Guatemala City South

Hey there mother, I am doing great,

I now type as I read your letters so that is probably why I sound a little bit unorganized from answering questions and telling stories.

 David Archuellita is going on a mission? That is so cool. I figured they would send him somewhere where no one knew him so that it wouldn’t have an affect on him.

 I loved your conference questions and your insight of how they were answered. I know that is a great idea to do because I did it myself, but just in my head.

That’s great mom that you’re in the gym for 6 days a week now. I am so proud of you. I know that maybe the results won't come as fast as you would like them but stick to it and know that they will come and you will be incredibly happy within the year.

I am trying to drink as much water as I possible can. Just this last week I was in a department called Zacapa and it was really beautiful but boy was it hot. It reminded me a lot of Arizona and I can’t say I’m too happy to be coming back to that heat. Maybe I will just eat Subway from now on since it is fresh food right.

That is a really neat thing to know about Colin, I am really happy for him and all the progress and change that he has gone through.

Ha yeah that basketball story was really funny.

And yes I do think I know an elder by that name, Spiegel. But why, what happened with him. And from Craig and Garrett it is usually the same ol same ol, but they are doing great. They are working hard and having success. Elder Covington is a zone leader right now, and elder McGee I don’t know what he is but he is doing good and is happy. Craig is trying to get me to move up to Utah with him, it is in the back of my head but still has not been accepted.

Sorry this email is so jumpy and probably going to be short, I do not like writing on Mondays because I can’t think straight. But anyway that is so nuts about Megan coming home this month. I left before her too. The sister who came in with us also left last month and the sisters who entered the field with us go home this change, next week. But yeah, it is just so crazy how fast time flies by.

 The weather here is great, in the capital it feels like a regular hot summer day in San Diego, but outside the capital it is hotter than Satan’s armpit. Elder Call happens to be in one of the hotter spots of the mission, so I can see him suffering out there.

So here is a little bit about my last week. So we went to Zacapa like I mentioned before. It was really neat out there because it was Semana Santa, which is Holy Week. It is like Easter but all week long. Everyone goes out of town so we went to go work with the missionaries out in that zone. One day we worked with the district leaders, and the other day we worked with the zone leaders. I went with this one kid named Elder Fiaui and Elder Pena, who is my old comp, and we had a blast. We worked really hard and we taught some really good lessons. Something I learned while I was out there was that we really are the hope that the people are looking for. These people here are so confused on certain questions about their lives and we are the hope that they need. We are the hope of Israel. It was a really neat feeling when I realized that, knowing that these people are so lost in their lives, me and my comp can give them that knowledge and hope that they can still be forgiven and can return to live with God once again. Anyway, from there we went with the zone leaders and we taught a couple lessons but in the night time the whole entire town went to the Catholic Church, so we went too and we watched all the processions. I will explain all of that when I get home. So we came home on Saturday night and then we had church on Sunday and that went really well too. The talks were amazing and I really enjoyed all of that. That night though we had an amazing lesson with our investigator Drei. We were planning her baptism when she started asking us some questions and asking us a lot of doubts that she had. We were talking about all her questions but then I just asked her one question. I asked her how she felt when she saw the first vision on the video. She just said that she felt a peaceful feeling and that she felt the love of Christ and knows that Christ doesn’t want to leave her in the darkness. Then she went on to explain how she feels the love of Christ when she is in the church, when she reads the book of Mormon and etc. and I just testified to her, that she has received her answer. I testified to her that she does know the church is true and that all she felt came directly from God. She was so happy and she was crying, and told me, when I was talking she felt as though an angel was talking to her. She said that it was the spiritual conviction she was looking for all this time. It was a really neat experience. It is like our president tells us over and over again... "We can talk to the people, we can convince them to join the church and etc. but unless we have the Spirit, we can never teach them and they will never feel the Spirit." I know that the Spirit touched her heart last night and that she received her answer. It is so amazing to me and really neat to me to see God working His magic right in front of us. I love this work and I’m so glad I can be here doing what I do. I love you mom and I will talk to you later.

Love Elder Shipley