hey there my mother,
How are you doing right now. I hope all is going well and that you guys are all taking good care of each other. I sure do miss you guys. it is cool here to see all the people get together for Christmas and be happy and all but sometimes it makes me think of you guys and how i cant be there for Christmas, but its alright, next year we´ll be together.  We will probably be in Guatemala this time next year. If you can make the plane ride, haha but really start making plans for that trip so we can come here for some good deals.

Church for us was amazing by the way. Don't mean to bust your bubble but I'm pretty sure it was better than yours haha, only because it was the Quetzaltenango Temple Dedication, and it was with Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Anderson. I didnt know that Elder Anderson could speak Spanish perfectly. Elder Uchtdorf couldn't but it was really impressive to see Elder Anderson speaking in Spanish. They both gave really powerful talks and good inspiration, and The prayer that Elder Uchtdorf gave was just so beautiful. I can't wait to go to that temple, of course we can't go now but when we come back we can make a run up there to go see it. They say it is just beautiful. anyways here is a little bit about my week.

So not to much has happened here because I was incredibly busy in other areas, and I think traveling to much, mixed in with a lot of candy, made me pretty sick. You think I would of learned from the last time with the hot cheteos, haha still haven't touched those bad boys yet, haha, but anyways here is kind of a brief decription.

Monday last week we went to Cuilapa for pday and we just played pool and then went and ate and did internet nothing to special. Tuesday I had to go to Jalpatagua, which is about an hour from my area. over there I had to do 2 interviews that day and they went really good. Then Wednesday we had to go to Barberena which is about an hour and a half from Jalpatagua for a district leader meeting we had with the Zone leaders where we talked about the upcoming things and ideas we have and how were to going to complete the goals we have and etc. I returned that night to Jalpatagua with the elder from there to do another interview for them. Then Thursday we went to Cuilapa again to do 3 interviews for them in their area. Friday we went to Cuilapa again to go to the baptisims of Cuilapa, It was 3 people, then I came back with one of the zls to my area and we did an interview in my area. Saturday we went to Barberena again to end divisions and finally me and my comp were together again, and we had the baptisims in our area with Jalapatagua and they all went really good. Sunday we had to go to Cuilapa again for the dedication and then today we went to Don Justo. Haha, crazy week huh, literally traveling every single day. Saturday I think I was just really exhausted and worn out because we had our english class that night and I went to the bathroom and threw up. Which wasn't fun but I felt better after that. I just felt really weak and tired. But I'm better now.

Alright so that is how busy I was. But mom let me tell you, I love doing this work. I honestly think that if anyone was to do what we do, they would be dead from being so tired. The Lord really does bless us with the strength to it all and more. He is amazing in how He blesses us.  I've really tried to apply the advice that Elder Clarke gave us. When we are with someone, all of our attention needs to be on that person. If we are in a room with someone, we need to only think in that moment, make eye contact and listen with our hearts to what these people are telling us. These interviews went really well for that reason. I have been told I'm pretty good at making eye contact with the people here. It's not that I try to do it though, it is just a habit now. Anyways, all of the peole who were interviewed were just so happy for the decision they made and were really nice and I really think that is the coolest part, seeing how these people have gone through so many struggles with the adversary and now they are trying to keep the commandments of God and just making their lives right with God.  It is great. It makes love a lot more easier when they are like that. But if anyone wants to say that this work is easy, tell them to come talk to me, it is not easy trying to get someone prepared for baptisim. The church doesn't ask us to change a lot as members, but for anyone else, they are literally Changing Everything. That is something we as memebers need to realize more, we need to help the recent converts more and Help them know that there is someone here to help them, and that they have a shoulder to lean on and someone to ask questions to if they need them. anyways the baptisim we had was just a little child who needed to get baptized, I didn't get a picture but I'll try to see if the other elder has one.

About our investigators really quickly.  Satan sure is hard at work with them and he wins at times but when we come we make it very clear who is right. The Spirit testifies to them everytime we go there. So we are now making it a habit, anyone who has a date for baptisim we are visiting them at least every single day, once or twice a day. That way they are feeling the Spirit more and satan is having less of an affect with these people. Oscar is doing great, he is just having a lot of doubts from some anti Mormon book he has, so I just took it. Ha, I just took his book and told him, you don't need this. I told him, who is the person who puts doubts in your mind, and he said satan, and I said, "what is this book doing to you". He said, "well, it's putting doubts in my mind", and I said, "well then, we should get rid of satan then shouldn"t we". Ha, he was a little hesitant at first but I just took it. But yeah, it was kind of funny.

Anyways, Everyting is going great here, Mom I just can't even explain to you how cool the Dedication was yesterday. It was so beautiful. Those men are truly inspired men of God and they have such a love for our Savior. They know just like I know for a Fact that He exist. I know Jesus Christ loves us, and I know for a Fact that this is the true church. Jesus is the person who leads this church and He uses his servant President Thomas S. Monson. I love this work mom and I love the blessings it brings us. The comfort the gospel gives us and all the things we can learn from this great Gospel we have. Literally there is no other Gospel that can compare, but it is because we have the Complete gospel for todays times.

Well I sure do love you guys and miss you a lot. This sunday I'll be turning 16 months in the mission. Crazy huh?  Alright talk to you later.

love Elder Shipley

ps. happy bday eric.

ps the pic of me hanging and 2 other guys is me erickson and doran.

 why hello there mother. it sure is good to hear from you and to hear all the many blessings that are happening in your lives. it makes be feel good because i always pray for you guys and I am certain that the Lord is blessing all of you guys. Que me alegre, is what they would say here.  I would really love to see Nanny get baptized while I'm here in the mission and then when I get back I'd love to go through the temple with her for the first time. But yeah, I got your message about Scott, that is really exciting for him, can your find his address too so that I can write him a letter. I am really happy he chose to get married in the temple so that he can have an eternal marriage. What is going on with the Mit Romney thing, will he win or what is going to happen with that. 

I received the suitcase. The office elder, Elder Parent, who is a senior elder, had to come to my area to drop off his car to be fixed so he brought it with him. Pretty cool, I got the camera and all the snacks and a really nice letter from Terry that was so nice of her. Make sure she knows I say thanks a bunch and I understand why she couldn't see me, those tour trips must keep them on a tight schedule.  I really do love all the things you sent though, I am so lucky to have a mom like you. I love the ASU jersey too.  Thanks a ton, it is great.

Here is a tiny bit about our investigators,

So with the family Gomez we were really hoping to get everything worked out last week with their marriage and get them to the temple dedication this coming Saturday but it turns out it is a lot more difficult than we thought it would be.  We're afraid they will not be able to do the dedication thing. Also the dedication is only going to be through satellite in the district building here in Cuilapa. so it is like 15 mins from our area. but yeah they will not be able to go. but they are still really motivated about following all the things and doing all they need to do so that they can have the chance to prepare to go to the temple in the future, and with that comes the baptism. so it is cool.

With Oscar, he is moving along really really well but we are starting to see he is a little nervous about a couple things and so hopefully all will be ok with him, but we still have the fecha with him for this Saturday. hopefully we can get him baptized so that he can come to the dedication as well. They say that if someone goes to the dedication, the great chance of them remaining active is a lot higher. So we are really trying to keep him moving along and happy and it is working well. We just recently gave him homework in 2 nephi chapter 9 which talks about our purpose and what God really does expect from us.  Hopefully it goes well and we can have a powerful lesson this Tuesday.

With Brenda, she is really happy to be baptized and really stoked for all of the things and blessings that are in store for her, but she doesn't want to be baptized this Saturday. she wants to wait until the 24th of December and be baptized that day. She says she feels like it is her special day that day so we are going to work on preparing her for that day. We just found out recently that her brother died about 5 years ago and we were just talking about all that kind of stuff, and we are so dumb, we never taught her the plan of salvation. So we taught her just a really really tiny bit of the lesson and the Spirit was really strong there. She is still a little confused about what is going to happen and how we know what we know but she likes it and told us she would pray about it to know if it is true.

Those are still our most progressing investigators, we're trying really hard every day to find more and more people to teach. I think we should have a lot of success this week, in finding some new ones and hopefully we can see some miracles come our way. I am really loving my time here mom, and I'm so thankful that I can be here and work hard and be obedient. I'm glad that the Lord trusts young people like us. It is so true the saying, "with great power comes great responsibility and with that responsibility forms great men", I'm not sure if that is how it actually goes but that's how I see it. Anyway, I love you all so much and I miss you a ton. Thanks for all you do for me and always showing me your love every week.  I have the best parents ever.  les amo mucho. alrighty then I'll talk to you later.

love elder daniel shipley

 PS  The Christmas conference I still don't know when it will be and I can't wait to talk to you guys again, seems like yesterday we talked, haha, the time passes slow during the time, but then when the moment comes and we look back on what we have accomplished, we really can see how fast the time has gone by. another quote from me, wow I'm on a role. I should be a quote writer. haha, alright bye now.

Elder Shipley

Hey there mother,

yeah last week i was feeling a little down but boy let me tell you I had a great week this last week, one of the better weeks of my whole mission but not the best. We are kind of having a hard time trying to get baptisms here, because when I came to this area it was just a really really dead area. We are finally starting to see a light at the end of that very long tunnel. ha. We are thinking we will have about 2 or 3 baptisms for December but it is possible that we will have 8 as well. We just need to work hard and get these people moving. We need to find some new people so we can keep it moving along smoothly and so in January there will be baptisms too. I think that is the hardest thing, trying to find that healthy balance in the mission.

ps the last picture I sent to you is our Thanksgiving meal we did for the zone today for pday, it was really really good. haha but it just wasn't the same because I didn't have that full feeling afterwards, which is probably good since we still have to go and work tonight.

Ha that pic you sent me is pretty funny. Thanks for sending that and that is a really cool quote.
Quotation by Elder Howard W. Hunter:
Little children are precious to our Father in Heaven. He loves them and looks after them with the same tender care no matter where they live or how they dress or look. He loves the dark, curly-haired Fijian, and the kind, brightly dressed children in Samoa. He loves the little English boys and girls who all dress alike at school. He loves the children in Japan. He loves the suntanned children in South America and the Lamanites. Our Father loves his children everywhere. When it is bedtime, loving parents in all lands kneel with their children to say prayers. It may be by a high, fluffy featherbed in the Alps or a little mat on the floor of a hut. But our Heavenly Father hears and understands them all. (See Friend, Oct. 1971, p. 10.)
It is so true, I feel so bad for these people here, we are currently teaching this one family, they are called the family Gomez and they are way cool. We are currently working really hard on trying to get them married and baptized before the 10th of December so that they can go to the temple dedication here in Guatemala on the 11th of December. Elder Uchdorf is coming to Guatemala but we are not sure if he will talk to us yet, we will see. I really hope he comes so we can hear from him. Anyway, this family Gomez, wow, mom I leave that house more humble every time we go there. They live up a hill and they have to walk that hill every single day, and lets just say, it is not a fun hill to walk up. It is like a quarter of a mile up and it is steep steep. Anyway, then you get to the house, they have tin sheets for their walls and roof and they have no electricity and barley receive water. they buy candles to see but we just recently learned they only use the candles when we are there so that we can read the book of Mormon with them. I wanted to start crying I felt so bad for them. Anyway for the little they have, they sure do have more than a lot of people. They have such a loving family and it would appear that, that is all they need. They have fun all the time playing silly games, cooking together and just doing random stuff. Recently here in Oratorio everyone is in coffee season where the people pretty much make enough money to support them for the year during these two months. So they just go as a family and pull coffee and the mom always tells us, "well we gotta go cut that coffee to eat them good beans for the year". Ha, they are just so positive about everything. I'll never complain again about having to eat beans, ha. anyway, it is just a miracle.

Quick question, can you get the direction of the patriarch Barney? I really want to write him and tell him how I'm doing.

So here is a little bit about what happened last week. We had our zone conference with President Stay and wow that was really good. It was a good spiritual butt kicker and really got me going. I left that meeting with a desire to be more obedient and work harder and just do things perfectly. Not waste one single moment. Sometimes we get tired here or depressed and we kind of just walk just to walk, but not when we walk, we talk and walk, ha, if there is someone in the street we contact them, if there is no one, we contact a door, we are just trying hard to always contact someone and it is really working good for us. Hermana Stay made me and my comp cookies and brownies (which by the way i think beat yours, haha) because we were the only ones completing with our numbers in our whole zone. it was pretty cool. but yeah it was a good meeting we had.

So a couple things that happened that were cool. One night we were buying these things that are called shukos, which are like hot dogs with guacamole, ketchup, mayonnaise and it is toasted and it is really good. I'll take a video of how he makes it so you can see how, then learn and when I get home that can be something we eat a lot, they are sooooo good. We were buying shukos and we saw one of our investigators Brenda and she hit us with some pretty big news. She told us, she is finally ready for her baptism. Ha, we were shocked. she said she was reading the night before and something just felt right and so now she wants to do it, but she made us promise that it would all be in her time. So we went the next day to visit her and we put the fecha with her 24th of December. We feel as though there is just something she is not telling us so we will see this week what happens. Also we have this man named Oscar. He was an old investigator and he is well prepared for us. He is the guy who has already read everything and he knows the church is true and we just had to get rid of some of his doubts, so we have been working lately on that with him and we got him to come to church yesterday. We went to visit him in the afternoon as well and I just asked him, where do these questions come from that you have, and he confessed, ha, he had a book of anti Mormon stuff, but the time he has been with us he is realizing that the book is lies and that we are really a true church. I told him to give us his testimony of the book of Mormon and he gave another really powerful testimony of the book. It was great. He is just a great man and is really moving along well. His wife was listening to his testimony too and she was even impacted by it. She won't listen to us for nothing but now she is starting to show that she is interested too so, we might teach her too. We put a fecha with him for the 10th of December, which means he will be able to go to the temple dedication.

Ha, there is so much I want to tell you, but my hand is cramping up but I'll tell you briefly the stories and then you can ask me after the mission. haha. There was this one day we were walking up and my comp felt prompted to contact this house and right when he was about to knock, the lady comes out of her house and was like, elders come in. ha it was weird, so we go in and she tells us, elders I was waiting to see if you knocked my door and when I saw you guys about to knock I felt that I should just let you in and you guys needed to teach me, ha, so we just went in and gave her an introduction of what we do, and then we left but it was a sweet lesson. There was another lady who we have been visiting lately and she was really sick when we went to go see her. We went there and she was laying in her bed and her kids were like, she is going blind. Then the kid was like you guys should give her a blessing, so we gave her a blessing and taught her just a little bit about the love of Christ and we just had a really spiritual lesson with her. It was awesome.

Okay, so I am going to end now, with just one last story. It was in the night time and we had about 20 mins left of working and when we were heading back we were about to go to our comedor to eat dinner and then go home. But when we passed a really dark alley I just felt we needed to go up it. so we went to the last house there and it was pitch black, and my comp was just like "let"s go, I'm hungry". So I almost fell in and I was like "alright", then I felt prompted again, 'knock the door', so I just told my comp lets just knock  and see what happens, so we knocked  and this guy came out and was like come in, so we go in and we were just talking and getting to know him and little by little we found out he was a member. He told us his story about his life and how sad he was that no one ever wants to help him and that the elders only come and want to teach the lessons but then they leave because he can't get married. I just started talking to him and found out that he lacked in his testimony a lot about the plan of salvation. Especially the afterlife. He was just asking me, does it really exist?, is it real?, what the prophets say, is it real?.  We just sat there for a moment and I told him just really simply, "Yes, yes it is all real, yes there is a God, yes there is a spirit world, and yes there is a celestial kingdom and yes everything that the prophets say is true". Then I shared with him my experience about grandpee that I had in the temple and told him that if it wasn't for this knowledge that I had that literally all this exists, I wouldn't be here trying to convert people to this gospel.  The work we do is an eternal work, not just for this world. We baptize people and open the doors to the heavens for them. I just assured him that we are here to help him, not only to teach him but help him. I told him we wanted to help him and I presented him with a plan for him and his wife to get married and he just started bawling. He said for once in his life he saw hope, and that he feels like we were really guided that night. It was an amazing experience mom. It is stuff like that that keeps me moving along here and makes me more and more scared to come home. I love having the Spirit with me, it truly is teaching me so much. I love This gospel mom, I love the Book of Mormon so much and really it has helped build my faith in Jesus Christ. I love all these people here and I'm so glad I can be here working hard for these people. I hope you all have a good week. I miss you all a ton and I love you guys so much.

Love Always
Elder Daniel Shipley

from Alma

23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 24 And see that ye have Faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

 I'm not sure about these two photos, better I not ask.

hey there mom

I'm really glad that your week went really well. especially during the funeral. I was really praying that all would go well and that you guys would all be ok. It was really weird too. so every Tuesday we do our district meetings and they are in the mornings but I'll be honest with you. I was not very focused on that meeting at all. I don't know why or what it was but I just couldn't talk and I just kept feeling a Spirit with me of comfort and that everything was going to be ok. I have been not very sad lately but a little confused or I don't know how to describe it but just kind of weird thinking i will never see papa ever again in this life. anyways i just felt a spirit at that moment that didn't really permit me to talk and it was just really weird. we then went with our branch president and i asked him for a blessing not telling him anything that happened about papa, and you will not believe this. he blessed me to have peace in my life and to be calm and just allow the spirit to work through me and to just be obedient and continue doing the Lord's work. then he blessed me to remember that those who have passed on remember me and are doing the very work that i am doing and they are here with me supporting me. how cool is that. he really is a inspired man. anyways it went really well.

so this past week went pretty well. and we were able to do a lot of things. i went on divisions with a elder named elder mcnabb. he is a great missionary and we had a blast. he is just full of a spirit that is so fresh and ready to work hard and do good. i hope to always have that with me too. anyways we really found a ton of new people that are new this week. we went with Oscar this past week and he is just progressing so much now. he is running out of questions and says we are doing good at teaching him and getting rid of all his doubts, he is loving the gospel and is really seeing how it has made us happy and he wants that for himself too. it is cool. and also we are going with a couple other people like maria luisa and jazmine and they are the ones that are really progressing the most. Maria luisa we went with them and shared a message with them about our family. haha, we went there with pictures of our family and they loved it, then we just talked about how the family has been a blessing to us and how it has made us so happy and etc. it was just a great lesson and kind of made me miss you guys a lot haha. but yeah. also this past weekend we had a regional meeting with all of Guatemala where Elder Clarke of the 70, Hermana Cook of the president of the young women, and Elder Uchtdorf, and Elder Holland all talked via satellite. it was soooo cool. i loved it. Elder Holland even talked a little in Spanish. did you know he could do that? I love that man more and more every time i hear him talk. he started in Spanish saying his Spanish was really bad and that he was going to talk in English but then he ended with his testimony, correction, powerful testimony and did that in Spanish. there wasn't a dry eye in the room mom. it was amazing. he is truly an apostle of God and he is just so amazingly awesome. I really hope that i can be a man just like him. I have always told myself that i want my mission to be just like elder Holland's because he talks about his mission with such love. it is just amazing.

Well I'm sorry i didn't write to much, i am just so exhausted and I'm really wanting to go home and take a nap. we did a lot to day.

PS sorry no pictures because we are at a Internet really really slow. i will try to maybe do it next week, or if we end the zone conference early I'll pass by really quickly. I love you mom and I hope all is going well. I pray and hope that the Spirit of God may always be with you and everyone in the family and my friends. i love you guys and I'll talk to you later.

love always
Elder daniel shipley

..........and that is the beautiful part of the plan of salvation. that we have that knowledge that we don't only have a hope but we have a knowledge. we know for a fact that we will see papa again and that we will be reunited with everyone once again. do the work for papa as fast as you can, and get nanny baptized as well. work on getting the missionaries over to visit her. and then within a year I can go to the temple with her and we can all go in. how cool would that be?

I think I might get the suitcase this week in our zone conference but I'm not sure, the missionary party is in December. they havent told us yet so idk, but yeah, were heading out now, I love you mom. next week we will have good internet so we will talk then, I love you so much and miss you a ton. if I was there I'd give you a big hug, just imagine that and pretend I'm there and you will feel my Spirit. make some mac and cheese and think of me while eating it. Elder Holland says that is the secret to pretend someone is there with you. just drink hot chocolate by the fireplace while listening to him talk and you will feel like he is there. well eat mac and cheese and you will feel me there too, ha jk I love ya, talk to you next week. 

November 11, 2011
Dear President Stay,
With a sad heart I would like to ask you to please notify Elder
Shipley that his Papa died on November 10. I know that you have been
communicating with him regarding this matter and I appreciate your
kindness and concern. Please let Elder Shipley know that his Papa
passed peacefully and surrounded by family, and that he was very proud
of Elder Shipley's missionary service. His funeral will be on Tuesday
the 15th.
Thank you,
Susie Shipley

Hey there mom

It is really good to hear from you and know that you are doing well. I am so happy that the Lord really is taking care of you all and is comforting you all in this moment. Just a couple of things I am going to write to you guys.

So yes President Stay gave me a call on Friday morning and we weren't actually in the house at the time. We left at 6:30 that morning and we were giving service all day long. We helped people cut down their coffee trees and helped them finish up their work so that they were able to go to church with us on Sunday. It was actually really fun, but I've learned I would definitely not like to work in farming. haha. We had a blast though hanging out with the kids of this family and helping them out, they are all really nice, their names are dyam, Leslie, and Jessica. 

When we returned from there and we got home at about 4:00 in the afternoon when I saw the missed call from President Stay. We talked a little bit about the service project we did and how he was happy with the work we are doing in Oratorio and then he said, "Elder Shipley, do you know how you have been telling me in your emails lately that your grandfather has been sick"?  I knew right as he told me that that papa had died. I just said, "yes". And then President Stay told me, "Well Elder Shipley, I'm sorry to inform you but your grandfather has passed away". Then he expained to me that he passed away in a peaceful manner and that you explained all the things to him and he assurred me that papa is praying for us right now and that he is with us in this moment and that we have all this knowledge to help us know that he is in a great place and is recieving the blessings of God right now. Then President Stay told me to step outside our house at that moment, and wow mom at that moment there was the most amazing sunset I have ever seen.   President Stay just told me, "Elder Shipley are you seeing what im seeing"?  I just said "yes".  Then President told me, "Elder Shipley, there is no doubt in my mind that your Grandfather is walking in that light right now towards the Great Master and is free of pain and is now with all his other brothers and sisters and his parents and he is happy and now he is waiting for us". IT was just really comforting. It was really neat. I wish I would of taken a picture but I wasn't able to.   Just know mom that my prayers are with you always and that I love you all so much. My prayers are especially with nanny in this hard time for her. I feel for her and love her so much and want her to know that the Lord is looking out after her and that papa is still with her in spirit. Just yesterday there was a funeral here in Oratorio and I love how they do the funerals here because they do like a huge parade and they have a band and everything and they call it the last walk and the last dance. It really is a beautiful thing. 

I love you mom and I'm going to leave you with this quote I heard in church yesterday. "Just like how we take care of the things that are so important to us, and we have love for the material things, we need to take care of the biggest gift that God has given us, Salvation".  It really made me think if i am doing all I need to do and if I am taking care of my salvation and if I am doing all I can to take care of that gift. Well I sure do love you mom and miss you a ton. I'll talk to you next week. Have a Great Week.

Love Elder Daniel Shipley

hey there mother.

I still haven't got your letter yet so I am going to get off for now but I'll try to get on later to see what you have to say. First off, though HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I was telling everyone that it was your day that day and they all say happy birthday to you too. What are you pushing now, 62, 63, haha just kidding your 55 now right? Wow that is amazing. now you just have another 45 years left to hit 100, you can do it. but you gotta be more healthy. So how was your birthday, what did you guys do for your special day?  Dad told me you guys had quite an interesting experience in the temple with a Spanish session. But other than that he told me you would let me know the rest of your day. Is it weird to you that when I am in the temple in a Spanish session I can understand all of that. haha I think that is pretty dang cool. I haven't been to an English session in over a year now. That is just nuts to me. Here is a little bit about my last week.

So Last Tuesday being the first of November it was the day of the dead here in Guatemala. So we went to the graveyard again to do some contacts. It went really well and we got a ton of references for other areas. We did it over in Cuilapa. the grave yard was pretty big but not as big as the one from Mixco. The graves here are so weird though, they have the tombs in like boxes and they just stack the tombs on top of each other. it is weird but it is kind of cool. anyways when we were leaving I noticed there was a funeral going on, haha how could I not of noticed it, there were mariachis and everything. The final dance they call it. Anyway after the mariachis were done I just felt so prompted to go over there and talk to the family. my whole district was like, "no no no, its a private moment leave them alone". anyway we just walked up to them and I was like excuse me are you the family, the lady said very sadly that she was. I just offered her if we could sing a couple hymns for her and for all the people that were there and she allowed us to do it. It was amazing the spirit that was there. I was so overcome that even it brought me to tears. we sang a good 3 hymns and when we were done I contacted the family. I just assured them that this is not the end and that they would see their son again. That right now he is receiving the gospel and that he would like it if they would learn a little more about the gospel too. they accepted and so the missionaries in Cuilapa will be visiting them. It was way neat. I love moments like these.

Anyways this past week we were able to go to the capital and go to the changes meeting as you probably know since I'm short a bit of money. ha but i was pretty modest, I just bought the necessities. I ran out of eye contact fluid so  I had to buy some of that. but other than that I just bought a pen and a couple snacks. In Oratorio there is nothing so I took advantage while I was there. ha just a box of poptarts. It was fun though, I hung out with my good buddy Elder Doran and we went to lunch. I miss that guy, and also my other buddy elder Erickson is now my zone leader. so that will be fun. but other than that we just came home that night exhausted.

So as far as the work goes - we were really sad this past week to find out some really sad news. It had quite an impact on me but i need to just realize that people have their agency and move on as President Stay tells me. So we had 2 investigators who were progressing along really well. Brenda and Sandra, we even had fechas for this week so they could be baptized. anyways they told us that they were going to be going to the capital until January, so that kind of stunk then we went with the other fecha we had Luisa and she is having some serious doubts and is avoiding us which is so sad but we will see what happens with them.

Meanwhile we felt inspired to go and visit this family who are called the family Gomez. They are super cool and really nice to us. we are currently working with the parents to get them married so they can get baptized and we just found out that 2 of the kids aren't baptized either so we put a fecha with one of the kids and we will get the other one when he comes home from his grandparents house. Then we also have this other girl who's name is Jazmine, we finally got her to come to church and she loved it. We have been teaching her for like 4 weeks now and just no progress but now we are starting to see a change in her. so that is really cool but we will see what we can get from them.

Mainly we are just looking for new people. We are contacting a ton and we printed off the ward list so we will be going with all the members on the list and seeing if we can complete families and clean up the list a little. We found a couple new people, one who had a history 4 years ago with the church but couldn't be converted because didn't want to give up his other church, but he told us that like  2 years ago something happened and now he wants nothing to do with them. He told us he has been reading his book of Mormon a lot because when the missionaries left him they told him to read the book of Mormon everyday and one day the missionaries would find him again. WEll we found him, ha and now we are teaching him once again and he says he knows it is true. Mom his scriptures are more marked than mine. It is great. His name is Oscar. We also received a new reference from our new comedor whose name is Soyla. She is really nice and recently her sister just died. we just shared with her really briefly the plan of salvation and she seems really excited to hear about it. so hopefully we can start teaching her and her family as well.

But yeah, the Lord is really blessing us here and we are really excited for this change. WE are ready to work hard and get things moving here in Oratorio. All we really need to do here to have success is to just be obedient. Wake up on time, do our studies, get out and work and the Lord is putting people in our lives.

I am reading the Book of Mormon once again and I'm doing a really deep study on it. Writing my thoughts on the verses as they pop in my head and it is really cool. I've learned that in 1 Nefi Chapter 8, Lehi explains 4 different types of people here in the world. I hope we can all strive to be like the people from Verse 30 of that chapter and that we can all endure to the end. I love the Book of Mormon mom and I am learning so much here. I appreciate all these things so much more. The Book of Mormon really is inspired for us and helps us be a better people. WE can Learn anything we need to learn from that book. It is just amazing. Recently I made a list of the things I want to do in my life and at what age I would like to complete these things. I can not wait to get home and get my life started. WE only have one life so why not live it to the fullest. The mission has given me a lot of hope and really if I set my mind to who I want to be, I can do what ever I want to do. But I need to set my mind and heart to these things. Ha I'm sure you'd laugh at my list, it's called 'Daniel Wayne Shipley: The plan to be successful'.  haha maybe I'll write a book. haha just kidding. Alright well I better get going. I love you guys and I will talk to you later.

Love daniel shipley

Notice "THE TIE", it's the first of the month!!

HA - I sent Daniel this picture 

and this thought I had recorded in my personal history:
We Are All Enlisted. I LOVE this hymn, it is so energetic, but suddenly, the Spirit came to me and I could no longer sing as I came to verse three. I thought about Daniel in the MTC in Guatemala.  I thought about the men guarding the Temple and MTC, with guns.  I thought of the danger that he may face - but how he has wrote to me of not having fear. I could imagine the smile on his face as he is doing the Lord's work.  He is a soldier in God's army right now and I know that the Lord's side will be triumphant. I know Daniel volunteered to be in this army and he is joyful and I KNOW he is protected by the Lord.  Suddenly this entire hymn became very real to me.  I LOVE when that happens.

This was his reply:
What I can't believe is how fat I look in that picture. Haha, and like a little kid. I feel as though I have changed quite a bit in my time here: personally, physically and spiritually. it is cool though. I love that thing you wrote about me in the Guate MTC.  It really is a dangerous country here, I'm not going to lie, but we really are protected here and the Lord looks after us all the time if we are obedient. that is one of the things that i love the most about the mission is learning how to recognize the spirit and how to know when it isn't. as for the package i cant really think of anything else i need. I'm not to sure. but don't forget the asu jersey that you said you will send, if you didn't find it don't worry about it, i think it would be better to have at home. haha. just a heads up, this week we are going to the capital to go to changes and i am all out of the eye solution stuff so i will be buying a package of the eye solution for me. it will be like 200 quetz which is like 25 dollars i think. but it is a really big container. the rain has actually stopped here and so it is good now, earthquakes are still happening like crazy but I'm used to them now. they are crazy strong sometimes though. the two missionaries are doing great now, i had an interview with the one and i talked to him about some of the things he needed to change and so we set some goals and were good to go. and yes i love all my companions. they have all been so great to me and teach me so much. i don't know why people have problems with their companions but to be honest i love all mine. i mean we definitely have some moments where there are some arguments but no one is perfect and we learn from those moments and move on. but yeah well here is a little about my investigators and my week.

I wanted to share what my branch president talked about yesterday, you know being the 5th Sunday of the week so he taught. He taught us about how we need to be better at teaching our kids. I like that because it really gets me thinking of that kind of stuff so I can see what works and what doesn't work so I can be ready for my kids. He taught us how we need to teach our kids from the moment they leave the womb. We should never make exceptions for them because they are kids. He told us, the commandments apply to all people who live here on this earth. and thus we need to teach our kids to tithe and fast when they are young. Then he told us, how do we teach them, well through example, and actually helping them do it. It was really neat and really true. ha. That is definitely going to be something I work really hard on my kids with. Teaching them those important principles as well as all the others. Because really the happiness of this life only comes from living the gospel.

So also I needed to tell you something. So on Saturday there were these 2 people who got baptized from Jalpatagua and they were the ones who I had an interview with about 2 weeks ago but needed to change a couple of things so we met again. I'm not sure if I already told you this dream that the girl had but she told me it again in the interview and I got chills it was so cool. She said one night she was sitting in her house and she saw a Book of Mormon for children learning and so she read a little bit about Nephi, then as she finished reading she went to bed. She went to pray and then she fell asleep. As she was sleeping she said that she had a dream,  in the beginning I was there and me and her were talking. I had a book and it was a really cool looking book she said, she said that when I opened it it was a dvd and I gave it to her and then I told her to follow me. She was following me in the church hallway when we got to the end of the hallway there was a door. I told her go inside this door and just listen to what you feel.  She went inside and was then in the presence of 2 older looking people dressed in white and they didn't say anything but she was overcome by the feeling these 2 people were giving off. She said she just felt a burning in her bosom, then she said when she left the room there was another elder and he then gave her the invitation to be baptized and she excepted. Then she woke up and she committed to keep all the commandments and to never miss one. It was a really neat experience for her and for me too. So we then did the interview and then she was baptized. I'm really bummed I left my camera at home that day. As well as pretty much the whole week so that's why I don't have to many pics.

Anyway we are contacting in a new form here. Since Christmas is coming up people are becoming obsessed with selling the shampoo and cologne and all that stuff so we just tell people, oh are you selling that, oh well can we come in and see what you have. then we go inside and we just look at it for like 4 mins and then they start asking questions about what we do and where we are from and then it slowly changes to the gospel topic. it works like a charm. haha i was telling a friend i think i have literally found a way to have a gospel topic just about any thing now. i can relate almost anything to the gospel. it is cool.

So a little about the investigators. so if you remember correctly Luisa, Sandra and Brenda were supposed to be baptized this past week but they all fell. they didn't go through with it and we were really bummed. we are going to work really hard with them these next couple weeks. I really hope we can get things going and get them feeling comfortable about these things. We are just going over there and reading the book of Mormon with them every time we go just so they get used to it and start to love it. It is working now. They really are good people but its time we need to start looking for more people to teach so were really going to focus this week on the people who are progressing and see what we can do to help them, and the people who are not progressing were going to see what we need to change so that they start progressing and on  the down time to find new people.

That is pretty much the big news for the week. It was a really good week my comp also completed 6 months so we burnt one of his ties, haha so yeah it was fun.

I honestly don't know where the time is going. I still have a lot mom but soon I will be with you guys again. You need to get like a 1 week itinerary for me when i get home, plan every hour and make sure its busy. I'm telling you now so you can get busy on that. haha. But yeah well I love you guys a lot and I miss you a ton. I love this gospel so much and I am such a fool for taking such advantage of it before the mission. I want to be better and I will be better. I'll talk to you next week. love you all

love elder daniel shipley

Hey there, wow thanks mom for that letter, I could really feel the spirit on that last part of the scripture. I love reading that part so much from the Pearl of Great Price.  I love you guys and I miss you all so much.  Everything is going great here and I am really learning so much on my mission. Any news on when Terry will be coming, let me know.  Just send a lot of snacks and I will be happy, haha, red vines for sure though, and I will do some research on the price of all that stuff but I'm thinking I probably won't know until I am almost going home.  I will try and find something that you will love. It will be a surprise though.  Here is a little bit about my week.

Something funny that happened was when I went on divisions I went to this one area called Jalpatagua and I was on divisions with elder McNabb.  He is a really cool guy and we had a blast. We were contacting a little bit trying to find them some new people. We were contacting this one guy who was just telling us that it is impossible for any man to talk to God. Then out of no where as elder McNabb describes it, he just said sure, it says it in Exodus. So the guy runs inside and grabs his bible and says, "enter".   We went in and we started with a prayer, then right as we said amen, elder McNabb says, Exodus 33:11. haha I don't know how I didn't know that, it was a scripture mastery, but it talks about how Jesus talked with Moses face to face. Then it talks a little bit later how Moses saw his back his hand.  The man was just so stumped. It was amazing. The spirit truly does talk to us on our mission, and helps us so much, haha I really don't know what I would do without it.  Also this past week I completed 14 months and some of the missionaries in my district bought me a cake. haha they are so nice and they treat me so good. I need to do stuff for them now, haha but it will be something small.

Our most progressing investigators are progressing along so well and I love them. We have Brenda and Sandra who are currently struggling right now. They are scared to death to make this huge commitment with God and are scared that they will go inactive in the future. We keep trying to promise them that they will be ok and that they are ready for this decision. We previously had a fecha this Saturday but we decided to cancel it because they just really aren't ready. But the next time we go with them, me and my comp talked about just letting them put the date of baptism so that they can feel like they have a say in it and that they can feel like they are doing it for themselves.

Maria Luisa who was also having a hard time is now progressing along really well. In fact we are going to baptize her this week. She is a changed women and she has really had a conversion lately. She is so happy with all the things that she is doing and you can just see in her face the difference. It is amazing. We kind of just went there to teach her and to we asked her a ton of questions so that she could learn from herself. And it worked. haha.  She just really needed that lesson and the spirit was so strong there.

I had to go do an interview for the zone leaders. It went really well and I am so happy for those people. I really love having the interviews because I get to see the people at the most happy part of the conversion process. They are so excited and just so anxious.  It is great.

Sorry I don't really have more to write, There are these two elders that are not really getting along and I can't help but think about that right now. Kind of distracting me from the letters but it will be better next week. Just know that I love you mom and I miss you a ton, I always want you to know that.  I love this work. I know that this is the true church and there is no doubt in my mind. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you next week.

love elder shipley.

hey there mother,

how are you doing? i hope all is going well for you. i have been thinking a lot about you guys lately and the safety and health for all of you. people can say Joseph Smith was crazy all they want but the Word of Wisdom was really inspired and was really meant for us. I'm really glad to have all the commandments we have and i know that my life has been truly blessed, thanks to all of them.

Here in Guatemala it is raining so stinking hard and you know how i just love the rain. haha

It is great and today we went to a bridge which is called the El puente de los esclavos. the bridge of the slaves is the translation.  there we were able to see the river of the slaves and we were able to see the true power of God.

Apparently there is a huge hurricane heading our way but believe me we are in good hands, President Stay really does receive a lot of revelation for us and so he keeps us well informed on what we need to do and when we can and can not do stuff. I love that man so much.

Oh and also really quickly the offices here are open Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday 9 to 3. and Wednesday from 9 to 12. sat and sun they are closed. but always call that number i gave you in advance so Terri can confirm stuff. i was thinking of a couple other things mainly like chips ahoy chewy kind, red vines, those would be good, also my other shoes have finally died, i got to the point where if i walked water just entered immediately. so I'm using the new ones now. ask the ctr guys what they can do, the heel is just completely destroyed. ill send pics next week. but ask them if they can maybe send new ones, i just want a good pair of shoes for when i come home. also i was wondering if you could put on a usb memory thing john Bytheway talks audio and then i can just transfer them over there onto my ipod. but let me know what you think about that. Mainly just send me some snacks, haha, i may be better at my debit card but it is because they just don't exist out here. i have really been introduced into the third world country but im living and I'm getting used to it. i love it. but yeah well here is a little bit about my week

First of all. this past week there was a baptism and me and my buddy elder mcnabb were able to baptize. they asked special permission for us to do it and i was really honored to be able to baptize one of the ladies on such a special day. her name is Victoria Del cid Jolem, and the little girl is Vilma Victoria del cid. but yeah it was really neat and just a beautiful ceremony. because of the hurricane coming though here the water is really bad and brown so the baptismal fount was all brown too. i told the lady wow you had a lot of sins, haha, she just laughed but it was a really neat experience.

So a little bit about the investigators we have right now. We need to go out and look for new ones pretty much, the ones we have are progressing really well but as soon as they are baptized we will have nothing once again so we are going to focus on finding new people this week. Brenda and Sandra are progressing along really well still but are starting to get a little nervous about their baptism. Brenda is all for it still and is always like, I'm not scared to baptize myself. but Sandra is looking a little iffy. but hopefully it will all go through. They are great people and I really want to see them progress like how they are. Brenda continues to surprise me every time i see her. Last time we were there, her mom was just like well she was already baptized in the catholic church, and Brenda began to explain to her, mom i wasn't baptized because my first baptism doesn't count if the guy who did the ordinance didn't have the priesthood. haha, it was funny. then she is loving the book of Mormon, she is now in 1 Nephi 25, and also is reading the other parts we give her. it is really cool and she is just amazing me so much.

With Luisa she is still moving a long really well but it was a little bit of a bummer because she was really sick this past week. as well as everyone else who lives in our little town. it made the week really hard to work. Luisa is loving all the things we are teaching her but she is just still really nervous about making any promises. we are trying really hard to get her to commit to certain things but she has a hard time with it. She is just really nice but i think we need to just back off of her a little bit and let her breathe a little bit and let her realize the things that she really wants in her life.

But other than that this last week we went and we worked in the area of my district a little bit to help them out and get them some new investigators and just get them motivated and get them working hard too. this week i will be going to a area called Jalpatagua again to work there, but this time my comp will stay in our area with another missionary to work in Oratorio. but yeah that is really all the big news there is for my area.

This past Sunday i had to give a talk in church and it went really well. i talked about how we need to gain a personal relationship with our savior Jesus Christ. It was a really good talk and they loved it. when i get home i can give it to you. in my branch our president is really nice and he is really cool, we don't have a mission leader here which is a bummer but we are working hard here and we work mainly with the president of the branch. on Sunday he shared a story with us and ill end on this.
A man one day decided he wanted to go and look for the devil. so on a Sunday morning he went out and he went to the soccer field, but he wasn't there. He went to the Work places and he couldn't find the devil there. He went to the dances and parties but he wasn't there either. He showed up to the doors of the church though and there was the devil. He was really surprised to find him there and asked him what he was doing there. The devil replied, I already have the other people, they are lost, but here, here in the church, he had work to do there to destroy them. it is so true this story, but we need to be strong, we need to be faithful to our work and we need to always do what is right. god truly does bless us if we just keep his commandments and do what he asks us to do. We need to go to church to be blessed. I know that this church is true and that everything that i am doing really is for a reason. I am helping build God's kingdom here on the earth and it makes me happy that i am apart of such a great cause. It makes me sad the people who fall away from the church, but it is because of their pride that they cannot return. but yeah well i hope everything is going well there and that you guys are having a good time. i love you all and i miss you a ton,

until next week, love
Daniel