2012 Jun 25

2012 June 25 PM

Hey Guys!

First things first.  The plate of food that I sent you guys a picture of was actually pizza that we had tried to make with some members.  That turkey, to my knowledge anyway, was actually not a turkey but just a chicken with a horn on its head.  It belongs to some less actives that we are working with.  And Fania, I actually found in a place in Centro that we always use internet as a zone.  And that is how we found her.

And it looks like the official release date for me is going to be the 13th of September.  Or on that Monday is when I start finishing but my plane doesn´t take off until the 13th so I would be walking in the door on the night of the 13th.  In the mission they are not always the best at getting the word out on things like this so I and a lot of people were confused for a while but the official "my getting on the plane" day is on that Thursday.  And I will tell them that the airport that I want to use is Colorado Springs.   

And that is crazy that you guys are so close to a wildfire!  I didn´t even realize while I was there that Colorado Springs even had trees to burn!

This week was really great.  On Wednesday I was talking to someone on the bus named Ismael Ruiz.  He seemed really interested in the message so I asked him if we could come to his house and talk to his whole family about it (he is a teenager of like 19 who was returning home for vacations from Chimaltenango to his aldea which is near to Colo) so we called him later and set up an appt for Friday so we got there and it was awesome.  Because on the way there (he lives in a place called La Patria and where he lives there have never been missionaries ever so as we were going there we ran into a whole bunch of people and gave out a lot of folletos and we ran into this one family with this guy who was in Alabama before and was meeting with the missionaries over there for a little while but then moved back to this far away place in Guatemala.  So now we are setting up a day when we can go back over there to talk about the restoration and everything and I am getting really excited about it.  I think that we are going to go back on Friday to talk to him a little bit more.  His name was Rigoberto.  Anyway, I am excited.

Also, I am learning Mam really well.  I am for sure not fluent at all or anything but I am getting to learn a lot of phrases and it is fun.  Something else cool that happened on that day is that we were asking directions of how to get to La Patria and I was asking an old corte lady how to get there in Spanish but she wasn´t understanding so I asked her in Mam and she understood me!  So that was really fun.  I liked that a lot.

And I am almost out of time and I have not even written to the president yet so I will call it a letter.

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 June 18

2012 Jun 18 PM

Hey!

Last week, literally right after internet, I ran into someone from Brasilia named Fania Funiz (I think that I had mentioned her to you guys before), and I was talking to her and she told me that she had quit her job that made her work on Sundays and that now she is going to church every single week and that she has been doing that basically since right when I left the area. 

Yesterday was Stake Conference and it was cool.  The attendance of just our ward was 160 (which is really good) and since we were the first ones to get to the stake center, that means that we were the only ones in the actual capilla part of the conference so that was really cool.

We have been finding a lot of nuevos and they seem pretty positive.  At the same time, we have had to leave a couple of investigators that were not progressing.  But we are going to do fine.

They have been saying that they are going to be finishing up with the chapel this month which I am really excited about because the house that we are renting out right now is really starting to get crowded.  So it is going to be easier to bring investigators after all of that.  So I am excited about that.  In the ward they are planning like a cultural night for when they finish the church. 

They told us about changes last night and they said that Elder Vaughn and I are both going to be staying in Colotenango without changes.  Which is going to be fun.  I am excited about it.  We have been seeing a lot miracles in the area with finding really amazingly prepared people and so I am hoping that they end up progressing.  Thanks for your prayers.  

Well, thanks for everything.  Have a great week!  I will talk to the Secretary in charge of plane tickets and talk to him about your idea. 

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 June 11

2012 June 11

Hey!

If we can´t get a tour arranged in time for me to come home, it would be okay.  I wouldn´t really be all that heart-broken because I have secretly always kind of wanted the airport greeting after having the 50 hour plane ride to get home in which I would be thinking about how I spent my two years and making contacts on the plane and in the airport.  And then getting into the airport and saying hello to everyone after 2 years.  But we could still go in October, I guess, just that you guys wouldn´t be picking me up, rather that I would be coming down with you guys. But just let me know. 

That is so crazy that you got to see the guy who OPENED UP Huehuetenango so long ago.  Right now the church is pretty big in Huehue and it is amazing to think that you guys got to talk to the guy who was the instrument in the hands of God to open it up.  Huehue is by far my favorite place in the mission and it is awesome that that man was the first missionary to open it up.  I would love to talk to him.  It would be a lot of fun.  That is crazy that you guys got to talk to him though.  If Janeen´s friend hadn´t had that play and had you guys not have gone to the temple to kill time and had not had enough time to do a session and therefore had to do sealing sessions, none of that stuff would have happened at all.  Plus it is super cool because I will be able to talk to him shortly.  That would be awesome!  Wow!

This week was cool.  It kind of felt like we were spinning our wheels a lot and using a lot of gas without getting a lot of traction.  This week was kind of sad because we had to leave a lot of investigators that were not progressing and there are a lot of people who don´t want anything but I haven´t been really looking for the miracles either which is really my fault.  I will take special care to pray for them and then notice them when they happen.  There was an amazing miracle today but I can´t really talk about it.  But it was great and life changing and it brought a lot of peace to my soul.

And happy Birthday, Mom!  And you too Dad!  I hope that it is everything that it can be. 

Love,

Elder Froelich

2012 June 4

Hey!
This week was pretty great. I was having some troubles in the beginning of the week but my District Leader, Elder Zimmerman, gave a great message that really helped me out a lot. It was a good lesson.

Grandma Lucille has had to put up with so much. She is awesome. She is consistently always the same lively, energetic person whatever is happening to her in her life. And that is awesome. And it sounds like you guys had a lot of fun while you were there with her in Utah as well! That would have been fun but I will see her soon enough.

Something crazy that I have realized, but not really let affect me, is that I am going home really soon. I have tried not to let it get to me. But I am going home in September. That is extremely close. I had just gotten used to burying my head in the sand when it comes to how much time that I have left and also about the entire world around me but now it is pretty hard to ignore. I only have 2 changes left and I am walking in the house. That is crazy to me. That is not any time at all, on the 8th (I don´t know what day that would be) I complete 22 months (or maybe 21 because I lost track) on my mission. That is crazy. But it is also good I suppose. I am not getting trunky though. So don´t anyone tell me to stop being trunky (we call it baggy over here) because I am for sure not baggy. You can notice how much time you have on your mission without getting baggy. Or at least I can. It is just interesting how quickly the time has passed.
 
And about the thing that you mentioned in your letter, you are right. Last week, I was being very prideful. But this week I feel like God kind of put me in my place and humbled me up a little bit through the scriptures, the Liahonas, and an inspired District Leader. It is just too bad that I wasted so much time and energy being hurt and upset and frustrated about something that was God´s will. That was my bad and I hope that I never do that again.

It is too late to sign up for classes now and try to scramble for that (if BYU would even allow me to change my return semester) and I think that I would rather serve a full full-time mission than an almost full full-time mission. So I will just come home at the regular time in September.

Thanks for everything, Mom. You are amazing.
Love,
Elder Froelich

2012 May 28

2012 May 28

Hey guys!

This week was pretty good.  We are getting a whole bunch of miracles.  We are going to be having an almost for sure baptism on the Saturday... well in 3 Saturdays, so we are excited about that.

Also, I found out last week after internet that Nestor was just called in the Stake young men´s presidency.  So that was exciting to found out about and to know.  He is progressing really well.

Also, the other day, an area president came to the Huehue and talked to the ward leaders of all of Huehue and told them that they need to be better.  And so then a stake leader came to our ward and we are going to be getting going a lot of activities and the ward looks like it is going to be getting a lot better too.  I am excited about all of the stuff that God is blessing us with.  It is awesome to see.  But we are getting to know a lot of really cool people that I think that are really going to be able to progress.

And I just ran out of time so I will talk to you guys later!  I am glad that you guys got to go to the reunion.

Love

Elder Froelich

This is some photos, one of my first area´s bishop and my comp right now. And we went to the mirador this morning and we got some fotos (we didn´t see anything though because it was really cloudy).

2012 May 21

2012 May 21 PM

Hey guys!

This week was good. I sent you guys’ fotos of some of the stuff that I have seen here in Colotenango. It is so beautiful. And then there are some fotos with me and my comp. He is cool I like him a lot.

Also, I need the recipe for no-bake cookies please. :)

The time in this area is going by soo quickly that it is just ridiculous. My Mam learning has been kind of stunted, but still miraculously quickly considering, lately because all of my learning is just from asking people and writing it down but the bad thing is that Mam is not a standardized language at all. On one hill they say it differently than the valley which is different than the mountain on the other side of the river and like that. So I get kind of confused sometimes in what I am supposed to say, because everybody understands everyone but not everyone speaks the same. So my theory is that if I just get a book that I can learn it from it will be a lot easier. So that is basically what I am counting on, and I am going to get them from a member on Tuesday. And the rest will be history. 

Something cool that I found out this last week was that if you say Washington (where I am from), you are almost saying "I want to sleep" in Mam.  wa chin tan. 

Me and Elder Vaughn are getting really excited about Colotenango. On Sunday, 7 investigators went to church and in his entire 3 months that he had been here before, only 3. So we are getting extremely blessed right now and I am loving it. So it is really cool. 

Yeah, the heat of Colotenango after the cold of San Francisco is so exhausting. I come home every day completely exhausted and I have gotten better but before, I would just plan for the following day and crash on my bed in my church clothes just to "rest my eyes" and end up sleeping in them and waking up at like 3 to go to bed. But it is not so bad anymore and my legs are getting used to climbing all of the mountains (see fotos). So I don´t get as tired anymore but thanks for the pointer about how to not be so tired.

We have this one family, Domingo, who are progressing pretty well they went to church after I don´t know how many years of inactivity on Sunday and there a lot of grown up kids (2) in that family who want to be baptized. And we are excited about everything else that is happening too.

That is awesome that everyone is so busy and important and amazing as always.

I don´t have any more time so I will talk to you guys next week.

Love

Elder Froelich

2012 May 7

2012 May 7

Hey guys!

This last week went by so extremely fast! It was just crazy because all of the other weeks seemed to be going be pretty quickly too but this last week was just ridiculously fast. 

AND before I forget I DID MY FIRST SEW TODAY! My pants were coming undone next to the pants so I just went into that sew and needle bag that you sent me with and I saw a lot of stuff in there that I didn´t even know how to use at all. But I just got the string that I wanted and I doubled it up and tied a knot and TA-DA! (I sent you a picture with the email). So you guys can be really proud of me if you want. It is kind of ugly and not much to look at but I think that for the first time it is not half bad!  

My week has been good though. It was a little bit sad saying goodbye to everyone (and I still have to finish doing it tonight when we get back to San Francisco) but I am getting all of their contact information so that I can keep in touch with them after the mission as well. So it is all good. And we definitely have to make sure that we talk about the trip in October when I talk to you guys on Sunday.

That is awesome that all of my siblings are going well and keeping busy with moving or trips to Africa or a whole bunch of other stuff. 

That is awesome that you were able to teach such a great lesson about applying the scriptures to our lives. As I have been kind of speed reading the Book of Mormon in these last few weeks, I have really increased my love for the Book of Mormon and then I got to thinking that if that happened with the Book of Mormon when a long time ago (like before the mission) it was a chore to read the Book of Mormon, I got to thinking that if that can happen with the Book of Mormon, then it could probably happen with any other book of scripture. I don´t know if I am going to have time to really delve into the other scriptures too much while I am still on my mission (but I do want to do so more with the New Testament) but I am excited to get that kind of love for all of the other scriptures as well (because right now it really is kind of a chore to read the Old or New Testaments even though it really shouldn´t be). So I am excited about that: Loving the scriptures-all of them. 

Well, I love you guys a lot. And the scriptures are true. They really are. Read them and you will love them.

Love

Elder Froelich