May 11, 2016

Well changes came around yet again! Elder Vega left to his last area and I received Elder Kendall from Highland Utah here in Solola.I think that makes 4 companions in a row from Utah! Utatecos baby! This will be his last area because he leaves 1 change before me. I am pretty excited to work with him and it should be a fun change! 

As for the progress of the area we are getting better. Yesterday was mothers day here in Guatemala so it was pretty closed off in our area. It was a great welcoming day for my companion as we only had 2 lessons all day long! We were rejected all day but it should be a better day today. The funny thing about this area is we can talk to people and get to know them very well and be best friends... but then we change the subject and say Jesus Christ or we want to talk to you about God and we become their worst enemies and they send us away in a blink of an eye. hahaha oh missionary life! 

Today we had a great zone training and are excited to keep working hard! Lots of missionaries will be leaving the mission in these next 3 changes so it is our job as leaders to train all the young ones to be good leaders as well and be super dedicated to this work! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Elder Daybell

May 3, 2016

Hey Everyone, 

Well rainy season has started here in Guatemala, it took us by surprise one day and well it hit us when we realized we were soaked from head to toe. Here in Solola last week it rained almost nonstop from Monday to Thursday. Thursday night President called us to see how we were because it rained so hard the streets in Solola turned into rivers up to our mid calf... and that's not exaggerating. He called us because he saw it on the news. But we keep on pushing forward! 

We are still working with Byron and Lucy, Byron talked to the Branch President this week!!! He is so up for a change. He is seriously making a huge change, it truly is a miracle and we have been able to get many members to help support him. Now we just need to focus on getting his wife baptized so that they can go to the temple here soon. 

We had the chance during the week to go visit a hospital where some doctors came from the states to help the people here in Solola that needed Surgeries and other operations. The organization is called Love in Action. They give these surgeries and other operations free in order to help those in need. It was a humbling experience to watch these Doctors give their talents and abilities to help God's children be a little more happy on this earth. What an example of Charity they were for me. I hope to be able to have that same attitude of Charity even after the mission. I love you all and hope you can all find time to give of your talents and abilities to help God's children have more happiness as well. 

Love, 

Elder Daybell 

April 26, 2016

Hey Everyone, 

This last week was an adventure that is for sure. On Wednesday we had interviews with President Markham and right after that is when our interesting week began. 

We had splits every single day last week for 3 days straight so I worked with my companion on Tuesday and then not again until Saturday. On Wednesday I went to an area and "group" that we are opening in the zone called San Pedro. It doesn't have enough members to be a branch and the missionaries are in charge of it so that was a pretty cool experience. Then we went to our area on Thursday to have splits with the assistants. And well to my surprise my companion Elder Gallacher stepped out of the car and well he is a new assistant. I got to work with him on Thursday again and that was a blast. We found a lot of positive people. And Friday we had splits with Panajachel. 

We continue to work with Byron and Lucy. Her baptism is planned for this Sunday. we have a lesson with her on Wednesday that will decide what goes on. 

As for today we have splits again. We are in an area called Santiago Atitlan and we had to wake up at 3:30 to get here at 8 in the morning. Have I mentioned this zone is huge? And also no one here speaks spanish, they all speak something called sutujil. So it is going to be an interesting day, it will feel like my first day in the mission again! 

Love you all, 

Elder Daybell 

fotos are of the Santiago District! 

April 19th, 2016

Hey Everyone! 

This week was a tiring week but that is missionary work sometimes. We spent most of the week looking for people to teach and well we found 2 families. The men in these families are both members that are working hard to become active members. The women are really positive seekers of the truth. 

The first family we found is Lucy and Byron Antonio. We know them because Byron is the son of a member family that we visit often. He has had his struggles but since the moment we have visited him and his wife he has made some big changes. Byron last night in the family home evening thanked us that we have visited him, he is willing to make the changes so that him and his wife can enter the temple and be sealed a year after she is baptized. 

The second family that we found is about the same, the man Herbert has been a member his whole life. His wife, Maria Fernanda has had lots of experiences in the church and goes every week. She has not been baptized for some bad experiences that she has had with the members in the church. She has gone to the temple open house that was here in 2011 and has a strong testimony of the priesthood power. We hope that we can help them so that she can accept the fulness of the gospel through baptism. We know that if these 2 ladies get baptized they will go to the temple and be sealed for time and eternity. 

This week we are going to focus on these families and on finding even more people. For Pday we went down to Pana to walk down to the lake and take some pictures... but it was foggy and you couldn't see everything good. But meanwhile we found a member selling Solola traditional dress. So for a good price I got these pants. The pants that I have on in the picture is what guys in my area wear all the time to work in the onion fields! Pretty colorful! 

Love you all,

Elder Daybell

April 12, 2016

Well this week was a bit of a rough week but that always happens every once in awhile. We were able to talk about and make some new plans in this week in order to have more success. We still had investigators attending church but they are known as eternal investigators because they just don't want to be baptized. I don't know why they don't want to blessings that comes from baptism but we are going to be working with a few of them in this week in order to see what happens and if we can help them understand the blessings and the importance of doing so. 

Yesterday for Pday we got together with another zone and played some soccer. It was a fun experience, even though everyone in the zone got super sunburnt. Then after I got to eat some Subway!! It has been more than a year since the last time I ate that, it was delicious! 

Recently I have been focusing on doing thing the Lord's way. I came into this area and zone feeling a ton of pressure to just go and kill it. I tried a ton of ideas and doing a bunch of things I thought would be best for the zone. Then the other day we got a call that some of our Hermanas in the zone felt a lot of pressure as well. They explained their situation and well I think I found out my problem as well as theirs. I didn't rely on the Lord as much as I should have. I needed to remember that I had to do my part, but what I was doing was taking it all upon me and that was the reason why we weren't getting anywhere. We always need to remember that the Lord has promised to do his part and that is when we began to see progress. But if we don't allow him to do his part and provide the rest we will fall into what I fell into and nothing will change. I hope you all can recognize and allow the Lord to do his part in your lives as well. Love you all. 

Rin Taman que JesuCristo q'as 

I know that Christ lives. 

Love, 

Elder Daybell 

Zone Pday playing soccer 

Solola beats Chimaltenango!!!

A volcanic eruption, we see these all the time where I'm at.

April 5, 2016

Utzawach,
Hey everyone, that means "how are you?" in qatchikel. Haha I hope that you are all well and just loving life. All is going well here with Elder Vega and I in the zone Solola. I found out that there is an area in our zone and to get to the area of these missionaries it is a 3 hour trip to get there. Pretty crazy right. Lots of traveling here we come. 

Well this has been really new getting used to this area. It is something else but we are working hard and have lots of people progressing. Our most positive investigator right now does not speak Spanish his name is Roman Valiente. We have a member who is helping us to translate but we are also learning a little bit of the language to be able to teach lessons to some of these people that don't speak Spanish. 

As for the conference it was super awesome and inspirational as always. I was able to receive revelation for myself, our investigators, converts and zone during this conference. It was a very special one and it was super cool that they sang one of my favorite hymns come thou fount. 

The work keeps on going and we keep on working. I don't have too much to say right now about the area but we are going to have lots of miracles this week and lots of future success I just know it. 

Love, 

Elder Daybell

In central park at Solola

The book of Mormon in English, Spanish and Qatchikel

Our view of the lake from the house. It is so pretty at night for all the stars that are in the sky and the lights of all the little towns around the lake. 

March 30, 2016

Cojol Ya Solola. Yeah That's not spanish and there are some people here that don't speak spanish, they speak something called qachikel or it's spelled something like that. But for the most part they speak spanish as well, I've only learned a few words in this language. It should be a fun area and a good way to just work hard and lose myself right now. This zone has had struggles in the past but we hope to get it going again. I went from the highest baptizing zone to the zone that baptizes the least, but it won't be known as that for long or so I hope and pray. We are going to find the chosen people here in Solola. We are right up next to the lake Atitlan. 

As for Prados we met our goal of baptizing every week in the last change, 6 weeks straight  and 9 baptisms with Elder Gallacher and there are still people for the future there. That area should keep progressing as well. The people we baptized was a man from Escuintla who left his girlfriend so that he could be baptized as she works out the divorce, the wife is a member as well and she was all good with that because she wants to go to the temple again, so until they can get married they will live apart. That is a lot of Faith! It was a great way to end the change with these 2 miracle baptisms. I am so pumped to be working here in Solola as well. 

My companion is Elder Vega from Ogden, Utah. He is awesome and is also full of excitement to work hard in this change. We are hoping to see lots of miracles and know that they will come as we work hard. I am still getting used to the new area, it is a lot different from Prados. But it will be a fun adventure, I will send some pictures of this area next week, right now I have not taken any. Love you all, 

Elder Daybell