week 57

Hey! Our week was kind of rough until Conference, nothing much in way of success, nobody was home so that was kind of a bummer. We did a lot of hiking, which is pretty normal. We walked to Se`soch on Wednesday and Thursday, which isn't far but it is like straight up hill and walking down is horrible on the knees so that was a treat. And we went back to the Mirador on Friday. Me and Elder Smart out-hiked two Qawachins (native Guatemalans) so I was feeling like we pounded up there! I was going to take a picture with them but uh...they wanted to leave really fast haha. The down hill from Mirador is also horrible on the knees, plus we did this leg workout the day before we walked up there, I almost died. We could barely walk on Saturday so it was a good thing it was a General Conference day!

General Conference (a twice yearly, two day meeting when the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak about Jesus and other gospel topics, you can find links here) was thankfully in all three languages, English, Spanish and Kekchi, so that was awesome! And the Conference messages were awesome so that was awesome! We had a few investigators there so that was good, but none of our references showed up so that was a bummer. 

A great thing is Kimberly gets baptized tomorrow! So dope! She is pilas as heck so we are happy to see her wanting to get baptized. The Family Home Evening I told you about went well, we showed some Mormon Messages about Christ (link here) and bore our testimonies of Him so it was a good time. We will be going back there again tomorrow after the baptism. 

In our leadership training meeting last Monday we talked a lot about obedience. I think that is something we can always work on. Needless to say we were all motivated to do better afterwards. 

(Photo of Elder Toolson enjoying a meal during training, pc: Sister Ellie Scruggs)

Fun detail, I can add a foot fungus to my mission diseases! It is almost gone, it just got really bad in the middle of the week, it like opened up and was bleeding a little bit and stuff and it was horrible. But I'm better now!

No news on the mail situation so that is a bummer. We are having a pretty mellow p-day, we could have gone to La Tinta but Elder Smart and I are tired of traveling. Some members gave us food so that was awesome, and now we will write, and maybe finish our free time watching a church movie.

My spiritual thought this week comes from one of the overall themes I kind of got from Conference. I felt like it talked about repentance and how we can be made clean through it. I just want to share a thought that I didn't realize until my time in the mission. Repentance is not a punishment! My entire time as a youth I always felt like it was something to be embarrassed and ashamed of, but really it is just the process of becoming more like Christ, which is awesome! We should all go do it every night when we pray. Repenting is awesome!

I love all of you, have a good week!

Love, Elder Toolson