Elder Nathan in Quetzaltenango (Xela)

Hola cada uno! [Hello to each one of you!]

Que calidad! Its a phrase they say a lot here which roughly means AWESOME or COOL.

Last Tuesday I left the CCM and drove four hours to Xela!

We had an overview of the mission from the President and the assistants. During that time President Smith interviewed everyone for about 2 minutes. Once he'd interviewed everyone, he announced where everyone was going. I got called to Santa Cruz in Quiche, Quiche.

El Quiche, Guatemala

My companion is Elder Golledge. He's from San Diego, California. He's been great! He's been out ten months so he knows a lot. Funny story...my companion from the CCM, Elder Hohman, got called to the same district too! So excited I'll be seeing him more!

Mi nuevo compañero, Elder Golledge [my new companion]

Sept 2, 2014: Elder Hohman y yo estamos iendo al campo [in the mission field]

To get to Santa Cruz, my companion and I went to the terminal. It was crazy! There were buses and people everywhere! We ended up on the same bus as Elder Galbraith and Elder Hohman who are companions. We weren't going to make it to Santa Cruz in time so we slept at their apartment that first night.

The countryside is so beautiful. It's very green and there are mountains and volcanoes everywhere. It rains a lot on and off. 

Mucha lluvia  [A lot of rain]

Mucho lodo  [A lot of mud]

There are Tuks Tuks everywhere in the city, which is like a motorcycle taxi. There's also microbuses and chicken buses if you want to get to farther places. There is a huge plaza (la parque central) in the center of Santa Cruz. There's always a ton of people there.

Our apartment is really nice. I feel so blessed. It has a bathroom, study room, sleeping area and separate kitchen. We also get the roof all to ourselves! The view is amazing! Hermana Marisol (a member) rents the apartment to us. She owns a photography shop and lives on the first floor. She's super nice! She always invites us over to talk or for food. She lives with her daughter and her mother. It's been great getting to know them.

 Mi lugar favorita cada noche

[My favorite place every night]

 La lavandería sobre el techo

[Our laundromat on the roof]

[How WILL those white shirts stay clean??]

The culture is very different. A lot more chaotic -- haha -- but I love the people here. Everyone is open to hear about God. We opened our area so we've been doing A LOT of contacting. We like to contact in la parque central because there's always a lot of people there. We've done a lot of door knocking too.

One night, it was around 8:30 and we were knocking doors. We knocked on the last door of this street. A man opened the door and after talking to him for a while he invited us in. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and bearing our testimonies that we know Joseph Smith is a prophet. We haven't been able to meet with him since but I hope he reads the Book of Mormon and comes to know it's true.

Another time, we were walking down the street in the middle of the day and saw a man opening his door with groceries. We quickly offered to help and started to talk with him about the gospel. His name is Carlos. We gave him a pamphlet of the Restoration. The next day we stopped by to see if we could teach him more about the Restoration but he was sick. He did tell us he wanted us to keep coming back because he wants to hear our message. We hope through the Spirit we can help him know of the truthfulness of the gospel.

We do have two investigators, Jesus and Abraham. Jesus is Abraham's dad. They've gone to church these past few weeks and have progressed a lot. We taught them a lesson on the Restoration last Friday. The Spirit was so strong! We challenged them to be baptized. They said they would pray to know if they should. We are teaching them later today so I can't wait to hear what they have to say. I know it's through prayer that we can receive revelation.

Gotta go! Thank you for all the letters at the CCM.  I miss you all!

Adios!