Hola Vaca...OH!

​Hiiii:)

The story behind the headliner is quick and AWESOME! Where we live , in the mornings there are a few cows that are tied to some trees (vaca means cow....and hola means Hello) haha. Anyway. We were leaving our house for the day and the cows were there, one of them is big and white and closest to the path that we take and often we greet it and tell it goodnight haha (weird missionaries right?!) We were walking past the cow and my comp says, "Hola vaca.." right then the cow starts peeing! "OH!" he says. HAHAHA I died!!! It was awesome. So that´s my spiritual thought for the week;) catch you later!

psych! I´m not done. This week was pretty cool. 

Something that really hit me this week happened when I was thinking about my brother, Elder Whelan. We had a district meeting and we were sharing our stories from when we opened our call. Mine when something like this, " So I have done everything with my brother, sports, girls, school, work, everything. And we sent in our papers at the same time. One day while we were working we got a text that our papers where at home waiting for us. when we got home, we showered and our friends showed up and we opened them. He went first. Guatemala ciudad central mission. clapping, whoohoo! and so on. Then I opened mine, REU, Guatemala. WHAT!?!?!?! We both said! We are both going to Guatemala!!!" Something like that. I miss that guy, a lot. He meant a lot to me. He still does. But I know that right now he is doing the Lord's work so I am okay being away from him. But I miss him. There are times that I want to talk to him and share stories, but he isnt here. but haha we are in freaking central america and still only a few hours away, how freaking crazy right!? I love that dude and I cant wait to converse with him in 21 months in spanish and swap stories, It will be awesome:) Also my other two of the "older kids" in the family. Having four teenagers grow up together has been really cool. Getting to play lacrosse with Dalton and Kollin both was awesome and watching dalton and ty play tennis was fun:) Dalton and Ty are at home now and I know that they are prepping to serve and I miss them bunches too! I cant wait to give them hugs at the airport haha (I am not being trunky or baggie or whatever they call it there, here its baggie) But I sure do miss those two. But I know that they are doing awesome and Living it up! Having four of us was like a gang in the family and at church too haha. The Darling/Whelans....watch out! haha

haha. So, music is something that has always been a part of me, everywhere I go i am singing or listening to my tunes. And here I have been writing whenever i am waiting for something or whatever. There is a member here Alan, and he asked me to write a song, Querido Juan. (Dear John) haha So that´s been my little project and its pretty tight! he wants like half in english and half in spanish so thats going to become something after the mission for sure. 

If there is something that has been a big focus this week it is that Families CAN Be together FOREVER. I know they can. I have been blessed with a family that has this special gift, and I know that i will be with them and my future family for evvvver! Cool Right! We had a family home evening with a part member family of Mama Rosa this week. Her kids are members (she has three daughters, youngest is 15 and other two are married and have kids. one lives in the capital but Karina and Alan are still here and live with her. She isn't married to her boyfriend, so she hasn't been baptized) arrrgh haha. But she's our Mama here haha. anyway, we had the family home evening and we shared the first vision videos and then some other ones... spirit strong. We had a super awesome discussion about families and how they can be together forever through baptism and sealing in the temple. it was awesome and we are so close to a date for her wedding! I can taste the cake!! haha. 

Something awesome this week happened during lunch. One of the hermanas that was feeding us lunch brought us our plates. grilled chicken and rice or noodles.... i forgot. Anyway It was looking good. My comp says... haha, "oh". I look over to his plate and there is a little heart. Yep, chicken heart. haha. " I don´t want this" he says. HAHAHA. Okay. I thought for a minute. Pass it over, I will eat it. And so I had a chicken heart (check that off the list). I have also eaten Cow tongue and snout, and intestine (which is really chewwy). 

We also had english class this week, found some teeth (not sure to what... haha and today we went on a hike! enjoy the pics!

Over all good week! I love you all!

-Elder Darling​

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

​Hello.

Man these weeks are just flying by! but this week was pretty neat!

So I take notes throughout the week about the things that I want to write about and it makes life both easier and hard because sometimes i forget why I wrote it... BUT! Here we go haha

Somethings that make me smile here are really simple and usually my comp thinks i am a weirdo but I don't care haha, But the Butterflies. are. beautiful. There are some awesome butterflies here. Some have a blue body and the tips of their wings are white and when they fly away from you you see white lins like sparklers on the 4th of july being drawn in the air WHAT!? SO COOL!!! haha Also the fireflies still make me smile and dance around like a little kid. Also the animals are cool, sometimes. We were walking home and there was a little white calf following us haha, it was sooo CUTE! 

So something that i find super funny is when people wear shirts that have english writing and they have no idea what it says. Sometimes I will say "hey, I like your shirt", and they are always like "what does it say?" haha I saw a RUN DMC shirt yesterday, the kid's in our ward and he was like, "what is it?" WHAT?! WHAT'S RUN DMC?!?!?! AHHHHHH hahaha YOU'RE KILLIN ME SMALLS! but its all good haha. Also We were walking away from a lesson and we passed a couple, but the guy was wearing pink flip-flops and his nails were painted pink😂 people here are awesome, 

Sunday we went to our lunch appointment after church at a members house where tenemos un poco pena because we got food poisoning before. But, we go because she took up every sunday on our schedule haha (darn it haha). She didn't have it ready because she didn't know if we would show up because last sunday we weren't able to make it because we had to go to another area for a meeting. Anyway, we were waiting and helping her get the food ready (she had to heat it up) And I am in the doorway of the kitchen and my comp looks down at the plate, then points to his head. BRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is what I am thinking now, and there are little dark balls on the plate in the sauce with the brains. GREAT! I am about to eat brains and eyeballs!!!!!!!!!! 😂 freakin scared me. It was just chicken and raisens in a red sauce and spaghetti on the side. BRUH! Don't do that to me!!!!! It wasn't brains or eyeballs, and we aren't sick, so it's all good. 

So here they celebrate what's called Semana Santa, which is the last week of Christ's life through resurrection sunday, and it is really cool because the mind set here for the whole week is all about Christ's life. I love it!! They also have foods that they make specifically for each day, but I forgot what they are called. haha oops. This week, I have learned a big lesson on following the Spirit. (The spirit is a guide that we receive after we are baptized with the authority of Christ called the Priesthood, The spirit whispers to us through a "still small voice" about things that we should do, avoid, etc.) And I was feeling (during planning) that we should visit an area that I haven't been to called Petencito. Then my comp said "yeah, and the Colonia" So we planned our day around that. Then while we were their we found ten new investigators that are interested in the church. When we receive promptings from the spirit, it's extremely important that we follow them. This could be to  write a letter to a friend, hold the door for a stranger, smile, hug somebody, anything. The important part is that we act. Because had we not gone to that place on that day, who knows what would have happened. But I know that through the Holy Ghost (or the Spirit) We can change lives and especially here in the mission that we will change lives, we will bring people to their savior and help them to find the true gospel that is here in the earth ready for them to accept and use in their lives. I know this Church is true, and I know that The Savior loves each one of us, and he wants us to be happy. I also know that because he wants us to be happy, he gave us a way to live with our families forever through his gospel. I know that the restored gospel is here on the earth and I know also that through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we have both the restored gospel and the Priesthood here for us to have and to use.

I love you all!

pics of haircut before and after, videos of the beach and my comp singing in the shower haha my comps Corona swim trunks😂 ​

Pancakes that go BOOM

¡Hola! ¡Que onda? This week has gone by pretty fast and its been a good one. 

Started the week of with intercambios with the district leaders and I stayed in my area with Elder Daughtrey #gringo, and I got to speak a LOT of english for that day haha. but the exchanges were good. We went to a family home evening with some members and I could feel that my spanish is progressing pretty quickly which is nice. 

There isn't any root beer here, so that sucks.

Oh! haha, So I am a really good cook when it comes to pancakes and one day I was making  them so well that the extension cord started to spark, then exploded! haha then we had a little fire and I was laughing but my comp was worried because the cord was throwing sparks into the bookshelf and he didn't want the folletos to catch on fire. It was awesome. I took a picture after we put it out.

So last sunday, we were walking to our lunch appointment after church, and we say some members in their house so we said hi, then somehow ended up eating tacos with them haha. Then after that we went to have lunch. We ate lunch and were full and the hermana wasn't in the room and I had chicken left and I couldn't finish it, so we found a sack and put our leftovers in the sack and in my backpack. Said thank you, then left to throw the food away. #pecadores

So, we were chillin, waiting for dinner with Mama Rosa and her Husband walk in. (He likes the church a lot but cant go to church on sundays because he works) So we shared the new First vision video "Pide a Dios" and then some more bible videos. After we just sat there and he says " I am going to pray today" " I want to pray now". haha we are like, well okay! haha thats great! Then he says "I am going to pray at 1 in the morning, when its quiet" (This whole time we are like "YES!!!!!!!!!" because we have been telling him to pray over and over haha. So that was a great experience. I truly know that through prayer with a desire to know and a sincere heart, we will receive answers from our Father in Heaven. Prayer is a powerful tool that we have the access to here in this earth. At times it may seem impossible to kneel down and pray, but I promise you that if you take the time to get down on your knees and speak to your Father in Heaven, that he will answer you. I know this because we are his children, and that he loves us. He will always love us, no matter what we have done or what we are doing, he is ALWAYS there. we just need to "send the first message". 

The Smile

HELLOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Hi, this week has gone by pretty darn quickly. And its nice to be emailing once again:) So this week, on martes, I went to the capital of Guate to sign for my papers to legally be here for the next 21.5 months😂 but who's counting?! And that was really fun! We left from Brillantes (my area) on a bus just me with four other elders, and my comp went with our zone leaders for the time that I was gone. And I was the only gringo that went from the REU mission. When we got there there was elders from  the Mission that is above our ( I have no idea how to spell it...) And some of them were in the CCM at the same time as me, but we had three weeks when they got there so they weren't in our districts (elder Whelan's nor I) but I still knew who they were. And it was cool to get to talk and catch up with them. 

Not a lot happened this week because I was gone for two days and we had conference the entire weekend. But the lessons that we did have were awesome. Here is a quick story and explanation for the header.  So we are teaching this kid that is about my age, 18 or 19, named José. This week we had our second lesson with him, and we were teaching the Plan of salvation. I was teaching about the Holy Ghost and the role that it will have in our lives after baptism. And how that it will guide us and teach us and stuff like that. "José, would you like to have the holy ghost in your life?" Yes, he replied. "José....would you like to be baptized?". We waited a second. That´s when he smiled. I will never forget that smile. It was a smile put on his face by the testimony of the holy ghost. It was a smile that allowed me to know that he was feeling exactly what I was feeling. "Yes" He answered. This gospel, is amazing. 

Conference was this week and the parts that I understood and were awesome! And I cant wait to read the rest in english!!! haha But something super funny that happended was, because they have translators during one of the talks it was in english for the first little but, then it gets quiet like the guy is going to translate and we hear, in english "I can't hear him" HAHAHAHA Another set of elders was there with us and We were dying! It was so funny! then he started to translate a minute later.

So After the priesthood sessions of conference that I went to with Kollin, Dalton and Dad, afterwards we would go out for dinner or ice cream or something and I decided to try to do something special with my comp. So after conference, we got mexican tortas. The first bite was awesome. The rest of it all i could think of was fat people haha. Its like a hot dog but with a bunch of different meats and sauces. I still don't know if i want to eat another one...

So something that Made me soooo freakin happy this week completely caught me off guard. Fireflies! WHAT!? Ahh I love Guatemala. At first I thought it was a flashlight, or something. then there were like 25 flashlights haha. FIREFLIES!!! I have never smiled so big before. haha I felt like a little kid. But I was happy and thats all that matters.

Something else that made me happy this week was running. Last p-day we had free (what ever we wanted to do as a companionship) and I asked my comp if he wanted to go for a run and he said no. Great I thought... I will never get to go for a run in the morning 😖. But nope, We woke up one morning and my comp asked, "you want to go to the field to run?" YES!!!!! I replied. Boy, I ran and ran and ran, and I was so sore the next day but I felt so free! Just running and thinking about cross country and lacrosse and coaches and teams and sports, I love running haha. dont tell Becker. 

Thats mostly what happened down here in Brillantes, Guate. I love you all. Thanks for the emails!

-Elder Darling​