2011 July 25

2011 July 25

Hey guys!

This week has been literally insane. I had changes! I stayed in the Zone of Brasilia but I moved from Chiantla to Brasilia. And my new companion is named Elder Bennion! He is the first Gringo companion that I have had since Ronfeldt and he is actually from Federal Way in Washington too! He told me that he lived right next to Wild Waves which is crazy because it means that I drove by his house every single Saturday on my way to TYSA and I didn't even meet him until we came to Guatemala. He actually came with me in my group and I randomly met him in the MTC in Provo too and here we are, 10 months later, as companions. He´s a great guy and a great missionary too. I think that I am going to learn a lot from him. Elder Hernandez got transferred to my first Zone in Huehue, Zaculeu to an area that I forgot the name of. But anything would have been better for him than Chiantla so it´s good that he got changed.

My new area, even though it´s only like 20 minutes from Chiantla on Bus is sooo much hotter than Chiantla ever was because Chaintla is a bunch of Mountains and Brasilia has some hills but nothing really that impressive. So it´s pretty hot but I like it a lot. There is so much stuff to do in the ward to improve it and I have big plans for this ward. I am SO EXCITED! We are going to have a talent show in the ward tomorrow and I am way excited about that.

AND the first day that we got here, we didn't know anything about the area and it was dark so we couldn't really do anything so we went to the ward so that we could start meeting people because of mutual. And we met the Bishop and he said that he had 3 different kids who are the kids of some less actives who were not baptized and it was going to just take the permission of the dad to get baptized because they had already been taught. So we have a fecha to baptize the three of them this week. And Elder Bennion and I have been contacting a little bit too and God is blessing us with so many people who he has prepared for us to teach them the gospel.

And something crazy that happened this week is that I was made Zone Leader. It was kind of hard for me at first because I felt so unprepared to be a zone leader because I had never been a district leader or even trained before. But with a lot of prayer and study I feel a little bit more comfortable with the idea. I still don´t really understand why I am a zone leader right now but, poco a poco. If you guys could pray for me, then that would be great. J

Hey! God lives and he loves each of you! Pray and read your scriptures and you will feel his love better!

Sorry, this seems rushed--the time kind of got away from me...

Love,

Elder Froelich

2011 July 18

2011 July 18 PM

Hey! How have you guys been this week?

This week has been good. We had had to leave a couple of investigators because Elder Hernandez can´t walk that well. It is tough to find members to go on divisions with us because of one problem or another. So there was this one investigator that we had that was, actually pretty positive but we had had to leave him because it was impossible to get to his house with a hurt knee and I was given his incorrect phone number and everything else. But we did divisions with the zone leaders on Thursday and I took the ZL to the house of this investigator and we put a baptismal date for the 30th of this month! So that is cool. And Maynor, just went down to San Marcos on Friday because he just lost his job and had to go down there to work and he isn´t going to return for 2 weeks. So we´ll see how that goes. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us that he would read it every day for 5 minutes and we are calling and texting him to encourage him but we´ll see how all of that goes.

Right now, we have a couple of families (the sisters and the respective families of Hermana Emma) that we are kind of putting on the backburner. Apparently, there have been about a million different missionaries who have visited them but they have never really accepted anything. But we´ll see how that goes.

And, yeah, as far as changes in the mission (in areas and comps) my mission has been pretty crazy. Just this change, for example, I have had 3 different companions and on Wednesday, there are changes again and we are pretty sure that Elder Hernandez is going to have changes (because he had to call the mission nurses on Friday and Saturday to say that we had to stay in the house because of his knee. And the mission nurses told him that they were going to talk to the president to say that he has to have changes out of this area because it is really not good for him.) It kind of stinks that we are going to have changes again because Elder Hernandez is a good guy, but I have seriously been soo careful with him and his knee and it is still getting worse. So he really does need changes because Chiantla is being way too rough on his knee. I am going to miss him because he´s a good guy, but I´m excited to be able to work without worrying if I am making his knee hurt...

And with the Q50 bill, I have no idea who gave it to me because I had 3 different bills of 50 in my wallet at one time and so I don´t really have any way of knowing who gave it to me. But it´s all good.

And it would be interesting to know the reasons why the shoes that I had were not good for Guatemala. Also, and I´m sure you already know this, but make sure that you completely cover this box with Jesus Stickers and stuff.

Well, I have to go! I don´t know where all of my time went today! But have a great week!

Love,

Elder Froelich

2011 July 11

2011 July 11

Hey Guys!

This week was packed with a bunch of exciting stuff and now that I have gotten into the habit of writing everything down that I want to tell you guys on Monday, I am not going to forget ANY of it!

Something that is pretty crazy to realize is that this week is the 6th one of the changes. We are going to be having changes again on the 20th! Something crazy is that in this change, I have had 3 companions: Barboza, Cuellar, and Hernandez. Crazy! But it’s been really great.

Last week, Ryan sent me a letter about how to be a good missionary and I liked it a lot. The first part of his letter, he gave me a bunch of really useful ideas to do missionary work but at the very end, he said "One last note. If you don´t love your companion, that is your fault. Serve him until you love him." And then we went on a little bit more. And I felt pretty grilled, I must say but only because the spirit was burning it into me (2 Nephi 33:5). But it was really good.

On Tuesday, we got to have interviews with the president and there was a lot of good stuff that happened there. One thing is that I got to talk to Elder Ronfelt. He kind of goes everywhere now that he is an assistant and he told me that Everaldo, an investigator that we found and were teaching back in Canquixaja has already stopped drinking and he and his wife want to get married and baptized! And that is awesome because when we were there, it didn´t really seem like they were very positive but, now, they want to get baptized! And that was super awesome to find out!

On Tuesday, I also had an interview with the president. And he was like (in a nutshell), "As the mission president, God has blessed me with the Gift of Discernment and, because of that, I can tell that you are a great missionary...." (and then he told me some more stuff but he told me that to keep it confidential so this is me keeping it confidential) but, needless to say, that he is a great guy. And then I went in with the Mission President´s wife, Hermana Bautista and something that was funny was that I couldn´t speak English at all. Haha, I was actually getting really frustrated with myself because I couldn´t express myself in English anymore and she doesn´t know any Spanish. It usually doesn´t matter because whenever I talk to someone in English here, they also speak Spanish so it doesn´t matter if I use Spanish words. But I guess that that is what you get when you have only had Latinos as companions for 6 months of your mission.

Something else cool that happened is that out investigator who is going to get baptized I think on the 23rd of April, Mynor, has to get married first, but when we talked to him he said that he didn´t want to get married anymore because he was upset with his girlfriend and so my compa and I gave him some marriage counseling and it was really good, because I have had some problems with some comps so we were pulling out scriptures and experiences and it was great. And the advice that Ryan gave me on how to have a good companionship was really helpful too!

This week was pretty good but given all of the things that happened, you wouldn´t really think that it would have turned out well. But what happened is that we were walking in an area of our area named Chuscaj and my compa was like "Dude! My knee hurts!" (In English because we are practicing English together) and I was like "are you okay?" and he was like "don´t worry about it--it´s nothing" So we just kept on walking but then on Friday morning he woke up and could barely walk so we called the mission nurses and they told him that he just needed to stay in the house all day. You´d think that that would have been devastating, which it was kind of was because that meant that I would have to stay in the house all day and not be working hard to bring souls to Christ, which it did but it was a way miraculous 3 days (it was on Thursday that he said that he knee hurt and Friday through Sunday when we were told to stay in the house). We couldn´t really leave the house, but, for example, we still left for a cita that was about a minute walk from our house with a menos activa and because of that cita, we now have 5 new investigators because we ran into someone who asked us to come and teach their family. And then we also have this other family who are references and they are so prepared for baptism that it isn´t even funny. And then there is this family where the mom is less active but the kids’ aren´t even members and there was a freak event that made them have so much more trust in us. So it was such a miraculous week! SOOO that means that as long as we do as much as we can do, God will bless us with success (kind of like salvation--we are saved with grace after all that we can do). So it was definitely really great to see the Lord´s hand in the work so potently this week. So thanks for putting our name in the temple!

One of the menos activos that we were visiting was named Emma (I think that it was last week when I told the story of when I gave her a blessing) and she told us when we went to visit her that she loves us like her own sons and we have been over to her house, seriously 2 times. And she also just handed over a jug and cups and bread and pineapple to us like it was nothing. Haha, she said " I would give you guys more but I don´t have anything else to give." And she, honestly, hardly knows us! What an amazing example of love. I think that if I can develop half of that love by the time I end my mission, I will be set for life. But good, good lady.

Something cool that happened is that I tried spending some money with a Q50 bill and they lady didn´t accept it and said that it was fake! My first fake bill experience! It was a wayy good fake though. It had a watermark and everything! I taped it in my journal so that I could remember it.

And I also asked Ronfeldt why the packages were taking so long to get to us and he said that it is the mail system´s fault. So I don´t know! And my hymnbook is awesome! I still haven´t had an opportunity to really use it because the chapel of Chiantla is really small and doesn´t really have a piano. But I am excited to use it!

But thanks for all of your prayers! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Froelich

2011 July 4

2011 July 4

Hey Guys!

This week was good though. Sometimes it makes it hard because Elder Hernandez can´t walk all that much because of a torn ligament in his knee and since the area is, really, just a bunch of mountains, it makes it kind of hard sometimes. But it´s all been good. I have made it my goal to love every one of my companions as much as I loved Elder Cuellar. So far, so good. Poco a poco.

One day in estudio personal this week, I analyzed my setting apart blessing that you scribed when the stake president was giving it to me versus my patriarchal blessing and the two things are remarkably similar! And so I thought that that was really great. A scripture that I found after I found out that Cuellar had changes was in D&C 9:5-6 and I liked that a lot. And one day while Elder Hernandez was in the shower, I was randomly singing "Child´s prayer" and I felt the spirit suuper strong because I didn´t really feel like God was responding to my prayers but he was. He just said no.

Something cool that happened this week is that someone finally called us for a pamphlet that we handed out! In the almost ten months that I have on my mission, I have never had anyone who has called us in response to the folletos that we have given them even though every single one of our folletos have our number on the back. But that all changed on Saturday... Her name was Fernanda and she called us because of the number that she found on the back of the folleto. The funny thing is that we called her back (because we didn´t recognize the number) and she said that she hadn´t even read the folleto. So I asked her if she wanted to come to church on Sunday and I even called to remind her on Sunday morning but she didn´t want anything. She just wanted to flirt with me. So that kind of stinks but it´s all good. We are never going to talk with her again or even go near her house but poco a poco. Who knows?! Maybe the next person who calls us because of a folleto that we have given them will actually want to know more about Jesus Christ. J

And yesterday was pretty good too. I felt pretty ridic because I didn´t really feel like I had fulfilled my purpose as a missionary because we had just walked all the way to a member´s house super far away and then my comp´s knee started acting up so we had to walk more slowly and after dark, if you don´t have appointments then you basically can´t do anything because contacting does not work at night-time so we just went to this one less active´s house that has recently been coming to church (Elder Cuellar and I helped to reactivate her) and we were just talking and at the end of the night, her mom, who is also a menos activo, asked us for a blessing. And the really great part was that she asked me to give her the blessing part. That is awesome because, even though my Spanish is pretty good at this point (I get complimented on it pretty frequently ) and I make sure that I comport myself in a good, competent, friendly manner in front of everyone, I never get to give the blessing part because they want a native to do it for them. But she was emphatic that I give it to her. So I just gave a blessing according to what the spirit whispered to me and when I finished she was in tears and my comp and I could feel the spirit and she was so grateful that I was just dying from how strong the spirit was right then. It was a great experience. As we were walking back to our own house, I said to my companion "I love her and I don´t even know her!" and he was like, "yeah, me too."

Elder Hernandez is a reasonably obedient elder it is just that it is sometimes hard for him to work because of his knee. And I have to work a little bit harder to get along with him but he really is a good guy.

This area has been doing good though. God has been blessing us for working as hard as we can despite the challenges that we may have. Right now, we have a baptismal date that we are trying to set for the 16th but if not the 16th for the 30th with someone named Maynor! And we are going to go on splits with members so that I can visit our other date that was for the 9th who we couldn´t visit with Elder Hernandez because of he lives way, way, way up in a hill that, translated into English would be big hill (Cerro Grande) and he changed phone numbers. So poco a poco.

But thank you for your prayers and for fasting for me! Every prayer helps a lot! Have a great week and thanks for the suggestions everyone and read the scriptures!

Love,

Elder Froelich