Elder Gurksnis goes to Guatemala: Things I miss… cute girls, cute dogs, and Sunday with my family.

Well another good weak in Guatemala!

I had my first baptism on and although it looks like he was super mad about the salvation of his soul, I promise Hermano Carlos was actually way pumped ;) Guatemalans have a thing for not smiling in pictures. But yeah he's actually hilarious and has the funniest laugh haha. We have another baptism thiwith Marco. He just turned 8 years old and hes the son of Jose Jon who was baptised about a month before I got here. Not kidding when i say hes the coolest and sweetest 8 year old on the planet. Every time we go into a lesson he's smiling with his like 5 teeth and gives us a huge hug when we get there and when we leave. He's awesome.

We have an investigator Fredick who we knew from the first 20 minutes he would be baptized. He's absolutely awesome. He's 20 years old and super cool. He's read almost through Alma in the Book of Mormon in about a week and a half. We gave him a baptism date on the second lesson of the 22nd of November. And then we have Silvia who if she gets to church every once in a while, we will baptize her on the 22nd as well.

That's our toughest problem. The people … how do I say this?… lack motivation. For the most part. There are 600 members in the Limon ward but only 90 to 110 show up each week. This is something that obviously we aren't used to in the states. But the people here either have a testimony and don't come because of laziness. Or dont have a testimony at all and don't come. But the active members are super active and super helpful and they pick up all the slack. Its pretty amazing how much they all do and its so amazing to me. Our bishop is just amazing.

So a few things I was missing this week... I miss cute girls first off. I havent seen a pretty girl in two months and I don't think people quite realize the damage that does to your brain. I have permanent Beer/missionary goggles Lol. I miss cute dogs. I have developed a fear of dogs from being here. They all look straight from "dog hell" quite honestly. About half of them have mainge. There's this one dog we saw all week with it's guts literally hanging out of its stomach and I really don't know how its still alive. And all the chick dogs have 8 nipples that drag along the floor as they walk. Not a huge fan of dogs in Guat. I also miss my church home... right now its hard because I miss Sundays with my family and I can't really feel the spirit during church here when i can still only pick up things here and there with the language. Its like they only speak with vowels. Where are the consonants?

I also now know where all the losing world series/superbowl team shirts go and its not Africa. Its Limon Guatemala. I counted 3 "Texas Rangers 2012 World Series Champs" shirts this week lol. There's also tons of shirts with English writing… but no one in America would ever consider wearing… so they ship them here! There was a 70 year old lady at church this week who got up and bore her testimony. Her shirt said "I love my boyfriend" in rainbow letters and the love was replaced by a playboy bunny. It was funny but she's amazing. Its really incredible the poverty here. But the people are incredible. Seriously I'm amazed every day about how happy they are in the conditions that they live in.

The other day I had a somewhat scary moment. A drunk guy came up to me just slooossshhheeddd out of his mind but he was trying to talk english and he wasn't bad. But he kept grabbing me and he was a scary looking dude. He kept saying he was a lost ship and needed direction, along with literally prolly 20 f bombs in between. He said he needed direction so what else would I do except give him a Book of Mormon! haha He's now meeting with the elders in that area cause he's not in mine.

So my spiritual/encouragement thought of the week... So again we have some amazing members in our ward. And the difference in success with the work has seriously so much to do with the ward members. A lot of our success is because of our ward. So my challenge to my family and all Mormons at home is to BE those members! Get references. It's not hard I promise you. Be friends with the missionaries. Tell them, if they're tired and need a half hour come by and grab some water, hang out for a few minutes, and get back to it. The members that are like that here, oh my gosh I can't put into words how much a difference it has made in my attitude. Do everything you can to help with the work! "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the eyes of God," D&C 18:10.

Have a good week everyone!

Texas Forever,

Elder Gurksnis