First Baptism in Asiole

Well, I'm back everybody. It's been a good two weeks. My first area is Asiole, part of Amatitlan. My trainer is Elder Aragon. He is really just a good guy. I will be his last comp because he goes home in December. He is a really hard worker. One thing about our mission is we don't waste time so we seriously walk as fast as we can all the time. Literally all the time. My calves are huge. Seriously. The first day that we went out I had to run to keep up but I am improving my form. The key is just to swing your arms as fast as you can. That seriously helps. Anyways my area is a nice place. It's super poor and most the people just have dirt floors but they are so awesome. There are such solid kids here and we have a ton of recent converts so we visit them a lot because that's a new mission-wide thing that you keep in contact with converts for one year after baptism. We have such solid people.

Anyways, conference was a blessing because it was in English so that was fun to understand. Also on Sunday I baptized someone. First week in the field so that was cool. It was honestly the craziest situation ever and some how it worked out. One thing I have noticed is that this is seriously the craziest place on earth. But it was a good experience to be able to baptize E. She is having a lot of problems right now so keep her in your prayers. Her husband went to work in the capital last week and has not returned. He is a member. So we are hoping to figure that out. We really see miracles everyday. Yesterday after a good five hours of rejection we found a good family. They are prepared for the message they just need to get married because they are like mom and dad's age and have a ton of kids they have just never been married. But we will figure it out.

I really like my area and the lake that everyone thinks is the Waters of Mormon is like ten minutes away. Oh yeah, and Clark was in my area last week and bought my zone leader an ice cream. Our house is fine and there are a good amount of bugs in it but they don't really do anything harmful so it all works out. We do a ton of contacting and go on buses and go to the front and present ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ. That is really fun. My mission president is a little intimidating but he and his wife really do love us. I am teaching an English class to investigators tonight so that will be fun. My favorite people here are six boys who were recently baptized. Their dad can't speak or hear and they only have three mattresses on a dirt floor and their mom disappeared a few years ago, but they are so happy. They want to be missionaries and they would be powerful. One is like eight and he is so cute and funny. They are choice people of God.

My favorite part from conference was when we learned that we need to walk as Jesus walked. Not where he walked. Everyday should be a consistent effort to be more like Him. Our mission goal is to baptize cada semana (every week). So that's what we have to do. We have two set for this Sunday so pray we can pull them out. Thank you for all the love and support.

Elder Wilkes