The call was great. I loved talking to you guys, I miss you all so much but now that I do not have to worry about any of that anymore, I can just relax and work hard and look forward to these next couple months. It kills me how fast time goes by here in the mission.
I know I could probably plan a lot of fun appointments for my birthday but the honest truth is that I just want to work. We have a couple appointments in the night time, but other than that we have a good day of work to do.
This last week was kind of boring. So I shouldn’t say too much but in the mission there was an emergency where an elder was a little sick. He was having troubles breathing and was having seizures and had to go to the hospital. He was sent home Tuesday night so that he could be with his family and with the church doctor to help him get better. So with that said, right after we were done talking is when president called me and informed me as to what happened. We went home immediately and we brought the elder who was the companion. We talked to him a little bit and calmed him down. He had to do some pretty serious rescue skills. He said, "in all my years as a lifeguard I never had to use these skills, but now I did". We just told him to be happy and thankful that he did know, and that he saved his companions life. Monday, we had our meetings and it went well, then at 3 pm I had to go to the hospital and take care of the elder. Anything he needed I had to get for him, and the best part was that I had to go and stay the night with him at the hospital. The food was just oh so dandy, ha. Typical hospital food. Then in the morning another elder came and switched me out and we took off to Jalapa to start divisions. I went with Elder Pulsipher. He is a really cool guy. We went out there and then we got back and we had to go right back to the hospital. We waited there for a little bit longer and at about 7 pm he was off. Then we headed home and we got there at about 9 pm. The next morning we had to get up and go out to the area of the elders and bring the stuff back to the capital so we could send it off to him. We went to a meeting for trainers and we had a pretty good time there. We ate lunch and trained the new missionaries a little bit. From there we went to the area to work a little bit. In the night time we had to go and drop off the stuff at this one place but the guy was not there. So we went out to eat dinner and then we went home for the night. In the morning we had to take an elder going home to the airport and then we went over to the guys place again to drop off the suitcases. Then we had an adventure driving out to Jalapa again to end the divisions and then we had to go all the way back to the area again to bring the other elders stuff to his new companions place. Elder Walker is his new companion now. From there we went off and were home at about 9 at night.
Friday we took the truck out to Oratorio to get it fixed and then we were back on our way to the capital where we did divisions with Guatemala. I went with an elder named Elder Samayoya. We had a blast. We contacted so many people and we taught so many new lessons over there. I felt so good because it was killing me that I went a whole entire week without work. Elder Samayoya was a little confused as to why I was like that but I explained to him very briefly what was happening. Anyways in those divisions we had a lesson that was a really neat lesson. There was a lady who has a son who was baptized a couple weeks back. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and he has a really good spirit about it. His mom not so much, she is not a member and we talked to her a little bit. It was a really spiritual experience and we talked about how she just needs to have confidence in God and trust that he would take care of all the things that were going to happen. She felt a lot better after the lesson and we were able to commit her to go to church and get baptized. It was way neat.
Today for pday we went to out to Oratorio again to go get the truck and we went to the Puente de los Esclavos again, but this time without the raging waterfall. It wasn’t as cool but still a neat bridge that has a lot of history.
Now to answer the questions.
March 10th was Elder Castros Birthday.
Yes, we are going to have a wonderful reunion. Are we going to have the parade going too, and all the billboards that say, welcome home elder Shipley? By the way, have you asked the bishop what my topic is yet? Everyone here has theirs.I love my companion too, he is a great guy and is a true character. His English has gotten so much better with me. Guatemala is great, I love every moment I have here, it is starting to rain a lot here and that season is just the best. Ha, not. You would love the weather more in Guatemala though mom. It is like San Diego. I have had the chance to read the book of Mormon a couple times now, I love that book, it is just so great, I read it once in English, and about 2 times in Spanish. I should be finishing up my 3rd time right now. I know I realize the importance of being an example to all the other missionaries. I see them as my equal workers in the work of God. They are the people who teach me and I just make questions to learn from them, but at the same time they learn too. They are the hard workers that are making the lucha as we would say. They are the ones out there doing all the stuff that they need to do. I stand at their side and do the same work too. I love this work mom; it is a great and marvelous work. God really does prepare these people and they are so fortunate to live in such a humble land. I love you all and hope you all have a good week. I am no longer the 20 year old that you guys never knew. With love, Elder Shipley
Happy Birthday Daniel!!
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