Mission Life :)

This week was good.

Tuesday was kinda tough, we had a rough day and not many people were home for some reason who knows why! But later that night we finally got into a home and it was a young girl and she has a little baby and he was SOOO cute so we were able to have a lesson with her. There are also these niños we teach and they are literally the cutest things on the face of this planet. There is the little boy named Makario and I absoulutely adore that boy. Every time he sees us he yells HERMANAS in this cute little voice and gets so excited. We had a pretty cool lesson this week with some guy we had never met before, I bought a marshmallow from him and then we started talking to him about the gospel. We havent seen him since so who knows if it will go anywhere but the lesson was really good, and he was very nice.The family that came to church last week, the Trujillo familia THE DAD SAID YES TO BAPTISM :):):) so now we just have to help prepare him. We have a baptism this week, with a guy named Luis he is 22 and is very sweet. He has some issues but he loves the church and his nephew is a member so we need to just teach Luis very slowly. Yesterday at church there were some people there from Texas but the woman grew up in Harrisville...  weird right?? It was fun to visit with them. :) Today for Pday our district went on  a hike to some caves and it was fun but a little scary and we literally got lost inside the caves, I just kept praying that we would find our way out and then.. BOOM a guy who knows the caves came and asked if we needed a guide and led us out! I know our pratyers are always answered and I am so grateful for this gospel :)  Anyways that was my week !! Until Next :):):)

Love you all so much!

So the earthquake happened last week when I was still in the CCM at like 5:30 am. I woke up and it felt like the bed was vibrating but then we just went back to bed. We have had two earthquakes while I was in the CCM the second one last week was much bigger than the first one. I left the CCM on the 8th, I woke up at 1:30 we left at 4 and had a 5 hour bus ride. We arrived in Coban at 930 and met President and Sister Curtiss they are SOOOO awesome and they both speak English, it was great :) Then I found out I had another 6 hour bus ride to my area, but they decided to let me leave the next day thank goodness. I am in San Benito which is about a half hour from Tikal, some Mayan ruins, we are right next to a lake and it is a very poor area but I am excited to be here, the kids are SOOO cute and everyone is so nice. Everyone greets people with kisses on the cheeks though so if a man approaches us we need to hurry and stick our arms out for a handshake. I wish I had more time to write about investigators, I will try to next week.  We have some amazing investigators, there are some cool stories, it is really hard for people here to get married so the law of chastity is a problem but we did have a couple get married this week so that was awesome.  The weddings are very different they just signed a paper and it was done! So yeah we basically just walk around our area ALL DAY and people are usually really willing to listen to us so we have a lot of lessons. There are quite a few other churches here and  when we were in a lesson the other day some missionaries from another religion came in and we all had a great conversation about Jesus Christ hahaha. There is a member, Hermana Blacnca who feeds us lunch everyday and we usually just don't have any dinner, but sad story her father is very sick and is dying so she went to Mexico to take care of him. Okay well I wish I had more time but I wanted to leave you with something from one of President Uchtdorfs talks that has helped me so much this week: Five forget me nots

1.   forget not to be pàteinte with yourself

2.   forget not the difference between a good and foolish sacrifice

3.   forget not to be happy NOW

4.   forget  not the why  of the gospel

5,   forget not the lord loves you

LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD WEEK :)

Pictures from the CCM :)

Subject: Last email from the CCM

So this week I heard the coolest conversion story! This guy named Sergio came to take pictures of us for the church website crazy huh?? Our district is going to be famous :) hahaha just kiddding probably not. But the guy taking the pictures has been a member for a little over a year - he said he used to be a huge partier and one day he just kinda realized he wanted to change his life. So he went to a church (LDS) and saw missionaries and they talked to him and said can we help you la la la? He said yeah how do i get baptized? So he was a golden investigator. He was baptized a week later but he wanted to surprise his mom, he didnt know how she would react so he said dress nice and he took her to the church and he cahnged into his white clothes and she just started crying and he got nervous and asked why she was crying and she said she would tell him later. They went on with the baptism and later he asked her again and she said she had been a member for 28 years just really inactive, and she reactivated and they just went through the temple two weeks ago. It was so sweet! This week we also got a new teacher his name is Hermano Hernandez and he is super awesome I have learned a lot from him.  My spiritual moment for this week was cool!! We do this thing called CRE and we teach non active members but really its just other missionaries pretending to be them. Hna Bacon and I always have this plan that I bring my spanish scriptures and she has her english so if we give the investogaros something to read they can have the spanish and we have english so we can still understand hahah but me and her got split up so i had to teach an elder by myself and I needed this scripture and i couldnt think of it, and i only had my spanish scriptures and couldnt read them.., but the SPRIIT helped me remember which one it was :) i was so happy:):):)  another funny story. I was walking in the CCM the day after all the new nortes got here and looked at this one kid--- I KNEW HIM! We went to high school together but he graduated this year his name is Elder Lucas. Funny story. This week i also learned some Q'etchi from one of the Branch presidents... Mazala Xol is Buenos Dias or Buenas Tardes.. kinda like good day in english :) The latinas in this group really want to learn english too so they all had me write like the mission objective and the first vision in english haha theyre really cute but the nortes overpower the latinas now there are so many nortes its crazy!! ew i have another bug story too, but not in my food this time. We were playing volleyball and i felt something hit my head and i just thought it was my hair but then i heard a thud on the ground and i looked down and there was a GIANT BEETLE. sick!! Like not even kiddin the size of my palm that hit me. It was nasty, and then the teachers outside with us were just telling me how much worse it is in Coban sooooo wahoo! bugs!  :) Oh and i love mexican ice cream better than american, they have this kind that is coconut and it has chucks of coco in it SOOOO GOOOD!!!! Hope you all have a good one and cant wait to talk to you again from the CAMPO!!!:):):)

love you all so much!

Weird! time is going by so fast for me down here. I am loving the spirit and the testimony and I can see myself growing spiritually more everday :)

 

We got to have a chocolate fountain again for dinner yesterday.. and you best believe I ate almost all the marshmallows they put out HAHA. But the chocolate fountain meant this last group of latinas left.  I totally made a new best friend in the group so I was really sad to see her leave. Her name is Hermana Zaleta and she is from Mexico! She was soooo funny. We always sat by each other at dinner. She always teased me for EVERYTHING I DID haha and i gave it back to her. Last night before she left she came into my aula and gave me her hair bow :) It was so cute so i gave her a necklace. Our roommates left at like 5 am this morinig so we woke up then to say bye to them. They were the sweetest things ever too. I think our spanish is getting better so its easier for us to get closer to the hermanas. The CCM is the same everyday haha CLASSES CLASSES CLASSES.

My teachers are truly the best Hno Noack is going to be famous and they came and filmed him for some mormon message in centeral america sooo watch for that haha we might be in it :). Today we got to go to the temple and i love it more each time :) it makes me so happy! I love Guatemala and they werent kidding when they said its the rainy season here. There literally hasnt been a day we havent had rain here, and I love it!

 

Anyway Sunday was the best too we had normal church stuff and got to watch amazing devotionals and the Testaments. It was so good its awesome to think that those are the poelple we are teaching. They literally have lineage that we believe has seen christ. HOW COOL!! These people are amazing. I cant wait to be fluent in the language cause half the time when the latinas talk to us we have to have them say it slow and describe words hahahaha its so fun though.

 

But really thats about all this week. I love you guys sooo much and hope you have an amazing week! I am so grateful for the gospel and am learning so much all the time! :) Love you!

 

Well this week I had a wonderful experience that has opened my eyes to what i am sure I will be facing a lot in Cobán.... I was enjoying this DELICIOUS salad, when i was about to put a piece in my mouth then saw some black moldy stuff on it. i put it down and then picked it back up and looked again, and to my surprise, realized i almost just enjoyed and crunced on a yummy CATERPILLAR CACOON!!! nasty.... it has fuzzy every where and was squishy and gross... yeah i havent ate salad since.  This week has been soo good and it just gets better everday. I learn more, I make more relationships each day, and i feel the spirit all the time.The latinas in our room leave tomorrow at 3:30 am and i am literally so sad, they are the cutest but i know they will be amazing missionaries in Santa Ana!!. We always have deportes and we alwasys do a hard workout video with presidente hahaha, he is in better shape than any of us misioneros its so funny.There is this hymn in spanish and it is SOOO PRETTY and amazing you should look it up,  its page 88 in the spanish hymn book and is called PLACENTEROS NOS ES TRABAJAR. listen to it and then search the story behind it and the guy who wrote it and the english translation it is my favorite ever, and its only a spanish hymn. SAD!  Anyway we get to go on a field trip tomorrow cause the new batch of nortes and latinos come tomorrow, crazy to think that was us 2 weeks ago!! Time really flies here... But i love it and i am happy :) i love praying in spanish too. They begin with PADRE CELESTIAL which i am sure you can tell is celestial father. and i just love that. My testimony really is strengthened all the time here and I love the spirit here. I am grateful to be here :)

 

One week down!

One week down!! haha It has gone by pretty fast now that i think about it but all during the week it seemed soooo slow... I already told you about the first day but the rest of the week was awesome too. Everyday is basically the same we have personal study then language slash comp study. The food here is soooo good for breakfast my favorite is the leche con arroz it is so good its like oatmeal. The latinas in our room are SSSOOOO CUTE  hermana caiceda from columbia and hermana linares from Guatemala. I love them so much and we can have really good conversations with them already.  It is always hot here too even at night I have slept with a sheet over me once the rest of the time i sleep with nothing besides my clothes. The rain here is insane!! It usually starts out as a blue day and then its overcast the rest. and then it POURS. The second day we were here we had a Rededication and the Area 70 over came which was way cool.Carlos Amado came he is the guatemalan that spoke in general conference. We have deportes everyday and half the time we have to stay in the gym cause it is raining so hard outside so our CCM President started doing the workout videos with us!!  Our President and his wife are the best. They let all us NORTES they call us the nortes from north amaericans haha come over sunday night and have these really yumy brownies and a little spritual message. Sunday was one of the best days cause they split up the nortes and latinas for everything except sacrament. It was so good so we had some lessons and sacrament was testimony meeting and every single person bore their testimony. It was awesome. The spirit is so strong and its cool that is is there even when we may not be able to understand completely everything they say in their testmonnies. but they sure are strong. We are already teaching an ivestigator named Mario and it is so hard they made us teach in spanish from the very beginning. This is an amazing place to be and the people here are so sweet, and thankfully some speak spanish and english! I know this is where i am supposed to be! Love you all and have a good week.