Hey, everyone! Really good week here in HueHuetenango. I'm now a lot more accustomed to the work and area here and I love it.
We weren't able to find many new people through our contacts, but we put a Hermana on date for baptism and also have another Hermano that we taught last night in the baptismal font room, which was really cool.
This week we did divisions with the Elders in our Zone, all the way out in the Huistas. Their area borders Mexico, and they live like 30 minutes from the border.
It was a 4-hour drive to their area from HueHue and took longer because immigration stopped the bus and checked everyone to see where they were going. There were people sitting next to me that said they were from Ecuador, trying to get to the states. Crazy.
But the division was great. Me and a brand-new missionary (from Lone Peak, too) had a great lesson with a new family they just found, and we put them on date for baptism in the lesson as well.
Now this weekend, General Conference was so amazing. Before conference started, I wrote down some questions, and one was, "What's the theme of this conference? What is the message we need to hear in this session?" And as I was listening, I felt like the message was, Jesus Christ. Everything we do, everything good, is because of him. Everything that we need, we can turn to him. There was a lot about charity and being like Christ as well. But another topic that I liked was that we need to be strengthening our testimonies constantly because when we encounter trials, our faith is going to be what helps us to overcome them. And trials are meant to help us, not lessen our faith in him. There were a lot of amazing talks. But Elder Rasband's was especially cool because after he invited the world to share a Book of Mormon that day, me and my comp went out and had a family home evening with some less actives. We gave them each a Book of Mormon and invited them to write their testimonies inside the from cover of the book. Then we asked if there was anyone that they could give the book to. They all looked to one of the Hermanas in the room because she's not a member. And my comp thought she was haha. But because of us fulfilling an invitation from an apostle, we were able to find a new person to teach that is really interested. Quiero invitarles, to go and share the Book of Mormon with someone, or at least your testimony of the Book of Mormon. You never know how much good might come from it. Sharing the gospel is the most important thing we can do in this life. I promise you won't regret it.
Then, the best part of conference happened. Hearing the Prophet say, "HueHuetenango, Guatemala" for a new temple was so surreal. Almost everyone was crying haha. All of the members in the sacrament room just were shocked and overtaken by the Spirit. It was really cool. It was one of the coolest things ever to hear the prophet say my area where I'm serving right now, in General Conference. I feel so lucky to be here and the beginning of this new era of the work. I had an impression that all of the past missionaries before me were probably saying, "I served there." But I'm actually the one that is here right now and so I know I have a large responsibility to work the hardest I can here to prepare the area and people for a temple. I couldn't be more motivated to do it. I love HueHue already and love the people.
The Huehuetenango Guatemala Temple will be the fifth house of the Lord in the highlands of western Guatemala. The other four temples are the Cobán Guatemala Temple (under construction), Guatemala City Guatemala Temple, Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple (announced), and Quetzeltenango Guatemala Temple. Guatemala is home to more than 284,000 Latter-day Saints in 436 wards and branches.
I love you and miss you all. Share your testimonies!!
- Elder Copeland
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