E-mail received 4/26/2010

Maleah looks like she's really lost a lot of weight from the pictures! She looks good. Katelyn looks the same. Sorry. Man I really wish we could go to the temple whenever we could! We live like twenty minutes from the temple where we are. It would be so nice. Last preparation day, we were on our way home and we could take the exit back to our apartment or go cross the GW bridge and go into NY. Tempting! But we didn't. That's crazy that you've got that huge calling! (Darri got called to be the Ward Camp Director yesterday)  It'll be fun and I'm sure inspiring. Make it all you can. Yeah I got the package. My mind was blown when I saw the mangoes. Everyone in my district and apartment is hooked. I forgot how good they are. Needless to say they're gone. But they were well appreciated. I was looking at the label and there's no fat! I'm kind of a big calorie counter now. It's pretty bad but that's really part of how I've lost so much weight. I'm pretty sure I'm below two hundred now but we don't have a scale. I'm using some hand-me-down shirts and pants from Elder Shaffer. I'm a sixteen/ sixteen and a half neck now and I wear (I think) between a thirty-two and a thirty-four waist. I only say that because the hand-me-down pants I got are a thirty four and they're a pretty relaxed fit on me. It's crazy how much I've changed. Especially when I got the pictures. Everyone I showed couldn't believe it. It's definitely a different man in the mirror now. Actually I would love it if you sent me recipes and I don't know if that cook book you gave me for my birthday is lying around anywhere. I LOVE cook books. Every once and a while a member or an investigator will lend me one and I love reading them but I can't keep them so I don't make anything. But that would be awesome. If you know anything that's good to make that's low cost that would be great too. Also I would love a rice cooker. You could just tell me next week how much your giving me for it because we do our shopping at walmart after email. I don't cook much out here because I'm really on a hardcore diet right now so everything I eat doesn't need to be cooked but I still love rice con pezcado so it would be much appreciated. I've learned a lot of mexican and dominican dishes that I'll have to make for you guys when I get back that I think you guys would really like. I've decided I'm going to send the card with your mother's day card along with a copy of the talk. I still want to take some more pictures so I'm going to take a lot today. We have this great sushi place we go to every preparation day so I'll probably take some there. I decided to improve my handwriting because I'm a district leader now and so I have a lot of paper work that I have to do that other people have to read so I took my planner, which Sister Black wrote a lot of stuff in, and copied her style of handwriting as much as I could. It's not as neat but it's much better so you'll get to see it. Not much on this side I'm afraid other than I'm really learning a lot here. It's been a really great hot week but now we're getting showers. We haven't made much progress this week because everyone cancelled their appointments but sometimes you get weeks like those. We do have this one great old couple who we serve everyday and they are really cool. Well I hope you guys have a great week. And check up on what time that we're going to talk on the 9th so that we're all set because I can't wait to hear your voices! Love you all and remember to read your scriptures!

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 4/19/2010

That's pretty cool that things have moved into an easy flow now. Sounds like you guys are going to be pretty busy with all the stuff going on this summer. That is pretty crazy now that I think that I'm coming up on my 6 month mark and Jaron's already been out a year! That's even crazier to think that Maleah's going to be in high school! Make sure she goes to seminary EVERY DAY! It does the body good. That's crazy that michelle's already thinking about getting married. Marriage isn't even on the mind anymore. Missionary work simply keeps you too busy to think about anything else. Plus I think I've really been blessed to have been given such a good concrete plan for my future that I really don't have to worry very much about what's going to happen on after my mission. Elder Calderoni worries about it all the time. Most of my companions have expressed annoyance about how chill I am about life and yet am very serious and, sometimes even a little, work a little too hard at missionary work. It's truely a great work that we're engaged in and I love it. Thanks for sending the box! I look forward to receiving it. The cookies got here great and they were wonderful! They got eaten very fast. Those would definitely be a keeper in packages of the future. Maybe one idea, and this is just something I thought of at random today while we were shopping for groceries, there's a lot of things that you can't get here on the East Coast. Like Phillipene dried mangos and certain sauces like the jamaica me sweet hot and crazy or, if you could find it, jamaica mistake! that would be awesome stuff to get! I know it's kinda weird the stuff that moves me when I'm out on a mission but I've really changed a lot. Elder Crawford, one of my roommates who's also from Washington (Richland), were talking about how our priorities really change with responsibility. You really think about what you need versus what you want when you don't really have an income. Oh by the way on the walmart charges, they're correct, also you'll see a few more charges on there. One from walmart and one from GNC. Elder Calderoni and I are doing intense muscle training and he's a big fan of creatine so I'm trying it and I felt like it wasn't something I should use missionary funds for. I'm actually doing a lot of cooking at this apartment as opposed to the one in Sparta. The members don't really feed us but I like it because it's easier to diet when you have control over your meals. I'm planning on making the coconut shrimp soup this week (minus the shrimp because shrimp is expensive!!!) so I'm pretty excited on how that will turn out. Is the sauce just coconut milk or is it coconut milk mixed with a little water? Oh and just in response to the note on Dad's quotes. I realize that they're not really targetted on teaching any lesson and I also realize that my message to Dad last week may have been a little harsh but it's definitely a message I gave a lot of thought to. I hope he forgives my bluntness but it's really something I've thought about my whole mission so far. Anyways I'm very excited as well to hear your guys voice on mother's day! I hope everyone is home so that I can say hi to everyone. Something you might enjoy, Mom, is I've undergone super, maximum, high intensity, ninja-esk training and my handwriting is neat now! Well neater. It's actually very readable. I'll have to send you a sample. This week was pretty awesome. We set our first baptismal date here in Fairlawn this week with an Indian gentleman. We brought a sister from Union City to translate for us and her boyfriend. It was probably the most spiritual lesson that I've had my whole mission. He cried A LOT, and HARD. It was really great. It was interesting because he speaks little to no English and she translated a lot for us but the moments when he felt the Spirit the strongest, the words that were spoken were in English. It just goes to show that the Spirit really is the converter in our work and that it speaks in a language every soul can understand and appreciate. He's an amazing humble guy and we intend to succeed in his baptismal date of May 2. We're so excited. We also met a great new investigator from Ghana! She loves the Book of Mormon and knows that it's true and really REALLY wants to come to church but she's works as a 24/7 aid so she can't leave the house and can't come to church! We study with her out on the houses front porch when the owner of the house isn't around. It's kinda funny actually. The weather here is very weird. It changes very frequently and VERY fast. It can be bright and sunny one moment and then rainy the next for about a minute and then break into sunny skys the minute after that and then be super windy for five minutes and then calm and cloudy the next. It's very weird. But you learn to adjust. There's so many great humble people here and we love all the work that we do. I had to give a talk this Sunday and I'm sorry but I left it in the car. I was going to copy it in the email and send it to you but it looks like I'll have to do it next week. It was based off the talk by President Uchtdorf entitled "You Are My Hands" in the Sunday morning session of General Conference. Great talk. Mine was all on how it really addresses out eternal Identity and the eternal duty that goes along with it. Anyways I'll make sure and get it to you next week. Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement and definitely let me know if there's anything more that I can do for you guys while I'm out here serving the Lord. Hope everyone has a great week and remind the girls to study their scriptures!

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 4/12/2010

That's awesome. Sorry this email will have to be short because I spent a lot of time on Dad's email and I still have to write president Bahr. Sounds like the temple was great. The other companionship in our apartment is Spanish speaking and Elder C is actually a portuguese missionary but he's in the english program right now. I'll probably call around five or six (Washington time) we have church from one to four here too. Do you guys have my other camera card? If you do could you send it back so that I can send you the other one. Elder C takes a lot of pictures and so he's making me take a lot. Also, if you can find it, could you send me that little book of pictures that B made for me? Don't worry it won't distract me. Nothing can at this point. I just want it. All the other missionaries have a ton of pictures of them before the mission and on exchanges it's tradition to share them and I don't have any! Plus I just really want those pictures. So if you could send them that would be awesome. It's been a crazy week this week. It was really hot at the beginning and then really cold. We walk mostly everywhere because Paterson is so bad to drive in. It's not the cars so much as it is the people. I love it here though. The people are so humble and open to the great Gospel message. We met this one lady and within moments of us meeting her she was crying and told us that she really felt the Spirit as we told her about the restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. It's incredible how strongly I feel the Spirit working through me as I see these people progress. Truly miracles are being wrought here in New Jersey. I hope you guys have a great week and I'm sorry that this has to be so short. One more quick little note. I love it when you guys send me stuff and I'm so grateful for it. But if you could not send any more candy that would be awesome. I don't eat any of it. My companions definitely love your packages but I eat really healthy food like fruit and vegetables. Thank you so much for your kindness. You guys are so great in supporting me and I really appreciate the love that you express in everything you do for me. I hope you have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you and talking to you on Mother's Day in May!

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 4/5/2010

Oh man there's so much to update you guys on this week! First of all wasn't conference great? It's such a blessing to hear the words of the prophets without having to travel great distances and hear the counsel of the Lord to us in the latter days! I love my new area! I'm now serving in Fairlawn, NJ. Basically it's a subcity of Paterson. I'm in Sister B's area. Her and her companion got doubled out and my companion, Elder C and I got doubled in! So not only am I a new district leader, I'm also the senior companion, the driver, doubled into a new area so neither of us know anyone, and on top of that we're doubled into a sister's area so most of the people that they worked with were sisters who we can't work with! Elder C loves it just the same. Paterson is really ghetto. It's a city area and there's a lot of people here. I love it! My companion, Elder C, is awesome! He's 24 but he's only been out on his mission for two transfers more than I have. We're the youngest companionship in the mission. He's from Sao Paulo, Brazil but he's traveled all over the world. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English. He's awesome. He likes to work out a lot like me and we work out for an hour and a half every morning. I have a feeling I'll lose a lot of weight here. The branch here is very small but they're very strong members. We live in a four-elder apartment in Paterson. My roomates are Elder De la Cruz, from Mexico, and Elder Crawford, From Washington(Tri-cities area). Everyone in our apartment speaks Spanish because it's really the easiest language for all of us to communicate in so we all speak Spanglish to each other. It's pretty cool. I'm really brushing up on my Spanish here and my transfer goal is to be able to speak it pretty much fluently, which shouldn't be too hard because everyone here speaks it so I definitely get the needed practise. We've been doing a lot of work trying to get to know our area. I spent like an hour on the phone with Sister B just trying to get a feel for all the people they've been working with. We really haven't seen many of their investigators but we've been finding a lot of new investigators of our own. There's always someone walking out on the streets at any given time of day and so we walk as much as possible to talk to everyone on the street. People here are very open and very willing to hear and learn about the Gospel. It's amazing! I really love my new area. There's so much to do as a district leader. Most of it involves a lot of paperwork that I have to do but the bulk of it is keeping track of the missionaries, making sure their alright and doing what I can to help them. It's really a different side when you see the amount of work and care that goes into supervising this great work. Camp Helamen was nothing compared to actual missionary work and service. While I definitely don't think there's any way to properly simulate what goes on here, the duties required of us are immense. I enjoy serving them though. The most I think the assignment does for me is gives me a greater opportunity to serve the missionaries around me. I love doing it and it really I think helps me set myself apart from other missionaries and really focus on the work that I have to do. I'm excited to do the work here in Fairlawn and to see the great success that the Lord has in store for me. Getting doubled in shows that President Bahr and the Lord have a lot of faith in Elder C and I that we can really succeed here and we don't intend to let him and the Lord down! That's cool that Chelsea is graduating early. She'll be married by the fall. No doubt. Yea she wanted me to be Gastonne if they did that play last year. I think that's funny that Zach is Gastonne because Gastonne is huge and manly and Zach is somewhat lacking in the huge, manly, and hairy department. I'll email Kelly right after I finish here. The mail works the same here and yes I'll probably still usually get it on tuesdays. When you go to the temple make sure the girls realize what a sacred place that it is and what an even greater blessing it is to be within those walls. Thanks so much for everything and I hope you guys have a great week. I know I will! Elder C and I are excited to start off this transfer strong and take Fairlawn by storm!

Elder Guinto