Email 18 June 2012

Zona Nahuala

Well Hi,
So I’m still in Xela because I’m waiting for Bergeson to get out of his last interview so I can give him some stuff... Therefore, I just decided to do the email right now while I’m waiting for the lucky kid! First off, Happy Father's Day to dad and everyone else! Hope it was filled with manliness. Second, Happy Birthday to Cole! 5 years old... That seems unreal.
All is well for me. Changes are tomorrow. I will be finishing my mission in Nahualá, so no surprises there... However, my companion, Elder Adams, does have changes. So for my last 3 weeks, I’ll have a new companion. That is a surprise. Not sure who it is going to be, so that will be weird for me to find out tomorrow since I was banking on Adams being my last comp. Oh well I guess.
Still can’t believe Bergeson is leaving... I made him give the message in District Meeting since it was his last opportunity to do so haha. He did good. That kid really has been like a brother to me... He and I have really gotten close over the last couple years.
Speaking of buddies though... Ryan sent me his flight plans. It is official. We are on the same flights! We'll both be in Sky Harbor at 3:35pm, July 12th. Pretty awesome!
Friday, the Zonies asked me to have a "sleep over" with them. Even though we had some appointments that we were looking forward to, we went and did it. They needed me to do a baptismal interview for them, so that was the purpose in the whole sleepover and what not. It was my first interview for a baptism. The girl answered everything right and looked really prepared, but then she told me she didn’t want to be baptized yet. That took me by surprise because of how ready she actually was, but obviously we can’t just force someone into the water. Her family was reactivated a few months ago. Her parents and sisters are all baptized, but she isn’t...and for some reason doesn’t want to be quite yet. Someday though... I know that.
Saturday, we had a huge activity. Did a sports day in celebration of Father's Day. Soccer and basketball... It was a lot of fun. They listened to Lil Wayne the entire time basically. Pretty tight for a church activity haha.
I love you all so much and can’t wait to see you. Have a great week and take care :)
Love, Elder Bitner

Email 11 June 2012

David's lunch today

Hi there everybody,
Tomorrow happens to be the one month mark until I’m coming home. Pretty unbelievable. I’m almost done... It just can’t be. My entire mission I have thought that going home was just never going to happen, but here I am...just 30 days away. Remarkable.
This week has been very unexciting. On Tuesday I had some fun before the Zone Meeting though. I played ping-pong for the first time in who knows how long...and I highly recommend that you buy a ping-pong table. They are awesome. The church building where our Zone Leaders are has one, so when we showed up early we found them playing it and joined in on the fun! And now, I really badly want one haha.
I was able to chop wood again this week. Two and half hours of it. I got a ton of it done too. I kept coming across very large black spiders when I tried to grab a new piece of wood. That was slowing me down a little bit. I’m not scared of spider because I have 155 pounds on them, but these things were big and just kept coming out of nowhere, along with worms...so I took my time picking up the wood. One thing I don’t understand is how they go through so much wood! Blows my mind.
That day we were chopping we had an appointment. I ended up sending my companion with another kid to go do it. I thought he knew where he was going, but it turned out that he didn’t. The appointment was to go visit references, so we sent them to the house of the member that gave them to us and then they went to visit the family... Turned out he went to a different house of a member. It worked out alright because that member actually did take them somewhere haha, so it was kind of funny. Now we have even more references...but explaining all that to the lady we were supposed to actually go with was troubling. Made me feel bad because she just kept saying, "Well, they were expecting us... Hopefully that doesn’t ruin it." It ended up working out alright with them too. Sunday afternoon we went to visit the lady with the member lady. Turns out the lady only speaks Quiche, so we weren’t able to really communicate with her. We had to talk through the member that took us there... Our new plan is to get 2 ex-missionaries to go with us that speak Quiche and that way they can just do all the talking, since they know it all. We'll see if it works out like that though.

Anyways, those are the big points of the week. We actually have quite a few investigators now, so life is looking good in that perspective. We'll just have to see if they continue to be interested.
Well, take care all. I love you guys so much :) I’ll see you in a month! Love, Elder Bitner

Email 4 June 2012

The Waterfall

WOW,
It has been a pretty busy day... Lots of buses more than anything. We headed down to Xela this morning for P-Day. Got sick of Nahualá/Toto, so we figured Xela would give us some good fun. I went "shopping" in the Central Park trying to find some stuff. I will be honest with you right now, I’m getting another suit. Couldn’t resist. The two should last me a good while though, so it is worth it. This one I’m getting is basically paid for, so not too much money to worry about there. It will cost about the same as the other one though. I just wanted a black suit with a vest too. Sorry... I just like dress clothing I guess haha. Then we went to Walmart. I dropped some true money there. Not that much actually... It was basically all my groceries for the month, so that is good. Now I don’t have to worry about buying that really. Thank goodness.
There was another death here last week. Another father of a member. I don’t know what it is, but everyone just seemed to be dying there for a moment. 3 people in 6 days? Intense.
The puppies that we had in our backyard got stolen. Wasn’t happy about that... On Wednesday, when we got back from lunch, they were all gone! Someone is getting some good money selling them at least though.
The guy that I baptized here in Nahualá is becoming quite the legit member. Gives prayers in classes and all that good stuff. His daughter, Angela, says "Elder" every time she sees us.  Makes me smile at least.
Took somewhat of an adventure Saturday morning. This kid Erik had been asking me forever what day we were going to go to the waterfall here in Nahualá. He was really wanting to take us for some reason...so finally on Saturday, we went with the little guy. It was a nice little hike. Took about an hour to get there. Tired us out a tiny bit, but we managed to keep our strength. The waterfall was pretty big though. I actually went and stood under this one... It may look like fun and just a good time in general, but as soon as I got under it, it wasn’t all that cool haha. It felt like someone was just pouring a ton of rocks onto my ears. Hurt so bad... Waterfalls are some very strong earthly objects. I felt like I was being suffocated under it! It was taking all the wind out of me because it was pelting my back so hard. Worth it though. Waterfalls are just too cool.
When we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, this lady sitting behind us passed me a note telling me that her husband that was sitting next to her was investigating the church and that she wanted us to go visit him. We have an appointment with him tomorrow night. He is actually the brother-in-law of the guy I baptized here a while ago, so it is kind of cool that he is coming to church now too. Maybe we'll have some success with him. We can only hope :)
Giving a talk in church on Sunday. Yay...
Tyler hits a year of being gone this week. Sad... Very sad.
That has been it though I think. Not much more. Just trying to find some people to baptize before I bounce on out of here. 38 days left is not a lot, so we got to find quickly. Anyways, take care and have great weeks!
I love you all. Love, Elder Bitner