Elder Alex Walbom Guatemala City/Kansas Mission experiences!

Well, this week was a good week because it was a baptismal week! We baptized all of our people who had dates. That means Francisca, Victoria, and Saraí are now members of the Kingdom of God on Earth.  I had the honor of performing the baptisms for Francisca and Victoria [Sarai's father, who is a new convert, baptized her] and it was such a great experience! It was my first time baptizing. It was very cool being able to use the priesthood authority like that to bless the lives of these individuals. The spirit was there and spoke peace to all of our hearts. The program was super good too. We had everything organized and like 40 people came to the baptism. We had great support from members and everything went smoothly.  The water in the baptismal font was a little cold though. I will include pictures of all of the people involved.  Also update- although I don't think that any of you knew about this problem- but we finally got the situation with my com...

Elder Walbom and Elder Lopez with Natasha,  the 2 yr old daughter of investigator The ladies being baptized this Saturday. Elder Walbom and Elder Lopez showing off their new ties (gifts from the ladies!) "Hey everyone!  So this week was again pretty normal but the highlight of the week was being able to go to the temple! The temple really is the house of God and it is the place where we are most able to feel the presence of our God on Earth. We can find peace and direction by serving and praying in the temple.  We went to grow our faith and become better missionaries and I believe that we all left having fulfilled this goal. In other news we are having our triple baptism this week. Sarahi, Victoria, and Francis are all going to be baptized this Saturday and it's going to be epic.  We are still struggling to find people to teach. People can be really stubborn sometimes. Either they are just curious and not willing to change, they shut th...

Elder Walbom with a street cat (he loves his animals!) "Hello everyone, This week was not as eventful. Right now we are just preparing our 3 fechas for their baptisms. We had a really hard time this week finding people to teach and a lot of our appointments throughout the week fell through also. Overall it was a bit discouraging, but I am optimistic and have faith that it will be better this week. We just need to be obedient and work hard and exercise our faith and the Lord will provide. I went to immigration services and I finally have my legal residency in Guatemala! Hooray! Having a lot of fun and spiritual experiences in the mission so thats great.  Ive started liking and buying these popsicles which are spicy pineapple flavored Adios, Elder Walbom"  "Pineapple with hot chili sauce" "The Full Moon" (apparently it occurs in Guatemala, too)

Elder Walbom with his new companion, Elder Lopez,  in front of the Guatemala City temple "So this week was great and Victoria and Francis are really progressing! First we took them to the temple Friday. At first, Francis was not going to be able to come to the temple, but we were delayed in our departure and so Francis was able to come with us. She protested at first saying, "I don't have the right clothes, yaddayadda," but I just said "whatever, get in the car." Not like that but you know what I mean.  They both had wonderful experiences in the temple and received answers and strength in their problems. The Temple sisters took them for a tour in the temple grounds and then took them into the foyer of the temple. I could tell it was a fantastic experience for the both of them. After that, Victoria decided that she would participate in the Fast on Fast Sunday. We were so proud of her! She really is committed to repenting and coming to ...

So I don't have much to say this week. We've just been working hard and seeing miracles. We had 3 people come to church with us! That was a miracle and the most we've had in Primero de Julio since I have been here. We had Victoria and Francis come and then we also had Michael Aguilar come. It was super cool that he came because the elders have been teaching him for months and this was the first time that he committed and came to church. I think I guilted him into keeping his word because after he committed I said, "You know, a man is only as good as his word." He looked a little nervous at that but he ended up coming and we laughed about it. I also sang in church! I sang Sally DeFord's Gethsemane and Hermana Povar played for me. It was super great, although the piano was a little out of tune, and the spirit was there very strong.  Well, then the time came for transfers, changes, cambios, etc... My companion was called away to a different area and my ne...