Crazy week in Guatemala

Yeah, the weather here has been beyond crazy as of late. I don’t know what Guatemala did to provoke Gods wrath but the giant volcano across the valley had an enormous eruption that covered the entire city in a coat of black ashes! We had a lot of service that next day. about a day after that, the day I called it had been raining since morning (it woke me up at around 4 raining really hard) and continued strong until after I fell asleep that night. The rain was hitting so hard it literally went through my umbrella and I would have gotten soaked if not for that Olympic sport jacket you and Kori gave me. I haven’t worn that until about these past 2 rainstorms or so because of their strength. It’s really been a big help. The rain was so strong in all of Guatemala that in some of the other regions there were mudslides, bad ones. I saw the cover of a newspaper saying about 80 or more people have died! The night we called we had gotten a warning to pack an emergency bag incase we had to be evacuated! Like, from the country!


Luckily it wasn’t that bad, not even nearly here. I just thought I was another regular, but longer lasting rainstorm! Shows you what a regular rainstorm here is like... when you had tried to call back the phone ran out of power, and that’s why there was no machine or anything. Hope you didn’t worry too much.

Thank you Aunt Vickie for the dearelder, I'm not sure why but it sent me an email of it haha. Oh man and a care package would be GRAND I was actually thinking of how much I missed beef jerky lately haha. Thanks for all the love and letters from all of you in the family, and a shout out to my friend Kinsey thanks a ton for the dearelder you sent me!

well the work here is going slower, he had 4 baptismal dates but they have pretty much fallen... sad face :( we don’t have nearly enough investigators and I don’t know how effective our contacting has been, since we talk to a ton of people but never get their address or end up teaching anyone new... hmmm something to talk about with my companion haha. There are quite a few very faithful members of the church but I wish we would teach more. Nevertheless I am going to remain diligent in my studies and in my searching. Just yesterday I was listening to a conference talk from my iPod. J.R. Holland. Man that guy can speak with power! If only I could do that in Spanish I would have this whole country baptized hahaha. He is my favorite to listen too I wish I had more of him. I've also noticed as I have been reading the book of Mormon I am exited to read different parts, like I would be for a new movie to come out! How much different someone can be with a new mindset eh?

Spanish is going good. I’m starting to get the grammar a bit better and just need some more vocabulary. I still haven’t had any Spanish dreams yet, and for that I am sad. I have had a couple dreams where I have been speaking a bit of Spanish to a friend or someone but nothing more than that.

I do have one iss-shoe (hehehe) my shoes that we bought right before my mission..are dying!! I bet I could last a lot longer but just an update. The entire heel of the shoe has been worn away from all the walking and also the sole of the shoe is worn flat. They are still really nice and work really well so I’m not too worried yet.

I’m pretty much out of time so ill end by saying I love you all very much I love your support. This is the work of God and I couldn’t be happier anywhere else. Find joy in the scriptures, and in personal and family prayer. Seek to feel the spirit always. Many times we will forget the great blessing we all have which is the spirit. I know for a fact that you can be guided, and comforted by the Holy Spirit, you just need to listen. Let him in. pray, read, pay tithing, keep the commandments and you will prosper and feel an abundance of the holy ghost which can be the happiest thing of all. I love you all so very much I hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Elder Bronson

Check out this website:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/a_rough_week_for_guatemala.html

Same companion, Same area!

Wow that weather must really be..fun...haha lo siento it’s always the same here hot and sweaty. This week for 2 days we had a monsoon I swear. The first night we barely escaped it. Imagine a huge microburst in Utah times it by 2 and make it Guatemala sized! It was NUTS. The lightning off in the distance before it hit flashed every 5 seconds or less. The sky lit up like daytime for half-seconds at a time, and again the next night. Other than that the weather has been as normal as ever.


We just had changes today. I’m in the same area with my same companion Elder Vargas. He is very happy about this. Apparently he loves this area, the house, the people, and me as a companion. Last night he told me how I was one of his absolute favorite companions (and this came to me as an incredible shock). He likes how hard I am always willing to work and he’s proud of how much Spanish I’ve learned so quickly. I really like the house too and the areas nice, but these last 6 weeks he hasn’t always seemed to friendly or patient with me so it was a real surprise when he told me this.

I really have learned so much Spanish here so far specially since being out in the field. I’m miles from being fluent but I can understand and I can speak pretty well. If I had to live here I think id manage pretty well. During changes today the elders that are going home all gave their testimonies, many of them did it in 3 languages!!

Spanish, English and kek`chi. I wouldn’t be exited to learn kek` but it would be so cool to come home with 3 languages, one of which not a single person in the United States probably knows the least of. I COULD SAY ANYTHING ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME. Crazy. Spanish is fun so far, but I still love English more. To me at least it seems like the words in English have a lot more power to them. This might be because I don’t know enough Spanish for it to be as powerful but we’ll see.

Ok time to lay down the law alright? If I’m sending a letter a week then you are too ok? (and also anybody else reading this I invite you to write me periodically on dearelder) it is a very, very sad week when i dont receive anything. and i will say that does happen alot. Sad face. I tried to send a letter 2 weeks ago or so with coins from Guatemala but I apparently can’t do that so you’ll have to wait till I come home to see some Guatemala money. Its cool, coins and bill like America but much more colorful. The 1 quetzals are green the 5s are red the 10s are blue and the 20s are purplish 50s are purplish too and 100s are red with other colors. Cool cool.

Mmmmm what else to say? no sé. uhhhh some random news! Hurray... my very good friend Elder smith got put with a companion whose name is...

Elder smith! Haha that will raise some odd questions. !hola¡ me nombre es agent smith y compañero es agent smith ¿como esta?

...hehehe...

Well all for now! Love you all send me some love!

Elder Bronson