Blessings in the Little Things

Hola! 

There is a lot of wisdom here on the coast, especially from our investigators. I’ve gotten a lot of life advice. We’re teaching a man right now named Fernando Israel. He can barely walk, and can’t use his left hand. But one day we saw him about a mile and a half from his house at a park. (Cement pad with benches in front of a massive catholic church?) We asked him why he was so far away from his house and he told us that he always leaves at least once a day so his friends know he’s not dead. So you HEARD him- if you haven’t left your house yet for the day, at least go outside. People could think you’ve died if you don’t .

It’s cool to see the differences in all of the people we teach. Israel has a ton of faith and basically only talks about the Lord. He lives in a small garage by himself, and told us he doesn’t need a TV or phone or anything because he has his Bible, Hymn book and now Book of Mormon. When we teach him we need to make sure we’re completely straight forward with him, because with all his soul he hates hypocrites. He has clocks up all over his house so he can pray for forgiveness every hour, and told us he loves our church because of the orden… I can’t think of the word in English. Pattern? Order? But that, and because we always come like we promise, no matter how hard it’s raining!

There are a lot of people in Guatemala that choose not to get married. We’re teaching 3 couples right now living together, not married. In Guatemala, there are no taxes. There is no legal benefit to getting married, so for these people it’s just spending money unnecessarily. Hopefully, this Saturday we’re going to have the wedding of the family Limos, and this Sunday their baptism! (Our emergency fund is basically meant for marring people)

The one real problem right now is the Zafra! (Late summer, early autumn harvest) The Zafra is both a blessing and curse of coastal Guatemala. There are ridiculous amounts of sugar cane toward the coast- so for 6 months basically every man gets enlisted to help harvest. Because the government doesn’t function, there are no jobs. So everybody that can will participate. You can either work every other day, every other week, or 3 weeks on one week off, attendance plummets and its super hard to find investigators, because everybody needs the work. But no worries- the people are still out there!! We’ve just got to work a little harder.

The blessings of the Lord are always there, you’ve just got to figure out where to look. Usually it’s in the little things. Stuff like finding out every “tienda” carries hot sauce. Like being given mac n cheese and bacon by the senior missionary couple from our branch, like a member making you a sandwich (lots of blessings from food) but as you start to recognize, appreciate, and give thanks for all of these blessings in your life, they will begin to grow. You’ll find more and more and become happier and more content in your life! I testify of the power of gratitude and its ability to change everything about your attitude or mindset. Always look for the little things! Love you all, Praying for ya!

Hasta la pasta,

Elder Tadje

A conversation only missionaries or college student would have:

“Making this bacon’s gonna be super tough without tongs. Wish we had a fork or something. “

“No wait, we have a fork! I found it behind the fridge at the old house. “

“Where is it? “

“I think in the egg cup on the towel in the corner. Ah yup, there it is! “

“Hey, do you wanna make some milk? “

“Sure, just bring your spoon.”
“But it’s covered with mac n cheese. “

“But we don’t have any more spoons… We’ve gotta buy silverware!” 

Con Elder Yepen en divisiones