Week 3

Gee wiz. i cant seem to figure this email thing out, but its kinda funny.


Well, so this week has been nuts. All of the Latino elders left the CCM today, and more (and north americans) are coming tomorrow. My spanish is getting way better, just speaking it all day. And im really hittin the books, ive probaly never studied this hard for anything. Actuall, i never really stuided anything so yeah. This is great, I always hear about those dudes who come back knowing how to study, and i thought that was dumb. But, now i get what they mean.


Sunday, I didnt get called to speak, my companion did actually, His spanish skills are improving, but there were people correcting him up there the whole time (a sister ended up asking for his email and, he didnt know what she was saying so he just said gracias, but then she gave it to him. All cause he stumbled over some words in sacrament) Classic Elder Nelson LOL and then we sang I need the every hour as well.


Today has been so cool, We went to the temple at like seven in the morning. Then we got to get out of the CCM to go to the city centre. We went to a cathedral and that was cool, it supposed to be the second oldest one in guatemala. It was beautiful. Then we handed out Book of Mormons (or books of mormons.) and it was super cool, elder Nelson and I are super bad at spanish, but we said a quick prayer and got to work, we were walking around and saw this man just chillin, so we were like, ¿Cómo esta? and then we got to talking about religion and he was very interested, we gave him a book and he wanted more info about our church so we gone hook him up with the elders down here.
Next guy, was a father chillin with his son, and he was just lovin the idea of the gospel blessing families and more scripture about the americas and christ. So hes gonna meet up with some elders as well. Its incredible how much these people want to know more about christ, and his gospel. And though my spanish is broke, I know that I had a little extra help today from The Lord so I could preach about the LDM.


Funny story, we went to a market and they had all kinds of things. All kinds of meet hanging with flies all over. and crazy people selling stuff. But the craziest thing was this man come up to us and start talking And i know he is just super drunk, but you cant not shake someones had thats rude man. So i asked his name and showed me his tattoo of his name. So i said mucho gusto George, he, some how, found a way to get the words out of his mouth, said mucho gusto. and gave me a nice wet smooch on the hand. thats about it.


Love yall.


Elder Owen

Week 2

Hey Yall. Sorry if you got a random message meant for my sister, I don't really know how to use my email still. But, its fine, i have so much time to figure it out. At the end of these two years, im gonna be so good at emailing. (hopefully I do other cool things too)

So this week, ugh. I dropped a pen in a toilet and i had to grab it with my hand, i mean nothing was in it besides some water and my pen... but still, pretty dang gross.

Today i got to go to the temple again, i dont think anybody really fell asleep this time. Its really nice going to the temple cause i get to walk there, and here in the CCM we are gated in for six weeks (if youre white) and you only get less than a five minute walk to the temple, its great. The road we walk along is super busy, theres always sirens and horns honking and tires screaming and the best part is the motos they zip between traffic and over medians and they are just nuts, i hop i dont drive here . Ever. People drive so crazy here, theres police, i think, everywhere and they are the meanest looking people, with sawed off shot guns, its pretty funny.

oh another funny story i had a pen in my mouth (different pen than before) and it flew out of my mouth, and it was during a class so I tried to go and pick it up before anyone noticed me, but then this very kind sister goes to pick it up, and i tried telling her not to, but i was too late and she grabbed the pen right where it all my slobber on it. I could tell she noticed what she had just done, but we never talked about it. It was too awkward.

So we always have district meetings , and an Elder Ashcroft said they alwasy turn into feelstrips (like felidtrip) hah i though it was pretty funny. But during one of them this sweet little elder, Elder lowe, is talking about his life and just stops in the middle of his story, and points at the next elder. and were all sitting here like,"are you done bro?" and he says well i got a whole life of stories so should i keep going? just funny stuff. My district is so much fun, theres no hermanas, which is really nice. Not being rude to the sister reading this right now, but they are distracting, and i think that the elders would act differently if they were around us. so, i guess you could say its a blessing, haha. Speaking of Elder Lowe, his Companion Elder Kelsey is just the most sensitive little fella, and gets really mad when people call hime by the wrong name, all the latinos cannot say Kelsey. So our teacher called him by the wrong name, and he threw some keys at the teacher super hard, the class was quiet till the teacher went home. I love Elder Keelzy so much, he is the dwight to my Jim.

So to wrap it up, my trio is now a duo. Elder adams got transffered to another district cause three guys went home, something about trying to burn the biulding down?? hah no. they were just not liking it, but his new companion has lost 25 lbs since being here.. for two weeks. and nobody knows whats going on, they all joke about it being "super cancer" its funny kinda. but now its just me and elder nelson in our room, one of the only rooms with a bathroom and a shower. so im living the dream.

love yall, hope you have a good week bless your hearts

love Elder Owen

Week 1

Hola everybody. Como estan? If you couldn't tell by that, I'm learning a ton of spanish. Also sorry for the typos and stuff the keyboards down here are very different than the ones back home.So the first day I got here was crazy! It felt like 5 days packed into one! None of had slept the night before leaving and then the night we were on the plane was too exciting to sleep as well, i guess. So we were running on nothing when we got here, and there was no break, I'm still tired and it's been a week. Just kidding.

So right when we got here we started filling out paperwork and then a Hermana calls me and a few other missionaries over and tells us to go to this room and there's a barber in there, and we all got our heads shaved, it was pretty sad letting all my hair go.. but i've come to terms with it now. Haha. So my companions are from California and Canada. The Canadian is a hoot, loves "poking fun at people" as he puts it and then right after "poking fun" he says sury aboot that. Classic canadian. haha. But the first day he wasn't so chipper, he left canada but his luggage didn't and then he got dehydrated and threw up. Not a good day for any of us haha. But, funny story aboot Elder Nelson and I. He Told me that he was scared of me when we met because I was From Salt Lake City, Utah (or as the people down her call it "The Farm.") because Id be this crazy powerful missionary and it'd be hard to keep up with a companion like that, but once he got to know me, he realized, I'm not intimidating at all, and that i'm barely average. So I think that it's going to be me trying to stay caught up with him.

Really a lot of what we do is study spanish, even though I haven't learned too much, I feel like i'm barely starting to get the hang of it. Even though y'all know I don't do too well with english either. that's just the spirit working with me i suppose. The weather is pretty nice here but i hear that my mission is hot and rains everyday, so I'm just enjoying the air conditioned CCM right now. the north americans all love Nacho Libre and the Office, and i can quote those better than the bible, so you could say i'm making friends here.

well all i gotta say is I'm very grateful for this church I can be a part of, and that i've been blessed with the opportunity to be here in central america for the next two years. Keep me in your prayers could definitely use them, y'all are for sure in mine. Feel free to write me back haha.

Love Elder Owen

Safe in Guatemala

Elder Owen arrived safely in Guatemala on 5 October 2016. We received a very short email. Anxiously waiting for more details...

"Hello. I am safe and here in Guatemala, no sleep at all. Having a good time, staying busy, and meeting a lot of people. Love you guys!"

As I was cleaning up his room and packing things up, I found notes he left for me in random places expressing gratitude and love. I am completely certain he laughed as he wrote them knowing they would make me cry. We love this good, young man!

See You in Two!