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!

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

So the big news of the week is that WE GOT CELLPHONES!!!!!! thats right. Guatemala got cellphones. Granted, its not my iphone, but it doesnt change the fact that I love it haha.  It seriously will help the work out so much, we wont have to waste so much time walking to someones house only for them not to be there. Or waste as much pisto calling people who dont pick up at public telephones.

We had an absolutely amazing zone conference this week, when we got our beloved cellphone. But seriously, I have been praying so hard in these days for Heavenly Father to help me. To help me to find the strength to get through our desafios and to be a better companion for my hija. I want her to have the best experience that she can. Literally my prayers are answered every day, with divisions or district meetings or videos of the church that we watch or my scriptures. But I just know Heavenly Father is here with us.

My hija is getting so much better with her spanish! She is participating in our lessons more and more and really coming along. She will randomly tell me soemthing we should do for our investigators and its so exciting because I know that she is thinking about them trhough the day. Its cool to see how excited she gets about the new experiences. It reminds me of when I started and its cool to get back that spirit.

The ward is starting to work a lot more with us. Now is the time to work with members, so I hope you all are helping out the missionaries, leaving with them and giving them references :) Also, this week was teh week of the family and so we had a bunch of activities in the building, where I learned a lot about the family. It was funny because they were talking about marriage a bunch and one hermana was like...alright...whos baggy? hahaha.

I cant believe I only have 9 months left...thats insane! I love this work, even when its hard. I feel closer to my Savior than I ever had before! Love you all! Happy birthday this week dad!!

May 12, 2014

Dear Family,

Welp, talked to you yesterday haha so I dont have a ton to say really except I have an investigator who is EXACTLY like Uncle Greg, like serioulsy exactly like him only he speaks spanish. I didnt know what to do, I was just like...what is this? haha. 

Also, today I met someone with the last name Bullough, an hermana, and it turns out she is a cousin of the Bulloughs from our ward! It was so crazy! And in her mission is an Elder Roach who has family in a stake in Indiana. It is a small Mormon world.

So Ill share with you a short thought. The mission has opened my eyes to a lot about myself. Like I am learning so much that I didnt even realize that I did. Some things I like, others not so much, but its interesting because soemtimes it makes me feel really down, but I read this scripture Ether 12:27 and its a scripture that I have always liked but I read it in a new way. The only way that we see our weaknesses is when we are closer to God, so when we see the things we are doing wrong, its because we are coming unto Him and getting closer to Him. So really, its a good thing, as long as we are willing to change. Change is hard, but it is possible! 

Also, with my spanish I have learned that I just rely on Heavenly Father, knowing that He will help me and He does. And I have to do that now with every single aspect of the work. I mean I was before, but with training, even more so. I am really just trying to grow my faith and get rid of all of my fear and doubts! 

Love you all! Hope you had good mothers days!

 

Not sure, but looks to me like she is just posing!!!!! LOL

4/28/14

Okay well first off I have to start with some worldly things haha. I was eating in walmart the other day (it has a cafeteria...will never be going back there haha) but anyway discovery channel was on and I wasnt watching it persay but I did happen to see on their commercials that there are several new shows...are you watching them? haha. Also, i have decided that at times the mission is like going to open houses. You go to peoples houses to talk to them and they give you food. And I remember those days I just went home with a giant food baby and thats about everyday here, especially because theres an elder that we share the ward with who is going home on wednesday so a bunch of people invite him to eat and us too so we go and its so much food! haha

Onto a more spiritual note. We have this investigator and I mightve told you about him. His name is Jorge and he is a journalist and he is super duro, terco, i cant remember the word in english right now, forgive me. but anyway so the last couple of lessons he keeps relating his life to us and everything that happened and he has passed through some crazy, awful stuff, and he starts crying and then i start crying haha. But the last lesson was super spiritual because he said hes afraid of starting to find God again because everytime he makes a real effort, bad stuff happens, and hes afraid of losing his daughter and his mom. I was able to bear my testimony to him of eternity and how we have the ability to be able to be with our families forever if we do what were supposed to do which is the basis of everything I do in my life and it was one of those lessons that I wont ever forget. The spirit was there super strongly. I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have of the plan of salvation. It truly is an anchor to the soul. He came to a baptism on Sunday and my comp invited him to baptism to which he said he would pray about it. We will see what happens the next lesson.

So Hugo got baptized on Saturday!! Wooh!!! Well the baptism was supposed to start at 2 but he didnt show up until 4 haha....so. But a little girl from the ward was also getting baptized that day so they went ahead and had hers at 3. And then on Sunday the elders had a baptism in the morning. It was super awesome to have the baptisms like that in a row because it was something I needed. Everything we do here is for that moment. The rest are only steps to get to that moment. I loved the spirit that is always in the baptisms! But Hugo gave his testimony at the end and was like Satan didnt want me to be here today, he put a lot of obstacles in my path but I made it here, even if it was 2 hours late. He said he felt an emptiness in his life that was filled when he started coming to church. I am grateful that I get the chance be here and experience these moments with these people.

Love you all, have great weeks!



4/21/14

Okay so this week was the Semana Santa and so all of the members were like its going to be so hard, you poor things and it was just like...thanks haha. But our zone leaders were like no, you guys are going to have a good week, a week of success. So i think I told you that last week they set the goal of 18 news and we found 19! It was a pretty awesome to see that when we tried to keep our spirits up that we were able to have a successful week despite the fact that seriously, all of our citas fell haha because no one was at home. They celebrate easter for an entire week and all go to the beach and what not, well if they have money. My area here, we have people with some serious pisto (money), like they live in gated communities where you can only enter if you have a cita with that person before hand. There are several places here where we have to give our copies of our passports to enter, but then we have the poorer parts too.

So on Saturday we called our investigator that is bgetting baptized this saturday (wooh!) but he didnt pick up. and then our phone ran out of minutes (seriously idk what it is about guatemala but nobody ever has minutes on their phone) so we couldnt call him more. we left the house early and went to bring him to church but nobody came to the door. It was disappointing because we were doing everything we could, but nothing, so we get to church and I am just sitting there silently praying that he will come. And a minute into chruch starting, I see him booking it on his little bike and I cant tell you how happy I was! It is seriously the best feeling ever, knowing that another child of God is coming unto Him through baptism and ahhhh!!!

We watched a video on Wednesday about the Atonement and missionary work and I love it. President Eyring said that everytime he thinks about taking a well deserved break, He thinks about the Savior and how even after He died, He preached in teh spirit world until He was resurrected. And President Holland says that missionary work isnt easy because savlation isnt a cheap experience. Why would we ever think it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him? I loved it because I am proud to be a representative of Christ. I am happy for all of my trials as a missionary and a person because it helps me to understand Him better. I know He lives and I know thorugh Him we can gain exaltation. I know He has given us the way to gain that.


I love you all have great weeks!

4/14/2014

Okay, so I just want to tell you about yesterday!! So we have this investigator who will get baptized on the 26th!! and he is so awesome. His name is Hugo and he has 20 years...okay thats spanish...hes 20 years old. But he has been coming to church but we needed someone to be his friend because well, yes, its just a necessity. So we stumbled upon this member family where every single member is a returned missionary and we had a family home evening with them! It was so amazing!!! The spirit was so strong and they taught the lesson so he could be friends with them more and also we had a less active recent convert who is 18 come with us and it was good for her too! And okay, it probably sounds dumb to you guys because typing it out doesnt make as much sense, but i promise you that afterwards, i couldnt stop smiling because it was just so great for him and her! And also, the rest of the day had been kind of bad, most of our citas fell and so we werent really able to work as much as we had planned but then it ended in that and it was so good! So get involved in the work and help the missionaries!!

This week is called Semana Santa and i think its mostly a Catholic thing but everyone who is christian celebrates it. Most people leave town for the whole week to go to the pools or the beaches and yeah. So its one of those weeks when people are like, well this week will be a bad week, but our zone leaders were like no. If you dont believe that this week will be a week of success, then you arent showing your faith, youre doubting. They prayed and received the revelation that we should find 18 new investigators this week. It was super cool because the spirit was there and I just know this week is going to be an awesome week and despite the fact that most people will be gone, we will have a lot of success, but we will have to rely on God so much this week! Well, every week we have to do that. I am just excited.

Well, not a whole bunch else happened that I can really think of, but I hope you all have some great weeks!!

Oh, I have decided that since we are all Gods children, God must be very stubborn because all of His children are haha, including myself, but seriously. He has got to be so stubborn haha.

4/8/2014

Dear Family,

OH MY GOSH THIS WEEK WAS SO FLIPPING GOOD!!!! okay, ive calmed down, but it was. We had interviews with President and it was so amazing. I was able to be very open with him and I felt the Spirit so strongly afterwards. I know he is inspired of God. And then conference. Oh heck it was so good. If you guys chose not to watch it, I am practically pleading with you to go back and watch it online. It was so good. The talk by Elder Uchtdorf about us being eternal beings. It just makes so much since yet I had never thought of it like that at all. We are eternal beings. We are children of God. We knew all about this life before and chose to come here and we can all be together again after this life. Thats why its so important to use this time which leads to the next thing that i loved. This is our time!!! This is my time. Today and not tomorrow. Its incredible and I want to use my whole time on this earth to do whatever I can for the Lord. Ah, I am so excited haha. And then when President Monson almost straight up said that He saw God right there. Or at least thats what I think. So cool. Prophets and apostles are real guys.

I got sick this week and I didnt want to stay in the house so I slept until like 10 and then got up and had comp study and we left and visited bishop and a less active and the lady was like you have the look of death on your faith...haha so we came back to the house and i slept for another 3 hours and a nice couple in the ward brought me stuff to keep hydrated and it was so nice!! and then we left in the night to visit again!

We have two fechas right now and theyre both about the same person. Both young guys who have thier answers already, but are scared of baptism. I am super excited to show the power of God through our faith and our prayers. I cant wait for that moment when they overcome thier fears and just say okay. I have faith, I know its true. Lets go. Only in spanish obviously. I know itll happen, just need to be patient.

I hope you guys have great weeks and I love you all!!!

Okay. SO this week was a lot better because well, we actually know where we are...mostly. We still get lost every now and then but not every single day for hours like before. Having actual directions is super nice. In zacap it was like...oh the house on the corner then you pass the dog and then theres a store and then theres some old guy that you can ask for me haha so yes.

Also, as a sidenote. I dont know whats gotten into me, but lately I have started liking doing the dishes and making my bed. I dont know what it is. Maybe liking is an exagerration on making the bed but you know, I do it and I dont like leaving it unmade anymore...I know...theres something wrong with me.

Okay so last night, our last cita of the week was so awesome!!! So this guy used to be a jehovahs witness and so we were like idk if this family will progress but they were nice so we put another cita and yeah. we show up last night (it had been a week) and this guy had read until ALMA in the bom!!! ALMA!! I have never read that much of the bom in that short amount of time. and he was like it impacted me a lot and i really like it and im going to keep reading it. We have an appointment with them on Tuesday. I am so excited. This area has so much potential and we have found some awesome investigators!!!

Just so you know, my car is all over this country. Like I see it all the time and every time I just remember that its not my car. But thats okay. And someone told me our last name is from the indian tribe sioux. So thats exciting.

Tell Grandma Sandy I said happy birthday! Also, i dont know when the temple open house is going to be but you guys need to go when it happens!! And also GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK!!! woohhooo! everyone go watch it. mom, ken, dad, steph, anyone who reads this. watch it. itll be great. go in with a question and it will get answered!!

I might have to move again. I hate moving so much haha.

Last story. Here, theres guatemalan time which is an hour later. We had a baptism that was supposed to start at 5 and started at 6 haha but the thing is the Spirit was so strong that it didnt even matter! This girl was so prepared. Apparently she came into the church one sunday and said im not a member but i would like to know how to become one. When we taught her the word of wisdom she was like oh i used to drink 8 glasses a day but then my boyfriend explained to me the dangers of it...so i stopped. We were like...alright then haha. but shes great.

Love you all! have great weeks!

March 24, 2014

Okay. Well. This week has been crazy. So like I told you I had changes, and it was so super hard to leave Zacapa, everyone was crying and it was so sad!! I love the people there and its hard to accept that I might not see them ever again, but hopefully one day I will get to come back, plus there is always heaven haha. But as sad as I was to leave, I am so happy with my new area.

Okay so we meet up with some other hermanas that had been outside of the capital and we are talking and im like heck yes, I will get to just relax for two days because my comp will know the area and I wont and I wont really know what Im doing, but she will teach me. Well they come up to me and theyre like oh hey, Hermana Wilcoxen and Venegas (she has only ever been outside of the capital too) good thing you came together! You are comps opening an area. We were just like what?! haha. I was pretty nervous because neither of us know the capital at all nor any of the investigators or members or anything. We were pretty lost for the first couple of days, but we are getting a lot better and we understand it a little bit more now haha...I think.

But the area is called zona Bosques and we are in zona 4 mixco if you want to look it up. My ward is called Nueva Florida and yeah, its great! It is a really big ward and the members have already started giving us references (good thing because street contacting and knocking on doors isnt working super well haha) and now the women in the ward can start working with us because before it was only elders. There are also a heck ton of returned missionaries here, which is good because they are really excited about the work! Our area is huge and we share the ward with elders which is really different, but we will get used to it.

I hope you all have great weeks! Love you :)