1 Nefi 13:37

Subject: 1 Nefi 13:37

HOLA! Ha, sorry for my Debbie Downer-ness last week, but thank you so much for all the support through emails and prayers.  I truly felt some extra support this week.  I'm truly so blessed to have the best family and friends in the world! 

So this week was kind of hilarious, when things are hard, which they still are (ha!), you just have to find joys in the little things. 

So the little joys I found this week:

1. Teaching the Word of Wisdom. I was on diviisons with Hermana Merrill this week and we went to go teach a menos activo lady about the restoration. But right when we walked in I spotted coffee, and something that I learned from my companion right now is that just because its coffee doesn't mean it's not breaking the Word of Wisdom.  We need to teach these people that it is JUST as serious as smoking, drinking and drugs. (especially to Guatemalans who start their kids drinking coffee at age 2) So anyways, I'm like, okay lets teach palabra de sabiduria instead.  So we start teaching it and we were totally inspired to teach it differently than we ever have before!  Like we made her a plan of how to stop drinking coffee and put it on the wall next to a picture of Jesus from a folleto.  I felt like I was on the District videos!  Haha.  It was the most adorable little plan, translated into English it was like.... first, I throw it out.  Second, I don't buy it.  Third, I replace it with hot water.  Ha!  So we were like okay Hermana M, let's start it right now.  And she goes, right now? okay!  Stands up, grabs her coffee and just trucks it on outside.  So I'm like oh my gosh what is she about to do?!?  Because in Spanish to say throw it away you can just say, lo tiro, which also means I throw it... so I'm envisioning her smashing her coffee jar in the pavement! So we run outside and she's pouring it down her pila and washing it down smiling and saying, adios cafe! hahahahahahahahahahahaha.  I love being a missionary. :)

Divisions with Hermana Merrill:)

2. Almost getting killed three times this week by falling fruit.  It is prime time for just about every fruit that grows on a tree hear in Guatemala, so that means you have to be super careful and watch out for falling fruit!  We were teaching a less active couple and all of a sudden I hear this loud noise next to me and all these mandarinas are falling from above me!  Then when I was on divisions we are just walking down a street and this mango hits the ground like 2 inches away from me....and those mangos are big! Then we went to that couple again and MORE mandarinas fall from the sky!  I'm thinking about just carrying around an umbrella like the JW´s here, or as we call them, the testigos! haha.

Happy St. Patrick's Day last Monday.  Ice Cream is a pday tradition:)

3. Friendly wild animals roaming around the church.  It's not at all weird to see a dog in the church on a Sunday.  They just kind of do their own thing and hang out there with us.  But this week I experienced a first... birds in the church!   We were doing our weekly planning in the church in the room that has the baptismal font and my comp and I hear this noise coming from the font and we are like what is that... out pops a huge bird!!!!   We start screaming a running and diving out of the room and we are like screaming for the elders.  They come in and save us and catch the bird, with their bare hands of course, and take it out.  It was soooo funny!  Apparently it was a pretty rough battle, there were a ton of feathers in the baptismal font. hahahaha.  That must have been a surprise for the person filling up the font Saturday morning. :)

bird in the baptismal font!

4. Understanding Jacob 5. I'm reading the Book of Mormon faster than I ever have right now and just got to Jacob 5, or the allegory of the vineyard. I read it and BOOM!  LIGHTBULB! UNDERSTANDING!  It made my Sunday. :)  I have grown such a love for the scriptures here, I hope to never looe it.  Go read jacob 5 and take some time with it.  It blew my mind and made me so happy! 

And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few.

 71 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and  labor in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labor with 

your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto 

myself against the time which will soon come.

I love being a servant of the Lord.

Basically, life gives you trials, but we gotta do what we can with them... after all when life gives you lemons, you gotta make lemonade. :)

Sweat. SWEEEAAAATTTTT!!!!  This is inside my house!  I'm dying.  MELLLLTTTTINNNGGG!

love you all so much!

love love love,

hermana Moore

p.s. read 1 nefi 13:37, those are the blessings in store for those who serve the Lord in this great work of salvation! :)

Two weeks of blogposts

This week  March 17:

Subject: mountains to climb.

There is an EFY song that we listen to a lot that says something like, "Give me mountains to climb, give me rivers to cross, give me something that's gonna make me better than I was"  Let's just say that I'm climbing the mountain right now. I can't exactly see how this is all going to make me better than I was, but I know the Lord knows. 

Goodbye sun.  Sunsets in Mazate are orange.  I love it!!!

Needless to say, this was one of the hardest weeks of my mission. 

But, looking back on it, I sure learned a lot.  I was on divisions one day this week with Hermana Castro from Honduras, San Pedro Sula.  Homegirl is one of my best friends.  

divisions with my favorite Hermana Castro....model shot....hahaha!

Truly!  So I was having a hard time and she told me to read D&C 31.  It talks a lot about family problems.  I'm not having family problems so I just substituted my prueba for that.  I especially love verses 9 and 13.

9  Ten ^apaciencia en las ^btribulaciones; no ultrajes a los que ultrajan. Gobierna tu ^ccasa con mansedumbre y sé constante.

13  Sé ^afiel hasta el fin y, he aquí, estoy ^bcontigo. Estas palabras no son de hombre ni de hombres, sino mías, sí, de Jesucristo, tu Redentor, por la ^cvoluntad del Padre. Amén.

So basically it helped me to remember that the Lord is watching out for me and more trials means He loves me enough to try me. 

This week my precious baby girls got baptized.  Highlight of the baptism was when cute Yesenia, the littlest, came out of the water and I asked,  "How do you feel?"   She said,  "Well, me?  Happy!!!"   It was beyond adorable!!!!  It was a lovely little baptism.  I truly couldn't be happier for them!  Our ward baptized 6 people this week!  We are certainly echarin fuego here in Las Flores!  I'm telling you these people are PREPARED!

I hit my 9 month mark this week!  Half way and it's only downhill from here?  Haha!  Hermana Merrill and I celebrated by burning skirts :)  Enjoy the hilar pics. :) 

Also this week it rained a ton, but like more than ever.  I guess the rainy season came 2 months early! Hooray!  We spent the whole week just drenched!  So wet!  Ha there was this one point where we had to cross a street but it was super flooded and I was like, we have a cita and we will NOT miss it!!  So I, very valiantly, tried to cross the street.  I am like walking very slowly and then when the water was up to my knees!  I lost my footing and almost fell and got swept away in the river!  So I backed out and we waited, missed our cita, but most importantly didn't die.  Rain is like nothing you can even imagine here. 

Got some wicked blisters this week and the only shoes that didn't rub them were my super cute (eek!) shoes from mom, haha.  So I had duck feet for a day;)  Thanks mommy.

Well, I think that's it.  This week has been full of a lot of kneeling by my bed and praying, reading in the Book of Mormon and eating with the members. 

noche de hogar!

noche de hermanamiento in my convert's yard :) so fun!

Know that I'm okay and working hard.  Love all of you and hope that you can be ward missionaries like Jesus commands us to. 

flowers from my girlie girl :) Yesenia

love love love,

hermana moore 

Last Week March 10:

Subject: ch-ch-ch-changes round 3

Haha no don't worry, I didn't have changes this time, but my comp did!  I'm so sick of emergency changes... but every time it really provides such an opportunity to grow!  Here I thought I'd never have them.  I guess the Lord has other plans for us :)

My new companion is Hermana Beckstrand from Orem, Utah! Its pretty funny because she has been in all the same areas and has had all the same companions as me.  She was in San Marcos with Hermana Lopez and just left Coatepeque with Hermana Fusi!   We have a lot to talk about because we know all the same people! :)  Now we are together here in Las Flores!  Ah, I love Mazate. :)   But Hermana Cadavieco, mi hija tan chula, is now in Esperanza Coatepeque!  My area!  With Hermana Fusi!  Those two are going to echar fuego alli!  I'm so stoked for them.  Miss them, but I know that's where the Lord needs them both. And I know that the Lord needs Hermana Beckstrand and I here! :) 

What it's like to do tra

this is one of 30 outtakes. I adore my compita!

choco bananas with mi hija tan chula :)

SO this week was a crazy one!  We were in Reu and in divisions and then my comp has emergency changes and now I'm here in an internet cafe again, super fast and strange week. I didn't even have time to journal this week so I literally don't remember what happened. . . 

I guess I can start with today... today we went on a run!  Yay for exercise! Then we cleaned a bit and got ready to go to the market!  I made my first big souvenir purchase today!  I bought corte!!!!! ahhh it's so beautiful and I got the best price!  It's the woven authentic clothing that the natives wear here! I was joking with another Hermana that we would wear it on the plane ride home but I'm pretty sure you guys would think I was super weird if I did that, haha; but it's lovely and colorful and I just love it!

So I can't remember anything else so I'll just go on with my investigators.   Remember the three little girls that we have been teaching...... I DONT WANT TO SAY ANYTHING NOW BUT LET'S JUST SAY NEXT SATURDAY SHOULD BE A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!!  I had to talk to their dad on the phone to ask permission and it was so weird talking to someone in the states!  I wanted to be like, "ehhh call my mom and say hi!" hahaha. :) 

This week we also started eating with the members!  It's so fun!  I had so many cool foods that I've never had before!  Like this one type of chili called chile de arbol.  Normally they ask us if we want chile and I'm just like ehh I'll try just un poquito!  And so I did but I guess I wasn't supposed to use the same spoon I was using to eat to put the chile in... because about 3 seconds later I was on FIRE.  Not my mouth but it was more like my nose and my upper lip!  I'm dripping with sweat and chugging water and soda and just crying because it felt like actual fire.  The family thought it was so funny that they gave me one.  They are super rare and only grow in tierras frias, so I can dry it and bring it home for my family to try.  Don't you worry you'll all have the opportunity to try it in 9 months!  Hahahahaha. :) But I also got to try a dish that is super tipico aqui, Chojin!  It's basically the same as caldo de res but with a tomato base.  At least I can say I've tried it now!  Guatemalans and their soups.... it's like they don't realize that it's 100 degrees outside with 90 percent humidity.  Soup is for winter, you crazy chapines!!! 

This week I learned so much about companionship unity.  Someone told me once that if we want things to work in a companionship, marriages too, we need to give our ALL to the other person.  That way if we are both giving 100 percent to each other, if one of us falls a little bit one day and can only give like 50, there isn't any gap.  We still are 100 percent working with each other.  I truly think the mission should be required for everyone, it's like the test drive for marriage, not saying it's easy or fun all the time, but you learn so much.  I've found that I'm happier when I'm serving my companion.  If I'm sitting around like, "Ugh why won't she wash the dishes?  Why won't she listen to me?  Why won't?"... blah bla blah... nothing happens.  I've only seen change when I take the initiative and swallow my pride and start serving her.  Truly it makes me think of the scripture in the biblia that says, "Si no son uno, no son mios", or "if you are not one, you are not mine".  Simple as that, unity people! :)

Oh and just a side note, if any of you guys wanted me to bring home specific souvenirs, I'm in a great souvenir area,  I'm taking requests :) 

With that I'm gonna end this super short lame email!  Sorry!  Out of time and not much to talk about, but next week, there will be more :)

Keep doing what your doing and choosing the right always!  Love you all so much!

love love love,

hermana moore :)

"Mormon. Salvo."

What an incredible, miraculous week this was!  This week we had the baptism of the most prepared person I have met my entire life! the first time we met with this man he told us he had been searching for a church to pay his tithings to!  Yeah that is a once in a life time kind of person here.  So his name is Mariano Mesa.  I have talked about him before but he is just incredible.  So prepared.  His baptism was incredible!  He was all fancy in his white shirt and we even found him a white tie to wear too!  It's pretty funny because Elder Yergensen had originally contacted him but could never find where he lived to teach him... but one day Mariano offered us a ride to Santo Domingo, there were other people in the truck don't worry, and we ended up teaching him!  It's pretty funny because we share an area with the elders and there is no separation, so we always have to ask if the elders are already teaching them or not.  So of course we asked Mariano that and he was like well yeah I did meet Hermano Yergensen but he never stopped by to bring me to church... and I was like good never talk to him again... WE are teaching you now! (haha)  So we ended up teaching him and getting him baptized, well technically Elder Yergensen DID baptize him, but we got to teach him... friendly competition ;)  So it was a beautiful service and I couldn't be happier.  

I KNOW that there are prepared people, especially in Mazate.  The most fertile land of converts in the country!  I'm serious though, these people are prepared! :) 

The Elders baptism last week.  She isn't my investigator but I love her so much!  It was a miracle that we went to her baptism because the elders got her an 80's dress for some busty 20 year old and she is 12!  So we bought some safety pins and fixed her up! 

As for the title of this email... I guess after Mariano's baptism and right before they were about to come back in the room one of the elders heard him say.... "Mormón. Salvo."  So cute!  He has such a strong testimony in this church!  Oh and that means like.... I´m Mormon.  I´m Saved. :) :) :) :) :)

So another hugely amazing thing that happened this week was that I DREAMED IN SPANISH.  Dad told me that I know I've got the language down when I dream in Spanish... CHECK!!!!!!!  It made me oh so ridiculously happy! >:) 

So have I mentioned how hot it is here before?  IT'S HOT.  Everyday I'm like I don't think it can get hotter, and then it does!  

The definition of my life here in Guatemala....it only gets hotter from here.  As if I think it can get any hotter when I'm dripping sweat from my upper lip, neck...I'm even sweating behind my knees now.  But yep, everyone says Semana Santa is the hottest and that's in 3 weeks.  If I survive till then....

On Sunday I was sprinting through the streets to try and catch the last bus up to where the church was with the 6 menos activos we had with us and mind you its 8 in the morning but it's already like 2000 degrees outside... so I showed up to church dripping with sweat and with lioness hair because we rode in the back of a pickup truck to get to church.  It looked like I got electrocuted!  But, the people in the ward somehow still love me :) haha! 

clean!

Thanks for the matching comfy jammies!  We love them!

So yesterday we had a meeting with the member of the 70 for our area and he was talking to us about the plan of the area for Guatemala and how it is to have every family in the ward pick one less active family and help them get reactivated throughout the year and then to pick one non member family and help them join the church throughout the year.  Isn't that the most simple and amazing plan ever!  I was thinking oh my gosh!  I want my family and friends to do this!  So I know we are already in March but I'm officially challenging ALL of you... go pick a less active person and pick a non member person and help them get to know or re get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Missionary work is SO rewarding and I KNOW that you all can partake of these blessings :)  I am so grateful for my opportunity to be on a mission, everyday is a new adventure.  It's hard but its worth it.  As they say here, "vale la pena". :) 

Went on divisions with Hermana Merrill.  She came in my group and is a hermana lider now!  She is incredible and so much fun!
(editor's note, yes that is how she spelled leader, haha)

Oh P.S., even though it's summer here, we get SNOW!  Well its not actually snow, but it is something that falls from the sky like snow, turns out though its ash from the burning cane fields ALL OVER THE PLACE.  So when you see snow and think, wow this is so pretty, wrong... there is something much prettier!  Falling ash from the sky!  It happens all day every day and I was trying to be funny!  It's not pretty it's disgusting.  Oh well I guess that's how we get sugar right? :)  Well I'm off!  Gotta go! Love you all so much!  Thanks for all the support and prayers!  Don't worry about me, I'm doing wonderfully :) 

love love love,

hermana moore :)