McDonalds & French Toast

Hello!

Right after last weeks pday, I went on divisions with the Zone leaders and that was super fun! We ate at McDonalds and the Zone Leader is American so that's always a little better. The next morning we ate a ton of French toast, which was awesome! I like being in different areas with different people. We have to travel a lot and whenever we travel we have to wake up at 3am, that’s always fun!

Not much new this week just the normal crazy Guatemala things. We are planning on baptizing 5 this week so pray for us! We also had divisions with the assistants and they spent the night in our house and that was just crazy! We don’t have electricity right now so pray for us;)

Thank you for everything!!! It's going by fast, I hear it's snowing a ton, I will try and not think about snowboarding! This computer won't let me send pictures so we are going somewhere different next time because I have some sweet pics!!!

I love you and tell the family hi for me and send me some pictures! I’m trying to make a Christmas card but I can’t find a Christmas hat hahaha! I love you a ton!
Love you!
Branson

Tiny Taxi

Did you know you could make pancakes in a microwave? I didn’t.

So funny story to start, we were driving here today to email and we were all in this tiny taxi.  It was just pumping with music! All these people in the taxi with us just started dancing and the driver was honking the beat of the song! I was like what is going on here, so funny. Everyone is just crazy here.  

My comp and I opened this area, so there aren’t very many members.  It’s a little lonely here, but we did baptized this week! We have worked with her for about a month and she is awesome.  Now we are preparing the rest of the family for November 23rd! We might have 8 baptisms that week, which would be cool.

Since last week, I’ve played the guitar 10 times. People just bring their guitars to me. It is so awesome!! We also got to drive around in a Range Rover this week! It was weird being in luxury. We just barely contacted this huge family that basically runs Jocotillo, and they are all so rich.  We just go from one big house to the next! And when I say rich I mean a normal house in the states! It feels like a blessing though.

Remember how I asked you all to pray for the bus; well it didn’t work hahahah the bus broke!  It was nuts trying to get everyone to church this week! We just shoved everyone in trucks and somehow got up there! It's funny, when you don’t have a way to get people to church, all of a sudden they want to go!

For p-day I threw around the football.  Really weird but it was awesome!! Well I love you all and I love the emails!!

PAZ y AMOR

-Elder Kendall

Big Spiders

Hello,

We have one investigator that was supposed to be baptized this week, but she drank coffee!!! Coffee of all things. So we wait.  

This week was awesome. We have a ton of big spiders that live outside of our house, so Friday night I went out and just smashed them with a bat!! No joke when I say these things are the size of your hand. 

Halloween was awesome! We dug a grave...nooo haha!  We dug this big hole for an investigator but it looks like a grave in the pic. 

And then I just bought a ton of candy!!! Like a ton! 

I also got to play the Guitar!!!!! My investigator told me to sing for him in English so I sang ¨We Are Going to be Friends¨  hahah!  It was so tight. 

Saturday was Dia de los Santos and there was a ton of drunk people and I kept telling them to hug my companion and they would! I got a lot of hugs that day too.  

Good news! It’s been really cold here!!! I even sometimes have wear a sweater!!!! Can you believe that, a sweater...in Guatemala!! For P-day we had a Futbul game and invited some of our investigators to play and we had a really good game.... I’m pretty good! 

So I need you all to pray for something, we have a bus that takes our investigators and us from Jocotillo to Our church an hour away. The guy that owns it might sell it and if so we are in trouble. So pray that some other way will come up that we can get these people to church or to bring a church to JOCOTILLO!

PAZ Y AMOR
ELDER KENDALL

3rd Story Window

I’m a completely dedicated missionary.... a couple nights ago I gave the first lesson in my sleep. I woke up because my comp was laughing so hard hahaha! I was sitting up and everything. On Friday we did our first service project and we dug a 5-foot deep hole for this guy! It was hard but fun. We also found some guy cutting wood. We pretended not to know how cut wood and he taught us.  We then cut all this wood for him.

We had stake conference this week so we went to stay with the ZL´s for the night, but they weren’t there. So we just had to climb up this wall and climb in the 3rd story window! People probably thought we were robbing the place. But the ZL´s brought us pizza and we had a little party! Then we had a baptism!!!! Crazy story-That day we had three baptisms and the first little girl that went, her foot came out of the water and she was just balling because she thought she couldn’t be baptized again. Our investigator was kind of scared because he was like ¨why is she crying¨. Then Raul(17) and I went into the font and the first time his hair didn’t go under so we did it again... then his feet came out... so we did it a third time. This time I put my foot on his feet, but he didn’t want to go under... so I made him go under! I seriously probably looked like I was trying to drown him. When he came up we were both laughing- so funny!

For P day we went off roading with this super rich guy and he doesn’t care about his truck so it was nuts! We went up to his property on top of this mountain with an amazing view! Then we ate food and ice cream with him and his family. We might have listened to some real music.... but who knows!

I love you all and thank you for all the b day emails!!!! 

PAZ Y AMOR!

Branson

The Buses

So it rains here.... a lot! We bought all this rain gear but I never use it because you get wet anyway. So I just put my scriptures in a bag and go. On Friday we had a meeting in the capital. We woke up at 4:00am and took buses for 2 hours. On the way home we had to take this bus that was packed!!! I had to hang off the side and we were on the freeway!! The bus was playing this crazy sweet dubstep and I felt like I was in a movie! So tight!! This place is really so beautiful if you can overlook all the trash and dogs haha.

This is our baptism font. The water is so cold and it is raining.

No baptisms this week but we have 3 this Sunday, so boom! These people are awesome out here! So loving!

We have a bus that takes us to church every Sunday that is owned by a member. We drive around and pick of investigators and members. We then drive for an hour and a half to the church along the most beautiful roads!! It’s awesome because I don’t have to contact. I can just rest and hangout with the youngens haha.

Lake Amticlan

We had zone p-day yesterday and we went to this sick park that overlooks Lake Amtitclan!!! So beautiful! Then we got to go to McDonalds!!!!! And it is so much better here!!!!!! It was amazing!

I just pretended yesterday was my birthday. We are working hard and progressing!!! I love you all! Thanks for all your birthday emails.
PAZ Y AMOR
Branson

Zombieland

This field is right in front of our house

Hello Everyone,

Ok so this didn’t happen very much in my first week here, but now all the investigators ask me to sing to them in English haha. Kinda funny. We also got to visit my favorite area this week twice. It’s called the Mercedes!! It’s this big farming area with rolling hills and tall grass and huge mountains. We teach this cute old man there and I just want to hug him. He is awesome and learning super quick. Saturday we were teaching a lesson and the family we were teaching were from out of town, and my companion knew the area they were from. So he asked if they knew one of his friends in that area.... they did. But he had been killed a couple weeks before. My companion was pretty sad about that but he is doing all right now. 

The buses here are insane, we’ve done more gnarl off roading in a bus then I ever did in our RZR! I enjoy it a ton!!!! So fun!!!

Everyone also gives us pineapple because we basically live on a pina plantation!! It’s so humbling here! The families are huge and the houses are so small!! They make it work though and they are amazing and so happy. We teach the family of the little kid I baptized and its awesome! They are all so happy.

Every old person here is absolutely nuts, I don’t get it! I miss normal old people!! Where are my grandparents? hahaha! It’s like an insane asylum every time I walk into one of their houses.

I will also never take running water for granted ever again haha! Bucket showers every morning and its COLD!!! And then sometimes we don’t even have electricity. I also went on an exchange last week! Something new and kinda fun! The people in my area always let us in! It’s nice. 

My companion and I have learned to live by rule number 57 from Zombieland, “Enjoy the Little Things”. We mess with every drunk here! It’s always pretty fun! But bad news, I finally got that Guatemala sickness! 
I love you all!
Branson 

Mission Field

Hello everyone,

I am here!  The first day we loaded everything onto a bus and left to the mission home. We got there and had lunch and all that good stuff. Then we headed to the mission office where we were going to spend the night.  Then we partnered with an office assistant and went out contacting. It was Elder Powell, from the MTC, and I with Elder Roney. I have never seen someone walk so fast in my life. Powell and I were jogging haha.  We got to a bus stop and Roney says, who wants to contact the bus, so I did and I just got on and yelled at everyone haha. Pretty fun. Then the first person I contacted on my mission spoke English!!!!! Pretty cool. We then taught a family and they had every baby animal alive! It was nuts -puppies, kittens, baby chickens! Then we had change meetings! My companion is Elder Tinoco! He is Latino and he is cool -kind of weird sometimes but cool. So we leave the change meeting and head to a public bus. We throw my bags on the public, packed bus and start contacting! I’m bad at Spanish! That first day was super stressful with all the bags but we made it, oh and my companion almost fell out of the bus. We are in this crazy cool area!  It is the farthest from the office! Its called Jocotillo and it’s kind of in the mountains.  There are no stores in my area!! Solo little tiendas (only little shops) with no food!! This area is super super poor! Nobody has a floor but the temperatures are really cool! Thank goodness! Our house is crap but it works. It’s a brand new area so we only have a lady that does laundry!!! I starved for the first week! We basically eat cereal! It will be a miracle if I don’t die from food!! My companion was feeding me some gross stuff and we don’t have running water either so he barely cleans dishes!!!!

Guess what!!!!! I had my first baptism!!!!!! Louis Raton!!!! Such an awesome experience!!! I don’t have time to write so sorry if I don’t respond to all letters!!! I love you guys so much and I miss you!!! General conference was the bomb!

Peace,
Branson

P.S. We have rats in our roof haha...lots!
P.S.S. Our p days are Mondays, but we get to write on Tuesdays!!! Which is really nice actually! A little break on both the days!