7 de Octubre

Photos Top to Bottom: Baptisim of Sharlotte (9/19),  Baptisim of Betty (9/23), And the view from my new area San Fancisco El Alto.

This week has been busy I"ve not ha much time to work in my new area yet as every day this week has been a diferent meeting.  Conference was great though, I felt nice to take a little break from the walking and teaching and just soak in the spirit of the prophet and apostals.  My New comp is Elder Vilca from Lima, Peru. We're getting along pretty well so far, and we have one investigator right now (Yessica) who's looking at getting baptized.
Elder Balhorn

12 de Agosto

Sorry for not writing for a while my blogger account got hacked, but i`ve pretty much figured it out.

These last few weeks have gone well, I`m with a new comp now named Elder Turner from Utah, He`s the first northamerican comp I`ve had since the MTC.  We`re getting along fine we`ve got 3 baptisamal dates that basicly a sure thing,  Noè for the 17th and a Couple, Edgar and Ivonn for the 24th.  We`re really excited for that but right now we`re busting it all out to find more people to be baptized and we`re not haveing a ton of success with that.  I love you all and miss you.
Elder Conner Balhorn

6 De Mayo

This week has gone fairly well, we had a baptisim of a family (Dad, Mom and Son with two childeren under the age of 8) they´re not really my converts though as they were already sure to be baptized when I came. But they´re a really cool family that know that the gospel is true and are completly willing to be part of the church and also they want their friends and family to join also, so I think that we can get a lot of help and references from them.

29 De Abril

Yeah it´s kind of a huge change bieng back in Xela,  I´ve learned how to teach and do missionary work in the aldeas (Olintepeque was pretty rural as well) and the city folk are just so much different to teach and work with. I´m now in a huge ward (about 160 active members) that atends stake center, we have a calender with lunch apointments for the month and it´s always full, the members always prepare something special ( Fried chicken, Spegettii, soup, mac&cheese, horchata etc. rice and tortillas are still used alot but they mix it up),
We still walk but the area´s pretty small and level so that and all this food are probably gonna round me up again, we are teaching several good families and we have one lined up for baptisim next week but they´re not my converts as they were already sure to be baptized before I came. About half of the zone is in trios because of the increase in missionaries and also because of a huge number of missionaries that are waiting for thier visas to go to other countries.

22 De Abril

So last monday in the night I got a call from the assistants and they told me where i was going and what i was going to do, I´m now a zone leader! My zone (and area) is called El Bosque but don´t let the name fool you it´s actually in Xela and my area is one of the busiest parts of the city.   It´s a bit of a culture shock coming out of Xepón and then all of the sudden having McDonalds in my area and also im trying to get my head around all the the dats and things that the assistants and president want us to keep track of.  I´m in a trio for now but it´s only temporary, my comp´s name is Elder Ube from Ecuador and the third wheel is Elder Aguilar from Honduras (we call him our secretary because he´s not a zone leader with us but we put him to work helping with the dats). They´re both good guys and we´re getting along great.  Anyway i´m trying to get adjusted to teaching educated people which is more challenging to me than anytning else because it´s a more in depth lesson and they have a harder time acepting the answers, but on the other hand they actually understand the doctrine and I feel like they´re following the gospel more knowingly than just blind acceptance.

15 De Abril

Well this next week I will turn one year old and never been kissed (If you dont count an old drunk guy who called me "Mi Amor" and gave me a big ol` Toothless smack on the cheek, but hey its the best kiss i`ve had in the last year)

So the other day a member in my area was working in a well and a big ol` boulder fell in, so we spent a couple days preparing the body and burying him (there is no such thing as a morgue here and he was pretty badly banged up) dunk realitives didn`t make anything easier and the entire family was screaming and crying something feirce, I never ever want to go through that agian. Anyway the mish is going great, we had 3 kids baptized last week and the parents of the kids we baptized last time schedueled for saturday,( and also the parents of the kids we just baptized want to also but the dad needs to attend,) But unfortunatly I`m not gonna be there as i`ve got changes and i`ll be going to my new area tomorrow :( . I`m glad to be getting away from my lazy comp but still I wanted to work a lot more in Xepòn before going ( The zone leaders say it`s probably the first time in history that someone has said that they dont want to leave Xepòn.) bu t that`s the way the cookie crumbles and the lord will send me where he needs me and I have to go.

25 de Marzo

This week has gone fairly well, we had 3 investigators come to church and they`re all fairly positive, we also challenged 3 of our investigators to baptisim although  2 said no,  the reason being is the same with them both , that they have been baptized before in the the catholic church and although they both like attending church and don`t believe in catholisisim they feel like being baptized again would be mocking god,  im pretty sure that thay will eventually baptized but it may take a bit to resolve thier doubts.