Dear Mom and Family,
This week was kind of interesting. We had a lot of difficulties going
to Xela this week. There was a conference, but there practically
weren´t any buses at all the whole week, because all the bus drivers
were trying to get all the money they could taking people to Guatemala
City. So all the rest of us who had to go somewhere else were on our
own. We were lucky to find some nice people who were willing to take
us with them half way to Quiché. From there, we got a micro-bus to take
us the rest of the way. After that, we had to take two buses. One
headed towards Guatemala City from Quiché and the other heading back
from Guatemala City to Xela. It was a little ridiculous but we got
through it OK. Other than that, a few of the things we saw during the
week:
- Some sort of parade of people marching around the street with a giant
virgin Mary figure on top of them. I thought someone had died because
they do that too when someone dies. They march around the entire city.
- Pan Para Judas: which was a bunch of kids running around to all the
houses begging for bread for this ugly satanic doll on some kid´s back
which is supposed to represent Judas Iscariot. Saturday they burn
him...
- In some areas they do a crucifixion impersonation but that didn´t
happen here in Joyabaj. It´s too small of a city.
Other than that we´ve been trying to get some new investigators. We
have a lot of news this week. One is a reference of a family of 4. The
wife is extremely critical of all religions and is about fed up with
all the false doctrine in the world. We are going to have to be really
prepared if we want her to even think about what we´re teaching her.
First thing we´re going to try to get her to understand is that her
knowledge will help, but in the end she´s only going to know if she has
the faith, and is humble enough to ask to know. If we can´t get her to
do that... we´ll probably not focus on her too much. I have high hopes
for her and her family though. Their names are Erwin, Veronica, Doris,
and Yovani. So we´ll see how this goes. Those are the most positive of
the news we had this week.
Thanks for all your letters, they mean a lot to me. I´ll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo
Counters
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
April 18, 2011
Dear Mom, family and friends,
It´s quite interesting what happened to me this week. Yes I did end up losing my wallet but I didn´t get mugged or anything like that. No, I just dropped it on the bus I was getting off, and now I´m just wishing I hadn´t had you guys cancel the card, but... It would have been bad if I lost all the money on that card. Anyway, what happened after was kind of interesting. I got a call from the assistants a couple days later saying a man called them who had all my ID cards and everything and was calling to return them to me. So what ended up happening was the person who found my wallet threw everything out of my wallet (except for the money of course) onto the floor and kept the wallet. So the next night the guy stopped by our church while we were having an activity and returned everything I had in my wallet... Too bad I had you cancel the card right? Oh well, I did end up pulling 1,000 Quets from the account before I lost my wallet and kept that in the house for emergencies (I didn´t know exactly why then but I guess I do now). I´ve been living off of that for now since I canceled the card from the mission too. So now I´m just waiting for them to get me a new one. I would just say to get the card mailed off as soon as possible and as hidden as possible so it doesn´t get stolen and hope that the government doesn´t decide to withhold that package as they randomly do sometimes. I´ll do what I can to get it as soon as possible but for now it´s not urgent that I have it.
Apart from that, we´re still just mostly doing the mundane door knocking technique trying to find new people to teach. We´re also working with members trying to gain their confidence so we can receive some good references. Even though we haven´t had much success as far as the work goes, the branch is improving. The branch president is making a lot of callings in the branch and they are starting to organize themselves. On the 30th, we´re going to go with all the leaders of the branch that they are calling right now to have a training meeting in Xela, so that is kind of exciting. Apart from that, not much more is going on. The craziest thing that has happened all week just happened about 5 minutes ago. We just watched someone get the snot beat out of him just outside our window. We´re not sure if it was provoked or not. It ended really fast with a kick to the face... so ya we´re all just kind of amazed at what just happened.
Apart from that... not much else has happened. We didn´t end up having that other conference last week. We just wasted 2 days in Quiché waiting for them to tell us to go to Xela but they just ended up telling us to go home and that we´d have a conference this next week... so... I hope it really does happen this time and we don´t waste days here in Quiché again. Until next time.
Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo
It´s quite interesting what happened to me this week. Yes I did end up losing my wallet but I didn´t get mugged or anything like that. No, I just dropped it on the bus I was getting off, and now I´m just wishing I hadn´t had you guys cancel the card, but... It would have been bad if I lost all the money on that card. Anyway, what happened after was kind of interesting. I got a call from the assistants a couple days later saying a man called them who had all my ID cards and everything and was calling to return them to me. So what ended up happening was the person who found my wallet threw everything out of my wallet (except for the money of course) onto the floor and kept the wallet. So the next night the guy stopped by our church while we were having an activity and returned everything I had in my wallet... Too bad I had you cancel the card right? Oh well, I did end up pulling 1,000 Quets from the account before I lost my wallet and kept that in the house for emergencies (I didn´t know exactly why then but I guess I do now). I´ve been living off of that for now since I canceled the card from the mission too. So now I´m just waiting for them to get me a new one. I would just say to get the card mailed off as soon as possible and as hidden as possible so it doesn´t get stolen and hope that the government doesn´t decide to withhold that package as they randomly do sometimes. I´ll do what I can to get it as soon as possible but for now it´s not urgent that I have it.
Apart from that, we´re still just mostly doing the mundane door knocking technique trying to find new people to teach. We´re also working with members trying to gain their confidence so we can receive some good references. Even though we haven´t had much success as far as the work goes, the branch is improving. The branch president is making a lot of callings in the branch and they are starting to organize themselves. On the 30th, we´re going to go with all the leaders of the branch that they are calling right now to have a training meeting in Xela, so that is kind of exciting. Apart from that, not much more is going on. The craziest thing that has happened all week just happened about 5 minutes ago. We just watched someone get the snot beat out of him just outside our window. We´re not sure if it was provoked or not. It ended really fast with a kick to the face... so ya we´re all just kind of amazed at what just happened.
Apart from that... not much else has happened. We didn´t end up having that other conference last week. We just wasted 2 days in Quiché waiting for them to tell us to go to Xela but they just ended up telling us to go home and that we´d have a conference this next week... so... I hope it really does happen this time and we don´t waste days here in Quiché again. Until next time.
Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo
Monday, April 11, 2011
April 11, 2011
Dear Mom and family, Thanks for the recipe (for granola). I did make it last week and it was really good. It wasn´t exactly cheaper as I had hoped, but it does taste so much better and it´s more nutritional too I think. I´m glad to hear that everyone is at least getting by. Here in Joyabaj, things are pretty tranquilo. We had the conference and we didn´t get into our area until Friday so... not much really happened. The Conference was good as always. They taught us more techniques on teaching and baptizing and all that fun stuff. I finally got pouch this week and I was surprised to have two packages. One from Grandma filled with all sorts of really good food from the states. I´d forgotten how good REAL food is. The other package was from a very special person for my one year mark... it´s been that long since the last conference. So this next week looks like we´re having interviews with Momos and Huehue in Huehuetenango tomorrow and then supposedly we´re having a "Gringo conference" this week too, but I don´t know if that´s really going to happen. We´ll just have to see. If so, I´m not going to have much to say about Joyabaj this next week either. Thanks for all your letters, prayers, packages and support. I love you all and miss you. Love, Elder Landon James Crapo
Monday, April 4, 2011
April 4, 2011
Dear mom and family,
It has been quite an interesting week actually. The conference was canceled after we had canceled all of our citas so we practically didn't have anything to do for the week. What we did end up doing though was organize everything so that the branch could go to General Conference. We made invitations and arranged for the buses to come pick them up and all that fun stuff. It was a good thing too because the branch president didn't even know that we were going to have General Conference. He kept telling us that he wasn't even sure that we were going to have it or not because none of his leaders had told him about it. We had to explain to him that it is ALWAYS the first week of April and October. It's just kind of interesting the things we take advantage of growing up in the church and I've learned that I know a lot more than I realize, things that I take for granted and assume that it's common knowledge.
I really enjoyed conference this weekend though. I found a TON of things that were applicable to me and to my area. Every question that I had in my mind, both that I was looking for and not looking, for were answered. One thing I found interesting was that if you wanted a description of what it is like here in Guatemala, listen to the talk from Walter F. Gonzales from the first session. We all were laughing when he was describing his experience because it was exactly how it is. (We were all alone in the English room far away from everyone else) I will definitely be able to show that talk to many of the investigators that we have right now.
That's one of the main ones I can think of. I loved Priesthood session a lot. Apart from that, this next week looks like we're going to have the Conference that we were supposed to have this last week... We will see what happens; We're not sure yet.
I have to cook for myself in this area and I was wondering if you had any good recipes to make a granola or something like that for cereal because cereal is extremely expensive and I'm getting very bored eating oatmeal all the time. Thanks for your love and support and I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo
It has been quite an interesting week actually. The conference was canceled after we had canceled all of our citas so we practically didn't have anything to do for the week. What we did end up doing though was organize everything so that the branch could go to General Conference. We made invitations and arranged for the buses to come pick them up and all that fun stuff. It was a good thing too because the branch president didn't even know that we were going to have General Conference. He kept telling us that he wasn't even sure that we were going to have it or not because none of his leaders had told him about it. We had to explain to him that it is ALWAYS the first week of April and October. It's just kind of interesting the things we take advantage of growing up in the church and I've learned that I know a lot more than I realize, things that I take for granted and assume that it's common knowledge.
I really enjoyed conference this weekend though. I found a TON of things that were applicable to me and to my area. Every question that I had in my mind, both that I was looking for and not looking, for were answered. One thing I found interesting was that if you wanted a description of what it is like here in Guatemala, listen to the talk from Walter F. Gonzales from the first session. We all were laughing when he was describing his experience because it was exactly how it is. (We were all alone in the English room far away from everyone else) I will definitely be able to show that talk to many of the investigators that we have right now.
That's one of the main ones I can think of. I loved Priesthood session a lot. Apart from that, this next week looks like we're going to have the Conference that we were supposed to have this last week... We will see what happens; We're not sure yet.
I have to cook for myself in this area and I was wondering if you had any good recipes to make a granola or something like that for cereal because cereal is extremely expensive and I'm getting very bored eating oatmeal all the time. Thanks for your love and support and I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo
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