May 25, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

I am doing great. I am enjoying my new area. It is an awesome place. I am now in the city part of Huehuetenango. My week was pretty great. also. We had a lot of lessons with members. They were really key lessons and they all went well. It has been hot, quite hot. Let's just say that I bought a 2 liter bottle of water and it was gone within 20 minutes. I refilled it 4 times in 1 day. I am just sweating like crazy here jajajaj. We didn't really have any big problems with any dogs this week. There was one who got close to getting a chunk out of my leg. But we made it passed him safely. On the way back out we heard him. But we couldn't see where he was and we had forgotten our flashlights at the house. But we just booked it out of that area. So we are all good. This week I have eaten a lot of 7 caldos (a really hot chili pepper). It is really good but it burns quite a lot jajajaj. There is this family who makes their all their food with 7 caldos. So let's just say that I am chilero now. I think I was sweating more when I ate that pepper by itself than when I was walking all day. Jajajajaj I was on fire. I got a video but I can´t download videos on here because it is too big for this email. But I will share a lot of video with yall when I get back home.

The name of the ward is Colonia but the name of the city is Huehuetenango, Huehuetango, Guatemala.

I bought a really cool jacket today. It is called traje de todos santos. The jacket is awesome! I will send pics with it on next week

Let's just say I got some corte pants. And they are sick! Jajajajaja.

Love Elder Chicas

                                               

May 18, 2015

Hola familia y amigos,

How is it going for yall? I hope that everything is going great for yall. I am here in Guatemala living the dream. I love it here. So yeah as yall know I had changes. I got changes to an area called Colonia. I am still in Huehuetenango but now I am in the city. Ixtahuacan was a little town with a lot of aldeas. But now I am back in the city. Instead of the people speaking mam, they only speak spanish now. Jajajaj the struggle. My new comp is Elder Young. He is a gringo from the Unites States. He is in his last change meaning that he is gonna be done with the mission within 5 weeks. But he is a cool comp. We worked hard this week. I left Ixtahuacan at 3:30 a.m. and got to my new area around 7. Let's just say that when I got here, I was super tired. So I took a power nap of like 20 minutes then we got to work. We have this super pilas family that is progressing. They are the Familia Rios. There are 10 members in the family. They are really buena onda. They have been reading the Book of Mormon. We had 2 super great lessons with them this week. Yesterday we went with them and she told us that she has seen a change in her family since we started visiting them. They are keeping compromisos which is really great! So hopefully they will be able to continue. So far the people here have been buena onda. I don't see as much corte or hear as much mam as I did in Ixtahuacan. It is great to be able to talk to the people in spanish. I knew justa  little bit of mam. It was hard to teach when I couldn´t speak the language of mam. But it was a great experience. Well I don´t have much to report this week because I don't remember the peoples names here yet. But yeah it is great to be here. And yup I know that I am turning 19 within 2 weeks. I am getting old jajajajaj. Well I love and miss yall! 

Love,

Elder Chicas

May 11, 2015

Hola,

Ayer yo también me divertí por tener la oportunidad de hablar con usted por medio del Skype. Skype es una bendición y estoy muy feliz que pude hablar con ustedes ayer. Y si el tiempo se fue muy rápido. Así me siento en la misión. El tiempo va y va y nunca se detiene. Pero si estoy muy agradecido a mi Padre Celestial por esa oportunidad. Pero si, si tengo cambios. Nos avisaron ayer a las 10:30. Hoy también me avisaron que yo voy al área de Colonia. Todavía voy a estar en Huehue. Pero en vez de estar en las aldeas y esta pequeña ciudad que yo amo, ahora me voy a la mera ciudad. Si voy a extrañar esta área pero yo hice lo que yo podía hacer. Mamá, estoy disfrutando todo de mi misión. Cada cosa que ha pasado, cada cosa que está pasando, cada cosa que pasará, estoy disfrutando todo. Nunca voy a poder olvidar de esto. Realmente, yo ha sentido un cambio en mi mismo. Yo estoy mas cerca de Dios. Yo se que el tiene un plan para mi y también para ustedes, mis familia. Ayer fuimos con un investigador que esta pasando mucha cosas difíciles. Compartimos esa escritura en Alma 36:3, Le dijimos que si ella pusiera toda su confianza en el Señor, el le ayudará. Ella empezó a llorar porque ella sentio algo cuando leímos esa escritura. Ella estaba muy alegres que pasamos con ella. Yo también se que fuimos con ella y su familia por una razón. El Señor no ayudo saber que necesitábamos ir con ella. Yo se si nosotros seguimos los consejos que nos da el Espíritu Santo, van a poder trabajar mas eficazmente. Entonces necesitamos seguir adelante. También ayer en la noche fuimos con un miembro de la iglesia. El se llama Arturo Villatoro. El es un miembro calidad. El dijo que siente una decepción. Pero compartimos la escritura en 3 Nefi 3:15. Le explicamos que estamos llamados para declarar su palabra. El fue llamado como el maestro de la escuela dominical. También nos dice que somo discípulos de Jesucristo. Le explicamos de que las personas también maltrataron a Jesucristo. Pero El hizo las cosas que necesitaba hacer. El padeció y murió para nosotros. El nos amo mucho. Y también amo a las personas que lo maltrataron. También unos de sus apóstoles lo traiciono. Entonces no debemos estar enojados porque a El también paso. El ya conoció nuestros pecados, penas, enfermedades, y dificultades. Entonces antes de estar enojados a alguien podemos "Recordar a El". Yo estoy muy feliz de poder se uno de sus discípulos. Gracias por todo! Les amo y les extraño.

Con amor,

Elder Chicas

Y perdón, no tengo mi camera hoy. It is already packed up in my suit cases jajajaja. Sorry

May 4, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 I hope everything is going great for yall. This was a great week that just passed. I hope that is was great for yall too. This week we worked with the members and less actives. We figured that the only way that this branch is gonna progress is if the members have strong testimonies. So we went and visited a lot of members and less actives. This week was not too hot because it was raining quite a lot. We have an investigator, Rosa Maya Lopez, who accepted the date to be baptized on May 16. She is the wife of one of our members. She is super pilas. We also went with some investigators who made us carne asada. Oh it was super good. They took us took a little ranch that they have here in the area. It was really nice. We ate then talked to them for a while. So yeah that was my week. Not much but working with members. I love and miss yall!

Love,

 Elder Chicas

This little calf absolutely hated me. I would get to touch his head and he would just go crazy jajajaja

Oh and the little kid next to me is Dominic. 

April 27, 2015

Dear family and Friends,

 I am doing really great! The only thing that is killing me right now is the heat, The rainy season is supposed to start within these next 2 weeks. So I hope that the rain comes. That would make me really happy. I go through so many bottles of water a day. But I am still loving it here. I am living the life here in Guatemala. I feel so great and happy to be here. Well this last Monday we stayed here in Ixtahuacan. We had a great lesson in the evening with an investigators named Jonathan Sales. He has a lot questions but we answer them all. He is a pilas dude and he learns a lot. On Tuesday we had a district meeting and the topic was about inviting people to baptism. It was a really great topic and lesson. So to practice inviting people, we did role plays! Yay(Sacasm)!!!!!!!!!!!! But when Elder Haderlie and I got called to do it, we did really well. Like at the end when the others say what we could better on, there was no comment. So that was good. After that we went with President to visit people. We invited people to the conference we were gonna have in the branch. That was great. On Wednesday had divisions with the district leader. So I stayed here and went with him to visit them investigators and people of Ixtahuacan. Most of the citas fell through but we had good lessons. At the end of the day we ended the divisions cause the next day we had interviews with the president. When my comp got back, we went to eat then we went home. It was such a long day. On Thursday we went to Huehuetenango to have interviews with President Smith. We woke up at 5 to be able to be out the door by 6. Well we got to Huehue but we were told the wrong time. We were supposed to be there an hour later. So the zone leaders told us to go and contact. So we did that. It was fun. Then it came time for us to go to the interviews. I went in with President first and my comp went with Sister Smith. So my interview went well. President said that if we are walking, it is time to run. That means if we are working hard, we need to start working harder. So then when we got back to Ixtahuacan, we started We went with Beken Ramirez who is a member and his wife who is not. Her name is Rosa. She is really cool. We taught her a lesson and then we invited her to be baptized. She said yes. So we are gonna have a baptism on the 16 of May. We are gonna continue to help here prepare for that day. She is a super pilas girl. She is really nice too. On Friday we had weekly planning in the morning and then we had Beken and Rosa again cause she wanted us to come back the next day. So that was really goo. Then we went with la familia Garcia. We made then waffles and they enjoyed them a lot. Then we taught them about the restoration. They are gonna pray to see if what we taught was true. So the next time we go, we are gonna challenge them to baptism. On Saturday we went with an investigator named Warned Ortiz Ramirez. We taught him a little lesson then we left. We contacted after the cita with him. We later had the priesthood session of branch conference. It was really great! We had the leaders from Huehuetenango come to our area. They gave great talks. On Sunday we had branch conference in the morning. After church we went with Hermana Sandra. And then we went to contact a little bit. We are focusing on find new investigators. Well that`s all I have for today. I love and miss yall!

 Love,

Elder Chicas

Yeah we are crazy. But my comp is really cool and his spanish is really good too. And mother, I have dropped 26 pounds in the time I have here. It isn`t a lot but it`s something jajajaja.

April 20, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a quite difficult week but it is still great to be here. We had so many citas fall through. But in the citas that we didn´t have fall though, we had great lessons. We challenged 2 of our investigators to get baptized. There response were like yeah if I come to find out that the things yall taught us are true. So that was super great. Well this week last Monday we played football. It was so much fun. It was quite hot so we all got a little burnt jajajaj. On Tuesday we had a district meeting. I was the person in charge of giving the lesson. I taught over the importance of the Libro de Mormón. It went really well. After the meeting we went to eat. And from there our citas started falling. So we went to the aldea of Platinar to visit a less active who now started coming back to church. His name is Beken. He lives with his wife who is not a member. She is interested in learning about the church so we are gonna start teaching her. Then we were gonna go to a choir practice for the branch conference that we are having this upcoming Sunday. But as we were coming around a corner to get to the church the lights went out. And it was raining. Wow we were outside without a flashlight or raincoat. Yeah so that was un. But it is good that we only live 2 minutes away from the church. So we bought candles and went home. We can´t be out at night when there is no electricity. So we went home and chilled. While chillen there in the dark, a light came on. And then we heard the fridge motor come on. So we went out and went to go visit Arturo. And that was our last cita for the night. On Wednesday we had a super great lesson with an investigator who is named Jonathan. Arturo went with us and we had the lesson at the church. We taught him lesson 3 which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well. He had so many questions. Once we had answered one question he came out with another one. So it is good that he wants to know. On Thursday we had our weekly planning session. After that we went to lunch. Then we went to the aldea of Acal. Well it would´ve been nice for it to have rained that day because it was so hot. Like I can´t remember the last time I went there when it wasn´t hot. But it was okay. We are still alive so that is super great. We went to contact some reference that we received from there. The first reference wasn´t there and the other reference was drunk. We then went with Beken and his wife, Rosa, in Platinar. We sang hymns cause they love to sing. They really liked it and they thanked us for being so kind with them. After that we went to the choir practice but eveyone that was there was sick. So that failed once again jajajaj. After that we went with Arturo to teach his son-in-law english. On Friday we helped the secretaries get stuff outta of the last house I lived in. They came and got the beds, desks, and dishes. After that we went to lunch and then we went with Arturo to visit a less active. The less active´s name is Jairo. Then we went with an investigator named Jose Ordoñez. His family is super nice. They gave us corn so we ate that. Then we went with another less active named Rosita Maldonado to confirm a cita we were gonna have later in the week. On Saturday we went with the Domingo family. They were super happy to see us. Then we went with an investigator named Warner but he was drunk. So that wasn´t good. Later we went to the church to help a less active come back to church. Then we had a tarde de hermanamiento to get members to come and fortify there testimonies. Then we taught a lesson to a reference that we received. The family is named the Perez family. They are really nice. After the lesson they invited us in to eat so eggs and beans (cena de un chapín como yo jajajaj). On Sunday we had to give a talk. So as the meeting is starting, I open my backpack to get my notes out. But there was a huge problem. I didn´t have my notes! So I had to go up and just give the message without my notes. Well I did it without anyproblem. I mean the notes would´ve been nice to have but I did well. So yeah that was my week. I love and miss yall!

Love,

Elder William Atilio Chicas

Mother Marilyn just told me the news. I am gonna be an uncle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am glad that yall are receiving many blessings. I forgot to answer the questions you gave me earlier. Mom, honestly yes I feel like my life has been changed. It is still changing. I feel such a love for this work and the people I get to work with. It is absolutely amazing. Yes I feel my Heavenly Father´s love stronger than even. I look for each blessing He gives me each day. Let´s just say that there isn´t a number high enough to tell you how many blessing I have received as my time as a missionary. I am always so happy to see how yalls week went. I know that the Lord is blessing yall because I know he is blessing me. I love yall so much!

Love,

Elder Chicas

April 13, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 This was a great week. Elder Haderlie and I worked really hard this week. We are both exhausted but what can we do? We  are just gonna keep working hard and finding others to start teaching. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter. I am ready for next month when the rainy season begins. I can´t wait. Well today I don´t have much time to write. But I am doing well. We found some new people that we are gonna start teaching, We are also continuing to work with our investigators. They are progressing which is really great. Well I am sorry that I can´t write a lot today. I will next week. I love and miss yall!

Gracias por la fotos. Me pongo bien alegre por ver las fotos de todos ustedes. Quiero que usted puede saber que le mande una carta por su cumpleaño. Yo nunca podría olvidar el día en que mi madre nació. Yo se que usted nació el 12 de Abril. También, Antonio Manuel Chicas nació el 8 de Abril. si todavía no llego mi carta, ojala que llega pronto. 

 Y una preagunta. Quein es ese hombre que tiene una placa de Elder Chicas? Él es el misionero de tonga? Pues mandale mis saludos. Tell him I said hi and to keep working hard. We are soldiers in this spiritual war and we need all the help we can get.

Love,

Elder Chicas