November 23, 2014 From Mom

Hello my wonderful son!  

I'm writing on Sunday and its the day we get pictures from you!  My second favorite day compared to Mondays:)  Some of my thoughts on your pictures…

1. Guatemalan doorways can be hazardous to your health.  2. You got our Christmas packages!!! (2 boxes right?) I'm so happy! That must mean you got your debit card.  I need the 3 digit code on the back and the expiration date in order to activate it. 3. I loved seeing our "christmas picture ornaments" taped on your wall.  However, that LOCTITE mounting putty would work much better:). 4. You got Sister Opfar's Christmas countdown! That was so nice of her! 5. I should have hemmed your baptism pants before you left.  6. I'm so happy for Fredrick! 7. Some of your ties tho… where are these ties from?  Like the one in the picture of you and another mish in front of the church building???  8. I love seeing your handsome face!!!!

We also got some of your letters this week!  Dad, Gray and Abby got theirs and LOVE them!  (They were postmarked 11/6 and we got them on 11/20… maybe the sister missionaries didn't send them out right away or maybe the postal system just stinks.. not sure but we got them!) I read Dad's and it is honestly something he will treasure forever!  I know I have one coming so I'm trying not to be impatient.  Have you ever received any letters from us from Dearelder?  I'm sending about 1 per week now.  Sometimes I just copy our emails and others I put a great talk that I want to share with you.  

Sweetie, your story about gun shots in your last letter makes me both so happy and terrified at the same time.  I'm so happy that your are being protected and that you are listening to and following promptings.  The Lord loves you!  Please don't get slack on listening to those promptings. The longer you are there, I could see that you might get more comfortable with your surroundings and might not be on your toes.  Please don't let that happen.  What an amazing story.  You have had some experiences already that are such strong witnesses of the Lord.  I think back on the day you taught that family in the MTC and had the words you needed to teach them!  And this story… it's an amazing experience you should always remember.

Trevor Le Sueuer got home this week.  I went to the airport and took pictures of him greeting his family so they wouldn't have to worry about it.  It was a tear jerker for me.  We've got a ways to go, but believe me, when you get off that plane I will hug you and won't let go for a long time!!!  He said he has been reading your letters and knows "right where Sam is at!" He looks great.  He had his homecoming talk today along with Matt Pratt.  They asked Grayson to talk also about how his testimony has grown through reading your letters about your mission. He did great (especially because they only asked him yesterday to talk). I'm attaching the audio file here and I hope you can hear it!  Even without you here at home, you are making such an impact on our lives.  Grayson and Abby love you and look up to you so much!  You are our hero! 

How did the baptism go???  I'm so anxious to hear all about it.  Who are the girls in the picture with Fredrick?

We went to Emily Platt's wedding yesterday.  She looked gorgeous!  Her husband is a really solid guy.  I like him a lot.  Just hard to believe Emily is a married woman!!!  She is your age!

How did transfers/changes go?  Were you able to see all your MTC buddies?  I read in Konold's letter that you all got flu shots and got your visas this week.  Did you do that too?

Did you get the credit card yet?  I know it got delivered to the Mission office on Thursday but I wasn't sure if it got in your Friday mail delivery or not. I was so worried about you being able to get food and things you needed this week!  Were you okay?

You've got a little while til Christmas.  Put those gifts in a closet or hide them somewhere so they aren't out in your apartment where people could see them thru a window or something. Yes, I'm a little paranoid:)  No peeking in your packages.  

Here is the deal on the Camera.  It might not be working for 2 reasons.  First of all, I can't remember if I put an SD card in there or not.  If not, that may be the reason it isn't sending pics.  If that is the case, take the SD card from the other camera and try it.  The second reason it may not be working is it looks like you're trying to send them with the smartphone app which we didn't set up.  If you go to the wifi button (I think), try to find the "email" option.  I set up my email address in there but maybe I didn't set it up exactly the same as the other.  See if you can find that email option and send them that way.  

Just an FYI that I read on Facebook this week...Did you know that Elder Turley's dad was diagnosed with Leukemia after Elder Turley left for his mission and his dad died this passed February.  I can't imagine what he has been through.  I know this because his mom mentioned it.  Don't tell him I know but I just thought you'd like to know that.  Gives you some perspective on what he has been through.

I read a talk that reminds me of your experience with Elder Cano when you had an argument and then turned to the scriptures and read the scripture in D&C 121.  This is a great talk and I'll send you the whole thing.  Here is the part I wanted to share with you… It's Elder Neal A. Maxwell. " The highest compliment I can pay to you is that God has placed you here and now at this time to serve in his kingdom; so much is about to happen in which you will be involved and concerning which you will have some great influence... it is because you have a rendezvous with destiny that will involve some soul stretching and some pain that I have chosen to speak to you tonight about the implications of two things we accept sometimes quite casually. These realities are that God loves us and, loving us, has placed us here to cope with challenges which he will place before us. I'm not sure we can always understand the implications of his love, because his love will call us at times to do things we may wonder about, and we may be confronted with circumstances we would rather not face. I believe with all my heart thatbecause God loves us there are some particularized challenges that he will deliver to each of us. He will customize the curriculum for each of us in order to teach us the things we most need to know. He will set before us in life what we need, not always what we like. And this will require us to accept with all our hearts—particularly your generation—the truth that there is divine design in each of our lives and that you have rendezvous to keep, individually and collectively."  Just remember when you are facing a difficult time out there, some of this might be by design by a loving heavenly father who wants you to grow and become more like him… he wants you to learn something.  When I have something so difficult in my life, I try to ask,"What do you want me to learn?"  It helps me to see the challenge differently.  

We have Thanksgiving this Thursday.  It won't be even close to the same without you.  But I thought I'd share with you a few things I'm thankful for.  I'm thankful that Thanksgiving means that Christmas is around the corner and that means we get to SKYPE!  I'm thankful that you are safe and protected and that Heavenly Father puts His arms around you to keep you safe and to help you feel His love and your family's love for you.  I'm thankful for a wonderful son who loves His Savior so much that he would leave everything he cares about to serve Him and His children.  I'm thankful for the ways you are growing and learning and becoming the man the Lord designed you to be.  I'm thankful for the most amazing family that ever was… for the love we have for one another.  I used to worry about my children growing up and leaving me.  But I know that our bond is stronger than that.  Even though miles keep us apart I feel incredibly close to you. I'm incredibly grateful for the children Heavenly Father entrusted me with.  I'm grateful for a loving husband that brings fun into our lives and works harder than most to take care of us.  I'm grateful that I live in this wonderful country and belong to the Lord's church.  I'm thankful for my Savior who has given me the gift of eternal life and the chance to live with Him and my family for eternity. What did I do in the pre earth life to deserve the rich blessings that are overflowing in my life?  I love you my son!  You will be in my heart all day on Thanksgiving as I say a silent prayer thanking my Father for you!  

I love you infinity + infinity and even more than that!

love,

mom

November 17, 2014 from Sam

Well if you haven't read many of my emails I would read this one! haha Well we had our baptism for Marcos this past Saturday!  It went great. He is honestly the most awesome 8 year old I've ever met in my life. He's hilarious and so nice.  His reaction in the baptism was so funny when he walked down the steps into the cold font water.  Priceless. Lol The next day at church he sat next to me after he had his confirmation.  He was just so awesome and kept asking me these questions about the church and the spirit and everything and he's just the most awesome kid.  He's had some family problems I think.  His dad who was baptized about 4 months ago had a relapse on his alcohol addiction and showed up to one of our lessons with Marcos completely
drunk.  It was really sad to see and just awkward.  But were gonna go visit their family again this week and see whats up.

No leche comments this week haha but its honestly just funny!  I love the people here so much already.

My funny story for the week... so we went to this inactive families house the other night and talked and stuff and the wife gave us sandwiches with nothing but ketchup, mayonnaise and a cold hot dog in sandwich bread.  I got through it, thank you haha.  So we had a follow up this past Friday.  I was nervous because i knew she was going to offer us food again and refusing food is about the rudest thing you can do here.  She set down about 6 tortillas on a plate with what she said was eggs beans cheese and this sauce inside.  Doesn't sound to bad right?  She said "hope you like it its a little bit of an experiment."  Well this wasn't your average McDs breakfast biscuit.  I took one bite of tortilla wrap from hell and hollllly crap.  I don't know how but I got that one bite down without throwing up all over her couch.  I waited a few seconds and asked, "Hermana do you have any water or fresco by chance?"  And I'll tell you what son... the second she turned around I stuffed the rest of that thing in the front pocket of my shirt so fast.  She had set 6 down on a plate.  Thankfully, Cano has a gift/curse and can literally eat anything.  He was dying laughing and at the same time crying inside from the food.  But he took one for the team and downed 5 o 'em suckers.  He was up a lllllll night puking it up. But I think thats a story I won't forget haha!

So Thursday I think it was, we were on our way to the house of one of our new investigators, Bertha S.  She lives in not a super sketchy area but somewhat sketchy.  The second after we had left the appointment before, I immediately had this super weird feeling.  I felt like we shouldn't go to her house and I had no idea why.  I wasn't ignoring the feeling, but I decided I wouldn't say anything and just wait til we got to her street and see if I was still feeling that way. So we get to her street and I just told Cano, "hey hombre hold up. Lets pray real quick."  It was something we had never really done before and he just looked at me weird and asked why?  I said straight up I have no idea but I just feel like we should.  So I said a prayer for us, and as soon as I said "amen", Cano said we can't go to this appointment.  I hadn't said anything to him about my feeling before that.  And I just said, "alright I'm feeling the same thing. I guess we'll just go to a members house and wait for a little bit."  We were talking about it and were just like dude that's just weird that I was feeling that and you felt the same thing after the prayer.  So we get to the members house, and POP POP POP!  We hear about 4 or 5 gun shots coming from the direction we just came.  It was pretty nuts, to say the least. We went back to Bertha's house about 2 days later and she just said she heard them too but didn't see anything.    I'm just thankful!  I don't know what would've happened but I've always known not to ignore promptings from the Spirit but never had it been so strongly demonstrated in my life obviously.  But that's the thing about living here, although it's dangerous, I'm not worried in the least because I know as long as were being obedient and listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, nothing bad will happen.

So thats all I got for this week.  Loving it here more every day.  Our first change is this Thursday but I won't be going anywhere. Changes, btw, are every 6 weeks and it's when missionaries get sent to different areas or change companions but not every change.  But it's a possibility that Cano moves, but I dont think he will because he still has another change of training to do with me.  But well see!

Hope everyone has a fun safe week!
Texas Forever,
Elder Gurksnis

November 16, 2014 from Mom

Hi My Leche boy!

I'm going to start my letter with a couple of replies to your letter late this week.  First of all, if you can't write a letter and you are near a computer, please just send a quick note to let me know you won't be able to write.:)  I know you wont always be able to do that, but do it if you can.  I was scerrrrred! 

Second.  The sticky tak is for you to stick pictures and stuff on the wall... dork!

Third.  I'm not gonna send a book because I'm not gonna break the rules.  Remember "exact obedience."  You said in the CCM that you made a commitment to be an obedient missionary.  Please don't start picking and choosing which rules you think you should follow.  I know that obedience brings blessings.  I also know you don't always understand why the rules are put in place, but I want you to receive those blessing that come with obedience!  I want to know you will receive the Lord's protection because you are obedient!  Please remember something that Elder Russell Nelson said, "Obedience brings success.  Exact obedience brings miracles."  So what I will do is send you articles that are "deep doctrine."  But let me ask you... will you start reading Jesus the Christ?  It is very deep and it has the ability to change lives.  I think there is a reason that book is mission approved.  I'm going to start reading it so we can share some of our insights. I also sent two Ensign magazines to you in your Christmas boxes.

Fourth.  A few suggestions about your letters.  Everyone loves them!  They are a great combination of funny, inspiration, sweet.  An important thing is to know your audience... not only are your friends reading your letters... but all of our extended family, the bishop, members of our ward, dad's friends at work, members and non members.  I just ask that you try to stay mostly positive in your group letter.  Some of the language like "pissed" and "hot girls" is prolly not right for that audience.  Complaining about the people like in your last letter concerns me too.  I don't want them to think you don't care for the people there. (They only receive this small snap shot of your experience) You can always lay out the harsh stuff in letters to me and dad and we understand sometimes you need to vent.  But your letters are part of your mission too.  Many people who aren't members read them so just try to keep them positive, inspirational and totally you!  I know you will know what's best to do.  I just wanted to remind you of who is actually reading these letters.

Fifth.  How is everything with Elder Cano? You've had such an amazing experience these past 2 1/2 months and you've grown so much!  Try not to let any strain between you two rob you of any spiritual growth or opportunities you have to be guided by the spirit.  You will both need to have love and respect for each other in order to allow you to both be guided by the spirit.  Any contention will chase the spirit away from what you're trying to do together and also from what you are trying to do for yourself.  Do your best my boy!  I'm so happy to hear that your turned to your scriptures in your frustration!  What an amazing experience you had!  That is the spirit confirming your Saviors love to you!  I hope you wrote about it in your journal.  You can always return to that experience when you read it over again and receive that same message.  That is incredible!  We are here on this Earth to be tested.  When you are tested and you turn to the Lord as you did, He knows he can trust you.  I'm so proud of you.  Keep striving! 

I'm including our Sunday selfie!

We pulled up the picture of you and Marcos so that you could be with us!  (Oh how I love getting pictures from you!!!) He is such a cute little boy!  How did the baptism go?  Have you ever had the chance to give a talk at a baptism or at church yet?  How are things going with Frederick?

We had a family get together last night to celebrate G's bday.  It was a fun get together.  It's been so freezing here (see the attached picture of the weather forecast) so we had a fire in the fireplace and it was cozy.  We spent some time putting together another little Christmas surprise for you.  I hope it will get to you in time!  We had a good dinner and dad looked up the calories on his phone app and he got really quiet because he realized he ate 1400 calories at dinner.  He walked off and disappeared for a minute so we all joked that he was off throwing up in the toilet and he's gonna become bulimic Hahaha!  Pretty funny.  He is serious about his workout and eating program.  I pound of him!  

Erik was looking at your picture with Marcos and he said it looks just like the chapels in Brazil.  It makes him miss Brazil.  Your mission is serving as a reminder of his mission and he loves that he can share it with you when you get home.  He is about done with his paramedic training.  His back is so bad so he has decided to pursue his nursing degree instead of fire fighting.  He has a job interview on Friday for an Emergency med center.  Say a little prayer for him.  Kevin seems to have a new girlfriend.  You'll never believe it .... she is 33!  No one has met her yet but I hear she is "hot."  Not sure Kevin will ever learn his lesson about this.  Those "hot" ones aren't usually the best girlfriends/wife material.  Wish he could just find a pretty girl that wants to settle down and build a life with him.  We'll see.

I worked with a couple this week looking for a home.  Its a young lds couple and the guy was going to Duke with Ian and now he has 3 job offers... one being at Frito Lay.  Hope that pans out.  They are really nice.  As we were talking, I told them about you serving in Guatemala (you're my favorite topic of conversation:) and he was like, "no way!  My parents were mission presidents in Guatemala and I went to high school there for 2 years."  So we talked about that a lot.  His dad was the mission president when they had a North city mission.  I think that is mostly the Coban mission now. 

How is our email on Mondays working for you?  Are you going to usually read emails in the morning and then send your letter later in the evening?  I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't get on line with you in the evening if it makes it too hard for you to write your letter.  What do you want me to do?  Just let me know.

Keep the pictures coming.  We all LOVE getting them!  I can't wait to hear about your week!  I love you so incredibly much my son!  I'm so very proud of you and your unselfishness and willingness to serve our savior!  We miss you every day and everyone in this house gets so excited to read your letters.  I get texts from Abby, Gray and Dad all day on Monday asking if we have your letter yet.  They always want me to email it to them as soon as I get it!  I miss you so much.  And I love you more than you could ever know.  I'm always with you and praying for you.  I find myself praying in my mind for you throughout the day.  Be safe, be obedient.  Have a wonderful week! 

all my love infinity + infinity,

mom

November 10, 2014 from Sam

Hey everyone!

Another week in the G.  I can't tell y'all how fast time goes here its honestly weird.  Pday (preparation day … each Monday) and then another pday and then another.  Super fast.

First shout out to my favorite brother because big guy turned 17 on the 10th.  I was pretty homesick thinkin about you but I hope it was a great one bud love you so much!

So I have a quote of the week this week jaja.  This guy Elder W is in our zone and he got in the transfer before me.  Hes such a good dude, but such an Idaho/Utah kid whos the most innocent guy on the planet haha.  We were on a bus to go to eat on Pday and he was talking about his girlfriend.  He shows me a pic and I just said, "yeah dang dude shes a cutie!" "Yeah, Elder she really is.  And she gets her braces off in TWO WEEKS!"  hahahahahaha Maybe it was a had to be there moment but I had to keep myself from crying laughing in that moment.

I'm a little frustrated with Latinos now.  I can't tell you how many ridiculous things happen with them.  They all try to speak english to me and say phrases and sometimes its hilarious. Like we were walking home last
night at like 830 pm and this group of gangsters yelled, "Good morning!" That was funny, but most of the time they just know English cuss words and they scream them at me. haha The other day we were walking in the street next to the soccer field and everyone stopped playing and came up to the fence and yell, "Hey Leche!! mauh muah muah!" Leche means milk............. so done with Latinos. hahahahahah they make for good stories though.

I'm also so stoked to get the Christmas package my mom sent me this week!  Cant wait to see all the useful stuff I get in this one like the "LOCTITE fun-pack Mounting Putty" I got in the last one!!!! ;) Just kiddin mom, I couldnt resist though.  Hahaha

Not too much happened this week that was too out of the ordinary,except the beginning of the week was rough with my comp.  He's very hard to explain but he's really quick tempered and doesn't like to do anything not his way. 95% of the time hes great but the other 5% is really absolutely horrible sometimes.  We were in an argument and it was pretty bad.  I was seriously mad and I just kinda left the conversation and went into my room and opened my scriptures and the first thing I opened to was Doctrine and Covenants section 121 I think.  For those that don't know too much of the story of Joseph Smith, he was imprisoned in one of the most horrible prisons you can imagine for doing absolutely nothing but being the leader of the Mormons.  The Mormons in that time experienced horrible opposition to the point where many were killed by mobs and were forced to flee across
the country in the dead of winter when countless members of the church died.  Not to mention the prophet Joseph Smith was killed by a mob along with his brother and many others. Anyways thats a huge story but I'll get to my point: I opened to D&C 121 when Joseph Smith was in Liberty jail. Joseph had been in this unimaginable horrible place for months and he felt as if God had forgotten him and he began to pray very hard and this was the answer he received, "My son, peace be unto thy soul.  For thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment."  It seems a little dramatic but me and Cano were on the verge and I honestly
just wanted to go home at that point.  And when I read that, it's honestly something I'll never forget the sense of peace I felt at that moment.  I felt like I wasn't just reading it but Heavenly Father was really saying that to me in person.  I just had the biggest overwhelming feeling of calmness and peace Ive ever felt.  Again something I'll never forget!  (By the way me and Cano are fantastic now and were getting along great and working hard!) The next day, we went to Silvia's house to teach a lesson (one of our investigators).  She's read the BOM completely and knows its true but she doesn't come to church.  We have always thought its because she has problems with the chastity. And it turns out we were right, because she's pregnant lol.  But she was telling us her boyfriend left her when she found out and it was just some crap.  So I quickly had the thought to share that same scripture.  She started crying and we had a great deep discussion with her.  Hopefully this changes things and she comes to church this week.  I think it will!  We're baptizing Marcos this Saturday and Fredrick the next.  They're both awesome.

Anyways, theres my letter for the week.

Texas forever.
Sincerely,
Leche

November 9, 2014 from Mom

Hi Baby!  How was your week?  I hope you had a great week and are staying warm at night and eating more healthy food!  Is the protein helping?  Did you go to the gym this week?

We had a good week here.  I've been working on lots of projects around the house getting ready for Christmas.  The Sandersons will be staying with us so I'm getting things organized.  I'm also planning a bridal shower for Emily Platt for next week. Crazy huh?!  We've been having great weather but starting Tuesday, there is this big "polar vortex" (sounds scary, right?) coming our way.  Highs in the low 40s and lows in the 20s for at least the next 10 days.  Gonna be chilly!  Abby is now failing Biology so I'm now basically taking Biology too so I can help her at home:)  FUN!  

So how are things going with Elder Cano?  Are you two getting along well?  How is the language?  Are you making progress?  How are your investigators Marco and Frederick coming along?  We pray for them too. I forwarded your pictures onto Elder Turley's mom because she is on the Guatemala mom page.  She loved the pictures!  I absolutely love getting your pictures throughout the week!  Also love the "More Cowbell" sign in your room!  HAHAHA!

Here is my cooking tip for the week (after you clean your kitchen).  I saw you have a hot plate.  Do you have any kind of pan?  If so, you can cook a potato in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes so its a little soft.  Then cut it up into pieces, put a little oil or butter in a hot pan..  add the potato, some cut up onion.. add some ham a little cheese and cook for a few minutes.  it would be a tasty meal.  

Oh! And before I forget… we took on your scripture challenge!  Tonight at dinner we found 3 biblical scriptures that prove our churches doctrine is true.  Here you go:

James 2: 14-18 - Faith without Works is dead.  My favorite verse is 18.  Basically he says, "I'll show you my faith BY my works"  Love that! We can't take on the name of Christ without changing ourselves and the way we live.

1 Corinthians 15: 20-22, 29  Baptism for the Dead

Acts 7:55 - Jesus and God are 2 separate beings.  

BOOM!!!  Challenge accepted, challenge met!

I also read something this week that I thought you could share with some of your investigators.  It helps to give some perspective when we feel like our life is difficult or our prayers aren't answered as soon as we'd like.  It's by a woman named Corrie Ten Boom who is a holocaust survivor.  She used to speak publicly about God's involvement in our lives even when we feel He is silent.

During Corrie’s presentations to audiences, she would often hold the back side of a piece of embroidery (attached picture), with hundreds of tangled threads hanging from it. Many wondered if she was holding up the wrong side by mistake. As she held up the messy side of the embroidery she would ask...

“Does God always grant us what we ask for in prayer? Not always. Sometimes He says, ‘No.’ That is because God knows what we do not know. God knows all. Look at this piece of embroidery. The wrong side is chaos. But look at the beautiful picture on the other side – the right side.”

Triumphantly she flipped the cloth over and revealed an elaborately embroidered crown – symbolizing our crown of eternal life. The crown was intricately stitched, and had threads of many colors, including gold, silver and pearls.

“We see now the wrong side, God sees His side all the time. One day we shall see the embroidery from His side, and thank Him for every answered and unanswered prayer.”

If you want, I can print some copies of the embroidery picture for you to give to people if it will help. I just think sometimes it is easier to understand concepts with a visual example.  

So I got your 2 boxes in the mail this week.  I'm hoping you get them soon.  Open them right away but leave the wrapped packages and stockings until Christmas!  But there are some things you can use now… I sent the conference Ensign that will have all of last conferences talks in there.  I also sent a special Book of Mormon Ensign that I thought you'd like.  Ambien.  PJ bottoms that are warm.  Garments.  New camera.  Christmas chain count down (start december 1).  Music SD card (I put lots of Mormon Tab Choir and a few Joseph Smith songs.  Really beautiful.  There is a Christmas folder with lots of Christmas songs … including some from the King Family:) and a Country folder…).  I sent 2 santa hats.. thought you two could get some candy and deliver it to some kids in your ward close to Christmas in your Santa hats:) I sent your new debit card… don't use it until you let me know you have it and I'll activate it.  Let me know when you get the boxes… my guess is in a couple of weeks. I forgot to get you some warm socks so can you get some at Walmart?  

Thank you for being such an amazing son.  Truly!  You are so loving and you give me so much to be proud of.  Mostly I thank my Heavenly Father regularly for sending you to me.  You made me a mom and we have always been incredibly close.  I could not ask for more than you!  Although I miss you more than you can imagine (seriously, I still cry at LEAST once a week!) … I love having the opportunity to see you grow in front of my eyes.  You are a loving missionary, man and leader.  You are such a tremendous example to your brother and sister and many more including your cousins and friends! You can make people feel at ease because of your genuine care for others.  I can only imagine the ways you will continue to grow over the next 22 months!  I love you so much, Sam!  I am so incredibly proud to be your mom!

Are you safe?  Do you feel protected?  More than anything we pray for your protection and for the spirit to be with you to guide you, help you teach, and warn you.  Have you been in any situations where you feel unsafe?  Be obedient!  I know that gives you protection.  Perfect obedience is what you should strive for.  Work hard.  I know the Lord trusts his work to you and must smile when He watches you labor in his vineyard!  

I don't have any pictures this week.  Nothing too eventful.  Gray starts basketball so I'll send some pics next week.  Do you know anything about Skyping at Christmas?  Where will you do it? When?  Christmas day?  Just wondering because we are sooooo excited!

Keep working hard my love!  Every day know that our love is with you!  Do you need anything?  I love you and miss you immensely!  

Infinity + infinity 

Mom

November 3, 2014 From Sam

Well another good weak in Guatemala!  

I had my first baptism on  and although it looks like he was super mad about the salvation of his soul, I promise Hermano Carlos was actually way pumped ;) Guatemalans have a thing for not smiling in pictures.  But yeah he's actually hilarious and has the funniest laugh haha.  We have another baptism thiwith Marco.  He just turned 8 years old and hes the son of Jose Jon who was baptised about a month before I got here.  Not kidding when i say hes the coolest and sweetest 8 year old on the planet.  Every time we go into a lesson he's smiling with his like 5 teeth and gives us a huge hug when we get there and when we leave.  He's awesome.  

We have an investigator Fredick who we knew from the first 20 minutes he would be baptized.  He's absolutely awesome.  He's 20 years old and super cool.  He's read almost through Alma in the Book of Mormon in about a week and a half.  We gave him a baptism date on the second lesson of the 22nd of November.  And then we have Silvia who if she gets to church every once in a while, we will baptize her on the 22nd as well.  

That's our toughest problem.  The people … how do I say this?… lack motivation. For the most part.  There are 600 members in the Limon ward but only 90 to 110 show up each week.  This is something that obviously we aren't used to in the states.  But the people here either have a testimony and don't come because of laziness.  Or dont have a testimony at all and don't come.  But the active members are super active and super helpful and they pick up all the slack.  Its pretty amazing how much they all do and its so amazing to me.  Our bishop is just amazing.  

So a few things I was missing this week... I miss cute girls first off.  I havent seen a pretty girl in two months and I don't think people quite realize the damage that does to your brain.  I have permanent Beer/missionary goggles Lol.  I miss cute dogs.  I have developed a fear of dogs from being here. They all look straight from "dog hell" quite honestly.  About half of them have mainge.  There's this one dog we saw all week with it's guts literally hanging out of its stomach and I really don't know how its still alive.  And all the chick dogs have 8 nipples that drag along the floor as they walk.  Not a huge fan of dogs in Guat.  I also miss my church home... right now its hard because I miss Sundays with my family and I can't really feel the spirit during church here when i can still only pick up things here and there with the language.  Its like they only speak with vowels.  Where are the consonants?

I also now know where all the losing world series/superbowl team shirts go and its not Africa. Its Limon Guatemala.  I counted 3 "Texas Rangers 2012 World Series Champs" shirts this week lol. There's also tons of shirts with English writing… but no one in America would ever consider wearing… so they ship them here!  There was a 70 year old lady at church this week who got up and bore her testimony.  Her shirt said "I love my boyfriend" in rainbow letters and the love was replaced by a playboy bunny.  It was funny but she's amazing. Its really incredible the poverty here.  But the people are incredible.  Seriously I'm amazed every day about how happy they are in the conditions that they live in.

The other day I had a somewhat scary moment.  A drunk guy came up to me just slooossshhheeddd out of his mind but he was trying to talk english and he wasn't bad.  But he kept grabbing me and he was a scary looking dude.  He kept saying he was a lost ship and needed direction, along with literally prolly 20 f bombs in between.  He said he needed direction so what else would I do except give him a Book of Mormon! haha He's now meeting with the elders in that area cause he's not in mine.  

So my spiritual/encouragement thought of the week...  So again we have some amazing members in our ward.  And the difference in success with the work has seriously so much to do with the ward members.  A lot of our success is because of our ward.  So my challenge to my family and all Mormons at home is to BE those members!  Get references.  It's not hard I promise you.  Be friends with the missionaries.  Tell them, if they're tired and need a half hour come by and grab some water, hang out for a few minutes, and get back to it.  The members that are like that here, oh my gosh I can't put into words how much a difference it has made in my attitude.  Do everything you can to help with the work!  "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the eyes of God," D&C 18:10.  

Have a good week everyone!  

Texas Forever, 

Elder Gurksnis

Halloween.. the Sister missionaries dressed up:)  Those guys to my left are my Zone Leaders… Awesome guys!

November 2, 2014 from Mom

Hi my sweet boy!  

What a fun week to get so many pictures from you! 3 days I got surprise email pics from you!  Thank you for sending them.  It helps me to feel like you aren't sooooo far away and I can be a part of your life even when you are in Guat.  I love the ones of Carlos.  Especially with the caption "he is so happy!"  HAHAHA!  You could barely get a smirk out of him.  How was the baptism?  How exciting for you to already have your first baptism.  How did it go?  Did you give a talk or anything?  How do they do them there?  Is the rest of his family already members?

My favorite picture is of you with the priests!  What a good looking group of guys!  They look fun and happy!  The picture reminds me of your setting apart blessing that Pres. Platt gave you when he said you will be like Ammon... known for your large stature but also for your large heart.  Read Alma 17 today.  There are so many parallels from Ammon's mission among the Lamenites and your mission among the same people.  Verse 11 says: "and the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."

I thought of that scripture when I saw the picture of you and the priests.  I bet those ym look up to you so much.  You are and good example to them and an "instrument of thee in my hands."  You are doing amazing things there already! I continue to be amazed and so very proud of my son!  How are they different from American ym their age? 

I have been praying so much for you this week. President Packer says "Few things are more powerful than the prayer of a righteous mother."  So always know that you have a mother, striving to be righteous, sending prayers to heavenly father for you many times through every day.  I know Heavenly Father hears me and has blessed me by keeping you safe and blessing you with the spirit in your teaching.  Another scripture that has given me comfort this week is D&C 84:88 It is a promise to missionaries and anyone willing to share the gospel. "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."  What a promise, Sam!  That is for you!

How are your living conditions?  Is everything okay?  Are you comfortable at night when you sleep?  You look like you've lost a little weight.  Eat and stay strong so you can be productive.  Do you get any protein?  Can you get protein bars there? Chicken? Protien powder? 

We had a good week here.  Halloween was fun.  We got the house all decorated just to take it all down today.  It finally got chilly here.  It has been so hot... like in the 90s until this weekend!  Now it feels like fall finally!  Sleeping with the windows open and sweater weather.  Abby had a bunch of her friends over on Halloween to hang out.  At the last minute they had to go get candy so they put on some lame costumes and ran out to terrorize the neighborhood.  Abby got on Aliza's case that night because Aliza admitted to only emailing Tyler 4 times on his mission so far.  Parker has emailed less than that!  Abby got so mad at her!  She said, "I miss Sam so much and I don't ever want him to forget it!"  It was pretty sweet.  Parker is starting to hang out with Will Scholl more and Gray doesn't like Will much so I think he is also missing you a lot right now.  He stills hangs out with Parker, Nathan and Isaac but if Will is there, Gray's not as interested in hanging out.  Its not a big deal but I think Will is a little shifty and Gray is just not into it (rightly so) and I'm not sure where Parker is in the whole thing.

Gray said tonight that he is going to really try to do the consulting thing as a career.  Go to BYU, work a couple years and then try for a big school for an MBA (Harvard, northwestern, Stanford type schools). I've been trying to convince him to go to 1 semester of school before going on his mission.  That way, you 2 will have 4 months together before he leaves and it will give him some experience away from home before the mish.  What do you think about that?  After seeing a lot of missionaries, what is your opinion?

How are things with your investigators?  How's the language coming along?

Grandpa and Gradma Gayle are here.  We had them over for dinner tonight.  They talked about how much they love reading your letters.  They have a Mormon dentist and so Grandpa and the dentist talk about you a lot.  You've got lots of family loving and missing you my boy!  Anyway, we had a nice time with them tonight. 

I'm planning on having a "baby shower" for Guatemala moms. I am meeting with a woman who works with a Guatemala charity that says moms bring home their babies in newspaper because they can't afford a new blanket. So I will have a "baby shower" where everyone brings baby blankets that will be donated to the charity.  It breaks my heart!  When I brought you home from the hospital (in a blanket) I used to sing "Families can be together forever" to you all the time.  I could barely get through it without tearing up because I was so grateful that you were my son forever.  We sang that in Primary today and it brought the same tears.  Happy, happy tears!  I'm the luckiest mom ever!

I love you soooo very much my son!  You're in my thoughts constantly and prayers always!  I hope you have a wonderful week!!!  Do you need anything?  Please clean your kitchen and eat!

I love you infinity + infinity and even more than that!

xoxoxoxox

Mom

p.s. I have a new debit card for you.  They sent one because they feel some of your info was compromised and so you need a new one.  The expiration date will get you thru your whole mission.  Keep using your old one until you receive the new one.  Once you get it, let me know thru email and then I will activate it from here on that day.  We will confirm through your pday email and then you can start using the new one.  You will want to cut up the old one in 20 pieces once the new one is activated.  But just use the one you have now until you get the new one and we activate it.

It also looks like some of your pictures are foggy.  You probably have moisture in your camera.  Can you put it in a bag of rice like a cell phone?  how is it working?  Im going to send a new one and when you get it, you'll need to send that one back to me.  Its is under warranty so I can return it and if the new one I send you breaks, I'll send the other one.  We can just rotate them if we need to.  You have those water proof bags.  Can you put your camera in one so it doesn't get wet?  The problem might be just from the humidity but together we will figure it out.

I Love you sooooooo much!!!  xoxoxox

PSS.  Here is a link to your blog incase you want to see what it looks like:) So far mostly people the US read it.  The most any one post has been read (by unique individuals … not counting repeats) is 76!  You have had a reader from france and one from germany:)  Weird!  I send the link out every week to your email list after I add your new letter .. I also just cut and paste the letter to your missionary buddies incase they can't open the link.