Elder Landon James Crapo

Hey Family,

It sounds like you guys have had an extremely fun weekend, especially Hunter. I found I was really missing not celebrating with the family yesterday. It kind of hit home how much stuff I will miss and how much I care about that stuff. It makes me feel better to know what happened and all that. I can´t wait to see Toy Story 3. My comp and I walked past a building that had a commercial for Toy Story 3 on it and it was really tempting to stop and watch it for a little bit but... oh well.

Apparently, we don´t get changes today. We get them later this week or something. I don´t know why, I think it´s a little weird but I guess you won´t get to know until next week where I am.

This week there have been a few excitements and a few disappointments, just like a normal week of a mission. Juana, Maria, Abraham, and David... Familia Camacho moved to Guatemala City for 6 months right when we got Juana and Maria to agree to get baptized. They were the most optimistic family we´d encountered so far and they had to move. To make it worse, their aunt is major evangelico and will probably undo what we´ve done. All I can do is hope that they can be strong and stick to their testimonies that I know that they have now. They both prayed and know that what we were teaching is true. In their own words they both felt, "paz y tranquilidad en [su] corazon" about being baptized and coming to our church.

The HUGE family that we contacted last week we´ve given one lesson to. Out of the 12 adults that were there, we´re thinking maybe 3 of them are taking us seriously and may end up being positive investigators. We´ll see, it´s really tough to teach 30 people all at the same time, 12 adults and around 20 kids running all over the place.

Dionicio didn´t come to church yesterday even though he said he would. We offered to accompany him to church too, but he said he´d go himself. Now he´s probably feeling down on himself and probably will avoid us. We just want to help him because he is really receptive and despite the disbelief of his relatives, that are members of the church, I really do think he can go far if people would just give him the chance.

Finally, we found another familia Paiz Coyoy that seems promising. We needed something after being torn apart after finding out that fam. Camacho was leaving. It´s a family of an inactive mother who stopped going to church when she got married. They have two kids named Alfredo and Joni who are just awesome kids. They both come up and give us big hugs and say,"mi amigo" whenever we come over. The husband is very positive and we´re almost certain they will end up getting baptized and coming to church. That´s it for now. I´m just really hoping I get to stay to see all these people come through, but if not, I know I´ll be able to find people to love and help wherever I go.

I have this odd feeling in me lately of longing to be with my family and friends again, and yet not wanting to ever leave these people here. It´s a feeling of joy that I never want to forget. Joy, because I know that there are people I love who love me too at home, and that I´m making friends that are almost family here in Guatemala. What brings the most joy, is knowing that in the end, I will be able to stand at the end of judgement in the Celestial Kingdom with all of you and all of them together, with a feeling of love and peace and gratitude that is comparable to none other. Thank you for your love and prayers.

-Elder Landon Crapo