week 70

Hey! We are in Coban today, we had a leadership training meeting. President and his wife spoke. They talked a lot about obedience so it was a good reminder on what we should be doing. Then we drew straws to see who would talk. Thankfully I didn't have to because that would have made it three times in a row! The missionaries talked about Chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel, which is about the five lessons we teach: the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Commandments, and Laws and Ordinances. After the meeting some of the guys went to play soccer, but I didn't want to so me and Elder Bos went to eat food instead. We just ate some ice cream, after we finish writing we are going to go find some real food. Maybe pizza or subway or taco bell, we are still deciding. We will stay in Coban tonight. It will be good because my companion and I are staying in the same house as some of my buddies. It should be a good time. Then we will head back to our area tomorrow. 

The open house went really well, we were able to sacar some references which was good too. We had like 10 investigators in church which is really good for us.

We were also able to baptize and confirm Blanca Iris and Michelle, so it was a good start to the new year!

This week went pretty well, I was able to do some divisions in my area with Elder Ibarra and he is awesome. I am rooting for him for my next companion. He seems pretty likely so that would be good. Transfers happen again in two weeks. There are rumors that they might open another zone in the Polochic. There are nine Kekchi speakers coming in so I think they have to open areas. My top choice would be to go back to the mountains and train a new missionary. I try to stay happy no matter what, but I think it would be hard to finish outside of the Polochic. But if that is what God wants there isn't much I can say, haha.

We went with a member that Elder Lara knew in Panzos this week for New Year's Eve and ate some pig leg and salad so that was nice. It was pretty good, that lady knew how to make pig leg!

Lots of fireworks were let off of course. We were pretty tired so we went to bed at a normal time, set an alarm at 12:00 and said happy new year, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Mom asked me about rats. There were some rats in my last house, we killed a few but the father of the family (we named him Jeff) kept fighting. Now Elder Bos is doing battle with him! We just have ants and some occasional frogs in our house here.

My spiritual thought this week comes from our meeting with President today. Like I said, he talked about the importance of obedience. He explained to us that the reason Jesus Christ progressed so much in the premortal existence was due to His obedience. Something I have learned in the mission is that without doing our best to be obedient, we may make it through life and have a good job and family, but we will never arrive to be the men and women God wants us to be until we can align our will with that of Gods. I love all of you and hope you have a good week! 

Love, Elder Toolok