Sorry I havent posted in a while!  Lots of pictures below.

June 16,2014

okay im sorry but this is going to be kind of short this week! i got behind because i had to send a bunch of pictures for president and hna watts and other things.

anyways. i told my hija that this change would be a change of miracles and well it has started. okay on sunday...not a single investigator came to chruch, but as hna flewallen said...we didnt say it would be a domingo de milagros...just a change. haha. so yeah! but dont worry, it will be better next sunday! we are really going to be focusing on getting them to church because it doesnt matter how well they are progressing or how well the lessons are...if they dont come to church...it doesnt matter. they cant get baptized.

 we found this guy named cesar the other day and it truly is a miracle that we found him. he was getting taught by missionaries in another area but he moved here. he was going to get baptized there but he drinks coffee and smokes so he couldnt yet. we are workign with him on that right now and he is doing so well! he hasnt drunken or smoked in a while. he is super pilas and knows its true. actually, steph i told him about how you were able to completely quit smoking and how it is totally possible and he looked so excited about it! it was super cool!

 we got to play baseball today! well we only had two gloves and a bat and baseball haha but it was still so much fun! havent been able to play in a while. im sorry its so short but i hope you all are doing well!

June 9, 2014

Dear Family,

How is everyone? I am doing well! We had zone reunion this week, which was super great! So changes are this week, but luckily I get to finish traning my hija :) I am super excited. i already told her that we are going to have a change of miracles. I cant believe how fast time is going. I remember during training that it seemed to be like a long time, but Hna Flewallen is already at the half way point. And my trainer, who only had 10 months when I was with her is leaving for her house!! Like its so insane how fast time goes.

So let me tell you something about the capital of Guatemala. I love it, dont get me wrong. But the people outside of the capital are (generally) a little more...warm? Welcoming? Needless to say we have come across more people here who outright reject than when I was outside of the cap. And its still kind of new to me because I was born outside of the cap. So anywho. We have had quite a few encounters in these weeks with people who just dont like us one single bit haha. This lady came out with anger in her eyes, using the Bible to basically tell us that we are not virtuous women and that we need to find Christ and what not. Well, I have learned how to deal with it. We listen, bear our testimonies and walk away. But I am grateful for these experiences now. Before, I would just get irritated, but now I mostly just feel sorrow for them. The thing is though, that I have never more in my entire life been more sure that this is the truth than I am now, when people attack it every day. When they hate what I know to be the truth. As sorry as I feel for them, I am extremely grateful for the knowledge that I do have.

I love you all and I am extremely grateful for the support you always give me. Please read the Book of Mormon and later, pray about it. Please. I love you so much :)

June 2, 2014
Dear Family,


Okay so I have a story for you all. Okay on Saturday we met with the guy who we had met last Sunday. on sudnay we had prayed to find where we needed to go and we eneded up contacting manuel who was outside of his house and he seemed pretty interested. so on saturday we went and we talked to him and he started telling this huge long story in his life with all these details. hes a lawyer and had gotten himself into a sticky situation. as he was telling us i was like thinking to myself okay...how can this story apply to the gospel? the moment i thought it a story from the bom popped into my head of a guy named zeezrom who was also a lawyer. the story was almost exactly like what happened with manuel. i decided to show him the story even though i had no idea why or how telling him would help him. well we get to the end of the story and it says that zeezrom got baptized and so right then i realized why. i told him that everything happens for a reason and that its usually to bring us to the true gospel so i told him that like happened with zeezrom, happened with him, to show him where he needed to be. he was like woah!! and wanted to read it more. so we asked him to say the closing prayer and he was like "thank you for showing me this story in the book of mormon because i have been looking for the answer for 2 years and now i know why it happened to me" it was such an amazing experience. i know that God answered our prayers and led us to him. he came to chruch the next day so we will see what happens :)


that same night, we had a cita with the two little kids who are going to get baptized. we ended up calling a super awesome hermana from the ward to come with us last minute and she said yes. it started raining super hard (its been ridiculous, the rain thanks jacklynn for the boots, love you so much for that) and she still came with us. we got there, taught the lesson, and the mom (being forced by the kids) dropped the bomb that she is having some very serious issues with the father and they will be moving out to leave him. i was shocked when i heard. they dont have the money to leave though. as missionaries we cant offer money help at all, but this hermana who "per chance" happened to be there offered them the help they need. they also had not eaten that day so we went with the hermana to buy food for them. it was such a blessing to be able to help them through this amazing hermana who i absolutely love. i just love how God prompts us even when we dont notice it.

have great weeks!!!! happy birthday ethan :)



May 27, 2014
SOrry I didnt write yesterday. Its because we worked yesterday and today we had pday because WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! heck, i needed that so much. I had been in this world for far too long without a break. 9 months without the temple. There is just a peace there that I cant explain. I cant feel the anxiety of the world when I am there. I dont think about everything that I have to do this week, I just feel calm. I needed that so much. I was able to receive some answers to some questions that I have about my mission and it was just a good kind of checkpoint to have with God now that I have completed half of my mission.

Speaking of which, I completed 9 months this week. Where did the time go? But seriously. Like I dont know about you guys, but I feel like I just left sometimes. And then Hermana flewallen will say something aobut a movie ive never seen or soem phrase ive never heard of and i am like what?

So I had an interesting experience on Sunday haha. Okay so on Tuesday and Wednesday we had just amazing days. Like I had been praying so hard that I could just get better in some thing sand that members could leave with us more and well ithe prayers have been answered. I was super excited for Sunday because we had a lot of possibilites of people coming to church...and only one came. And the girl who should be getting baptized didnt come, so we had to change her baptismal date again. We were super happy about the investigator who did come, dont get me wrong, but Jacklyn who is supposed to be baptized didnt show up (ps. she wants to name her kid that shes pregnant with afeter me and my comp shelby ashtin haha). So that was disappointing and then all of our plans fell and I was trying my best to stay animated and not discouraged. So I was like okay, we have our last cita at 7 with a reference from a family, itll be great. The woman calls me and is like hey im really sorry but my friends arent going to be able to come. And after I hung up, i just started to cry haha. Like I sat down at a bus stop and just cried for like a minute. My poor comp. I just let out all my frustration and then i was like alright. ill stop being a baby. and i started calling some people but no one was home. so we were like okay, lets go contact. so we prayed to be lead where to go and we found 2 people that were super open to what we had to say. people that i really felt like can progress. and we would have nEVER met them had we not had all of our citas fall and that prayer. I know He listens to us. I know He does. I know that when we push on even when its hard, we receive the blessings.

We also put two new fechas yesterday! :) wooh! 

 They got cell phones, I think to help with the withdrawal symptoms

 Its the Rainy Season

Making Ash rethink the number of children she wants!