Greetings from Guatemala

Dear All,

This has been a pretty good week. My companion, Elder Arrieta, and I have been working hard here in Panorama 1. Things have been going a lot better since we got the sisters all situated last week, now we can really concentrate on doing what missionaries do: baptize! I'm so excited for the possiblities here! This is the richest area by far that I have ever had. This area is known for being one of the richer areas in the capital and it's evident. The majority of the members here have cars. Our mission leader, who is the head traumatologist at the biggest hospital in Central America, has three! The bishop has two, and many other members have one or more. It's nice, because it's a big area, so when we need a ride, we can call a member, or sometimes they just show up and ask us if we need a ride. It's a big help. Especially when we need to get an investigator to church or to an activity.

Yesterday we met a recent convert who lives here in our ward, but was baptized in the North Mission just a few weeks ago by one of my friends from the CCM! It was pretty cool when he showed me the photo, because I knew the Elder who baptized him.  It was also a really great chat that we had with him. He has a computer and everything, and he's super excited about family history. His name is Sergio, and his Dad passed away 11 years ago, so he wants to do the work for him in the Temple. He's like the Yumán family from Villa Nueva, he's that awesome! I also just saw some members from Villa Nueva 1 on the bus coming back from the stake center. It was kind of cool. The other day on the buses that go to Peronia, I saw one of the investigators I found in my first area, who was baptized a few weeks after I left. We set the baptismal date with her before I left the area. We also saw another member. Next week or the folowing week I'll be going there in divisions, so I'll stop by and say hi to some of the people I met there in Jerusalen.

Other than that, we're preparing for a missionary activity on Saturday in the stake center. We'll be singing a choir number, "We'll Bring the World His Truth" as a zone, and yours truly is the pianist. I had very little time to practice, but it'll be great because it already sounded good today, and we're going to add violin and some English verses and we're going to perform it for Elder Duncan of the Seventy, who is part of the Central America Area Presidency, who will be coming to visit us later on in June.

That's all for this week. Keep the faith, and keep on prayin'.

I love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Banks