31 de Deciembre

These last two weeks have gone well we had a really good christmas feast at the house of a really rich member  in momos, he had enough food for all the missionaries and because he spends time in the states every few months it was turkey and mashed potatoes with a lot of other things that come from the states.  afterward we had permission to watch The Grinch at the house of the Elders in momos,  but the disk was scratched so we didn`t.  The work week has been good although right now we really don´t have anyone progressing.  I´m really excited to get a new year started,  it´ll be a bummer not staying up till midnight this year, but i have the rest of my life for that.
Elder Balhorn

17 de Deciembre

Yesterday we got the district together and went caroling, since there´s only 3 areas in the district it makes it easy for us to visit all three without missing to much work, also they area seventy Elder Martino decided to change the work schedual of the zone so instead of going home at 6pm we´re out till 9:30, they say thery´re going to buy us flashlights but still the members tell us to stay in centro and in the light, which is all right because that´s where most of the investigators and members are anyway, also we have been contacting like no other this week and found several families in further out areas that have never talked to missionaries before ane are very interested one of whom is a whole family who are very poor and humble

Elder Balhorn

10 de Deciembre

This week has been hard as far as the work goes, everyone has little problems which get in the way of baptisim even though they have a testimony, our most positive family said no to a baptisimal date this week because the father is going to HueHue for the month and they want to all be baptized together so that means waiting ´till january urgh! and our other positive family said no because the in active father doesn´t want anything to do with the church although his wife wants to return and the children who have already attended varies times and have testimonies.  But the work goes forward and we´re not getting down.
Elder Balhorn.

3 de deciembre

We went to the area over to watch the devotional, I especially liked the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf about recieving gifts afterwards we spent the night at a members house there,  The work is going well and we have several investigators that are progressing and about ready to be baptised. 

12 de Noviembre

This week has been very busy, monday night I recieved call from the assistents, they told us that we both were being changed out of Olintepeque and that I would be Opening and Training in a small town in Momostenango. So tuesday I met my hijo Elder Tejero (From Merida, Yucatan) and late that evening we arived in the teenie tiny town of Tunayac (News travels slow I didnt know for 3 day's  who won the election) , where there are only 3 small families of active members and only 2 men one of whom i think is a drunk, oh and many people speak little to no spanish.  So we were in the middle of the forest when the quake happened but we only felt it as a large tremor. But heard later that it was very large in Reu and Killed alot of people in San Marcos because the houses there are mostly adobe.  Oh and also I was made District leader here as well. which Really just means I take dats and keep everyone in line.  Elder Tejero has alot of enthusiasim so we´ve been working our butts off and managed to triple the attendance in church to 32, seven of which were Investigators and we have several who have excepted a baptisimal challange. The biggest challenge is that we live out of one tiny room in back of the chapel which with two beds has no room for anything more but president says he can find us a bunk bed so thats good. 

5 de Novembre

This week has been fairly busy as president set a goal of forty street contacts which kinda detracted from the work we did with our current investigators and although we acomplished the goal not many are positive.

Fotunatly this week was Halloween and All Saints Day so many people were visiting the cemetary to leave flowers and candles so we contacted alot there.  Unfortuantly the president has set the goal again for next week, but I think that then is the day of the dead : ) anyway we´re gonna work hard but my comp is not really the most motivated person in the world.   



29 De Octubre

This week we got a call from president and he told us that altàn might get emergency changed next week so we`ve been working hard to get a baptisim before he leaves and we put a date with a twelve year old investigator from a part member family but its hard for her because some of her family are anti-mormon and others are a inactive.  So she`s really unsure if being baptized is the right thing or if she should wait for a few more years.  That`s about it for this week
Elder Balhorn

Oh and we killed a Pig

 

23 de Octubre

This week has been pretty slow, we went around to the members saying goodbye and I packed my bags because we were certain that I was going to get changed, but last night they told us that this change we were both staying in Olinte making this my 4th change here and now i´ve been here the longest. Oh well right now I´m trying not to make eye contact with the drunk guy sitting next to me.  He´s talking smack on th U.S and trying to get me to translate Eminem, he´s still drinking and luckily has reached the point of inibrieation where he can´t form full sentaces but he´s singing along now. But anyway I´m a little sad that I didn´t get changed but I do love the area It´s just that I´ve been here for a while now and I´m ready to leave.

 Elder Balhorn.

My Bags packed and ready

I bought a bus

¡PARQUE!

15 de Octubre

Things are going well, but we still don't have anyone progressing, President made a suprise appearence in our ward yesterday which kinda sucked cause we didn't get any Investigators to come, Although we had some less actives.  And the district leader called yesterday and asked for me, and asked me a bunch of questions about our dats and the told me from now on I need to call in the dats not Altán, so i'm pretty sure he sespects altán of fudging them, which i caught him doing once but macheted him pretty good and as far as I know that was the end of it.  But now my comp's really mad at the district leader (who was his comp before me) and I'm kinda caught in the middle.  But other than that things are going well, we trained the ward missionaries ( 4 priests) this week and they have been giving us references and we plan on having a lot of lessons with them.  I don't know why all our positive investigators have to be heavy Drinkers but thats kinda how it works, we're working with a man that was a reference from a member and he's super positive but every time we show up he's buzzed and that might  be why he's so happy with our message, so we told him that next time we teach he has to have a clear mind and he agreed. So yeah I'm getting fairly used to working with drunk people.

8 De Octubre

Elote Loco

(Crazy Corn)

I love Guatemala

How about that conference! I just wish that revalation had come a year ago I´d be on the downhill slope by now, but oh well the lord has his reasons and I´m here when I´m supossed to be.  But anyway I´m pretty excited to see the babies coming to the mission, but it´ll be hard when the younger sisters start showing up jajaja chiste. Anyway the work is going well and we got a lot of referals this last week from the members and the want to be involved in sharing the gospel with their friends. This weekend has been P-weekend though, us having spent it watching conference and barely working but I really enjoyed conference and was sad when it ended, even though we watched it in spanish and it was still a little hard to understand. My favorite talk was Elder Holland, about returning to our nets.  And also Packer´s about the atonement.

Elder Balhorn.  

1 De Octubre

 On the left Teodoro, on the right Hno. Angel who performed

                        Chocolate Panqueques

This saturday we had the baptism of Teodoro which was interesting because we had Hno. Angel (who was key in fellowshiping and teaching) perform the ordinance, unfortunatly they are both old men so after going under water teodoro had a very hard time getting his feet back under him and Angel couldn´t lift him up, but it was all done properly so we didn´t have to redo thank goodness.  This baptisim was Altán´s first is 8 months so he´s been really happy and a lot less trunky. Now once again our objective is to find new positive investigators, we have a few but the problem is that it´s really hard to get ahold of them.

                                             Elder Balhorn

 

24 de Septiembre

Santa Maria

This week we've had a hard time getting ahold of anyone, but last week we contacted an investigator named Teodoro who Gonzalez and I had droped because he said he didn't want to take lessons anymore, but to our suprise he said he wanted to start coming to church again and he did last week and yesterday, so we put a baptisimal date with him for this saturday and says he's ready for it.  

       Elder Balhorn  

17 de Septiembre

                                        Guatemalan bumper stickers border on Sacreligious

                                                                     My New Comp

Well first off my new comp is Elder Altan he's chapin (Guatamalan) from the Capital.  And I actually already knew him because he was in my district he has a year in the mission.  The thing about Elder Altan is that he's very efeminate, so this week we've been cleaning a lot (Gonzalez was a slob) and due to our efforts the house is no longer infested with fleas which I had given up hope on getting rid of, also in the mornings we make breakfast together and he irons my shirt (It's kinda wierd).  And as far as the work goes he includes me and we are actaully having some success.  We found a señora that is a cousin of a member and taught her with the member, she was very receptive and readily acepted the truth of our message and the challenge to read the LDM, so we're really excited to have a second lesson with her.  Elder Altan doesn't speak any english (He says he doesn't like it) so I'm speaking a lot of spanish and my understanding is improving alot.
         Elder Balhorn

10 De Septiembre

This week was my last with Elder Gonzalez, we pretty much spent it trying to find new positive investigators in which we had an bit of sucess then for the last couple days he's been saying goodbyes to his favorite members and packing. Tomorrow we're gping to the bus terminal to send him off and then later I'll pick up my new comp.  Today we went to a lake which is inside of the hollow on top of an old Volcano.  Which was a pretty tough hike but well worth it, the lake is actually a sacred mayan place and there are a lot of mayan alters scatered around it, The wierd thing is that the mayan religion is still practiced, and they still offer burnt sacrifices at these alters (Chickens usually) and swimming in the lake is strictly forbidden. 

La Vista de la Laguna Chicabal

A Christian cross right next to a mayan alter (the piece of tin) where they offer burnt sacrifices.

Mattew 6:24

The Elders of Olintepeque and nearby San Carlos Sija

3 De Septiembre

The Baptism of Hna. Virginia 

I´ve developed a taste for Giant worms here in Guatemala.

Well this week has been alright, on the bright side of things we baptized Hna. Virginia on the other hand now we have absolutly zero positive investigators.  The investigator that I talked about in the last blog told us he was not interested in being baptized or in our church even though he thinks the Book of Mormon is great, ("Bonita") and he says he's learned a lot from us.  We talked with him about it and he argeed to take a couple more lessons from us before "shuting the door".  Anyway thats the state of my mission this week.

Elder Balhorn

27 de Agosto

Pretty much a summary of Guatemala

My Comp

This week we contacted a guy who works at a bike shop, he´s really cool and has a lot of the beliefs of the church even before we taught him.  For example he´s catholic but he doesn´t believe that his church or any of the evangelicals that he´s seen are correct, also he told us that he beleives the bible is the word of god but that people have changed it and mistranslated it.  Hopfully we can help him develop belief in the Book of Mormon and the restored authority of the church.  Anyway we had Stake Conference this sunday and Hna Virginia (the Mother of the kids we baptized) Came and we got her a baptisimal interview, which she passed so she is now ready to be baptized on the 2nd.

20 de Agosto

Me and my buddy Tacun Uman posing like bosses

My Comp. Crossing the monkey bridge we cross every day.

This week I turned four months in the mission, which is not much but it just means that I have the much longer to work (I´m trying to be positive in loving the mission but sometimes thats really hard, and 19 more months seems like forever) anyway this week has gone well, we have 2 new, positive babtisimal dates, one is the mother of the kids we baptised and the other is from a part member family.  So we{re doin alright and I can´t complain.

13 de Agosto

The Amazing Spider-Spider

(I Don´t like the way this picture turned out, the carton it´s in is actually fairly large and the spider is about the size of my palm)

Turns out the poor people of every country drive the same thing......

 This week has not been the best, our one investigator with a baptisimal date told us that he doesn´t want to be baptized because he feels that he´s not ready to give up sin and if he is made clean he´ll just mess up again and his salvation will be lost.  We tried to explain the purpose of repentance but he still doesn´t want to  be baptized.  And we can never seem to catch our more positive investigators home to teach them.  My comp and I get along fairly well but thats just ´cause i´ve learned to ignore him, he´s a good missionary and he knows how to teach but he is wildly Immature and nothing makes him happier than belittling me, but thats the mission.  This week we went to a members house for FHE and the ploped a bowl down infront of us with some nasty yellow sauce and a chunk of something floating in it.  After mopping up most of the sauce with Tamalitos I found that the mysterious object was a chunk of meat that looked like a sponge, and my comp leaned over and wispered "Cow stomach".  It was Gross, but I finally managed to cut of pieces and swallow them with little chewing involved, and I was able to mask most of the retching by pretending I had swallowed wrong.                                   Elder Balhorn

6 de Agosto

This week has been fairly slow, we don´t have a lot of progressing Investigators but some of our newer investigators look more promising. 
 One of our Investigators with a baptisimal date told us that he was through with taking lessons from us.  we asked him if he had read the BOM to know if its true and he said he read the Bible to know if the BoM was true, Logic.  anyway the real reason is cause we told him to quite drinking and his Pastor told him that drinking was perfectly fine, and since he doesn't want to quite guess who he listened to.  Our other investigator with a Fecha turned out not to be actaully married to his "Wife" (who is a member) but the bishop is gonna help us with that and he has real desire and believes. (The problem there is that a Marriage License is expensive in Guatemala and he is very poor even by guatemala standards, but the church  will help with the cost)

The View from our roof.

                      

30 de Julio

 This saturday we were walking down the road on saturday and we saw a drunk guy laying in the middle of the road with cars swerving around him, (There are always a lot of passed out drunk guys in Guate but usually they make it to the gutter or sidewalk before laying down) this guy hade obviously downed some 100 proof rubbing alchol and tanked it on the way home, well as we got to him we realized that he was one of our Investigators who had a baptizimal date, we carried out of the road but he wouldnt wake so we went on our way.   This sunday we baptized  Santos, the Gandpa of the kids we baptized a couple weeks ago, and we got a call from the zonies yesterday morning telling me i was to go to Guete city today so we went to their house to sleep over but it turns out that they got their Info wrong and Elder Gonzales was to go not me so im chillin with the zones leaders for p-day today (which is pretty sweet as we got to go to the mall which is normally off limits) while my comp is in La Capital signing papers
Elder Balhorn.

From right to left 

Me, Hna. Cresencia, her husband Hno. Santos, their son  Hno. Santiago, and Elder Gonzalez

The Zonies Elder Carter and Elder Celis 

                                                                         

23 de Julio

We've been doing fairly well this week, Santos the gandpa of the kids we baptised on the 8th wants to be baptised next sunday, and we have a couple more investigators with dates, but one of them is having trouble with a drinking problem, so he has to wait until he is off of the stuff before baptisim, this past week we found 13 new investigators which is a lot, but only a few of them look very promising.  We walk at least 10 miles every day and I've already reached the last hole on my belt and my clothes are a little big on me.  On the flip side my feet have several blisters each. But nothing I can't deal with.
                                                          Se Cuiden  Elder Balhorn 

16 de Julio

If anyone comes to guatemala I would advise them to not eat the Brocolli...Unfortunatly nobody ever told me that and I ate, it wasn't that bad at the time, but the next day i was blowing chunks. and the day afterwards my comp was sick and i caught a mild cold. so we've both been sick this week and not a lot has gotten done> Maybe it was the fact that i was sick but i had the worst food that i have had so far in the mission, pureed papaya.....I almost barfed a couple times and it was at an investigators house so i had to drink as much as i could, my comp is still mad at me because i didn't quite finish it but I said that I was full and I think thats a lot more polite than barfing on his floor.                                           
                                                                  Elder Balhorn

9 de Julio

Yesterday I got my first baptisims we
baptised 4 grandchildren of a recent convert (Marielos, Johanna, Luis,
and Erick) their mother is planning on being baptised too but she has
not commited to a date, I baptised Johanna and the priests and an
uncle baptised the rest, it is a super awesome experience.  At church
yesterday we finally got one of our investigators to come but he came
late and didnt stay the whole time.   Also a Volo (Drunk guy) showed
up to church, unfortunatly he´s a member and he claims he served a
mission.  we had a talk with him about the Word of Wisdom but its hard
to reason with drunk people. Anyway our biggest challenge now is
finding investigators who will progress.
                                                 Nos Vemos! Elder Balhorn

2 de Julio (July 2)

Honestly this week has been really hard, we have had about zero luck contacting and im having a hard time with spanish.  In the last few days we have run into 3 different drunk guys in the street that say they are members of the church, im not sure all of them are because they were barely able to stand, and we also ran into an investigator who we had commited to the word of wisdom and had a fecha (baptisimal date) also very drunk, and he said he didnt want to be baptised although he had previously been excited for it, we told him we'd talk to him when he's sober, but honestly im not sure that the drunks here ever have sober moments.  The food here varies depending on the wealth of the family but the basic component of every meal is corn.  Corn tortillas, tamalitas, corn on the cob, corn café and tons of other corn based things, beans also are huge.  as far as drinks go its all about café, but they call all hot drinks café the most basic is hot sugar water and another which is basicly boiled corn meal so its hard to teach the Word of Wisdom ´cause we have to define which kinds of Café they can´t drink.   My personal favorite is Morcaf which is bien rico.
                                           Elder Balhorn

June 24 (En El Campo)

 Guatemala is awesome When we left the CCM it was a 3 1/2 hour drive to Xela, it was really beautiful but foggy most of the time, President and Sister Bautista are really cool.  My new Comp is Elder Gonzales from Mex. City, he's a really good missionar, although he's almost as new as me (5 months) my area is Olintepeque its pretty much just outside of Xela. When we got there he imediatly to me to change Cause we were going to an investigator family that lived an hour away and olintepeque is pretty much built into a valley, so we had to hike down the hill we were on and up the hill that they are on and they are really steep.  any way we then entered a corn field and at the center of it was a cinder block hut. (They're actually better off than most of our other investigators) Anyway most all of the people in Olinte are dirt poor, infect the nicest building in the whole valley is the LDS chapel and even that is smaller that almost any other chapel i've seen.  The houses that the missionaries live in are the nicest houses that ive been in in Olinte but by america standards they would be pretty crapy, any way the people in guatemala are the "draw near unto me with their lips but their hearts are far from me" kind of people and in olintepeque there are muchas evalngelical churches so the people are usually either Catholic or Evangelical.  Xela is actaully the lowest baptising mission in central america because all the catholics are very caught in their ways  (they have a saying here that has been recited to us a couple times which is "Better a bad old than an unknown new" or something like that)  or they are Evangelical in which case they believe that all churches are true and its just a matter of finding the one that suits you (another saying "There's only one god but many ways to worship him" or something to that effect)  But we actually have 4 baptisms lined up from the Oxlas family (Oh-slosh those are the types of names i have to deal with)   I have learned a couple of Quiche words but I promptly forgot them cause they're really hard to pronounce. Anyway i love my area, except for the hills, my comp is hard working, and there's another Comapnionship (Elder Menendez and Elder McGrath )that lives down the hill from us so we get to hang out with them every once in a while.  theyre also pretty cool Elder McGrath is awesome, he just got in the transfer before me so he's been able to give me a few heads up about things.                  
                                                Elder Balhorn       

Week 9

 Well things are wraping up in the CCM, yesterday we had an all day seminar
on being an efective missionary (pretty much about setting goals and
working with the ward)  I leave on tuesday for Xela (Quetzaltenango)
and I'm pretty stoked for that.  Its a 4 hour ride by bus and I'm told
its past some spectacular scenery.  I´m kinda nervous to find out who
my trainer is, from what i hear they usually stick new nortes with old
nortes their first transfer but it just depends on the mission
president. Anyway my nexy entry will be from the field.
                                         Elder Balhorn

Week 8

Things are going well here, my spanish is improveing but I'm getting kinda
tired of the mtc, pretty much I want to get to the field quick, I feel
so sorry for the elders who have to stay in provo for 9 weeks or those
heading to asia, who are there for 12, that would suck, anyway im
pretty much trying not to strangle my companion, he has some form of
OCD and he's a total Hypocondriac, anyway i forgot to mention in my last
post that we got to go to the market after the latinos and the
previous group of Nortes left,  it was super fun we went to a large
releif map of guatemal and looked at the terrain of our mission
(president told us his thoery of the book of mormon lands) then we
went to the market and baught some sweet stuff I got a guatemala
soccer shirt, and a sweet pen with a quetzal on it among other things,
 and then we went to wendys, (not all of the elders agree but i think
it was better here) I ate 3 sandwiches and a large soda, :) anyway
until next time!                Elder Bahorn

Week 7

 Yesterday I set the toaster on fire,
apperently when the roll you put in to a taoster has a little bit of
barbeque sauce on on it, it becomes quite flammable.  So ive been
getting crap for that all day long.  And since my companion has been
having digestive problems the doctor put him on a diet of bread and
bananas, and now he's ticked all the time, apperently he feels like I
never take the initiative while planning lesssons (the reason being is
that whenever I try to he wont help or pay attention soI found it
best to wait till he took initiative and the join in planning) anyway
so he decided to wait until I took the initiative to start planning
and I was waiting for him, finally he just got ticked at me and
nothing really got done, but we talked it through and we planned and
taught a pretty good lesson.
                               Elder Balhorn

Week 6

Things are going great here i went tracting
monday and got 5 referals for the missionaries in the area, my
companion for trackting was Elder Romero, he's really cool kid from
guatemala city and im glad I had him 'cause he could actually
understand the people we were talking to, I can only tell the general
topic of a conversation which is fine since I can testify, he'd go off
for a couple minutes about the BOM and then pause and I'd say somting to
effect of I know that the book of mormon is true and testify of it for
a minute, then let him talk again.  Then he would pause and we would
repeat the process, the people here are so kind, there were only a
couple of people who turned us away and that was because they were
really busy doing something else and the were very polite while they
did so.  The rest of the week has been great we have just been
studying and practicing alot, on thursday the president called a
meeting of the entire mtc cause a CTR ring and 100 dolars had been
stolen, its kind of been a problem here, my companion honestly drives
me nuts, he either never wants to do anything or wants to do
everything and hes really cocky, but whatever I can put up with him for
a while more.  On tuesday after the latinos leave we get to go on a
city tour and go to the market I'm super stoked for that, it's going to
be awesome.  Anyway talk to y'all next week.
                       Elder Balhorn

Week 5

Things are
going really great in the CCM the food is great and  the latinos are
really cool guys, im getting a little tired of being in this building
and a little homesick but im fine,  plus i get to go tracking with a
latino companion this monday and see some of the city, im kinda torn
between thinking people are really good drivers here or really bad,
because everyone is super insane when it comes to traffic but i havent
seen or heard a wreck yet, (which is more miraculous than you might
think) only the sound of screching tires.  The latinos are super cool
especially Elder Gochez who is the best english speaker here beside
the maestros (teachers) Im super stoked to get out to the field even
though i know that my spanish is not even close to where it needs to
be.

Week 4 Guatemala

I´m
in guatemala! its a really cool country and everything is so diferent,
the traffic laws here are a joke, and the cops sit in the back of
trucks with shotguns on their laps. All of food at the CCM is
wonderful but its also dangerous, if you eat the wrong thing you will
end up in the bathroom for quite some time, my companion is elder
Keele, he alright we get along pretty well. the plane ride over was
really long with a 3 hour hang time in L.A. we got to call home for a
bit but payphones swallow a lot of quarters so i didnt get to talk for
as long as i would like.  There are 6 people per room here and in mine
there are only 2 americans and only 1 of the latinos speaks a little
english so i dont understand alot of what is going on here all in all
i love it though its a very pretty country and i wish i wasnt stuck
inside so i could see more of it anyway hasta la vista!

Week 2

This week has been good all the jitters from the first week are gone and im very comfortable, however they will soon send me to the Guatemala MTC and im sure my comfort zone will be shattered.  but thats fine ill adjust and im sure my spanish will improve a lot.  I will be leaving on the 8th on a flight for LAX  where I will board another flight for Guatemala City, im traveling with 6 other elders, including Elder Cook, who are all going to the Quetzaltenango Mission.  For whatever reason they appointed me travel leader, which means im in charge of the group for the entire trip....obviously they dont make the wisest choices here at the MTC.  Anyway its all good here the rules are strict but they're not really bad once you get used to them.

                              

                                                                Hasta Luego!

Week 1

Its been only a couple of days since i was last able to use the computer but i figure ill update because itll be till next p day (wednesday) when i get the chance, things are getting a lot better since sunday and im starting to get into the swing of things, there were several speakers that kinda put things in perpective for me and its a lot easier now, still hard but easier, yesterday we got to hear a talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson which was amazing, we didnt know who the speaker was until he walked into the room, it was really cool cause i was only three rows back and pretty much center he was amazing. anyway im outa time so hasta luego!

My First Days at the MTC

well the first few days here are goining well althought its very hard to keep up, mi companero es elder cook who we met at the brick oven, we are the only missionaries in our district to go to quetzaltenango although there is one going to guatemal city sur, anyway they have us on a short leash and we only have 30 minutes to email.

Please update my blog with the following:

Hola from the MTC! i am missing everyone, but i guess they assign us new friends here. its a hectic place to be but I am trying to keep my head above water, my companion is elder cook, he's a great guy who keeps me on task as i have always had a hard time paying attention to anything as you all know. the return sevice is i keep us pointed in the right direction when we are walking between buildings as he would end up walking around in the parking lot without me, no sense of direction! I have to get my parents to post this because we have only half an hour to read and send emails and we have no access to blogs. I have gotten very little sleep because my body hasnt adjusted to going to bed at 10:30 and waking up at 6:30, i have tried to stay awake though all my classes but ive not totally suceeded, hopefully i will adjust to the lifestyle and not end up a sobbing mass on the floor. I've been here for 3 days and already they expect us to teach an investigator in spanish we failed miserably but i suppose everybody else did too. anywho I'll try to udate again in a week and i can only email family so sorry there wont be a blast email this week

Introduction

Hey everyone I've decided to create a blog so you can follow my adventures in Guatemala. I will also try to maintain my facebook page and send out emails.  My new Email address is conner.balhorn@myldsmail.com.  I head into the MTC on Wednesday so my next post will be from there on P. day.