13.4--2014...is now... 2015!!!!!!

Dear Blog Readers,

Whoa, can all y'all believe that it is almost the end of 2014? Where is time going? If someone can find me an answer to that question, I will be best friends with you forever. Also these are my last few days of my black-out year. In the mission, we call the full year that you will be in your mission your black-out year. 2015 will be the year I will be going home. What? That's a weird thought.

Here are some things that I've learned this year:

1. You can fix a clogged disposal by using a toilet plunger

2. God has a terrific sense of humor

3. It is entirely possible to take a selfie on a bike

4. Chainsaws are incredibly useful

5. You castrate a bull using a Masticulator with Masticulation Bands

6. God always knows best. Even if we choose to think otherwise

7. It's actually not all that bad to pray for: Patience, Humility, and Virtue.

8. I really enjoy reading the Epistles of Paul.

9. Money goes a lot faster than you'd like to think

10. Sometimes the things we want most we just have to wait for.

And one quote that I heard on Sunday that I thought was really profound is:

"When we come into contact with other people; it helps to assume that they are trying their best with what they've got. Because most of the time they are." -- Brother Noe

Also, this past week we were able to meet with two boys that have been coming to church and have been meeting with us. We were able to teach the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them, and they are now on baptismal date!! :) And so hopefully mid-January we will be having 2 baptisms here!!

Also we've been having a lot of success finding new investigators. We have been hitting up the people who've met with the missionaries in the past, and we are finding good success with them! And also, we've been getting referrals from members of our wards. Hopefully we are going to be able to teach several new people because of that.

Anywho, I hope that y'all had a Merry Christmas, and I hope that y'all have a happy 2015!!

Elder Jacob Guymon

13.3--Christmas is coming!!!

Dearest Ladies and Genteelmen,

So Christmas is just around the corner, and there is a special Spirit in the air here in ABQ! Everybody is bustling to and fro trying to do the last minute shopping, mailing, and traveling so that they can have the best Christmas ever :)

And it certainly is looking to be that way. But sadly we still do not have any snow.....or iPads..... but hey, we'll have to see what happens in the future, right? Aside from the hopes of the Impossible, life has been going really good down here. Last week we were able to see more of our new investigators, and they all seem really nice. Some might even be interested in baptism!

We had 3 of our investigators attend our sacrament meetings :) :) The two boys that I told you about last week came with their dad and their sister, and one of our investigators in the other ward came as well :) :) WOOOOOOOO

Anywho, this coming week we are going to be fairly busy!! :) On Christmas Eve, we have a few appointments, and then we are going to go CAROLING!! Elder Summers is going to bring his Uke with him, and so it is looking like it most certainly will be a jam! :)

Also Christmas is looking like it's going to be one of the busiest days of our year! We are going to be trying to stop by people who have nobody else :) And so hopefully we will get to see them, and maybe we can brighten their Christmas! :) We've also been doing secret Santa runs for people in our ward, and it is super fun!! :)

Anywho, I think that's all for now! Happy Christmas!!! :D and remember "He is the Gift"!!

Elder Guymon

13.2--Summer-time in Paradise*

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen of the Internet,

So now's the moment that you've all been waiting for.... (or maybe not) but anywhooser.... I am back in Albuquerque, except for this time I am on the west side. Also in my zone is Elder Jewett and Elder Roylance.... #landofpreviouscompanions

Oh speaking of companions, my new companion is Elder Summers, and he's from Bountiful, UT! What? #utahcomps. He's been out for about 5 months, and he's our district leader. And so what does that mean? That means Elder Summers is pretty much a steed. We just got a new apartment with a washer and dryer and a car because we cover two wards. ( One of which being the Paradise Ward *the reason for the name of this post.) Both of our wards are very wealthy, which is a little different from my previous experience here :) But I feel like the work will be good, I am sure there will be some new challenges, but I am sure that Elder Summers and I are going to have success.

Anywho, both of the wards are very missionary-minded which makes our job much easier, and we are grateful for all of the support that we have been getting. It is a different dynamic though, serving in two wards at the same time. It equates to about 6 hours of church every week (excluding meetings), and we are having to juggle learning new names, learning a new area, and finding new people to teach. But it is exciting, and we will see what happens!

Oh I just realized that I never gave y'all mah new address! I would love to hear from you! Its:

10001 Coors Bypass NW Apartment 916

Albuquerque, NM 87114

Oh and tomorrow will be an exciting day for us too! We will be having our Christmas Zone Conference!! And we are praying for ipads or snow... either one would be great and if we got both I may just die! :) But we will see what happens!!

Anywho, that's all for now folks!

Elder Jacob Guymon

13.1--Goodbye Ol' Paint (El Paso)

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,

So we have the transfer news: I will be leaving El Paso and heading up the Paseo Del Norte. Back up into the Northern/North-of-here areas of our mission. And so I will inform you next week about where I'm going and who I'm with.

As always, I feel sad to be leaving my area. But at the same time, there's a lot of excitement for a new place and a new face to serve with. I am grateful for the time that I've gotten to spend with Elder Allen down here! I am also grateful for the chance I have in the future to spend serving the Lord.

Anywho, this past week was a blast! We had the Christmas Concert at the University of Texas at El Paso, and we must've had 500 people who passed by or stopped and watched. We also gave out over 200 of the "He is the Gift" cards #heisthegift, and one of our Senior Missionaries may have found us or the sisters a new investigator from it.

Also, this week we have 2 new investigators, and we actually had 2 new people come to church yesterday! :) huzzah!

Oh and one fun thing also, the woman who was baptized had her birthday and invited us to come over to her house and celebrate with her family! :) It was fabulous. Her family is all so nice, and her mother is a FANTASTIC cook. And so that was a good experience, and we got to say our goodbyes.

Anywho, that's all for now folks!

--Elder Jacob Guymon

 

12.6--I CAN FINALLY SING CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

This is actually my second time writing this email, because I just accidently deleted my last email........ GOOOGLE!!!!

 

Anywho, life's pretty good down here in El Paso! :) This past week was great, and thanksgiving was especially wonderful! We were able to go with our ward and volunteer at the annual parade that they have down here! And it was fabulous! :) We got a free T-shirt, and we got to dress down. Oh I should probably say what we did at the parade: we were on clean up duty! Yay! :) After the parade we got to go and clean up all the garbage, and we even weren't on Horse Apple duty either! :) Pretty great! 

 

We also had all three meals that day :D :D And all of which were good! We ate in the morning with one of the recent converts in the ward, and then for lunch, we ate with the Senior Missionaries, and in the evening, we ate Thanksgiving dinner with our bishop! :)

 

Oh, we were blessed with a new investigator. He cuts hair, and he has a rad suburban with Giant Rims. El  Paso is great.

 

Other than that, work is work down here.... OH WAIT!!! I just forgot one thing, this next Tuesday (Dec 9th) will be Transfer Week, and Elder Allen are both praying that we will get to stay, but neither of us have any idea about what's going to happen. But either way, whatever God wants me to do or wherever He wants me to go that's fine with me! :) Because I know that He has our best interest in mind.

 

Anywho, I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!

 

Elder Jacob Guymon

12.5--Things to be grateful for

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet,

 

Things have been going well here in El Paso! :) And this upcoming week is looking great! The holiday spirit is in the air, and it's an exciting time of the year to be a missionary. :)

 

As I have thought about Thanksgiving, I was reminded of things that I have been grateful for this year:
1. I am grateful to have a new sister-in-law, Kamilah.

2. I am grateful that my Grandma was able to complete her cancer treatments well :)

3. I am grateful for the 5 companions that I have had so far this year.

4. I am grateful for the 3 areas I have gotten to serve in.

5. I am grateful for the members and nonmembers who have been willing to feed us.

6. I am grateful for my Mom and Dad. And for all of their support.

7. I am grateful for getting to see Anahi baptized

8. I am grateful for all of the crazy experiences

9. I am grateful for the Spiritual  Growth that I've seen

10. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. And my relationship with him.

 

Other than that, this past week was a little frustrating. All of our investigators that we have found in the past several weeks have all gone cold... which is to say they aren't responding to our calls or our text messages; which is frustrating to me, because just a little while ago, they we so willing, and then they weren't, but all's not bad. We were able to fill our time by giving service, and we were blessed with receiving many new referrals so that way we will be able to find some new people to teach.

 

 

Anywho, I hope that all of you have a blessed week, and that you are able to have a stellar time during this holiday season.

Elder Jacob Guymon

12.4--Baptism :)

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Things have been going quite well down here in El Paso! We have been keeping pretty busy and so that is great. The weather down here is also turning cold--being in the 40-50s with wind chill (super cold :) ) And from what I've heard up in yonder colder regions (Utah, Idaho, Montana), it's unseasonably cold. I guess that's what we get for having pretty warm winter.

 

Alrighty so we have some amazing news! One of our investigators got baptized on Saturday! Wooooooooooooooh! :) So her boyfriend flew in from the good old Pocatello, ID and was able to baptize her! :) Also, her family came to it as well, and although they don't necessarily believe what we believe, they are willing to support her in whatever decision she makes which was super cool!  

 

Oh.... wait so there was a couple of awkward moments though at the baptismal service. So first off, the boyfriend accidently grabbed his brother's pair of baptismal pants, and so he was trying to squeeze into a size medium jumper (He's 6' 7) which was pretty awkward, but we luckily found him another pair of pants. Also, during the baptism the word "Amen" wasn't said. I didn't catch it but Elder Allen did, and so we had to go back into the dressing room to grab them so they could do it again. But as the boyfriend was changing, the pin on his pants broke, and so he had to do the baptism again with his pants falling down... hahah but as it was a baptism, the Spirit was there, and everybody understood and laughed about it later! :)

 

And so yeppers things are going great down here in the University Ward :) We are keeping busy, and we are working hard and good things are happening :)

 

Thanks,

 

Elder Jacob Guymon

12-3--Crunch Week

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen of the Blogging world,

 

Another week has come and gone down here in El Paso. I know that I use that phrase a lot, but time flies when you are working hard and having fun. Also, I would like to thank all of you that have sent letters, emails, or packages. I love hearing from all of you, and I am grateful for all of your love and support. :)

 

Things down here in the University Ward are going quite excellent. One of our investigators IS getting baptized this Saturday, and it has been a blur this week trying to get everything that we need together for that  :)  Also on Monday night, we had an interesting lesson. One of our investigators called us up and asked us to come by. And so we did, and  as it turns out, he was super drunk while we were over. And so we retaught the restoration to him while he had a rum glass in his hand. He also vented to us about his now EX- girlfriend (that we are teaching) and was telling us all of the unpleasant nuances of their relationship... moral of the story: I am grateful for the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom.

Anywho, we've been teaching a lot (like 10 investigator lessons a week), and life is going well :) Elder Allen is continuing to be awesome--we do goofy things, and we work hard. It's great!

 

Thanks  for reading :)

 

Elder Jacob Guymon

12.2--In the Fast Lane

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet,

 

Things down here in El Paso are floating by. Do you you know the old phrase "time flies when your having fun. Well ya.... It really does fly! As of next Monday I will have been out 16 months. What?

 

Anywho, life in El Paso is Marvelous. The weather is getting chilly (60 degrees :D) which means Elder Allen and I get to bust our sweaters in the morning when it's still cold. We were also able to get a new investigator this past week named is Xochitl (10 brownie points to whomever knows the correct pronunciation). And she's super cool! :)

 

Oh and we are for sure going to be having another baptism on the 15th!!!!!! What?! It will be Elder Allen's first and my second, and so we are both so happy for her! :) Also her boyfriend from Pocatello, Idaho, will be flying down and will be performing the baptism!

 

Oh and Halloween was this week too!! Halloween for us was pretty much just a normal day. And because Halloween was on Friday, we had District Meeting. And at the meeting we had tons of new elders because of transfers, and so Elder Allen and I switched tags MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. We also came in dressed up with pirate patches. #rebels #spookymeetings Also, our ward had it's Halloween Party, and we had such an amazing turnout. We had all sorts of fun games and spooky costumes. Some of my favorites were: Sultan, a "SIMS" man, and Rambo! It was pretty great! Elder Allen and I once again proved mischievous and switched our nametags!

 

Anywho, that was our week in a nutshell!

 

Until next time

Elder Guymon

12.1--"Still in Town" feat. Elder Allen

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Things have been going most well down here in the Sun City. I have some great news! I will be staying in El Paso for another transfer with Elder Allen! :) Yus! Which will make Elder Allen my longest companion along with Elder Jewett. Whew! Transfer drama gone!

 

Also, our missionary work here in El Paso is starting to blossom. :) This past week, we found 7 new investigators...which is the most that I've ever seen! :D The Lord has been abundantly blessing us, and we are both super grateful for him providing us with people to teach.

 

Oh, and yesterday, we were able to do something super cool! On Dec 3rd, our ward, in conjunction with the institute and all of the missionaries in our Zond, will be doing a Christmas program. :) And last night was our first rehearsal. :D Oh how I've missed music rehearsals! And so that's pretty exciting.

 

Oh, and of course I forgot, our weekly miracle with one of our investigators. On Saturday, we had a baptism for one of the Sister's investigators, and our investigator came! It was awesome, and we are all stoked for when her baptism will be!

 

Anywho, things are going super good here!

Love,

Elder Jacob Guymon

 

11.6--Approaching Transfers

Dear Readers (I love how informal that was :) )

 

So things have been going pretty well recently. :) Transfers are coming up next week, and so we are excited for what life will hold. Elder Allen and I have no idea what's going on. We both feel like we are going to be transferred, but our Ward Mission Leader thinks that this means that we are going to stay. So we will see what happens in the coming week.

 

Also our work has been stepping up substantially, and we are finding more people who are willing to listen to what we have to say. Actually, on Friday, the Institute Director here gave us a referral who is willing to listen :) Good! Also, the ward has been doing a good job of fellowshipping those who are coming to church :) So our area will hopefully be seeing more success as life continues :).

 

Other than that, we climbed a giant mountain that is shaped like an elephant.. that was pretty cool! We must've climbed 3000 or 4000 vertical feet over the course of 2miles.... whew... but it was super cool from uptop, and so therefore,it was worth it. 

 

Anywho, that's all for now! have a good week!

Elder Guymon

 

 

11.5--Time Flies.... :)

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Things have been going most well down here in El Paso! :) And this week was pretty much life as per usual! :) (Thank Goodness for breaks)

But we have had several miracles this past week though. First off, one investigator had disappeared off the face of the earth... which was sad, but one day we were going to stop by a former investigator and lo and behold she was there!? What? Also we were able to share a lesson with both her and the Former, and so we got to see her and get a new investigator out of it!! What?

Also this past week, we got to meet with a referral we got a couple of weeks ago. He was really prepared. He says that he feels that God has led him to us to be able to learn how to come closer to Him. :) And we just smiled and nodded :)

And other than that, life has been pretty much the same old, same old!! But things are going great down here. 

On another thought, time has just blown by! Whew! To think that it's been 15 months boggles my mind! But I guess I shouldn't get too trunky though ;)

Anywho, that's all for now! :) Take care!

Elder Jacob Guymon

 

 

10.4--Meetings, meetings, and "Meet the Mormons"

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Things have been going quite well down here in Texas! :) Much as the title states, we have had a lot of meetings/conferences/trainings, but it's all good!

Since our trip last Monday to the temple, we have had a Zone Training, General Conference, and Zone Conference! And those aren't necessarily a bad thing; rather, I felt like they were all edifying and gave me a wonderful spiritual recharge. I especially enjoyed the Saturday morning of General Conference. There were many powerful and inspirational messages given! :)  One of my favorite talks came from Elder Jeffery R Holland from that session. He talked about how we should all be a little kinder to one another and to make an effort to lift those who's may poor or poor-in-spirit! :)

Also at Zone training I had a thought. We are asked to follow a lot of rules as missionaries, and sometimes you don't know why the rule was given, and they seem lame. One thing that has stuck out to me is that God expects us all to act upon principles of faith. To not only obey when we see the reason, but to be obedient when we don't see the reason. To be obedient simply because we love God and we are willing to do whatever he asks us to do! :)

And also at Zone Conference we were able to watch "Meet the Mormons". We, in effect, got a pre-showing of the movie. And that will be the 1 and only time we get to watch it on our mission. My not-so-professional opinion of it? I LOVED it! :) It is more like a documentary, kinda like Planet Earth! Which is a weird change for  movies being shown in the movie theaters! I would definitely encourage people to go to see it! :)

Anywho, that's all for now! Thanks for reading!

 Elder Guymon

11.3--Temple Trip Y New Investigator

Dearest Blog Readers,

 

So another week has come and gone in the wonderful city that is El Paso.

 

 

Anywho, so yesterday we were able to go up to Albuquerque, and we had a wonderful temple day! :) We spend a grand total of 8 1/2 hours in the car driving there and back, but it was well worth it! :)

 

At the temple, I was able to see my branch president from Cloudcroft, Brother Bell, and his wife! :) Also I was able to see a member from my first area, who's now a temple sealer :) It was so good being able to go to the temple and see those people that I love there. It makes me think of the joy that I felt in seeing them will be just a portion of the joy that I will feel in the life after this when I get to be with the ones that I love forever! :)

 

Anywho, also this week we were able be blessed with a wonderful new investigator, and she is awesome! She is dating a returned missionary from Pocatello, Idaho, and  she came to the institute and asked to meet with the missionaries! :) And we were able to  share with her the message of the restoration, and she has a baptismal date scheduled for Oct 25th. Also when her BF talked with her about the Word of Wisdom, she committed to live it that very night! :) So moral of the story, Elder Allen and I are both super stoked!

 

 

Love,

 

Elder Guymon 

11.2-- Jonah and the Ark.... wait what?

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

The time is now that I am able to email!! Yay! :) 

 

Anywho, life is still doing good here in El Paso! Some updates for ya:

 

So this week we lost our car to the body shop, again... :o Oh no! It was super annoying, but we made it through it, and we have our car back! :)

 

It was also really exciting because we got some crazy rains that came through. And El Paso is NOT built for the rains. In fact, last Wednesday, we were driving home from a meeting late with our Ward Mission Leader, and as it turns out, the interstate had flooded with like 6 inches of water, over the course of about a mile. And so that stopped just about all traffic, and it took us like an hour and a half to cross the 1 mile stretch of interstate! It was nuts!

 

Also some cool things that happened this week too! We were able to see one of our investigators again this week, and she seems to be getting more and more interested! She even came to a dance that they held in the institute, and she had a blast! :)

 

We also had a really cool experience this week as we were biking around. As we were cruising by a high school this kid flagged us down and said that he had been really confused about God and he wanted to learn more of what we believed. And so we taught him the message of the restoration on the spot, gave him a Book of Mormon, and we got his contact info. And this Friday he invited us to go to his church meeting and so we are going to go! This should be really exciting.

 

Anywho, that's what's new here! :)

 

Until next time!

 

Elder Jacob Guymon

11.1--Staying in El Paso :)

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I will be staying in El Paso for another transfer with Elder Allen! Whew! :) I was worried that I might get the boot again, but it works out! I am grateful to be here, and we are experiencing a lot of growth and miracles as we have been working hard! :)

 

Also, we should also be going to the temple in a few weeks, and so we are so excited for that! :)

 

HMmm other than that everything is pretty much life as usual :) We are talking with lots of people and working hard! :)

 

Oh one other thing happened that was super cool :) We have been struggling to get anywhere with one of our investigators, and this week she finally opened up to us and started crying and she said that she needs to be coming back to church! (Possibly the longest run on sentence ever) And so she did on Sunday! :) YAY!

 

Also, Elder Allen and I are experiencing a phenomenon know as "selfie-mania" (Well it may just have been me experiencing that), and so we have been taking all sorts of goofy photos,
and I am excited for y'all to see them someday!

 

That's all folks!

Elder Guymon

 

10.6--School has started--Your Resistance is futile--You will be educated

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Yet another week has come and gone in the lovely land that is El Paso! Things that are new in my life... I am no longer an teenager. I am now a bonified, 20 year old! What? #life'stoofast

 

Other than that transfers are coming  up very soon! But I think that Elder Allen and I should be staying together (but I could be wrong). Also, UTEP is back in session and thus most of our invetigators are back in school and aren't as apt to meeting with us as we have priorly been NOOOO! :) But that's ok that means we will have to find some investigators who are willing to meet more frequently!

 

Hmmm oh we did have super cool experience this week! We were on base visiting with one of our members when we were stopped by a man in the barracks who yelled "missionaries!"  And then he paused and asked "wait what type of missionaries are you?" and we responded that we were Mormon and he said "Good, I like you guys. :) I was investigating your church at one point and time and then I got deployed and I stopped!" And then we asked if he would like to investigate again and he said yes! :) #YUS

 

So in other words good things are happening down here in El Paso! :)

 

Thanks for tuning in to the "Guymon Show" Until next week!

Elder Guymon

10.5--From the Sun City

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,

Things have been going great down here in El Paso, TX! :) Life recently has been work, work, work! :) We have been meeting with leaders in the ward and stake level trying to advocate assisting the Young Single Adults in El Paso, and we are seeing a lot of success!

On Sunday, we were able to have a Missionary Sacrament meeting and classes, and it was awesome! :) We role-played inviting friends to come to church, and we were able to also send letters to those who've not been to church in a while! Hopefully we should see lots of success in the future!

Also today, we got to go into Pocito Juarez aka downtown El Paso! Muhahaah! We got to go and look into all sorts of sketchy looking shops selling all sorts of wierd things, like Harry Potter wands, swords, pipes, knives, cheep video games!

And we´ve also seen lots of success as we have just gone out and talked with more people! Miracles come as we work!

So yep that´s pretty much all that´s new with me! Life is great! I love my area! I love my companion! And we have work to do!

So that´s all for now!

Love,

Elder Guymon

10.4--Changes for the Better

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen of the Bloggers world!

 

Things have been going exceedingly well here in El Paso, but before I go onto my weekly blurb, I would like to give a shout-out to my brother, Shane, and his new bride Kamilah! Congratulations and welcome to the family! :)

 

On another note, things in El Paso have been going very good! We have been doing a lot of planning for how we can best help the YSA's in El Paso. Elder Allen and I are very excited for what the future holds! Also one of our investigators decided to set a baptismal date for September 24th, and so we are both super excited for that as well!

 

Oh and I apologize that these weekly letters keep getting shorter and shorter. I guess the more routine things get in missionary work, the less stories I have included.

 

Oh, one cool thing that happened this week is that our car was in the shop, and so we had to bike a good chunk of the way across El Paso to make it to an appointment we had... that was crazy... very crazy...  at the end of the ride Elder Allen and I were sweating bullets, and we were super exhausted. But it was fun and good! :)

 

Anywho, that's all for this week! Thanks!

 

Elder Guymon

10.3--I kid you not, I am in Mexico... :) but the food is awesome

Dear Everybody,

 

Life is going awesome here in Texas, but sometimes I feel like I am in Mexico! I was on Exchanges this week with my district leader, Elder Rosalez, and we went to this Mexican Market, and I was the only guy that was white and didn't speak Spanish! It was pretty crazy :) But the food was incredible. Also, we got sung to by a mariachi band, and they sung us " La Bamba". It was rad!

 

Oh and for this week I'd like to give a shout-out to my brother who's GETTING MARRIED!!! WHAT?! I am super excited for him. And as of right now, I have a sister!!! #weirdthought #ShaneandKamilah2014

 

Hmmm, other than that, the missionary work is growing by leaps and bounds! The ward and other missionaries are giving us referrals, and Elder Allen and I are experiencing success :)

 

So yeppers that's my life things are good!

 

Until next week!

 

Elder Guymon

10.2--El Paso, TX #imatexan #gominers #chico'sta​cos

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen and stuff,

 

Soooo I am in El Paso now!! I am currently serving in the University Ward, which is a ward for young single adults! Our area covers the east, north east, and the southeast parts of El Paso and is one of the biggest areas in the mission!  It is pretty much the best thing ever! It"s so weird being around people my own age and doing missionary work with them!

 

Hmmm also my new companion is Elder Allen. He has been out for a total of 3 months, and he is from Liberty, Missouri. He's pretty great--he's a real go-getter and is excited about missionary work!

 

Hmmm it's also super hot here in El Paso :) like our first day it was 102 degrees.... ouch.. But luckily the monsoons have come in and have cooled things off!

 

Oh my new mailing address is:

 

1500 Magruder St. #617H

El Paso, Tx 79925

 

 I am not sure if we can accept packages at our apartment yet, and so I will inform you about that next week!

 

Thanks!

Elder Guymon

10.1--An Unexpected Change

Dearest Ladies and Gentlmen of Cyber-Space,

SO I only have a little bit of time, but I am getting transferred from Santa Fe... I am not super excited, but I trust that God needs me more somewhere else! :) On a positive note, though, the area is staying open, and we were able to find 2 new investigator last week as well!

Elder Mclelland is so excited to be going home, and  the last couple of days have been filled with all sorts of It's hard, but without endings how can we have beginnings?

That's all I can do for today. I will have more details next week!

Elder Guymon

9.6--A much better week! :)

Dear Blog Readers,

Things have been going much better here in Santa Fe! :) In the past week, we were blessed to have 2 new investigators!! YAY! :) And hopefully this week, we should be able to receive a few more! Oh and last week, we went to one of the members of our ward's boxing gym, and one of the guys that was there said that his family misses having the missionaries there and that his younger sister wants to be baptized! What?

Other than that Elder Mclelland goes home in 8 days, and he is so excited to go home! #goodbye

He got his "Trunky Papers" (flight plans), but he is still working hard, and I think we are going to see a lot of good coming up soon!

Other than that, this week we were able to drive up to Bandelier National Monument, which is a valley just chuck full of petroglyphs and cliff dwellings. It was pretty cool!

 Well, Folks, that's about all that's been  happening!

This is Elder Guymon signing out!

 

9.5--A week to remember

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hmm this week was a good week,

I really don't know too much of what to say for this week. hahah The irony is in the title right? :) Hmmmm... oh! So this week we were able to starting having people come out with us to our teaching appointments! And so that is a step in the right direction!

Hmm, also we got a set of new neighbors this week, and we helped to move them in. And as it turns out, the father is a pastor for another church! Pretty darn cool huh!

Also, we've been spending a lot of time at the hospital this week. One of the less-active members we've been working with ended up in the hospital, and so we were able to visit her. And then somebody else's one-year-old daughter caught pneumonia, and so we were able to go over there and give her a blessing :) It was good! Oh and we were able to visit another one of our less-active members who's sister just barely died. And what I mean by that is that we were able to go there right after her sister's death, and we were able to comfort her :)

OH we just about had another tornado! I was able to get a pretty awesome picture of the funnel-cloud that I will have to post on the blog! :)

Oh Elder Mclelland had his Departing Interview this week with our mission president, and so he was pretty excited about that!

Yeppers, I think that's all that's really been new with us! :) 

Elder Jacob Guymon

9.4--Ostriches, OYMs, and Biking

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet,

Things in Santa Fe have been going pretty good! :) The monsoons are still coming, and I absolutely love it!! The rains drop the temperatures from about 85-90 degrees down into the 70's :) Yay! 

On another note, we have been seeing many miracles as we have been OYMing, which is our missions slang for "open your mouth"! And so Elder McLelland and I have been trying our best to talk with everybody that we can, and that means we should hopefully have some new investigators pretty soon!! Yay! We experienced a miracle when we were at Wendy's and talked with one of the workers, and she said that she would love it if we could come by and talk with her! So we will see how things go on Saturday!

Also, yesterday I got to feed an ostrich! So that was pretty cool! We were volunteering over on one of our ward members farm, and we helped him weed, and we fed those to his ostrich! It was great!

Also we have been doing a TON of biking, and we aren't strapped for miles any more! We have also seen miracles as we have been cruising around! On Saturday, we were cruising through a scarier part of town, and a lady asked us where our church met! And so we were able to give her instructions on how to get there, and we got a return appointment with her! Yay!

So hopefully our hard work should pay off :)

Anywho, that's what's new with me! Thanks so much for all of your love and support!

Elder Jacob Guymon

9.3--HUMP DAY!!

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen of the World Wide Web,

Things down here in Santa Fe have been terrific! The monsoons have finally hi,t and it has come in full force! Yesterday Elder McLelland and I were out biking around town (to save miles on the car). When we were a couple of miles from home, Elder McLelland's tire burst, and so we started to walk home. When we started walking, a rainstorm came outta nowhere and drenched us both, yay, but then some random Strangers in a pickup pulled over and offered us a ride back to our place (which we gladly accepted)! They were awesome and our heroes for the day!

Other than that, Elder McLelland and I have been working very hard, and the Lord has been blessing us with work to do! SO a good thing? I think so! :) HMMMMM also last week was a week to give priesthood blessing--we probably gave 10-15 blessings to people in the hospital and others who needed it! Whew!

Also it's HUMP DAY on Thurday, which means that I am over half-way done with my mission.... :) :( yep its a good and a bad thing! :)

Other than that, not much is new in Santa Fe! We work hard. We talk with people, we teach people, and hopefully, we will baptize some people as well! So things are going good hear in the 505!

Thanks!

Elder Jacob Guymon

9.2--Capitol City.... SANTA FE!!

Dear family and friends,

So last Tuesday I got Transferred to Santa Fe, NM! :) My companion is Elder McLelland from Ogden, UT  and he has been out for 23 months, and he goes home after this transfer! Also our area that we cover is pretty large. We cover half of Santa Fe itself and a lot of the surrounding communities to the west. We have a car,  and so that's really nice! :)

Also my new mailing address is:  

4129 South Meadows Apt 1016

Santa Fe, NM 87507

Santa Fe is pretty sweet! It"s pretty artzy, and is one of the biggest cities in NM, but what's really cool is that in a 5 minute drive you can be back in nature!  Cool? I think so! It is also considerably warmer down here than Cloudcroft, but alas such is life!

HMMMM we also cover the hospital as Clergy, and so we get to give a lot of priesthood blessings, which is awesome!

Also we volunteer at a homeless shelter, and we cook dinner for them! Which was really humbling, but it was good to be of some use to people!

Well alrighty! I best be off! 

Take care!

Elder Jacob Guymon

9.1--Cast from the Garden (Elder Roylance told me not to eat the fruit)

Dear Friends and Family, and other random people reading my blog,

1Guymon 2:1---And it came to pass that on the night of Saturday Elder Guymon did receive a call from on-high declaring his transfer from Cloudcroft.

... Yeah so I am getting transferred from Cloudcroft........ But that's ok because I know that God wants me somewhere else and that's what matters! I will have to post where I am going and my address! :) Also I got a call saying that I will be senior comp this transfer and that my new area will require a lot of work! :) yay work!

Honestly not a whole lot has been happening this week! We did get to go to the Cherry Festival in High Rolls, NM this week! It was fantastic! The cherries were delicious, and we got to talk with lots of people!!

Anywho, that's really all there is! :) This is Elder Guymon signing out! I will have a longer email next week! :)

Elder Jacob Guymon

8.6--Telescopes​, LotR, and Bap Dates

Dearest Ladies and Germans,

I sure do hope all is going excellent with all of you, and if it isn't, please write a letter to my companion and tell him all about it :

Elder Jordan Roylance

PO Box 789

Cloudcroft, Nm 88317

Or for all you single ladies he is lonely and would like a letter! :) jk jk

Speaking of letters I may be getting transferred by next Tuesday out of Cloudcroft, and if you are unsure of whether your letter will make it to me in time, you can send it to the mission office at:

New Mexico Albuquerque Mission

4400 Presidential Dr. NE Suite E

Albuquerque, NM 87109

In other news, on Saturday we helped our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Fox, take down some things from a garage sale (I may have neglected to mention this before, but he is a Solar Physicist and works up at the Sunspot National Solar Observatory), and afterwards he took us on a tour of the Big Mama Telescope, which in total length is like 400 ft tall! #bucketlistmarkoff  Also after that, he took us to out to eat and we had an incredibly nerd discussion comparing Lord of the Rings to the Gospel... Yep our WML is the Best!

On a more spiritual note, one of our investigators called us Sunday morning and asked how she could go to the temple and be baptized for her mom! :) And we said that she had to get baptized first! :) Muahuhua! And so she accepted a baptismal date for July 12th, and she is so ready, and we are ready for her! :) On a sad note, I stand a good chance of getting the boot this transfer out of Cloudcroft! :( I guess there had to be a time for this moment................ But I am still praying that i get to stay for one more to see her get baptized :) So we will see what God wants, and we will go from there!

Anywho,

That's all for now folks! :)

Elder Jacob Guymon

8.5--Texas, Animal Abuse, Missiles, and Irish People

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

This week was awesome! :) It was a pretty slow week as far as lessons go, but such is the life of a Cloudcroft, NM Missionary! :) But we were able to do a lot of service, and we were able to talk with a whole bunch of people! :) Speaking of people, last night we  were looking over the valley from a lookout, and we were able to take this group of people's photos! :) And it turned out they were visiting from Ireland, and they were visiting one of their friends in Texas!


Speaking of Texas, it was fabulous! Everything truly is bigger in Texas! :) It was also exceedingly hot in El Paso--the thermostat read and maintained 115 degree :p bleh! #Cloudcroft's85isn'tlookingsobad 

Zone conference was pretty good  too! :) Still no iPads.... but yeppers we were actually in Elder Roylance's last area, and so he was a tour guide for us! :) And we also got a compliment from the Regional Car Manager on how clean our car was! #firsttimeforeverything.

And last but not least we had the cattle brand this Saturday! :) So the story goes as thus:

It was early in the morning when we headed off to  Brother Bell's house. As we got there, we packed and went to the missile range (where he leases land from the military to graze his cattle). And once we got there, we were searching for cattle and saw some wild Oryx (which is basically a beefy version of an African gazelle! :) When we got to his coral, we met up with his daughter and about 5 other rough and tough cowboys on horseback. They told us that we had to get out of there so they could  test some missiles.... :) and so we had an extra long lunch-break with the cow pokes, and we watched/heard them explode stuff off in the distance! #lifecomplete

And then we got to brand cattle! It was very barbaric! So we basically draw 'n quartered the cattle, and they were screaming as we did it! And then we wrestled them to the ground, castrated them, tagged them, vaccinated them, and branded them! :)  It was awesome! There's nothing like man-handling whiny calves to the ground and causing them copious amounts of pain! :)

So yep, lifes good! :) (as always!)

2Sam 12:7

Elder Guymon

8.4--A good week!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This week was a pretty good week! :) We weren't able to teach as many lessons this week, but we were able to help a lot of people!

One of the things that took up a lot of time this week was that we went and helped one of the members of our Branch Presidency retile their floor! :) and so we got to use a hole grundle of powertools and to help them out! :)

Also, while we were tiling a group of lost Turkish people came up and asked us how to get to a certain camp because they were lost! And as it turned out, they were 31 miles from where the camp actually was, and so late at night we drove them too there destination!

#missionaries ftw! :)

Also, this week an investigator came again to church! yay! But whenever we bring the topic of baptism up she kind of dodges the question! Rats! :( But I think she's ready! So we will keep on trying to help her! :)

Hmmm other than that we have another Zone Conference tomorrow in El Paso!!! #firsttimeinTX

#i<3Texas

And so tomorrow we are going to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to ZC! I am not sure what's all going to happen, but it should be awesome! :)

Anywho, that's all she wrote folks! Take care! :)

Elder Jacob Guymon

8.3--Crazy Week :)

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen!

As the letter states, this week was crazy (Busy that is)! So we were able to teach 10 lessons!! WOOOOH! Which is the highest amount of lessons in close to a year! #ElderRoymonFTW!

Also, when we weren't teaching lessons, we were doing some wonderful service! :) This week, we got to chop down trees, use a stump grinder, haul trees, and spread gravel! Elder Roylance is pretty happy because he got to break in his new Cowboy boots!

We also had one of our Zone Leaders come on exchanges with us, and we were able to take him out to the boonies of our area (Timberon, NM)! During that time we got a ton of rain and had a nice lightning storm come through! (I love monsoon season) Hmmm we were also able to pick up a new investigator. His interest is a little questionable, but we will keep trying regardless! :)

Hmmmmm we also ran into a family from....wait for it..... Rigby, Idaho...when we were out contacting. They were up here visiting for the weekend, and they asked us where the church was! :) And on Sunday they came to church! Oh and at church, one of the visiting members decided to bring some of her Boy Scout Camp staff with her, and with that she had 2 non-members! #membermissionaryworkatitsfinest

Anywho, that's what's new with me! Take care!

Elder Jacob Guymon

8.2--Good things to Come

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It's been good to hear from so many of you recently and to hear about all that's going on back home!

 

Things down here are going awesome! :) Some new exciting news,  OUR BRANCH IS NOW OFFICIAL!! Wooo! On Sunday for the grand opening, we had about 90 people there! (We usually have only 45) also we had 9 nonmembers who were visiting with us for the day! :) 

 

And so things are looking up! Also this week we were able to do a whole bunch of service to help get the Church Camp ready for Sunday and so that helped fill up a whole bunch of our down time!

 

In other news, we got 20 lbs of bacon and 16 lbs of summer sausage.... :) Muhahahah! Don't ask how we got it. Suffice it to say that we acquired it legally :) And because we had 17 packages of bacon in our freezer, we decided to come to District Meeting with Christmas ties and have Christmas in May with stockings full of bacon! :)  #theworldneedsmorelove #more bacon

 

Another fun story... We saw a cougar this week! :) We were having dinner at one of our returning-members home, and we saw nine turkeys walking by one of his neighbor's home! And then when we left dinner, we saw a small cougar stalking the turkeys... WHOA!

 

Also, we were visiting  one of our investigators who lives in a beautiful place called Russia Canyon, and we SAW A BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

#Cloudcroftiscoolinthespring

 

And so yep  that's pretty much our week in a nutshell!

 

This is Elder Guymon signing out!

 

--Elder Guymon

8.1--Another Transfer in Sky City

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

SOOOOOO..... Cloudcroft will be staying open and I get to stay for this transfer! :) YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!! :)  And after this transfer I will be very close to being a year out on my mission! WOAH! Time flies when you are having fun!

On a different note, things up here are doing pretty great! We recently just invited four out of our five investigators to get baptized and well none of them, other than Shirley, said yes... :( But that's ok because we were able to here some of their concerns that weren't too clear before!

And that was pretty much my week. The majority of the lessons we scheduled tanked, and so we spent the majority of our time talking to people and trying to find people to teach! But on a positive note, we were able to get to drive around a lot, and we were able to experience the majesty that is the  Sacramento Mountains.

Oh and  this Sunday was Madre's Day! And what does that mean?! That means that I got to talk with my family!!! Wooohooo! Also a shout-out to my buddies Dallin  "Flipping" Johnson, and Nicole Neilson for being awesome and bringing my mom a surprise gift! Kudos guys! Kudos!

And that's all she wrote folks, if you have any more questions, concerns, snyde remarks, shoot me a letter, and I will write ya back!

y'all come back now ya hear!

Elder Jacob Guymon

7.6--Temples, Phone booth, and Duck Dynasty

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sometimes when you're a missionary life is just awesome!

But really, things are going pretty dang good! This week we had a lot of amazing things happen! So we were able to take our district on a P-day hike last week, and I am pretty sure they are addicted to the outdoors now! Also, Elder Roylance and I went trail-blazing through the cacti and yucca, and we got cut-up pretty good, but we also got to see a bear-den!

 Also, we were able to see Shirley again, and we were able to have a powerful lesson with her, and she said that she will be baptized! :) wahoo, but she also didn't come to church on Sunday, so we will see what will happen next! :) 

Also, yesterday we were able to go to the Albuquerque Temple! It was a 4 hour drive, but it was so worth it!  That was so wonderful to both go back to ABQ and to the Temple! :) The Holy Ghost there is so strong, and it was terrific "Spiritual Recharge".  Our mission president talked us while we were there about making the Temple the focus of our lives! That by focusing on Christ and the covenants we make with Him, our lives and the lives of our posterity will be blessed forever because of the decisions we make now!

So things are going wonderful here in Cloudcroft! The work is picking up and I feel that we are on the verge of success! : )

And the following are a couple of fun stories from this week:

On Saturday we were out in Timberon, which is in the middle of the woods. We were running late to a dinner appointment with our Ward Mission Leader, and so being Cloudcroft  and having no cell phone service, we found a phone booth and made a call from a phone booth to our WML!  #bucketlist check!

Also, we were on exchanges this week, and we kept seeing one of the men from Duck Dynasty driving around in a Corvette Stingray! As it turns out, one of his family members owns a house in Cloudcroft, and we are pretty sure he was visiting them!!! :)


Anywho, things are good take care!

Elder Jacob Guymon

7.5--Adventure! :)

Dear Ladies and those with a  Y- Chromosome,

I hope that all is going well with all of you! :)  Well maybe not :} muahauahu!

Anywho, things in Cloudcroft are going pretty very super good! Well mostly, we found out two weeks ago from the mission president that he is considering closing Cloudcroft! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

And I guess that's kinda  old news, but we also found out that the lease on our apartment expires in May, and so we figure if anything's going to happen, it will be soon! So finger's crossed! Anywho, we also told our branch president and our branch mission leader about the possible closing  and what do they do? They tell everybody :) #waytogoteamcloudcroft. Anywho, Elder Roylance and I are going to give it our best, and that's all that matters! :)

Also this week Elder Roylance and I got to talk in church! We both talked about member missionary work! For my talk, I did a little spin of Elder Holland's talk, "Feed my Sheep", and in the talk I mentioned raising sheep and how sheep are pretty dull! :}  And the branch loved it (probably because a lot of them were ranchers, and they felt our pain!)

Anywho, that's what's new here! Take care! :)

7.4--Because of Him

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty awesome! :) It's always good when Easter is in the week! :) By the way, mi Padre, showed me this video online, and I thought that it was stellar! http://easter.mormon.org/ I hope you enjoy! :)

Um, some exciting things that happened  this week. First and foremost, we got RAIN!!!! Wahooo! The forest has been looking very dry, and the risk of impending forest-fires are growing. And so even a little bit of rain is truly a God-Send!

Anywho we also had Stake Conference this past week! (On Easter!), and it was beautiful! The speakers talked a lot about Christ and His sacrifice for us, and it has caused me to reflect time and again on my own discipleship to Him. 

I am not sure if I realized how significant "Easter" actually was before. Brother Fox, our WML said something that I thought was truly significant in his own quirky way! He said "I think that Christ rising from the dead was a similar conundrum of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Death comes to everybody, but God isn't supposed to die. Death did a system reboot and in essence Christ broke death. Because of Christ all living things can live again! Because of Him, the wall that was death had a hole punched in it, and we have an escape!"

Anywho, I thought that was awesome in it's own special way! :)

Yep that's all folks! Have a beautiful week! :)



Elder Jacob Guymon

7.3--The Blood Moon Rises

Dear peoples of the third planet from the sun,

Things down here in NM are going phenomenal! The work is picking up, and this transfer looks very promising!

Also, the reason for the naming of the title was that last night we got to see a Red Moon! :) What? It was super cool, and along that same note, the stars did not fall from heaven, and so I think we have a little while longer until the Savior comes!

Updates from last week, Shirley came to church again!! Wahoo! And we also had an awesome lesson with her yesterday, and she wants to keep coming to church also! :)

Also, last week I got to go on exchanges with the new missionary in our district, Elder Stevens (he's been out for close to a week now :} ),  and we got to go and see one of our investigators who we haven't seen in forever. In less-than desirable circumstances though... he seemed very drunk, and he was in the middle of having an angry phone conversation with his girlfriend.... 

#whyyoushouldlivetheWordofWisdom

#breakingthenewguyin

Anywho, things are looking awesome for this coming week, and I am excited to see what this transfer holds! :)

Elder Jacob Guymon

7.2--- The End of Suit/Sweater Season + Elder Roylance

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm Free at Last!! :) hahahah as of General Conference, we no longer have to be wearing a suit/sweater all day everyday! I mean I like wearing a suit, but sometimes, it's good to be able to wear a shirt and tie!

Also, me new companero is Elder Roylance! He has been out for 6 months and has come up to Cloudcroft from El Paso!  He is an only child and is from Missoula, MT, and he's awesome! He loves Cloudcroft, because it reminds him so much of home! Oh, and Elder Barlow got shipped up to ABQ (muhahahahah I put that on him)

Oh, and we had a neat experience yesterday! We were trying to get in contact with an Unknown Member who we had briefly met once before, and he didn't seem to happy to see us, but we decided to stop by and invite him to a cleanup day that our ward is having in a couple of weeks! And as we did that, his wife met us at the door and said "We are less-active, and we want to stay that way!" :/ But then her husband came to the door and was a little flustered at us, but as we started talking, we said we were there to help them in any way, and if they needed help to let us know. And then something happened, the Spirit came as we continued talking, and it disarmed his annoyance and turned it into curiosity! :) We ended up having an hour conversation with them, and he even started asking us questions about where we meet and what time :)

Which was a big lesson to me that miracles happen and will come if the Holy Ghost is there!

And that's all for now folks!

Elder Guymon

7.1--- Changes are coming my way!

Dear People of the internet who are reading this blog,

I do hope that things are going super well for you wherever and whatever you are doing! :)

Things down in Southern NM are great! #besidestheincessantallergies. In order of business, Elder Barlow is going to be transferred tomorrow, and I will be getting a new companero! So that's pretty exciting huh? Also some sad news, my last area  got closed....... NOOOOOOOOO!  What that means exactly is that there will probably be only 1 set of missionaries in that ward (instead of 2), and they will cover both their area and my old area!

In other news, our new investigator, Shirley came to church this Sunday! Wahoo! :)  Which is significant because that's the thing that my investigators have had the most difficult time doing! Also, one of our less-active members who hasn't come in quite a while started coming back to church as well! :) 

Hmmm also, our Bible Study Class has been going quite well! We had 9 people instead of 4, and so things are looking up with that! And our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Fox, has been heading that up and has been doing a fantastic job of teaching the class! Also Brother Fox invited us to a community Potluck up in Sunspot, NM, which is where they have the National Solar Observatory, and so basically we get to eat with a whole bunch of crazy smart scientists from all over the world! What?

Yeppers, so things are going quite well up here in Cloudcroft.  I hope that all of you are taking care, and I will talk with y'all later!

Elder Jacob Guymon