"Life down here is sooo great!"

HEYO,

That turkey was SOOOOOO good! I don't think I will ever eat anything as good as that as long as I'm on my mision. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, greens, gravy, and some really delicious natural home made fruit punch, so good!!!

I haven´t received any of those packages from anyone. The office is holding all of the packages that are coming in until the Christmas party that´s next Monday I think, which means that I may or may not be able to write next week....who knows. But if you want you can tell me what Ryan and Gail sent if ya want...lol!

Sounds like the Christmas spirit is just running amuck in the house over there, how exciting! You guys need to be sure to send some Christmas photos of everyone and the tree and Callie, lol. I miss my stupid little pup.


Let's see some questions:

How are you adjusting to city life after being in the jungle?

Pretty well I guess. It's really wierd being able to have whatever I need when I need it though. And the people are a lot different, more wordly...I don't really like that aspect.. but overall it's really nice, for nothing else to at least have a shower lol!

Which do you prefer?

I don't know. I like them both the same really. The work is the same wherever I go. The jungle is a lot more beautiful, but the city life is definately a lot more organized.


Do you ever use a car since you live with the zone leaders? If so, how is that?

No, only the assistant, like Elder Burton, have the use of cars. But we do see the assistants a lot more that we´re actually here in Reu.


Will it be hard to go back to the jungle?

Nah, I don't think so. There is just so much time lost when you´re in the jungle because of how long it takes to travel, but I don't think it will be.


Cultural observation this week to share?

....I'm pretty good at carving stuff with a machete, lol.


Most interesting thing you saw?

My companion and I were chopping some wood for an old woman. Down here you usually chop with machetes, and it was his turn and my comp was just choppin away when BOOM! Tarzan snapped the machete clean in half! ¡Que Poder!


Most interesting contact?

LOL, Ok so first I don't care what anyone says about it not raining anymore, because we got dumped on the other day. Anyways, we were walking along and out of no where it just started pouring. So we ran home, threw our backpacks in the house, grabbed some Books of Mormon and some foyetos, (pamphlets) triple bagged those and ran back out into the rain. We went out to go contact but we were seriously soaked head to toe. I was just running through the rain gutters for the fun of it... I was already soaked and we ran down this alleyway and passed by a couple houses and then my companion was like "WAIT!" So we turned around and we saw this guy just sitting in his house. So we contacted him and turns out that he had been talking with the missionaries before and I'm not really quite sure what happened but they never came back. The guy was like yeah, I've been waiting for you guys to come back. So we taught him about the Restauración and after the lesson we invited him to get down on his knees right then with us and pray to God asking him if what we had just taught him was true. So he did so. And after his prayer I asked how he felt, he told me he felt calm and peaceful. So then we challenged him to prepare for baptism and he was a little sceptical at first but then agreed to prepare and find out more about what it was that we were teaching. This is the key that I´ve found that is necesary to be a successful baptising missionary. You can't show fear about the things you teach, you must give a bold, strong, and undeniable testimony of the gospel. After every lesson you must finish by praying on your knees, and always challenge them to either prepare to be baptised or be baptised in the FIRST lesson, no matter what. I´ve found that when you do these things, success comes at a much faster pace.


Spiritual experience to share?

Just how in tune to the spirit my companion is. We will be walking along and out of nowhere he will stop and say "Elder, we need to go back and contact that house!" And we do and we usually always find someone in that house that is willing to listen to our message.

The time is going by sooo fast now, I really don't understand it. It's like as soon as you get the language down you just hit a slippery slide and the time just flies by. I can't believe that I'm about to hit 10 MONTHS!!! That´s almost a year! What the heck is going on? Time just flies by! But I guess the best part is that I'm really enjoying it. Me and Elder Morgan, (an elder that's going home this Feburary) ... we were talking and I was just listening to the conversations and we were eating outside with some members, the stars were out, the old guys were talking about the good ole days, and I was just sitting there thinking...I will never do this again in my life. When will I just be relaxing after a good days work with some good Guatemalan buddies just soaking up the life. Life down here is sooo great! Who knows if I´ll actually come home, lol!

Anyways, theres a tid bit for today,
Love ya'll,
E. Marquis