Saturday, November 8, 2014

Two weeks of Erica stories

Drinking coco the Guat way

This week:

Subject: BOOOOOOOOO!


Happy Halloween this week! I definitely celebrated Halloween this year, but in a horrible, horrible way. 
Just a disclaimer, this might be disgusting..... tmi? yeah.
So on Halloween we were just working like normal and it started to rain, typical right?  So my comp said, "Hey let's stop by that tienda and buy a nylon to wear over us so we don't get wet."  So we walk in a tienda and I get that awful terrible feeling of,  "Hermana Moore, you need a bathroom.... NOW". So I look at the lady working the tienda and say,  "Pardon hermana, necesito su baƱo, AHORRITA." I think she sensed the urgency so she threw me a roll of tp and I ran to the bathroom. I don't need to explain what happened for the next 45 minutes, but it involved me not leaving that bathroom.  I don't know if I have ever explained to you guys about the infamous "boo".  "Boo" is what we missionaries say when we have... alright let's just say it, explosive diarrhea, it's just that it happens so frequently in the mission that we made a term for it.  It's called boo because it scares you when it happens. Fine one second, NOT fine the next. Lucky me I experienced the WORST BOO OF MY LIFE on Halloween.  So while all you were watching scary movies and trick or treating, I was having my own little scare in a small dark bathroom full of spiders next to a cantina.  And afterwards, we went home and I fell asleep around 6:30 pm, and slept hard until my alarm went off the next day at 6:30 am. 
Low point.
But hey on the bright side everyone says I look like I'm losing weight!  Hahaha!
Other than that, this week was great! We saw a lot of miracles and a lot of cohetes.  Guatemalans are firework CRAZY.  
Fireworks for Sister Goddard's birthday

The sisters in our zone

November 1 is "Dia de los Santos" which is just another reason to not have school or work and get drunk in the streets and throw firecrackers at unsuspecting missionaries!  I can't tell you how many times this week I was like no porfa don't throw them!  Wait two minutes! Porfa! Hahaha.  They all just laughed and we ran really quick through the danger zone. They do not like Halloween here. I said, "Feliz Halloween to 3 people and they were like shame on you devil worshipper!  Yikes, my b.  But then I understood why when later on that day some crazy kids ran up to me in all black with Chuckie masks on saying, "Give me some money! Give me some money!" I was like,  "No!  Get out of here crazy patojos!"   They would NOT leave me alone!  I just pushed my way through them and my comp and I started to run away! I was so sad, come on kids, that's not Halloween!  You're doing it wrong!
Here in Guate the real fun starts the day AFTER Halloween.  That's when all of Guatemala gets super stoked to eat FIAMBRE, otherwise known as soggy, purple meat salad.  And you can't even use a tortilla to get it down, just a fork and a prayer in your heart that your gag reflexes will go to sleep for 30 minutes.  Yikes.  I'm glad that this week was my LAST time eating fiambre.  Ever. 


This week we saw a huge miracle.  So on Tuesday night everything had fallen through and we decided to pray to know what to do.  We thought of someone so we headed to go visit them, on the way we passed by a joven who is a member of the church and he decided to go with us.  The person we wanted to visit wasn't home so we were like great, still nothing to do!  Then the joven said,  "Hey why don't we go visit Angel!"  And we were like oh yeah!  Let's go!  Angel is a 12 year old boy who was invited to church by his friend last week and came!  He is cute but we didn't think much of it because our appt. with him fell through on Sunday night, so we figured he wasn't interested.  So we show up to his house Tuesday night and he goes,  "Hermanas! I want to invite you to my baptism this Saturday!"  I'm like wait what...... are other missionaries teaching him?  I was so confused. but then we talked and turns out he just wanted to be baptized so badly that he had started planning his baptism!  He had already invited a bunch of people!  Hahah so we were like awesome, first we have a few things to do.  First off we need permission from your mom.  Then we need to teach you ALOT of stuff!  So he's like no prob I'll get my mom right now!  Then the mom came in and she was pretty against it at first but the Holy Spirit touched her heart and 10 minutes later she signed his registro! The next few days we visited him every day and taught him EVERYTHING.  Next thing I know he was interviewed and bam! BAPTIZED on Saturday!  Angel is an incredible kid.  He already knows the whole ward because he goes to every activity and already invited everyone to his baptism!  We had quite the show up to his baptism. :)  So excited for this little guy!  He will be a great missionary one day! :) 




What else, oh Hermana Pister left me this week. I was so sad. I cried. I MISS YOU PISTER.  It's okay, we will be reunited in a few short weeks. 

And, that's it.  Haha pray for me that I can be more patient and loving?  Would be appreciated. :)

love love love,

hermana moore

Last week:

Subject: 6 more weeks here and gone...

We were walking around and found this random Monkey statue.  See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil!


And just like that, another transfer is gone!  This Wednesday starts the LAST TRANSFER OF MY MISSION.  What in the world!  How did that happen!  I still feel like I just got here, but then at the same time I feel like I have been here for my entire life.  It's a weird unexplainable feeling. 
So this week was nuts!  I wasn't with my comp 4 days this week between divisions with the hermanas of the zone and my comp having to go to the mission office to help with the English program. Needless to say, it was a different week!  I started out going on divisions with Hermana Castro!  She is from Honduras and came to the mission the same time I did, so we are really good friends!  We have been together almost our whole missions in the same zones, so it has been fun seeing each other progress. :)  She has been kind of sad and feeling a little burnt out in her area so we just decided to do everything we have ever wanted to do in terms of contacting but haven't ever done because we were afraid or because comps didn't want to.... so I was like I want to sing!  We literally just walked up to people and started singing and would ask them if they want more joy in their lives??  We met a ton of cool people!  We even saw this guy playing his guitar on the side of the road and we were like let's go sing with him!  So we showed him the hymn book and in two minutes we three were jamming out to Come Come Ye Saints.  It turned out being very born-again-Christian-rock-like but it was awesome! Turns out he is an atheist.... wait did you catch that?  Atheist.  This is the FIRST TIME I have met an Atheist in this country.  In 16 months!  I'm telling you, everyone believes in Jesus here!  Except this guy!  But we had a super cool lesson with him.  It was so different teaching him because I couldn't just be like hey just pray to know if its true because he was like why would I pray if God doesn't exist!  So we had to teach him like the missionaries in the Book of Mormon taught King Lamoni!  It was awesome.  We had such a great time together!  Until the morning when I found Hermana Castro doubled over in pain!  We called the nurses and next thing I know she was on her way to the capitol and in the end she had surgery and got 20, yes TWENTY, kidney stones removed.  Poor girl!  But she is resting in the mission home right now where there are hot showers, air conditioning, and nice beds, so I'm pretty sure she is feeling good right about now. :)

Then the next day my companion had to be in the mission office to help missionaries take their English exam and I didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing all day in the mission office, so we found some jovencitas to do divisions with us!  I went out with a sweet girl named Astrit!  She is 17 and it was the first time she had gone out with missionaries before.  She is so cute! I was so excited to go out with her and really show her how incredible this work is.  Then we almost got attacked by goats, and then some dogs chased after us. and then some investigator was hitting on her and then it started pouring rain. HAHAHAHAHAHAH.  Welcome to the REALITY of the mission.  We had fun together though. 
How we dress for the rain.  We look like little ducks!

Oh and I'm happy to report that I am still training for the mission 5 k in December. I ran 10 laps at the sports complex 4 times this week!  Yeeaaahhhh. :)  Only funny thing is that it makes me super hungry, so I'm eating more... but it's fine because I work out. Hermana Pister told me she's on her 6 week diet.  It's called 6 weeks to skinny!  Me too!  Hahahaha.   Surprise!  The mission fills you with the spirit.... and fat..................
So a fun thing we did this week with the hermanas of Monterrey, or Hermana Goddard and Hermana Merrill was that we decided to do something we all have wanted to do.  We did what they did in the Best Two Years and took a box of Books of Mormon to a public place and just gave out Books of Mormon for 3 hours!  We gave out 26 and it was so cool!  A lot of people were like no thank you, but I applaud you for what you are doing.... haha one man literally stood up and applauded.  Oh and I met someone that lives in my old area of Buena Vista and I just about cried. 
My girl Merary! :) She's like a spiritual fireball, as Elder Krueger says.  Such an amazing girl. 
My fave girls! We are teaching their family. :)

The girl on my lap is named Gusy. she is my twin and everyone calls her my daughter because she is really white and has curly canche hair! hahahaha mihaja.... 

Funny moment this week.  There is a jovencita that we are teaching that really wants to be baptized so we were teaching her the commandments.  She really understood the day of rest commandment that we can't work on Sundays and we asked her when she learned it.... Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Funny story with that.  She didn't come to church last week because they were going to sell food in front of her house.  So in the afternoon we passed by and they were selling food and they were like, hermanas support us and buy something!  I was like heck no!  It's Sunday!  We don't buy on Sundays!  She was like why not?  So I said its one of the 10 Commandments silly!  She was like well at least you can say a prayer and bless our little venta and I was like no we can't!  And I can promise you that you wont sell anything because the Lord doesn't bless us for breaking the commandments! She was like oh whatever..... but a few days later she told us that they didn't sell anything!!!!  Talk about an object lesson right??  So she totally believes in the day of rest now. :)  She should be getting baptized next week :) 
Other than that.... it was just a great week.  Learning LOTS about patience and trying to be humble, I'm so excited to start off this transfer.  I know that it will be full of miracles! :) 
Scripture of the week is Alma 7:23.

And now I would that ye should be ahumble, and be bsubmissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

Yep. need to tattoo that one on my forehead. 
:)
love love love,
hermana moore 

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