Hungry Hungry Hippos and #Aleluya

Hola Everyone!

The weeks are flying by. I can´t believe how fast it feels like this month is going. Still going strong here in the office, and finding some new investigators every week. Although we haven´t had too many baptisms as of late, we are confident that the Lord will help us have one soon. I think that we are planting lots of seeds too. We have found some great people. 

This past week we were doing lots of activities to help motivate people to come to Ward Conference of Barrio Reu 2. On Tuesday there was a ¨Noche de Cine¨ (Movie Night). Tuesday was the Obra Misional activity (Missionary Activity). We decided to do life-size Hungry Hungry Hippos. Basically, what we did was split people into teams. The teams were based off of the tribes of Israel. They were Efraín (Ephraim), Manasés (Manasseh), and Judá (Judah). The object of this game was to grab as many balloons as possible. The way the players would accomplish this is by rolling around on four-wheel carts and grabbing them with laundry baskets. The rest of the team would then pull on a rope that was tied to the cart and pull back the player on the cart and the balloons they had grabbed. The game turned out to be a hit. It got really competetive. We had about 400 balloons on the floor. 

Hermana Galland
Hermana Canales(Mexico)
Elder Pugmire (Minnesota)
The spiritual element we tied into this game is that the players would represent missionaries, and that each balloon was one of the lost sheep. We based the whole game into the idea of the gathering of Israel in the Latter Days, and since it was an Missionary Work activity, it tied in perfectly. I think the members and investigators we had there enjoyed the game. We also wanted to do an activity that would help with team-building in the ward, so that hopefully the members could get to know each other better. 

Tajadas de banana verde con carne molida
Slices of green banana with ground beef
This week is Semana Santa, which is the week leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We´ve already started to see a little bit of what Semana Santa brings to Guatemala. The Catholic church is very active in doing processions and other public ceremonies. Things will be a little tough this week as everyone goes to the beach for holidays such as Christmas and Easter. The Church released their new incentive for Easter 2016 called #Hallelujah (#Aleluya en español). It´s always cool to see the new videos the church makes for the holidays. I especially enjoyed the video that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir did with a virtual choir on YouTube. They sang Handel´s ¨The Mesias¨ and it turned out awesome. I love that the church is constant with technology and reaches out to people through social media and music. It really makes you think; What other church compares to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? This is the only true and complete gospel that exists on the earth today. 

Anyways. I hope you all have a great Easter week and enjoy your Cadbury eggs! 

Elder Taylor