The Power of Gratitude

What a week!!!! I didn't specify this last week but my p days are on Wednesdays if you want to email me! This week had so much potential but then everything fell through and it was really tough. We had 1st appointments with about 7 of our new contacts but they either weren't home or rescheduled. When we went back the same thing happened :/ We taught Danny on Thursday but we had 2 more appointments with him later and they both fell through:/ But! We got 3 references (all brothers) from other missionaries. They are friends with the patriarch and live in Comalapa so once we get their contacts we will meet with them. They have already been to church 5 times in Chimal which is crazy and so good! That should be awesome once we get those. We had zone conference Friday which was so good. The first zone conference with our mission president! We had a spiritual little meeting. President Probst talked about having a sincere heart in all that we do, it was awesome! He then started interviews and the APs went over stats. I was a little late to going over the stats because of my interview but we had 96 baptisms in June as a mission! Wow. Hermana Probst also did a slideshow of her family and they are all super awesome! We made new goals as a zone for July and had lunch. We have a chef make us lunch and it was beef stroganoff and it was sooo good. I got to talk to Hermana Probst a bunch and she is awesome!! I love both President and Hermana Probst a lot and am excited to have them for my whole two years!

For church we push an older gentleman named Guillermo in a wheel chair to church. It takes an hour total to go get him and go to church. He's so happy and funny it's an awesome experience. About 20 came to church. It was good. We had District council on Monday and it was very good then after we went to the mall to get lunch. The other district in our zone meets at the same building so we went together as a zone! It was so fun. The mall is awesome. I got a gourmet McDonald's burger that they don't have in America or Canada. It was very good but way too expensive haha. I also got a crunch bar Mcflurry that was unrealll. We have so much fun together it's an awesome zone. Tuesday was one of the best days I've had! We didn't accomplish much though... It was a classic day and reminded me of a trip I would have a home. We had normal morning. Went to our awesome gym and then had studies. Guillermo also paid for a cake that we picked up. A blessing for sure. At 11 went out to find the bus for a small village (they are called Aldayas). We had plans to meet a less active member and go back to her house for a meeting but she took a while to respond to our phone call. When she did and after we found the bus it was close to 12 and she said to meet her at 12:30. So we just got lunch and then went to the meeting spot. We got to the bus of like 16 seats. Everyone was speaking Kekchikel! Which is the main Mayen language of my mission. There are like 25 dialects in Guatamela, it's crazy. We got onto a dirt road as soon as we left Comalapa and it was a decent road ngl. It was super steep and twisty and we went up and down the ridges of the mountains more times than I can remember. It was soooooo pretty out there. It was also raining a little so it seemed mystical. The road also got super slippery so we actually got off the bus and walked for 5 minutes down the hill. Shoes were full of mud. Then we stopped and waited for the bus buttt the bus slid into the dirt gutter and so we had to get into the back of a pickup truck to her house for like 5 minutes.

We got to her house finally at like 2:50 and she said that her family and her will make tamales for us. So we just sat outside. They brought us a bowl full of peach and peach jelly... but they were weird and did not taste good. I gagged every time I took a bite. Took me like an hour and a half to eat almost all of it. I couldn't quote finish it though. If anyone knows how to eat food that makes them gag every bite, please email me haha. We then had fresh duck tamels (yes the duck was fresh from their flock). They were sooo good, eventhough the duck was a tad tough.

We then walked for like 20 minutws in the middle of the mountains of Guatemala to find a tuk tuk. We went to the main aldaya and had to take another tuk tuk home because there were no buses or trucks - which is the usual thing to do but we were too late. The tuk tuk was really expensive too so that sorta sucks haha. We were close to another city with Elders and our back up plan was to go stay with them haha. It was such a cool experience with the kekchikel and being in the middle of no where! It was so much fun and sooooo pretty I'm so grateful for my area!!!

I have been working on being super grateful for everything I have and wow what a difference it makes. It has made my week so much better! Gratitude will make your challenges easier and make you feel closer to heaven! Thomas S Monson has a really good talk called "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" you should all read it. Gratitude makes everything seem better!! That's all for this week!!! Oh I forgot to say, they don't flush the toilet paper here which is different for sure haha. I also drink water from a bag. Oh I also tried the best dessert thing everrrr. Idk what it's called but it's mashed plantanes with sugar and then made into a ball but filled with refried beans and sugar on the outside. It's sounds gross but it's so good!! Love you all! Elder Pilling