It was truly a testimony builder for the both of us

That stinks to hear that Justin is having companionship problems, I might be Abel to comprehend heheh. What’s his email, maybe I could keep in touch with him through out the mission.

Alright I have had a couple of spiritual experiences this week that I would like to share with you all.

1- We were on our way towards the stake center for a pday activity last week when a man from across the street waved us over, and we came. He explained to us that he was just getting out of the hospital from being attacked by thieves that left his right hand wounded and swollen. He needed money to buy more of the prescription he needed and didn’t know who to turn to so seeing us in the street he decided to ask. The medicine he said was going to cost maybe 115 quetzales, about 13 dollars, but here that is a good bit of money. We decided that we better help the poor man. We walked him to the nearest pharmacy and bought the pills he needed at a much lower price for about 40 quetzales. We offered to come by and teach him but he didn’t live in our area, and seeing how there is no such thing as an address here in Coban we left him hoping that he would find his way alright. The entire time I have my baptismal covenant running through my head...

Last Saturday was our baptism of Victoria Chen, the 74 year old Kekchi woman, and who was to show up but Julio, the same man that we helped buy medicine for! By some ridiculous miracle he found the sister missionaries in our district that serve in his area. Since then he has come to church, accepted a baptismal date and his hand is healing. He always tells us just how grateful he is for our help. I'm so happy to have been a part of that conversion.

2-We were looking for people to teach and contact (we reached our goals by the way!) and we came across an investigator named Juan Che and his family. Apparently they needed to find a new house to live in and had to move these GIANT wooden poles from their house in the mountainy part of our area to his new house right next to the church, about a 20 min walk away through the city area. We took the giant poles one each (a nice coincidence) and put them on our shoulders. Man, they were heavy! To carry mine I had to use so much strength I could hardly breathe and had to switch shoulders every couple minutes. Throughout the entire time I had the same scripture run through and through my head over and over. Mosiah 18:8 more about my baptismal covenant ¨willing to share their burdens one with another that they may be light¨ I finally decided to ask my companion Elder Spilker to share his load with me, our two poles over our 4 shoulders. WOW! The load was so light we felt that we could run and jump! It was truly a testimony builder for the both of us.

Those were the biggest for this week, along with the many that happen every minute of every day haha. In the end our goals and results were:

(Achieved / goal)
-baptismal dates 7/5
-contacts 202/300 (the goal was discontinued halfway through the week but we kept going a bit...)
-references received 16/15
New investigators 30/20

We met and overcame every single required goal! This next week the goal is 40 lessons, 20 of which with a member present while having interviews and zone conference in the same week, nearly 2 days lost of work!! Its ganna be a toughy but I have faith that God gave these goals to President Torres by revelation, and as we all know 1 Nephi 3:7, big testimony in that one. NOTHING IS IMPOSIBLE so long as it is the almighty will of God. I know that He lives and that He loves us and makes all these things possible for His children. I never need to fear, just do, what thing is more simple could He ask of us?

I love you all very much and with all my heart, I want only the best for you. Please don’t worry about me, I know that God has me in His hands, and what gives me peace of mind is that He has you all also. I know that if we are doing all we need to do, we won’t even find ourselves in those situations. (Andrew is referencing the massacre that just happened in Peten).  I want you all to read the scriptures this week, one chapter of whatever book of scripture, personally or in the family, just open the scriptures, don’t be afraid they are your best tool to find the salvation God has waiting for you. He will never lead you astray, its just not part of the plan. He loves you just far too much.

With all the charity in my heart I want the best for you all spiritually, physically and in all aspects. Gods plan is perfect as Jesus´ love for you all.

Have a good week, until next Monday and its stories,

Elder Andrew James Bronson

Life is so full of blessings I can hardly count them all

Well it’s been an interesting week; the call was a happy event.
It’s always a nice experience to hear your guy’s voice.

So this week was a fairly normal week for the work, I don’t remember anything CrAzY happening except that we are working so hard! We had a mountain of lessons and found a good 2 families worth of new investigators. Last Saturday we did some more machete-service and my arms are still a little bit sore, it was great, the pictures will be with this email. sweet sweet sweaty work! We had a total of 5 investigators in church this week, and we have 2 baptisms planed for this weekend, Sister Victoria and her granddaughter Nidia, and they are exited haha so am I.

This week will be one of some serious work, and I and my companion are super exited, we have been given those big goals and we are ready to talk to EVERYONE. 300 people in about 6 days, that’s missionary work! Helping 5 to accept a baptismal date. Some super focus required. We are planning a missionary activity like the olden times. I was watching a video about a member of the church in Joseph’s time name John Tanner, part of it was these two missionaries putting up posters and fliers advertizing something about What the Mormons Believe and they had a big old congregation where they found a whole bunch of people, we want to do about the same. Spend a week or two giving fliers and this Saturday the 21st borrow the church building for about an hour and hope a bunch of people come. We are going to give to members to pass out and also have them invite other full families.  We are going to teach about the Restoration of the Gospel, Gods love, how the gospel blesses families, prophets, apostasy, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, praying to know, then have refreshments and a table in back offering more pamphlets and stuff where people can put there name to hear the missionaries haha! Yup, I'm hoping it all goes well; the Bishop is exited to do it.

What else is new what else is new...maybe...hmmm

Wow it’s always a bit harder after calling you guys; I’m not sure what else to write. Life is so full of blessings I can hardly count them all, good companion, good area, good house, good food, I have no health problems; I’m working hard and am full of the spirit all the time. We are finding new people to teach all the time and some that we have been teaching are progressing nicely. I’m becoming a better teacher and Spanish is becoming so easy for me now I understand it as if I were talking in plain English, sometimes I can hardly tell the difference haha!

...we cleaned the house today? Not too much out of the normal just lots of being happy. I have a lot of friends here in Coban, the ward is awesome, my testimony is growing and we see people making changes all the time. I almost have the feeling all of this sweet is going to have to pass pretty soon through some bitter, that’s what always happens. Nevertheless I will be strong, there’s nobody stopping me from doing what I know I need to do, save some soul!

Maybe you guys could do me a favor and just make sure you guys are doing all that you know you need to do, prayer and scripture study, church and tithing, being good examples to others and being patient in your afflictions. Service, it makes people happiest when they are serving people.

With the package just surprise me with whatever you want to do, pictures, CDs, pop tarts, lots of love and maybe something about Jesus.

I love you more than I can say and I miss you, only one more phone call left and I’m coming home, 9 months haha, you can do it! Take care of Brandyn; I hope all is well on his side too. Well then famy it’s until next week, love you miss you stay strong and do your stuff, pray, ok? I love you

os amo!

Élder Andrew James Bronson

I HONESTLY LOVE COBAN SO MUCH

Pizzas and parties and blessings all around eh?

...well me too!
Can you guys guess where I am..?

I am in...
Coban!!!

I'm out of the concrete and into the jungle haha. My area is called Coban 2; part of it still is city, but only a small portion. The rest of the area is fields and hills and trees, lots of ups and downs and greenery. We have 2 baptismal dates and another woman who is close to accepting one. One of the dates is a woman of 75 years, and only speaks Q´eqchi! The family she lives with is a member family and they know Spanish and Q´eqchi so it’s all good. My companion is Elder Spilker, my very first white skinned companion of my mission haha, Elder Bowman is from the States but he’s dark-skinned so he doesn’t count haha. To the world we are the two ¨Canches¨ Canche is like a guy with clear hair, or white guy but there are plenty who like to shout it out haha.

Well it has been a VERY eventful week here in Coban, change conference was Wednesday and I had to say goodbye to Elder Letner who finished his mission, and Elder Whited who would be staying in the cap, as well as many others. On the bus I was talking with Elder Jensen, a Canadian elder who’s a really great guy truly devoted to the work. We talked for the near 5 hour bus ride. On the bus they showed Step Up 3, we couldn’t hear a thing but it was still incredibly tempting not to watch all the break dancing awesomeness haha. When we arrived it was really dark, I met my companion Elder Spilker and we were off to the house. The area is beautiful and the people are SO much more receptive, within three days we found 11 new investigators, as apposed to Lomas del Norte where we would contact for hours to maybe find 1 person to ¨come back another day¨. A lot more people here (I think up to 80%) are indigenous, pure Lamanite haha, a lot without much education.

My first day included my nametag snapping in half, seeing a lightning bolt hit a tree causing it to fall into power lines knocking out power for some homes and an enormous rainstorm that trapped us in a random kind tortilla-makers home for about an hour.

I HONESTLY LOVE COBAN SO MUCH I feel like a started my mission over again that I finally got sent to the mission field that I saw in my mind as I opened my call package. Rainy jungly simple Coban... my second day was pretty neat too, I studied some Q´eqchi and it’s a beautiful language, among seeing other things.  Today was amazing, we went cave exploring in Rey Marcos caves and I took a ton of pictures, then we came back and we ate dominos pizza and soft serve ice cream. Yum!

Well life is great, I feel almost overly blessed just by being here. I have a companion who is an honest hard worker who loves the work, my area is my dream mission, I’m healthy, the ward is awesome and big and I feel the spirit in great abundance. I just hope that you guys are doing all that you can do to beware of pride, pride was the fall of the Nephites, as well as the devil himself. Read the scriptures, love one another, pray to God to help you do his will, and I know that if you search with all intent of heart and with real desire HE WILL HELP YOU in whatever you are doing. I love you and wait to hear from you this Sunday at 8! (My time). Help somebody come to church this week.

Elder Andrew Jimmy Bronson

We have in these last few days acquired 11 baptismal dates (and many more progressing)

Well this week was interesting, the work continued on but the streets...they were dead. NOBODY not even the shops that are on every single street corner were open, at least half of the people we know left but we did find some stuff to do. The area is progressing, and that is just amazing for me, EVEN THOUGH IM LEAVING!! Yup, they called us with changes this morning. Of course I have no idea where I'm going or who with but I as always have me fingers crossed that it’s my turn to leave the cap. It has been a completely amazing change, I absolutely love Elder Asencio and the area is just great. when I left Juana de Arco it was as dead as we had found it, and when I left Santa Elena I did so in the hands of Elder V...nothing good came out of that, but now I’m leaving my absolutely beloved area, and am doing so in the hands of my beloved companion, and in amazing shape. We have in these last few days acquired 11 baptismal dates, (and many more progressing) the highest I have reached on my mission, and they are al honestly progressing!


One of them is Jaime Muñoz, he is an honest seeker of the truth and is really looking for a remission of his sins, and it’s a spiritual lesson every time. We always find him waiting outside his house for us, and he has told us that he waits for us all day, sometimes walking the Colonia in wait for hours. Haha...hmmm

Ana Sofia has come to church 3 times now and is excitedly awaiting baptism on the 7th of May. Our other 9 are the entire Santizo and Carrera Families who accepted the invitation, but are still having troubles overcoming their faith-without-a-church beliefs.

So hopefully all things are going well at home? good news I've nearly filled another memory card completely just with videos of me and my companions, there is a lot of Spanish so I might need to translate some parts when I get home, but just so that you know its on its way, if I can ever finish the letter I’m writing to you guys right now, another personal message to everyone letter. In this last week we have been doing some service, some of the pictures are of a house that we had to disassemble and reassemble; it was actually a ton of fun. To get back home we had to ask for two different ¨jalón¨s basically just hitching a ride on the side of the road with anyone willing to take us along but it went well and was also fun. The other service we had to move two half-pipes of concrete across a soccer field for a family in Canalitos, it’s really poor down there. After hauling the concrete pipes we had extra time...so we explored all the way to a secret river, to get there required some mountain hiking and it was extremely entertaining, some of the pictures are of a GIANT um...plant, darn I cant think of what its called in Inglés sorry, but you are going to recognize it.

Well mothers day is right around the corner and hopefully I will be out of the cap for the call haha! I guess only God knows haha He’s got the plan.

Ooohh almost forgot, I don’t know how tight it is on money back home, but rainy season is coming and my shoes have once again disintegrated nearly beyond feasible use, I don’t know if you could be so kind as to deposit a bit of money for some newer shoes and possibly an umbrella? Ill try to go cheap don’t worry, but I’m down to one pair of shoes.

I love you all and you already know how exited I am to hear your much more mature voices, you should write down your questions to me so that we have something to talk about when we call. I want to make sure that everyone is infact reading the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon, I might have to quiz you guys on it when I get back) and saying personal prayers, boys, if you don’t really know how to pray personally, get in the groove, your lives will change.

I love you SO MUCH please have a happy safe spiritual week, I’ll let you guys know what happens with changes next week!

Elder Andrew Bronson

Changes are coming up soon and with a little mysterious excitement

Holy cow it’s so amazing to see so much progress in everybody, just like here!

There are a lot of investigators progressing here in Lomas. I think I’ll just give you guys la lista:

Hector Claveria- unexpectedly came to church again! (8th time) his work had been so crazy that I hadn’t seen him in well over a month but his on vacations for ¨Semana Santa¨ (Central Americas week-long Easter in celebration of Christ’s last week of life) it’s pretty intense. Still takes notes of the talks and classes, still works in perfectly with the members in the discussions, still amazing!
Santizo and Carrera Families- didn’t make it to church but are praying constantly to know the truth and have family scripture study every night before bed, amazing.
Jaime Muñoz- the only investigator to come to our super zone activity Saturday, reads the Book of Mormon every day and is nearly in Alma I think haha! Didn’t make it to church either but that might have been our fault oops. He was the cause of a couple of miracles that day, more later.
Ana Sofia- one of our baptism dates for the 7th of May, already knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and loves to come to church, exited for her baptism I think haha
Susy we just found, couldn’t make it to church but she too accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of May.

Changes are coming up soon and with a little mysterious excitement. I've received a hint from President Torres at the start of the change that I might stay even another, then again it might just be time for me to be sent up to Petén, and every time I think of it I get butterflies in my tummy and a peace in my heart...yay? My companion Elder Asencio is probably one of my very favorite Elders, definitely one of my favorite companions, he’s a great friend. We have more Spanish inside jokes that I could fit in a book ha! What a joker that guy. I love him so much. I saw Elder Whited again today man I miss that guy, we will definitely be hanging out after the mission, he loves to think about that story I'm writing with Brandyn, that’s waiting for after the mission to be worked on. On the subject of Brandyn I just barely received an email that fills my stomach with a joyful blessed buzz, he has finally...FINALLY he has his papers turned in and will be waiting for his calling...to a Spanish speaking mission maybe, hopefully, prayerfully? Oh how much I would love that...

This week in central America is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week where everyone goes on vacations, even the poor people and they do processions (Catholic street parades deals with statues of the virgin Maria and the crucified Christ) we are expecting to be the only living people who live here for about a week with maybe nothing to do, but we will see. I hope it’s a busier week that a slower week, I don’t like not doing anything it irritates and stresses me out. I need to be working or I just don’t ...function. It’s not in the program haha I’m not here to nap or chill with members, I’m here to bring my brothers and sisters to God through the healing powers of Christ. My testimony grows every day; my faith is stronger that it has ever been. I feel the love and blessings and mercy of my Savior and Heavenly Father for me and for others. I know that this is the true church, and that there is none other upon the face of the earth that can lead us safely back to Their presence. I am so filled with love and service, does the mission really end? Can I not just stay here forever?

Don’t worry mom, I will be coming back for greater things follow this, I am just trying to do it as faithfully as possible.

I love you all, please, stay safe, I will see you again

Elder Andrew James Bronson

This last weekend 13 of our investigators came to church

Sorry the internet is going absolutely berserk and erased my 45 min message containing all the awesomeness of this whole week.

This week is going to be short for lack of time, once again...sorry.

Today temple, it’s been so long I needed it so bad. This last weekend 13 of our investigators came to church, 10 of them for the first time the family Santizo and Carrera and lessons so spiritual. They are praying to know if it is true, but I think that they already know. We found a new inactive family to teach and they have a 13 year old daughter that never got baptized for the inactivity of the family but already knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and is a super quick interested learner. We received a reference that was SO AMAZING that she (Susy our new investigator) already accepted a date for baptism and is already exited.

Uhhhhh sorry if I seem annoyed, but that might just be haha my letter before was happy-skippy sunshine, just know that.  I love you so much and I owe you all a great big email next week with pictures, alright? Just know my love for you is stronger than ever, never get down on yourselves just trust in God and he will lift you higher than ever. Changes are in about 2 weeks I'm wondering what might happen I have nearly 6 months in this area alone even though it doesn’t feel like it

Until next week,
Andrew

Alright missionary work story time, what you are all waiting for right?

Hello beloved family, I'm happy it’s finally time to write you again.
General Conference was incredible, I absolutely loved every single second of it, and as some might possibly be wondering, how many notes did I take?  19 1/2 pages of conference notes, yeah!  And you guys...? jk I don’t expect you all to be quite as field missionaries, but I think I might still take notes even after my mission, it helps me pay attention and not zone-out haha

Today was something cool we all met up in the Molino Stake to listen to the Temple president talk to all the city missionaries of Mission Guatemala Norte about the book of Mormon ruins and history, all the cool things that show evidences of the reality of the Book of Mormon. Example....the native Americans claim that there were/are 7 major tribes that exist/ed here in this part of the world, now I invite you to read Jacob 1:12-13 and count how many ¨ites¨ there are. That’s just one of the things but its all cool haha.

Alright missionary work story time, what you are all waiting for right? yeah...I know it is.

Last saturday we had an apointment to teach Juan Fernando and his brother again after conference saturday night, but when we got there he said he was just out of time with his studies and everything he has absolutly no time, never the less we asked him if he had prayed intently to know if our message is true. Wow, it was perfect, maybe the first real time in all my mission.  He said that he DID pray, and when he listened he never heard a definitive Yes or No, but had a peace enter into his heart...a peace that lasted, and stayed with him throughout the entire week! BOOM he received and answer, and the gospel is true. He’s very busy but was going to check on him next Saturday, I pray that he won’t forget that experience ever, and that he might have to faith to press on even in trials.

Other story! Remember the Santizo/Carrera families of gold that we found ages ago at the end of my second change here. They hadn’t been progressing at all, no reading nor praying, nor church, everything was all unorganized and confusing between them with all the commitments so we decided to straighten that up this visit. Our 45 min plan lasted 2 hours and the spirit was SO STRONG. we watched a short clip about the Gospel of Jesus Christ about 5 min and began to explain faith, repentance baptism and all that, they had the most amazing focused questions like ¨how can one trying to do everything he can to follow God find that peace that he still doesn’t have? ¨ And another ¨can our sins result in physical sicknesses? ¨ All sorts of amazingness. The last one really emphasized that the Book of Mormon can answer ANY question about ANYTHING. Ever. Period, Clear?  Instantly the passage from Alma chapter 15 flew into my head and we shared Zeezrom´s experience of the sins that were tormenting him until having a burning fever, until Alma and his buddy Amulek came to save the day with some faith-healing and a side of baptism to top it off. BOOM invitation to be baptized! They accepted that if they came to know that this is the true gospel they would certainly be baptized by authority, they even did something we have been trying to do this whole time with them. They promised to come with us to church this next Sunday, all 9 of them!! YES!!!

Anything more than that gets less spiritual, like our countless experience with the common bolo-menice! In other words all the random drunk people who have no idea what’s going on that stop us in the street to tell us that I’m from the US and that my comp isn’t. Thanks random drunk guy, when the sun shines could you tell us too? Haha... one called me ox and told my comp to ¨be quiet Mule¨ hahaha! I was just afraid something weird would happen and he would hit me or something I think I might have been a bit mad? It’s hard to tell sometimes haha but nothing happened. Good night brother! (Much running).

Well this week I actually forgot to bring my camera cable so no pictures. Not too much happened this week camera-wise anyway, just doodles on the whiteboard with my companion...who is awesome!

I love you guys a ton and I know that Christ lives, I loved all the talks about testimony during conference that it doesn’t come in a flash of an angelic miracle, but over time so quietly that you might not be able to mark a certain point when POW you know. That how I am, but I know of an absolute assurance that this is the true Gospel and there is none other sobre la faz de la tierra, on the face of the earth.

Until next week beloved family, stay safe I beg thee; I love you more that words can express.

Elder Andrew James Bronson
Élder Andrés Santiago Bronson