My Next Chapter: Guatemala Antigua 🇬🇹

Welp guys, it has almost been 4 weeks at the CCM, and on Monday I will be shipped off to Guatemala where I will be spending the next two years of my life. Honestly I'm really excited and ready to go to another country but at the same time there's still some nerves y’know just with every new experience in life, but I know that the Lord will always provide a way for those who are involved in his work.

Overall my final week at the CCM was pretty good, I had the opportunity to teach more lessons to Hermano Sosa and Hermana Garcia. I also taught a solo lesson for 10 minutes about faith in Jesus Christ because my companion was sick for half of the day yesterday. It was definitely a challenge for sure, but I am happy with the way my Spanish has progressed so far. This week I also had the opportunity to play the piano for the devotional on Tuesday, I was pretty excited about the opportunity but when I saw there were like 500 missionaries in the crowd including the MTC presidency in the stands I was like UHHHH maybe this ain’t the move, but I was able to pull through. I played the “Day Dawn is Breaking” and “Count Your Blessings” which are two very fast hymns, but the music director said that I did incredible so I guess I am proud of that to say the least.

Last Friday it rained like crazy, and I had the opportunity to play volleyball in the rain with my district and a few elders from another district. It was a pretty fun experience because even though I got soaked, it was awesome to play in the rain. We also had two birthday celebrations in my district this week, one for Hermana Christensen and one for Elder Godfrey. I definitely had a blast celebrating their birthdays this week because there were a lot of leftover treats to eat. This week I also had the oppprtunity to give a presentation on any topic in spanish. I decided to go with giving a presentatuon about Kendrick Lamar. However at the end of singing Feliz Cumpleaños a Ti, I was the only one who chanted “MORDIDA!” so RIP to that, Godfrey still got his face stuffed tho.

Today I had the opportunity to go to the temple with my district for pday, I am truly grateful for every opportunity that I have to go to the temple because I truly know that it is the house of the Lord. Attending the temple blesses us in many aspects of our lives. One of the blessings that I have noticed of attending the temple in my life is that the temple offers us instructions in the requirements of personal righteousness. From my time in the temple, I have noticed that I have experienced a greater ability to love, to serve, and to understand the scriptures and to progress toward the promised blessing of living with our Heavenly Father again.

Overall my time here at the CCM has been a blast, I am thankful for all the friendships that I have made with my district, other districts, the homie ESTEBAN, and many more. My district has kept me laughing this week, and I like that I have been able to have just been able to strike a conversation with them about anything. They are amazing people and good friends. Now that I will be traveling to Guatemala next week I feel like I am ready and pumped. I feel like that one scene from Avengers Infinity War will happen to me tho. I am talking about the scene when Thor with his new axe lands in Wakanda yelling BRING ME THANOSSS, just for Thanos to say, “you should have gone for the head.” I feel like that is going to be next week during my first week all pumped and ready to go, but I know that even though there will be many setbacks our Heavenly Father is always there and that we can handle any challenges or setbacks with his help.

For my spiritual thought this week I would like to talk about forgiveness. This week I thought a lot about forgiveness. To forgive is to pardon an offense. It is to let go of blame for a past hurt. It is to release a great burden. It is to move ahead with life. During my personal study this week I have learned that forgiving others also brings great spiritual blessings, including peace and hope. Perhaps some of the most important of these blessings is that as we forgive others, we can be forgiven of our sins. The Lord teaches us that forgiving others is a universal commandment we are “required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:10).

Yet even when we are aware of the importance of forgiveness, it may be difficult to forgive. Sometimes we allow pride, fear, resentment, or bitterness to discourage us and block our ability to feel hope. But the courage to forgive comes to those who put their faith and trust in the Lord. With His help, we can find the strength to forgive others whether the wrongdoer has committed a serious sin or an unintended offense.

I invite you guys to apply forgiveness in your life this week!

Have a great week and I’ll talk to you guys next time from Guatemala 

Elder Flores














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