Elder Cook, Laguna Chiquibal and Volcanoes.

January 20, 2014

Hey family and friends,

Wow, this week was great.  That is all I have to say. Well I will start out with the highlight of the week. Elder Cook came to the mission and talked to us. It was so awesome.  It was just for the mission.

My comp and I with the assistants.

First, we all had the chance to shake his hand and greet him. Then we had the opportunity to listen to his message. It was great. He talked about a lot of stuff from Doctrine & Covenants and how the mission force is growing. He also shared his opinion about what kind of people we should look for and teach. He then finished with leaving us a promise and a blessing.  It was so cool. I felt like he was talking directly to me. He made lots of promises about our families back home and all the blessing they will receive. Then he bore his testimony of the Savior and it was so powerful. It was incredible. We were all ready to go out there and find some people.

Almost the whole zone.  We were only missing three missionaries.

The zone right now is doing great in comparison with the whole mission. We have the most baptisms out of all the zones. We are Xela Centro and  we only have 7 areas and we have the most...that could be why President gave us permission to go to the Laguna Chiquibal.

They always burn wax.  One time I saw a lady put like 100 candles in the fire.

I know I had already been there but this time it was different. I had the opportunity to see a volcano erupt. Well, it wasn't a full eruption, but it exploded. It was awesome.

Three Volcanoes

Also I got to see the coast, but it was really far away. We could see like 3 other volcanos that were erupting when we saw the coast. Guatemala is really beautiful.

Sorry my emails are not that good as a zone leader we are always just running to get everything done. 

Working in the fields.

I love you guys so much. I know that the work we are doing as missionaries is the Lord's work.

Elder Reinhold

We saw the volcano erupt. It was cool.

 I have a video but I can't send videos 

because they are too big.

Getting Ready for Elder Cook's Visit and a New Comp...

We learned how to make pies in the church with J--, our recent convert.

January 13, 2014

Hey everybody. Well I will start out by virtually introducing my companion. His name is Elder A-- from Honduras. He has 18 months in the mission. This is his first time being a zone leader, so I am showing him the ropes. The good thing is that he has the desire to work. Well this week was good.  The zone did well. It is still improving little by little. Right now we have 2 baptisms set for the 25th. We should baptize 3 this month.

Here is some wipil I bought. It is really cool.

This week all the missionaries are so excited. Elder Cook is coming this Saturday. We are all getting ready - like cutting our hair, washing our suits, and mentally preparing for the huge machete that his is going to give us. We are all getting ready to be spiritually renewed.

Today was a little interesting.  The sisters had a huge fire in their house. We are going to go later to talk with the owner and see the damage. 

This is Sija.  It is parto of our zone.

The quote for the week is, "Over-anxiety is like pulling up the daisies to see how the roots are doing." Neal A. Maxwell This is just like setting a baptism date with our investigators.  You have to wait for the perfect time. Well I am sure that I will have a lot to talk about with an apostle coming.

Elder Reinhold

P.S. Sorry if forgot to mention that we have had 3 earthquakes this week. Looks like the world is going to end. One of them was pretty strong. It was strong enough to make us leave our house. Love you guys.

Hola Familia!

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Hey! How is it going everybody??? Well this week was extremely good but finished out a little bit sad. Well let me start with the good stuff...

First of all we had a baptism. J-- got baptized! This is really exciting.  Also, we broke the 3 month no baptizing streak here in Centro. It was so amazing. He is going to be a great member. It was so awesome how he received his answer. He went and talked to the father of the huge Catholic cathedral in Centro. The father was getting mad at him because he was talking with us and everything, but just like Joseph Smith, he decided to pray. He knelt down one night and prayed, asking where he could find the truth.  Immediately after he did not feel anything and went to bed like normal. He then had a dream he was watching us from above teaching him in the chapel where we always have the appointments. He said not only that but that he received a confirmation that it is the truth and that he had to be baptized. When we do our part the Lord does his part. 

Look how hard the mission is.  No, just kidding.  We invited the
district leaders to lunch for a correlation meeting.  It was a cool restaurant.

The other good thing was that the zone had a great week. We went from 6 baptismal dates to 10 to 23 this week. It was awesome to see the dates for the week not only for the baptismal dates, but everything went well. I looks like we are doing better at getting the zone going and everything. The zone really is doing great.

We made a pinata for an elder that is going to his house.
(Going to his house?  Must be how they'd say it in Spanish.)

Well now for the sad part. Tomorrow the zone is going to have a couple of changes. One of them is our district leader Elder P--. Also my companion has changes tomorrow!!!!! Elder D-- S--, the Brazilian, is going to leave.  He is going to go to the office as secretary. I am excited but a little nervous because I have only one month as zone leader. Well we will see how it goes. I don't know who my new companion is but we will see.

The quote for the week is one from my Mom. "Nothing ever goes away until it taught us what we need to know." - Pema Chodron. I love this quote. If we have something that has always been hard for us, it is because we still need to learn something. I have learned this a lot in the mission with learning the wisdom of being ovedient. (From the blog editor/Mom: He keeps spelling things funny or how they would be spelled in Spanish. I had to leave this one because I think it is cute.)  

I love you guys and we are going to work hard to turn around the area of Centro.

Elder Reinhold (El Elder con la familia más pilas y calidad que hay en todo el mundo. Gracias por el apoyo y todo lo que hacen para mi.)

Post Christmas Phone Call...

December 30, 2013

Eating "Moker Dahnodes" with the Bishop and his family. 

Hey!  Well first of all, it was great to talk to you guys. It was fun using skype. We had a good time talking face to face and it was well worth it.

This is half of our zone.

Christmas was great.  We had an activity as the zone. It was good. We made pizzas and played sports and did a gift exchange. It all turned out well and everybody had a great time.

Making pizzas.

Gift exchange.

This week we had a conference with President it was cool. President Bautista always has the best stories. He told a story about a couple whose kid went missing and they went on their mission knocked on a door and it was their son. I maybe had a little bit of moisture in my eye.

These are paches.  This is the food that everyone eats here
for Christmas and other holidays.  They are like tamales
except they are made with rice.

Well, we got called out in the conference pretty good. So President, from the pulpit, asked every companionship thier goals for the next two weeks. There were 4 zones present. He always started with the zone leader to ask them thier goals. He said, "The zone leader of Xela Centro, where are you guys at?" I raised my hand and when he caught sight of where we were sitting he said, "Oh, los pecadores," which means "the sinners." All the missionaries - all 100 of them, were like, "Oooooooooh." My comp and I were like, "What the heck what did we do?" But our president is like that. He is a jokester.

My comp with his Christmas gifts.

We are one of the only missions in the world that doubled our baptisms this year. The zone is doing a little bit better. I think that the plans that we are doing to finding people wanting to hear the gospel message are working a little bit. We will keep working hard to have the best zone in the mission. I want you guys to know that I would not be anywhere else than right here in the tiny town of Quetzaltenango doing exactly what I am doing. It is a once in a lifetime chance. Well, I will talk to you guys later. I love you guys so much and we will talk to you next week.

Elder Reinhold

Photo of Elder Reinhold on Christmas Day via Skype.