Hard Work in La Maquina

 Hola everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful week! We´re doing great here in La Maquina, as always. Yesterday was my first time directing sacrament meeting in the branch. I was a little nervous to be honest, but it went by really quickly. The members are also very supportive and trust the missionaries a lot here, so thats a big plus. This week, Elder Bonilla and I have been training our new companion, Elder Ardon. He´s from Honduras and just came from the CCM last week. It´s been a little rough working with him in our area because he has a knee problem. It´s possible that he could be changed to another area. I guess we will see what happens. 

Me and Elder Preciado (Mexico) in his area, Cuyo before he had changes to San Felipe.

Right now we are working with two progressing investigators: Nery and Griselda. They are boyfried and girlfriend and like coming to church together. Nery has been to the US and attended church there. He invited his girlfriend to come with him and now they both have enough attendances to be baptized. We are going to see if we can get a baptismal date out of them this week.

We have also been working a lot with the members of the branch. We have planned on the 3rd of September, a trip to the temple. Mauro, a young guy in our ward is preparing to go to the Peru Cuzco Mission, so we have been helping him with his preparation. A couple of weeks ago, I went with him to Xela (Quetzaltenango) to fill his passport paperwork out. On Sept. 3 he is going to receive his endowment, and I guess I´m going to accompany him. It´s going to be a really special day.

We are also preparing a family from Tahuexco (Familia Martinez) to enter the temple on that same date to be sealed for time and all eternity. The mother and father would also be receving their endowments. I´m gonna get to give them the Temple Prep classes, so that will be interesting. Right now its a little difficult to get to Tahuexco because the road is kind of bad and its really far away. This last week, I went with a member named Cristian. We visited some of the members in Tahuexco and found a family of investigators. I´m excited to see the growth that ill occur in Tahuexco once we can get a branch established there. 

Here are some pictures:

Elder Preciado killed some fish at some Catholic lady´s house. They were flapping all over the place. The weird thing about these fish is that their fins are sharp and they cut through human flesh. For that reason, I decided to just watch and take pictures 

Elder Bonilla and I found this butterfly near a tienda (store). 

A house in Tahuexco

The Pacific Ocean in Tahuexco

This is the road from Cuyotenango to La Maquina. There was a manifestation in the streets a few weeks ago where the people complained about how bad the road is. Luckily, the government has started to fill in the holes with dirt so that in the summer, they can put down new asphault. 

Have a great week!

Elder Taylor