Please send Ashtin Letters!!!!!

If you want to send anything else she would like pictures and of course food. But mostly she is starving for LETTERS. Thank you.

Current Address:
Hermana Ashtin Wilcoxen
Mision Guatemala Este
Apartado Postal 951-A
Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

 

12/23/2013

So this week the ward had a reenactment of the birth of Christ and the girl who was going to play Mary left the city that day....so guess who got to play Mary? Me. Only because I am blonde. We dont even know if she was blonde for goodness sake haha. It was slightly embarassing, I wont lie, but it was fun. I also found out that day that the next day I had a talk in sacrament...haha. So I woke up early on Sunday morning and wrote that. I talked about how much of a miracle Christ is in our lives. Without Him, there is no point. Life would be pointless. I love thinking about Him through Marys eyes. He had a family. Im sure that it broke His heart to see His mother in pain, watching her son, who had done nothing wrong, suffer and be persecuted. I am infinitely grateful for Him and all taht He was wililng to do.

 

We had a cool experience this week. My comp decided that to gain the confidence of the leaders we should go to their houses early in the morning and give them service. So we planned for the RS President and bishop. But the morning we were going to the bishops house, I just couldnt stop thinking about the RS President so we decided to swithc the days. Turns out the day we went to her house, her and her mom said taht lately they havent had the animation to do anything lately and it was good to have someone make them do something. And the bishop told us taht the day we went, he almost called us to help his family out that day, but he was too embarassed to. Its amazing how the Lord guides every aspect of this work.

 

We had a zone activity for Christmas and we watched the movie planes. IT WAS SO CUTE! haha. and also the last movie I will watch for a year. But the conference was good. We visited an asylum for elderly people and sang to them and the message President Watts gave was an answer to my prayers. For Christmas we have plans with several members and an investigator who we randomly found who felt bad for us so she invited us over for lunch haha. 

 

I hope you all have great Christmases :)

 

 

12/16/2013

Dear Family,

So this week we had changes and I have a new comp! Hermana Munoz from Honduras. She is so awesome!! I am learning a ton from her but she is also really fun. I am really looking forward to this change! Hermana Reyes leaving was hard, but luckily I got a super awesome comp. The first couple of days were very different for me because only I know the area, so I had to plan everything by myself for a while which was hard, but we got through it haha.

 

This week I found out that I have a long lost daughter I dont remember having. We were at a members house and we were talking outside and this little blonde blue eyed little girl comes around the corner crying for her mom and I asked who she belonged to and the member was like I dont know. So we tlaked to the girl and she stopped crying and just sat with us...I was there for about a half hour and no one showed up for her...so I dont know really what happened with that. We decided the only logical explanation is that she is my daughter haha.

 

Yesterday we had like a church miracle! It was the primary presentation, which is always super cute! But we had almost 50 more people there than usually are there. A bunch of less active members came. One lady who hasnt come for two months came with a non member friend who is interested in the church! We had two of our investigators there. It was just a super awesome day! All of the recent converts were there. Such a good day!

 

The Lord answers our prayers! I have said this about a million times I think, but thats because its true. This week I had no idea what to do, so I just prayed that the Lord would help me through it and we were able to work every day and visit members and contact, and it was great! 

 

For Christmas here they set off fireworks like all the time. Like at 6 this morning...like why are you even up at that time? But yeah. Tomorrow we are having a missionary Christmas activity and we get to watch a movie, possibly Tangled although I doubt it because Hermana Watts says that we cant watch a movie with a kiss because we will get baggy haha.

 

Anyways, love you all! Have great weeks! I will talk to you in like a week! Yay!

 

Please send Ashtin Letters!!!!!

If you want to send anything else she would like pictures and of course food.  But mostly she is starving for LETTERS. Thank you.

 

Current Address:
Hermana Ashtin Wilcoxen
Mision Guatemala Este
Apartado Postal 951-A
Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

 

Dear Family,

I am so jealous of your snow...our cold weather is completely gone and I am back to sweating as a habit again haha.

So the mission has standards of excellence and this week we met a lot of them which was so exciting! They are really focused in on getting 18 hours of looking every week, which doesnt sound like a lot but its three hours a day, and we have other lessons and also random reunions and so much stuff to do but we got our 18 hours. Plus an extra half hour and it was so great! President Watts was  like if I told you that if you got your 18 hours, I would give you $1,000,000 I gaurantee all of you would have 18 plus. Now I am saying that this is revelation from God to save His children in this mission...will you get your 18 hours_ and I was like...okay...yeah. I feel so bad for not getting them before. So we were really happy to meet our goal this week! (I cant figure out the question mark so _ is a question mark)

We have cambios this week so I am getting a new comp Wednesday :o I will let you know next week who it is!

So we have to use the buses here a lot and we have taken to talking to all the bus drivers. As a side note, contacting on the bus is my favorite because they cant run away haha. But anyway, so we have made a couple of friends with the bus drivers here and its so nice because theres this relatively large hill in front of our house and twice now one of our frineds has seen us and driven us to the top free of charge. And we were late to an appointment one day and the driver went out of his route and didnt pick up any more passengers to get us there on time! We paid him more of course, but it was so nice!

 We have a couple of new investigators who are so awesome! They accepted the baptismal invitation and I was so happy! The granddaughter works on Sundays so we are trying to work through that right now, but we will see what happens :)

As a part of the Relief Society, we are performing a pioneer dance and me and another hermana had to teach them all the pioneer dances haha. It is a lot of fun!

Final thing, President Watts told us we need to be more bold so I have been trying to do that, and it brings the Spirit so strongly! Not only that but everytime I declare what I know to be true and dont fear that they are going to be offended or what not, my testimony grows infinitely stronger and it is amazing! I encourage everyone to not be afraid to share what you know! Love you all! Have great weeks!

P.S. If anyone was wataching the Christmas devotionall...the little boy who winked at the girl during the song hahahaha. I was dying.

 

 

 

Current Address:
hermana ashtin wilcoxen
mision guatemala este
apartado postal 951-A
Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

Ashtin got some Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving

Hello dearest family!

So "winter" has offically hit Zacapa. And by winter I mean its like the very very very beginnnig of fall for for us. It is SO nice except for the cold showers now are not very nice haha. They are just cold. I kid you not though, its like it has snowed here because the people are legitimately wearing winter coats in the night and I have seen a couple of winter hats...thought of Kelly haha. All these hipsters...haha.

The ward has started a consejo de barrio which I think is ward council in english haha. But I am SO excited for it because the attendance at church has been slowly decreasing and we need to do something. I really think that this is going to help them a ton as they start working together as leaders and start focusing on how to help the other members.

 So I kid you not...I think I am just meant to be a marriage counselor haha. We had another couple this week who during our first visit just openend up and told us all of their marriage problems and everything, everything that is going on. And then two days ago some guy was like what church are you guys from? like in the middle of the street and jsut started talking about how his wife is mad at him and what not...Good thing I took that marriage prep class ;)

We had a very interesting lesson this week haha. So a ton of people here are evangelical and there is a less active member who we are visting because we are kind of teaching her non member husband. Well they are both evangleicals and during our lesson where we are explaining the importance of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon they start like randomly shouting like halleluigha and praise the Lord and what not. At one point she starts like banging on her Bible and is like forgive me but this is what I believe and at one point was like on her knees and then they both started singing....I was just like oh goodness. It was all I could do to not laugh haha. We just ended it by bearing our testimony of what we know to be true and that they dont have to agree but we cant deny what we know haha.

I hope Thanksgiving was good for you guys! I hope that we can all be thankful for Gods hand in our lives. I am realizing even more now how much God has guided my life. From where I lived, to my friends, to what room I chose to live in at BYU, to my classes. Everything. It is so crazy to think about but He really directs our lives, especially when we are trying our hardest to do His will. LOVE YOU ALL :)

A few Pics

 

Because you deserve the gospel today!

Ashtin and her 2 best friends in Guatemala

Care Package!

Volcano Lake

Thanksgiving dinner (celebrated a week early)

Big Bump on my Head

We (the english speaking misisonaries in the area) have started an english class every Wednesday night, which is pretty fun! The crazy part about it though is that I have gotten to the point in spanish where I am not translating everything in my head, it just makes sense, so in that class sometimes I legitimately have to sit and think whether or not a person just talked to me in spanish or english. Its the weirdest thing! In this class though, a little boy and his dad showed up and I had talked to them one day in a shoe store while my comp was buying shoes. I gave the 10 year old a Book of Mormon because he said he likes to read. They found out about the class and came. Turns out he actually has been reading it! And I guess his older sister is a member. I love seeing the tender mercies of the Lord like that.

 

Last week, I received a priesthood blessing and seriously, it was the greatest thing. I know the Lord watches out for each and every one of us and listens to our prayers. I know the priesthood power is real, and that God can speak through men for us. I am so grateful for that!!

 

We had a funnyish encounter in finding a new investigator haha. We were walking to the bus stop and we were kciking this lime on the ground acting like 5 year olds haha and we accidently kicked it into this girl (she just laughed) and we started talking to her and it turns out her entire family used to come to our chruch but never got baptized. We are going to try to visit her this week!

 

Finally, I have learned how hard it is to love the people here. Not because I cant do it, but because when they are going through hard times or dont want to progress or wont use the Atonement in their lives, it hurts. I feel for them, and I just want them to do whats right. I have an even greater appreciation for Heavenly Father because I am sure He feels the exact same about every single one of us. He knows whats best but He cant and wont force us to do the right thing.

 

Philippians 4:1 and Colossians 2:5. I thought about you all when I read these scriptures. Love you all :)

So yesterday at church the bishop of the ward gave an AMAZING talk on faith. Like I felt the Spirit so much, and I am so grateful for the bishop of this ward. The ward is not a full ward. Like the bishop has no counselors, only him. There are presidents for relief society and young womens and primary, but thats pretty much it. We are trying to help out the leaders to reanimate this ward, but I know it cant be easy for this ward. But his talk was about how we can never have a testimony of anything unless we try it, unless we do it. like the word of wisdom or reading our scriptures. He said that we sometimes are given callings and we wonder if we can complete them, but the Lord gave it to us, so of course we can. No matter what happens in life, the Lord knows we can do it. 

We have been finding a lot of investigators who I think have a great potential to progress, which has been a huge blessing!! I am very excited to see how everything turns out with them all and to see how they progress :)

I was thinking Hermana Reyes was going to get changed in the middle of my trainig but shes not and I am SO HAPPY!!

Also, there is amember here who I just love. She comes from a very, very difficult situation but she always goes out with us to visit people and has the strongest testimony. She is the person who loves the gospel because she has hope for a better world after this one. She is amazing and I hope to have faith like hers someday. 

Love you all, hope you have great weeks :)

Sorry, I forgot to post Ashtins Blog last week.  Thought I had, getting old, memory is the second thing to go ... I don't recall what the first thing is.  Anyway, I'm posting todays and last weeks.
-Jeff

11/4/2013
Wow do I have SO much to say. First could you please send me some pictures of Carthage jail that I took from my computer? Thanks!! 

So the most important thing is that we totally had a miracle occur this week!!!! So we were fasting for the area that we could find people who were ready for the gospel because none of our investigators were progressing. So one night there was a ton of weird lightening. Like sky lightening every five seconds and it was crazy so I was thinking about how awesome God is how He can do whatever and I was silently praying and I asked how I could help Him and find His children and while Im in this thought we pass a door and I just get the thought...that house. Well its dark and we usually dont tract when its dark but we decided to anyways and we found a family and they invited us in. And we talk with them for a bit and they dont go to church but they have super strong faith which is hard to find here. Everyone is either evangelical or Catholic. Well after a while we aske if they have questions and the aunt Kenzie is like yeah..how did you find us? It turns out she had gone to a baptismal service of our district leaders the other day because her niece wanted to go in the chapel so they did and they both cried. And she has a friend in the church so she thought that the missionaries somehow found her and she had wanted to go to church but she couldnt the next sunday. So anyway we were both like...woah. No, we just knocked on your door. It was a total miracle form God! And yeah, I was so grateful that the Lord helped us out in that one. And the aunt and niece came to church :) My first investigators at church! It was so great!

On a non spiritual note. There are stores here that get clothes from the US and they sell them for dirt cheap, like almost brand new so I am going to look. Like a girl found new Sperrys for $4...I dont even want to talk about how upsetting that was to find out when I paid what I did haha. But I know now.

I am so grateful now for my family and friends, like seriously. They had a holiday hre and I saw everyone with their families and I am just so grateful that I have so many great supporters who I get to come home to eventually :)

I cracked my head on this table the other day and it was bleeding and I had to wear a bandaid to keep in from getting dirty..that was embarassing and now I am just hoping to not have a scar haha.

LOVE YOU ALL :)

Ash practicing for Miss Indiana/Miss Guatemala, LOL

 

Ash and her companion

10/28/2013
Hello Family!

haha okay that was a really awkward beginning. also i found out yesterday that another one of my awkward talents is that I am awkward when I am trying to talk on the phone in spanish. I mean we all know that phone convos can be awk in general but then when its in another language...haha. Well, that part of my personality hasnt changed.

Yesterday was a super great day. It couldve been bad if we wouldve let ourselves get down but we didnt! Not a single one of our investigators showed up to church and one has a baptism date that we now have to move. And the wards attendance is slowly lowering week by week because they are all going through hard tiems and there is very little fellowship within the ward. So we had all of our plans for yesterday but we changed them a little bit and visited a lady in the ward who is feeling down and it is so good. When I jsut listen and dont try to translate, i understand so much more! And her husband died like a long time ago but to hear her talk about him is so sweet and she really has an eternal perspective that is just awesome. And we gave her the task of becoming friends with some of the siters in teh ward to animate this ward. We can do it. We ended up having two lessons with a member and giing out 5 books of Mormon which we honestly didnt think would happen and it was great just how the Lord led the day.

We found a couple of girls the otehr day who are so ready for teh gospel. like after our initial visti we asked wehn we could return and she said every single day haha. but then seh introduced us to her boyfriend and has been acting a bit odd so we shall see. but the Lord will prevail, not some  boy of one month haha. Jk. that sounds super bad or sacrilege or soemthing but I just want whats best for her. 

Love you all, hope youre having a good week!

Current Address:

hermana ashtin wilcoxen

mision guatemala este

apartado postal 951-A

Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

So first I wanted to share an embarassing story because Im sure especially Kelly and Aaron will enjoy it. So here they kiss on the cheek as a greeting, but we can only do it with the women (for obvious reasons) and shake hands with the men. Well no guy has tried to kiss me on the cheek up until this point, so I hadnt really thought about it. Well the other day some guy was talking to us in english about something and then he called some other kid over who apparetnly is learning english. Anywho, its really disconcerting (sp?) when a latino person talks to me in english here because Im not used to it. Anyway, so as theyre leaving the guy leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek and Im not expecting it and so it was just a  natural reaction to do it back but then halfway in I realized what was happening and I like jerked back haha and was like NO PUEDO (puedo means can) haha and my comp was like no, no, no, no. so awk.

We really need to work hard this week because not a single one of our investigators showed up to church (like 10 said they would) and that was so disappointing because one is supposed to be getting baptized and yeah. But we are trying to work hard to find new people and I have hope that we will. Theres a boy that we are teaching and he is so awesome. He is 15 and works in this little store (theyre all behind bars) so that he can provide for his family. He works there everyday, all day and we teach him sometimes when theres not a lot of people around. Its kind of hard through the bars but he has been reading the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we give him. He is so inspiring. He said he prefers being shut up in there because the few friends he does have in this area dont make the best choices. I really hope his boss will soften his heart and let him come to church.

We are also teaching this older man and he is so ready for the gospel and I love teaching him. He has been taught before and I think whats holding him back is his evangelical roots (heveryone here is evangelical) but I have a lot of hope for him.

I know God answers my prayers and all of our prayers. I have realized in the past couple of days that the mission requires a different kind of faith than what I had. Not different, just more developed I guess. At least for me. Because I have to learn to just talk and trust that God will help me with the language. I have to listen without thinking and hope He will give me what to say next. I have to hope in Him that I can find the people who are ready and not be afraid to talk to them. 

Love you all!

Here are a few pics!

My Distric



My District 

 

 

Current Church

 

A Volcano Lake Visited

 

 

Crowded Bus (got a little burn, it's hot here)

New Address:

hermana ashtin wilcoxen

mision guatemala este

apartado postal 951-A

Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

HEY FAMILY!!! so I am in the field officially. I am in a polace called Zacapa and it is one of the hottest areas of Guatemala. I literally sweat 24/7. I have never been more grateful for a cold shower in my entire life. Seriously. Theres only one option in the shower and thats col and it is one of the best parts of the day haha. Im actually pretty used to it now and luckily we have fans in our room so I sleep with that on full blast. Our apartment is pretty nice. No bugs, well almost no bugs and its pretty big. A ton better than what I was expecting. 

My companion is Hermana Reyes and she is from the Dominican Republic. Shes so super patient with my spanish, its amazing. she talks pretty slowly to me which is nice. I cant really understand most of what other people say thouhg. I can talk to them but I cant understand...kind of hard to talk when you dont understand haha but you know. The Spirit is really helping me. Prompting me with what to say because I usually only have a basic understanding as to whats being said. I think I understandmy coimp thouhg. And if i dont well...i dont know it haha sooo.

 

I wont lie and say that its been all butterflies and rainbows but we had conference this past weekend and it was SO GOOD. I got to watch it in english, thank goodness and it really  helped me with what I am struggling with. I know I can do this with the Lords help. Everything will be alright.

 

Its really been humbling visiting the people here. They live so humbly. Im more than grateful for my life back home. 

 

Oh cool story. So this lady who is the primary presidency said that she had a dream that her cousin came to church (her cousin is a nonmember) with me because she said she liked the way that I taught. So we are visiting her prima this weekend. Ill let you know how it goes. I really need to pray that I can help though. Im so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the Lord. I couldnt do anything without them. I could not do anything for these people if not for them.

 

Love you all!! 

A couple pics from the MTC

 

so last sunday this guy in church spoke about how in psychology he learned that our brains form a natural sentiment to our native language and its so true! like wehn the latinos try to speak english to me, i like them that much more. my point is that i hope i develop those same feelings towards spanish and also hopefully the people feel the same way about me trying to speak their language. hopefully. although this one latina we were role playing with in our feedback said you need to learn spanish to make your lessons better...haha so that was awesome. a real confidence boost for sure.

 

weve had some super great lessons lately. like there was a day when we had like 3 lessons (a lot for us in the ccm) and seriously the spirit just guided all of them. like we went in with a plan and one of the lessons went totally off subject but it just worked and it was what the investigator needed to hear. and then the other one he tried to like take off course and we were like nope and got in a really good lesson that he needed. it was so awesome!! hna windsor and i work really well together so i really like our lessons. we started teaching a norte district and they pretend to be someone and i pretend to be someone and its really cool because its one on one and i learn new ways to teach and also i learn how to teach by myself because somoetimes i rely too much on hna windsor because if i dont know it, she will so this way i have to know it all so thats cool.

 

funny story. there was this super flirty latino elder here last week and the teachers were all mad but anyway he was like into this girl in my district and my teacher found out and we found out like this week that the reason the guy stopped talking to her is because our teacher todl him that if he ever saw him even say hola to her, he would kill him hahahhaahah. it was quite funny.

 

also, the viejos left and one of them took my flipflops...not an important thing haha but jsut thought id inform you. also a girl in my district likes playing golf so she made golf clubs out of snicker bars and a mop handle and we played mini golf during deportes time haha, it was a lot of fun!

 

im sorry theres not more to say. I ONLY HAVE SIX DAYS LEFT!!! so i wont be writing at all next week but ill be in the field. im freaking out a tad haha but im also jsut super excited. i mightve shared this last week but psalms 46 10 says be still and know that i am God and its really helped me because all the things im afraid of in the field...dont matter, God knows what Hes doing if i just trust. its like im leaving for my mission all over again though. love you all!!

okay so yesterday we went to the mercado and I PLACED MY FIRST TWO COPIES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! one was to this vendor who may or may not have given us a fake number haha and the other to this family who had the cutest three kids. the mom wasnt really talking or smiling at the beginning but when we talked to her kids she lightened up and smiled at us. it was so cute!! and yeah. we got their address and phone number. it was cool because i actually got to be a real missionary rather than teach my fake investiagtors. it reminds me why im here which is always good. plus it was so cute to see how excited the elders were because they are usually the tough guys but they were so happy. it was great! the city was fun, we got to see this 3d map of guatemala so that was pretty cool. apparently i have more chance of being in the city in my mission and the ohter part is desert but we will see. less than two weeks until im finally in the field!!! i bought a soccer jersey (because im so good at soccer haha) and so im now the stereotypical missionary and its great. i hope i get a companion who is nice and teaches me how to play soccer becasue it actually is pretty fun to play.

 

so there isnt a ton to tell. not a lot has been happening here really. the ohter day these adorable primary kids came to visit and there was one who was 10 and had his fake little tag on and was like shaking all our hands and acting like an adult and it was the cutest thing. im excited to meet all the kids in the ward because the sisters will propbably have to teach some classes so yay!

 

on sundays we do changes with the hermanas here. like nortes go with latinas and last sunday was cool because i thought my girl hated me but we actually talked and i think she liked me this time haha. she asked me to sign her missionary journal so that was cute. but shes gone now...speaking of which i am now a viejo!! meaning i know everything....hahaha....good joke. but we like to pretend.

 

so an elder in my district got sick one morning and didnt know how to take medicine so he took SIX 600 milligram ibuprofeuns...the nurse in our district was not happy to say the least. luckily i had all those snacks from grandma diane and i gave him those so we think hes okay...so far so good. but let her know her snacks saved a life haha. the elders here do tie trading and im so jealous. we all know i love ties and there are so many cool ones. the elders are so lucky. and we cant really trade anything like that which is sad but ohhhh whale.

 

the other day i think our teacher knew we were getting stir crazy here so she took us to the bball courts and let us play line tag or pacman and let me assure that it is a lot harder to run modestlly in a skirt than it looks haha. that is for sure.

 

last sunday was probably one of the best days that ive had here. i just felt the spirit so much and we watched this video on Christ and it was so powerful. there were hardly any words. mostly jut a video of snippets of His life but like when they got to the atonement i looked at all the hnas and everyone like couldnt watch it. we were all bawling. its just so incredible what He did for us and it kills me that people have the ability to do something so awful to their Saviior. and like now, there are so many people who just dont understand Him or what Hwe did and its so sad and the video really made me remember the full prupose of me being here. to bring them to Christ.

 

oh funny story. so our ceiling leaked and it was like ayellow color so there was this bucket in our room and i sware it was pee...and it leaked on my suticase....exciting stuff haha, i know. and we found out it legit couldve been pee because the boys bathrooms all backed up and flooded the same day it leaked haha.

 

today we went driving to the immigration place to renew our tourist visa and the guy that drove us had to hold up the rearview mirror when he talked to us. needless to say i am more than grateful i dont have a driving mission.

My good friends here at the ccm will not hear of me returnoing until im better but other than a headache, fever, cough, runny nose, and accoasional nausea, nothing muich is wrong with me. haha pride and prejudice? anyone?  honestly, i was sick and still am but im feeling a lot better today. everyone is sick here so its a miracle in and of itself that it didnt happen until the third week. did i mention i only have three weeks left?? thats so fast but also slow...itll be crazy when i actually leave for the field.

 

so not a whole lot is going on here. same old, same old really. weve been learning and practicing a lot. weve had a couple of really good lessons and its amazing how real the promises are in d&c that talk about how we shouldnt think beforehand what to say but open our mouths and the lord will fill them because its true. our last lesson went way off what we planned but it just flowed between us too. granted that theyre fake investigators, i really enjoy teaching. in fact, the two days i started feeling down were two days we didnt teach. its just such an ammazing feeling teaching the gopesl and i cant wait for the field. but i also prob wont be able to talk to them haha. i met this super awesome hna yesterday who kept complimenting my spanish so hopefully its improving.

 

great story!! so we were teaching these random people and our lady is some super active member. like super active. and we only met her 10 minutes and shared a message about the atonement and she taught us. she wrote our names down and told us that she would pray for us and for our families and investigators every friday in the temple for the rest of her life!!! shes in my mission but i will probably never see her again but i will never forget her. it was so awesome.

 

the viejos left last week and so we said a group prayer together where we all wen taround the circle and prayed and it was so amazing. it last forever and my knees were killing by the end haha but it was so awesome because the spirit was there and i realized were all in this together (hs musical) and we can support eachotehr and we can do it. oh and wehn the viejos left, we got ribs and a chocolate fountains...yes.

 

embarassing story, its been my dream to meet a general authority well the relief society liike first counselor came here and she was stading in the hallway talking to some girls and i totally walked right past her, had to ask her to move so i could get in the door and didnt say anything....im so dumb haha.

 

we went to walmart last saturday and the country is beautiful. i love the mountains. walmart was basically the same only missing a lot of stuff haha. we have no idea how lucky we are. its incredible. i love it here but i will never complain about america.

 

ive found a couple of people here that i have connections with. elder guiterrez in my district had a cousin in my byu ward. and his cousin roomed with this girl here hna esquerra (aka tiewa) and she was in my ward and theres an elder here who used to live in indiana so we talk about people we know haha. deportes is serioulsy such an awesome time. ive been sic,k so i havent been working out but me and 3 girls from my district just sit there and talk which is fun and a good time to relax. also people keep ruining stuff for us. like they popped one of the bballs and kicked the soccer ball out of the area and the volleyball. and we cant take pictures beccause they took inappropriate ones and were not supposed to write on boards bc they wrote bad stuff on there...smh. haha but its all good. once we get out in the field, we get to make our own decisions so thats nice.

 

the temple has been super awesome lately and im so super grateful to have it right next to us. hopefully when im in the field i get to go to it.

 

last funny story. the showers here are pretty short and theres an elder in my district who is like 6'7 and he says when he takes showers hes like buddy in the movie elf haha. its pretty funny. i dont have a ton of time. love you all. sorry this was so short!!

ATTENTION: New Address for Ashtin

Hermana Ashtin Wilcoxen
Mision Guatemala Este
Avienda Reforma 8-60 Zona 9
Edificio Galerias Reforma
Torre 2 Nivel 5 Oficina 505
Guatemala, Ciudad
Guatemala CA

(and on packages make sure you write Hermana Ashtin Wilcoxen really big)

This is what she had to say this week:

HEY GUYS!!  so today i cant figure out the enter button so bear with me. anyways first things first. i have the address...i think its the same but maybe not. ill put periods where its a new line. hermana ashtin wilcoxen. mision guatemala este. avenida reforma 8-60 zona 9.

edificio galerias reforma. torre 2 nivel 5 oficina 505. guatemala, ciudad. guatemala ca. and on packages make sure you put my name hermana ashtin wilcoxen really big, its the best way to get through customs. so i feel like ive been here for years and then its like wow, time is flying. week 2 is already done. we go to walmart tomorrow so thats nice. i have a couple things i need to pick up, plus itll be nice to leave the gates haha. we started teaching our teachers who are pretending to be investigators and boy has it been humbling haha. i thought it would be easy to just come in here and teach away...nope. and i wish i could blame it all on the language barrier but i cant. i am trying to stay positive though and its working. i know itll just take time. one of my teachers todl us that we need to develop love for the investiagtors or i wont be of any use and so that night i prayed for charity for everyone my investigators, futrue investigators, companions, and the people here and the next day was so much better. i really loved the people i taught and i was walking around saying hi to everyone being obnoxioulsly happy and it was great. so theres this stuff here called sleeping grass and when you touch it IT FOLDS UP...needless to say its so super cool and also ive learned to appreciate the little things in life. like seeing a bride walk out of the temple. we convinced our teacher (who is engaged) to wait outside the temple to see her haha.

so the language is kind of coming along slowly but surely. i can usually get my point across but one time in class we were all complaining about the language and this teacher was like no. try learning english. the words word, ward, war, world. THEYRE ALL THE SAME and were like ....no theyre not haha. so yeah. were learning to try not to be as big of babies about it haha. ive officially gotten my first tan line, its awesome. yesterday was sunday and it was so awesome. like an enntire day just to be spiritually uplifted. we watch a lot of movies and devotionals and have firesides. we watched the joseph smith story and per usual i cried throughout the entire thing.

you should seriously watch it. its amazing. oh and the other day me and hna windsor street contacted some guy, we couldnt understand him at al lbecause he talked quietly and the cars were loud but luckily our teacher translated for us and it was so cool and i cant wait to get into the field and be able to talk to people. random question...did ethan chagne the background on the phone? he better not have. also the viejos are leaving tomorrow and its so crazy that that will be me in 4 weeks...FOUR WEEKS! craziness. the food here is amazing as usual and dad no, the rice will never top el camino. they serve all types of food. weve had hamburgers and fries and what not.

the chef is amazing and i love him. something random that i miss is singing in english...i havent acquired a love for spanish hymns yet haha. i just want the english words so i absoluetly love watching devotionals with english hymns. funny story so one of our teachers is pretty good ewith english but the ohter day he was like watch it. ive got eyes in my back and we were like...i think you mean in the back of my head and he was like no, i literally have eyes in my back hahaha.

it was the funniest thing. hes seriously the goofiest guy ever and he knows enough english to fake his accent sometimes and its great...like i said, its the little things. oh and i forgot to tell you this last time but you guys were right. they wont let me drink the water and so when we brush our teeth we have to use bottles. so hopefully i wont get sick while im here but thats very doubtful. everyone is sick like errday here. to end on a better note haha hna windsor was kind of going through a rough time but one of the elders in our district gave her a blessing and it was so beautiful and totally worked and yeah..the priesthood is real. im loving it here, i love you all!!

Here is what Ashtin had to say yesterday in her email she explains a little bit, but if you want to email her it may be best to go through dearelder.com as that basically goes to the MTC and is then printed out and delivered to her.  The way I understand it, it goes through the SLC MTC and they use a carrier to deliver a "pouch" full of mail to that MTC.  Make sure you choose the Guatemala City East Mission.  Also, the keyboards are different than ours so to save time she is skipping all the punctuation etc!  So all you teachers out there will just have to bite your tongues!

MI FAMILIA Y AMIGAS!!!!

you have no idea how happy i am to email you haha. we were literally like screaming walking to the computer lab. anyways first things first. mail. since im going to be in the mtc for 6 weeks and not two, please send letters within the next four weeks to the mtc. also i found out that the address i gave you for the mission isnt actually right. the mission home has changed but i dont have the address for it. so until then i think you can probably send it to the address you have and theyll forward it but idk. as soon as i find out ill let you know. also, i love all the emails but i dont have a ton of time and no printer so heres a solution. dearelder.com. get on there and you type a letter so its as easy as email but then they print it and give it to me in letter form. i get them every thursday. that way ill have time to read it and respond. also, if you send a package, DONT put pictures of Jesus and Mary because now they will open those because they suspect youre hiding something. just write my name kind of big so they know its a missionary. the mtc address is still correct so you can use that to write letters.

alright so the mtc or ccm here is pretty awesome. its very small and right next to the temple. we get to go later today!! yay!! the ccm is gated and has cameras and security guards...kind of like a fun prison haha. the driving here is insane. so glad i dont have a driving mission. i cant say much about guatemala because i havent seen much of it. just what i saw when i got off the airplane. we get to go on field trips every two weeks so next week i get to go to walmart. i forgot or lost one of my towels so i have to buy that haha but other than that, its just little stuff like shampoo (dad asked which is why im saying this) so the food here is serioulsy the most amazing thing ever. the only problem is how much they give us really. we have to eat it all and sometimes i feel sick because of how much but its delicious so oh well. and also so long to the idea of losing weight...haha. the weather here is basically like indianas only it rains a tad bit more. the rain hasnt been awful, it will just randomly downpour.

were called the nortes here because were the people who cant speak spanish haha and whenever we have a meeting they give us little translator headphones so we know whats going on. honestly its kind of distracting because im trying to understand the spanish and then the english comes in and they dont always translate completely accurately. my spanish is alright. im able to get by but when the natives talk...its so fast and i havent quite gotten used to the accent yet. my comp and i are trying to speak it a ton more though. ill get it eventually.

we actually have a real investigator(not just a teacher pretending) and he is amazing. he works here and my entire district is teaching him. hes started praying our way instead of the catholic prayer and says he feels the spirit and feels closer to God now. he went to church on sunday and is reading the book of mormon. my comp and i try to tlak to him in spanish most of the time and he usually understands. i can usually know what hes saying but sometimes its hard. i lvoe teaching though. the spirit is so strong especially when we bear to him our testimonies. hes got an incredible spirit and really wants to know God. he says he believes what hes saying but wants some time to think about baptism. whats sad is that when he does say yes to baptism, we have to give him to the missionaries in his area. but hopefully we would get to go to his baptism. oh also listening to him pray for the first time out loud with us was so amazing. the spirit was there and i know he felt peace. i get what theyre saying now about that first prayer. its incredible.

so they took our cameras when we got here so there will be very few pictures of anything in the ccm. its very sad, i know. my district is really awesome. .there are 12 of us but only 4 of us are going to the east mission, whcih is kind of sad. my schedule is basiclaly like this. get up at 630 and study, eat and study, go to sports (super fun. we get to work out and just relax which is nice), study, eat, study, eat. sunday was amazing because we got to rest from all the studying. we watched an awesome movie about the slc temple and had a couple devotionals. its a major spiritual renewal. we all ahve to prepare a 5 minute talk and 10 minute sunday school lesson and then they randomly call on people to give them.

so despite the fact that im exhausted literally all day errday, im enjoying myself so much. i love it here. my comp is really good (hna windsor and i have already developed separation anxiety haha, if we dont see eachother for a second we are like DONDE ESTA MI CUMPANERA) and i feel the spirit so much. i pray more than i ever have in my entire life. probably like 20 times a day and its so awesome. i feel so much closer to my Savior. i feel like i can relate to Him more than before too. He also left His family and friends to go with people He doesnt know to preach the gospel. He suffered for the good of others and sacrificed for them. now obvioulsy im not as selfess or suffering near as much but i like seeing the connection because i want even more to be like Him. He is the greatest example of the perfect missionary.

we have one teacher hno mendez who is hilarious and really good. i dont think this mtc is like provos...our classes tend to be a lot of us being like where is our teacher and then being like okay well what do we want to learn haha. flashcards have been a really good thing.

i love you all and i hope everything is going well. im doing great so dont worry about me.

love,

hna wilcoxen

Adding a couple logistical details and addressing some of the questions I've received:
   1. If you send mail you will need to get an international stamp from the post office. (Ashtin expects lots of mail)
   2. Ashtin has no phone while she is on her mission.  Her brother actually is using her phone and number now, so if you call or text expect a goofy response.  She will be able to call her family on Christmas and Mothers Day (yes Fathers Day gets the shaft) but that is it for phone calls.
   3. Ashtin will only have access to email for about 40 minutes, once a week and it will mostly be limited to family.  She has a special email address and will not be looking at her other email accounts.
   4. A friend will be maintaining her Facebook account as best as possible so you can also look there for updates, but Ashtin will not be able look at it. (as far as I know right now)
   5. At the moment, she is in Guatemala City going through her 6 week training, learning her Missionary duties as well as the language.  After that she will move around about every 6 weeks to a new location in Guatemala.  Most of her territory appears to be somewhat rural but we'll find out for sure when she gets sent out to the field.

Day 1 August 21,2013

After a long night of travel (left Indy at 6pm, arrived in Guatemala at 6am) Ashtin arrived safely at the MTC.  She was able to nap and then send a quick email. She let us know that she will actually be at the MTC for 6 weeks instead of 2 as only native speakers stay for 2 weeks.  So any letters or packages can be sent there.  She met her companion and she is awesome. She is also excited that she will get to go to the Temple every week while she is in the MTC.
She will get to email us more on Tuesday so we'll have an updated post then.

Mailing Address:
Sister Ashtin Kaylea Wilcoxen
Guatemala Guatemala City East Mission
Guatemala Missionary Training Center
Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15
Guatemala City 01015
GUATEMALA