Daaaaaang. I am officially no longer a teenager! 20 years old, and here in Guatemala! Wow. Sometimes I'm just like, is this real life?? But it is and I love it! :)
 |
| me and my zone having cake for my birthday |
 |
| Eating the first bite of cake....a Guatemalan tradition. They all sang to me in English and I couldn't understand a word of it because their accents are so thick! |
So this week was LOCO. I have like 30 pictures from this week, obvs I cant send em all but I'll try!
So let me just talk about what was the funnest day this week, my birthday! So it started off bright and early at 5 am when I was awakened by my comp. I was... what the...... it's still dark. Then I saw Suli, one of the daughters of the family that cooks for us! Then I was.... why are you in my room! Then her mom walked out! Then her other sister! And I'm just disoriented times 20 and they start singing happy birthday! I'm just like, how'd you get in my room!
Then I got up and went into the other room and there was the rest of the family! So they brought me a birthday breakfast of eggs with salsa and beans and fried platanos and arroz con leche just like dad makes it! I told her once that dad made that so she made it just for my bday! Ah I could have cried!
They are the sweetest family! Hermana G- the mom and our cook, is like my Guatemalan Momma. I love her! They have been taking care of me a lot this week. :) (editor's note: The next paragraph explains this. It's from another email from Erica)
<So what do you want first, the good or the bad? Well there is really only one bad thing so I'll start with that... the mosquitos just love me so much that they gave me dengue! Basically that just means a fever and you can't do anything but sleep. But we got rid of the fever right away, Luckily I'm surrounded by nurses! Ha! Our cook's daughters are nurses so they took care of me and such. I have some meds and I've been sleeping ALOT. So don't worry, it was honestly just a matter of time... but it came and I'm gonna conquer this dang sickness!>
So then the rest of my birthday was just full of contacting and inviting people to our activity! The activity was supposed to start at 6, we were planning to show up at 5:30 to set up the fire with some members, but of course no one showed up till 7:15, thanks to rain and Guatemalans being Guatemalans! No, funny story about the rain..... it rained all day on my birthday, and we were just like NOOOOOOOOO! People don't come to anything when it rains, let alone a fire activity... so we just told people it would stop at 5.... and it did! Around 5:30 the rain stopped.... until 8:45, right when we walked in the house! Miracles!!!!! The activity rocked though! We had like 40 people there and 5 investigators! And I got to eat 7 s'mores!
Yep, we introduced the people of Guatemala to s'mores! And they LOVED it! Ha! More like I loved it! They probably think I'm crazy I was like eat them! Eat!!!!!!! :) The Bishop gave a nice spiritual thought and I really think that it will help the ward be more unified. :)
On Thursday many companion hit her year mark in the mission so we celebrated at a restaurant! We got to have real food, I had a crepe and I about died! Oh goodness. :)
We had lots of good food this week! Especially since I've been sick, people keep bringing stuff by the house for us, it's really sweet! I have so much support here, so really, don't worry about me! Just keep the prayers coming! :)
Oh we finally bought umbrellas this week, 5 weeks into the mission during rainy season isn't too late! We love our umbrellas, but we apparently bought really cheap ones, they already broke! At least we have boots and jackets!
This week I received real deal letters from Mom and Aunt Nancy! Only took 5 weeks to get here! Woo!!! :)
If any of you are ever feeling down, read Hebrews 11. The future is as bright as your faith! Sometimes out here on the mission it is hard. I'm not going to lie to you. I have been tried more the past 5 weeks than I ever have in my life; but I am learning that things go better when we believe they will! Have faith and then your positivity will work with the Lord to make everything just that much brighter! :)
Today we went to tour a rambotan finca (ranch) where they grow and package rambotans!
 |
| you have to be sanitary in the factory |
 |
| me and my comp in a rambotan tree |
We ate so many.... they are those fruits that I sent home a pic of the first week, red with green spikes! Apparently they send 95% of those rambotans to the US especially LA! He said to the Asian communities, so go get some! Eat them and think of me!
In terms of the work this week, it was great! We found some new investigators, 19 this week in fact! A lot are positive! We are trying to find families and there are 3 we are working with a lot! One is a family of at least 15 people! I'm not really sure just how big it is! There are just so many! Every time we teach there are at least 10, one time there was 16 people listening" I was like wow!!!!! They are obsessed with English so we always sing a himno in Spanish and English! Speaking of English, we had our first English class this week. Did I tell you we are teaching English classes? Well we are! But no one showed up.... idk what it is with our attempts at activities, they don't really work! But we aren't giving up hope! Ever! :) Gotta do the Lord's work here in Esperanza! Sometimes it seems like there isn't any work here, or too much rather. It's really discouraging. But then I remember that a prophet of God called me here, and my mission president sent ME here. They need me! So I will never let them down!!!!! :)
So just in case you forgot, Guatemala is beautiful! It's like a cross between Jurassic Park and Hawaii and San Diego! Take that!
Funniest story of the week! We were trying to gather up investigators before church Sunday and we went to the house of the big family and we asked where is jose and they said he is at his house! We thought he lived here, so they said no he lives down a bit in a white wood house! so we thought, okay we can find it! Well luckily a little girl came with us because we NEVER would have found his house...... because only after trekking through a jungle, crossing a river, and up a small mountain did we actually find his house!!!!!!!!!! No lies, I crossed a river before church on Sunday. Only in Guate. Ha! And I saw spiders bigger than my hand in the jungle! Holy! And then, he didn't even come to church! Wow! I was....but.... we just crossed a river........ do you not understand that I just crossed a river in my Sperrys! I'm wearing a white skirt homeboy! I crossed a river in my Sunday best! But it's okay, I know the God loves Him. And I'll receive blessings for it! :)
Well I think that's it for this week! Love you all so much! Thanks for the emails and prayers:) Never give up your faith. Always believe that something amazing is about to happen because if you do, it will! :)
 |
| ice cream from the ice cream man |
Love,
Hermana Moore
No comments:
Post a Comment