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!