No matter how small it may be, we are making a difference.

I love this Picture!
This is me with all the little soccer kids in Pueblo Viejo, one of the other villages that we visit.

We had a Triple Branch activity this Saturday. 3 branches came. The branch from San Bartolo, the branch from Paxajtup, and our branch, Choqui

 

 

The activity was a huge success! We had a lunch after. So all the Corte Ladies got together and brought their giant "witch cauldrons" and cooked up a bunch of chicken, rice, and beans.... Delicious! I helped make tomalitos, which are basically just a bunch of tortilla flower and water mushed up and rolled between forest leaves. They throw hundreds into a giant pot, and cook it all up nice and yummy.

Here are the Hermanas from San Bartolo cookin up the giant pots of Rice!

             


All these Hermanas are pure Corte Hermanas!

 

These are the giant witch cauldrons at the activity, filled with hundreds of Chicken Wings.

 

 

It was really fun and neat to see threee branches grouped together in a small church up in the mountains. We played a bunch of games, and it was my idea to have a waterballoon toss. So we filled up like a hundred waterballoons and played games with them. The people Loved It!

 

I think over 250 people showed up to the activity, which was awesome! If only that many could come to church every week, ha-ha. In total, in Choqui we have like 290 members and only 100 come to church every week, that is why we are focusing a lot in reactivating all these inactive families right now.


 

Hey, Family!                                                                                            February 10, 2014

Thanks for all of your letters, I love hearing individually from each and every one of you. Tanner, I almost understood all of your Spanish you got from Google Translate, ha-ha but I think you must of spelled a few things wrong in English, or Google Translate aint completely accurate.

 

Aaron, thanks for writing me! Tell Kellen that I also say what up, Saqarík Nan! Which is Buenos Dias in Kíché. I am so stoked that you and your team are doing so well this year. Just go beat Davis.... ight!?

  

Mom happy happy birthday this week! I thought you were turning 49, ha-ha. But I did celebrate your birthday in Choqui. Elder Jackson made me this amazing frozen key lime pie! It was soooooo good, and I don’t even like key lime pie. I guess it was a secret recipe from his mom. I really did think of you this week. I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Sorry I couldn’t send you or dad anything for your birthdays, it’s because ya know Choqui doesn’t have a post office or anything. So Dad... how do you feel now that you and mom are officially anzianos!? ....Viejitos, haha. I love you guys a lot, and always pray for ya!

So this week we walked all over the mountains, and we did do a lot of service. You´re right this area is an area of a lot of service. But I know that we have a purpose being here, and maybe the purpose right now is to do a lot of activating inactive members and doing a lot of service for them. If anything, I feel happy, because I feel like I have a purpose here no matter how small it may be, we are making a difference.

We had a Triple Branch activity this Saturday. 3 branches came. The branch from San Bartolo, the branch from Paxajtup, and our branch, Choqui. It was really fun and neat to see three branches grouped together in a small church up in the mountains. We played a bunch of games, and it was my idea to have a waterballoon toss. So we filled up like a hundred water balloons and played games with them. The people loved It!

The activity was a huge success! We had a lunch after. So all the Corte Ladies got together and brought their giant "witch cauldrons" and cooked up a bunch of chicken, rice, and beans.... Delicious! I helped make tomalitos, which are basically just a bunch of tortilla flower and water mushed up and rolled between forest leaves. They throw hundreds into a giant pot, and cook it all up nice and yummy.

After the activity we all played soccer on the court. I have my good days, and mas o menos days when I play. This time I was on fire, and scored 5 goals! They started calling me the Goalador. It’s really fun to play with all of them, but even better its fun to watch the little kids play. They are so amazing and have such great ball handling skills. They are meant to be soccer players.

I think over 250 people showed up to the activity, which was awesome! If only that many could come to church every week, ha-ha. In total, in Choqui we have like 290 members and only 100 come to church every week, that is why we are focusing a lot in reactivating all these inactive families right now.

We had a huge service day this week, when we hauled like 50 adobe bricks up this mountain to the building site of this new little house. Each brick probably ways about 40 or 45 punds, which isn´t that bad, but after the 8th or 9th brick, you start to feel it... Trust me.

We have been doing so much service lately, but that’s a good thing. As we serve others, we are also in the "Service of God". Every day if you have an opportunity to serve someone, you end up finishing the day happy and satisfied.

So Elder Jackson tells me I have the "Un Midas Touch, or he also says the touch of death" I have managed to somehow break our stove, our heater, and our shower in one month living in Choqui. Every time there is some sort of explosion and lots of sparks, and I honestly have no idea why, ha-ha.... I guess the next thing to go would be the fridge or the microwave.

 

President Bautista came to our area. He always calls me the mountain man, haha and always jokes around saying- "What mountain range would you like to go to next Elder."

I guess I am an Elder from the mountains...he kind of hinted that I would be up in Choqui for quite some time, and I guess after that he´ll be sending me to a new set of mountains.
 

"I love you guys so much, and pray for you often, and I am so grateful for every single one of you, thanks for being the people that you are!

Love Elder Dalton

 

We had a huge service day this week, when we hauled like 50 adobe bricks up this mountain to the building site of this new little house. Each brick probably ways about 40 or 45 pounds, which isn´t that bad, but after the 8th or 9th brick, you start to feel it... Trust me.

Hauling them Adobe Bricks!



This is the 3rd house that We´ve built in Choqui. Carrying the blocks up the hills reminds me of what a GPP fitness workout would be.

The family who we built the second house for thanked us by giving us this fruit called- ChileCaeote- and its probably the grossest things ever, haha, but accepted their kind offer, and took it to our house. As we were walking down the street, another lady ran out of her house, and gave us another one, : / mmmmmmm.... Rico!

Our Delicious Reward!!!

           

Just Chillin' in Choqui!!!

 

I thought this was a sweet pick of the Sun shining down on my village

I saw this sweet Spider chillin on this massive web the other day. It looks like all the spiders you see on survivor!

This is all the food we bought for the month, when we were in Xela. I ate my 5 boxes of Cereal in 4 days, ha-ha, ya I enjoy eating.

So you wanted to know a little about my comp... Well first off to describe him.... he is a mix of Ken Jennings, Mitt Romney, Indiana Jones, and ya.... Elder Jackson is a great guy. He loves politics, cooking, and star wars. He loves country music.... ugh.... and Broadway..... ya.... so..... we are a little different, but he is an awesome comp, and we get along. I love when he makes food, he has made me Alfredo, French onion soup, Key Lime Pie, and lots of other stuff. I offered in return to make him something, like eggs or instant soup, but he thought it´d be better if he stuck to the cooking.

This is the beautiful slice of heaven that Elder Jackson made me on Mom´s Birthday.

We passed through Polówa today, and I bought some more Corte....yes its probs an addiction, I am a shopaholic to corte, but its a good thing ;)

         


I forgot to forward this to you guys a while ago.This is me and my birthday cheesecake that my zone made me on Christmas! and the candles were fireworks, so I could never blow them out.

              

We have been doing so much service lately, but that’s a good thing. As we serve others, we are also in the "Service of God". Every day if you have an opportunity to serve someone, you end up finishing the day happy and satisfied.