hard to work but it was still a great week. I love and miss yall!

Love, 

Elder Chicas

And Yeah coming to serve has been the best decision I have ever made.

January 19 2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

 Well I am gonna answer all of the questions that my wonderful mother asked jajaja. Well I am doing really well. My week was fantastic. My investigators are progressing. We have two who are really cool. Their names are Kimberli Castañeda and Adolfo Domingo. And no my last area was so much colder. Yup I am really close to the border of Mexico. But my area is really tranquilo. Everyone is really cool and friendly. Well last Monday as yall now, I went to the ruins of Zaculeu. They were pretty awesome! After that we went to write our families. On Tuesday and Wednesday my comp was super sick. He was just destroyed. But we made up for our lost work on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we had divisions with the district leader. Remember that I only had a week and 2 days in this area but we did divisions anyways. But they went really well. We taught a few lessons and then received 12 references. The district leader believes we are doing really well. So that is really good. Well my comp came back on Friday. So we went and started contacting some of the references. We got a few new investigators from them. Then we went to teach another lesson that night and got 12 more references. So this week we are going to follow up with those references and see how many new investigators we can get. My comp is super cool. We get along really well and we work great together. I have learned a lot from him. On Saturday we decided to get a head start on the references we received. So we found 3 and got 2 new investigators. It is really cool and awesome to be a missionary but it can get you quite tired jajaj. On Sunday I finally met my branch president. He is super cool. Our branch is quite small. We have about 45-50 attending each week. We are gonna get that number higher though. We are gonna get super pilas. Yeah so that was my week. I love and miss yall.

Love,

Elder Chicas

January 12, 2015 with Tons of Pics!

Dear Family and Friends,

 Well this has been a great past week. I had changes!!! FINALLY!!!!!! I am now in Huehuetenango. The area that I am serving in is called Ixtahuacan. It is such an awesome place! O I am now in the mountains. When I send the pictures in a moment, you will see the mountains. My new comp is from Utah. His name i is Elder Winward. He is a cool Elder. He have 5.5 months. So I just have a little bit more time than he does. Well let me tell you what happened this week. Well Monday was P-Day as usual and we went with the zone to do an activity. Then we went to eat and then I was super excited to be able to go to my area to write but got there to only find out that the power was out! Oh I was pretty bummed that I  could not write yall last week. Then at 11:30 we got the call telling us who had changes. Well my leader started going through the list and said like 10 names and I thought well I guess that I am not moving. But then he said "...and Elder Chicas." So here I am in Ixtahuacan writing you this email. On Tuesday, all the missionaries that had changes met in the bus terminal to find out where you are going because they don´t tell you where you are going until you get to the terminal. I managed to get all of the stuff into my suit cases. I had no problems. So then I found out my area and got in the bus with others going towards my area. It was a 5 hour bus ride. Oh I was so bored jajajaj. But I got here okay. I met Elder Winward and we took my stuff to the apartment. We then went to correlation with out ward mission leader. Then on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I was meeting members and investigators. We also taught some really great lessons. And we challenged 2 of our investigators to be baptized. They are really positive and progressing really well. On Saturday, we had divisions with the zone leaders. They came and wanted to see our investigators. They think that they can be baptized this month. So we will set a date this week. on Sunday, we went to church. I found out that I am in a branch. It is really small. We had 48 people attend. I conducted and confirmed a girl that was baptized. It was pretty great. I am glad that I was called here to Ixtahuacan. It is pretty awesome. Well that was my week.

 Love,

Elder Chicas

That is the Garcia family. I said bye to them that night. 

 They are the ruins of Zaculeu. And my last companion got transferred to the same district as me. And it was cold in my last area. Here it is just hot jajajaj!

Well those are all the pics for today. I really hope you liked them. I will try and take more awesome pictures like this for next Monday. So I will talk to yall then. I love and miss yall!

Love,

Elder Chicas