My life is just awesome

My life is just awesome. I am going on divisions today with Elder Chanchavac again. I really like him. Cute is the only words to describe him. We finally set baptismal dates with some people. The son of Rosalina and his girlfriend decided to get married. I called Arturo and was talking to him last night and I told him that I really want to see them get baptized before I leave. (They had already told us at this point that they wanted to get baptized). He said that he would talk about it with his girlfriend, Maria, and now we are going to get them married on the 25th of August. They talked about it, and everything is going really smoothly right now. We taught them the word of wisdom... and he told us that other than his cocaine crops and his wife being an alcoholic, they don't have any problems with it. hahah No but really they don't have any word of wisdom problems, not even coffee which is usually a problem. We got super lucky yesterday 'cause we went to get them to come to church, but only the dad could come because the mom was having some problems with LIX Q'EHIL LI PUCHUK LI NACHAL RAJLAL PO haha. The district president was driving by and gave us a ride. It was nice. This guy is super funny and I love talking to him. I'm going to St. DOMIINK and then to Actela on Wednesday to get his birth certificate and another paper so that he can get married. I'm going to give his mom and sister some money so they can travel and see the baptism. It's going to be cool to see my converts from way back when. This week we have zone conference and interviews. My life is really busy. Hey, do me a favor and see if you can't get me signed up with UTAH FREESKIER SOCIETY because I'm almost positive that they do a student club discount for SNOWBIRD. If Cody is getting his season pass there then I definitely am going to as well. If Cody jumps off a cliff I am definitely going to do it as well. That sounds like a fun birthday for Adam... he should look into getting a pass to Snowbird as well. Everyone is traveling like crazy. That's insane that Adam is already starting school.. too bad, hahaha I hope you have fun in California and Europe... China etc... be sure to take tons of pictures and send them to me. The pictures I sent you are of the temple, the concilio, Elder Smith ,my dear Yumo, Elder Gutierres and me when we harvested some corn with Arturo. He and I also made some awesome cookies in the church for his 18th month mark and other stuff..

K, I love you! Have a great week -Aaron

Dolla Dolla Bill Ya

My week was just fine. Thank you. Hey! IDK could you ask Cody and Taybay and BraidDog where they are going to get their season passes,'cause I need to know? Cody can have my Pass Out Game if he can find it. I don't even remember where it's at. I thought I lost that. Speaking of drinking, yesterday my neighbor (the one who gets drunk all the time and threw a vodka bottle at our front door) was smashed in the street and had crashed his motorcycle. I grabbed it, and helped him bring it to his house and park it. He then told us he wanted to talk the Bible. We helped him into his house, read, 1 Corinthians 3 :16-17, and prayed. Poor guy ... oh I also took his vodka and dumped it out when he went to the bathroom.. sin? q' me importa pues. Hey, also this morning we were going to the Tinta se' CHIINT and we were in the back of this truck and we totally destroyed this little puppy. I felt it lift the truck up, and then I saw it flip up behind the truck. It was so sad! All the Q'eqchi's were going nuts. Hey HAPPY BURF DAY ADAM!! I'm a bring you something home for your birthday. Prolific flowers? WAS BEN ABLE TO GET TO WORK ON TIME!?!? JK I mean is he OK? No brain damage? Sorry. I had to write a really long letter to my Mission President today, so this is short and not too great. Sorry. I love you all. -Aaron

Razorblade Salvation

That's a lot of events... well, first of all I have to say that I am proud of Orion leaving on his mission, and for Taylor returning home. However, I maybe even more proud of how much of a man Cody has become since I last saw him, haha. That's really cool Michael and Lisa are going back to Turkey.

Thank you for the PICTURES!!! They are awesome. That's really crazy to see all my fiends all together. It's really good to see all of them as well as you guys. Rozzi is looking like she should be a baby model. Liza and Jeff's trip looks super sick. I want to go.

Why is Ben in an Audi? Who's is that?

Here are some pictures. The road I'm sitting on is my enemy. My comp and I run this thing often.
There's a picture of some hands. This is how riding in the back of a truck is.
There is me trying to kiss elder Chanchavac/the coolest tie I own.
There is a staircase that just murders me every other day that we have to walk up 'cause one of our awesome investigator families lives up there. They came to church this week.
There's some cows etc etc...

This week was good. We had a ton of investigators in church. We are teaching the son of Rosalina, the lady that I baptized in Saqsuha'. He and his family are really cool. We are going to go work in their corn field this week, and then pick some avocados off their avocado tree and make guacamole. It's going to be good. I'm going to the capital right now. I love doing this trip.;ldkajflsjLJSDUF=)S(DF&/#$#)/")(%/)"# right? Umm... I don't really know what else is new. Nothing...

I don't know that kid that got home. Different mission.

I do need to get my handwriting analyzed, don't I... 'cause it has changed a LOT!

K love you have a GR8 XAMAN

LAJ AARON VICIOUS HOWARD

There's a steel knife in my wind pipe

In the last picture the children are watching Aaron do Yo-Yo tricks.

One year older... another year closer to death.

So today I'm in Coban, which is good but goes too fast. I got to eat some McD's today so that's all I could ever ask for. I'm super tired, but it's been a pretty good day. I'm going to get some snacks for myself. Elder Chanchavac and Elder Xocop woke me up at 1 am to say Happy Birthday. My companion, Elder Hexem also told me Happy Birthday.

This week was kind of hard. None of our really good investigators came to church. I did the best division in my life with Elder Chanchavac in Ch'ulak. We went to all five areas, and went to all the branch president's houses... it was not a short hike. I went to Isabal to do a baptism for the sister missionaries. I have never hiked so much, so fast in my life! It was rough on my little K'iche' friend. He got a bunch of blisters on his feet that later exploded when we were running to get onto the last truck passing through this little village. We were stuck at (Chichipate) at night. It was really quite an adventure. N-E-wayz, I don't know what else to tell you.... did I already tell you that I was trying to catch a crab? It caught me, first on the finger (hard) ((blood)) and then I ate it... well most of it. IDK, I'm too tired.

Thank you for that little history of my baby birth. These are the types of things I can't remember. I was watching "Hunt for Red October" 21 years ago.

k, have a great week!

love, Aaron

Then I watch it leave through the wind. I guess that's why they call it pane.

This week was crazy. We had too many people to handle! We had 12 investigators in church, and it was so crazy! It's like a one man band, even though there are three of us (my comp, me, and my branch president). We are getting a lot more people to come to church now. We just need to teach a lot before these people can get baptized. I didn't have a change. I don't think it's really hit me yet fully, but I'm not going to lie... I was pretty ready to leave. It's just hard to be in an area for 7.5 months in a row. My companion didn't have a change either. Um, for P-day yesterday, we went up to this tiny village that is 3 hours away, and handed out a million pamphlets to all these Q'eqchi's, in this place called San Vicente way up in the mountains. It was really cool 'cause missionaries never had gone up there really, and the people were really cool. They were way outgoing and nice (very unusual). We just contacted a ton of people, took some pictures and ate a little bit. I bought this Yo-yo up there and was doing some tricks. All the kids were just amazed. It was awesome! Life is good. I'm running out of money 'cause the office elders never re-imburse me or anyone in my zone. I'll be fine though. That's super cool Peter and Laura are going to be neighbors with Richy Rich. I'm already excited to go visit them! I am also excited to go on this cruise!! I guess I didn't realize how awesome cruises are because as soon as I mentioned to my comp that I was going on a cruise, he started freaking out and telling me how good my life will be, as well as Elder Snow. They just told me about sitting in front of a pool on the top deck when some girl would come by with a cart full of fresh home-made cookies and brownies with cold glasses of milk, and you can just grab what ever you want. I'm very excited to go. I'm good; I'm just still in this area. Have a good week.
Love, Aaron

I wanna live good ...

Wow. Um...well let me just tell you about what we did this week first, and then I'll get to the other casacas. This week was really cool! I got to meet President Watts in person, and his wife. They are really nice, and they gave me a 3 Musketeers for my birthday. We had a meeting in the capital, and it got me super inspired. One of the principles of the gospel is persevering to the end, and I don't think a lot of people grasp this concept because there are like a million less active members everywhere I go. I also think this can be applied to peoples' callings in the church. Once people do something big, they just stop. Just 'cause my companion and I baptized a huge family two weeks ago doesn't mean we are going to stop. All this kind of popped in my head at this meeting, and I started to think about my area. I figured out the people that we were going to get baptized, and we went to visit them, taught them, and set baptismal dates. Our (best) current investigators live so high up on the mountain. We went up there four times in three days. We also got this huge family to come to church with us for the first time. It was a total of like 10 people. Super cool! If everything works out, whoever is here next change should have a lot of baptisms. Teaching Primary was tough. The Spanish kids just won't behave, and the Q'eqchi' kids are so nice and quiet. They sit there and color and play (Choose the Right) memory cards and the Spanish kids just fight. I have to sit and hold these crazy kids for the majority of church. Next week are changes. I'm pretty sure I'll have a change. I think I'm ready for one. I have now been in my area for a fourth of my mission. Whoever comes in my place is going to have like 9 baptisms on the 6th of August. We finally have some really good investigators that come to church. Um....today we played pool. My comp and I went on a super cool run this morning along the River Polochik.

K, let's talk about life at home. I think that is an EXCELLENT idea to go on a cruise in JUNE!!! I've wanted to go on a cruise my whole life. As far as my car goes... I really don't care about it anymore. You can do whatever you want with it. Maybe it's worth... something.. parts.? IDK. I was planning on saving for a new one anyways. I really want my scooter still, and anything you have to replace or fix, registration, insurance, etc... just put it on my bill or take it out of my account. I love that thing. I want to go to BYU Jerusalem and study Hebrew, and then go to Egypt to study the bible for 5 years. Maybe I'll marry an Egyptian princess and live by the Nile...jk I want to go to the U of U in the spring on January 9th. I do not want to take a ton of classes, like some math class, physics, something interesting like history of rock, or some architecture thing, and maybe like Spanish or something, but... I don't know. I want to take few classes so that I can actually focus on them and get good grades.... (and ski!) but like 12-13 credits MAX juno... K, yeah I really am going to want a ski pass. That is a NEED!!! That is a need in my life.. so I would like you to buy me one. You should be able to get me a College discount one..It should be cheaper than the Young Adult one. I think they are only like 4-5 hundred dollars hahaha <----wow. Um... I'm really not that worried though. I think you should talk to Hno. Mike Mason about my mutual fund and see when the opportune time would be to sell some stock or what ever... I will definitely be needing that money when I get home, with skiing and ohh college.. You should also see if there is any way to get me some scholarships or grants of any type, O. K.? That is something we should be thinking about. Anyways, if you have any more questions just ask. Thanks for whatever you sent me in advance. I'm sure it's great.

I did live with Elder McPhee. I love that kid. He is awesome! That's cool you were able to meet President and Sister Torres. They are very nice people, and have helped me a lot through my mission. I asked for permission to open up a new area, but we'll see what happens. I don't really know what language I'm going to be speaking next change... hopefully not LI KASTIIY (Spanish), but whatever. Sorry, this letter is crazy. I don't know what else to say. Have a good trip to Colorado. I am super jealous that you are going to watch Harry Potter 7 p2!!! Les quiero mucho y espero q' tengan una semana super chilera

-AArON

Ella Ella Ella

Happy fourth of July. I have eaten so much it's crazy. We went to the capital this week, and I met President Watts. He's a super nice man. I really like him! His wife is really cool too, and she cooks some awesome chicken cordon bleu. Getting to the capital was crazy 'cause we got stuck in traffic/construction, so when we got to a place to switch buses there weren't any more. We got on the back of this cattle truck, and it was raining like crazy the whole time. I'm good. It was just super annoying. We have an investigator that lives so far away it's insane. I can't believe he has come to church twice now. He's awesome! It's the guy that brought me my hymn book when I left it at his house. Last Friday we were teaching this guy (Marvin, who I met in La Laguna), and we were trying to help him with some drinking/fighting problems he's having. He says to us, "I need to find a better outlet for my energy 'cause every time I play soccer I get mad...and then into a fight. I've seen you guys running in the morning though. Do you think I could go with you guys?" We told him, "Sure, that would be fine." Then he's like, "So what time?" We told him like 6ish... "How about 5?"..."Um...no .. 5:30"... "Fine, we'll go." We left after talking to him a little more, and after he showed us where a guy BIT him and left teeth marks in his armpit from the last fight he got into. The next day we ran for 13 kilometers... and I almost died. Then we went to visit some investigators up this huge mountain that night, then the next morning we went to pick up these same people for church, and I had to go change my shirt because I sweat through it. I was pretty much dying. Going to the capital was a nice break. I don't really know what else is going on in my life. I got some new shoes. They are so sick. They are gortex Ecco high tops, and they are super fly. Elder Jennings gave them to me. Brand new. I went to some sweet used clothing stores in Coban and found a North Face jacket for like 3 dollars. I bought a ton of snacks in Coban to take back here to Polochik, and stuff for everyone else. Capital trips are nice. This internet place has a huge picture of Jesus creating the world. I'm not really that tall, everyone is just really short.
K, that's all I got.
Love, Aaron