Missionaries teach and are taught!

Hey there mom,

How are you doing?

I hope all is going well for you, I sure do miss you a lot but everything here is going great. 

Elder Amado was excellent. I loved every single moment I was with him and he even did something really neat at the conference but I will mention that a little later. 

I will go ahead and explain about all that right now. So, Monday we went to Zacapa where we had one conference and then we were in Jalapa on Tuesday for the next conference that was outside the capital. We were able to stay in hotels the whole time which was pretty cool, they were really nice. Anyway, we were able to listen to his instruction 3 times, and every time I listened to him, I felt like it was my first time. It was just so great. He had such a way of teaching that was just so wonderful and spectacular. I was deeply impressed. He had his principles he wanted to teach, but every single time he always started with questions and he would answer our questions but he would just keep answering our questions with questions of his own too so that we would ask him the right questions he was looking for. I have been using that in my lessons now and I can see such a strong difference in my teaching skills as well. It was just so cool. Anyway, I also thought this was pretty interesting, he said that for after this life, we have to have our priorities. We need to get married as quickly as possible, and then have kids as quickly as possible, then go to school as quickly as possible, work as much as possible and most importantly to have time for ourselves. Then he said, we need to do all of that at the same time, and have confidence in the Lord that He will help us do it. It was just so neat.

It was pretty funny too though because when we were driving to Jalapa, at night time we got pretty lost and we were trying to find our way. We were lost for about 2 hours. We finally humbled ourselves and said a prayer, and found some people to ask and then we were on our way. So I told Elder Amado about that story and he just patted me on the back and told me I am so happy for you Elder Shipley. So I kind of just shrugged it off. Then we had our conference on Thursday, and he mentioned how he told this to the Area president and other counselor, and told the kids in the CCM and other authorities. Then he told the missionaries there at that conference how impacted he was by that story. He said how impressed he was that someone can humble themselves so much, repent and then ask God, "we are lost, and where do you want us to go". He said, what a perfect example of the Atonement working in someone’s life. I was a little choked up when he said that, but it was just really neat. 

By the way, he let me play on his Ipad a little bit which is just way awesome. He called me the technology wiz; I was helping him all the time figure out his ipad and his laptop. The coolest thing he told me though mom was that he just felt really good around me and was impressed by me a lot of times. He says, "I was really well put together". I am not bragging, but I was just really humbled by what he said. 

Another story that was really cool was we had to go to the area office to give Elder Amado his notebook that he left in Jalapa. When we walked in, you could just feel the Spirit so strongly from those men. The 3 of the area presidency were there, each in their offices and were all so focused on what they were doing. We walked in and Elder Amado greeted us and sat us down for a moment and we talked with him. He was asking how we thought the conference was going and we just told him it was great. Then he sent us on our way, but it was such a neat experience. Everyone there was just so happy to be working, but I don’t doubt that it was the Spirit that makes them happy. Elder Amado told us that after his mission, he has only been mad 3 times in his whole life. He says he gets frustrated at times, and gets sad, but he has never been full on angry. I found that really neat and something I would like to do after my mission, just never lose my temper and keep the Spirit with me.

Anyway, yes President Stay has given me plenty talks about the car and driving safely. I try really hard to take care of it, because I know it is not mine, and I know that it is pretty dangerous to drive here in Guatemala.

 Yes, we shower here in the white house with warm water. All the elders have the opportunity to get hot water if they would like to. They just need to buy the heater things for the shower and put them in and they can just as easily shower with hot water. 

So I got a letter from Crystal, and she says she is incredibly happy with you about how you teach the kids and her little brother. She says that her brother loves the gospel and is enjoying every moment of it. So good for you mom. She said she really enjoyed the time where apparently you had them wearing little mustaches for an object lesson.

When are Zerbe's moving to Northern California? That is so crazy, but I am sure that they will enjoy it there. What is taking them out there though?

Max Schram got married, ha that is so crazy; send me a picture of the couple. You never answered my question about the Spiegel guy from IRHS, What happened with him? Is Brother Thompson doing alright? I hope so, that is so scary. Does Jon have any prospects coming up at least or any plans on what might be looking good for him?  I only hear from Elder Covington, and Elder McGee. Who is Rasussem? Are you talking about Elder Rassmussen from my mission? He gets home in July, which is really soon. He is entering into his last change. My plane tickets are in the process of being bought now, and so we should have them next week, or the week after. It is funny because I watch our secretary as he sends out the forms to the parents. Yes we will be able to Skype for mother’s day; I can’t wait to see you guys. Are you able to play full on tennis yet? I found some tennis courts here so we going to play probably next week. Ha, it has been an honor to be my mom, are you dying on me. Ha ha.

Anyways, here is the last and final story in which I will conclude. So just yesterday we were on divisions with a companionship. I went with an elder whose name is Elder Sanchez. He is a great elder. We just had a blast and we worked super hard. He was having some hard times, so we went there to help out a little bit. Anyway, we were there and we had some great lessons that day but we ended on one that was just fantastic. So he was telling me that we were going to this last house, but that we were going to teach the Plan of Salvation to them because they just lost their sister in law a week before, who died while giving birth to her baby. So we get there and the family is there, and they were super optimistic about the whole thing and were quite positive, but still we could see that they lacked that happiness in their lives. Anyway there just so happened to be another person there that wasn’t a member of the church, and was a sister in law to them. So we started the lesson, by singing a hymn, and then saying the prayer. We then moved on but before we started the lesson, I felt really inspired to ask, "are there any questions before we begin what we have planned"? The lady who was not a member asked us, "what happens when someone just doesn’t have faith anymore?" So we took it from there and this is how the lesson went. I asked her then, what the faith was to her. She said it is a belief in something. I said, alright, in what, and she said, well in anything, you can have faith in anything. Then I asked her, ok so do you have faith that if I push this control right here that the TV will turn on. She said yes, and I said well how you know. And she said well because that is what happens, and I said well it must have taken a lot of faith for the first time when you turned it on. She said well, maybe, that is true. And we went through a series of questions like that. Then we turned it towards the spiritual aspect. We went around that for like 10 minutes and then we started talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was explaining to her about the great and immense love that God has for all of us. We explained what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane and how it was so painful the things that Jesus had to suffer for each and every single one of us. Then we talked about the trials and the cruel things the guards did to Him, and then we talked about the cross and how He suffered once again, but the worst part was when God left Him alone, and Jesus said, why hast THOU left me alone? Then we explained to her that it happened so that Jesus could understand completely how it feels to be alone so that never again would we be left lonely. Never again would we as humans suffer that pain of having absolutely no one. Then I asked her, after waiting for like 20 seconds, “Sister, do you believe that is where it all ended. Right there on the cross.” She said, well according to the church that I go to, yes. That is where it ended. That is where it was finished. I then testified to her that it didn’t end there. That was the worst part of the whole story of Jesus and for it to end there, then it would be an unhappy ending. I told her, and we all got really emotional, I testified to her that it didn’t end there. It continued. 3 days later, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ rose. I testified that He lives, that He is still alive today, and that He is as real today as He was then. That He is with her in every moment and that she can feel Him if she would just accept Him.  Jesus Christ lives. Thanks to Jesus Christ we can live. Thanks to Jesus Christ we will see the much loved ones who have passed beyond the veil. Then this is where it got really interesting. I said, "thanks to Jesus Christ, you will see you daughter again". She stopped me immediately. She said, "what did you say about my daughter". Then realizing that I made a huge mistake, I said, I am sorry, I meant your sister in law. She said, "no, you don’t understand Elder Shipley. What you said just answered all my prayers that I have been having. She continued, my daughter died 7 months ago, and ever since that day my faith in God has vanished. I didn’t think that God was talking to me and I didn’t think I would ever see my baby girl again. But the moment that you said those words, I felt so powerfully that what you just said didn’t come from you, but came straight from God". Mom as she was explaining all of that, I got the most chills I have ever gotten in my whole life. I was seeing God work through me right then at that moment touching that lady's life, changing her to come unto Him and changing her for all time and eternity. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I told her then, “sister, I have had many very beautiful experiences in my mission to where God has allowed me to see many things, miracles, evidences of His reality, and touching moments to feel his love. This is one of those moments.” It was so neat mom, I know that God lives, and I know that Jesus is the Christ. There is no doubt about it; I left her with a couple scriptures from the Book of Mormon where she could read more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ from Alma 34. I love moments like these mom and it helps me remember that God needs me here. I still have a great and marvelous work to do here, and it is not over yet. I love you all and I miss you dearly but you still gotta wait, ha. Alright then, I will talk to you all next week.

Love Always,

Elder Shipley