First week in Santa Ana Huista

Lets start with tortilla count- 26  (I asked Gabe to do a tortilla count every week)

HOLA!!!!!

Wow! The field is very different from the CCM! We left the CCM at about 7 am and drove four hours to Xela. 
This is Gabes first steps into Xela where the mission home is located.


When we arrived, we had a meeting about the rules in the mission. During the meeting, we had meeting with Presidente Smith. I love him so much! He is very spiritual and focussed. When we finished with our meeting, all of the trainers were brought in and names were called. I was first! And my trainer/papa is.... Elder Castillo! He is from Mexico, and only speaks Spanish! You can imagine how supprised I was! 



So, we went, received our pillows, and hopped on the bus to our areas. Elder Castillo informed me that we would be going to a place called Santa Ana Huista, 6 hours away! The furthest area away from Xela, Wow! This was at about 5 pm, so we hopped on a chicken bus and headed for Huehuetenango, where we would stay the night at our Zone Leaders house. 






Wow! Talk about culture shock! Everyone was speaking spanish, and I would be lieing if I said that I was not a little bit freaked out. So, we drove about 3 hours and arrived in Hue Hue. Here we waited for about 20 mins until the Zone Leaders, Elder Baadsgaard and Elder Dalton picked us up. So, we went and stayed the night at the their house. The next morning, we hopped on another bus and another 3 hours we rode. We stopped in a town and caught a minibus about an hour more until we arrived in Santa Ana Huista! Santa Ana is the hottest place in the mission, but I am lucky to be here in the winter! It rains about every day. 






We have a very large zone, and a branch of on 50 people, so a lot of speading the gospel! 

Every day my spanish is getting better and better because it is the only way I can communicate with eveyone around me. Sometimes it is difficult, but when I am working and thinking about other people I am so very happy. Whether I am teaching or just serving, I am happy. 

We had some very interesting lessons this week. Yesterday we went to visit a less active. We showed up and at the house was Her (She is an old lady) her son (With his son) and her daughter (with her two kids). They all live together in a small house, dirt floors, mayber the size of a single room. We started talking and found out that their father, her husband had died about two months in the past. So, we decided to teach them the plan of salvation. While we were teaching, a lot happened. The son of the son, who is four years old, multiple times went over to the grandma and would start punching her! She was small, and she was big and so it was really bad! Her son and daughter sat their and laughed! We stopped the lesson, and asked them to sit down. This happened about 3 times. But, the kicker is the son. While we tried to teach, he stopped us and started yelling at us that we were evil, going to Hell because the scriptures say so... I could not talk a lot, but Elder Castillo would calm him down, try to teach. I felt sick to my stomach because the spirit was not there, at least not the spirit of God. It was the spirit of Satan. We tried everything we could, but eventually Elder Castillo turned to me and said rapido. We wrapped up the lesson and left as fast as we could. Walking away we felt so sick and so sad. These people were hard hearted and their was not a lot that we could do. As we were walking away, we decided to stop by a members house. We stopped by, and it was so nice to see happy smiling faces. They had family over but were glad to chat for a second. As we chat, we started talking about the gospel,and one of the family members who was not a member started asking about the church and Book of Mormon. So, we sat down and had a small lesson about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong and so sweet. He was defeniteley prepared to hear the gospel. What a blessing from God! We walked home after that happy as could be!

I am so happy to be out here and l love serving the people of Guatemala! Yo se que Jesucristo vive! Yo se que el libro de mormon es verdadero! Yo se gue dios darnos dificultades porque el amanos!

I love you all, and next week will have more amazing experiences

Nos amo

Elder Richardson

I asked Gabe what his house was like.  Here is his answer.  "It is defenitely not as nice as the CCM... but compared to the houses here, it is amazing. When I first got here, I wont lie the house was a little depressing. Kindof dirty and lots of bugs. But, when we went out to house of the people, I realized how blessed we truly are. Most people here live with dirt floors and tin roofs held up by sticks. We are so blessed to live where we live, and I know cherish the blessing of my small missionary house."

Gabes house and a picture of his companion.  Looks like he is making Tortillas!

"Also, I commited a family to baptism this week! And you wont beleive it, but the sell Guatemalan street hot dogs! HAHA! A family of 6 and their name is Sopchavez. One of the most amazing expreiences of my life!!!!"