"Mans best friend"

¡¡Hola a todos!!

This week was pretty interesting to say the least. Y'all may be wondering what I meant by my subject line. Welp, this past Thursday towards the end of our day street contacting with Elder Chavez in sector 7, I ran into an indgenous family on the street who looked like they needed help. The family was made up of a group of two older women, and three girls, plus a stray dog who was walking with them... I tried to ask them basic questions in Spanish such as "cuál es su nombre?", and "que tal", but they didn't respond I am guessing that they only spoke Quichean, which is the mayan language here in Guatemala, They were trying to take two blocks of wood back to their house, and it looked like it was pretty heavy for them, so I offered to help, but as soon as I got close to the family, their dog attacked me. Homie was not having it, I tried to back away but he just kept on barking and barking and lunged at me. I felt his teeth on my leg, but he didn't bite, I guess it was just a warning from him not to mess with the family. Eventually the dog calmed down, and Elder Chavez and I were able to help the family.

Overall though, this week has been pretty awesome. I got the opportunity to explore different zones/sectors and meet ward members. I had a feast with the hermanas who live in our neighborhood. We had pupusas for dinner. My district came as well so there were 10 of us eating. The hermanas went off with their cooking because there were enough pupusas for me to eat 11 of them.

Speaking of ward members, one of our neighbors, who also happens to be a ward member, spent 22 years of his life living in LA and he even lived in Compton during the time of the Black Panthers!! His name is Fernando. Visiting him and family this past week has been a pleasure because he had some interesting stories about LA in the 80s which were awesome to hear. They helped me feel connected to home even though Guatemala City is basically LA on steroids.

Met the ward homies on Sunday which was pretty awesome as well. This week me and Elder Chavez attended Barrio San Jose, and we plan on attending Barrio San Francisco this week, since we cover two wards. During sacrament meeting, before the Bishop got up to announce the speakers, he made some remarks about there being a pianist in the meeting, and he got emotional because he said the spirit here is different with a pianist. Apparently the ward hasn't had a pianist for over 5 years so it was definitely a humbling experience for me because at that moment I thought about how we are blessed with so many things in the United States that we don't take for granted sometimes. The ward members of San Jose were definitely grateful that I played the piano for them this past Sunday.

We also went proselytizing this past week with two ward members, one yesterday whose name is Diego from San Francisco, and another whose name is Armando from San Jose. Armando plans on submitting his mission papers soon; cheers for that!

Also, I went to the mountains this week for my first exchanges in Guatemala. I was paired up with Elder Orellyaba, he has been on his mission for 19 months and he is actually from Guatemala, so he knows a lot about the culture here. Going on exchanges was a nice break from the noisiness of the city because things were much more calm in the mountains. I got the chance to walk down the longest flight of stairs that I have ever seen in my life. It was definitely scary at some points, but I was just happy to be away from the city. It was necessary for me and my companion to walk down those stairs because it was the only way across to the other side of the mountain, and we had an appointment with an investigator who lived in a village on the other side. While I was walking down those stairs, which seemed to last for eternity, I thought about the early saints of the church. Even though I felt tired, I thought about how the pioneers must have felt in the early days of the church, crossing the plains to establish the church in the rocky mountains. Reminding myself of those stories definitely motivated me that day!

Going to the mountains and seeing the villages there this past week was quite the experience. I can tell that the people who live there are very humble and cheerful despite their circumstances. On a typical road in the mountains, there were basically chickens, roosters, stray dogs......, and pigs. Jajaja it was basically a farm.

Me and Elder Chavez have continued to make progress with our friend Antonio. We stop by his store every night before we go home. We gave him a copy of the BOM and he has been reading it, so cheers for that! We also made another friend this week whose name is Marcos, me and Elder Chavez ran into him right after my incident with the dog... Marcos was cutting grass with his machete when Elder Chavez and I ran into him and we felt prompted to talk to him. We talked for a bit about our Savior Jesus Christ and asked him if he had seen missionaries like me and Elder Chavez before, he replied that he had! After our conversation we invited him to church and he came!! with his machete as well jajaja. That was definitely the blessing of my week.

Overall, this past week was definitely an adventure. I am excited for this Sunday because we have two baptisms planned! two little boys from San Jose are getting baptized, I can't wait!.

This week for my spiritual thought, I would like to talk about patience. I chose patience because I have thought about this attribute a lot on the mission and how it's important for us to practice during our lives in any circumstance. Patience isn’t merely waiting. Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well! Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings

I have learned that the work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments, trust in God, our Heavenly Father, serve Him with meekness and Christlike love, exercise faith and hope in the Savior, and never give up. The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness. They will help us to become faithful disciples of our Master, Jesus Christ.

I invite you guys to apply patience to your lives this week,

Elder Flores

¡aquí están las fotos de esta semana!