10-21 Photos-- Road Building Service

10-21 Super UNbaggie!

Okay I'm going to apologize  and say I'm not focused much on writing home right now.. I JUST ran into Aaron Howard who I worked pest control with and literally left him 5 minutes ago.

Me and Aaron Howard

So Aaron served here in Guatemala about two years ago and spent the majority of his two years in the polochic.. the area I hope to go to and die in (die in missionary terms that is). hearing his stories and seeing the pictures of polochicmade me baggie (trunky).. but not baggie for home.. baggie to get out of the office and into the chic as soon as possible! I cannot wait to get out there and learn q'eqchi! luckily I'm in he office and can print out q'eqchi learning materials like.. tomorrow.. so I already know what I'll be doing mañana!

   I'm still in coban 2A working in the office. I love every minute of it and the work is still great outside of the office! Lot's of people say it must stink to be in the office and those in the office are so excited to leave but honestly I LOVE it! I work with the most amazing people and just this last week the Senior Companionship (Los Kirks) went to the capital and bought me jolly ranchers and peanut butter!

 

I love them and because of them I'm POSITIVE I want to come back and serve a senior mission.. So I'm going to have to search for a future wife that wants the same!

   My companion Elder Zavala continues to be completely Pilas (Awesome) and our time here is chilero (cool). He's got English down pact and Just so you all know this Honduraño from san pedro sula spent two semesters studying at BYU-Hawaii IN ENGLISH! wow.. I love Spanish but to take college in only Spanish I imagine would be hard. I'd learn a ton of new vocabulary though!

   I'm learning tons in the office and this next Tuesday me and my companion will be training two new office elders after only one change of learning in the office. Sounds crazy but I believe we can do it! maybe.. :P we're still not sure if we're going to split up and have them as companions or stay together and they'll be companions but we'll find out this Saturday when we get the change call! (Yeah like 3 days in advance!)

   Saturday was a great day as well.. me and my companion went and helped do service with a investigator.. we built a road! yup! Thank you Bro. Bice for your teaching me how to do cement work! these people thought I was a cement wizard! the city is going to engrave our names (which they still think are "Elder Clark") in the road and it will be there for years so when I return in 50 years with my grandchildren I can show them that spot and say "I built this road with my bear hands... alone.. in 5 hours.. 3 miles of it!" and I'll only be mostly lying to my grandchildren! I have photos but they're from my comps camera and his photos are big so I'm going to send them separate!

Amaya Family

   We're teaching this awesome family that lives next door.. well they're our Landlords.. los dueños de la casa.. and they're awesome! The husband and children are ready and so is the wife but she's scared about accepting a fetcha.. her family is catholic and they kinda persecuted her sister when she joined so she's scared it'll happen to her.. but they're already basically members.. we just need to help her overcome her fears and see that she always will have this WARD family to help her through anything and also help her see that her sister is a great example and to see the BLESSINGS she's received in her life from her decision. Here's the Family Amaya:

 

 

I love you all and I keep you in my prayers!

Yours Unbaggily,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

10/14/2013 Tired.. Just tired.

Well I am extremely tired.. working a full office day and then a full missionary day on top of it is impossible.. if you cut out the EXTREMELY helpful study time you can just BARELY fit it all in. Sadly without the studying it's not as easy and not as fun. How bad is it that I as a missionary have missed days reading scriptures personally? I'm going to try and work on that.

   Today was funner than others.. still played futból 2hrs but we woke up at 5:30 and helped our Menos activo build a place to sleep behind his sisters house.. it took us about 2 hrs and he's ready now! guate houses are so easy to build ;)

 

 

 

 So this menos activo is super pilas and has changed so much! these past two weeks he's gone from the drunk guy without shoes sleeping on the sidewalk that the YM would use as a fun fact for the new missionaries ("Hey see that drunk passed out there curled up in a ball?.. yeah he's a member") to a dapper looking guy who has earned a little money so he doesn't have to go to church in rags. He's cut his hair and shaved and this last week let me just say I felt proud standing next to him.. He really did look dapper and I hope next week to get a picture with him all fancied up!

 

 

 

 Changing lives changes your life! I can't tell you the joy you feel when you see people's lives changing.. you can see the happiness entering their lives and the brightness enter their eyes and just seeing that makes your eyes a little brighter and your smile a little bigger too!

   I'm dead beat but I want you all to know I think I've already gained back the pounds I've lost.. I looked at myself and I look healthy.. now I need to watch what I'm eating so I don't swing all the way over to the fat office guy. not that they exist in guate.. fat tienda guy.. THOSE exist and they're pretty funny too.

I haven't taken any new pictures so sorry.. my comp has a picture of the "house" we built so I'll see if I can get that by next week! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 BTW Happy Birthday to the Amazing Taylor! Hope it's a great one for you and that you haven't forgotten me yet! Keep being awesome!

 

 

 Love you all!

Yours with Sueño,

 

 ---Elder Hyrum Clark

10/7/2013 My Comps

Pictures of my companions!

Yours with pictures,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

10/7 Mission times are fun times.

Welcome dear readers,

   Wow I am loving the mission! The Lord blesses and then just because he's cool and he's God He'll bless us again! Literally there is no end to his blessings and the more blessings we are entitled to the more extra blessings he'll throw in just for fun because he loves us! I have a great comp and though sometimes my pride hides that fact from me it will always be true. (Yeah I'm still working on pride and patience.. are these qualities we can cut out of our lives or are they those kind that I'll always be fighting for eternity?). My area is AMAZING! Investigators that are super pilas, my landlord has already assisted the 3 needed times to be baptized and we're only waiting cause we know his pilas wife and daughters will be ready in a short time. The members are also pilas and help us all the time! yeah so maybe not all the members are willing but the few that are willing are the hugest help and it's por medio de ellos that opening this area only took a week and no longer! We've been set up with great investigators and know the area ALMOST as well as I knew Sayaxché in the 3 y 1/2 months I was there! Also the office.. SO GREAT! I love the other elders in the office and the senior elders and President and just everyone! I love serving the elders as pouch elder and just seeing the happiness when I let them know they have a letter coming to them shortly makes any hard times seem nonexistent! I hope to gain the 20lbs I lost shortly but seeing all the other skinny elders in the office I fear I'll return home very skinny and that I need to look for a new, smaller belt.

   No cool mission stories just wanna say that General Conference as a missionary is like 60X more intense and sadly also passes about 60X faster as well. remember those countless hours conference was as a child and teenager? I mean I loved conference before but it still felt long! This conference was so short feeling! What?! only 10 hours?! I'm a missionary I can take more cincho than that! no I'm kidding but really it went by SUPER fast.. it's hard to think it's already over and yes I'll be downloading my favorite talks to hear again.

   So honestly I only have one thing about the mission that continues to bug me.. P-Days. P-days are never satisfying and I have more fun teaching and working in the office than I do on P-days. I asked my mission Pres if I could come in the first half of p-day and work in the office and then just eat lunch and write my family in the evening and he just laughed like I was joking or something. Do my other mission friends experience this as well or do my dl's just plan boring p-days? how were all your p-days when you were in the mission?

   Anyways that's enough complaining.. I love you all and if you're a young man reading this P-day's are AWESOME!.. if you love playing soccer for 3 hrs.

Take care everyone and remember there's an Elder somewhere out there that loves you and is sending pictures right now.. well maybe it's just me but that counts right?

Yours over-excitedly,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

   p.s. The Corn really can get as high as an elephants eye! I always thought that was an exaggeration!

 

9/30 Crazy loco weeks!

  I'm in the office and I LOVE it! first day we got to eat with the leaving elders and we had a 3 course meal on china where the forks and knives were properly placed! you know it was way fancy too cause the salad was wired.. the weirder the salad the fancier the food! but seriously though the salad was cherry tomatoes, watermelon, two small lettuce leaves and vinegar. mainly just the watermelon and vinegar got me.



Me and My Comp Zavala from Honduras San Pedro Sula

   I haven't learned the half.. or the quarter of the things I need to do but I also only have 3 hrs a day in the office and am only there 3 days a week. basically that's nothing in terms of office time.. but I do have a cell phone and computer so that's sweet! as pouch elders we do a lot! Arrange transportation, plan the changes, take care of all the phones, input all the data into the system along with the baptism registries and then IF we have time we do mail runs. I've never done a mail run.

   My are is Pilas! the members are awesome and helpful and our ward mission leader is with us almost everyday! basically it's the opposite of Sayaxché but I love them both a ton! our Dueños are investigating now and he's come every week so far (all two of them!) the family is pilas and they wife and daughters were going to come but they didn't cause they didn't have skirts and thought it'd be inappropriate to go in pants. we told the husband next time they can come in pants.. the lord loves them pants or skirts the important thing is that they're in church. I think they're going to buy skirts this week :P I love them! 



Our trainers in the office and us

   Our bishop reminds me of bishop Dunford but like from Dominican republic. He look the same just really dark skinned. he's got the same warm deep loving voice that makes you feel like you mean the world and he's got the same amazing humor as well.. I miss you Bishop Dunford! <3

   So there are a few cool things I want to mention. 1) Tuctucs. these things are crazy. imagine a taxi/motorcycle.. then mix that with ghetto Latin American mechanics and boom it's a tuctuc. I have had a lot of fun random experiences in these things and I'm still surprised they haven't fallen apart with me in them!

2) Lichas. Imagine one of those spiky circle things that come off trees back home.. yeah the ones you throw at each other.. make them soft and red and break it open and there's a giant peeled grape inside..that's a licha. I love them!

My district (Yes my district here is as big as my zone was in Peten)

3) Trompos. These things are a mix between a yo-yo and a top. imagine wrapping a string around a big top and throwing it at the ground to get it spinning. next you use the rope to pick up the spinning top, toss it in the air, put it spinning in your hand, get it to cross the rope like a bridge or get it to spin upside down underneath the rope. don't ask me how but these trompos are magical things. me and my comp are going to buy ones and practice so that when I return maybe I'll be able to show you a trick or two.

 

  Well I hope you enjoyed my email this week! I hope pictures work this time!

 

 Me and my comp with our ward mission leader who just opened a mission call to San Pedro Sula Oeste and a young man in the ward called Gerber who is pilas and goes out with us almost every day as well!

 

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark