We gave her a blessing and she was better later that same hour.

I am excited for conference; I think it will help a lot of our investigators out with their conversion. I will try to watch it in English, I will be sad if I can’t watch it in English. When the talk is in Spanish though, we switch it to Spanish. Sorry I couldn’t write last week. I went to Guatemala City to sign for my visa and it was on pday when I did it so I could not write. I met a missionary on the bus who has the last name Powell and she plays lacrosse, but was not related to Mikey Powell so that bummed me out. One of the mornings this week, a member came knocking at our door with her child puking in front of our house. It started a few days ago at school and the dad was not home ever to give her a blessing and if they don’t have money to buy medicine or go to a doctor. We gave her a blessing and she was better later that same hour. It was really cool. I am not sure if I have already told you but I have two areas that we have to take care of, and I am finding that the hardest part is getting people to church now. We have to leave early to do divisions with members to go to both churches, but when we go to people’s houses they are not there. We had an activity for youth this week to motivate them to go on missions. The stake invited all the missionaries to go and we ended up just playing a bunch of soccer and giving the kids fake mission calls. No one has money again in the zone (like what happened back in September) except me and the zone leaders. I talked to my companion about why he doesn’t have money and he told me that he sent a bunch of it to someone. I have to pay for him now, but I talked to the other missionaries about it and they told me that it kinda happens a lot. Well, I love you and am sorry that I don’t have pictures. I think just after time in an area you take pictures of most everything that you would take pictures of.

Love, Bret

For a district meeting this week we had to answer the question Iphone or Galaxy?

A little portion of his letter to his dad this week...


For a district meeting this week we had to answer the question Iphone or Galaxy? everyone chose Iphone and i was the last one to go up, but I knew when was right and i put galaxy. My district yelled at me and talked to me about unity. I then disputed them about choosing the right over what the rest of the world thinks is correct. I explained how Galaxy is utilized for the service of man while Iphone just wants the praise of man. At the end of the meeting I had converted the entire district. I have my earthly father to thank for that.

More like Spanglish.

My companion is good and a hard worker. We didn't have much going on for us when he came, but now we have some possibilities. It is still just difficult to get people going to church. Everyone has church and a lot of the time they have a calling too, so it is hard to get them to leave there duties so they can go to another church. A lot of the time it is just hard to get a second visit because they are not usually not there for the next planned appointment and they don't take there phones with them when they leave. The language is coming. I don't have a problem talking to anyone or anything, but there are still those topic that are hard to talk about because they are things that we just don't do a lot as missionaries that everyone else does on a daily bases. I do think in Spanish though, more like Spanglish. There are just words in Spanish that come to me much faster in Spanish than English so I just think it or say it in Spanish instead of taking a second and thinking of the word in English.  (Like your college classes you told me about Christine. )

 I am not sure if i have already told you guys but the mission took missionaries out of Chamac (the area next to ours) and gave the area to us to. It is kinda like we white washed an area while we are still working in another. while working in the area we ran into some pastors (they call themselves apostles, (and after reading Jesus the Christ it kinda gets under my skin) that preach in a church (they call it a temple) called Trono de Dios (the Throne of God). It is interesting to talk to a pastor.  It definitely strengthens my testimony of our church and how we try hard to learn all we can for ourselves.  I think that is important so that we each have our own understanding instead of relying on another person's ideas. 

Love,
Bret

...and I don't know enough Spanish lawyer slang.

My new companion is Called Elder Vega (like Las Vegas). He has 13 months on the mission, and He is a good missionary. He works really hard so I am super excited for this change. I am still in San Antonio though. He is from Hondurus but I have never seen him before. He has been in the coast his whole mission so the cold here is killing him and  I think it is a bit harder her than in the coast.  He is thinking about asking for changes when he writes to president. This week We found some one really cool. His name is O---and his is a lawyer and really open to everything we told him. We found him at a good time because he is Catholic but thinking about changing to be Evangelical, so he is trying to learn to see if he should change. At the end of the lesson he gave us a strange fruit. I don't know how to explain it, it was like an alien egg. it is like a normal egg, just bigger and orange. you have to break it apart and eat the seeds that are inside. All the seeds are clumped up buy this weird goo stuff and that is what you eat. It was really good and the seeds with the goo look like small alien embryos or something.  (Christine's note. I am pretty sure he is talking about a passion fruit- Bret was the least adventurous of all our kids when it came to eating.  Doug and I tried to get him ready by making foods I researched online.  Alas, I did not get one of these.) He couldn't go to church though because at the last second he had to go San Pedro to do some lawyer stuff. I don't know what it was though, and I  don't know enough Spanish lawyer slang. my area got bigger this change though. They took the missionaries out of Chamac (the are next to ours) so now we have 3 churches in our area and everyone in the ward boundaries. I am excited for this change.
Love, Bret

This exam was like an AP test though.

Not much happened this week. We are just kinda laid low this week because my companion is dying and doesn't want to do too much before he leaves. We did visit a lot of member families and because of that we got a lot of food. One day I went on divisions with Elder Merrill (the other gringo in my district) and we ended up going to a ward soccer game. No one showed up, so me and him played 1 VS. 1 for a little. He ended up kicking the ball on top of the church (and then climbed on top of the church to get it) and we found and caught a lizard in the church so  I would say it was a pretty successful day. When we were about to leave, a kid showed up and told us to wait because other people were coming after him. still no one showed up. He told us to wait a little as he left to get some of his non-member friends. After we figured that a sufficient enough time had passed that the kid had no intent to come back, he came back to tell us that his friends were not home.  We also had an exam for preach my gospel this week. I already had one, and it was pretty simple so i did not worry to much about it. This exam was like an AP test though. He timed us, there were written responses that we had to do, the test had to be given at an exact time and taken at an exact time, we had to staple out tests closed before we handed the test to the president, our pencil had to be a number 2 pencil, we couldn't use a graphing calculator, our Proofs had to start with one of the basic Newtonian laws, and we had to cite all our resourse in MLA format. He didn't want to see if we had knowledge of Preach My Gospel, he wanted to know if we could recite it. I probably got a 3 but I will have to check my AP test scores once it gets graded in the stranded 3 month grading period and once I remember the password to my account. We have changes this week though, I don't expect on leaving (or they would have white washed my area), but I might get emergency changes... maybe. I also might be comp. A this change (as long as I did not fail my Preach My Gospel 303 test). I would send pictures, but my camera still isn't working  I know I have  another SIM card now so I can use my camera again.
I will!
Love Bret

That cat better not be dead when I get home.

I sent Bret this photo of Frost in a box I had ready to send to Guatemala.

This is Bret's response-
That cat better not die before I get home! (you should probably send him then... just in case).