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