Elder Owens' Guatemalan Mission

February 22, 2023 I'm doing a bit better. Beginning yesterday night I've received a lot of answers to the questions I've had and just a lot of reassurance in general. This past week was probably one of the hardest I've had so far (I look back at the photos we took this week and I can see the toll this months taken on me). We had so many plans for the week and only two went through. We knocked so many doors and talked to maybe 3 people, made a lot of calls and 1 guy half listened to what we were saying. And that was for the whole week. Stuff like that. We worked so hard everyday but we saw no progress, and that was a drag on top of everything I was trying to sort out before. But last night we had an amazing mission devotional given by Elder Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and I received a lot of much needed guidance and motivation. I'd like to share a few things I learned from him and then some more things I've learned this past week specifically. I...

February 15, 2023 I've officially served half of a sisters mission. Thing is that I'm not a sister.  Last week I said I wasn't planning on writing the next few weeks but yesterday I changed my mind. To start off, we put two people on date to be baptized  . They're sisters and their whole family is awesome, they plan to be baptized on March 7, which is transfer day  . So we'll see if I'll be here for that or not, but I really hope so. So I changed my mind and decided to write an email because I finally took the time to sit down and write in my journal for the first time in a month... or three... but I decided I wanted to share some of the things I've written down, hoping that others could pick something from my ramblings: 2-14-2023      Well, I decided it's about time that I write something again. The truth is that I've been having a hard time recently. For about the past 3 months, I've felt depression creeping back into the picture. The past 3 we...

  February 8, 2023 This email is going to be a little bit different this week. I've been writing emails every week and that's really been my journal writing, and this week I want to express some thoughts and feelings that are a little more personal. #1 is that I no longer enjoy speaking just English or Spanish, my preferred language is Spanglish. When I'm tired after a long day I revert to thinking in mostly Spanish - Spanglish. #2 is that these past 2 weeks have been harder. We've had some of the best lessons I've had in the mission and when I'm outside I have energy and enthusiasm and I really enjoy what I'm doing. But whenever I'm in the apartment, I have a lack-luster motivation, no energy, and little to no motivation, especially in terms of getting out of bed. It's like I'm passing the best and worst moments of my mission at the same time. I'm not giving up anything, and I'm still doing the best I can at all times, it's just been...

El Libro de Mormón me da una paz y claridad de la mente. Al leer, yo siempre puedo aprender algo nuevo que aplica a mi vida. Algo que me hace pensar en las cosas más importantes en la vida. Algo que me mejore. El Libro de Mormón me ha ayudado mucho cuando yo tenga un problema o desafío en mi vida. Yo sé que este libro está escrito específicamente para nuestro día, y por medio de leerlo, vosotros podéis encontrar la respuesta que tenéis en vuestra corazón. *** Book of Mormon gives me peace and clarity of mind.  I can always learn something new that applies to my life.  Something that makes me think about the most important things in life.  Something to improve me.  The Book of Mormon has helped me greatly when I have a problem or challenge in my life.  I know that this book is written specifically for our day, and by reading it, you may find the answer in your heart.

February 1, 2023 Return of the Email. I'm back.  We've been busy and I've been especially tired, but here we are again. Week 36: Ok, we worked hard this week finding people to teach and preparing little Carlos for his baptism. Week 37: We found a good number of people that we can move forward with, AND... Carlos got baptized!!!  . He's the first person that I've taught start to finish and had the opportunity to baptize, so that was super awesome and exciting. Week 38: On Sunday everyone in stinking Guatemala got sick. Not literally, but almost everyone in our area had a cold this past week, us included, so we still went out and worked but we took it a little easier so we could recuperate quickly. Also, we got transfer news... we're both staying here. So that's super awesome because there's a lot of work to do. Also for pday, we went to a rich area in the city in taxi. Because we don't like spending money on transport, we fit 9 people in one little ca...