9/16 CHANGES!!

So everybody.. I got changes! 

   I am going to head down to Coban to work in the office! I'm going to be a "Pouch Elder" which are the Elders in charge of the mail system and ordering stuff from the distribution center and basically any physical incoming-outgoing relations with the Elders and the outside world (I don't have charge over their emails or phones in other words.. just letters and packages). I might have other duties but I don't know yet cause at this moment I'm still in Sayaxche, Peten. 

   They gave us the changes Saturday night which was a huge help because Sunday I was able to visit my baptisms once more and get pictures with them and their families and let people know about the change. I don't know maybe being able to tell everyone is a bad thing but I appreciated knowing ahead of time.. the changes came in the perfect time and just made me so excited! negative affect I was so excited I literally couldn't fall asleep till 12:30am.

   God Blesses!!! Oh my WORD! He is a loving God and knows my wants and needs and I realize that he has yet to hold back ANYTHING from me! He gives me EXACTLY what I want and I'm so extremely grateful for Him!

   I was pretty set that I was going to the Polochic this change and I was excited for it.. I knew If I went to the Polochic I'd basically be there till the end of my mission but I was willing to make that sacrifice and was happy to do so. The ONLY thing that was hard for me to leave behind was that I wanted to try my had at the office.. but like I said I was ready to go where God wanted me. I got the call and at first they just said Coban.. I was kind of confused but asked what area I was going to be in.. "Area 2" what?! Area 2? what does that mean? "You're in the office as a pouch Elder" WHAT?! I was so happy to hear that! I thought going to Polochic was the coolest sounding idea but God knows my wants and knew I wanted this more.. and really I do! I am so excited to head to the office.

   Note 2 on God's blessings. In the office these are only a FEW of the wonderful blessings I'll receive: I'll be with President and get to know him on a personal level, My companion is from my CCM group and also is the mas pilas of the whole group (Me included). he's a Latino from Honduras (I think) who knows English WELL and studied at BYU Hawaii, He's one of the kindest and chillest Latinos I've EVER met! in all  he's someone from my group, knows English, and is better than me! (I know that's like way hard right?!), I'm going to be in the one place in the whole mission that is going to celebrate thanksgiving with an actual thanksgiving feast! Also I'll be there for Christmas and my birthday, In the office I'll eat like a king and will use a lot less money than the elders outside of the office.. which means I'll finally get my emergency fund completed, I'll also be the FIRST person to receive letters so I'm not going to have to wait 2 month for my letters now only like 2 weeks tops.. and I'll be in a place where I can literally mail my responses that day after I write them! BETTER COMMUNICATION! Oh my goodness I can't even BEGIN to tell you how much God has blessed me where I'm at now and is continuing to bless me where I'm going! 

   I hope that I can improve the office while I'm there and that I'll be the Elder that the other elders LOVE calling and not the elder that they feel is lazy. I'm hoping to make GREAT friends these next 6-7 months and become a better missionary!

   No time for pictures this week but know I love you!

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

9/13 Yaxha! WHA?!

Yaxha!

   In yaxha there are a lot more pyramids, they're more awesome, and it's a ton cheaper. like $10 and you can climb on the pyramids! There is also a beautiful lake and amazing little buildings that I'm not sure what they were used for cause the rooms

 

 

 

seem too small to live in.

9/2/2013 Exciting times!

 

 

 

 

 Well things are exciting as normal here! We got our next months allowance and I told my comp how I keep track of my money and just like that he said "Voy a hacer el mizmo con mi dinero!" (I'll do the same with my money!) wow lets just say up until that point I was afraid he'd take offence to me trying to teach him how to spend his money. Honestly I think his other comps just didn't care enough to even THINK of helping him! He's Great!

 

 

  We had our zone conference last week and I finally got to meet President Curtiss and he's great! I talked with him and his wife and when I mentioned that I wanted to learn Russon and that I like learning languages he just straight out told me "Well we'll have to get you started on Q'eqchi!" all I'm going to say is if I end up in the Polochic this next change I won't be surprised but I will be excited and very nervous to go through that whole "I'm the only one who doesn't understand anything" phase again. BUT I'll be fulfilling my mission dream! surprisingly a lot of the missionaries I've talked to don't like the polochic.. like they just think that would be the worst place to be sent! They think the language is useless and pointless to learn but I'm way excited and I can't wait till the Lord decides I'm ready to bless the wonderful people of polochic with my amazing inexperienced self!

   

 My Zone with Pres. and Sis Curtiss

 

 

 

   I had a great day today and for the first time got to explore a little of the Guatemalan Jungle! no like literally it was a pathway that started up and ended at a wall of trees and said "Entrada" (Entrance) so we explored it for a while and I walked into MANY a spider web and enjoyed the out back of Guatemala.. well the part I'm in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited a place that is popular for the fact that you can swim with crocodiles! like literally it's a pond that has a few crocodiles and people walk out on a dock and jump in the water to swim in a pond with crocodiles. We didn't swim with the crocodiles because sadly it's against the rules and we also didn't get to see any crocodiles either.. but don't worry the first chance I get I'll send you a picture of me riding on the back of a cocodrilo ;)

 

 

 

But here's a picture of us out in the middle of the pond on a really rickety dock! (My district!)

 

 

   It was also my Comp's Birthday! He turned 20! Well todavia tiene hasta Septiembre 7 but we decided to celebrate today!

 

 

 

 Hay un comida aqui llamado Tortrix oasis que es mas o menos Frito Bandito pero con mas queso y mas fritos.. pues no tenemos fritos aqui estan llamados Tortrix. ES RICO! voy a cocinar quando regreso.

Well I gotta go! Love you all!

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

8/26 New News

Hola,

   Como estan!? you guys are all growing up and doing things and I just feel so old now! well actually I don't. I looked down at myself this last week.. just like looked at my missionary clothes and I thought "when I was a kid I always looked up to those missionaries with 'awe' and 'wow'". When I look at myself I think... "What am I doing trying to pose as one of those guys?" I'm pretty sure I'm to young to be a missionary cause I don't feel as old, mature and handsome as those missionaries. 

   Thing's I learned this last week:

 1) Wow! I am a proud guy!

  Here's the thing I've been realizing it throughout my whole mission. I never thought of myself as a particularly proud person before the mission but like being out here (Especially in Guate) seeing all the apostasy around me I find myself thinking I'm better than other missionaries. Not like full on "oh my goodness.. I'm like totally so much better than them!" but like little things like "Why are they dong that?" "They're not very good missionaries" "they could do so much better!" and like I know that's not like crazy pride going on there but I find a lot of my trials (It took me 4 tries to remember how to spell trials) end up getting fixed after I accept other people for who they are or more importantly who they could be. That's how things have been going especially with my comps.

 2) How to manage money. 

  I got my comp this last change and he came to me a week after our monthly pay with only 100Q. We had a 300Q light bill to pay, a 60Q water and trash bill to pay, and we still had three weeks of meals to buy (usually It's about 100Q a week per meal if you eat normally). I don't know how I managed (especially after having such hard times the months before) but I have been able to keep us both alive for three weeks on the pay of one missionary. Of course I didn't pay for great things I'm not going to lie I let us starve a few times but I figured there's NO WAY I can help him get better with his money if I just pay for what ever he wants, cause he'll just expect me to pay for him all the time. so yeah there were a few times I ate just me myself but it wasn't easy.. you all know me I'm not the guy to hold back my stuff if someone's in need But the ZL's told me I shouldn't pay for everything and I figured if he skipped only 2-3 meals the whole three weeks I didn't pay for EVERYTHING right? oh gosh I'm such a sucker for the guilt trips. yeah basically I paid for everything but I'm not going to this next month cause I'm going to teach him how to budget instead! Teach a man to fish right?! 

 3) I Miss Family!

  I see families here and I just miss playing with my nieces and nephews! It's hard not to play with the kids too much cause I know you have to be careful around them but I'm definitely a kid guy.

 4) I like cleaning.

  Family if you remind me I said this when I get home I will deny every word and say my comp wrote it. But I actually enjoy cleaning. maybe it's just cause my comps have all been latinos and almost NEVER clean but I've learned to enjoy washing dishes by hand, sweeping floors, even taking out the trash.. well okay the trash still stinks but I feel like cleaning relieves stress! No I am not becoming a woman!

   Anyways after that little.. side note I'll leave you all with the side note that I have another Fetcha (baptismal date) BUT it's not seguro (sure)  because they're not married (They want to be but apparently she doesn't exist anymore cause something happened to her papers (Birth certificate or Social Security type of thing) and now they're trying to recreate her papers based off of a phone bill.. or something like that) but I told the wife that when we take the first step of faith and put down a date God's going to help you if you honestly work towards that date.. so she accepted for the 5th of October and when her husband gets back from working we're going to get a fetcha with him as well. I'm pretty sure they won't get baptized that day but if we can even just get them married by that day things are going to get better after that and perhaps by that time we'll convince the 3 sons as well! ;)

 Happy Birthday! (I'm sure it's someone's birthday)

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

8/20 Love from Guate

 Buenas familia y amigos!

I've been busy this last week and I'm learning patience like always. I thought I was a pretty patient guy until the mission and every time I finish a challenge on patience I think "Wow I'm getting this down!" but then the Lord shows me that I need to learn MORE patience.. and I'm just like.. WHEN will I finally be finished learning this whole patience thing?! I just want to have patience NOW!! (ha! ha!) okay so maybe I still need to learn a lot more patience.

   I'm doing good with my Spanish and can communicate and understand fairly well.. well more so understand. I can communicate fine it's just when I get into the topics that are different than Gospel that I just don't know the words. I hope that changes by the end of two years.. well I hope I can perfect my Spanish in the next 3 months cause I'd really like to get thrown into the Polochic soon and start Q'eqchi cause I feel like that will be harder to fully grasp and I want to also be fluent in that.. and Russian, sign language, French, Latin and maybe Italian but for now these two languages are enough to occupy my time.

   So I'm finding the hardest thing for me is to go easy on myself. Like I am fully aware that I am not perfect and I want to be.. and so I put up expectations that aren't achievable and never meet them.. making it harder to accept who I am and making me feel like a poor missionary. Well I know I'm not a bad missionary but I'm finding it hard to think I'm even a good missionary. Don't worry though I hope I can figure it out.. Two baptisms isn't horrible for a missionary.. even if they WERE ready before I got there.

   I'll just say that I'm trying.. but I wont say I've never been disanimated  (discouraged). I find it hard  when you're in an area that is extremely hard cause honestly there are days that I don't want to work either! but I push through them with the hope that something will click soon and I'll know everything and be a perfect missionary and like Amman baptize 1000's.

 On that note I'll leave you! Love you all and sadly every once in a while I end up missing you.. Especially my family!

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

8/12 Writing What I Can!

  So I do realize I left you all hanging but things have been crazy these past weeks.. well mainly the internet has been bad. but we've found a place that is better and I hope we continue to use it!

   So I had changes and I'm still here in Sayaxche but I'm glad cause I have things to do, people to help, ramas (wards) to build.. well.. fortify.

   I have a few investigators that I'm hoping to get fetchas (baptismal dates) with.. I was really excited about them last week but this week they BOTH dropped the ball and apparently they don't really have that testimony I thought. This week I hope to build their testimony but like everyone in Sayaxche they don't really want to progress.

   Progression.. that's my struggle here. The Rama, the investigators, Liders (leaders), everyone here.. they just have no desire to progress. they're comfortable living in their small houses and they really truly have no desire to progress.. to leave the city.. to get a good job. Any tips or pointers on this would be helpful!

   My new comp is elder Camacho who is ALSO from Mexico and so far everything has been great with him. (Attached picture) So my Dad was Mexican and so is my mom.. everyone says I'm from little Mexico (California) and I love spicy.. I think I'm officially "Mexican" as far as the members and other missionaries are concerned. 

   So dreams.. I have been hearing a TON of people here talking about dreams. Two of my investigators have had dreams this past month that the church is true and a member had a dream that an old lady asked her to help her son receive the gospel, who lives here in Sayaxche, and so she's going to take us to meet him sometime this next week. and a bunch of other recent converts have had dreams about the church and things like that. it's really interesting and I'm thinking it might have something to do with their lineage from Joseph "King of Dreams"... Thinking about it makes sense.. they're all descendants of him and why couldn't they receive dreams like him. anyways just wanted to know if any of you have had investigators who have revelations through dreams. Any thoughts/ comments about the subject would be fun to talk about!

Other than that I'm doing great and managing my money like a
stingy stinker so as to not end up in a hard spot again

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark

8/5 Family

Sorry family.. 

  I'm doing well and still had the 50 guate cents when I returned.. it was a stressful 4 days and I returned to my apartment with a migraine.. and a half grown beard.. not good when you're on the mission by the way but I was expecting a one day trip and not 4 and my comp told me to pack light. bad idea.

  Anyways I don't have time to write things week. I had to do a missionary online questionnaire for the mission and need to go now but I love you all and I'm doing great! Remind me to tell you about my area and investigators and this change that is happening tomorrow cause I have a lot to say.

  If you'd like pray for Yomery and her mother Grays that they can continue to fallow through and grow their testimonies.. I think they have potential.. that is after Grays gets married to her "Husband".

  Oh and remind me about "The Dreams" in Sayaxche.. I want to you all about your experiences with people dreaming about things in Latin America

Yours fortunately,

 

          ---Elder Hyrum Clark