Elder Erik Dalton's Quetzaltenango Mission : This Is Why I’m Here, This is Where I’m Meant To Be

I’ve got some Great News! This week, I should have my first baptism!!!

Just an enormous river/waterfall, NBD, luv Guat.

How’s the Fam Doin? September 23, 2013

Thanks for the football updates Mom, haha, maybe Aaron can send me a more detailed email about all the games... I’d really appreciate it ;)

Sorry to hear you are sick Aaron, Que Honda, que es su problema? Get better, keep playing hard, and go do USU a favor and play for them next year. And send me updates Porfa! Thanks Bro.

Tan Man, sounds like you are super busy lately, that’s awesome, hope you are having the best year of your life in 6th grade, live it up budd, and have a bunch of fun. Also, those pics of you, Avery, Rachel, and Amy are soooo funny, haha. Better, than the Ellen Degeneres pic of me, haha. Trabaje, trabaje, trabaje, y nunca quite. PEACE...

Hey, dad maybe you could come install signs in the rainy season in Guatemala, haha Just kiddin, but it rains like every afternoon hear, and it’s either a downpour for and hour or so, or it just rains all day. I will walk out my door with clean pants and shoes and in 15 minutes they will be splattered in mud. Glad to hear you are able to work again that’s great. Thanks for always being such great support, relamente, estoy muy agradecido para todo usted hace, gracias.

Mom, tell Kelly that I like both, but two things that are kind of contradicting. The socks from CTR- I have two that have a little hole in each of them, but I like the socks from CTR a little better than the ones from the other place. But, the ones from the other place are easier to wash completely, so I really don’t know what to tell her, sorry. I think I have finally got all your pics, I got all the 4th of July, Cabin, Cousins, Family at Grandmas, Other Missionaries, and the pouch letters always make it, and I think they get here pretty fast. My comp has changes next week, so this is his last week in Quilinco conmigo. Thanks for always writing so much mom, I don’t always get that many emails, so thank you, muy muy agradecido! Love you guys sooooooooo much!

I’ve got some Great News! This week, I should have my first baptism!!! I am so excited, and can’t wait for this Saturday. Jessica, quien tiene 12 anos debe ser bautizado este sabado a las 6 en la tarde. This is going to be an amazing day for Jessica. First of all, all of Quilinco is traveling to the Temple in Xela this Saturday in the morning. She will get to see the temple with her mom, who could be baptized this Saturday also. After they visit the gardens of the temple we will travel back to Chiantla and have the baptism there. Wow what an amazing experience this will be for her to see the temple, and know the next time she visits, she will be able to go inside. I am so excited for her. From all my experiences with this family I can truely say there are no such thing as coincidences when you are a missionary. Everything you do, everything you say, has an effect on the outcome of the day. I remember in my first week here I told my comp. that I wanted to visit Jessica y Telma (la mama) because they come to church and they like it, and I wanted to get the chance to talk with them. I remember my comp saying to me, No quiero nada, no quieren nada! Ellas son investigadores eternales. Cuando visitamos ellas, diga nada, acerca el evangelio ni la iglesia. (She doesnt want anything, they dont want anything. They are eternal investigators. When we vistit them, say nothing, about the gosple or the church.) I remember telling my comp and thinking to myself, maybe they have been visited by missionary after missionary, and maybe they don’t want anything, but I want the opportunity to talk with them, just once. Because, I know that there are people out here who arent ready in certain moments, and maybe my comp and his antiguo comp werent in the time meant to help these people, but just maybe, now they are ready. I’m not going to just give up on this opportunity. Hablar CON Todos! (Talk WITH Everyone!)

After are first visit, Jessica y Telma continued to gain trust in us. We helped them with service, sang for them, and had powerful lessons with them. Just this last week we got permission from the mom to baptize Jessica, and we were stoked, but the date wasn’t fija, (wasn’t for sure) So we knew we had to visit her again. We were praying for an opportunity to talk with Jessica personally with her cousin who is a member. And the day we visited them, there was a perfect moment and situation, to confirm her baptism. Wahoo! we were so excited, she was set to get baptized this Saturday. So, yesterday she came to church, and we were talking to here and everything seemed good to go. So we set an appointment to visit her Monday, today. But, yesterday as we were walking to a different cita con un investigador. My comp said to me that he felt like we needed to visit Jessica. I said ight, les go. So we left our other planned cita, and walked up the other mountain to Jessica’s house. When we got there, the Grandma who is not a member was very sick, very sick with Grippe, which is just a cold, but when you are like over 80 somethin years, a cold can be pretty rough. We were able to offer to give her a priesthood blessing, and she accepted and the spirit was very strong. We were hoping to talk to Jessica, but turns out we were meant to help here abuela. When we were leaving, it turned out that Jessica needed to go down to the Mill and grind corn for tortillas. So it was the perfect opportunity to walk and talk with her about Sabado. We were able to fortalecer, strengthen, her decision, and give her everything she needed to know about this Saturday. She is so prepared, and if we had missed any of our visits with this family, they would not be where they are at today. The whole point I’m trying to get across here, is in the mission, there are no coincidences. If you follow the promptings of the spirit, I know that you will be led to work as instruments in God’s hands. I am so happy for Jessica and her Mom. And so happy, that this supposed family of eternal investigators had a change of heart, and are ready to make this great covenant with our Heavenly Father.

This is why I’m here, this is where I’m meant to be, and if I was anywhere else, I would never know my true potential.

Thanks for everything, Love you guys,

Love Elder Dalton

I forgot! another way cool story. So....

Me and my comp were in Chiantla one day waiting for a bus to go up to Quilinco. So we were waiting, and this Bolo (drunk) little old man came up to us. Usually the bolos will yell something in English at us, or yell, "¡Hijos de Jose Smith!" haha, so we were ready and prepared to be annoyed. But he came up to us, and struggled to say. "I want to change" My comp kind of just shrugged it off cause he is a bolo, and I really wasn’t paying much attention to him either, but he was persistent and said something like "when will you come visit me". My comp said next week, basically just shrugging him off because he was a bolo. But, the look in this guy’s eyes was actually really sincere, and I could tell he actually wanted to change, and try to improve the life he was living. His name was Teodoro, so we took his info. and I made sure we gave his reference information to the hermanas in Chiantla. My comp. thought it was funny that we were sending the info. of a Bolo to the hermana missionaries in Chiantla. But I could tell this reference was serious, and he was really counting on someone to visit him the next week. I felt sad as he walked away clueless to whether someone would actually come visit him. I watched him walk away with his sweet unicorn wool sweater, haha. Turns out, the hermana missionaries actually contacted him, and actually taught him, he gave up drinking, he goes to church, and he is going to be baptized this Saturday.

All I can say is that I am so glad we actually gave Teodoros info. to the hermanas and didn’t just let him walk off and keep on living the life of an almost homeless bolo. Like I said ultima vez, Elecciones Cambian Vidas. That’s why it’s so important to Hablar CON Todos, Talk WITH Everyone, don’t just talk to them, or talk at them, talk with them, and I promise you can be a blessing in their lives.