No Thanksgiving here in Guatemala, not even a mention of it. I had forgotten all about it. This week was another normal week with not much new. I am in a trio now though with Elder Castrow as his companion got sent home. Trios can be difficult at times, but they can also be a lot of fun, it just depends on the time of day. Also after receiving the Christmas packages it is full of Christmas at my house and I love it! Alma 8:19 was my favorite scripture this week and shared it with a lot of members and received a lot. Two pizza parties this week with members, so that was a lot fun too. We are still working hard though. I bought a little soccer player speaker and using the aux cord I hook it up to the little DVD player we have in our house and found some church hymns on a CD so we can have a little music now at our house. This last week as well I went to pray in English and struggled through the prayer. I had a really difficult time with it. I was thinking in Spanish and translating it to English in my mind. I thought that was pretty cool though as it shows I am progressing in my Spanish. I am not close to fluent yet and still struggle with Spanish, do not think my Spanish is great. Saturday we went to the Bishops house and painted his Kitchen, that was pretty fun and he bought us all pastries. At a members house too this last week they gave us sugar cane to eat, its something that a lot of the kids here love to eat. It was alright, but I did not love it. It is getting colder and colder or as Dad would say I have gotten weak and I have broken out the sweaters, sweats, and long sleeves. Last night walking to dinner a drunk started yelling at us and said, "Go back to your country you pieces of trash!" to which Elder Zuleta responded, "Do not annoy/molest the servants of the Lord." The drunk was not to happy with that and started running/stumbling towards us, but we just walked away. He eventually stopped and threw his bottle at the ground. I thought it was pretty funny. I get harassed a lot by drunks, being white, but just with little comments. It usually is just funny though. Ponderize: Mormon 9:21 -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Rainbow for Mom. It was a double rainbow and bright. Elder Castrow and Elder Zuleta Painting Bishops kitchen
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Nothing new this week. Just average. I am healthy, happy, doing great, and having the best day of my life. Nothing interesting or really fun happened this week, but this Saturday the 28th we should be having 2 baptisms, so that will be really awesome. We have a new Zone Leader as well from Alberta, Canada who is really awesome and when he speaks Spanish you can definitely hear that he has a Canadian accent. Random things that happened: -Last P-Day we played Dodgeball as a Zone which was really fun and reminded me of Dodgeball for mutual. -There have been more and more fireworks lately as Christmas is getting closer. Apparently for Christmas the city goes crazy with fireworks, so that should be really cool and fun to see. -This last week I had divisions with our District Leader in La Justo. Divisions remind me of sleep overs. Always a lot of fun and it is nice to see something different. -We have a ward activity for the 5th to watch Meet the Mormons and if we bring some investigators we can stay and watch it too, so I am looking forward to that. -Since my companion only has 2 weeks left he has permission to visit 2 of his old areas to say goodbye to his converts. I am looking forward to that a lot as I will be able to see something different and see more parts of Guatemala. - Also locked the keys and our phone in our "office" room so we were locked out of our two rooms for the night. Luckily we had already unlocked our bed room so we could at least sleep in our beds. We did not know where the landlord lived either so in the morning we tried breaking into our "office" room but had no luck, at least we know it is secure now. We did end up finding the landlord (who is our neighbor) and he has spare keys, all was good. It was a fun experience. Ponderize: 3 Nephi 11:29 -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Art work from Payton & Felecity Surprise chocolates from Omi
Another fairly normal week. Started the week off with my last day with Elder Alvarado. We had a little party with a recent convert and investigator. We had pizza and had a water gun fight in their house with their kids. It was actually a lot of fun. My new companion arrived this Tuesday and is Elder Zuleta from Ecuador. He was assistant to the president and only has 3 weeks left in his mission. He is really awesome, nice, and caring. I am learning lots and I am really enjoying our time as companions. We are seeing a lot of miracles in our area and our hope for this change is 8 baptisms. I know we should have 2 this 28th of November, the mom and younger brother of David (our baptism two weeks ago). Found Christmas lights, a stocking, and a stuffed Santa Claus this week for our house and it is starting to feel and look more like Christmas. Some members and investigators have Christmas trees up too. I also saw egg nog in the store today and I love it! WE HAVE A COMEDOR! No more having to make lunch. We now eat lunch everyday with the wife of the bishop and the food is really good. Nothing strange or bad, just average, but good. This last Thursday we also had a long planning session as we have taken over the smaller area just below us. We had to plan our sectores and how we were going to work with the recent converts, members, and investigators in that area. My comp half way through asked if I was hungry, which I was, so out of no where he calls Dominos Pizza and buys him and me a small personal pizza. It was awesome, my new comp is really nice! Ponderize: Jacob 3:1 Other note worthy scriptures this week: Mosiah 2:41 and 3Nephi 26:9 -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber On the top of my apartment building Elder Lindquist Christmas finds: lights, little Santa, stocking New companion Elder Zuleta
This week I tried another traditional dish here in Guatemala called Fiembre. It is something they eat the first of November and from what I have heard is pretty expensive. It is a lot of meats and some vegetables and is red. I do not know why it is red, why it is expensive, or why it is popular, as it is absolutely NASTY! I think, I would rather drink turtle eggs as that can be done faster and does not need to be chewed. We were invited over to a recent converts house to try it so we had to eat it all, but it was gross, even my comp did not like it. Later that day another recent convert gave us some to take home. It is still in our fridge and this is bad, but I think we will just throw it out. This week I gave my first priesthood blessing, actually gave 2, and I gave them in Spanish. They were not very beautiful, but if you listened to the spirit they were wonderful ;) I also anointed for 3 more blessings this week too, as a lot of people have gotten Chinkengunya. Also as I have been drinking more and more water, I have had to use the bathroom more and more and not a lot of people here have toilets that you can flush. I had to learn quickly to fill a bucket with water before I use the bathroom so I can flush the toilet with it when I am done. Just a little difference in cultures ;) My companion also hit his 10 month mark so an investigator made us a Jello tres leche cake which was really good. Everyone here is so nice. Since we no longer have a comedor and we are making our own lunches I can normal make and eat lunch in 30 minutes. President told us to use the whole hour and if we have extra time to relax and prep for the day. So... I always take a 30 minute nap in our hammock everyday after lunch, it is really nice and relaxing! We had a BAPTISM this last Saturday too and that was really awesome! You can really see the light of Christ in their eyes when they come up out of the water, it was a really cool experience and can not wait to have more. Then on Sunday I was able to participate in confirming the Holy Ghost and confirming him a member of the church and that was really awesome too! CHANGES! We got informed of changes last night and my companion is leaving. I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. That should be fun and interesting. They also closed an area and it joined with my current area, so my area is now much larger and have a lot more work to do. That should be fun though as I get to meet new people and see some new things. Its going to be a busy week, lots to do. Got to find the members, investigators, recent converts, along with our current area too. It will be fun though. More Baptisms ;) Ponderize: D&C 58:26-29 -- Sincerely, Elder Gruber Fiembre
Not much happened this week and I do not have that much to say, it is just more misc. things.
This last week we met with all the nuevos and trainers with President and Sister Caffaro to check up on things and how we are doing. Last P-Day my companion got hit in the eye with the soccer ball and his face was a little swollen and had a massive headache, so he said he could not go out and we just stayed in for the day. He also said he had some problems with his vision so he wore a homemade eye patch and looked ridiculous. One of our investigators passed his baptismal interview, so this Saturday we will be baptizing him. We asked him who he wants to baptize him and he said he wanted my companion to do it, which makes sense as they talk a lot more than we do. That should be really cool though and I am looking forward to that. Our comedor (chef) for lunch has been under the weather lately and said she can no longer make us lunch, so for that last week we have been looking for a new comedor with out any luck. It looks like we will be making our own lunches for a while until we can find a new one. First fast Sunday out here in the field and they start their fast right after lunch and it ends at lunch the next day. It is about a 24 hour fast, church was very difficult and studies were very difficult too as all I only could think about was food. Halloween was a DUD. Nothing happened, normal day, I was really disappointed. Ponderize: Moromi 7:8 And that is it, kind of a boring week. -- Sincerely, Elder Gruber |