2/18/15
Ashtin gets BACK!!!!!!


2/16/15

Wow. I cannot believe that this is my last email that I will ever send to you guys from the mission. I still dont feel it at all. Well, okay, a little bit haha. I had to say bye to everyone in Chiquimula yesterday because today at 530am we left to come to the capital so that i could say bye to some people around here. I feel a mix of emotions...sad to leave these people, knowing that its very possible that I might never see them again, happy to be able to see my family and my friends again, content because I feel that I served as I shouldve these last 18 months. I wasnt close to perfect, but I really tried. I love Guatemala so much and it will always hold a space in my heart. The people I have met have changed my life. I have learned from the experiences and really been able to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

We had a wedding on Friday! Our investigators Sintian and Israel got married!!! wooohooo! my only wedding in the whole mission and my last friday. i was so happy. a lot of members came to support them, which was super sweet to see. they will get baptized on the 28th and i have every intention of skyping during that time.

I just want to end with my testimony. I know this church is true. I know that it is the only church that Christ has established here in the earth. The only church where He has placed His authority to act in His name. I know that Christ lives and forgives our sins. I know that the Atonement is real and when we apply it in our lives, we feel peace and joy and can really change who we are. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God as well as the Bible. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, just as Moses and Noah were. I know that God hears and answers our prayers. He knows whats best for our lives. I know that when we are obedient to His commandments...we receive peace and eternal life. Its hard, but its possible, and at the end of the day, its the only thing thats worth it. I know the priesthood power is real. I know my time in Guatemala has been a huge blessing in my life and that it wasnt a waste of time. I have become truly converted. I am so aware of all of my weaknesses now, but I have the rest of forever to change them.

2/9/15

Welp. This is my last full week here in the mission field. I cant believe the day has come. Really, it feels surreal. I ahvent accepted it yet, although i have started organizing what i should bring home and what gifts i need to buy. luckily were going to esquipulas today so i can buy stuff. im sorry in advance for not buying a bunch of souveniers but im trying to remember everyone and bring soemthing. its really hard though because we dont receive much time ever to do these things and my first two areas didnt have things to buy soo...

Last night i had a super good conversation with my companion. I was frustrated about the lack of communication in our companionship because it was really affecting us and our unity. I felt like I had been trying, but I also recognized taht I had a lot of fault in it. I didnt want to say anything to her because i didnt want to hurt her feelings, but las night i just felt so overwhelmed that i couldnt handle it anymore. we talked it out and were good now! i am so happy because we will be able to finish well :)

This is the week of the wedding! i am so excited :) i dont think theyll be getting baptized until after i leave which is sad but i am happy to at least see the wedding! they are so amazing and i just love them so much. it will be super hard to leave them, i wont lie.

we put as a goal this week to find 30 new investigators. its going to require a lot of work and focus...which is exactly whey we put that goal. to stay focused. 

the next time i write you, ill be in the capital and then will see you guys really soon :) i love you guys!

2/2/15

wellll. this week we had concilio again so we went to the capital on monday. on tuesday we had a really awesome concilio (like usual) and they passed a rule that we can now drink pepsi and coke so thats always fun. on the way back in the bus haha they were playing the movie ninja turtles (there was an accident so it took us 5 hours). i slept to not watch the movie but when i woke up i couldnt fall back asleep but the movie was basically over and so to avoid them putting another movie on...we gave them a church movie about the restoration hahaha. it was so great! i love being a missionary!
Okay so i have a story. so our fechas that are super awesome and are going to get married on the 13th. she started having doubts about the baptism because her mom who is catholic got involved and she had a headache at church(which she took as a sign that she shouldnt be there...we had a special session where we sat in the same room for three hours...even i had a headache). so instead of getting devastated, which is my normal response  haha, i decided to just hold out faith. we did divisions the next time we were going to visit them. in companionship study i had told the hermana that we were going to pray with her to receive an answer (she has a month in the mission). when the moment comes to pray...i completely forget. but she doesnt. she tells her that we want to pray with her and the lady agrees. when she asked, the spirit was so strong!! after the prayer she said i felt happy, im going to continue with my baptism. it was such a miracle and i left there so happy. i love this family so much! theyre super young and they are truly repenting and changing and that moment was so special. i was so grateful to that hermana. 

1/26/15

Well. Heavenly Father has answered my prayers yet again. Just know that well...that tends to happen, because, well, He is God. and He always listens. So i have been praying super hard to be able to not be baggy (as pointed out by dad i need to explain the terminology...it means thinking about home a lot and wanting to get home like now). well...this week was so insane.

We had three people that were going to baptized. We go to the cita on monday and shes like hey..someone offered me a job today that works on sunday...and i took it, but only for a month to pay for the schooling of my daughter (she is the mom and the other two are her daughter and niece so they dont get baptized if she doesnt). and were like....no! its satan obviously. right before your baptism? like cmon! dont fall for it! we pray together to find another job. we go visit a less active and she is like hey im looking for someone to work in my house and obviously they wouldnt work sundays. PERFECT! so the next day she had to go into her job but we tell her that on wednesdy we will show her the house. we go to the house of the less active and she had already hired someon....so we had to call her and tell her that we dotn have a job. but she decides she doesnt like her job anyway because they drink so were in the clear....no. she gets another job. and im just like oh my gosh. so then we go on divisions and i leave the area so idk what happens until the next day and she decides not to work! but the niece cant get baptized because of this long mess. so the other two get baptized. well the day before the baptism supposedly the mom of the niece is mad that shes not getting baptized so we go to the house to talk to her...and shes not even mad. we have the baptism!!!!

the baptism was so beautiful because although we started like an hour late because people hadnt shown up or the other hermanas forgot the clothes, seven people got baptized that day! it was so amazing to watch 7 people in a row get baptized :) i loved it. the other 5 were investigators of the hermanas that share our ward.

i love the mission. i know this is a true work of God. I know this is the only true church and i know that being a misisonary has changed me for the better and for the rest of my life! i love you guys :)

1/19/15

Dear Family,

The weeks are getting crazier and crazier. TOday we went to a castle...it was my third time. not that exciting but it wasnt my choice haha. i love the zone though so it works. 

We had so so so so so many miracles this week. I know that Heavenly Father is throwing a bunch of work at us to answer my prayers that I will not get baggy before I am home. One of these miracles is this. We are teaching a couple and they are super awesome. They read, they pray, are always happy to see us. They arentmarried and he cant come to church for his job. she knows its true but wants to do everything as a family. so he this week received the answer that he knows this is true and that he wants to get married as well! i was like screaming haha when he said it. i hugged her and was like...i cant hug you because im a missionary but i am so happy! haha. and his boss gave him sunday off. their wedding is planned for the 13th of february, which happens to be my last friday (talk about baggy haha, a wedding...jk...mostly). but ahhhh i cant believ it! i am so flippinghappy for them because they are super young and just super cute and they know they have found the truth! they have alittle daughter, shes 2 and so adorable!

this weekedn we are planning on having 3 baptisms with 5 of the other hermanas in our ward. i am so excited :) i think it is going to be super spiritual. at the beginning of the month we put a goal of 4 baptisms. we prayed and felt that. then we werent seeing how it was going to happen but we kept the faith. like on sunday, they hadnt shown up to chruch and if they couldnt come they couldnt get baptized this saturday. like 15 minutes in and still nothing. but we were like no, they will come. and they came!!! so we are going to meet the goal that we put because we put it with God! so exciting.

we had two super great divisions this week as well. i love doing them. 

seriously so much happened this week! im going to have to go through my agendas when igethome to tell you everything BUT i can tell you that Heavenly Father is blessing us SO much!

Have great weeks! :) Love you!


1/12/15

Soooo this week on monday we worked. Tuesday at 145am i woke up to catch a bus at 3am. its only a 3 1/2 hour ride to the capital but there was an accident in which we sat on the bus for 3 hours...jsut stopped there. we finally got where we needed to be at 1030am. where i received my new companion! hna ynjo (ingho) from peru. she also was in the ccm with me! not that i could speak spanish then haha. so then that night we worked in an area in the capital with hna flewallen!!! woohoo! it was fun. in the night all of the girls who went home were there waiting for their flights and it just seemed unreal haha but yes. wednesday we had concilio (a meeting of all the zone leaders and hermana leader trainers in the mission) and we talked aobut the mission plan and how to change it. I AM SO PUMPED. seriously. i talked SO much, like way too much haha but i had a lot to say, so it was fun!

we finally got to work on thursday! the week has gone by super fast, i cant believe its over but it is haha. we had a super miracle on sunday. so we were in an area and we prayed about where we should go. my companion felt a house so we went there but nothing happened. they dont want to preogress...okay so we go to walk out of this area just in time to contact a kid who was outside of his house. we start talking to him. my companion out of nowhere (we had only tlaked for like 3 minutes) asks if he wants to get baptized. he says yes and how long would it take. we tell him the requirements and he agrees for the 14th of february! which happens to be my last saturday in the mission (one of my goals for this change). it was so amazing and we are very happy.

this week we are starting divisions again so wish us luck haha.

love you guys!!!


1/5/15

Dear Family,

Welp I cant believe I am saying this but we ended another change. My companion is leaving me :( BUT I am happy for her because I think that she is going to be training, which she has been dying to do, soooo I guess I am happy for that. PLUS there is a possibility that she is going to go to an area in the zone so I can do divisions with her!!!! We already planned it out...my last division of my mission will be with her haha. But we will see later today.

So tomorrow I go to the capital again! Woohoo! I am actually really excited because we have this thing called a misison plan which is pretty self explanatory (its how we should be working in our areas and what are the things we should be accomplishing every week), but every year it gets changed a little. well this year when we get together with president, we are going to offer him our opinions on what should change and what should stay and i am so excited haha.

Anywho this week we had a baptism :) I was stressed because I didnt think that anyone was going to come, but it turned out full the room so that was exciting :) Heavenly Father heard our prayers! So Saturday is when the baptisms are (usually) and then in Domingo they get the Spirit. Well she came late to church on sunday and i was like OH MY GOSH! haha but she came, so its all good :) 

On sunday we had a meeting with the leaders of our ward and we talked aobut our goals for next year and we are putting 100 baptisms as our goal for the year! i am so excited! they asked if we could do it and i told them, us 4 as missionaries...no. but with the whole ward involved, yes! and they wre like okay! and super animated and it was so exciting. i really hope that this year we as missionaries and the ward can just come together and really work even more together. i want to see this miracle happen! well...hear about it anyway. be a small part of it.
I hope you all had great New Years...here in Guatemala they have a heck ton of fireworks at midnight (super dangerous and illegal (in the states...not here) but super awesome). so i saw those! they also do it at christmas but i was a little tired and sick that day haha so i didnt see them. Put goals!!! and some of them have to be spiritual! love you guys! :) 

12/29/14

Dear Family,

So this week was crazy haha. Well I basically told you guys everything about my companion being sick and that I threw up and what not. I saw the brother on Sunday and I was like I am so sorry...seriously. I feel so embarassed and he was like no, no, just for new years...dont eat so much before you get to the house haha.

So basically this is what I have to share. This time of my mission probably we have had the most challenges than ever before, but I also have never seen so many blessings. Like on Sunday this guy came to chruch with his wife and suddenly this guy is just like hey, im a bishop from a different ward, but this guy wants to get baptized. when can he? so right there we put a fecha for his baptism and were like, we will be seeing you haha. it was crazy! and then after we had an appointment (i didnt write cita...im trying to remember english haha) and she was like hey, my neighbor wants you to visit her. we go there. its a full family (although not married for questions of his legal information) and they are like yeah, we want to go to your church, but we dont know if were allowed or where it is. haha well...if thats your only problem...but it was just so amazing. we have found so many people in these last days that want to get baptized. like seriously so many! and they just come out of nowhere...seriously. its just amazing to me. so maybe i like all of the challenges...? haha.

but also i jsut want to say how much i love my companion haha. she has been feeling so sick and she has the perfect excuse to stay home but she always refuses. even if were walking like super slow...she refuses to stay there in the house. i admire her a lot for that! 

but i talked to you all like 3 days ago soooo. i love you all! love seeing your faces haha and i hope you have great weeks! :) and happy new year!!



12/22/2014

Dear Family,

This week was super crazy! okay so monday is pday. Tuesday, I left the area for divisions. Okay side story on that, we visted a woman whos son left on the mission a month ago and she just needed someone to listen to her really haha. she was like im so happy for him, but i am sad at the same time. and weve never been seperated for so long and it was so flipping cute! and sad. and it made me think of you guys and i love you all so much :) thanks for always supporting me!

okay, so wednesday we had a conference with president and hermana crapo and two other zones. it was the christmas conference. we watached iron will. do you guys remember that movie? we were all being so super dramatic haha like NOOOOO when somehting bad happened or laughing at parts that are only slightly funny because well, i havent seen a movie in a year. but it was good to be with everyone. we didnt get to our area until like 6pm though. then on thursday we had interviews with president and i love interviews! we left the house a little bit earlier to work but not much happened then the interviews went on for a while longer than planned...also didnt leave until like 6pm. friday we have planning in the morning and had to finish the plans for a baptism of a girl on saturday. we painted a house to give service and then its like 730 and we are both just like...what have we done this week? feeling kind of down like nothing is going right, we havent been able to work really. so we walk by a house and we hear this kid crying and im concerned for this kid so we decide to knock, they let us in. and 6 people accept a baptismal date!!! it was such a miralce!!!! ahhhh it was crazy!!!! Heavenly Father really lets us go sometimes until we are at a breaking point and then He gives us the promised blessings to see if we really trust in Him. 

I forgot to tell you guys last week...well maybe not. I dont remember. when i did divisions last week I got to visit a woman who had been inactive when we started visiting her and now she is the first counselor in the relief society :) (for those of you who dont know...its a leadership position in the chruch) and ahhhH! i cant tell you how happy I was!

i would send you gusy pictures because i have a ton but this interent place is sketchy and my computer has a virus so im not risking it haha. 

have excellent Christmases :) I will talk with you guys in like 4 days! wooh! haha. love you guys!!!!

 

 

12/15/2014

Dear Family,

Sooooo this week was a good week :) I was able to do divisions with a girl who JUST started the mission. So cute to see haha, but she really didnt seem super lost like I am sure I looked. Maybe because she speaks spanish? I dont know, but regardless it was fun to work with her! and i also got to do another division in my first area with a girl from my group from the CCM! i love going to my first area :) It is so fun seeing the members, especially because they remembre me! But its fun to see the growth that we have both had.

This week was also a follow the spirit week, but seriously like we had so many experiences this week where following the spirit really made the difference. When we felt like we needed to do something, just doing it. We were able to meet several different people that seem super awesome, to give service, and to receive references. Like today in the bus we contacted this lady and she was like im a member, but hey! I have a reference for you guys! My dad lives in your area! It was so awesome to see.

This week we will have a zone conference with our president! I hope that we watch meet the mormons. Thats what the rumor is anyway. I hope so. And then we have interviews with president! This week is going to FLY by! seriously, i cant beilve how fast everything is going. the new year is basically here and i feel like i was just writing down my goals for the years! 

Oh and (with the permission of our zone leaders) WE CROSSED A RIVER! haha. but okay, it came up to our calves but its the fastest way to get to an investigators house. 

Our recent convert Hermano Guerra....I just love him haha. We usually come and pick him up but this Sunday we couldnt. Sacrament starts and he isnt there and I was like nooooo. But then right as theyre passing the Santa Cena, in he walks! Hes just this cute little old man haha.

I hope you guys are seeing the stuff for He is the Gift. Its so awesome and I hope that you are sharing it on facebook and with everyone. Look it up! and share it POR FAVOR! 

I hope that you guys are having great weeks and not stressing out about Christmas. We will get to talk in a couple of weeks! :) love you guys a lot!!

 

12/8/2014

dear family,
 
so this week was crazy and it didnt go as well as we mightve hoped but you know, it happens. itll be better next week :) i am super excited though because on tuesday we went to the capital and we had our conference with president and it was so awesome! we talked about Christ and representing Him during the navidad and i am just super happy! I love the new campaign He is the Gift because He is the gift...He was given to us as a gift from God. I cant imagine that type of love and I just want to work even harder for it!

 
So on Saturday we sang as a zone hymns in the park and it was a lot of fun...the only people who really watched us were members already but the important part is that now we know what to do better next year so that people come and listen to us and what not! it was a lot of fun though! Oh and while i was in the capital...we took a piture with Santa hahaha...yep.

 
I have learned this week that missionary work is about progress. We do something, we see what didnt work, and we make it better the next time. Its like life really haha. And we are just looking for the people when they are in the stage of accepting the restored gospel.

 
Im sorry i dont have a lot to tell haha, but our recent convert Hermano Guerra was ready when we came by and just like waiting for the car to pass by for him! it was so cute! and then he recieved the priesthood on sunday! awww! haha

 
Love you guys!!!!

 

 

12/1/2014

Okay, before I forget...you should all look up Refiner´s Fire. It is the video of Kim Martin...super powerful.

So this week was super awesome!!!! We were able to work a lot with all of the changes because we had full days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! Woohoo! But yeah, we were able to find a lot of new investigators. AND we had a baptism!!! Hermano Guerra got baptized! He is 74 years old haha. He was super happy too. The guy who baptized him is a recent convert and almost hit Hermano Guerras head on the font wall...but thats okay haha because he didnt! It was just a super special baptism because we saw how Heavenly Father really prepared this man. He knew that it was something he should do and did it. Then on Sunday oh my heck, he almost didnt get confirmed. He was super sick with this dumb chingchanguya (i dont know how to spell it but everyone and their cat has it around here...im fine, dont worry). We were like but hermano...you have to get the spirit. you can go for one hour and then we will bring you back to your house (well us no, but an hermana with a car) and he was like okay, just let me get ready. He came! and then he stayed the other two hours! It was so awesome :)

So its gotten cold around here and our water has the tendency to go away from our house so we have to take showers outside from water from the pila. Let me just tell you...that water is cold, even more so than the water in the house. I have officially gotten used to cold showers although i dont know if I could where there is snow...

I am just super happy right now. I feel like I have learned a lot in the mission, and even though I still have A TON to work on, I hope that I have changed for the better at least slightly. The mission has been the best decision I have ever made. 

I love you all! Hope you have fun getting ready for Christmas! Watch the english version of Navidad.mormon.org. i would imagine its called he is the gift.

 

 

11/24/2014

Dear Family,

So first off...they bought my plane ticket and called to confirm that I wouldnt be extending and Im like OH MY GOSH!!! I STILL HAVE TIME!!! but i just cant believe that they bought it so stinking early.

ANYWAYS! this week are cambios BUT, we dont have any!!!! wooohooo!!! I am so excited becaue I didnt want changes. I love my companion and Christmas is coming up and I love the zone and I love being able to do divisions with the hermanas and I feel like I have things to accomplish in this ward still. So I was very happy that we didnt have any. My companion and I both have little Christmas trees so that we are going to decorate the house with and we might buy other little things to decorate. I love Christmas! haha. 

So this week, oh goodness. We did 3 divisions. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It was exhausting haha, but really good too! I like being able to divisions, but the weeks go by super quickly when we do that! One of our divisions, the girl got sick so we came back to the house for like 3 hours and oh goodness, I was going stir crazy. I read Jesus the Christ for like 2 hours and cleaned and I was like I NEED TO LEAVE THE HOUSE AND WORK! haha. Im gonna be crazy when I get home. So just a forewarning. But luckily her fever went down so we were able to leave and work.

We have an investigator Hermano Guerra who is going to get baptized this Saturday and he is so awesome! He is pretty old and honestly doesnt retain things very quickly at all, so we teach him kind of like a child, but he really wants to be baptized. I am super excited for his baptism though this Saturday :)

I hope that you all have great weeks, I love you all! And happy birthday to Kenna :)

11/17/14

Dear Family, so this week was interesting because i didnt work in my area until Thursday. okay well mondy, but its only 3 hours so it basically doesnt count. we had a noche de hogar with a family that was pretty fun! but then tuesday we did divisions. (we had to get up super early and be in a bus for like 2 and half hours, 1 15 there, 1hr 15min regreso...that was super fun haha) and then on Wednesday we had a district meeting and then they made us take flu shots so we had to travel to Zacapa (30min) to get them. We got back at like 6 and then there was a baptism of the hermanas that we took an investigator of ours to. 

So about this investigator that we took. Her name is Miriam and we found her one day because okay. ill explain the story. all of our citas had fallen and I was getting super frustrated and like where is everyone??!! so then i thought like okay, it has to be for soemthing. so we contacted the first person we saw and it was her! we erent able to find her for like another 2 weeks BUT when we found her, she accepted a fecha to get baptized! and she is super excited about it! HEavely Father totally lead us to her and it was so awesome to see! but yeah

this sunday we got to church and there was a mom and a daughter that said that they would come and we didnt see them so we were like dangittt. like halfway through sacrament my companion turns around and THERE THEY ARE! had been sitting behind us all the time. and so now she has a fecha to get baptized :) wooh!

Ive learned this week that sometimes its super hard to do whats right, but that its necessary. diligence is the test of a lifetime. its easy to do good things for a little while, but to make them a habit...thats hard. to always do what we know is right isnt easy, but we must diligently do it because its the only thing that matters. even if the consequene is that someone else is mad at you...you have to do whats right. 

Love you guys!!!

11/10/14

Well. The weeks are going by so quickly. I really cannot believe that we are in another monday. like this change only has 2 more weeks in it! I just cant believe it. But anywaysssss.
 
This week we went to this place called Jocotan. And Jocotan is like an hour from the center of our area. I am pretty sure that I have told you guys about it before, but if not well, yes. Its far away but its this big city that doesnt ahve a church...like I didnt know that still existed. So we are going there trying to baptize people there so that we can open up a branch and what not, but because its far away its hard to get up there. Well, we now have found 4 people who want to get baptized! One is a family and oh my goodness. So like a month ago probably we visited them and gave them a book of mormon but for one reason or another we havent been able to contact them or visit them. So on saturday we finally get there and this lady is so awesome. She says that every night they have been reading the Book of Mormon with her daughters since we met them. She told us that she just feels that this is what God wants her to do. And we were just sitting there like...wow. We invited her to be baptized on the 20th of December and she said that she wants to be baptized with her family. Like she wants it to be a super special day for all of them, but that she would love to do it that day. We just have to make it so that they will come to church. I am just so excited because this city needs missionaries there and our president said that if we get fechas over there that he might send in missionaires and start a branch! And it turns out that family of a missionary that we know lives there! isnt that crazy?? so we visited them for him and it was super cool. But yeah, thats the biggest story for the week.
 
Its getting coldish here and I am so happy haha. But cold here is like spring back home...I think. I dont really remember honestly.
 
We did divisions this week and I love being able to get to know the other hermanas. I love the trust that they seem to have in us and how much they want to work. It really helps me to grow in my faith and in my desires to work hard!
 
I love you all! Hope you have great weeks!


11/3/14
Dear Family,

Oh my heck...time is flying by so quickly. I just cant believe it. All my friends (from this mission and other missions) are all coming home!!! (I havent accepted that I am a part of that group yet. And I wont until February 20th haha) So like I said, we went to the capital on Monday night and then came back on Tuesday so we werent able to work at all on those days. The concilio went well! It was super different and I loved it because it helped remind me what I am supposed to be doing. We talked a lot about what it means to be a leader and that basically we need to be better, and well, it was great! haha.

So on the way back we were talking to our zone leaders and talking about what we can do in the zone and so my companion and I and the other sisters in our ward have started calling November, NUESTRO NOVIEMBRE!!! like our november. So we told them about it and they were making fun of us a little, like thats just an hermana thing, but then they started using it haha and its super motivational after you get past the making fun of it part. So anyways we had a meeting of the zone and they were like okay, were going to write nuestro noviembre on the board and then we are going to ask the zone what month it is (all the hermanas were in on it) and so they put a blanket over it and our zone leader was asking what month it was and they didnt get it obviously so then he was like nopeeee. sisters, what month is it? and we were like NUESTRO NOVIEMBRE!!!! and he ripped the blanket off (well it didnt come completely off so he had to do it again) but then were all like cracking up laughing and the sisters are all excited and the elders are like....okay....but now I think theyre on board. So this is NUESTRO NOVIEMBRE!!!

Starting off this november, our zone put the goal of finding 25 new people in the week. Me and my companion were praying super hard that it could actually happen. ANd we had a week shortened by 2 days but we saw miracles, seriously. We would show up at members houses to teach them and there would just be new people there, so we would teach them and they accepted our invitation. Or one day a recent convert just saw us and was like hey, ill take you to meet some of my inlaws. it was so awesome! And we met the goal of 25 investigators!!! woohoo!!!!

I bought shoes on monday! haha i found sperrys for 120 quetzales. thats like less than 20 bucks....thats right. I love Guatemala. 

Anyway, i hope you guys had a great halloween! we passed out candy between the missionaries here haha. We can always use your prayers that we will be able to meet our goals of baptisms this month. We want to baptize 7 people :)


10/27/14

Well, let me just say that I love my new companion. Hermana Guillen from El Salvador. She is super awesome and we get along really well! We are always laughing and when we teach, we have a lot of unidad! I love it!

So okay on Tuesday we had our zone conference, which is the missionaries that are within our zone and the President of the mission. I have been looking for answers as to what to do in the area because recently everything has been falling and its been super frustrating. So in this conference I recieved lots of answers. We talked about all the "little things" like personal and companinoship study. We talked about our prayers. We talked about daily planning and teaching the doctrine of baptism and it was like exactly what i needed. maybe I am not doing anything huge wrong but the little things can get better! It was great.

On Saturday I was doing divisions and because my companino doesnt know our area very well, I am always staying in my area. Well so we get on a bus and I tell the guy where we are going to giet off and we start talking to another person on the bus. The next thing I know we are passing this bridge and I am like I am almost positive that is way far away from where I want to go....so we take a 30 minute detour and have to take another bus BACK to where we needed to go. I told the hermana I was with like...God just wants me to relax haha. So I was like well its for something. So we finally get to this area that lets us off at this place I usually dont go to. We start walking to our appointment and I just feel the desire to contact a house. So we do. Well it turns out this ladys son died 4 years ago that day. She let us in and says that we can come back another day. It was so cool to see how we were led directly there! I love the Spirit :)

Also, during this division, we were talking and we came to the conclusion that there are a ton of commandments and we always put emphasis like dont break the word of wisdom or the law of chastity but all of the "little" commandments are important too. That if we dont keep them...even though they are just small, we wont receive the exaltation. I always knew that but it was cool to be reminded, so I thought I would share :) Love you guys!!! Going to the capital today! wooh!


10/20/14

Dear Family,

Okay well so my companion left me so I was with an hermana named Hermana Call for the day while we waited for our new companions and it was a fun day! We went to her area in the morning and then we ate lunch and then we cleaned my house (after like a ton of hermanas who left for their houses from that house...there was a lot of stuff that needed cleaning and i wanted my new comapnion to feel comfortable and the house looks so good now :)) but then we worked in my area and we were just like were just going to have fun with this day because its super weird. anyway then in the night we went to meet our new companions. turns out all of my worrying was for NOTHING. because the hermana that came here (Hermana Guillen from El Salvador) was the hermana lider in the capital. They just sent her here! So she already knows what shes doing in terms of that. Woohoo! I wont lie...it was kind of a stressful week because Im  the only person who knew anything that was goign on. Like the bus routes and the people and the phone numbers and the houses and not to mention our area is GIGANTIC! but we havent gotten really lost or anything so #win on that aspect.

This week has been good :) We get along super well and we are pretty united in our teaching considering that we havent had much time together.

Oh my goodness. Okay so one day we were walking on this path and we saw a girl and talked to her and she said that we could come back another day so we did and she wasnt there but we talked to her mom and her brother and her brother didnt seem like he was paying attention so we decided to include him in the conversation more asking him questions and he answered them EXACTLY. and was like i want to get baptized and forget all of my sins. i want them erased! It was so amazing. In that moment I just felt an overwhelming love for this work. When else in my life will I be free to all day every day share the gospel of Christ with others and bring them to the true evangelio. never is the answer to that question. And I LOVE IT! It just makes me so happy even though the mission is hard. And finding this kid...his name is Ronny was such a miracle. If we hadnt talked to his sister then we wouldve never found him. The Spirit is real :)

Today we had SUCH A FUN PDAY!!!! President and his wife and the senior missionaries came and hiked volcan de Ipala with us and we played soccer and took pictures then we went to Subway and it was just so much fun! All the new people in the zone are great and welp. yep. It was a great day. and the senior missionaries (the Olsons) sang to us when we came back and oh my heck they sing great and I loved it! except they totally sang love songs in spanish hahaha and were all like...okay well if that doesnt make us baggy but it was all good. I just had a really good day :) haha hope you guys have good weeks! love you!

Oct 13

Well. It is a change week! Ugh how I hate change weeks. They make me so nervous! But so my companion is leaving....which means I am here in this gigantic area that I still dont know by myself. But thats okay. I will live and figure it out. It also means that I am the senior companion and have to teach the new hermana how to be hermana leader...so I need to figure out how to be hermana leader by tomorrow haha. just kidding. i know how, but like I wouldve liked a little more time to adjust, but I think my companion is going to be training so I am happy for her. BUT you know what this means?? I could have two more changes as hermana leader and then they could take me down to be a trainer for my last change! I hope so so much! I would love to end training because well then I wouldnt be baggy. I would be able to focus even more. I am going to tell my president about this.

 

So this week we had a miracle on Monday. This lady has a sister and mom and stepdad that all got baptized recently and she was getting taught by the missionaries but then said were too dramatic haha for the coffee and so she ddint want to get baptized. she came to conference and we had a lesson and asked her toget baptized and boom she was like yeah. and we asked her to a fecha and she said yes. it was out of nowhere but it was awesome! its pretty hard to teach her because she has two kids and theyre always screaming and running around haha but you know thats okay. we will figure it out.

my comp is sick. she has dengue. she has a fever and a huge pain in her body. i feel so bad for her! well in the moment, i know lots is happening here, but well i cant remember all that much. OH!!!! I got to go back to my first area in zacapa!! i had divisions there and it was so awesome because i actually speak and understand spanish now so i could talk to them all. and all the pregnant ladies now have their cute little babies. awww it was so great. but yeah i will try to send photos.

love you all! have great weeks! ill try not to be stressed out :) haha love you all!

Oct 6

Dear Family,

Okay so last week I was in such a rush that I COMPLETELY forgot to tell you guys that general conference was this weekend! I hope that you mom watched it and Steph and dad I have a couple talks that I want you guys to look up online. On my part, I loved it!! I am very sad that it is over. I just love the prophet and all those men so much! And I loved that they get to say it in their own language now! I heard one of the spanish ones in spanish and it was super cool! Everything is just far more powerful in the language in which it was originally given. I learned a lot and received answers to my questions. So watch some of them! Especially that David A Bednar one from the Sunday evening session and from the same session Elder Ballard and from saturday morning session the one by President Uchtdorf!!

So everyone and their cat is sick here right now. I dont know why. Not a single member could leave with us this week. It was pretty sad, BUT so one night we were like out of ideas so we thought we could go visit a recent convert and when we get there, his mom tells us that he has been sick for 4 days with a super high fever, hes not eating because he just pukes everything up. They are a humble family and had already done tests in the hospital that resulted in nothing. His mom was worried and just started to cry. So we called around trying to get someone to come give him a blessing and no one could. So we got permission to go buy some stuff from the pharmacy for him, so we left and as we are walking there, we run into a member! We were like HERMANO JAMES!!! we need your help! It was just a huge testament to me that God is watching out for every single one of His children. He loves us :)

And quick question...are the coke bottles personalized in the states too right now?


Sep 29

So I dont have a ton, a ton of time. Because were going to the capital today and its a 3 hour drive and the bus leaves in like 40 minutes and yeah...sothey cut this time a little. 

But let me guys just tell you, I absolutely love my zone! Like they are all so amazing! Our zone leaders have a lot of faith and are very humble and are trying to help the zone as much as possilbe. OUr pdays are always super fun! We have the guy who was the assistent to the president in my district which was intimidating at first haha but not anymore. Every single missionary that we have is just super amazing. They all try to be super obedient and work hard and I am so happy here! We are seeing miracles. Every Friday we share a miracle that we saw during the week and it makes me so happy seeing the miracles that are happening to them! And with us. Theyre also super fun! theres an hermana in our zone that says she has a gift to know what spirit animal we are. apparently i am a baby cheetah hahaha. what?! but yup, thats what i am. my companion is a chinchilla!

To explain districts are a group of missionaries that are close together in proximity and zones are usually 2 or 3 districts. and they depend on where you are. And we meet together every monday, wednesday, and friday!

So we have seen a lot of miracles. Weve been finding lots of families. And on Sunday we went to two citas that were supposed to be super secure but they both fell and we were like okay...so we went to contact a reference that we had received and we met this guy who recently got married and so we went to get to know his wife too. turns out that they have been trying to decide what chrch to go to because he is evangelical and she is catholic. i lthink evangelical is non denominational christion in the states but im not sure. and anyway so we teach them about the restoration of the church and how God only has one church and all of that. In the first vision of Joseph Smith we felt the spirit so strong and the wife too. at the end we asked if they wanted to get baptized and he was like yeah. and then  his wife like kind of made a face and he was like yeah? haha it was kind of funny but she just needs to learn more. she felt the spirit and she will figure it out soon enough. 

We had the womens conference and i LOVED it! Mom, you need to watch it if you havent because it was incredible! and for the first time like ever we received cincho from a leader haha. but yeah, i love you guys and i hope that you have great weeks! happy fall! enjoy the weather for me haha :) 


Sep 22

Okay. Where to begin? Where to begin? Well first of all. I have 13 months. WHAT?! okay. now that leads to my next statement. because i have 13 months, all of my nice comfy shoes are broken. so much so that literally everyone and their brother was like oh hermana....you need new shoes. thats awful. thank you, thank you. a family invited me over to their house and gave me their daughters shoes haha. awkward, but also nice because i didnt have to buy any. but because people were giving me shoes...they hurt me because i wasnt used to them. so ive gone my whole mission without problems in my feet and now im having problems...after a year.

so my companion and i have high goals for ourselves. were in the how are we going to acheive it phase. and i think we found our answer. theres a city that is 45 minutes from where we usually work that has never been visited by missionaries. ever. and we went there and we just felt so happy! like the spirit telling us...these people are ready. we have a plan (because its so far away) to look first for people with cars and then when theyre members, we will have people who can drive our investigators without cars to church! its genius...i know :p but its from the Spirit, not us. so im not being prideful, i just get excited haha. 

I am loving being able to do divisions! getting to know the hermanas is so exciting and being able to gain their trust and help them out...i love it! maybe ill be a counselor when i get back! we shall see. i had my first division in my area on thursday and i didnt get lost...a single time. i was so proud of myself. our area is huge!! we cover until the border with honduras and were always taking buses, so it was a miracle.

also i received a lovely letter from ainee (i will write back :)) and i realized i used words that maybe people who dont have family on missions dont understand. so to explain division is this. there are always companionships, but we as hermana leaders do divisions with them once a month, which means that i go with one of the hermanas and her companion goes with my companion. we work either in her area or my area. and we do it so that we can see if theyre having problems, if their being obedient, or just to help them be animated if theyre feeling down, or show them different ways to do some of the things. so yes.

i hope you all have great weeks :) love you!


Sept 15

Dear Family,

Wow, okay, I am EXHAUSTED!!!! Like i thought i was before, but no. This week we did two divisions (I went to other areas and worked there all day long). Im exhausted haha, but thats okay. I love it. Its also super weird not being in the area that much, tomorrow I am leaving again. Then on Thursday my companion is leaving and Im the one staying here. Ahh I am super nervous because our area is huge, it goes until the border of Honduras...Like in a bus we can travel for an hour and still be in our area. So i am a little nervous, but itll be okay haha. 

Okay so I learned this week how much simple little things can be such a blessing to otehrs. That we can serve them by doing very little. On Tuesday we had interviews with President and the elders were hungry but they couldnt leave and it was lunch time and we were already done so we offered to buy them subway. Well, then all of the elders decided they wanted subway so we bought 10 sandwiches and we head back to the capilla and were like OH NO! We hadnt thought about President and Hermana Crapo and we felt so bad. So we get there and tell them that and they thought it too and so they were like here, just take our sandwiches and tell them its a gift, so we did and HErmana Crapo started crying. Like right there. She was like thank you so much! This is what the mission is about, service and obedience. She took pictures with us all and the subway and put it on instagram haha. It was just so cute and it made me see how small acts make the days of other people and that we should always be looking for them. So maybe its not that cool of a story for you guys, but shes just so cute haha and I love Hermana Crapo.

So the other day in a consejo de lideres, one of the assistants was like okay, what does it mean to you to be a representative of Christ and we all answered and he was like okay. Everything we do, we do in the name of Christ. When you break a rule, you do it in the name of Christ. When you are disobedient, when you sin, you do it in the name of Christ. And I was like ...oh my gosh...its true. We always think of the good things, but also all of the bad things too. It really made me think and I have even more drive now to complete everything with exactness. 

Lots of stuff is happening in the area, we are seeing miracles everyday and I am loving it :) Love you gusy! Have great weeks!