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