June 23, 2015

Hey Everyone! 

    I would like to inform everyone on Guatemala weather right now. One everyone is saying that it is winter here but it is hotter than summer. They say it is winter here because it rains about everyday, the thing is the heat of the sun and heat here does not change. But after a night of raining and a sunny day the vapor of the water leaving the ground and the heat of the sun makes it even more hotter than the summer here. I have never sweat more in my life than this last week and cannot believe they call this winter, I'm gonna have to show them what a real winter is one day! 

    This week has been a week full of miracles! Every week has been a week full of miracles but we saw some amazing things in this week as the hand of the Lord directed us to some wonderful people. The first miracle took place as we were talking with our Ward mission leader. He really wants to see a lot of baptisms like us and so we talked about it and he told us that his family members that lived next door were members but they went inactive and their children are not members, we left right there with him and went and visited with them. They received us well and we were able to talk with them about eternal families. The parents got excited with the idea that they could go to the temple this year to be sealed to their children. The next day they all came to church and loved it. All they needed was 1 little visit and now they are going to keep going to church. I have seen that sometimes that is all it takes 1 little push and the Lord does the rest. 

    We have had some great investigators and a lot of the baptisms we will be having the next 2 weeks come from the reactivation of an inactive person. These are the best I believe because 1 gets to enter into this Gospel and the other recognizes again the importance of the Gospel in their loves. This week we have a baptism for an Hermanito Marcos who is 8 years old but his parents aren't members. He is a cousin of Nelson and was always there to listen to us and sometimes says the prayers. After a week of praying and thinking about it his mother finally gave permission for him to be baptized this Sunday the 28th and she is going to leave work early to be able to attend. The 5th of July we have 3 baptisms planned for 2 more kids from families that are beginning to come back to this Gospel and for 1 Young man that we found and have been visiting with other young men from the branch. It has been great to see the progress of this branch and be a huge part of it. When I got here there was an attendance of 30 to 40 each week and now we are seeing 50 to 60 everySunday. The Lord is hurrying his work along here! 

   Quick cool story: Last night there was a scorpion in our house, it was huge! We killed it and got it out and immediately sprayed the bug repellent all over the house to avoid more. Experiences in Guatemala. I took pictures but I forgot to bring the camera cord so until next week! 

    I have seen a ton of miracles in this area and have seen that the Lord is preparing people to hear this message. I have also seen this work goes faster with the help of the members! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you

Elder Daybell

Splits with Elder Salcedo

Pizza with his District. 

A family in Max's area. 

June 16, 2015

   Hey Everyone,

This week has been a week full of miracles that I won't be able to explain them all. We had District conference this week and we were able to have 8 investigators attending with us. It was so great because the last 3 weeks before we only had 1 investigator attend 1 Sunday our of those 3 weeks. All of our investigators that attended are awesome and have testimonies, 3 of them have committed to baptism the 28th of this month and 4 others could be baptized the 28th as well with a little help from the branch. We talked with the branch in the consejos de Rama in order to get them pumped and they have all committed to sacrifice a little so we can have a day of white for this branch the 28th. This will be good for this branch to get them excited and involved in the missionary effort. 

    we were able to see miracles through references of a recent convert who told us of a friend who was inactive in the church. So we went to visit her and invited her to church on Sunday and as we were talking to her she asked about the age of children for baptism because she wants her daughter that is 9 years old to be baptized. We had a little lesson and she got excited and her daughter as well and after church she said that they would continue going to church and that the daughter Joselyn would be baptized the 28th. She just needed a little push and now she is excited and going to continue in this church. We also found a Brother and a Sister that are living alone together because their parents died. Their parents were members but went away from the church before the children had the chance to be baptized. We were able to pick them up and go to the conference and it was cool what happened. We visited them after and the Hermano Amilkar was talking about serving a mission, the examples of all the missionaries got him excited to serve a mission which he could leave for in 2 years. He is a little nervous for baptism but still wants to do it so he can serve a mission. His sister Jesenia is going to be baptized the 28th as well. 

    We also have 4 more investigators that came to church on their own for the 2nd time and with a little help from the members of the branch we can help these souls come unto Christ through baptism the 28th as well. My companion and I have been working hard and fasting and praying a lot and after all this time we are seeing miracles. But more than anything we know that if we sacrifice a little, the Lord offers great blessings. This conference Presidente Perdido was released as Branch President and put as a counselor in the District. It was a tough change but the work goes on and I know that when he has time he is going to help us out. I have learned a lot from this guy. I love this area so much, there are so many miracles and the people here are just great. I hope you all have a great week. Alma 5:16 

Love,

Elder Daybell 

Elder Daybell and his District. 

Volcanoes from the Guatemalan Coast. 

A baptism from his area. :) 

June 9, 2015

 Hey Everyone! I have great news, I get at least one more change here in La Noria! My companion and I are staying together and are going to do work in this change. I love this area, I pretty much know this area like the back of my hand, for those of you who know Grantsville this area the town of La Noria is about the size of South Willow and we are working and contacting there everyday. We have other towns that are in our area but they are farther away and we can't work in those areas very long because they are dangerous or so they say. So I know about every person in this area, maybe not by name but by face and attitude. I know as we knock doors who is going to answer us and if they are going to receive us or not. This area has strengthened my testimony that the Lord is preparing people because missionaries have been here for 20 years and although the town is small and have all talked to the missionaries the work goes on and baptisms happen. This is what we call puros milagros! 

    This Sunday Nelson Escobar got baptized and I had the privelege to baptize him! He is the Brother of 2 Girls that we baptized early in the month of May Jenifer and Ericka. We are slowly working with this family as their mother and aunts have yet to accept the Gospel but as they say little by little and in the time of the Lord I know that they are going to accept. We are working with an older man right now and his name is Dionicio Reynosa. He is a little difficult but he loves the church because of the unity. His wife was a member but she died and he talks about her a lot. I really want to see him join the church and have the opportunity to be with his wife forever because I know she is waiting for him to join this Gospel and be sealed to her forever. Little by little I know that he will accept the Gospel.

   I hope you all have a great week and enjoy all the little things of life that sometimes we take for granted. This is the last day of one missionary in our zone and to me he just looked lost, like he didn't know what to do next. I often think of that day but seeing him helped me remember I need to enjoy this time and be grateful for it because it does end and won't happen again. I love you all,

Love,

Elder Daybell

June 2, 2015

Hey everyone!

  Woah it is so hot here! Air conditioning only exists in the supermarket here that we only get to visit 1 time in the week! But I absolutely love the coast and this area. This week has been great and we have learned a lot. We almost had a miracle this week as a young man told us that he had attended 2 times to church and was ready for baptism. We verified everything with the Branch President and started to prepare him for baptism on Sunday. We stopped by his house 30 minutes before his baptism interview to remind him, and his grandma came and told us that there was a death in the family and he went with his family to the capital for the funeral! We were so excited because he is a great young man and is going to be an awesome help for his family to receive the Gospel in their lives as well. He didn't get back until the next day, but he is super excited to be baptized this Sunday. 

   We have also been working with a family where the husband is an inactive member and his wife is an investigator. The only problem is they don't attend church because the husband is a little hard in heart or what we say in spanish a chambone (which basically means lazy person). The wife is awesome for example yesterday we had a family home evening with her and the branch presidents family and she asked a ton of questions about the Atonement of Christ and she wants to be baptized and go to the temple with her husband. The only difficulty we have is that the husband doesn't have quite the same mindset, but I know that little by little we can help this new family get to the temple so they can be together forever.

    Things have been tough but we have been working hard and keeping our head up. Our Branch President is awesome and this Sunday we are renting a bus to go by some parts of our area that our so far away in order to pick up investigators that have wanted to attend, but have not been able to due to the distance and other needs. We are excited for this, but it requires that everyday we need to be in those areas in order to get the word out to everyone. This means we are going to be walking a ton because these areas are an hour and a half away when we are walking super fast! But with a little sacrifice comes a great reward. I have learned a ton about sacrifice and more than ever about the great sacrifice our Saviour made. I may wake up hurting in my body everyday, but that is nothing compared to what my Saviour did for me, He is the reason I can wake up and work hard everyday even if I hurt so much from the day before! I hope you all have a great week,

Love,

Elder Daybell

May 26, 2015

This week has been really interesting and has had its ups and downs but I have learned a ton! The branch had an activity every day this past week for the week of the family. Each night they did something different and every night there was an investigator in attendance or a friend of the members. There was a lot of participation from all the members and I have some pictures from the Talent show that they did the second to last night. There were 4 missionaries that night in San Juan La Noria and they commited a family of 6 to baptism and all of the accepted. It was a pretty fun Talent show and a great week of activities. They ended the week with a devotional from Elder Richard G. Scott and we just watched a video from 2012 on how to strengthen and prepare for eternal marriage and also some advice for Young adults on how to prepare for that. It was a great devotional but don't worry... I'm still focused. ;)

This week the storms are beginning to come and one night the lightning was so close and loud it was frightening. The power goes out a ton here in this area, for any little thing that happens the power goes out. So one night my companion and I were getting ready for bed and in one moment there was lightning that struck nearby and there was a pop and all the lights went out. But I went to check and the fridge was still on, so we found out that the power got so strong due to the lightning strike that is burned all of the lights in our house. So for 3 days we were planning and getting ready for bed with our flashlights but first thing on Pday we took care of our lights! Rainy season has come and I can tell it rains super hard here.

This week church was hard as not 1 investigator attended, but my companion and I took this as an opportunity to focus on what we need to do better in order to help people attend church. We decided we needed to look for ways to invite the spirit even more in our lessons. We have also made plans with our Branch President to get a bus and go by the houses of our investigators that live super far away, in this area we have some towns that are an hour and a half walking distance from the church and the people don't attend for this but they want to attend church and believe this is the true church, but we think that if we can get a bus and go by then this will help these investigators find the need to sacrifice a little and attend church on Sunday. I have learned a ton about sacrifice here in the mission and although I can't make people sacrifice, I can help them see the importance to sacrifice. I also know now that I need to make sacrifices in my life if I am going to ask others to do so. 

I hope you all have an amazing week and know I love you, 

Elder Daybell

May 19, 2015

Hey Everyone,

   This week has been super crazy and it all started the last Tuesday after internet. Due to some emergency changes that took place in the other area of our District, Elder Daybell is a new District Leader! It is a little crazy how things took place but I am happy to have this calling to serve other missionaries and help the work progress here in the District of La Noria Tiquisate!  I had to give a class this morning and I was super nervous because the zone leaders came, but it all went well.

   We have been working super hard and fasting every Sunday to see miracles in this area because we felt a little lost, but after 2 long weeks of finding and praying and working hard with faith, we now have 2 investigators that are going to be baptized and are attending church and progressing. One of them is the brother of the girls that we baptized at the beginning of this month, the other is a lady that just got married to her husband and he is a member and she isn't. These are some huge miracles for us and I have seen the hand of the Lord in this area as we have made some sacrifices.

    Other things that have happened in this week is the last Wednesday I got a sickness that is common to the coast areas due to the mosquitoes. It is called Chinconguya and it makes this red allergies show up on the skin and makes you hurt in about every part of the body where you bend such as the knees or the ankles up to the fingers. The first few days it was horrible! but it is slowly going away now and I have learned from this to put on bug spray...sorry mom. but I'm ok now :)

   Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to The Lake Atitlan or as some Book of Mormon Historians have called this lake, The waters of Mormon.This lake is so beautiful and so clear! It was a cool opportunity to go to this lake that is surrounded by 4 volcanoes but I only took a picture with 1. So here are some pictures from that. And a picture with my district

I love you all, have a great week

Elder Daybell

Max on a bridge in his area. 

Water's of Mormon 

Elder Daybell and his District 

Max and his new "Style"

May 12, 2015

Hey Everyone,

  I hope all you mothers enjoyed your special day, even though we should really give thanks to our mothers everyday. For me this day had it's ups and downs. The best part was that I got to speak with my mom and family! It was good to talk with them and the time went by so fast I couldn't believe it! I just have to wait another 7 months in order to talk with them again for a short 40 minutes! Wahoo! But it is going to go by fast I know because from Christmas to now was so fast I can't believe it! 

   This week was a little hard as there have been changes to the standards of the mission as well as changes in our area. In our mission, in every first visit we need to challenge the investigators to baptism with a date. This is a way to show our faith so that as a mission we can "Walk on water". I have enjoyed this new chance to show my faith and get rid of the fear to invite people to come into the true fold of God. 

    This Sunday was a hard day, apart from the skype call. We had the confirmation of the Hermana Norma and that was great! But we didn't have any other investigators attending although we had about 11 that told us they would attend. But we won't let that get us down, we are going to work hard this week and knock a lot of doors, or for my area we are going to yell into a lot of gates so they hear us in the houses! Sunday was also interesting because there was hardly anyone because we had a lot of people that went and did stuff for mothers day so we only had 25 people in the church. And by the last class we had to join everyone because there was only 2 ladies from Relief Society, 2 Priesthood Holders, 2 Young women and 1 primary child. And 2 elders and the President of the Branch. It was a great class that inspired the members to work more with their friends to help grow the branch and the kingdom of God here in San Juan La Noria. 

   Despite all the tough parts of this week we are putting the past behind us and working hard now so that in the future this Branch could grow even bigger! I have faith that we can do it and I have been learning a ton that by faith we really can work miracles but as faith is an action we have to do something in order to receive the miracle. That is why in our mission we are challenging every person in our lessons to baptism in the first visit and I know that in this way we are going to see many miracles. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Daybell