24 hour loop of Baila Esta Cumbia

 ¡¡Hola Hola!!

Thunderstorms, Roosters waking you up at 4 am, and a neighbor who decides to blast “Baila Esta Cumbia” by Selena EVERYDAY early in the morning at 7am for the whole neighborhood to hear even though there's no fiesta going on, have officially been my alarms to start the day.  I don't need my watch anymore y’all. Speaking of thunderstorms, it rains here like crazy during the night.  To sum it up, it sounds like someone is constantly pouring a bucket of water over my house. It's just super strong; I´ve never heard rain like that in my life. And, add thunder to the mix! I have been waking up to it around 2 am every day this week. Jaja, giving me Old Testament vibes for sure. I will be sure to get an audio clip for y'all next time because it's unreal.

Overall this week has been pretty good. To start, Elder Chavez  and I had the baptisms of Rodrigo and Manuel!!! It was such an amazing experience, and I have officially had my first baptism on the mission! I had the opportunity to baptize my friend Rodrigo while the Bishop of San Juan baptized Manuel. It was such an amazing blessing to even have the baptism in the first place because when Elder Chavez and I arrived at the Chapel in San Juan to help set up for the baptism, the water stopped working. I guess it was shut off for the day. Elder Chavez and I weren’t aware of this ahead of time because we had attended sacrament meeting at Barrio San Francisco, since we cover two wards . 

Lucky enough there was some water in the water font–I want to say barely about three feet–and being the 6’ 1” ft. tall person that I am jaja, I had to get on one knee to baptize Rodrigo. Haha, good thing we only had a baptism for niños pequeños because IdK how we would have done it if they were adults. 

We also had a zone conference this week which was super awesome! It's always great to reset my batteries and talk to President Probst.  He's just there to listen and help anyway that he can help, he  is such a stud. President Probst set a high goal for his mission. He shared the experience of the Dominican Republic Santiago mission. During the year of 2018, the DR had one of their lowest stretches of not meeting their goal for baptisms, they were only averaging about 25 a month. Their mission president said to the mission, “live your life as if you would expect miracles, and they will come”. Which meant live your life in remembrance that God is a God of miracles and that our savior Jesus Christ workings are arguably a ministry of miracles. Remember that He created the earth and all things thereon. That He turned water into wine, doubters into believers. That He walked on water, healed the sick, and raised the dead. 

With that motivation and fire in them, the missionaries of the DR Santiago mission were able to raise their number from 25 to an average of 200 a month! After sharing this experience, President turned to us and asked “Do you believe that Christ had the power to walk on water and raise the dead?" As a zone we responded in unison, "Yes, President", and then President Probst responded, "Then you should believe that it's possible to reach 300 baptisms a month. Remember that Jesus has the power to work miracles in our lives, but we must live our lives to expect them.” I was definitely motivated after hearing that.

I also had the opportunity to do my first service project as a missionary this week. There was a man named Francisco who’s a part of Barrio San Juan, and who was moving out of his house to the one next door with his girlfriend, so he needed help moving around his furniture. Man, was it a grind for Elder  Chavez and I because we had to move a dryer, refrigerator, mattresses, closets, and exercise bikes down three flights of stairs–it was tough! We were able to use a rope hook to easily move down the mattresses  without having to use the stairs, but we had to move the other furniture with force–what a day!

Elder Chavez and I also street contacted a ton this week, which was pretty fun as well. It usually rains in the middle of the afternoon here in the city of San Jose, and the people don't really come out during that time since it always rains super strong. We were able to get 3 new friends to Barrio San Jose and 4 to San Fran! It was a bit hectic on Sunday because we had to make sure our friends at San Jose had a way to make it to the chapel since Elder Chavez and I attended San Fran that day, but luckily the ward members helped out and were able to walk with them to church. One thing that I have learned since I have gotten here is that ward members make all the difference when working with investigators. I am extremely grateful for their efforts to help our friends make it to church.

Monday for intercambios I had the opportunity to work with Elder Tonorio who is the ZL (Zone Leader) in my area. He came over to my area to help out and man he is such a stud. He has 11 months so far on the mission and he's from Costa Rica, he speaks English pretty well, and  he wants to go to BYU Provo after the mission, but he has such a desire to work and street contact which was awesome to witness. I learned a lot from him this past Monday; definitely want to work with him more in the future.

For my spiritual thought this week I would like to talk about Hope. This week I have been thinking a lot about Hope because there are many things that I have hope for on the mission, for example, the goal that Probst set for us 300 baptisms a month. To sum it up Hope is the confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness. The scriptures often speak of hope as anticipation of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

The word hope is sometimes misunderstood. In our everyday language, the word often has a hint of uncertainty. For example, we may say that we hope for a change in the weather or a visit from a friend. In the language of the gospel, however, the word hope is sure, unwavering, and active. Prophets speak of having a “firm hope” (Alma 34:41) and a “lively hope” (1 Peter 1:3). The prophet Moroni taught, “Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4).

When we have hope, we trust God’s promises. We have a quiet assurance that if we do “the works of righteousness,

Remember to be hopeful for miracles in your life this week! BTW shout out to the homies from BYU that started classes this week, good luck yall!

Elder Flores

aqui estan las fotos de esta semana lo siento no son de la mejor calidad

1. Baptism of Rodrigo and Manuel!
2. Pic with Rodrigo!
3. Random view from the 3 story house that me and Chavez were at
4. GOATS on the street
5. Group for the service project 
6. Pic of Manuels family!
7. Bad quality but intercambios with Tonrio!
8. Hung out with the hermanas from San Jose to help out with their pupusa stand for the neighborhood fiesta on Sat!
9. tacos from the neighborhood fiesta
10. typical street in Guatemala 
11. finally a chill stray dog that Chavez and I encountered on the way home