Action Heroes; Defenders of the Faith

 Sometimes I miss Jack so much
that I forget what he is really doing in Guatemala.
An adorable little boy two rows in front of me on Sunday reminded me
of what Elder Winn is accomplishing.
The strawberry blonde named Phoenix, gripped in his hand an action figure,
moving it along the back of the pew.
An action hero.
With a white shirt and a name tag.
Side by side with the other action figures
Captain Moroni,
Nephi,
Ammon
and I realized that Jack is doing what they did.
Giving up his former life to serve God.
His letters and the letters of his fellow Guatemala North missionaries
read just like the scriptures,
testifying each week of Jesus Christ and
loving the people they serve.
It brought tears to my eyes to see the representation of all of our sons
clutched in a future missionary's hand.
Action heroes they are.

This is Phoenix and his brother Landon...future missionary action heroes. Aren't they adorable.

Hey everyone!

So today I am using a good computer, which is good, because it seems like all the computers here are missing pieces. I guess that’s understandable here in this country.

                Today we had a district leader meeting. I think it went well. Here in the zone we´re struggling with putting baptismal dates, so we are putting a lot of focus on that. We have two new district leaders, and they are trying hard to help their districts.

                After that we played capture the flag again which was fun. Our team won.

                Thanks for all the emails. It sounds like the garage sale was a success, well, at least you all were able to get rid of some junk. I bet that was fun.

                This week has been a great week. I really like my new companion, and we are working hard here in our area. We have been working with our three main possibilities. The first is Luis. He has come to church 3 times now, but he is very confused about how to know what church is true. He has prayed to fund out, but he says he hasn’t gotten an answer. I think a lot of times people get an answer, but they don’t know how to recognize it, or they think that God is going to give some miraculous answer. We’re trying to get him to accept a baptismal date. I think he knows that the church is true.

                We are also working with Leonardo and Aracely and their son Miguel. They have been listening to the lessons for some time now, but they haven’t come to church. They didn’t come this last week because their grandmother was sick, or something like that. I think they might be able to progress, and we are going to continue working with them.

                We also hare working with the Family Flores. We had an interesting lesson with them yesterday. We explained about the spirit world, and that the Gospel will be preached to the people who have not had the opportunity to accept it here. Then we explained about procrastinating the day of our repentance. The father, Ivan, was very interested, and was writing down all the scriptures we cited. Then, I think he got scared for the welfare of his soul. He recognized that the opportunity to accept the Gospel is now, and they there might not be another. We didn’t get him to decide to get married, but he says he’s going to seriously consider it. We were in the lesson for about an hour and a half.

                Well, those are my investigators so far. We have more, but they are progressing so well. We have been putting a lot of focus in the zone on finding families to teach, and it is our goal to find 3 families to teach this week. Pray for us so we can reach that goal.

                This week went be really quickly.

Okay it’s question time!

Are there giant banana farms down there?  And are they owned by large corporate farms?  Or are there small independent farmers who grow bananas and such?

I know that bananas are the major export of this country, but I have never seen a banana farm here! Only bean farms, and cabbage farms, and corn farms, and lots of tomato farms.

I was talking to Brother Vanegas, and he said he owns a tomato farm in El Salvador.  He says Salvadorans love tomatoes, and they grow a lot of those down there.  Do you see many tomatoes in Guatemala?

There are tons of tomatoes here, and Guatemalans love eating tomatoes. They use tomatoes in about everything the cook with.

Does Elder Vasquez speak any English?  Do you feel like it is helpful to your Spanish skills to be assigned to him?  Do you two speak only Spanish?

He speaks very little English. I think he can understand a little bit. Elder Vasquez is very intelligent. We only speak Spanish. It helps me a lot with my Spanish skills. That is why I was hoping for a latino companion.

Tell us a little more about Elder Vasquez.  Is he pretty friendly?  Does he like to work hard?  You mentioned that some of the Central American missionaries come from pretty humble circumstances.  Do you think this is the case with Elder Vasquez? 

He has been a great companion so far. He is from some pretty poor circumstances, but he did go to college and a degree in computers, or something like that. He is friendly, and we are already pretty good friends. He likes to work. He is 22 years old, and is about to be 23, I think.

What was Elder Vasquez doing before his mission?  What are his plans after his mission?  Will he have an opportunity to go to college?

He was studying and working. He is going to go back to college. He has an associate’s degree right now, and he is going to go back for another two years to get a degree in computer engineering. He is a pretty bright kid.

Do you ever hear of people down there participating in the Church's Perpetual Education program?  I think it's a pretty neat program to help church members get educations and training with job skills that will help them provide for their families.  Do you know of any people in that program down there?

Yes, a lot of returned missionaries use the Perpetual Education Fund. I convinced my companion Elder Obando to use it when he got back home to be able to study. It really helps people here get higher education, and if you have education here it’s the difference between eating beans everyday and living in a tin house, or living in a decent house eating more than beans and rice.

How has the weather been down there?  Hot?
Pretty temperate. Not hot or cold. It rains a lot. It is rainy season here until the end of September.

Is the Flores Family making any progress?  Who else should we pray for?

Pray for the investigators that I listed earlier. I thin they can all be baptized soon.

1.       Have you eaten ALL your chocolate bars yet?

Not yet! There are a lot! I made some dark chocolate chip pancakes the other day. They were amazing.

2. What did you think about the socks with the color on the toes and heels? Now they will be harder for you to leave.

I really liked those socks. The laundry lady thought they were really cool too. Now I wont lose them. =)

3. Did the belt fit ok?

Yes, I am wearing it now. My other belts are in pretty bad shape. Thanks for the replacement.

4. What is your companion like? (I think that Dad asked a lot of questions about him so I will let you answer his with the details)

He is cool. =)

5. I got another debit card for you in the mail so I am going to have to mail it to you and then activate it after you tell me you get it. I can't believe that they have issued another one.....NERENT!

Lol that’s not a question, but that is crazy. Is this the third or the fourth?

 
6. Did you do anything fun on your ACTUAL birthday?

A member family bought me pizza, and we had some tasty pizza. That was fun.

7. Doesn't your wonderful sainted mother really know how to fill a flat rate box?

Yes she does. Nerent to her.

8. Best thing you ate this week/worst? (I know I ask that every week but it is one of my favorite questions.)

The best thing I ate was definitely the chocolate chip pancakes. The worst think I ate was some expired ice cream. No wonder they were selling it for so cheap.. =)

Well, looks like that’s all for the email. I ran out of time. Thanks for all your love and support. The Church is true, and I love the opportunity to be able to represent Christ in His work here in this county. I love you guys, and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

            Elder Winn