May 22,2011

Dear Mom,

Im sorry about the snow. Snow in may is the worst. Im not sorry that im here and not there though. Its the hot time of year here and im loving it. Your emails last week were kind of crazy and reminded me how much has changed since i left. I guess i still feel like im in my own little bubble and nothing is really changing back home. There were atleast 3 people in the pictures that i wouldnt have even come close to recognizing if you hadnt had told me who they were.

Things are going really well here. We are seeing lots and lots of blessings. We sould have two baptisms (of a couple) the De Paz Family. They´ve had their trials though so they can use as many prayers as possible. Also i think it was hillarious, refering to your reaction on the phonecall. Did you think someone kidnapped me or something? What happend was there is this awesome family here, the saravia family, and there dad lives in the states and for some plan they have they get tons of free minutes to the states. One day we were talking and i guess i said the phone number for the house and i guess they wrote it down. I didnt even remember but they called me monday night to tell me that they had called you but that no one could understand. They told me that all you said was ¨Si¨ and ¨Que¨ haha. They just wanted to say hi to you. I told them it´s probably best if they dont call now though b.c. im here and you wont understand.

So some other news from this week is that i got a new companion. His name is Elder Phillips and he´s from Costa Rica. There arent many Costa Ricenses here in the mission but they always seem to be around me some how. It´s all good though b.c. i get along well with them. If you´re looking at his name thinking that its not very latino its b.c. his great grandparents came to costa rica from england. He´s a really good missionary and i think that we are going to have an incredible change. We are planing on working with all that we have and pushing the zone really hard so that we can see more miricles. Some missionaries live below their potential and abililties and we cant let that happen. We have to help them grow, change their missions and change their lives.

So i just wanted to write you a little about a talk that elder holland gave at the mtc a while back. We watched a recording of it and it has really helped motivate me and change my mission and probably my life for the better. He talked about how preach my gospel came to be and that it was because president hinckley was so worried about so many returned missionaries going in active. He realized that they have to get to the missionary before they can every get to the investigator. He talked about things missionaries aren´t good at and ive seen these weeknesses in me and i´ve really tried to change to fix these weaknesses. He also talked about how we need to be persistent and said that their is an Evan lady on his street that is more persistent then us and that she only sells make up. If people can be so persistent and try so hard with things that dont really even matter why cant we be more persistent and have less fear about the greatest message to the world that there is.

He also talked about the last chapter in John and that apostles not knowing what to do when christ left and so they went fishing. Christ apeared to them and told them to feed his sheep. Elder Holland said ¨we need to feed his sheep and do it forever¨. It was truely such a powerful talk and i will definately go over it with you and teach it to you when i have more time.

Please remember to love God and to feed his sheep. Always work hard and look for every chance possible to bless the lives of others. I love you very much.

Love,

Elder Vincent

May 16,2011

Dear Family,

Sound like things are going great back home. That's good to hear. Sounds like a lot has been going on as well and that you have had a lot to do. Thats cool that so many people wished me happy birthday. My birthday went well. On Tuesday we went around giving roses to our investigator and some of the relief society. It went really well. Then in the night i bought a cake that we used to celebrate mothers day with a recent convert family. It was a really nice day and a cool birthday b.c. it wasn't about me and i was able to spend it in the service of others.

This week i also had some cool experiences with me prayers. Its awesome to be a missionary b.c. it seems like god answers my prayers so easily. I hope it can be like this my whole life. I think i might need to be a missionary forever. To make a long story short i was able to see the fulfillment of fasting and many prayers. We had been struggling to find new investigators and so we prayed frequently and fasted to find new families to teach and this week we were able to find many. Also I prayed for specific things, like one day i prayed that we could reach our goal of 5 lessons for the day and then i did everything in my power to help fulfill my own prayer and god did the rest. We reached the goal that day. My testimony of prayer has grown dramatically here on the mission and i hope and pray that i can live a prayer filled life always.

Our investgators are doing pretty well. The ones that have a date are the De Paz Family. They are really cool and i really hope that we can get them baptized on the 28th like we have planned. I really really really want to baptize this month. We went to visit them on friday to teach a little and resolve some doubts of theirs. what happen was an inactive member gave them some anti mormon stuff and it kind of shaked them up a little but we went and they have testimonies so it wasnt a real problem. They just wanted to talk about it. I had warned them before that this would happen (which i dont do alot) and reminded them of it. Especially the son who they want to baptize them. I promised them before and again that if they will do three simple things then they will be prepared for their baptizm and they will be able to resist the attacks of satan. 1. Pray every day 2. Read the Book of Mormon everyday and 3. Go to church every sunday before their baptism. Its really impressive all the help and direction that God gives me so that i am able to help his other children.

We also found and taught a Guy from the states who has his church down here. He studyied religion in alabama and is very inteligent but was very closed minded when we talked to him. I tried to keep myself and my comp calm and not fight with him. I mostly just tried to testify to him but he didn´t want to listen. It did kind of hurt when he said that we wernt fit to call ourselves elders b.c. we didnt fit the requirement. In genral he was a nice guy but the sadest thing that he believes is that there is no need for a prophet or modern day revelation. He believes christ said it all in the new testament. I am so so grateful to have a prophet and 12 apostles to teach me what God wants me to do. It has blessed my live incredibly and a i know that it will continue blessing my life. How said it would be if God didnt want to talk to us anymore and i feel bad for the people that put restrictions on God b.c. we already have the bible.

Also this week we had our zone conference this week that week really well. I especially enjoyed an MTC talk that we watched by elder holland. I dont have much time to write about it though so i´ll write you about it next week.

I love you all very much and am very proud of you. I am sorry grateful for all your thoughts and prayers because the are always needed.

Love,

Elder Vincent

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May 9,2011

Dear Mom,

Happy Mothers DAY!!!! I think this my 20th mothers day as your son. Pretty cool right. I am very grateful for the plan of Salvation as well b.c. i will be able to have an eternitiy of mothers day´s with you. And if there isnt one in heaven i`ll just declare everyday as mothers day.

Things are going really good down here. Im just trying to do my best like i was saying. I want to be able to help as many people as possible here in Guatemala. Personally i have seen alot of progress in myself in the last few months and weeks. I have stepped up alot to try and become the best missionary and person that i can possibly be. I have changed alot.

Mom i hope that you had an incredible mothers day and that you liked all of my gifts (haha im such a good son). Mothers day is a very special day for very special people. Fathers help strengthen their children but it is the mothers who mold there children into what they will become and hopefully into what god wants them to become. I am very thankful for all that you have done for me b.c. i know that i would not be here right now if it wasnt for your constant care and help.

Things are going really good for me and my investigators. They are all really cool. The family that just got married has a son who is already a member and we´re trying to strengthen him so that he can go on a mission next year. He`s really cool. He dances like michael jackson and he is a professional using tops. The things that spin, i dont know how to dexcribe it but its cool.

We are also teaching the saravia family and they are sweet. The mom speaks Kachi-kel and teaches me and practices with me a little bit. We get along really really well they just have the problem of the dad living in the states and he doesnt want them to get baptized. They are a really sweet family.

Also we`ve seen great progress with the little brother of a recent convert family. He was having a really really hard time but has made some big time changes and i really think that we can prepare him to be baptized next month. His name is christian and he´s 15 years old.

Im sorry i didnt talk more about my investigators yesterday and the people here but just know that they are great and that i love them and am fighting to help them have the best.

Know that im healthy and happy and that i love missionary work. Do your best to be member missionaries at home. More then anything be good examples and friends to the people and then invite. Invite them to do whatever thing that will help them come closer to God.

I love you all very much and i am so grateful for your love prayers and support.

Con Amor,

Elder Vincent

May 3,2011

Dear Mom and Family,

How are things back in the US of A? Sounds like it was a busy week but a nice week at the same time. Its kind of crazy that its already time to call you again. I dont even feel it. I´ll probably call you in the afternoon b.c i wont have time in the morning b.c our church is at 8 and i have ward council at 6. I can call you at 5 am if you want? Haha i know you though mom. I´ll wait until the afternoon.

This was kind of a crazy week. There really wasnt enough time to get everything done. Last sunday we had 2 wedding and 4 baptisms schedualed for this weekend but not all went through. We were only able to get 1 wedding done but we still felt could with what we were able to accomplish. This couple first met the missionaries 12 years ago and the stopped going to church for a while and then met the missionaries again a few years ago and started going again but it wasnt until saturday that we were able to get them married. The Lord was really able to amplify my abilities so that we could get it done. Now we just have to get them baptized to seal the deal. They are a really cool family and i really hope that they will take this next step that is so important. Their son is a member but hadnt been coming to church for work related things and they wanted him to baptize them and so that was why they werent going to get baptized saturday but they were so happy saturday that they said they wanted to get baptized even if their son cant do it. Im really happy with there progress in the last few years.

The other wedding didnt go through. The husband just doesnt really want to do it. He really wants to be baptized and wants to do what is best for his son but he doesnt really want to get married still. In my opinion if you feel commited enough to have children together you should feel commited enough to get married but i guess the world thinks different now a days. We´re still working with him to help him make the best decision.

So with all we had to do this week and with everything going not according to plans my comp and i got kind of stressed out and my comp didnt want to listen to anything on friday morning. He was reacting in a way that really frustrated me but rather then getting in a fight with him i took a deep breath stood up and got a drink of water. I came back and we talked a little more and i took some action and started calling some people and then we said a prayer together trying to know what was the right thing to do. We both got the same answer and then started doing that and following the answer. Throughout the day even though things didnt work out so well we felt an incredible peace and were able to have an incredible day. It was really a day that strengthend my testimony.

I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life and I know that the church is true and that the atonement is real. I love you all very much.

Love,

Elder Vincent

PS For my birthday i want you to email me pictures of heath playing bball.

April 26,2011

Dear Mom,

How are things going back in good old utah? Things are going great here. I got your package this week and i appriciated all the notes with it. Thats all i really ever want is little letters helping motivate me and grow from the testimonies of others. Its alot cheaper too. But i will put the stuff you sent to good use and it will make some little kids really happy. (i did keep a bag of m&ms for my self though)

So Happy Easter!!!!! Its a great time of year isnt it. Where you are it means that its the end of snow time. Where i am it means the the rainy season is about to start!!! I love the rain if you didnt know that.

Here in guatemala the country kind of shuts down for Holy Week. Most everyone leaves and goes out of town. My companion was pretty sick this week (I feel great by the way) and it would have been easy to just kind of take the week off. But we went out and worked and i am greatful for my comp for digging in and going out with me b.c. we were able to see miricles. First off we were able to teach many more lessons then i ever thought we would have, especially with the circumstances. We also were able to find some cool new investigators that needed to hear the message. Also we were able to schedual 2 weddings and 4 baptisms for this weekend. There are some missionaries that really didnt try much this week but i know that God blesses us incredibly for our efforts. He allowed us to go beyond our limits and achieve miricles. I know that when things look the dimist that is when god lifts us up and allows us to achieve things that are beyond our abilities.

Also i wanted to write you about a cool expirience that i had last week. I was kind of frustrated with the day. Mostly b.c of my schedual issue and it stressed me out trying to figure it out and not having the time to do it. However after i got back to my apartment I started reading the book of mormon. ( i had decided that i was going to finish it that day) I started reading and i came accross Moroni 7:45. It talks about charity and how charity is long suffering and isnt easily irritated. It caused me to reflect and i realized i let somethingh way to small irritate me. So what i did was just let it go and trust it the lord that everything will work out and i felt alot better. I haven´t felt like that really my whole mission (i think b.c. i started thinking about myself too much) and it felt bad. So i repented and remembered that i have to be tougher and know how to take a puch and be a long sufferer if i want to be a true disiple of christ.

Also i finishing the Book of Mormon i kneeled and prayed after to renew my testimony that the book is true and i had a really special experiece that im going to write you about in a letter. (by the way thank you mom for sending me atleast a little bit of your testimony. I think you were the only one that sent part of it and i asked about 4 months ago. I´ll wait paciently for the rest of them. But that doesnt mean i wont keep reminding you.)

Well i want you to know that im healthy happy and trying everyday to improve. I love this work and i am so grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a missionary. Keep working hard in all that you do and pray and read scriptures every day.

Love,

Elder Vincent

People to pray for

Carlos Chumil and Wife

Family De Paz

Family Sarabia

April 18,2011

Dear Mom,

Glad to hear you had fun in California. Im not going to be able to write much b.c. ive been trying to change some things up on my college schedual. Any help you can offer with that would be nice.

Last week i was looking at my geneology sheet and relized grandpa would have turned 101. He would be really old. Next week grandpa vincent would haved turned 91 as well. Its kind of crazy. I am so eternally grateful to them and to my other ancestors who have cut the path of life for me to cruise through. I feel very blessed for the great lines that i come from.

This week was good but we´re struggling to find new investigators and our two baptismal dates fell. I have faith though and am working harder and being a better missionary then i´ve have ever been so i know that we will find success soon.

I love you very much and thank you for all the prayers that are offered on behalf of the people here and us as missionaries.

Love,

Elder Vincent

April 10,2011

Dear Mom and Fam,

How are things going back in snow land. Things are going good here. Its the hottest time of the year so im happy.

We had transfers last wednesday and i left san jose pinula. Its crazy how time flies though. It scares me truely. I feel like i just got there. Shoot i feel like i just got to Guatemala. Its sad to say goodbye to everyone and what not but i am happy with what i was able to accomplish there. I just hope and pray that the people i prepared there keep progressing and get baptized soon. I also pray that my converts stay strong in the gosple.

My new area is called Lo De Fuentes and is in the capital. Its a little bit warmer then my last area which is sweet. It´s actually in a city right by the capital called mixco. Its actually part of the same mission zone as Carolingia.

So far i really really like it here. All the members are really nice and give me food which has won my heart. (I´ve lost way to much wieght haha) The ward is the biggest that ive been in so far and also seems to be the strongest. All of the converts here are really that Converts because of the efforts of the wards to get them involved and more then anything make them feel loved and like part of a family. The bishop is really cool, though he`s going to get released in the next few weeks to be in the stake presidency. He reminds me of matich a little and i´ve already learned alot from him.

My new companion is Elder Lopez from El Salvador. He is from a city that is about 20 minutes from Jalpatagua where i was. I already knew him and he´s been in a couple of zones of mine. He`s a cool missionary and i have already learned some good things from him and he has helped me to be better.

I want you all to know that i love missionary work and i am happier then any other time in my life. I have know doubts about the lord nor his work. The only doubts that i have are of myself and my abilites but the lord strengthens me.

Makes sure to work hard in all things and be the best person you can be. Oh and were hoping to have two baptisms in the next two weeks we just have to get them married so pray for them. Also i have to focus on the people in my new area now but please pray for the people in my old area as well. Especially the castro family.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Pray for Carlos Chumil and fam

Mario Gomez

Familia Figaroa

April 3,2011

Dear Mom,

How is everything going back in the big pc. I saw the snow on the trees as i was watching the Sunday morning session and it made me laugh. I dont think that im coming home. I have enjoyed my vacation from the snow.

I really really enjoyed this week. Probably mostly b.c. of conference. It was awesome. My favorite quote from conference ¨Richard please go play with the children¨haha. Seriously though every single question that i had prayed about going into conference was answered. Elder Packer Answered some questions i had concerning repentance. Elder nelson answered my question about faith and fear (faith not fear is one of my mottoes for my mission), and Elder Bednar answered my question about revelation. I also received alot of direction concerning the sabbath day from elder perry even though i wasnt praying to know about that specifically for the conference i had had some questions the last few months about it.

I also really enjoyed Pres. Uchtdorfs talk in the priesthood session. He used alot of philosophies that i have a strong testimony of (mostly from my work in sports). He talked about how we cannot get complacent in our Priesthood responsibilities (which happens way to often and is one thing i want to help the missionaries here change). We cant just go through the motions. This work is way to important to just go through the motions. He pretty much call us out to step our game up which is what we needed. Many called us to step up to the call.

I liked many of the talks, Scotts beautiful talk about his wife, the prophet (always good), elder christoferson on chastisement, the sister from the primary talking about children and all we can learn from them (incredible talk) but i wanted to talk about two really quickly b.c. they were two philosophies that i have thought about alot in my life and cleared some things up for me.

The first was elder oaks talk on What is our Vision? What are our desires? and What are our Priorities? This is something that has really hit me as of late and i have done alot of reflecting on how i can rearrange and re organize these three things. I must have a vision of the things that i want to achieve and then i must turn that vision into my desires and then i must prioritize my live so that i can make that vision a reality. I think i have a hard time prioritizing sometimes so the talk was a big help to me.

The other one that really stood out to me personally was Elder Robins talk on to do vs. to be and morphing our to do and to be. I have though about this alot in my life and he explained it in a way that helped me organize my thoughts alot. I had heard a talk by president eyring to mission presidents where he talked about while what we do is important to Heavenly Father when all is said and done it is who we are that really matters to him. Our doing helps make up who we are and i reflect alot alot on who i am and who i want to become. I have always said to myself who we were is not important, what is really important is who we are and who we are becoming to be. I am really going to try to change my life so that i can do what i am and be what i do.

Well as you probably noticed as well the main themes of conference were service and the temple. I think we should really reflect in how we can improve those things. There is so much more that i believe that we can do as a family to serve others. We must be constantly searching for those we can help and doing it. It is interesting the other theme was the temple b.c. it is also one of the greatest acts of service we can provide. It is the service of the dead to save their souls. We should also reflect on how we can make the temple a bigger part of our lives. Yes even for you heath.

I hope you all will take some time to reflect on what you heard in the conference and see how you can change and improve your lives. Make sure like the prophet counseled as well to re read the talks when you get next months ensign. Like Elder Holland said they just dont go up in front of the world to talk but to help us repent and come unto christ. They are inspired and we need inspiration.

I love you all and thank you for all of your love and prayers. Never stop doing the little things b.c. that is how great things come to pass and we see miracles.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Pray for´

Castro Family

Mercedes and Christian

Jordi Perez and Familia Lutin

Brenda Aguirre and Fam

and The sotoj fam

Mar.27,2010

Dear Mom,

Thanks for all that you are doing to help`me with school. I wish i could give you more information but i really dont remember. The best place to look would be in my registration stuff from my freshman year. You can sign up for classes but only if i can change what you sign me up for. If not you should probably wait for me to atleast look at the classes. I know for sure that i want to take sort of english class and maybe an advanced spanish class. But if i dont take a spanish class im going to take a basic french class i think. Other then that im not sure. I wish i could help more. Sorry. But remember that i love you and dont stresss out too much. Remember that i love you and that you´re the best mom that i have.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Mar.20,2011

Dear Mom,

Glad to hear that things are going so well back home. Sorry about the flood. Thats crazy that Hayden is going to the Saporo mission with the Daniels. Have you talked to ryans mom about that yet? Is she ready to come home yet? They will finish with my mission President. Did they close Haydens mission or what is happening withe that? Why´s he going to another mission?

Things are going well here in Guatemala. We´re really trying to focus on getting the members more involved in the work. Its almost impossible to have success without them. We´re are preparing for one baptism this week of an 11 year old kid named Jordi Perez. He´s the little brother of Julio that we baptized last month and im really hoping we can make it happen. We had a family ready for baptism but they had a setback and now it looks like it will be a couple of weeks before they get baptized. Its kind of a bummer b.c. i was hoping to get to baptize my first full family but its ok as long as they get baptized and keep growing.

Yesterday we had our stake confernce as well and it went really well. We were able to bring lots of investigators/recent converts. The main things i learned were about the proccess of healing spiritually and the ties of faith and gratitute within that process. I also remembered that i need to do a better job of asking for referals and working with members. Of all of the baptisms i´ve had only one has been a contact and his whole family was all members so it was like a referal. I try contacting but the rate of contacts to baptism is like 3000-1. I need to work smarter so that i can have more success. It was a really good conference and i love analyzing the atonement in new ways and looking for new ways that i can apply it in my life. Also i saw sister Postons uncle again. He´s a really really nice guy and always asking me how im doing when he sees me. I really appriciate it.

The coolest part of the conference is that Eugenio Xon (the first person that i baptized in this area) was sustained and received the Melquezidek Priesthood. It was so sweet. He´s such a cool guy and im really happy for him.

Also i havent gotten the letters you were all supose to send me with your testimonies. Also please dont send me a package. I dont need or want anything. I know its hard for you but i would much rather take the money out that you would have sent me and give it as fast offering here. Just send letters they are cheaper and i like them better and everything i like fits in them.

I love you all and thank you so much for all of the love support and prayers that you offer in my behalf. Please work hard and look for new challangeing things to do in life. Things that will help your grow.

Love,

Elder Vincent

people to pray for-

Castro Family

Rustrian Family

Sotoj Family

Jordi and Marleni Perez

Folgar Family

Mar.14,2011

Dear Mom,

First off i love you. Second off I was pretty worried about Hayden and that people he´s been serving in Japan when i heard about the tsunami. I remembered Hayden was in sendai when i heard that the worst damage was done there. I saw some pictures and it looked pretty bad. I woke up that morning and just had a bad feeling and the day just seemed kind of dark and im guessing that was why. Im glad hayden is ok though.

This week was a pretty good week like every other has been though we have hit a slump in getting people to church and baptized. Our baptismal dates for saturday didnt go through. The dad Valdemar´s mom had a stroke about a month ago and its really hard. Wednesday he left to go visit her and apperently while he was on the way she died but then came back to life.(IDK??) He didnt get back until friday afternoon so we didnt have the baptism and we havent reset the date although we are hoping and praying for the 26th of this month. When he got back he just seemed realy hard hearted. It just seems like he´s angry at the world and and like he´s looking for something or someone to blame. Friday and saturday wewe thinking and praying alot for and about him and his family. Then Sunday they didnt come to church so we went to visit them and we had an incredible lesson with them. We talked about what their vision is and the plans they had. They really didnt know. We talked about the importance of having goals and planing for them.

Then at the end i felt inspired to share with the family about Grandma McDede. Hno Valdemar had seen his mom suffering a couple of weeks and it was tearing him apart. I told of how we had seen Grandma in that state for years and though it was hard, especially on you mom, we didnt let it get to us much because our faith in Jesus Christ and the plan of atonement. I told him that we hadnt let that hard trial tear us down but build us up and help us learn and grow. I told him though Grandma hadnt been able to talk most of my life and had been bed ridden a big chunk of it that i had learned great lessons from her. I learned to serve unconditionally. I learned about the importance of family and that i learned the true purity of love from her. I told him that i had been watching him and was looking to see how he would react to the situation and i was hoping it would build him up rather then tear him down. It was a really powerful lesson and we´re going to have a family home evening with them tonight so we´ll se how he´s doing.

We also got to go to the temple on wednesday which was awesome ( and actully i was figuring that we were in the temple at the time hno Valdemar Castro´s mom didnt die). It is a great blessing to get to serve in a country and mission where there is a temple and we can go to every once in a while.

I love you all very much and thank you for all of your prayers and for the examples that you give me.

Love,

Elder Vincent

ps mom you need to go on visits with the sister missionaries atleast every other week if not every week until i get home. Please do that for me.

pps go cougars!

Mar.7,2011

Dear Mom,

How are things going back in Utah? Is it cold? haha i had to remind you. I hope things are going great. So by the way i didnt even know that Ashley was going to have a baby? Did Chris get my letter? No one tells me when they get a letter so i never know. Speaking of letters i still havent gotten my letters with everyones testimonies???

Things are going good here in Guatemala. The big new this week is that we set a baptismal date with the Castro Family. They are really really awesome and the mom is even going to quit her job of making tortillas so that she can come to church on Sundays and have more time with her family. We have the baptisms set for this saturday but they didnt come to church this week b.c the kids were all sick so we´ll have to see if it happens this week. If not then for sure on the 26th of March. They are a family of four and our goal for this month is 5 so we´re going to do everything that we can to make it happen.

The other Big News of this week is that one of my baptisms from january, eugenio xon (the one who taught me some words in qui che) had his interview with the Stake President and he is going to get the Melquezadic Priesthood on the 20th at stake conference. He´s such an awesome guy and i am so happy that he is progressing so well. He was also out of work and found a job this week!

Wednesday we had our Zone Conference with Elder Clark and it was truely amazing. I love the way he teaches and his passion for what he does (he actually reminded me quite abit of coach matich in that aspect). He talked about alot of things that helped motivate me and helped me focus to give everything that I have in the time that i have left. I dont have my notes with me so i dont remember alot of the thoughts that i had but one thing i realized is that in our teaching we need to help the people realize that the things we teach are important to them. Because if its not important to them they´re never going to do it. I learned alot about how i need to udjust my teaching with that purpose. I also learned alot more about the love I need to have for the people here to help not just change a few peoples lives, through the gosple here, but to change the culture of the whole country.

I love you all very much and thank you for all of your love and prayers. I want you to know that i dont doubt this work at all. The only doubts i ever have are about myself and what i can accomplish. i have learned however to trust much more in the lord as a missionary and i know this is His work. He strengthens me even when i dont feel like im worthy of it. I know this Church is true and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to eternal happiness.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Feb.28,2011

Dear Family,

How´re things back in Utah. Sounds like you are all doing pretty well which is good. Things are going really well here in Guatemala. We´re fighting everyday to baptize more and help our brothers and sisters come unto Christ. Oh before i forget i got the Alsbury´s Christmas package they sent me. It was really nice and ment alot. I dont know why it took so long to get to me seeing as the box said it got to Guatemala in December. I think the office elders just forgot to give it ot me.

This week went really well though we werent able to get alot of investigators to Church. (Our goal for March is 5 baptisms so we have high hopes but we know that we are going to do it). The mission is filled with ups and downs. For me the downs arent the hard work or the extra rules (those are good things) the downs are when the people dont want the gospel in their lives and they reject the greatest thing that we have to offer them. Its kind of lame the excusses you hear two but it make us pray harder for the poeple. Also one thing that came to me a while back is that getting rejected helps us understand to the slightest degree what it was like for Jesus. He was perfect, the Son of God, the savior of the World and the people still rejected Him and His gospel. Knowing this helps give me strength from the power of the Atonement and helps me not to get down b.c. if the people rejected even Jesus Christ we have to expect that its going to happen with us as well. We just have to dig down, keep working our hardest and fight for the salvation of our Brothers and sister.

This is a great work and one that i am very happy and proud to be part of . I have come to understand that the Gospel is the true guide to happiness. Faith, repentance, baptism, recieveing the Holy Ghost and enduring truely bring me great happiness in my life. I am especially grateful for the mercy of repentance for all of the mistakes that i have made in my life. Feeling forgiven and like your soul is redeemed from hell like Lehi said is one of the most amazing experiences that there are. I can truely testify that it is when you feel ¨Encircled about in the arms of his love¨ I want these people to be happy and i want every one to be happy and this is why i preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though it is hard sometimes, it is the way to happiness.

I have seen great changes in many people on my mission and the happiness that they have gained and i have also seen people who have not wanted to change and have gotten stuck in their wrong ways and their sadness.

I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement. they give me hope and strength. I am grateful for all the love that i fell every day and for all of the blessings that i have in my life for they are many.

I love you all and hope that things are going well. We have a Zone Conference with Elder Clark this week so i´ll let you know how it went next week.

Love,

Elder Vincent

people to pray for;

Castro Fam

Sotoj Fam

Kimberly Garcia

Blanca Folgar

Jordan Lutin

Dominga Rustrian

Feb.20,2011

Dear Family,

How´s it going back in snowy PC?? Sorry about that. I got your package mom and it was great thank you. I dont need any more packages though. You can just send letters instead. The packages are to expensive. Im sorry about the struggles in basketball this week buty one thing that ive learned in life is that sometimes we can learn more from the hard times then the good times. Its important to take time and think and learn from our experiences. I know that i´ve made tons of mistakes in my life but thankful to the atonement i have been able to wipe away those things and still gained the benifit of learning from my mistakes. The Atonement is beautiful isnt it!!!

Things are going great here in Guatemala. I love it. I cant imagine myself being anywhere else right now. This week went really well, though its been harder the last 2 weeks to teach lessons. Alot of people are dont want to listen. It couldnt ruin my week though b.c. we were able to have 2 baptisms of Carla and Rubi Folgar. They are two awesome young ladies and i was so happy to see them make this decision. I was able to baptize Rubi and it was an awesome experience.

The only down side was the lack of support from their mom who is in-active member. She´s a nice lady and gave permision for them to be baptized but she promised that she would come to the baptizm and didnt and so Sunday we went by to bring her to church for the confirmation but she said she couldnt come b.c she had to make lunch (our church is at 8 in the morning!!!) Its just sad to me that she wasnt there to support her daughters in one of the most important experience of their lives. Hopefully she can learn from her mistakes.

So im trying to figure out where im going to go to school in the fall whether BYU or USU but its kind of a hard decsion for me to make. I wanted to ask you all to fast with me on wednesday to help me see the answer of what God wants me to do more clearly. Its tough b.c they are both good options but i want to do the best thing not just the good thing and that comes from doing what God wants me to do.

I love you all and hope that you enjoy the vacation week. Dont be bums though get out and do some stuff!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Vincent

Feb 20,2011

Dear Family,

Happy Valentines day!!!!! How are things going back home?? Im hopeing that they are going great. Mom your the only girl that wrote me this year for valentines day so i gues that that officially makes you my valentine. Thats ok though im glad its that way. I love you very much and you are a great valentine.

This week started out kind of rough. Last week we were playing baseball for P'day and my companion tripped and fell and hurt himself. He tore the ligaments in his shoulder connecting his collarbone to his shoulder. He´s recovering well but it kind of back tracked us. We had to go to the hospital tuesday and do some other things for him but he´s been good about everything and we´ve still been working. We were struggling getting lessons in this week but really did some work yesterday we went on divisions and were able to teach 7 lessons. We finished the week strong so hopefully it will give us momentum going into this week.

We have 2 baptisms schedualed for this saturday so hopefully we can do enough to make them happen. They are with two sisters Rubi and Carla Folgar who are daughters of a less active lady and nieces of the lady Maria Folgar that we baptized last month. Our goal for this month is 5 baptisms and we´re getting so close. Please pray for us to be able to do what we need to reach the goal so God can do His part and make a miricle happen.

It´s kind of crazy and scary to me how fast time flies. I love what im doing so much and its crazy to think of how fast its flying past. Im trying to give my all to the Lord and Consecrate my time to the Lord and for that its hard for me when i even make little mistakes but even that helps me to understand the atonement more in my life.

The Atonement is so amazing. Anyone who understands the atonement could not deny the incredible love that our Hevenly Father has for us. When i make mistakes i feel sorry and beg the Lord that it wont hurt the people that im teaching b.c. I know how important this all is and i dont want to lead them wrong. Its like it says in the Book of Mormon, that they worked diligently so that the sins of the people would not fall upon their heads for not having given everything. I sure dont need anymore sins so when i make mistakes it kind of scares me that im effecting the salvation of other people. However at the same time the Atonement brings me comfort. I understand that we did not come to this world as perfect beings and that we will not (though we should strive) achieve perfection in this life. I have my many imperfections and for me that is why the Atonement and Repentance mean so much to me. I can wipe away my errors and become a better person. I dont think i ever feel the love of the Lord as much as i do when i fail, reconize the failiur and commit with the lord to be a better person. The feeling of forgiveness is like nothing i can describe. We are here to learn and progress in this life. We need to learn from our successes as well as our errors so that we can become more like our father in Heaven. That is what i want. It is what i want for these people as well.

I want you all to know that i love sharing the gospel. This is the greatest experience of my life and the happies that i´ve ever been. I hope that you all can look for opportunities to share the gospel so that you can experience the Joy that it brings to all involved. I am truely trying to give everything to the Lord and be my very best. Please pray for me so that i can be my best self, listen to the spirit and help these people.

I love you all very much.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Feb.6,2011

Dear Family,

How are things going back in snowy Utah. Im really enjoying it here as it hasnt been cold lately. So I want to start off saying that i was always right, I do look better at 6´4!!!!! We need to see what we can do about that!!! Im trying to grow and i think i have grown about an inch on the mission so far but i´ll have to get the last 6 inches in the last 6 months.

Things are going great here in Guatemala. We were able to have two of the 3 baptisms this week. Julio Perez (13 years old) and Ismael Ruiz (19). They are both awesome people. Julio started going to seminary last week and hé wasnt even a memeber yet. Ismael i hope will prepare to go on a mission but we´ll have to see if thats the path he wants to take. We had planned to baptized Kimberly Garcia as well this week but her mom still wont give her permision yet. Its kind of annoying but well see what we can do. Our goal for this month is 5 baptisms and we are going to get is. We just have to keep working hard to prepare this people and to find new people.

We are working with a few families right now but the 3 that are progressing the most are the Castro Family, the Folgar Familiy and the Sotoj family. The castros are awesome and the dad´s brother is a member here and is helping alot with them. They´ve kind of had some difficulties in the last few weeks b.c. their mom got really sick and they´ve been focusing on that. They accept the teachings but the wife´s dad was an evangelical pastor so she understands the scriptures really well but kind of confuses things still. The concept of being a member of whatever church as long as you believe in God really bugs me.

The Folgar family is awesome as well. The mom is a member less active and is the sister in law of the lady that i baptized last week. They have 3 daughter we are preparing to baptize and a 6 year old brother and one other brother that i still haven´t met. The middle sister Carla has already accepted to be baptized and we set a date for the 19th with here. We are hoping she can set the example for her family. They are a realy nice family.

The last family is the Sotoj family. THey havent come to church yet but i have a really good feeling about them. The dad died a couple of months ago and they´ve been struggling with that. They are a really sweet family so hopefully we can help them progress. I know the most important thing is to get the members involved here but were trying to figure out how to get others more involved. There are some that are really good but the majority are really closed off and dont even talk to the people we bring to church. The difference between baptizing alot and not is getting the members involed so that the people can feel comfortable with the teachings and at church.

Well those are the families that we are really pushing for right now and this week we really have to focus on finding new families to teach.

I really enjoyed the pictures that eric sent me of the wedding (he´s my favorite family member right now) and i especially liked the choice of shoes haha. I want you to know that i love you and pray for you always. Keep working hard and progressing.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Jan.30,2011

Dear Family,

Sounds like things are going great back home, except for being upset about the snow and the cold. I was thinking about it though mom and and your dislike for the cold helps you enjoy the good warm weathter even more so maybe its a good thing to have the cold every once in a while.

Things are going great here in guatemala. Im ejoying every minute of it and have made a resolve based on an invitation from Elder Ballard to give even more of myself and consecrate myself and my remainin time to the Lord and my brothers and sisters that i am serving here in Guatemala. I have made that comittment with the Lord and will do my best to complete my part.

The mission has kind of been struggling to get baptisms the last few months so we´re going to have to see how we can improve and give more of ourselves to the work. Though the mission has had its struggles we finished the month here well reaching our goal of 3 baptisms (Our two this week went through) and we are looking good for this month already with 3 baptisms planned for this saturday and plus 4 or five others that have already commited to be baptized but havent accepted a date yet. We are being very blessed but we cant get lazy or complacent. I think that is what happened in the mission we stared baptizing more and being more obedient so there were many people that let there guard down and stopped putting the effort in. They lost their ¨sense of urgency¨ coach matich always used to tell us but will just have to fight to progress again.

The baptisms this week went awesome (besides the fact that almost no one came). They we very beautiful cerimonies where the families were able to share great moments and memories with those that were baptized. Tuesday night i was able to baptized Hna Maria Folgar and we completed there family (all are baptized now) and hopefully we can help them to progress still and go to the temple before to long.

Sunday we were able to have the baptism of Michael Lutin. I cannot even express how special this family is to me. They have recently returned to the church and have had alot of problems and are still struggling with problems but have returned with a great strength the church and they have truely blessed my life. It was truely special to see brother Lutin Baptize his son. It was so sweet!! Next week we are going to baptize hno lutins brother. It should be awesome as well

I just want to beg you all to go and suport the people that get baptized in our ward and even in the stake. It kind of made me sad to se only 2 members besides us the family of Sis. folgar and the family of the ward mission leader tuesday and sunday. I mean what is better to do on a Sunday then go to a baptism. We´re just going to have to work with the members to get them more involved. More then anything the people we need just need friends in the church. just people to make them feel welcome there or feel like part of a family.

I love you all and please keep praying for the people here and for me. It truely helps. GOOD LUCK NATHAN!!! YOUR THE MAN!!

Love,

Elder Vincent

people to pray for,

Castro Family

Kimberly Garcia and her mom

Ismael Ruiz

Sotoj Family

Julio Lutin and adriana lutin

brenda CiFuentes

Jan.23,2011

Dear Family,

Good to hear that things are going well back in the big PC. Things are going pretty well here in Guatemala as well.

This week we had our special missionary conference with Elder Ballard and it was incredible. I think the most impressive thing was the spirit of love that i could feel from him. He pretty much just reminded us what we knew and tried to remind us the importance of doing it. I think some people expected him to share some big new secret to success but we already know what we need to do we just need to do it. The part of Elder Ballards talk that i liked the most and when i also felt the spirit the most was when he talked about a conversion moment of an investigator when he was mission president in Canada. A man had had all of the discussions and liked the gospel but wouldnt be baptized. They had a lesson in the mission home and Elder Ballard invited him to pray and the man told him he didnt know how. Elder Ballard taught him and as he was praying he just started bawling. He told elder ballard that he had never felt like that before and he didnt understand it. Elder Ballard told him that God was sending him his answer.

That story was my favorite part of the meeting and reminded me how important it is for us to have conversion expiriences. I am trying to help my investigators have them but it is also important that we as members strive to have conversion moments as often as possible so that we can fortify our faith. I read a quote in an ensign that i really liked a while back that an elder had written on his mission that went a little like this ¨Conversion is the greatest miricle. It is even more miraculous then healing the sick or raising the dead. For as the healed will surely fall sick again and the die again conversion is a miricle that can last forever and bless entire genrations for time and all eternity.¨ I am trying to be more converted

Elder Clark and his wife also spoke and did a great job. They all three made great emphisis on Preach My Gospel and it being able to teach us how to be a good missionary. I really enjoy the way elder clark teaches. It was an amazing meeting and helped me a ton to know how to refocus on the things i was forgetting to do and be a better missionary that will consecrate every remaining minute to the Lord. I am so grateful for having been in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord

We also had Eugenio´s baptism on Saturday and it was awesome!!! He´s such a great guy and was so ready to be baptized. The bishop who is also an amazing person baptized him and I was a witness for the first time in my life. It was a beautiful ceremony and alot more people then i thought would come came. Yesterday he was confirmed, received the Holy Ghost and the aaronic priesthood. It was a great weekend. Eugenio has also been teaching how to say some words in Qui-che which is pretty cool.

I am really excited b.c. we are working to have alot of success in the next little while. We have two more baptisms this week. Tuesday and Saturday. Then we have atleast three others planed for the 5th of february and a family (the castro family) of four that we are trying to set a date for the 12th of February. There are also two others that have already told us that they want to be baptized but we just have to help prepare them a little more and set a date but probably in February as well. There are also alot of kids from the ward that have recently turned 8 and should get baptized in february as well. Their was also one of a little 8 year old kid named Diego this week that went really well and we helped with. Im really really excited for the success that we are having but we need to work as hard as possible to get it done. We also could use as many prayers as possible, especially for the Castro Family. They can be the first full family that i baptize!!!

I did know Elder Smith. I was his zone leader when i was in Gualan and he was my district leader there. He was a really cool guy and always happy. He was planning on playing volleyball at BYU but his passion was definitely hang gliding. He had picture all over the place of him hang gliding and was always talking about going hang gliding again. I dont know what happened but i know he died doing what he loved to do. He was a great person and will be greatly missed.

I love you all very very much and am thankful for all of your love and support. I can truely feel it. You are all great people and i pray for you every day. But if you dont email me pictures of nathans wedding i may never talk you again and just stay here in Guatemala. Haha

Love,

Elder Vincent

List of people to pray for.

Sister Folgar

Michael, Julio and Jordan Lutin

The Castro Family,

Kimberly Garcia

Ismael Ruiz

Jan.16,2011

Dear Mom and Family,

This week was amazing! Things are going great and I absolutely love what im doing. I got my package from Sister Postons Aunt and Uncle. They are the Alverez Family and are in a ward about 20 minutes from here. Its where we go every p day to play sports. They were incredibly nice and it was awesome to get to talk to them a little bit. They are the presidents of the Young mens and young womens respectivly in the stake im in. I was really glad i got to meet them. I also loved the pacakage. Especially the letters and the pictures or Matt Wright and Austin Lewis. It was awsome.

Every Sunday we it with a family here in the ward and i got to talking to them b.c. i showed them my package and that you sent it through this family. I told them about sister poston being our neighbor and they told me that they new sister postons family really well. They wife has actually known here family since they lived in San Marcos b.c. when they would come to the capital for stake meetings her family would feed them They are the Orellana family but the wifes maiden name is Torres. I thought it was a really cool story and thought sister posten would enjoy hearing it.

This week was also good b.c we could teach alot of lessons and we had 9 investagtors at church yesterday. There were the 3 that are going to be baptized this weekend and then two other families. It was so awesome to see them there. We have these three for this month and we could easily has 6 baptismal dates for february by the end of this month. I could baptize my first complete family which is one of my biggest goals on the mission so we could use as many prayers as possible.

This week we were also able to help one of the sisters that is going be baptized saturday get married to here husband. It was kind of a wierd wedding and i know Nathans is going to be better (love you Nathan!!!) but it was awesome to be able to help them so that they can live this comandment.

This week was just absolutely incredible and i know this next week is going to be even better. We have our 3 baptisms and Elder Ballard is coming to Guatemala and we are going to have a conference with him Thursday morning. Im really really excited to listen to him. He is an icredibly spiritual and incredibly inteligent person and i know that i am going to learn great things from him this week. The only thing that i dont really enjoy right now is how incredibly fast the times goes. It really actually freaks me out but i can deal with it.

Thank you for all of your love and prayers. I love you all very very much.

Love,

Elder Vincent

ps. email me pictures of heath playing ball please

Jan.10,2011

Dear Mom and Family,

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! Im glad to hear that you had a good new years and that you´re all happy besides the snow. It was a pretty good new years for me but truthfully i dont think i´ve really comprehended yet that its 2011 yet b.c i didnt stay up until midnight to celebrate it. Here they celebrate New years by lighting off a rediculus amount of fireworks at midnight (which actually did wake me up for a second). People here love fireworks. I really dont understand how there are not more forest fires here. We also celebrated new years by eating a lot of Tamales again.

So i have some news. I have another new Companion. I think im going to break a Record. The changes werent suppose to be until next week but i got thrown into emergency changes again. My new companion is Elder Estrada. He is from Honduras and has been in the mission field for 15 months but was actually serving in another mission and just got moved to our mission. He seems like a cool guy and hopefully he will be able to help get more baptisms in the area. Elder Vasquez was pretty sad to leave but figured he would. He just thought not until next week. They called us last night and so he really didnt get much time to say goodbye to any one which is the sad part of emergency changes.

About sister postons uncle. Im not sure if i have met him. And if i have i didnt realize it. I met her uncle in my last area but i´ll have to ask around to see if i can figure out who he is. Did he say what ward he goes to? I really dont need anything from you all besides letters but if i find him i might see if he can send some stuff to you.

I´ve been thinkings alot the last few months about what the Book of Mormon and the restoration through Joseph Smith mean to me. I realized how really important my belief in those two things are to my life. If we through in Gods love, the atonement of Jesus Christ and family to those two things we have the essentials of why i live my life the way i live it. It helps me determine what decisions i make and what things to change. The Book of Mormon and The restoration are so incredibly important to who i am. I was thinking about what my life would mean to me if i didn´t know those things and i really feel that my life would have very little hope. I also was thinking about how if i were wrong i would have wasted alot of time in my life and especially here in the mission. However i know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ in an answer to a simple prayer of faith. And for that reason the mission is been the best way i can spend my time right now and following the gospel and been the most rewarding experience that i can have.

Now much of who we are as member of the church and as a family depend on our testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. That is why as you may have read the book of mormon to finish the year ( im still way behind in finishing) and as you start a new year that you can all (the whole family) ponder and pray about your testimonies of those two things. Then i would ask you to write out your testimony in a letter to me to help strengthen me as a missionary.

I love you all and how for you only to have the best. I pray for you constantly. You are all very very important to me. Always work hard, serve others and enjoy life.

Love,

Elder Vincent

people you can pray for

Eugenio Xon

Ismael

Sister Folgar

Family Urias

Family Lorenzano

Valdemar Castro

and the who san jose pinula area

Jan. 3,2011

Dear Mom and Family,

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! Im glad to hear that you had a good new years and that you´re all happy besides the snow. It was a pretty good new years for me but truthfully i dont think i´ve really comprehended yet that its 2011 yet b.c i didnt stay up until midnight to celebrate it. Here they celebrate New years by lighting off a rediculus amount of fireworks at midnight (which actually did wake me up for a second). People here love fireworks. I really dont understand how there are not more forest fires here. We also celebrated new years by eating a lot of Tamales again.

So i have some news. I have another new Companion. I think im going to break a Record. The changes werent suppose to be until next week but i got thrown into emergency changes again. My new companion is Elder Estrada. He is from Honduras and has been in the mission field for 15 months but was actually serving in another mission and just got moved to our mission. He seems like a cool guy and hopefully he will be able to help get more baptisms in the area. Elder Vasquez was pretty sad to leave but figured he would. He just thought not until next week. They called us last night and so he really didnt get much time to say goodbye to any one which is the sad part of emergency changes.

About sister postons uncle. Im not sure if i have met him. And if i have i didnt realize it. I met her uncle in my last area but i´ll have to ask around to see if i can figure out who he is. Did he say what ward he goes to? I really dont need anything from you all besides letters but if i find him i might see if he can send some stuff to you.

I´ve been thinkings alot the last few months about what the Book of Mormon and the restoration through Joseph Smith mean to me. I realized how really important my belief in those two things are to my life. If we through in Gods love, the atonement of Jesus Christ and family to those two things we have the essentials of why i live my life the way i live it. It helps me determine what decisions i make and what things to change. The Book of Mormon and The restoration are so incredibly important to who i am. I was thinking about what my life would mean to me if i didn´t know those things and i really feel that my life would have very little hope. I also was thinking about how if i were wrong i would have wasted alot of time in my life and especially here in the mission. However i know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ in an answer to a simple prayer of faith. And for that reason the mission is been the best way i can spend my time right now and following the gospel and been the most rewarding experience that i can have.

Now much of who we are as member of the church and as a family depend on our testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. That is why as you may have read the book of mormon to finish the year ( im still way behind in finishing) and as you start a new year that you can all (the whole family) ponder and pray about your testimonies of those two things. Then i would ask you to write out your testimony in a letter to me to help strengthen me as a missionary.

I love you all and how for you only to have the best. I pray for you constantly. You are all very very important to me. Always work hard, serve others and enjoy life.

Love,

Elder Vincent

people you can pray for

Eugenio Xon

Ismael

Sister Folgar

Family Urias

Family Lorenzano

Valdemar Castro

and the who san jose pinula area

Dec. 26,2010

Dear Mom and family,
It was great talking to you as well this week. It always nice to be able to talk to you all. Mom you should feel very lucky and blessed b.c i was talking to a guy yesterday who told me that they werent allowed to call home at all in his mission.
Yesterday was really nice but it really bugged me that the church attendance was way down. People took christmas as a time to not go to church either and that really bothered me b.c. Christmas is about focusing on Christ and what He means to us. The last few days I`ve been thinking about a relationship between Christmas and The sabbath. Here when we teach people about the Sabbath day they think that its impossible to not work on Sunday. However almost no one works on Christmas. If i were to tell someone here that i wasnt going to celebrate christmas this year they would look at me like im crazy but at the same time so many people dont keep the Sabbath day holy. Now in the Bible it is not a commandmant to celebrate Christmas but it is to keep the Sabbath day holy. People are just really dont understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Today I wanted to write something short about Faith vs. fear. One of my mottos that i have here on the mission is Faith not fear. I have written it on a lot of things to remind me. I have done this b.c i want my life to be controled not by fear that things are going to go wrong but faith that in the end everything will turn out ok. (John 16:33). I have really improved in this aspect over the last few months. I no longer let the fear of failure or the fear of pain run my life. Those are things that are going to come no matter what circumstances we live in. I read a talk by elder costa of the 70 that he gave a byu that talked about Boats are built not to be in the harbor but to be out at see. we need to have to have faith in our maker and that he will never throw us something that we cannot handle. I wanted to write you to invite you to think about the aareas in your life where you have fear and try to fill them with faith (especially mom). Faith cannot exist where there is fear. Now i am still afraid of snakes and dogs a llittle i have almost completely conquered that fear :). (though i am still always cautios it is not so much a fear anymore)
I love you all so much. You are all my best friends here on earth. Thank you for all of your love and your prayers.
Love,
Elder Vincent

Dec.20,2010

Dear Mom and Family,

MERRY ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!! Good to hear that things are going well back home! Things are going really well here in the mission. Gladly this week was a much warmer. And seriously it gets really cold here. I sleep with all of my blankets and a sweatshirt. I still cant were socks when i sleep though. Still i am grateful that it´s not as cold as it is at home and i am grateful that i dont have to work in the snow.

Today was a pretty cool P'day. We had our annual mission Christmas conference. It was really really nice. The office elders, the senior couples and president and his wife worked really hard to make it very special. I got your packages and i want to thank you for always being so good to me. The conference consisted of lots of different things but i think my favorite part was the talent show. The best one was when all of the Polynesian elders did a performance. It was a really cool tribal type dance. I also really enjoyed the conference b.c. I was able to see all of the missionaries and see how they are doing.

This week was the best week in my entire mission for working with members. Our goal this change is to have 15+ lessons with members each week. This week we were able to not only reach that but pass it easily, we taught 22 lessons with member. I really think that it is going to help us have more success. I´ve set really high goals for myself and this area in the time that i will be here and I know the way that we will be able to reach these goals is through working with members and focusing on families. We are really starting to take off here and i think we will have a lot of success in the next coming months. I also realized this week, as i was reading over some notes that dad sent me not to long ago, that i cant forget about maybe the most important part of missionary work, working with the spirit. Having the Spirit has been the overall goal during my whole mission and i am rededicating myself to doing everything possible to have the spirit. I know it is the true key to success here as a missionary and in life.

This week we also had our ward Christmas party. It was really simple (because we are using the money we would have used on the party as well as a special fast offerings money this week to buy Christmas dinners for needy families.) I really really liked the idea and really enjoyed the party. We just did a message and some cider and all the members were suppose to bring a Nativity set. Well i didn´t have a Nativity set so i got creative and used the pictures that i have here to make the nativity. I´ll send pictures next week.

So we have our baptism scheduled for this Saturday, Christmas day so I'm not really sure what time i will be able to call you. However he didn´t come to church yesterday so I'm a little worried. I'm really really hoping fasting and praying that he will be ready by Saturday. His name is Ismael Ruiz. I'm going to fast for him after lunch tomorrow and if you would like to join i would be more then grateful. Other good news is that my last area (Trebol- from when i was in the office) is going to have 5 baptisms this month, 1 down, 4 more on Saturday. One of them is a mom with 3 kids that i found while I was there, Hna Suchite. She is an awesome lady and one of the Elders told me that on Sunday when she went to church she just was shining with a new light. Like she was a new person. I am so happy and proud of the people and the Elders there.

Remember that Christmas is a time to remember Jesus and refocus on how we can follow him better next year. Always remember that He suffered for us and that we can be forgiven of all of our sins if we will just humble ourselve and change.

So a few other things. There is an Elder James Adams who just finished his mission on Saturday and should be contacting you all soon about something that I sent with him for you. He is a big BYU fan and i was thinking that it might be a good idea to invite him to a BYU basketball game for what he did.

Well I love all of you very much. I am very excited to talk to you this week as well. I´ll probably call you first sometime the 25th. Im not exactly sure how will do it yet though b.c im not sure which is cheeper. Have a very merry Christmas!! and tell everyone I say merry Christmas as well.

Love,

Elder Vincent

PS. Tell Andrew congratulations for me and Where is nathan going?

Dec.12,2010

Dear Mom and Family,

Im glad to hear that your week went so well. My week went awesome as well. Im really just coming to love being a missionary even more. I love everything even the hard parts. I dont know the best word to describe it but everything i do is thrilling to me. Im excited everyday to be a missionary. Before in my mission there were times were i didnt feel that excited to contact or maybe a little scared to teach a big lesson but i dont have any of those feelings anymore. Im loving every second right now.

So i would have to call this week service week. We did service in the morning on three different occasions this week. One to move a piano which wasnt very easy but didnt take to long. One day to paint a house which i dont know if im any good at but i learned alot and got better. The last was to clean up a left over construction site by where the bishop lives. I really enjoyed that. We had to carry some lumber to a better spot (the work gloves you sent me really came in handy) and tear down this tin shack thing. I´ve got to tell you i did not realize how good i am at destroying things with a hammer. I am surprised my self at how good i did. It was actually crazy b.c i broke one of the hammers. The handle just broke in half.

I absolutely love opportunities to give service. I´ve always loved it and i think even more now as a missionary. There are so many people in this world who dont accept the gospel b.c. they have hard hearts but through service we can help soften there hearts so that the spirit can enter and testify of the truth of the restored gospel. I would like to invite all of you to look for more opportunites of service, especially in this christmas time. It will open gateways for the gospel coming into many lives.

So the big news this week is that we set a baptismal date!!! Even better is that we set it for the 25th. He´s a really cool 19 year old guy named Ismael. He understands the doctrine really well and is very intellegent but he has had some problems previously in his life so we could use as much fasting and praying as possible for help for him in his preparations and so that the baptism will go through.

The ward here is really cool but a little weak b.c they just split it 3 months ago. The bishop is awesome though and working very hard to strenthen the ward. The place i live in is called San Jose Pinula and its right outside of the Guatemala city valley but is technically part of the capital.

Im really happy to hear that things are going well back home. I always love christmas time b.c. It always brings back good memories. I love that this is a time where we get to think more about our families and about the savior. About the call im not sure how expensive it is for you guys. It might be cheeper if i just pay for the minutes and call you. Let me know how expensive it is so that i can see what will be cheeper.

I want to remind you all that i love you very much. Also that we are children of our Heavenly Father and that our potential is limitless. Also attitude is huge. How we see ourselves and life makes a big difference in how happy we are and who we will become.

Love,

Elder Vincent

Dec.5,2010

Dear Mom and Fam,

Its good to hear that things are going so well there. That's crazy that there are 6 sister missionaries plus 2 Elders in the stake right now. I hardly ever remember Elders even being in the stake while i was there. It sound like you'll are really stepping up the mission work in PC and that really makes me happy. I am also grateful for Bishop Walk who has worked so hard to help with the missionary effort and to get the ward excited about missionary work. He is a great Bishop and a great person.

Things are going well here except it's cold!!! I am really not a huge fan of it. I don't think it helps either that the shower heater broke and so there's no hot water and you have to go outside to get to the shower. But i really like my area and i like doing missionary work so I'll put up with it.

So last night I was able to watch the First Presidency's Christmas devotional. I love Christmas time and i have really enjoyed these devotionals over the last few years. They really help me settle down and focus on the true meaning of the Christmas season. I really enjoyed how they talked about perspective and how a lot of our happiness depends on our perspective. I know I've said this a lot but I'm happier now since I've left on the mission b.c i've made a conscious decision to be happy and see more of the good in the world.

I also liked that they talked about the Christmas season being one of the best times to resolve to change. We spend the whole year getting beat upon by the world and we make mistakes but at this time we can take a deep breath remember that Christ took His beating for us and that with him we can change and come out on top "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 We will come out on top. We will win. If we will just choose to go to Him and be His disciple.

Well I hope everything is going well with you all that you make sure to work hard but also enjoy yourselves. God has given us everything, even His son. Hopefully this Christmas time we can give Him a little bit back. We can give Him a little more of us.

I love you all.

Love,

Elder Vincent