San Juan Ostuncalco.

March 24, 2014

This is the exit.

Family...

Well this week was great. First of all I want to tell you guys where I am now serving. I am serving in San Juan Ostuncalco. It is about 30 minutes from Xela. It really is a great experience. First of all, I have hardly heard any Spanish this past week. In Ostuncalco they speak Mam. It is weird that they do not speak Spanish, I have tried to learn a little Mam but it is so hard. It has a lot of throat clicking and stuff. 

My companion is Elder M-- from Peru. I am suprised on how well we get along. It is one of the first companions that I have had that doesn't give me any kind of worries. He is a good missionary and great at baptizing. One of the best in the mission. 

This is one of our investigators making wipil.

San Juan is made up of a small city with a ton of villages all around it. It is a very poor place. As for the church, it is struggling a lot. It is a branch of about 50 and there are only 2 people that have the priesthood. The branch was bigger but because of some stuff that has happened, the branch is struggling. Right now nobody really likes the missionaries. The missionaries have not been the best here. This is the first time in the mission that I will not receive lunches from the members but we are going to work really hard to gain confidence from the members. 

Elder D-- and I.  The "OG's."

The branch president lives in Xela but drives there on Sundays to be the branch president. The good thing is that we have some baptisms that could happen but not until April. In San Juan they have some of the most beautiful trajes (traditional clothes) that I have seen. I am really excited to be here in San Juan. My goal is to baptize someone who could be a branch president in San Juan in maybe a year. The hunt is on. The zone is struggling a little bit. The zone of Esperanza baptized an average of 20 last year but last month they baptized 6 and this month we are going to finish with 3. That is the challenge for us right now: figuring out how to raise the zone.

This is the washing machine of the village of La Victoria.

Love you guys.

Elder Reinhold

These are called chuj.  This is how they bathe themselves.

Every Wednesday and Saturday they chuj. It is basically like a sauna. 
It is a tradition from way back. 

The sister is in there preparing the chuj because everybody goes
 in at 6 o'clock in the evening.

This is what most of the rivers look like.  They are full of trash.