Elder Mecham in Guatemala: I learned a lot about how to take out tree stumps

Hi Everyone,

To answer Christine’s questions-we can go to the temple, but we have to be close and it has to be something the zone does for a pday as a reward if we do something good for the month or something. So we can go but it is not very often that we get the chance. The baptism fell through on Friday night. C---- (the investigator) said she knew what we are teaching is true but her husband convinced her to go to the Catholic church with him instead of him going to the LDS church. On brighter news, the husband from the convert from last week (he is not a member) brought someone to church with him and she said that she liked the church and wouldn’t mind being baptized in the church. It is kinda strange because he usually doesn’t go to the LDS church. A few times we have seen him standing in front of the Catholic church contemplating on which church to go to, but since his wife got baptized I think that is helping him come. We think we could baptize him soon because the only thing stopping him is weird questions like ¿Why do you throw out the bread after the sacrament if it is blessed bread? The only problem is that the men work a lot so they don’t have time to get taught (especially when they live in small towns like where me and my companion are serving because they have to go to the bigger cities to work. A lot of the time the fathers come home Saturday night, then leave Sunday after church to go to church with their families). I really think that more Priesthood in the branch would do it some good.

We did a lot of service this week. We carried bags of wood down this super muddy, narrow, and slippery path on the edge of a mountain. It has probably been the most dangerous thing I have done on my mission so far. We also leveled a side of a mountain to put a house there. The house was for an old woman and she called a bunch of people to help, but only 6 people showed up. I learned a lot about how to take out tree stumps though. The wedding was great. I am attaching some photos.