January 30, 2012

Hey!
Well i am good! No i havent gotten the other package yet but im sure that i will soon. And yeah i thought i told you that i got the one from Sister Lines! Tell her thankyou again for me and there should be a letter getting there for her soon. But sounds like everything is going good. Tell Richard i said hi!
Well this week was another good one but kinda boring haha. We did have a super awesome zone conference with President Watts this week. That was probably the highlight haha. In the conference we talked about a lot of different things that we can improve in our teaching and contacting and just being missionaries so that was awesome. And then after the conference we were waiting for the other elders in our area to finish with an interview that he had so i was playing the piano and another elder and i made up some words to some random song that i was playing about Sister Watts learning spanish. She thought it was kinda funny haha. The Watts are my favorite people ever. So that was good. And then on friday we went on divisions with the district leader and his comp. I was with his comp and we had to go all the way to the mission offices so he could apply for college.. So it was an adventure haha it took us like 2 hours to get there and then 2 hours back on ridiculously packed buses hahaha. Guatemala is crazy.. But its awesome. Oh and yesterday i ate cow stomach... I didnt know what it was till after i was halfway done but it wasnt that bad haha. Oh but this one kid has been coming to church! He has a friend that brought him to church one sunday but now he has come the last two sundays by himself! His friend didnt even come! And he asked us when we can teach him! So we are going to his house on saturday and we are gonna put a date for baptism. He is an awesome kid. His name is Josue and he is like 15 or 16. Something like that. But we are excited about him cuz he has that desire! He lives super far from the church too! So its just super awesome! But yeah thats my week! I love you guys so much and i hope that you have a great week! See yall soon.
Love, Elder Gunnell

January 16, 2012

Hey!
Well sounds like everyone is doing well! Im glad that Liz and Livvy had a good birthday! On saturday we were out visiting all day and then at night i realized that it was their birthday! Im glad that they had a good day. And i wrote both of them letters and sent them off this last week as well. And yes i finally got the package! Thankyou so much! I enjoyed the cereal so dang much ahaha. Also all the candy haha. And the pen is awesome! Just one thing.. The refills dont fit the pen haha. The refills were 0.7 but the one i have uses 1.0. But its all good! Thankyou so much! And i also got the package from Sister Lines. Tell her i said thankyou so much. I wrote her a letter also and ill send that soon. I also got a letter from Grandma! I was super excited to get that. I will be writing her as soon as i get the chance. And im not too sure what i would really like to get... Haha actually pictures! Yall need to send some pictures. And if i can think of something before i finish with the computer ill send another email letting you know haha.
Well this week was kinda uneventful haha. Nothing really exciting happened haha. We did go on a little adventure and climbed this mountain for Pday haha. At the top there is that cross and you can see what seems like all of guatemala. Its super cool. So that is what the pics are haha. Also there are these two young men in my ward that are brothers and they just got there mission calls! They are leaving the same day and one of them is going to El Salvador and the other to Nicaragua. And they have a brother on a mission right now in Honduras. I actually met him in the MTC here in Guatemala! So they are gonna be 3 brothers serving missions at the same time. That is crazy stuff. I would imagine that it would be hard for their family! But they are gonna be so blessed at the same time. But yeah i hope that you guys have a great week. I love you so much! See yall soon!
Love, Elder Gunnell

January 9, 2012

Hey!
Yeah im writing a little later today because we went over to the city for pday and we just barely got back to our area. Yeah the change that i got is good! Im in a place called Palencia. Technically its out of the capital. Not in Guat City but its pretty close so its pretty much the capital. But its pretty awesome my area is actually pretty! There is a ton of green and a ton of mountains and all that good stuff. But it is MASSIVE! Oh my goodness i am so dang tired at the end of everyday. I even had to whip out my boots haha. And my new comp is also from Honduras. Im gettin kinda sick of Honduranians haha but he is cool. We actually have the exact same time in the mission. We both have 9 months! So that was kinda cool. I actually knew him when i was in my first area. He was in the area next to mine so we always saw each other. His name is Elder Alvarez. If you wanna see what he looks like just look up Gumby and picture him really really black hahahahaha. But things are good here in my new area. The people are super awesome and nice and really humble. So its nice. And no i still havent gotten the package. But the zone leaders are going to the offices tomorrow and they might get it then. But we will see. But Sweet sounds good about that guy coming here and bringing a package! So yeah that will be really good.
Happy Aniverrsary! That is so awesome and i completely forgot! Haha but wow you guys are getting old... Hahaha just kidding! Im so glad that you guys are my parents. You guys really are the best and have been the best example to me as well. And happy birthday to Liz and Livvy! What the heck! You guys are so dang old! 18?? What in the world? Pues feliz cumpli a Woo! Only one more bday and then ill be home haha. Itll come before you know it. Well i love all of you so much and I hope he comes to guat on his mish. Then he would know what the runs really are! Hahaha But yeah love you guys so much and ill talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Gunnell

January 2, 2012

Hey!
Well im glad to hear that everyone is doing well! How was new years for everyone? I laughed so dang hard at what happened with Liz and the piano and the spanish ward hahaha. Yeah the spanish hymn book is different haha. In english we have a ton of hymns and in spanish there are only 209 hymns in the book and they are all switched around haha Liz you might wanna get a spanish hymn book if you are gonna keep playing for that ward hahaha. But sounds like everyone is having a good time and enjoying life.
Wow this week was awesome! So first new years here is so much better than it is in the states! Everybody has fireworks and they all light them off and its insane!
I took a video of where you could see the whole city and its just fireworks everywhere and a tooooon of smoke hahaha it was really cool. So much more fun than goin to parties and all that stuff haha.
Oh and we had our baptism! We baptized Jenifer. It was soooo awesome.
After the baptism she said to me "wow what a difference! I feel so much better now." That was so amazing to hear her say. And then the next day for her confirmation her cousin confirmed her and it was amazing! After she was in tears and just looked so happy. She is really going to be an amazing member of the church. She has a lot of faith.
I feel so blessed to have been here in this area to teach her and help her and her family. They said last week how they would be super sad if i left because i have been special to them. That was super awesome to hear from them. But now im a little sad because i have a change. Im leaving on wednesday. I dont know where im going or anything like that yet but ill let you know. But on one hand im super excited because im happy im not gonna be with my insane companion but im sad because im leaving so many families and people that i love behind. Its crazy how changing areas is almost as hard as it was leaving home. But im excited to see what new friendships that im gonna make in my new area. So its all good.
Oh and i still havent gotten the package but im sure that i will soon. If i dont go to a really far area at least. We will see. But i love you guys so much and i hope that you have a great week. And hey! Im coming home next year! Woo! I hope that we can all set and achieve our goals this year. Im excited for this year! Woo! Well i will talk to you soon and ill see you next year! :)
Love, Elder Gunnell

December 26, 2011

Hey!
Yes it was so great to talk to you all. I was kinda sad that the connection wasnt too great but its ok. I was just happy to talk to you guys. Man i wanted to talk for longer though. Haha i didnt know how crappy it was gonna be afterward! haha i went and made lunch and i was like wow i really wanna go home now hahaha. But its all good. Im almost back in missionary mode. Probably tonight after pday ends and we go to work ill be a normal missionary again haha. Oh and hey what was that guys name thats coming here to my same mission? And has he already left for the MTC or no? Also im sure that the package will come soon. The mail system here is super crappy. Oh but when you send packages if you send something kinda valuable dont write it on the box where you are supposed to write down everything you are sending. Also you can print out pics of the virgen mary and Jesus and put them on the box and its a better chance that people wont steal stuff.
I dont have a ton to write about cuz we just talked but this last week was just really good. We actually had members helping us out and everything. That has been a struggle in my area. The members havent been a big help. But this week we got some really awesome references and everything and they are looking really promising right now. So we are super excited about that. And we are gonna have a baptism this week! I hope it actually goes through. But im pretty sure it will. Ill be sure to let you guys know how it goes. But hey only 2 more calls and then ill see you guys! The next one in what like 5 months? Something like that. I cant wait. Well i love you guys so much and i hope that you enjoyed Christmas. I miss you guys. But ill talk to you soon! Until next week!
Love, Elder Gunnell

December 12, 2011

Hey!
Sorry to hear that you arent feeling too well Mom! Im not either.. My stomach has just been killing me. Im hoping that it lets up soon. But i hope that you feel better soon. This week was pretty slow. But it was alright. On the 7th it was burn the devil day haha. So i bought a paper mache devil and we burned it with some of the youth in our ward haha. It was pretty fun. Almost burnt my shirt! But it didnt happen so its all good haha. So that was fun. But really this week we didnt have much success finding people or anything. But we might have a baptism this week! But im not sure yet. You will know if it happened or not next week haha. Oh and also yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the temple dedication of the temple that they just finished here in Guatemala. We didnt get to go to the temple but we went to the service at the stake center. It was awesome! It was President Uchtdorf who did the dedication. So awesome! And during the cornerstone ceremony Uchtdorf was joking around and what not ahaha it was hilarious. But that was a really really awesome experience. We got to attend 2 of the 3 sessions so we got a double whammy of temple dedication goodness! It was awesome.
I cant believe that Christmas is coming! Pretty crazy stuff. I cant wait. I took some money out of my personal card and did some Christmas shopping today. We got to go to the central market! That place is sweet! They have a bunch of typical Guat stuff and you can barter with the venders so it is super fun! I got some good deals on some stuff ;) I wanna send a package home but im not sure when ill do it. It will probably be around Christmas time. Ill let you know for sure though. Well i love and miss you all so much and im suuuuuuuppppeeeeeeerrrr excited to talk to you on Christmas! That wil be awesome! Well i hope that you guys have a great week. Talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Gunnell

December 5, 2011

Hey!
Tomorrow I am a third of the way done with my mish! What the heck? Crazy right! Haha. And i cant believe its December already. That is just crazy. It makes me pretty homesick sometimes because of all the Christmas stuff. But its all good! I get to talk to you guys in a couple weeks! Woo! And it is actually pretty cold here! Whoever said that its like 70 degrees the whole year is a liar! But its not too bad. Just a little different than what im used to.
Things with my companion are about the same. He is just insane. But i have just been telling myself that i will learn something from him. Its ridiculously hard right now but i know that God knows something that i dont. So im just praying for patience like crazy and hoping that i dont snap haha. But i have just been trying to work hard and not think about my situation. Sometimes it works haha. But we are picking up the area a little bit! We have another baptism date! Her name is Jenifer. Her Mom is a fairly recent convert and she is active and everything. Anyways Jenifer told us that when the missionaries were gonna baptize her mom she was gonna get baptized as well but she always had a reason not to. But her aunt who is a member of our ward as well challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she did it and got her answer that it is true. When we taught her therestoration we asked her if she had any questions or doubts and she said no! She said that before she had a lot of doubts but now she knows that it is true. So we are gonna baptize her at the end of next week i think. We are super excited about her! In the picture with the family that i am sending she is the one on the far right. Yeah the pregnant one haha.
Well i am missing you guys a bunch now that Christmas is coming. But hey in like a month ill be able to say that im coming home next year! Hahaha thats kinda depressing but cool at the same time. But itll go by fast. Well i hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you so much! And you guys should write me! I havent gotten a letter in a loooong time! Haha
Love, Elder Gunnell