November 28th, 2011

Hey You!
You`re not going to believe where I`m at... Polochic! Ha ha Crazy huh! No, I havent played any instruments lately because in the "chic"... there aren't any. There`s nothing where I`m at actually.  The area is called K`anlun, and there are only a few peple who even speak spanish.  EVERYONE speaks Q`eqchi` and for that reason I`ve felt super lonely this week, but my companion is from Honduras, so I only speak to him in spanish. Its been a rough transition.
Let's see... our house that we live in is super small... it's just a little bit bigger than my dad`s shed out in my back yard but not by much. Luckily we have electricity and running water. In fact the church just barely built this house for the missionaries so it's pretty nice.  They`re building a chappel in the same fenced lot of ground, so it`ll be fairly nice. I took pictures, but again, in Polochic we don't have perks so this internet place I can't hook up my camera or print off your letter. We had to ride in the back of a truck about a half an hour to get to this area where there is actually stuff ha ha I never thought I`d be living like this but aqui estoy... :) It's been a great time for me to learn and to grow, and to learn to live humble like these people here. 
This language is just hard... My head hurts everyday because I try so hard to focus and learn.  By the end of the day i`m just exhausted, not from the walking but from thinking. I can pray and do some basic things but people want to talk to me and I just look so stupid saying ``I dont know`` over and over, but I`m learning and I just need to be patient with myself and let the Lord help me. This language is super interesting though... everyone says ``Ma sa` laa ch`ool?`` when they greet you, which translates to ``Is pleasent your heart`` and you respond ``Sa sa` inch`ool´´  ´´Pleasent inside my heart`` ha ha it's super fun to learn just super hard at the same time. For Thanksgiving we didnt do anything, in fact I got home that night and I was writting in my Journal, and looked at the date... I was like... ``oh today was thanksgiving.... well... happy thanksgiving to me!``
To answer your question about the water.. where I live, I either have to put water in this white bucket that is a purificador or buy bags of purified water from the little wooden stores around, so it's always clean it's just not the easiest thing to do. I just need to be super good and buying up and storing a bunch of water bags in the house. 
One afternoon we stopped by these investigators, and they had family over for this little girl`s birthday. So, they were super nice and invited us in and fed us Caldo and it was sa (pleasent) ha ha we`ve stopped by them 3 times this week, and the guy understands everything. He also speaks spanish so its nice teaching him ha ha ha. We`re hoping that he will accept baptism and help this branch grow here in our little town of people.  Btw there is only 25 active members here so our ward meetings are rough. I blessed the sacrament and that prayer was ridiculously hard ha ha but I did it :) Thanks for the scriptures i`ll look those up tonight when I get back home. Well, I hope I answered all of your questions, and I also hope you have a fantastic week!! Be safe!! I love you (nakatinra)
Elder Ware

November 21st, 2011

Hey Everyone!

I´m doing great! How are you? I definately miss the snow right now, but we´ve had really nice weather lately. It hasnt rained much and it's been warm so no complaints. And I´m right there with you, I was thinking about that phone call the other day and I was thinking ´´I seriously havent talked to you for over 7 months...´´  I love getting to hear from you every week though. It definatly helps every monday having these letters. Anyways, I´m stoked to get to talk to you :) 

For my 6 month mark we didn't celebrate... I know, I know LAME... ha but it was alright. So, I took that trip to the Capital and I´ll just say that it wasn't great by any means. I got everything checked out with the doctor and I´ll be fine :) I got my tooth taken care of, and it seriously took 15 mins he just filled it with some glue stuff... didn't even numb it or anything, so I was like "thats it?" ya estuvo. When I was in the Capital we went to the mission office and chilled for the day, but when I say chilled I mean I studied  Q´eqchi´ ALL DAY!! My head hurt by the end of it all, but it's coming along little by little. So I´m kinda hoping that I´ll have my change to the Polochik. By the way I´ve got a change out of Carcha! I´ll let you know next week where I ended up because we still dont know where, just that I have a change.

On sunday we had an awesome Stake Conference, but it was through satellite to all of the stakes in Guatemala and 2 stakes in Belice. We got to hear from Elder Don R. Clarke from the Area 70, Sister Cook, Elder Holland, and President Uchtdorf!  Crazy huh?  They talked a bunch on families and temple work. Elder Clarke said soemthing that was really cool about how we treat our spouses. If we want a stronger relationship, we need to do the simple things, and he suggested telling your spouse ´´Te amo´´ 10 times a day, and he promised that you will see your relationship grow.

When I went to the Capital I sent off your package, so I knew it would get off to you. Anyways, that's all that's going on this week. Thank you so much for your letters and everything, it always makes me happy to hear from you every week :)  

Have an awesome week! Love, Elder Ware

November 14th, 2011

Hello!
Ha thanks for the 6 month wishes!! :) crazy huh?  No I feel just like you, its gone by really fast looking back. Sometimes in the moment it's a long time, but like I said looking back, saying that I´ve completed 1/4 of this is just nuts to me. We´re going to celebrate it on Friday, but I dont really know how. Guate is different when you celebrate something, it's always the person that's celebrating that takes out everyone else, so it's kinda backwards from how we do it back home ha ha. I might take my companions to ice cream or something like that. So, for the holidays, today for P-Day we actually had Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes and everthing!! Super good :) they dont celebrate that here obviously, but for like Nov 1 it was Day of the Dead, kinda like halloween. What they do is go to the graves of people and paint them because the graves are above ground... yeah it's weird but for that day NO ONE WAS HOME lol it was ridiculous. They can get kinda intense in their culture things, but not too often.
I have some scriptures this week; some have to do with families and stuff like that and others were just things that I was thinking about a lot and it helped me. So, in D&C 29:48 about how we will be responsible as parents. Also in D&C 68:28 and Deut 6:5-7. Then, speaking of time and what  not, D&C 31:6 about how it's only ´´a little time.´´
So on a different topic, again in my studies this week I went over the parable of the 10 virgins, and how we really do need to prepare NOW for whats to come, cause it really is close.  Everyday we need to do self checks and see if we´re progressing and preparing for Christ. Through all of these deep thoughts I came to the conclusion or thought and I wrote down ´´So what did I learn?´´  Every class I made the goal to think to myself,  ´´In my own words, what did I just learn, and if I cant think of it then I just wasted my time´´  So hopefully over time I can make sure that EVERYTHING I do, will be something that I learn, grow, progress, or accomplish and not waste the time that the Lord has given me.  One of the harder things for me as a missionary is to always be just super happy all the time. I think i´m pretty mellow all the time, but here in Carcha, the members always ask me ´´Elder Ware are you sad?´´ I just respond with a smile, ´´Nope :)´´ lol but it got me thinking about what people see in me if im always just ´´mellow´´ so I made a goal to be more happy smiley when I need to be ha ha kinda weird, but we´ll see how it goes ha ha :)

So to answer you questions:  The languages are getting better.  I focued on spanish more this week and I noticed a difference, so i´ll worry about the other one when I actually get to where I have to speak it :) Other things that were good is that we are super close to getting our baptism this saturday!! I´m stoked, its my first ´´real´´ baptism :)  oh i'm going to the Capital tomorrow to get my tooth fixed and to go to the Doctor about other things lol, so i´ll let you know how it goes. Thats about all the smiley faces I can put into an email ha ha I just realized how many i did... oh well ;)

Love always, Elder Ware

November 7th, 2011

Hey!!! I am doing just great today ha ha how are you? Your letters definitely help my weeks go by so much better; having these amazing letters helps me focus on my work here as a missionary, and then the next monday comes around and I can't believe how fast it goes by!  I am having the time of my life right now, it's hard but it's beautiful. So, about the whole working out thing, the hardest part is actually waking up to go ha ha I leave the house with my eyes half closed every time ha ha, but I´m happy with the progress I´ve made in the little while we´ve been going.

I read something interesting this last week and it had to do with names.  Back in ancient times, names were more than just to identify someone, they were used to describe that person. Your name reflected who you were.  So, in the scriptures when people had a change of name, that means they had a significant change of self.  In all this thinking about names I was going to ask you... in one word, what is my ´´name´´? :)  Also if you can,  Look up this poem by Lorenzo Snow called ´´Man´s Destiny´´ I read that in the manual that I'm studying for D&C and I really liked it.

I´m sending that package of the DVD and some other little things for you this week, I had to wait and buy stuff to be able to send it sorry it's taken forever.

So, to answer your questions:  I already shared what I learned this week and what not, so the Language... it's good. It's hard to study two languages at the same time but its getting there. The weather is good now, it's still kinda chilly but it's not freezing at night, and it's not raining everyday anymore. How has the Lord blessed me... other than just being happy when there´s not a whole lot to be happy about lol, and there's been many times that i´ll be teaching and get to the end of what I was saying and think to myself ´´man, I didn't make a mistake in spanish´´ and I know the Lord is helping me in those important moments like that. Have a fantastic week!

Love you! Elder Ryan Ware

October 31st, 2011

Happy Halloween!! Everything is going super great here thanks for askin' :) Teaching is going well I´m getting better, I´ve learned though that it all comes down to preparation... So we were teaching our investigator last Sunday and I felt I was saying everything simple, but he just wasnt getting what I was throwing at him ha ha so needless to say I went home super depressed cause I felt I let him down, the Lord and myself... I was really sad, but yesterday we taught him again so I spent a whole morning just preparing for that one lesson so I wouldnt ever feel like that again, and the lesson went amazingly well and so the moral of the story is prepare and then you can teach :)

I like sleeping with the hoodie for some reason lol I might need new pants by the time I come home though cause I´m still getting slimmer.  We´re actually getting up at 5:30 and going to the gym for an hour! I´m loving getting up and working out even though it's super hard at times to just wake up, but it's definitely been paying off I´ll tell you that much lol. The gym we go to isn't anything special, just a room with weights but it's just the 3 of us and maybe 2 other guys, so it's super chill and we´ve made good friends with the guy who runs it.

I was reading in D&C 25, and it is a revelation for Emma Smith. It was just really cool to see how God plays a roll in the relationships of his children here. Even more so was Emma´s willingness to be by Josephs side no matter what happened, she was super "pilas" at supporting him in all he did. 

So I have some scriptures I want you to look up and tell me what they all have in common :)

John 16:23

3 Nephi 18:20

3 Nephi 27:28

Moroni 7:26

D&C 50:29-30

I know that if you do this you WILL receive it!

Tell everyone I say hi, or better yet ´´Ma sa´ laa ch´ool?´´ ha ha. Thanks for your emails and your support. I love you, Elder Ryan Ware

October 24th, 2011

Hey!!

 I´m doing well :) How are you doing? So, to answer your questions... the weather has been SUPER COLD!!  It's only like 65 degrees, but for here it's sooo cold!! I´m sleeping in sweats and two hoodies ha ha nuts huh?  The only interesting thing I´ve eaten recently has been pig skin... super gross... some of the pieces they had still had hair in them... luckily I didn't get one of those pieces ha ha.  My comps are great! They are teaching me Q'eqchi and is been a super fun change so far.  The coolest thing I saw this week would have to be two things actually,  one was this beautiful view overlooking the valley from this super big hill we climbed with clouds and a sweet sunset, the other sweet thing I saw was with this young family we´re teaching, and the husband has a strong testimony, but the wife is still stuck on her catholic roots. The husband said that he really would like his wife to ´´go through the wrestle of learning more about God´´ and he kinda challenged her in front of us it was really cool cause you could tell that he really knew this gospel is true and wants it for his wife too, so super sweet. 

 

So, to tell you a little about my week,  we had zone conference and a member of the 70 (Elder Amado) came and talked to us for like 4 or 5 hours.  I took a TON of notes! I want to apply these now and throughout life: what did I do this week to strengthen my companionship?  Am I progressing EVERY day?  If it's worth doing in this life, do It to better myself for the Lord. What am I doing to prepare myself for what is to come?  Are MY desires the same desire that God has FOR me?  Then Elder Amado said something that I wrote down big lol he said that the biggest commandment we have in this life is to have families, and that the greatest title we can possibly achieve here in this life, or even into the eternities, is not zone leader or senior companion, but its the title of ´´Father.´´ We need to prepare ourselves to be fathers here and into the next life. Have a great week! Love, Elder Ware

October 17th, 2011

Why Hello There!

So, my new companions are Elder Smith from Lehi (also from that blog we´d read together) and Elder Olson from Tennesee (from my first group at the MTC) it's so weird seeing the both of them and even more so that we´re companions now ha ha. We´re in a trio, which is not ideal, but we´re making it work for sure ha ha its been a fun week. It's always different adjusting to living and dealing with other people, but this change wasn't too hard actually. You asked for me to share something that I´ve learned about myself, or just from my experiences... nothing huge stands out right now, but just overall I´ve learned that God truly understands me (everyone in that matter). He knows what I need and where I need to be pushed to reach my full potential.  It's been a hard life change here in Guatemala, they really don't have anything close to what I had back home.  And you know me, I love my things back home like being clean, having a nice house, eating cheese sticks ha ha. It really has been a blessing to set all those things aside, and look at my life for what it is right now.  I have this great opportunity to give my self up for two years and let the Lord mold me and shape me into who I need to become (or who I once was before I came to this earth). I´ve got into great habits of reading and really loving the scriptures! I adjust to whatever comes into my life, and try not to stress too much (hardest for me) and the whole time I know that I have wonderful support back home and a Father in Heaven who loves me and wants me to find the most happiness I possibly can in this life. And I know that these two years I´m giving to the Lord will set me up to reach that happiness later down the road.  I want to thank you for always being there for me. Hope you have just a fantastic week. PS Tomorrow is 5 months!! The time does go by ha ha ha. Love, Elder Ware

October 10th, 2011

You don't even realize how happy I am to be able to write you today.  This last week was kind of ridiculous...  just a lot of stressful things, but so I'm super excited to hear from you today! Okay, this week in a short paragraph: Tuesday one of the elders that I lived with left... so that was super stressful to deal with.  We worked as a threesome and slit the days in two different areas so it was super rough to work this week. Thursday I fell and when I did I grabbed barbed wire and it cut up my hand pretty good and down my arm. Thank goodness for tetanus. Friday I killed a turkey (and what I mean is I cut it's throat and poured the blood into a bowl) and helped this family make ´´caldo´´ which is the soup.  Super good!!  We put a date for this guy to be baptized in November! and Sunday night we all just waited by the phone to hear who had changes, and I´m still here in Carcha for another change. I still dont know who my new comp is tho, so i´ll let you know next week. Other than that, today was just a chill P-Day we didn't really do much. Thank you for your love and support you always give me. Elder Ryan Ware

October 3rd, 2011

Hey!

I´m doing fantastic, thank you for asking! :) Conference was amazing huh!?  My favorite was Boyd K Packer because he answered some of my worries... from being here, I´ve really grown to know the importance of the relationships you create in this life. I really like what he said about how we will still have the time and everything to get married, have children and maybe even grand children ´´if´´ we do what we´ve been asked and told to do.  I know that I´m doing what i´ve been asked and I am very confident that I´m working as hard as the Lord expects me to.  So if you want go over that talk again. The work here is going very well. We still don't have any baptisms yet, but we know we´re working our best and we´re going to try some new things this week and hope our changes will help our investigators. I´m super jealous that we have a Jimmy Johns!! Oh it's soooo good! We´ll definitely have to go in..... 19 months ha ha. I'm also jealous that you got to go to the BYU game. I miss football, but more that that baseball... and it's now the playoffs so if you could do me a favor??  Update me on how baseball is going ha ha. The pride cycle is very real. Something that we need to make sure we don't fall into.  I see it a lot here where people get some sort of advantage and they think they are in control of everything and everyone. I know who I am and who the Lord expects me to be at all times. I just want to tell you with all certainty of my heart that I know this gospel is true.  It can and will change everyones life if we do the things we´ve been asked and told to do.  Read, Pray, and Live the commandments. I also know how real the atonement is and how important it is to follow what Christ has told us. I know President Monson is the prophet today and that if we heed to his council and that of the apostles, that we will be doing God´s will.  And if we do God´s will, we will have his spirit guiding us and protecting us always.  I have such a strong testimony of all these things! Love, Elder Ware!

September 26th, 2011

I´m just working hard, we might not be having the baptisms that we expect, but I know I´m doing all that I can for the Lord, and the rest is up to him and the people we teach. We haven't married that couple yet, we´re waiting on paper work which is a kind of a joke down here. So to answer your question about my clothes, all my pants are super baggy and my shirts are too, but I´m good for now. If I need new clothes I can buy them here in places called ´´pacas´´ its basically new clothes that I can buy for like a dollar sweet huh!? This week just went by too fast to remember what else happened. So maybe you can tell me more about you and your lives this week! I got a letter from my brother finally, so I´m going to write him :) Thank you so much for your love and support always. -Elder Ryan Ware

September 19th, 2011

Hey!
This place definitely has it's beautiful places and it's well... not so beautiful ha ha luckily you only see the good. Teaching has been getting better and better spanish is coming along just fine.  As far as teaching goes its interesting,  its fun when they participate in the lessons, but when they just could care less it's kind of frustrating especially when I´m trying so hard to teach it simply and in Spanish. So I mean teaching has never been my favorite, I´d rather show you by example or something. In fact I believe God knew that about me long before now, so I´m just using what I´ve been blessed with ha ha.  The baptisms fell... but its kinda been like that lately. We´re marrying a couple this week or next and hope they get baptized too. The weather has been just rain and more rain we get soaked everyday, but we have to work in it or else we wouldn't get anything done. Sacrifice brings blessings right? ;)  The thing I have laughed the hardest since I´ve been a missionary... hmm.... probably just some dumb missionary jokes we tell in the house. Yesterday was my 4 month mark! This last month went by pretty fast, which is a good sign that things are going well. Ha McKenna sounds like she's growing up a little too fast ;) Kristen and Danny have been writting every other week or so, but my Brother hasn't written me for quite a while! My Bishop hasn't written me yet, and my Stake President hasn't since the CCM.  Sometimes I wish I had more letters! This week was just normal teaching and teaching without anything super big happening. I wanted to share somethings I had read and learned this last week. I was reading a Liahona, which is the Ensign down here just a little different. But anyways it was the June 2010 and Elder Bednar had a really good talk about what we do with our time here in this life.  He emphasized how much time we waste watching TV, playing video games, and spend time on the internet like facebook and the dangers that come from spending so much time with these.  It really made me think about what I want in life and so I basically came to the conclusion that I´m not going to play video games when I get back. I just dont want to waste time that I could be using to develop my relationships or doing something important. So yeah if you can find it its a good talk.  Also I had a really cool experience in reading my patriarchal blessing this last week.  I´m really trying to find out who I was before I came to this world and who I was in God´s eyes.  I was just a super strong spiritual experience so I encourage you to read yours this week, and look for things you can learn about yourself.  Focus on simple things before the deeper stuff. Love, Elder Ware

September 12th, 2011

This last week went by super fast for me too.  We´re teaching, hiking and just working our tails off ha ha we set 3 new baptisms this week!! just hope and pray that they come through. So, this last week was fast there wasn't a whole lot of stories. Te amo, Elder Ryan Ware

September 5th, 2011

Man I was definitely looking forward from hearing from you this week. This week felt really long, but it's now over ha ha. The future looks better! I am doing really well :) To answer your questions:  baptisms here are not really like we do it at home.  We still have the program and people give talks and everything but it's not a big ol' party like it is at home.  Yeah so I weighed myself again today and I lost another 5 pounds this week.. I was sick for most of the week so that kinda explains it.  I'm just used to being sick basically, but yeah a lot of its is because of the food I eat.  Its been pretty healthy, but what I wouldn't do for Two Jacks Cheese sticks right about now... ha ha. Sorry for the confusion, but the thing with the changes just means that it was change day. Which is every 6 weeks.  But because of the new training program, I am with my trainer for 3 months in total, so I have another 5 weeks with him and we´re in the same area. So one of the hardest things is getting investigators to church and we haven't had a single one come for 6 weeks. On fast sunday we had 7!! It was pretty sweet. So with my knee... its still giving me problems, but I can still serve ha so things are alright ha ha. I would love to get some dental stuff from the states ha ha I´ve been doing really well to take care of my teeth, but being here in Guate is definitely not the best place with teeth stuff ha.Te amo mucho! Elder Ware

August 29th, 2011

Hey!

How are you? I hope things are going well for you! THANK YOU for the happy 100 days as a missionary! Yes, at times it definitely feels like it's been 100 days, but looking back it's crazy that it's already gone by.  This week was great! We went up to this area called  Caquipec and there was this beautiful waterfall we stopped by. So i will explain the water fall picture... the orange thing is what we call  a nylon which is what we wear when its raining  so our backpacks don't get wet.  Other than that jackets are too hot even when it rains, so you should get a chuckle out of that one ha ha.  Also, the picture of the food is basically what we eat and the red stuff is all chile ha!!  BTW I weighed myself today and from when I entered into Provo I have lost 31 pounds crazy huh!? So news that you will love is that I baptized for the first time ever in my life! The baptisms were the sister missionaries and they asked me to do it. I got to baptize the little boy he is so cool ha funny little kid.  And guess what... I did it all in Q´eqchi´!  I will always be able to say that my first baptism was in a mayan language.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to do that, and it made me super excited to be able to do it for my future children. I'm having the time of my life here in Guatemala.  I´m learning so much and I´m really seeing what's most important in life. The people who are in your life are more important that anything else. -Elder Ryan Jacob Ware

August 22nd, 2011

The best thing that happened this week:  we possibly saved a guy from killing himself because he loves to drink, and his wife left him so yeah crazy story there! Have I played music: yes, the other night we had a lesson with a less active, and he had a guitar so he asked if I would tune it for him and yes I did it all by ear ha ha it was sweet! I played half of ´´angel´´ and ´´banana pancakes´´ it was super nice. Something I learned this week:  I finished 3rd nephi and it's super interesting how people can be so good and turn so wicked, but even faster than it took for them to become righteous. I applied it into my life, and promised that after my mission I'm not going to get lazy and turn into a sloth about church things. I will always apply what I learn here. Love You, Elder Ware

August 15th, 2011

I am so excited to hear from you! First off, I'm super sick so I apologize if at times this doesn't make sense ha ha. Just to give you a little thought of how sick I feel... I probably haven't felt this sick since I had the swine flu ha ha it sucks!! The worst part of it all is that I can't be home to just relax and get better. This week started well, but ended kinda crappy since I'm so sick. So I have certain colors for different scriptures when studying. For instance, anything that talks about the plan of salvation or life I mark in orange, also anything that talks about the restoration or prayer I mark in blue  etc. I enjoy it. So you said something about sundays being relaxing... well maybe back home, but not in the mission ha ha it's all work until P-Day, so thats why P-Days are so glorious!!  It's been such a bummer not to be able to listen to Jack.... it's depressing, but that's the rules and I've been super obedient in order to receive the blessings that I need cause this mission isn't as easy as once thought! This place is definitely changing me. It makes me stretch and grow for sure.  The people here are showing me a great example of what to do, and what not to do. I'm so thankful to the Lord that I still have this opportunity to complete my assingment as a missionary. So real quick,  when we teach I teach certain parts all by myself.  They really have focused on that in the new training program that just came out.  I'm the first group to use the program, and my companion is always there if I get stuck on things to say, or if I mess up the spanish, so it's great. I've enjoyed teaching even though its hard sometimes. Love, Elder Ware

August 8th, 2011

Hello!
This week we worked like dogs and have nearly nothing to show for it, so it's very frustrating. My body is super sore especially my knee at nights. However, the Lord has blessed me that every time I wake up I feel good enough to do what I need to do that day. Yes, the town I live in is called San Pedro Carcha and the green is beautiful! We have electricity and we have an ipod plugged in all the time when we're home, but I haven't listened to Jack Johnson since i've been here... I don't think it's allowed which is a total bummer! We have two mini fridge things and our stove is electric. The shower... besides being super nasty it's awesome ha ha it's actually hot water, but it only has one nob so the more water that comes out the colder it is because it goes through this heater thing. Basically, the longer it takes to go through it, the warmer the shower is. I've never taken a cold shower here... yet! I'm not exactly comfortable yet, but I'm not where I was when I first got here to Guatemala that's for sure. Yeah, I'm slowly but surely getting used to things here. So, the tortilla thing, yes there is a trick to it, but I don't know what it is yet ha ha hopefully after 2 years i'll know how to do it! The flea situation stinks, but I just changed my sheets today and sprayed them down with bug stuff. Oh, man it's just different here. Me and the guys are getting to be good friends. Everyone back home sounds great tell them all hi for me, and that I hope all is going well. - Elder Ware

August 1st, 2011

Looking back at this week kinda went fast, but some of the days were super long. Especially in the mornings when its super quiet and nothing is going on but study... So, part of this last week I learned how to make torillas!! Ha ha super sweet huh? It was freaking hard actually lol the lady that taught us made fun of me because mine were terrible; I just need more practice lol  she´s been teaching me some Q´echi´ phrases and it's been fun. I also played ¨happy birthday¨ on the harmonica for this other member in the ward who feeds us every sunday that was super fun. I´ve actually learned like four songs on the harmonica. To answer some of your questions... the area is super pretty, but hard because it's lots of hills and jungle area. It's kinda wearing on my knee, so I´m hoping all goes well with my broken body. Spanish is good I can understand a lot, but I'm still kinda shy to speak so poco a poco (little by little) it's coming. Like I said I'm picking up some Q' echi' . My bed is actually kinda nasty... I have fleas that bite me during the night, so I've been coming up with little ways to defend against them!! Ha ha it's basically wear a lot of clothes and don't use blankets lol super ghetto I know. Tell everyone hi! Elder Ware

Ryan's first transfer to Carcha (7/25/11)

So this week was pretty crazy with changes and all.  I'm now up in the foothills of the mountains like we always saw in the pictures.  I definitely wasn't expecting to get called up here right of the bat, but here I am!! So I'm in a city called Carcha it' a smaller town but pretty chill. The people here are so tranquillo (relaxed) but apparently this area hasn't had a baptism since last year... the good news is we have a fecha (baptismal date) with this girl who is probably 19. She lives with and works for a member, so it's been good to teach her.  Our house is.. well.. humble ha ha it's just cement and there are four of us elders in one room.  All four speak english, so it's been nice to be able to communicate. My companion is Elder Bishop from Orem. We´re the same age, but he has almost a year here in the mission. We're going to celebrate that soon!  Life is just different here, so I'm learning a lot it's been a great experience. My attitude lately has been just to enjoy every experience I can out here because I only get two years to experience this. Some cool things this week were just teaching real people. It's such a different experience than the CCM. It's actually real; hard at times, but so rewarding when the lesson goes well. I almost got bit by a dog, which scared the crap out of me ha ha. So, I told you about my trainer a little bit, but as far as my mission president goes he is a sweet guy. Super intelligent and he kinda takes his time when he talks to you ha ha kinda intimidating at first, but he opened up about some of his experiences and yeah he is just a real nice guy. His wife is just super happy all the time! Well, that's about all I have for this week. Love, Elder Ware

July 18th, 2011

So i´m writing on Tuesday because I leave to the field tomorrow!  I´m kinda getting Super nervous ha ha, but it will all go well I'm sure. It's just the unknown. This week was really boring, so I don't have much as far as stories go. We had something called CRE where we are taped when we teach. Elder vestal and I, since it was our last time, wanted to do something fun, so at the start of the video we did this stupid thing and clicked while we looked straight into the camera ha you´ll have to see it because I recorded it on my camera. Thats about all for stories... 

July 13th, 2011

How great it is to hear from you!! Sounds like everything at home is awesome, and it makes me so happy to hear about it all!  Well this week was just boring class. The most interesting thing I want to tell you is that I ate something called a mangosteen; look it up on google!! My companion Vestal is a stud; we've been tearing things up as AP's. te amo y yo se que toda sera muy bien y yo puedo sentir tu amor y estoy muy agradacido por tu familia tambien nos vemos!!

July 6th, 2011

This week was pretty uneventful, but it was better than my first week. Just same old class and what not. Since the temple closed this weekend we got to go twice this last week. Once in spanish and once in english. The temple is so amazing! I'm AP (assistant president), and as AP I conduct TONS of meetings!! That's kinda all I do anymore. I also make assingnments for prayers, music, and whatever the president needs; it's crazy busy everyday.  I like being AP but it's stressful all the time, so it has it's goods and bads. Oh, another good movie to watch is called Journey of Faith. It's super interesting to me. It's crazy how time flies at time and how it seems to stand still, but I know this is where I need to be, and I'm faithfully fulfilling my assignment to the Lord. Talk to you soon, Elder Ware

Ryan's first letter from Guatemala CCM (6/22/11)

This first week was hard for me. I gave a talk in spanish, I  taught a lesson in priesthood, and we went to central park to do contacting (ask my mom to read that letter theres a good story). My companion gave me my first haircut here ha ha it was funny! I´ve been rediculously sick like 24/7 on my throne... It's been rough. We have fish like every 3 days, so I don't ever eat it ha ha the food in general has been tough to eat, so I'm loosing tons of weight. My pants are getting loose ha ha. We went to the temple which was sweet and I did it in spanish! I'm teaching great, my spanish is fine, and I understand the majority of what's being said. So, none of those things are bothering me, it's just the culture shock like the food, living conditions, and people.  

June 6th, 2011

This will probably be the last letter to you in the United States. Crazy huh? These past three weeks have gone by extreemly fast! So, right now I'm chilling witht my District watching the Joseph Smith movie; it's a great movie. Today I got relased as DL which was nice, but I passed the sacrament and forgot to go to the Branch President first... everyone chuckled ( I thought it was embarrassing). I have a few butterflies as you could imagine, but I'm also very excited at the same time. A lot of this missionary work gets me thinking of who I WILL be as I return home and continue my life. Just to give you a little insight, I probably pray anywhere from 10-20 times a day; It truly has belessed me. I've been teaching really well lately. I'm getting a lot more comfortable with it. I'm excited to put it to real use. I've learned here that all great things require work! Love, Elder Ryan Jacob Ware

June 1st, 2011

The clock is winding down; I'll be leaving for Guatemala on June seventh. Teaching is getting a lot better! Not where i'll baptize right away, but I'm getting more comfident. My patience is running thin at times, but it's getting better at the same time. I've made some random friends. There's a lot of missionaries going to Guatemala, but I haven't met them yet. I'm just dominating volleyball (jk) it's just a lot of fun. I'm doing pretty good with basketball. So, this week has been good, but today (Wednesday) was terrible. I'm excited to leave but nervous at the same time. I'm so happy where I am at in life, and I have the most amazing peace. Read Matthew 6:33-34, Alma 34, and Moroni 7:48 because I've really enjoyed these so far. Love, Elder Ware

May 26th, 2011

We had an amazing devotional Tuesday night. Your not going to believe who came and talked... Russell M. Nelson, an apostle of the Lord! There was an awesome spirit in that meeting. So, being DL (district leader) it's more stressful than anything. I go to meetings and have to report on EVERYTHING that my district does. I assign every talk, prayer, and song. So, other than that I'm just keeping super busy with class and all. I went to the Temple this morning which was great! I could finally relax; it was super peaceful. We play volleyball everyday ha ha it's so much fun!

Ryan's first letter home (5/20/11)

Things are going amazingly well here. I have a great companion Elder Skousen from Lehi. He's only 5'4", but a spiritual giant. He's the senior companion, but you're not going to guess... I'm the District Leader. I feel so out of place and I have to write a whole lot. I also have tons of meetings, so they're definitely keeping me busy. All the guys in our zone are super loud and crazy which makes it fun. I'm kind of quiet and watch people. Well, have a great week and I will hear from you soon. Love, Elder Ryan Jacob Ware