Hey Family!

This was a good week, really really really really fast.  I can't believe that I'm already emailing again lol.  Let's see.  We were in Xela until Wednesday of last week because we had interviews with president so that kinda knocked out half of the week.  But they were good.  He's trying to "change the mission DNA" as he says.  We're trying to focus more on less actives and working with the members to get referrals more than contacting.  It's a really great idea and we're trying our best to implement it but it's tough just because in our area there's only 40 members in the branch and there's no addresses anywhere in our area so it's really tough to contact old investigators or less actives because on the address bar it says something like "up the mountain, by the river" because that's the best description that can be given.  It's a really tough area but we're trying our best.  I guess in Cunén there have been 4 baptisms in the last 4 years so the odds aren't exactly stacked in our favor but we're doing our best.  We've implemented a plan to try and go with president's new vision.  We're meeting with every family in the ward and giving them a Book of Mormon with Moroni 10:3-5 premarked and our information written in and a space for the member to write their testimony so we're asking them to pray about finding someone to give it to so that the person can call us.  We think it's a good plan and we'll see if it brings results, we're really praying to be able to find people to teach so we'll see how it goes :).  

Another reason the area is really tough is nobody is ever home.  I had my first fallen through appointment this week.  This lady that lives up the mountain (probably a 25 minute hike) just wasn't home for our appointment.  That kind of stuff is hard to deal with but it's not a huge deal.  It just gave us an empty hour which is never good so we ended up contacting all afternoon (which is a very very long time when literally NOBODY will let you in haha)  So that day was kind of a wash.  But whatever, our family that we're teaching in Utspantan, Eliseo and his kids, invited us to this weird evangelical service thing and even invited us to stay the night at their house, how nice of them!  But yeah, we're not going to go to that, we're just going to keep trying to teach them and praying for them and hope that something happens.  It's just tough because Utspantan is an hour from Cunén so it's really hard to get people to come to church (because the only meeting house is in Cunén)  But like I said, we're trying :).  

Also, elections were this week so everybody was pretty focused on that.  They take over this country like something I've never seen before.  We actually weren't allowed to go out proselyting yesterday because it was voting day haha.  It was actually a pretty fun day though and then now today is pday so it's kinda like 2 days off lol.  Kinda sucks because days always go slower when you're not working but it's still a lot of fun.  Plus, we've got to go down to Xela again this week for a conference so we're staying the night in Quiche and heading down tomorrow and we probably won't get back til Wednesday afternoon.  It's all good though :)  Time flies though, it really does.  I can't believe I've been here almost 2 weeks, it feels like a day and a half lol.  But I love it, we're in a tough area but I know that it's prepping me for the rest of my mission in a good way.  Plus, we have the greatest zone.  There's only 12 people in Quiche and they're all gringos (They don't send Latinos here for some reason) so we have gringo zone and it's a whole ton of fun, I love it :) 

Well, I think that's it, Love you all, the gospel is true, keep it up everyone :)

-Elder Westenskow