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