week 87: "we got ourselves a kub'i-ha'!"

ALRIGHT EVERYONE. BIG NEWS. FRUIT LOOPS CAME TO TELEMAN. THAT'S RIGHT. THERE ARE FRUIT LOOPS IN MY AREA AND I CAN BUY THEM WHENEVER I WANT. I'm sorry I am just really excited about that! It is the life now haha, except it is sooo hot here! They said it got up to like 45 degrees Celsius. I don't know how much that is (113 degrees Fahrenheit) but I know I haven't stopped sweating like ever.

We had a good week this week, got everyone all baptized, so that was awesome. I got to baptize Sister Antonia, not Angelina, I mixed up her name last week. There was kind of good support from the rama, it was mostly guests from the wedding that stuck around. Her new husband is already a member. You will notice my feet are now whiter than my baptism clothes.

And we met the goal! We were the highest baptizing zone in the mission this month so yay! The bummer is, we can't go to Tiikal because another zone also met the goal. And President Faundez just says that two zones can't go the same change. I am a little confused, but I figure he knows better than I do. So we will hopefully end up going to the castle that I went to about a year and a half ago. Other big news, an Apostle is coming to our mission at the beginning of June! Elder Renlund is coming and I think I get to meet him, but it isn't 100% sure. Senahu is going to convert into a Stake and he is the one who will do it. They are calling it the first Mayan stake! My companion and I aren't in Senahu district, but I am just excited for all the members up there. After being up there for six months it feels like my home district is becoming a Stake. I hope they send me up there to die (finish the mission) but I think the possibilities are pretty far fetched,

Other than the baptism it was a pretty normal week this week. We did some divisions with Saqsuha, I was with Elder Sanchez so we had a good time. The Hermanas (Sister missionaries) set a fecha (baptism date) but I don't know when it is, and Saqsuha put two fechas for this month, so we are excited about that. We will go to do the baptism interviews but I am not sure when.

Right now we are in Coban for the leaders meeting, it was good. We talked a lot about new changes in the mission. There are a lot of little changes happening, like we won't have zone meetings any more, only multi-zone and zone conferences. They took out zone meetings so we would have more time, but we still have the district meetings to go to every week so it is kind of the same. And we can go to the temple now twice a year as a zone and once with a convert, but that won't apply to me since I am going home. After the meeting we did a fun activity where we all went out to the street to give out Books of Mormon and folletas. Lucky me and my companion were able to find some Q'eqchi' speaking people to talk to, so that was fun. 

Oh also! Do you remember the package you sent over a year ago with my new shoes and pants? It showed up! I was a little mad because they made me pay 100 qetz to get it, but I got it today. I guess the church went in to look for it, and the government made them pay to take it out of the storage place it was in. The mail strike is still on so the church went in and took out all the missionaries packages that had been stuck there. It was still in pretty good shape, and there is still some stuff I can eat so it will be good. The shoes actually came at the perfect time because the ones I have now are dying. I was really happy when I heard the package came in for that reason. And Hermana Faundez was certainly happy I have some new pants to wear at meetings haha. 

Mario didn't show up to church but I heard he was really busy. It sounds like the problem between him and his wife kind of cooled off, so we will visit his family tomorrow to see what is going on there. I am going to share the Mormon Message (video) "Enduring Love" about the old couple, where the old man is caring for his wife because she can't care for herself, and talk about the importance of love between husband and wife and in the family.

My spiritual thought is just my testimony again about how the Lord answers our prayers if we do all we can and ask Him humbly. At our leadership meeting they asked us to describe how we were able to meet the goal this last month, and all we could really tell them is that we knelt down in prayer and said "Heavenly Father, we have done all we know how to do and worked hard, please help us." And He did the rest. I know that the Lord is watching over us and never leaves us.

Love, Laj Toolok

P.S. mom, Alma 56:47-48  relik chi yaal, ke'tzole' chaq xb'aaneb' lix na'. maq wo oml'a' neke'wiib'an xch'ool, li Yos tikoleb'. Ut ke'xnumsi chiwu li raatineb' lix na'eb', ke'xye: moko nawiib'an ta li qach'ool naq ke'xnaw li qana' (they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.)